#disproportionate force

[eretzyisrael]

Source

[progressivemillennial]

Over 50 killed and 2700 injured today alone in Gaza

[dragoni]

UN Assembly blames Israel for Gaza violence, but not Hamas

The U.N. General Assembly approved a Palestinian-backed resolution Wednesday blaming Israel for violence in Gaza after narrowly rejecting a U.S. demand to add a condemnation of attacks on Israel by Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Was a voted really necessary? For posterity?

the assembly voted on the original Palestinian-backed resolution, approving it 120-8 with 45 abstentions.

The 8 countries who voted against: Australia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Togo and United States.

[indizombie]

In a poor neighbourhood, if somebody goes into a bodega, and grabs some pampers and runs down the street, they are either shot or jailed. And yet, if you work for Lehmann Brothers, and defraud American pension, college, and retirement funds, of hundred of millions of dollars, you are invited to sit on the trustee board of Stanford University. The criminals are in power.

Chris Hedges

[reallifedocumentarian]

Hesitation amdist the excitement

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm over-analytical. Maybe I'm jaded.

But bear with me (or keep scrolling down, your choice).

I'm excited for the 1,000 prisoners to be released, their families (and yes, also for Gilad Shalit and his family)- unjust incarceration is always wrong.

But I have to pause and wonder what kind of sick calculus is at play here. It's nothing new, and its properties are shifting, but constant (if that makes sense, which I hope it will). What sort of value judgement does the occupying government of Israel impose on the value of Palestinian life and how does this release reinforce that. 1 Israeli for 1,000 Palestinians. Cast Lead saw somewhere around 1,400 dead Palestinians and 13 dead Israelis. There's this. There are countless other examples of this macabre arithmetic....

And I'm left to wonder, how can the international community abide such blatant use of disproportionate force? How can people buy into the hasbara of Israeli victimhood?

This is where I get jaded- what sort of future can we expect when the Israeli arithmetic weighs the value of a Jewish life at a 1:100 or 1:1,000 ratio against the lives of Palestinians?

Sorry, that is not to detract from the excitement of people going home- just a thought that has been bothering me.