Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AK2004 who wrote (577121)	5/21/2004 5:37:52 AM
From: Paul van Wijk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

'This is a recruiting campaign for Hamas' Haaretz Editorial, Israel, May 20 "The damage to Israel's image in the world is immense ... The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has always inculcated its soldiers with the belief that innocent people must not be hurt ... The commanders of the army understood that, without a moral basis for its actions, even the best-equipped army cannot win. These moral values, however, have been badly eroded in the long years of occupation and with the action in Rafah, they have suffered yet another blow, so that our national fortitude has been undermined. "Not everything is permissible in the name of security. The military operation in Rafah is clumsy from the operational point of view and its results are destructive. If there are indeed any security achievements these will be outweighed by the serious harm done to the town of Rafah and its residents - and also to the IDF." guardian.co.uk

To: AK2004 who wrote (577121)	5/21/2004 6:03:27 AM
From: Paul van Wijk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The Israeli propaganda machine is trying to blur the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Palestinians during the Gaza incursions as well as the nature of the struggle. Avi Pazner, a government spokesman, says: "This is a fight against terrorism. We are extremely careful not to hurt or damage in any way the civilian populations. We target the terrorists." Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, bizarrely links the issue of Gaza to that of missiles, as though this wretched and poverty-stricken corner of the illegally occupied territories is on a par with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the notorious 45-minute claim. Using the argument that Israel's army had gone in to root out workshops making rockets, he declared: "The whole of Gaza, and Rafah in particular, is on the verge of becoming a missile base aimed at Israel's cities and civilians. What would the international community have Israel do? Just sit back and wait for this horrific scenario to materialise?" This is hyperbolic nonsense. The record shows that for decades Gaza was not used as a base for suicide bombers. Apart from one attack that killed four soldiers at the Erez crossing out of Gaza in January this year and another that killed 10 civilians at Ashdod in March, the suicide bombers all came from the West Bank. guardian.co.uk