A wounded Palestinian is carried near a United Nations school
in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip.
Photo: STR/Reuters
Commentary by Cindy Sheehan
January 7, 2009
My eyes are red from crying as I write this.
The images of bloody babies and maimed children and mothers and fathers wailing in pain are too much for me to bear!
Today, the defense forces of Yahweh’s “Chosen People” bombed two UN refugee centers. The schools, which Israel knew were being used as refugee centers (the UN was idiotic enough to give the GPS coordinates?) were demolished, dozens of innocent Gazans killed and Israel makes the convenient claim that Hamas was using the playgrounds as rocket-launching pads, which has been denied by the UN.
Mr. “One President at a Time” famously said: “I am not against war, I am against dumb wars.” Even though he has resisted commenting on the horror being perpetrated in Gaza right now, we know what side he is going to weigh in on, as when he was in Jerusalem in July, 2008 and told Israeli president Shimon Peres: “For most of Israel’s 60 years, you have been deeply involved in this miracle that has blossomed,” and while in Sderot, in Southern Israel, which is, as most of Israel is, built on Palestinian land, he affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself from the very weak Hamas rockets.
Memo to Mr. “Only One President at a Time,” we know you love Israel and get that you long ago sold out to the American-Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the US/Israel imperial-military cabal, but no Palestinian baby has fired rockets from Gaza.
I am here to tell Obama that war is not dumb: IT’S EVIL! All war is evil. From the war on poor people of color here on American streets to the genocidal wars of aggression against Arab peoples waged by America and Israel, all war is completely, absolutely, incontrovertibly and atrociously evil. Until Congress and the Knesset and respective administrations come down off of their muy macho and extremely racist perches of death and destruction, we have no “hope” at all for any kind of profound and positive “change.”
George Bush is a lame duck idiot who has always supported death and destruction and welcomed both Republican and Democratic allegiance to the war machine. He is finally leaving and we are overjoyed, but should we celebrate an incoming administration that feels it’s okay to comment its brains out about the economy, but when it comes to sticking up for the helpless sitting ducks in Gaza he cops-out with lightening speed and amazing alacrity?
I am sick, sick, sick of babies, children and other innocents paying the price of greedy and bloodthirsty governments. I feel a deep sense of helplessness at the carnage as many of my colleagues and much of the “peace” movement wants to give the incoming war-monster Zionists a “chance.” Well, I say: BULLSHIT!
At the rate Israel is slaughtering Gazans, hundreds of more will die and thousands more will be wounded when doctors have no medicine or supplies and tens of thousands are frightened and starving while Obama remains silent. Silence is complicity and if we follow the lead of our misleaders, we are complicit also.
What can we do? Tax time is coming up. Your taxes have been paying for death and destruction since you started paying them, no matter how old or young you are. Do you sleep peacefully at night knowing that your hard-earned money is going towards paying for killing Gazan babies? Iraqi babies? Afghan babies? I rarely sleep peacefully at night anymore, but not because I fund the US/Israel war machine.
I am going to call on the supervisors of the City of San Francisco to divest of any holdings or investments in Israeli companies. The violent apartheid of all Palestinian people must stop and a fair and humane solution must be economically forced with mostly white Israel as it was with South Africa. You can start a similar movement in your own city or join others that are already in place.
Our protests must be organized and smart to force our elected officials to finally do the humane thing. Most of our federal elected officials are bought and paid for by AIPAC which has seemingly unlimited resources and influences much legislation in our government to be pro-Israel.
How many babies must be massacred before we get righteously outraged and decide to carry the moral water for this fascist government and speak with one voice crying out for peace and justice?
When Gazans are being systematically killed by American-made bombs dropped from American-made planes and being strafed with American-made bullets shot from American-made helicopters, we can do no less.
Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan is the Nobel peace prize nominated mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, April 4, 2004. She has been on an international quest for peace and accountability since then. She has written three books and numerous published articles. Cindy is currently running as a "Decline to State" independent candidate in the 8th District of California against Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
The Hunger Site
January 8, 2009 at 6:35 pm
anderson, my heart goes out to you. seeing life through your lens might make me angry as you appear to be. check back in when you’d like to debate the issues civilly. personal attacks are off-putting. let’s make a deal, attack the ideas i proffer in my earlier post and there we can get it on.
January 8, 2009 at 9:09 am
Goggin’s comment is nothing but high-minded blather. The last thing we need is a blather-based resolution from progs on the Board of Supervisors.
January 7, 2009 at 5:55 pm
at the end of the day this tragedy is about jews, christians and muslims (all really part of the same religious tree) fighting over that core place common to them all – religion. at what point will humanity evolve beyond this archaic barbarism?
at this time, obama must find away to proactively transcend the heart-wrenching conflict beyond religious conflict ushering in the possibility of respectful coexistence. i support some bold and carefully crafted resolution by the board of supes that gets to the heart of the matter: end the religious superiority complexes damn it and learn to accept your differences. only then will these tribes, so to speak, begin to see how much they actually agree on and have in common.
January 7, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I don’t understand the Hamas. The Gaza Strip has one of the highest population densities in the world. So how can Hamas terrorists use this area as a base to fire rockets at Israel, then complain about their own casualties? What kind of “leadership “is that?
When Israel finally retaliates, after eight years of rockets, the terrorists cowardly hide, live and operate within their own population. Is it any wonder that many are killed?
The children of Gaza live in a war zone, courtesy of Hamas. By the way, so do the kids in Sderot and southern Israel, for the past eight years, also thanks to Hamas. The difference (one difference): Since the beginning of the war, Israel has closed down all the schools in the south, which is fortunate, since rockets, fired randomly, destroyed two schools and a kindergarten. In Gaza, kids are used as human shields.
In the past eight years, European countries have donated billions of dollars to better Gaza’s crumbling infrastructure and poor living conditions. But instead of improving the lives of its citizens – what a novel concept – Hamas used the monies to purchase rockets and train and supply suicide bombers who were sent into the centers of Israel, indiscriminately murdering innocent people. During this period, Hamas has fired rockets into Sderot and other villages around the Gaza Strip.
Until three weeks ago, we had a six-month “cease fire”, during which Hamas still occasionally fired rockets. Furthermore, Hamas used this period to purchase new and improved rockets that can reach 40 kilometers, from Beer Sheba in the south to Gedera up north. Compared to “only” about 50,000 residents previously in danger, now 1 million people are within rocket range, more than 1/7 of our population.
When Hamas started firing again, just before the official end of the cease fire, Israel finally decided – enough is enough. What we see on TV or on websites is a result of Israel pursuing terrorists who cowardly hide within their own population, stashing weapons in mosques, universities, hospitals and homes of innocent people.
Hamas has only one grievance: Israel’s very existence. Israel is the litmus test for the rest of the world. Hamas is a puppet on Iran’s strings. Our problem today is the world’s problem tomorrow, if not today.
I wish things would be simpler, but they are not. There is moral clarity, on our side, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Only clearer.
January 7, 2009 at 12:55 pm
We are not all Gazans, I can not relate to the suffering they are going through and to diminish their suffering by pretending to understand does not help.
We are all witness to a horror brought on by two governments that fundamentally can not understand one another.
As is epitomized by the article and comments, neither side is willing to accept some portion of responsibility and to understand the suffering and history of their neighbors.
January 7, 2009 at 11:04 am
Hamas and Hamas alone is responsible for the situation in Gaza. The cowardly Hamas terrorists store their rockets and military equipment in occupied apartment building, mosques and schools in populated areas causing the deaths of the Palestinian men, women and children.
The concept of a proportional response to continued terrorist attacks is ludicrous. “Proportional response,” a concept obviously fabricated by terrorists and used by their sympathizers, will do nothing but maintain the status quo. A proportional response would be Israel indiscriminately lobbing rockets into Gaza or strapping bombs on their children or mentally challenged and blowing them up in restaurants, night clubs, markets, etc. The object is to stop the indiscriminate bombings of civilians by Hamas terrorists, which “proportional response†will not do.
If terrorists in Vancouver or Tijuana were shooting rockets into Spokane or San Diego the United States would rightfully respond disproportionally.
January 7, 2009 at 9:56 am
More hysterical nonsense from the anti-American left. They hate the idea that Israel is fighting back against those who are dedicated to its destruction. Interesting that no tears are shed by these folks over the victims of suicide bombers in Iraq, where more than 100 people were recently killed, including women and children at an Iraqi shrine.
January 7, 2009 at 9:24 am
Let’s hope that Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme has taken the air out of AIPAC’s funding base and that as a result, these wealthy conservative American Zionist Jews who have historically funded AIPAC are crippled in their ability to finance the hijacking of American foreign policy in the interests of Israel in the future.
There are those who would paint an analogy of what would happen if Mexico or Canada were to fire rockets into the US. But the more apt analogy is whether any of Israel’s apologists would fault Jews in the Warsaw ghetto for fighting back against the German nazis as Palestinians are fighting back against the genocidal Israeli “Defense” Force.
After suffering economic and humanitarian terrorism in their own ghetto, which appears to be little more than an open air prison, and only killing 1/100 of what they are suffering in fighting back against weaponry paid for by our tax dollars, the notion that Israel’s invasion is a “just war” is tortured.
-marc
January 7, 2009 at 8:25 am
Obama has finally made a statement saying he will do something January 20. If anyone still has hope for change– then that may be their last shred. I am praying that the new installee surprises us all by making a sharp 180 for America.
I myself do not expect it. The PTB are utterly evil.
Every day I wish I were at Gaza to share the innocent peoples torment– to help–or even to fight.
We must fight ignorance most of all.
The American mass media is spouting a torrent of lies– keeping us off balance and unprepared for worse things to come, I fear.
I can hardly bear all this suffering that seems to have no end. God, by whatever name, cannot want what we are witnessing today.