Multiple Links to Honest Commentators about Gaza

I have a lot of things I want to follow on, including posts from last week, but I am running a little behind. Since I am not writing tonight, I am providing 12 links below --voices of reason, including a number of Jewish and Israeli voices.*

Jonathan Cook (British journalist/citizen who married an Israeli Arab and lives in Israel) looks at Israel's hidden agenda;

Israeli historian Avi Shlaim (Israeli) gives a good insight into the background to the current situation ;

Ilan Pappe (Israeli historian), delves into the peculiar self-righteousness of Zionist Israel;

Robert Fisk (British journalist - The Independent newspaper sheds some light on the Israeli standard positions in times of war, on who the Hamas rabble in Gaza are, and on Israel's role in pushing them to the corner from which they have no option but to act in the way they do;

Omar Barghouthi (Palestinian) gives but one example of the complicity and preconceived prejudices of so many international officials and reporters.

Prof. Rashid Khalidi, published an op-ed in the New York Times

Rabbi Michael Lerner's continuous reflections on Gaza and the general Israel/Palestine debate are worth reading, including his book on the Geneva agreement.

Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Uri Avnery, former Israeli soldier and Israeli MK, and a man of tremendous qualities offered a speech at the end of this report. (His other writings are available on Gush-Shalom.)

The always informative and analytical Norman Finkelstein, offers comments on this video.

Amira Haas provides a matter of fact portrayal of what this war means to real people. One day there will be a Pulitzer and Nobel prize combined for Israeli journalists Amira Haas and Gideon Levy. I hope they will receive their prize in a peaceful, but restrained Israel having rediscovered its conscience and the equality in God's eyes of its Palestinian neighbor -- an independent and liberated multi-religious state.

Chicago-based Jewish group Not In My Name quotes here a speech from Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition--a great man, who's already received an honorary Palestinian passport.

Finally, this short video offers a short report on Jewish American groups struggling for peace (and far more intelligent than the US House of Representative in their friendship with and support of Israel).

If one day, a child asks us, "but did you know?" -- we will have to say "yes."


Elrig
* A number of these links were provided by a dear friend--I didn't have time to ask her authorization so I am not providing her name here. I believe a number were collected by Dr Hatim Kanaaneh, founder of the Galileed Society for Health Research and Services.
Photo credit: http://newsbusters.org/static/2007/06/2007-06-14GazaHamas.jpg

PS: If you follow the news, you know Israel in its blind war is eager to go deeper into urban centers. None of my personal friends in Gaza have been killed yet - that I know of. But friends of friends, colleagues, 'random' families decimated. If there is a God of Truth and Love and Justice, He has been by the side of the victims, not the self-righteous gunner in his tank. Maybe this one will find forgiveness too - God is a God of Grace after all. But I am quite certain that God is not a sponsor of C-4, anymore than He is the sponsor of M-16's or tank shells. God has done enough in my life to make me loath the gods of C-4, checkpoints, M-16's and F-16's. What a sordid lot we humans are. Today, Israel is the case in point. I do not believe that Israel is the only, the first, or the worst case in point. But at this moment in time of the 21st Century, sadly, Israel is shaming itself and Gazans pay the price.

The US side of the debate is unsurprisingly one sided on the political side, even as medias are starting to ask questions, ever so faintly. Four Democrats (Kucinich, Moore, Rahall, Walters) and one Republican (Paul) had the courage to stand for sanity and vote "no" to a House Resolution supporting the right of Israel to "defend itself." One wonders why this right is not granted the inmates of Gaza.