Thousands join Gaza Strip funeral

"Islamic Jihad said it carried out the bombing in revenge for the Israeli killing of one of its senior leaders, Luay Saadi, in the West Bank on Monday."

Actually, its unlikely this attack took only two days to plan. Most attacks are timed for maximum political effect. For instance, during Bush's onslaught on Baghdad in 2003, there were NO suicide bombings or attacks in Israel. All of the media attention was in Iraq.
So planners knew the desired effect--publicity for their issue which is the villification of their neighbor: Israel--would not have been available. They could "retaliate" at a more politically and media-savvy moment.

Another tactic is to have Hamas agree to a cease-fire or a "period of calm" while Islamic Jihad makes no such agreement. then Israel is condemned for the breaking the peace if it takes any action.

One time, I remember, a suicide bomber stated in his video testimony broadcast after his successful attack, that the reason he was bombing the Israelis was "for the banishment to Cypress" of Al Aqsa Brigade members who had taken over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for weeks in an armed seige. The banished members were reportedly languishing in "B" class motels without room service! And this guy commits suicide/mass murder over this in protest!!

Arafat's "Intifada" of 2000 - 2005, his final legacy to the Palestinian people and to world peace, was claimed to have been sparked by Islamic "outrage" over then MK Arial Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. It was later found that the event had been planned long before to coincide with Arafat's refusal of the Barak/Clinton offer in 2000. Rocks for the crowds to throw had been stockpiled weeks in advance. A PA cabinet head confirmed it in a speech given later that year.

Sharon's visit was the convenient raison de' jour for the Palestinians which they used to peddle their racist/genocidal war against the Jews to a politically correct western world.

Mind you, this is coming from a person who insists on blaming the 13-year-old waif Iman al-Hams for letting herself get ripped in half by an IDF psychopath with a machine gun

when i see this stuff, i wanna cry. clearly becky's "brain" is deserving of a disney-like fantasia oscar.

interesting that Leni Riefenstahl glorified with her movie "Triumph of the Will" the term "The Homeland" (Hitler's term meant to stir "racial pride").

Does "Homeland" ring any bills, Becky???

Let's get the "Brain's" input on this.

Go ahead, Becky - give it yur all!!!!!

"Massive violations of international law speed through the superhighway - yet none of this ever gets to the mainstream press. I WONDER WHY????"

I don't know what your answer is, but here's mine: the US is a Land of the Free about as much as Baffin Island is a tropical paradise. US plutocrats/imperialists have locked down the most subtle and effective mind control program the world has ever seen. Goebbels and Joe Stalin would just shake their heads in awe

""""The contrast between the treatment of Yugoslavia and Israel-Palestine is dramatic illustration of a double standard. For one thing, Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the "promised land" has been going on for half a century, and it is clear that the steady expropriations, demolitions, and killings of the Palestinians is for the benefit of Jewish settlements, not for "security." So this is as pure an illustration of ethnic cleansing as can be found on the face of the earth; Israeli historian Benny Morris, in his recent acknowledgement of this "ethnic purification," complained only that it hadn't gone far enough.

By contrast, the Serb attacks on Kosovo Albanians before and during the 1999 bombing war were never to provide room for Serb settlements, they were a feature of an ongoing civil war (stoked by outsiders), so that this wasn't true ethnic cleansing at all. There was ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Croatia, but it was carried out by all parties, struggling to establish land control in an externally encouraged civil war. Nevertheless, the phrase ethnic cleansing was used lavishly to describe Serb actions in Kosovo, as well as Bosnia, but it is rarely applied to Israeli behavior.

In the Genocide Convention of 1948, the word genocide was defined loosely, as any act "committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such." Genocidal acts included causing serious "mental harm" or inflicting "conditions of life" aimed at such destruction. Can anything be clearer than that the Sharon government is trying to destroy the Palestinians as a national group by creating intolerable "conditions of life"?

Under "Operation Defensive Shield" Israel carried out a "systematic process of demolition of Palestinian public and private property, and mass expropriation of Palestinian land on behalf of settlers" (Appeal by 153 Israeli academics); "the Israeli army deliberately trashed the inside of every Palestinian institution that it did not entirely destroy—schools, charities, health organizations, banks, radio and TV stations, even a puppet theatre" (Gila Svirsky).

As Rania Awwad has said, "Sharon's solution is to depopulate as much as possible the Occupied Palestinian Territories by making life for its citizens unbearable. And what could be more unbearable than watching your children cry themselves to sleep from hunger, night after night?" The Israeli leadership is not trying to exterminate all Palestinians, but they are prepared to kill them freely, take away their land, and make life so harsh that they will die off or leave. That this is a genocidal process is sometimes suggested in the Israeli media, but not in the Free Press.

The cruise missile left adheres closely to the party line on genocide, which is why its members thrive in the New York Times and other establishment vehicles.""""

source:

Z-Net.........Edward Herman (helped write "Manufacturing Consent" with Noam Chomsky)

Thats comparing apples and oranges. We would agree that if it had been Serbs versus Palestinians, rather than Jews versus Palestinians, it would be a much different story. The Palestinians should thank their lucky stars that they're dealing with nice ,sweet , gentle Israelis.

These terms were batted around a bit at Pappe's talk last weekend.

This question remains:
How can you call what is going on in Israel/ Palestine either, when the population in Gaza and the West Bank has risen from 600,000 in 1948 to 4 million in 2005? How can you call it either when the birthrate about Palestinians is among the highest in the world?

For a group of people with the most Nobel Laurettes per capita, if genocide was really their goal, they are failing miserably

"should thank their lucky stars" that they are being oppressed by "a group of people with the most Nobel Laurettes per capita"

perhaps we should all thank our lucky stars for the selfless peace Israel has brought to the world all over and for the sheer joy both Israelis and Palestinians are able to share with us now

they have truely brought enlightenment and brotherhood to new levels previously unseen in lesser societies

thanks, Israel!!