Interesting viewpoint on Gaza from a German citizen. Google translation of the German - youll get the general idea: SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL? Everybody talks about the self-defense of Israel. But have not the Palestinians had for years a right to self-defense and resistance? Is it not unlawful aggression when Israel steals more Palestinian land in the West Bank and is constantly building new settlements on Palestinian land? Must not the residents of Gaza fight back when they are like animals fenced with walls and barbed wire? The senseless wandering of from about 99 (!) percent ineffective, mostly home-made rockets by Hamas reminds me in many ways to the hopeless struggle of the Indians in America. Although they knew that their resistance was hopeless, they defended themselves with bow and arrow against the superior arms of the white settlers who robbed them the land of their fathers. Sometimes even against guns. Even in death they shot innumerable arrows from which nothing and no one came. Out of sheer desperation. Of course, they knew that their arrows were for the settlers a welcome pretext to evict them yet mercilessly and destroy them. In desperation, you can hear the voice of reason only from afar. Israel must defend itself against the rockets of the Palestinians, because there are innocent civilians at risk. And so are illegal. Even though they rarely hit anything. But it must defend itself as a higher superior power only with a sense of proportion. Not with excessiveness and disproportionality. Israel has a right to self-defense. But no right to self-defense excesses on bombing orgies. Two Israeli civilians have lost their lives in this war by Palestinian rocket attacks. Another killed by mortar fire. I deplore. I share the pain of their families. But Israel has now killed more than 1,000 Palestinian civilians. And kills on and on. More than 200 women and 245 children - including 164 12-year-old or younger - Netanyahu has murdered until last night 18.00 clock! 7,000 Palestinians were injured. This is not self-defense. This is a war crime. England has also not responded to the bloody IRA terror which claimed thousands of lives with the bombing in Northern Ireland, but with police measures. Even France and Spain have not fought against the terror of ETA with over 800 dead with the bombing of Basque cities. The world public would have never accepted such criminal nonsense. Why has the West imposed actually no sanctions against Israel? As they have once against South Africa, Iran and currently against Russia? Or how Israel against Gaza? Because he is blind in one eye? Because he is a coward? Why have not leading western politicians said: Things can not go on in Palestine. The international community MUST take action.? 56 reservists of the Israeli army declared in a letter that they are no longer willing to serve their army. Israel deprives Palestinians not only of their civil and human rights. It is also no longer possible to think about a solution to the conflict outside of military power. It is no wonder that the deadly cycle of violence is never ending. A 34-year-old co-signatory of the letter, Chen Tamir, added on Spiegel Online: One can be a good Jew and a good Israeli, even if you criticize the government. Says a Jewish Israeli. So at this point a few words about the German anti-Semitism debate. The criticism of the illegal bombing of Israel on Palestinian civilians is urgently needed in Germany. It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. I also criticize the German participation in the Afghanistan war and Im not anti-German. I criticize the senseless and illegal shoot-out with Hamas and am not anti-Palestinian. I would also criticize this war if France were in it. No one has the right to attack German Jews for the brutal excess and disproportionality of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. No one who is reasonably sane would do this. Many German Jews are horrified by this war. And how Netanyahu is ruining the reputation of Israel in the world. No one harms the cause of Israel permanently more than this man. The 200,000 German Jews are a part of Germany. They belong to us. No ifs and buts. Just like the more than four million Muslims. Anti-Jewish racism is just as bad as anti-Muslim racism, which unfortunately we encounter every day also. German politicians run an open door when they distance themselves with heroics of anti-Jewish slogans. The condemnation of anti-Semitism is a matter of course. With courage there is little anti-Semitism in Germany in our time, thank God, it is ostracized and has no real social power any more. It would have been true courage if the generations before us would have come against the powerful anti-Semitism of the Nazis against those ruling then. But then most people were in dire station. Ones own life was more important than the lives of their Jewish friends and neighbors. Belated courage is the opportunistic grandson of cowardice. We should always condemn hate speech. No matter against whom it is directed. So where is the protest of our brave politicians and the media, when, once again, the Prophet Mohammed, and with it one and a half billion Muslims, also German Muslims are offended in infamous way. These insults are what we call freedom of expression and civil courage. Some even get a medal for it. This is the double standard of our time. This I do not do. Your Jürgen Todenhöfer PS. As you can see, I have you attached a short video about some of my impressions in Gaza.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:46:25 +0000
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