Well, that’ll teach you. Shoot up a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles and kill seven WCK workers and by golly you’ll get fired! All two of you. And three of your buddies will get firmly reprimanded. So there! See that this doesn’t happen again:
As if killing more than 30,000 Gazans weren’t enough. As if starving those who’ve survived — so far — weren’t enough. As if killing more than 200 aid workers from all over the world weren’t enough.
Stop the madness, Bibi. Just stop.
My condolences to the families and loved ones of these WCK workers, the WCK organization, and WCK founder José Andrés. — Ed.
Killing fever seems to’ve set in to the IDF. But it’s Bibi’s fever.
As ever, politicians lay waste.
Good description, that. “Bibi’s fever.” It’s sickening.
I don’t condone killing, but in WAR there will be casualties, some intended and some unintended. ISREAL is fighting for their very existence. There are those Countries in the region that want ISREAL wiped off the face of planet earth and will do anything in their power to make that happen!
That’s right. And for decades Israel has continued to oppress Gaza, and build illegal settlements in the West Bank, and refuse a two-state solution, actions guaranteed not to win friends among their Arab neighbors. I just don’t get it. Both sides keep poking the bear. To what end?
johnthecook; After reading about the history of the Gaza strip and the WEST BANK, it is a political quagmire with neither the PLO, or Hamas or Israel wanting to agree on a solution to end hostilities. However, in the END, Israel will win. It is written down for all to read, weather we choose to believe it or not.
I can see how it was a quagmire to begin with. You go into any part of the world and carve out a whole new country from land already occupied by someone else, you’re going to have problems. Citing the Bible to support modern political decisions would be a non-starter for a good part of the world.
This is not the first time the IDF has lashed out in “error” against their closest ally, the United States. During the “Six Day War” (1967), Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats attacked USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 171. Liberty, a “spy ship”, was clearly flying the U.S. flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
I’d completely forgotten that incident. Seems like the US and Israel are friends only as long as the US stays out of Israel’s way and continues to supply them with arms and money.
What it indicates to me is a deep and irrational culture of paranoia in the highest levels of Israeli government and the IDF.
I don’t know if I’d call it paranoia or just extreme self-centeredness. As long as the US keeps sending them arms and aid, they needn’t give us the time of day. I understand the US wants a friend (and a base) in that part of the world — but at what cost?
And of course it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission.
So, I was shocked and horrified when I first heard about this, but it was worse after clarifying reports hit the news: the three cars were hit, one after the other, as the workers fled for safety from the first (and second) that were hit. Everything about what has been going on with the IDF actions in Gaza has become more and more worrisome. I was taken aback when this all started and there were reports that Israel had cut the power, water, and food transport into Gaza. What?! Is this like a huge ghetto where the people are walled in, and Israel controls the access to basic necessities? Evidently, that is the situation. Like a huge open-air concentration camp full of people who are stateless and unable to go somewhere else. Then I heard that Israel controls their access to the sea. Then Jared Kushner talked about how the people should just be relocated to the desert so Gaza could be developed into… a resort? Oceanfront properties? Hotels? Like Gaza is an asset that Israel could make better use of if the pesky people living there now were just moved somewhere else. And now this highly publicized attack on WCK. I’m starting to think that there is deliberate genocide going on, and I don’t feel comfortable about my tax dollars being used for this purpose. I’m shooting off letters to all my congresspeople and the white house about this.
I’m also aware that some of the rhetoric about people in Gaza is being echoed here in America and directed towards migrants and refugees.
I feel just as you do, short of actually writing letters. Not yet, anyway.
For some years I’ve seen Gaza described as a giant open-air prison, with all the restrictions you mention. And I’ve written about it several times in the past.
In an interview with José Andrés, right after the attack, he said WCK had been in direct contact with the IDF, detailing WCK’s route, time of travel, etc. On a road routinely used by aid workers. And yet the convoy was destroyed with direct, targeted hits — one, two, three. I don’t believe for a second that it was an “accident” or a “mistake.” It was deliberate.
I’ve never understood why Israel keeps bombing civilians and structures on the surface when Hamas is known to be hiding and living in their tunnels. The location of those tunnels is known and mapped. Why not send in “tunnel rats,” as the US did in Viet Nam? Blow up the tunnels. Or flood them.
And I am livid that we keep sending aid to Israel, supporting its actions in Gaza both literally and figuratively, while STILL not sending the aid so desperately needed in and promised to Ukraine. If Ukraine falls to Russia, we’ll be sending our sons and daughters to fight in Europe. Why is that not more urgent than continuing to fund Netanyahu’s mania?
I completely agree with you about Gaza. I saw that press conference by José Andrés and my takeaway was also that it was not an accident, but a policy designed to deny a trapped population FOOD, and that they are implementing a policy that some would call genocide. I did send the letters tonight (by ResistBot. It was interesting because I couldn’t get through right away because the “bot was on fire” and they had to text me back when things calmed down. I wrote that I had a problem giving Israel military support that is being used in this manner, and that I support an immediate cease fire and that I also believed that the Palestinian people needed their own state.
The Ukraine aid is being blocked by pro-Russian members of Congress who are not bothered by the idea of Russia invading Europe. They would pull us out of NATO tomorrow if they could; this is unthinkable and against everything that I was raised to believe was true.
Not only do I resent my tax money being sent to Israel now; I resent that it also goes to pay the salaries of those far-right representatives who, among other things, are blocking the aid to Ukraine.
Exactly!!