Alan: Keeping in mind that PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas categorically condemns Hamas rockets, this key question needs asking: "Does Hamas - albeit unconsciously - fire its innocuous rockets in to create the grossly inequal body counts which clearly condemn Israel's abrogation of the principle of "proportionate response" that is fundamental to Christianity's "Just War Tradition?"" On the other hand, the innocuousness of Hamas rockets begs other questions: "Why does Israel respond with such deadly force to a threat that is no longer deadly? Is it Israel's purpose - albeit unconscious - to kill Arabs?"
"Christian Just War Principles Versus just war"
"Christian Just War Principles Versus just war"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/christian-just-war-principles.html
"Israel's Purpose In Gaza Is To Kill Arabs"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/israels-real-purpose-in-gaza-operation.html
"Israel's Purpose In Gaza Is To Kill Arabs"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/israels-real-purpose-in-gaza-operation.html
***
The Atlantic
As Israel prepares for a "significant expansion" of its ground offensive in Gaza, which was launched yesterday, the world has been preoccupied by yet another major event: the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Eastern Ukraine. Small children are dying in Gaza; small children died on MH17. Yet, news outlets can't resist the draw of "the tally": counting up bodies, and using that count to draw conclusions about significance.
As The New York Times wrote this morning, "The crash dominated newspaper front pages in many European countries, relegating accounts of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza into second place."
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is also haunted by numbers. Since the beginning of Israel's ground offensive, 20 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health officials and the Associated Press. Reuters puts the tally at 23. But the number sounds different when it's reported from the perspective of the Israeli government, who claim that 17 "militants" have been killed in exchanges of fire. It's unclear if this number includes any of the deaths reported by health officials in Gaza.
One Israeli soldier, age 20, has died; his name was Eitan Barak. Four Palestinian boys, all cousins, have died; their names were Mohammad Bakr, Ismail Bakr, Zakariya Bakr, and Ahed Bakr. They are among the more than 40 children who have died since exchanges of fire between Israel and Hamas began 10 days ago, including a five-month-old: Fares al-Mahmoum. But the side-by-side body count doesn't report these names—it reports the score, which is now roughly 260 dead Palestinians to 2 dead Israelis. The comparison is supposed to create meaning and clarity, because it uses numbers—a clean measure of fault, or moral culpability, or military strength, ostensibly.
Even the tallies of rockets fired and shelling exchanged aren't simple: The numbers themselves are imbued with meaning. The New York Timeshas a running count of "the toll in Gaza and Israel, day by day"; aggression from Hamas is measured in "X rockets launched from Gaza," while aggression from Israel is measured in "X targets struck by Israel." The units of measurement are telling: Palestinian firepower is measured as discrete weapons, rockets that Hamas is intentionally hurling at Israeli civilians. Israeli firepower is measured in hits, which are called "targets" (not people, or houses, or "militants"). And yet the two numbers are placed side by side for comparison, implying clarity of fault, or even clarity of what's happening on the ground in Gaza and southern Israel.
21 people are estimated to have been killed in Gaza since yesterday. 295 people were killed in Ukraine on a passenger flight over contested territory. So the media does what's obvious: As The New York Times said, the 21 people are relegated to "second place."
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