Israel Defense Forces veteran speaks at Pitt
By: Amy Friedenberger / Senior Staff Writer
Posted on 01. Feb, 2011 in News
A veteran of the Israel Defense Forces visited Pitt’s campus last night to speak about the cost of conflict. His speech attracted both controversy and praise from student groups.
Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, a 30-year-old reserve combat soldier for the IDF, spoke to about 100 students from behind a podium displaying an Israeli flag in the Lower Lounge of the William Pitt Union. He said he was not speaking on behalf of the IDF.
The lecture, called “Our Soldiers Speak,” described in vivid detail the costs and horrors of war. The main topic of the presentation, however, was the values that soldiers share when facing war.
About 20 protesters arrived before the lecture, dressed completely in black. Once Anthony began the lecture, these individuals stood up and put blue tape across their lips.
“Unfortunately, I have seen this before,” Anthony said. “And I apologize for their discourse.”
About 15 minutes into the lecture, the protesters walked out the door.
Students for Justice in Palestine President Sarah Moawad said that her group was protesting the event to bring attention to the “war crimes” against Palestinians. A group of people walked out of the Union and began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” walking around to the windows of the Lower Lounge that face Bigelow Boulevard.
As the protesters pressed signs against the window panes, Anthony described dead soldiers he passed while marching along a dirt path with other soldiers.
He said that he still sees the dead soldiers.
“Our task was to complete their mission,” he said.
Throughout the lecture, Anthony mentioned the role of the media and its representation of the State of Israel. He said the media cannot put the stories into words because the journalists who write about what is going on have not lived it.
The sergeant conveyed this sentiment through a story about 18-year-old sharp shooters, describing a reality most journalists never directly encounter.
“Through the scope are eyes and tears, and he must make a decision,” Anthony said. After a brief pause, he added, “In roughly that second, that decision has been made.”
Anthony said that he knows that students might feel discouraged by the graphic images of the conflict coming out of Gaza and that the headlines can seem troubling.
“The easiest thing to do during the media onslaught is to lower your heads,” Anthony said. “But you do not do that. We look to you to hold the line of truth.”
He left the audience with a quote, translated from Hebrew, that is inscribed on anything that is given to the soldiers in the IDF.
“When you go out to do battle against the enemy and see horses and chariots and an army more numerous than yours, you will not fear them because the Lord your God will be with you,” he said.
Anthony, who was raised in the United Kingdom, said that he joined the IDF because he faced anti-Semitism growing up. He said that he wanted others to be free from anti-Semitism.
Pittsburgh Israel Public Affairs Committee President Samantha Vinokor said she met Anthony last June while in Israel at a lecture session for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. She said that he thought he would be beneficial for students to hear from because he gives a first hand glimpse at what soldiers go through.
Hillel President Mia Jacobs said that it is important to discuss the topic of Israel beyond the war and politics.
“Especially on this campus, the politics get in the way of what really matters,” Jacobs said. “And what really matters is the existence of the State of Israel.”
Anthony made comments on similar lines when Panthers for Israel Business Manager Micah Toll asked him about the importance of student activism on campus.
“What you do today affects our lives tomorrow, affects the lives in Israel,” Anthony said.
PIPAC, Panthers for Israel, Hillel, Chabad House, College Republicans, CAMERA, the
David Project and Hasbara Fellowships hosted the event.
28 Responses to “Israel Defense Forces veteran speaks at Pitt”
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great article. Really hit the nail on the head, and explained the event fairly. well done amy.
poignant. really makes you think
This occupation soldier started his speech talking about Palestine as the “contested areas”,denying every right of Palestinians. he tried to get the sympathy of the audience through making merely a nexus of age “the soldiers are in your age!!”,, neglecting the fact that the soldiers he talks about are occupying Palestine and oppressing its civilians for decades. these soldiers are not similar in anyway to Pitt students !!.
we are in a country that promotes Freedom and Human Rights, having such a speaker is against all our values.
This article is a joke. The signs we pressed into the windows displayed the names of the hundreds of children killed by the IDF during their Cast Lead operation in 2008.
His speech was sentimental bullshit outlining the horrors of war without condemning it, simply to garner more support for the racist, brutal tactics and strategy of the IDF and the apartheid state it supports.
He spoke of the needs to protect Israeli lives by fighting in the IDF. I fail to see how killing those hundreds of children protects Israel. If anything, the IDF just builds up the hatred of Israel, making it far less safe than if they had NO army at all. GASP! Does the sword itself incite to violence? who woulda thought?
Warmonger militarists come to our school and we welcome them with open arms. It makes sense, since our school is rooted in the capitalist military-industrial complex.
Your buddies at Hamas came out and said that the IDF estimates of the dead were dead-on balls accurate, meaning that most of the dead were indeed Hamas and their affiliates. One lie down, care to bring another one?
It’s telling that you’re willing to: A) Associate anyone critical of the illegal Israeli occupation a terrorist and B) Deny the documented proof of Israeli war crimes compiled by the United Nations and numerous human rights organizations around the world, including the Israeli group B’Tselem in favor of accepting unsubstantiated claims by Hamas for their political utility.
http://www.btselem.org/english/gaza_strip/castlead_operation.asp
I know critical thinking is hard, Joshua, but you could do better than mocking the graves of Palestinian children incinerated by white phosphorus in Gaza.
Also Ryan,
the use of white phosphorus as marker is not only legal under international law, but it is a commonly practiced method in modern warfare (it is even used by NATO forces). Israel fired white phosphorus so that its solders on the ground, in the air, and in the surrounding area would have a common point of reference. this enabled more accurate movements and helped prevent miscommunications that could harm innocent civilians.
additionally, it can be used as an effective smoke screen to help protect the lives of the soldiers (which you may not care so much about, but Israel certainly does). And due to its chemical properties it is actually regarded as one of the most effective smoke screens and markers.
I’ll simply provide a Human Rights Watch on the matter:
“The IDF’s credibility probably took the biggest hit on the issue of its use of white phosphorous. A typical artillery shell of white phosphorous releases 116 phosphorus-soaked wedges which, upon contact with oxygen, burn intensely, releasing a distinctive plume of smoke. That smoke can be used legitimately to obscure troop movements, but white phosphorous can be devastating when used in urban areas, igniting civilian structures and causing people horrific burns. Its use by the IDF in densely populated sections of Gaza violated the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions during military operations to avoid harming civilians. It never should have been deployed.
“The IDF has tried to defend itself with denial and obfuscation. It first denied using white phosphorous at all. Then, when that proved untenable, it claimed that use was limited to unpopulated areas of Gaza. Neither claim is true. On Jan. 9, 10 and 15, a Human Rights Watch military expert personally observed white phosphorous being fired from an artillery battery and air burst over Gaza City and the Jabalya refugee camp. Its telltale jellyfish-like plume was a dead giveaway, as can be seen from many photographs that are now emerging from Gaza of white phosphorous raining down on civilian areas.
…
“…These weapons can injure civilians from blast and fragmentation over an area with a radius of as much as 300 meters. That’s roughly the equivalent of taking three football fields, lining them end to end and then rotating them around the point of the shell’s impact. In the densely populated residential areas of Gaza, where Human Rights Watch saw these shells used on Jan. 15, they can cause extensive civilian casualties. Such use clearly violates the laws-of-war prohibition of indiscriminate attacks because the shells strike military targets and civilians without distinction.”
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/22/incendiary-idf-kenneth-roth
Ryan,
When did Joshua ever mock any children? Be careful jumping to accusations. And I heard that SJP hosted an event called I Love Hamas, or something to that effect. Is it so hard then to infer that SJP loves Hamas if they had an I Love Hamas event?
Once you figure out what you’re trying to say, I might bother responding to your slander.
Look it up, Ryan Branagan. SJP hosted that event.
Once you get the name right, I might believe that you actually attended the show. However, I think it’s pretty clear that you did not. Had you taken the time to acquire even an modicum of knowledge about the play’s message, I may have taken your reflections about the event into consideration. However, to illustrate my point: I have never read Shakespeare’s Othello, and my opinion of his narrative in that play is equally irrelevant.
Joshua is correct. The end-all truth us that the Israeli side of the argument can almost always be supported by hard evidence and facts. The anti-Israel side is generally full of propaganda. As Liam Swanson pointed out, he was part of a group who rudely deprived the speaker of his freedom if speech by immaturely banging on and screaming through the windows of the event room. This group rudely stood up and left in the middle of the presentation, even after they were directly invited by the speaker to engage in the Q&A session. If they thought their propaganda could stand up to fact and evidence, perhaps they would have stayed. Instead, their cowardice betrayed their own insecurities in their invalid arguments. Let this be a lesson to us all: lies may look good from a distance but ultimately fail under scrutiny.
Perhaps you should notify Samantha Vinokor of the Pittsburgh Israel Public Affairs Committee, who walked out of Jennifer Jajeh’s I Heart Hamas & Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You: A Tragicomedy despite being offered a chance to ask questions concerning the complex message of the play. But I guess slander is easier than thinking.
Ryan Branagan, what you’ve said is a lie, and you are fully aware of that.
For the record, Ryan Branagan and members of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group described by the University of Pittsburgh Student Government Board as an extremist group, walked out during the middle of an event hosted by a number of Israel groups on campus. They then banged on windows of the event and chanted through the windows. All of this was done in violation of Pitt’s Student Code of Conduct.
The members of the Israel clubs who attended SJP’s event praising Hamas told me that they sat in the audience respectively and left at the end of the show. Maybe they didn’t stay to take part in the Q&A after the show, but they weren’t required to either. They left at the end of the show in a respectful manner with a number of other audience members.
How can you compare that to what you did, Ryan Branagan? You disrupted an event to leave in the middle and then deprived the speaker of his right to free speech? That puts you in violation of the school’s code of conduct, and at the very least makes you an incredibly rude individual. Then you went and tried to drag someone’s name through the mud that hasn’t even commented on this thread. Why would you do that? Why would you attack someone who hasn’t even commented on this? Are you just looking for defenseless women to attack? Because that’s what you did, Ryan Branagan. You’ve now taken the Branagan name and associated it with slander and indecency. You should be ashamed of yourself. I am embarrassed for you, Ryan.
To Mr. Hobbs:
Really Jason? Is that the integrity we can expect from you? Your claims are baseless. If we actually “deprived the speaker of his free speech” why did Sgt. Anthony’s talk go on unabated for another two hours or so? Let me remind you of what actually happened:
1) SJP members and community members came to attend the “Free and open to the public” event about 20 minutes early, patiently waiting outside.
2) Student organizers of the event close doors seemingly to wait until 7:30, yet the doors remain close past that threshold.
3) When asked why the “free and open event” was still closed, Micah Toll claimed that the police had told them to enforce the “university policy” of only allowing students with IDs to enter. This, as you can see in this video, turns out to be untrue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1SZuzqv7EA
4) Forty-five minutes minutes past when the event was supposed to start, those of us with student IDs finally enter, now told that the request was made by the speaker. We are wearing black t-shirts with the names of Palestinian children in Gaza that died as a result of Operation Cast Lead. I taped the name of Moaz Yasser Abou Tair, age 6, to my chest. Call me what you will, Hobbs, I’m going to mourn the death of a child.
5) After Sgt. Anthony begins his speech, we who were mourning took off our jackets to reveal the names of the dead, and taped our mouths closed to symbolized the silencing of these innocent children. We then sat back down, and had 15 minutes of solemn silence.
6) After sitting silently for 15 minutes, we left as we had entered: silent and non-disruptive.
7) After leaving the event, we rallied outside the union for approximately 10 minutes, before saying our goodbyes and going home.
What we did was solemn, what we did was principled, what we did was effective. Like the members of the “Israel clubs” during Jennifer Jajeh’s play, we were not required to stay for Q & A. Although Micah Toll, Sam Mellitz, and others sat respectfully until the end, Samantha Vinokor did indeed leave before the end of the show. I watched her leave, and it was her right to leave our (actually) free and open event. I am unsure of how I am “l[ying]” or mud-slinging against a “defenseless woman” by simply explaining that Ms. Vinokor (who is mentioned in the article above) left an SJP event the same way we left PIPAC’s event. If you’re going to talk principles about Pitt’s Student Code of Conduct then you must apply the same standards provided to each student equally.
That is exactly what our mission is in SJP: a just and peaceful resolution to the conduct that applies the same standards to both Israelis and Palestinians living side by side with equal rights. We were overjoyed recently celebrating the Egyptian people’s assertion of their right of self-determination via a non-violent movement for democracy. We were saddened to see the absence of any Panthers for Israel/PIPAC/CAMERA members standing beside us to support Egyptian rights; we are equally saddened to see those groups opposing Palestinian rights of self-determination and equality. We are named Students for Justice in Palestine because we advocate for something of which there’s an absence: namely, justice in Palestine. We believe every human being deserves defending. We believe no one should have to live in fear of death, of oppression, of poverty, of being silenced.
We believe upholding the democratic ideals of self-determination and equality in Palestine represents not only the highest principles of the University of Pittsburgh, but also of the American spirit.
We campaign for a more just and peaceful world, a more humane society and I personally hope that one day, Jason, one day you will join us in that noble undertaking.
Sincerely,
Ryan Branagan
Business Manager, Students for Justice in Palestine
“We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and homeless, whether mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
–Mohandas K. Gandhi
“The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.”
–Joseph Jobert
first of all, thank you to all the groups that helped bring this speaker to campus. He provided a side of the story that is rarely heard and virtually unknown.
second of all, thank you Amy for covering this event in a very accurate and unbiased way.
third of all, currently there is no (nor has there ever been) country of palestine. God willing there will be some day soon a Palestinian democratic state along side Israel, the Jewish democratic state. But until that time, it is politically correct to call the “occupied territory” either the west bank or the disputed territory. Doing so does not inherently deny any palestinians any rights. Rather, the use of non-accusatory terminology enables the necessary dialogue and negotiations for peace to resume.
Additionally, creating a connection or a means of understanding further allows the two sides to come together. Imagining the other side as similar to yourself is exactly what needs to happen to end the hostile attitude that is too often injected into the minds of Israeli and Palestinian youth (via biased parents, peers, teachers, and/or institutions).
My main criticism of SJP’s actions during the event was that they left. How can we achieve peace without listening to the other side?
The horrors of war are a condemnation of war in and of itself. Sgt. Anthony’s point was that war is so horrific that it is obviously not the desirable action, but the action forced due to circumstance. Not a single soldier wants to be in the position where he is forced to choose between the life of an innocent person and the lives of the—let’s be honest—kids next to him. The soldier does not want to be in that position as much as the young child being used as a human shield does not want be in the way of a sniper and his target. Sgt. Anthony was trying to give a level of understanding to those who were willing to listen. Kids like us are being entrusted with the security of a nation.
Similarly, kids like us are being brainwashed to hate and forbidden to question. The cry for democracy that is being heard all over the Middle East right now needs to take place in Gaza, not against Israel, against Hamas. Hamas was elected (and I understand why; they built schools, helped the common man, and much more) but they over stepped their given power and seized absolute authority. They silenced all opposition and turned what could’ve been the first self-governing democratic Palestinian land into a rocket launching pad, hidden behind schools, hospitals, and mosques. Not to mention, this launching pad’s favorite target is the innocent civilian population.
I can relate much more to a nineteen-year-old soldier who is praying daily for peace while defending the lives of the innocent, than I can to a man who is full of hate and seeks the destruction of an entire people.
Every innocent life lost due to the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces is regretted by the IDF, the Israeli government, and the Israeli people as a whole. Every innocent life lost due to the actions of Hamas, Hizzballah, etc. is seen as a victory by those organizations. And I praise those Palestinians that find these organizations abominable, and I despise those Israelis that do not regret the death of innocent people.
Furthermore, Israel assisted the Palestinians in the creation of their first self-governing body. Prior to the establishment of the PA no governing body that controlled Palestine was run by Palestinians (I would also like to note that before 1948 Jews that lived and worked in the area were also Palestinian).
Finally, to call yourself liberal, progressive, or a supporter of freedom and be against the only democracy in the Middle East is—quite frankly—hypocritical. Even the western backed Palestinian Authority does not have freedom of press. Israel is the only country in the region where all of its citizens can criticize the action of the government (which they—and I—do often) openly. Not only is there freedom of press, but Israel is also the only country where you can be openly gay without being punished under law. To push this point further, you can be openly gay and serve in the army!
So to highlight the main points again:
1) non-accusatory terminology accompanied by a willingness to listen is the only way to achieve a secure and lasting peace.
2) Attempts at relating, connecting, and understanding the other side can only help bridge the gap and bring the sides together.
3) The loss of life on either side is tragic and regrettable.
4) Israel is the only free democratic country in the Middle East.
To Devarim:
Have you ever heard of the Republic of Turkey? No? Well, it’s in the region, and a fully secular, democratic state with a huge Muslim majority. You should check it out some time, I hear it’s pretty cool.
Also, I’d like to note that blacks in South Africa never had their own South African political entity until the final dismantling of Apartheid in 1994. The Apartheid State allowed the oppressed majority “self-rule” with the “Republic of Transkei” in 1976, but no serious scholar regards this or the other Bantustans as anything but a collaborationist ploy by the racist “Republic” of South Africa to make it seem less responsible for the despicable repression of black rights and self-determination. So, too, will later scholars view the thuggish Palestinian Authority, which does little beyond putting an Arab face on Israeli occupation. According to international law, none of the Occupied Palestinian Territories exist as “disputed” entities, and repeated U.N. resolutions confirming this have been flagrantly violated by the Israeli Apartheid State.
The formula is simple:
1) Israel must end the longest standing military occupation in the world according to U.N. Resolution 242, dismantle the Apartheid Wall, and de-segregate its illegal Jewish-only roads and settlements.
2) The Arab States must renounce violence with the State of Israel.
3) Israel must comply with U.N. Resolution 194 and allow Palestinian refugees the Right of Return that has belonged to them since the Nakba of ethnic cleansing that drove 700,000 Palestinians to flee in 1948.
Then, and only then, can negotiations bring a peaceful and just solution to the 62-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Until those fundamental conditions are met, however, SJP and the rest of the Anti-Apartheid community will use the same nonviolent tactics nearly every anti-colonial struggle from South Africa to Ghana to India have used: Noncooperation and Positive Action.
Sincerely,
Ryan Branagan
Business Manager, Students for Justice in Palestine
This article is shockingly biased. It belongs in the editorial section, not in the “objective news” section. They leave out that a large contingent of the public was excluded from this “public event” because these people were perceived as “anti-Israel”, and a security threat according to the Pitt police, and were made to leave the Student Union.
The article incorrectly refers to the internationally condemned and illegal (according to the UN) occupation of Palestinian lands as a “war”. The IDF is not fighting a war. They are fighting against a civilian population in a systematic, apartheid-supporting manner. Palestinian children at the age of 15 are considered adults by the IDf, whereas Israeli children become adults under the law at 18, allowing the IDf to whisk away children to detention centers. This is clearly racist. Just as Israel’s housing policy is CLEARLY RACIST. As is their ban on palestinians driving on certain highways. As is their constant bombardment of civilian, and international aid organizations.
Liam, I’m sorry that you’re so sadly misinformed. The article is well written, and Amy did a great job.
I was at the event. People weren’t excluded because they were anti-Israel, rather that it was a student event so people from the community that were not students were not included in the audience. There was a large number of anti-Israel students that DID attend the event. Of course, they rudely interrupted the speaker and walked out in the middle, even after he had specifically asked them to stay and ask their questions.
The IDF is fighting a war against terrorism, not against civilians. It is interesting you call these people civilians. When a terrorist shoots a rocket packed with explosives at an elementary school in Israel, is that terrorist a “civilian”? When an AK-47 wielding terrorist uses a small child as a human shield, is the terrorist a “civilian”?
It is a shame that the Palestinians don’t live in a more free environment, but it is not the fault of Israel, it is the fault of Palestinians themselves. When Palestinians strap bombs to their children and send them to blow up restaurants and movie theaters, Israel has no choice but to protect its citizens. If Palestinians put down their weapons, the fighting would end. If Israel put down their weapons, Israel would end.
Blaming the victim is a common strategy of the guilty. If you do not apply the same standards to both sides of the conflict, then you are valuing one people’s rights over another — a shamefully hypocritical position to take.
Racist caricatures and binary oppositions are not worth a response. However, I’d like for you to tell me who’s the terrorist here:
http://toshootanelephant.com/
Oh Ryan, how extremist your views are. I just hope you learn to reform your ways. Liam describes terrorists who shoot at elementary schools and hold children in front of them as human shields, and you call these terrorists victims? It’s a shame people like you comprise such an obstacle to progress.
It is extremist to remind you of the findings of the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B’tselem found to be IDF war crimes in Gaza during the 2008-9 Operation Cast Lead? Really? Because according to the rest of the world that’s called upholding the tenets of international humanitarian law that every single country on the planet is bound to respecting. But don’t take my word for it; see for yourself:
http://www.goldstonereport.org/
http://www.hrw.org/en/features/israel-gaza
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/015/2009/en/8f299083-9a74-4853-860f-0563725e633a/mde150152009en.pdf
http://www.btselem.org/Download/20090909_Cast_Lead_Fatalities_Eng.pdf
Devarim, your call for open communication between proponents of Israel and activists for Palestine deserves more attention than relegation to a comment box can afford. Especially on university grounds, separated from the conflict physically, discussion needs to involve both parties, and both parties need to contain their emotions so that rational resolutions can be identified. If there is no compromise to be found in the ivory tower, what hope is there among shellings, bombs, and bullets?
Ryan, your anger and accusations lend no credibility to your cause. They label you as a radical. Radicals gather short revolts, not sustained revolutions. Far from radicalism, the events in Egypt were initiated and supported by young university researchers and ordinary people with reasonable demands from their government (based in the ideal of the Human Rights). You cannot achieve that kind of solidarity with accusations intended to evoke emotional responses about children.
Stephen, You make an interesting proposal that Palestinians could lay down their weapons and receive a peaceful welcome. However, why did Palestinians take up arms in the first place? The Jewish state is infusing predominantly Palestinian societies with Jewish settlements, pushing Palestinians into the margins. The children may not be shot if Palestinians stand down (though they might), but they will certainly have no hope for a voice – or a future. They will grow up with under-funded schools and financially broken parents in dilapidated housing, while the state places funding priority on schools for Jewish children. They will be second class citizens. The history of South Africa, India, Jamaica, Brazil, the US, and even Germany (yes, Nazi Germany) have already informed us of the consequences of one internally identifying group-entity ruling over a politically unrepresented (or even despised) group-identity.
And the Palestinians are most certainly despised, even feared. Devarim, the stereotypes you present, of the man “who is full of hate and seeks the destruction of an entire people,” are not representative of an entire people, or even of most people supporting Hamas. Policy reform is necessary within the party of Hamas, certainly. But that will not be possible without dialogue. Western labeling of this group as a terrorist organization, typical Bush rhetoric, leaves no space for such dialogue, or any helpful compromise in the matter. And as we have seen from the recently released Palestinian Papers, no compromise can arise from backroom settlements. Recognition of Hamas, and open dialogue with its leaders, is the way to resolution. Not stereotyping and – again – accusations.
Ronald, I understand your points and I agree with most of them. I’m glad that you are able to look at these types of debates as objectively and fairly as you did.
However, I would just like to question whether or not you are familiar with the Official Hamas Charter? It’s a long document and I can barely make it through it, so I certainly don’t hold it against you if you haven’t read it, but I feel if you did it might change your views on the appropriate label for their organization. The charter doesn’t just promote Palestinian self determination (which by itself is a good thing), but rather it goes on to promote the genocide of all Jews — not just Israeli Jews — all Jews. It says that the day of judgement for them will not come until they can kill all the Jews on earth. They say that on that day, even the rocks and trees will betray Jews saying “There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” This is a group that goes past fighting for the rights of Palestinians, it actually fights for the extermination of an entire group of people, the Jews. They have consistently shown a complete disregard not only for the lives on innocent Israeli civilians but for their own Palestinian people as well. Hamas hides weapons in Mosques, schools, hospitals and civilian homes. Hamas shoots while literally holding a smile child as a shield. They fire rockets indiscriminately into Israeli towns with absolutely no military installations and have admitted to increasing their rocket fire during the school year and especially at times when schools are starting and ending sessions to maximize the number of innocent civilians affected.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, and to refer to their actions as nothing less than that is an insult to all the innocent victims they have killed.
Has the IDF killed innocent civilians? Of course. It is one of the worst parts of war, that innocent people sometimes pay the ultimate price. The difference is that Israel works to minimize civilian deaths while Hamas works to increase them. Sgt Anthony made a very poignant statement in his presentation “When Palestinian civilians are killed, Israel mourns. When Israeli civilians are killed, Hamas cheers.”
While agree with most of what you said, I firmly believe that to refer to Hamas by anything less than a terrorist organization is at the least wrong and the most highly offensive.
To Ronald:
I respect your serious, academic treatment of the matter. However, I’d like to remind you that many members of SJP took part in the four Oakland rallies for Egyptian democracy in the past 18 days, including myself. The question I’d like to put forward is:
If the so-called “pro”-Israel side is so “pro-democracy,” why did not a single member of Panthers for Israel, PIPAC, or CAMERA join in the rallies/celebrations for the democratic movement in Egypt?
Respectfully Yours,
Ryan Branagan
Hilarious video someone made of SJP’s protest of this event: http://www.tinyurl.com/israelvideo
No so hilarious video of IDF war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead:
http://toshootanelephant.com/