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Atheist Jews with family in Israel writes a reddit on Gaza
His user name fowlsegs writes a reddit in response to the article “We have nothing to lose:I would rather die with my family under the rubble of our house than having a humiliating truce’=: Palestinian youth demand justice”
The article was submitted by user onicc in reddit.com/r/worldnews and in less than six hours it position itself in one of the most read posts in worldnews reddit.
The sad part of the article is that is about the death and destruction of Gaza, Palestine.
fowlslegs writes the following:
Wrote the following in the comment section of the post “Cellphone Video Captures Gaza Civilian Shot and Killed By Sniper,” but I thought I should share this here too. Obviously the first paragraph or so is out of context here, but I think the rest is important for to read (esp. for Americans).
Whether or not this video is real is trivial. If you think there’s no way it’s real you haven’t been doing your research. There are a huge number of extremely racist and angry Israelis and things like this are constantly happening. That’s why the civilian death toll is so high. Dozens of civilians have died from shelling today. Make no mistake many have been intentional.
Don’t you realize Israel wants to kill Palestinian civilians to punish them because they believe there is great support from Hamas? That’s why Gazans are denied ambulances, fishing territory, food and international aide, etc.. That’s why they have curfews and have their papers checked and their bodies groped at checkpoints within their own territory. That’s why it’s called the world’s largest prison.
Considering the following conclusion United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (2009).
The operations were in furtherance of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience and for its apparent support for Hamas, and possibly with the intent of forcing a change in such support.
Read the Wikipedia articles about racism in Israel. Arab Israelis are largely segregated from Jewish Israelis and find themselves disadvantaged in terms of social mobility, education, and under the law. You’ll see from polls that the vast majority of Israelis are not afraid to admit they believe they are a superior people to Arabs and that they would prefer they and their family not have to share apartment buildings, playgrounds, schools, hospitals, etc. with their children.
Read the book Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman. You’ll learn about how in the colonized (settled) areas of the West Bank, where Israelis bulldoze Palestinian homes to make room for their own, they drive on separate roads, live in gated communities, etc.. It becomes clear why the South African apartheid analogy comes into play.
Make no mistake: Israel wishes to colonize all of Palestine. That’s why they won’t consider any peace treaty which makes them give up the massive amount of land and resources they’ve taken, even though, AFAIK, every country has categorically rejected the legality of their land grab. Look at the history of their illegal housing demolitions, their settlements and outposts, their massive infrastructure within Palestinian territory, and their division of West Bank with numerous extensions of the West Bank Barrier. Their ethnic cleansing and Judaizing of space. Look at this historical map. That isn’t self-defense. Read about the huge number of settlers, citizens, and politicians who deny Palestine’s existence as a state. That isn’t self-defense. Read about the history of the Zionist movement.
I see people commenting about how it’s foolish to take sides when you don’t know what’s going on. I disagree. Take the side of the Palestinian and of the Israeli citizen. Invest yourself thoroughly in what’s going on. Something needs to be done about Hamas and terror attacks on Israeli citizens, but the situation for Palestinian civilians is much more pressing, and not only during times of war. (They experience violence, the destruction of their homes, the colonization of their land, checkpoints, curfews, discrimination, denial of access to building materials, medical and school supplies, etc.. See the film Six Broken Cameras to see examples of this happening and how the Palestinian civilian body has largely reacted.) Additionally, the amelioration of the living conditions of Palestinians is much cheaper (actually negative in expense, arguably) and easier than the elimination of a terror group that works largely in secret (see the continued existence of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.).
As Reddit is largely US citizens we can actually do somethings about it. A conservative estimate of direct US aid to Israel puts the number at more than $130 billion. We are financing this imperialism with our words and dollar.
If you want to help Palestinian citizens, I suggest joining the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement as a first step.
Boycott products made by Israeli or US companies operating in stolen Palestinian land and products made by corporations who provide the infrastructure for the operation. You can find a list of such companies online. One example is US corporation Caterpillar, whose bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes.
Support divestment of your company, school, etc. from these corporations and also from any Israeli government owned business. Start a Students for Justice in Palestine group at your college/ University or join the one that already exists.
Call and email your national representatives and demand that aid to Israel’s military must be cut. Explain why using some of what I’ve written above or your own argument.
I hope this argument got through to at least a few of you. Fighting colonialism is a lot easier than fighting terrorism.
Written by an Atheist Jew with family in Israel. My family there is against the occupation and colonization.
End drawing close for Syria’s Assad
Posted on December 09, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Reuters/Berlin
AP/Moscow
UPDATED
Associated Press/Manu Brabo – Syrian women stand amid the ruins of their farm, destroyed by Syrian Army jets, in Al-Hafriyeh village, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)
While news from Berlin seem catastrophic for Syria, other news are coming from Russia indicating that Syrian President Bashar Assad is good to stay. While Russia holds the political and economical power in Europe and Asia there is not much the US/Israel alliance can do to bring Syria Government down.
According to “A German Spy”, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is its final stages and will be unable to survive as more parts of the country slip from his control, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) said.
“Armed rebels are coordinating better, which is making their fight against Assad more effective,” Gerhard Schindler told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung newspaper, in an interview made public on Saturday.
“Assad’s regime will not survive.”
Rebels fighting to topple Assad declared Damascus International Airport a battle zone on Friday, while Moscow and Washington both sounded downbeat about the prospects of a diplomatic push to end the conflict after talks.
Syrian rebel commanders have elected a new 30-member leadership council and a chief of staff, a senior rebel said Saturday in a major step toward unifying the opposition that is fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. The Supreme Military Council, which was chosen Friday during a meeting in Turkey, will work with the political leadership that was chosen last month in Qatar.
Fighting around the capital city has intensified over the past week, and Western officials have begun speaking about faster change on the ground in a 20-month-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.
“Evidence is mounting that the regime in Damascus is now in its final phase,” Schindler said.
Although neither Assad nor the rebels had been able to take the upper hand, Assad was losing control of more and more parts of the country, and was focusing his energy on defending Damascus, key military sites and airports, Schindler added.
Schindler’s comments echoed remarks made yesterday by U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who was withdrawn last year.
Russian and U.S. diplomats are meeting Sunday with U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for more talks on the civil war in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Americans were wrong to see Moscow as softening its position.
Russia agreed to take part in the talks in Geneva, he said, on the condition there would be no demand for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
“We are not conducting any negotiations on the fate of Assad,” Lavrov said Sunday. “All attempts to portray things differently are unscrupulous, even for diplomats of those countries which are known to try to distort the facts in their favor.”
Lavrov met last week with Brahimi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Dublin. Afterward, Clinton said the United States and Russia were committed to trying again to get both sides in the Syrian conflict to talk about a political transition. Clinton stressed that the U.S. would continue to insist that Assad’s departure be a key part of that transition.
Russia and the United States have argued bitterly over how to address the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The U.S. has criticized Russia for shielding its closest ally in the Middle East, while Moscow has accused Washington of encouraging the rebels and being intent on regime change.
Russia’s foreign minister said Sunday that after he agreed to a U.S. proposal to have his and Clinton’s deputies “brainstorm” on Syria, the Americans began to suggest that Russia was softening its position.
“No such thing,” Lavrov said. “We have not changed our position.”
Germany weighed in Sunday on the future of Assad’s regime, with Federal Intelligence Service chief Gerhard Schindler saying it would not survive, although it was impossible to say how long it would hang on.
“Signs are increasing that the regime in Damascus is in its final phase,” he was quoted as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
While Russia and Washington blame each other for the no resolution of Syria conflict, Syria is being destroyed. Whole cities are but a shadow of what they were just last year.
Total Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration
The total number of registered refugees and individuals awaiting registration is 490,104 as of 5 December. This includes 11,740 Syrians registered with UNHCR in North Africa.
Damascus the Beautiful
Damascus has it history to keep the hopes alive for centuries to come.
“No recorded event has occurred in the world but Damascus was in existence to receive the news of it,” wrote Mark Twain after visiting Syria’s capital — known colloquially as al-Sham — in the 1860s. “She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies.”
Over the centuries, Damascus has been conquered by a string of foreign invaders that extends from King David of Israel — chronicled in the Old Testament — straight through to the French, who occupied the city until 1945. In between, Damascus fell to a list of conquerors that includes the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Umayyads, Egyptian Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks. But now, roiled by the Arab Spring, the invasions are internal, with Syrian tanks and troops rolling into restive cities.
After the Umayyad conquest of Damascus in the seventh century, the Umayyad Mosque (seen above, circa 1900) was constructed on the site where a Byzantine church, a Roman temple, and before that an Aramean temple to the god of thunder and rain once stood.
___
Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson; editing by Jason Webb)
Night in Damascus-Maya Naser
Posted on September 26, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Maya Nasser killed by sniper fire
covering events in Damascus,Syria
September 26, 2012
Little bit after midnight, me looking out from the window of my bedroom inside Damascus city, watching a full sky moon and listening to the sounds of the army shelling rebels sites in outskirts, asking myself; is this real? Is this fire I can barely see is someone’s house burning, or maybe neighborhood store? Is this my country on fire?Then for a moment I convince myself, I am just dreaming and my day is going to be busy one, I better go sleep, I ought to wake up in few hours to go my work, multiple meetings are waiting ahead, then a lunch with my beloved girlfriend, afterward I have gathering with my best friend to discuss his wedding details. Basically; in few hours I have to get up to have another hard day of life? Who said life should be easy anyway!!!Then I snap out of this sweet dream, just to remember, I lost my job! That friend of mine had been killed few weeks ago; his body was sent to his fiancé in a black bag! We didn’t know why he was slaughtered; we didn’t understand what his fault was! He was a doctor serving patients, never been into politics, but sure never been pro Assad, amid all this, the reality hit me, he was minority and the years his father spent at prison for being opposition for the current system didn’t grant my friend any mercy, his ethnic roots were stronger to be noticed than his family position of this system! And yes this is my country, and this fire is at someone’s place, someone I might never know but that doesn’t mean he never existed!!!
Killings and counter killings became a regular day of our lives in Syria; some believes they have the right to kill because their god ordered them to do so! Some others believe its okay because they are trying to create better Syria so why not generate total chaos and begin from there. Most of them don’t care, they kill because they want to topple a president, blaming him in person for all the problems the state is going through, so why not killing his sect members, his army soldiers, his government officials, all their families – if possible – and everyone opposes their opinion!
In return those who believes Syria was in better state before the Arab Spring hits it, think themselves as a target, not only their opinions rather than their entity and their existence, nevertheless this might be true. Why not? Bombs and bullets aren’t smart enough to distinguish the right from the wrong, can’t determine whether this man deserves killing or not, and defiantly not interested if this person is pro Assad or against, as long as this piece of kill will initiate retaliation, and create a chaos.
Bottom line is; my people are dying and I am still in the line waiting my turn.
Akashma Online News 