Misery Index

IDF reported that Hamas was firing mortar bombs at Israeli soldiers from the UN school. 

The infantrymen returned mortar fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told the AP that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed the Palestinians on the site.  The following video was released via the IDF showing Israel firing upon Hamas targets with secondary explosions.  It is unclear whether the school is included in these videos.

“Hamas has in the past fired at Israel and at troops from inside schools, cynically using civilians, as is proven by UAV footage,” the army said.

The UN said hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had gone to seek shelter in the school…

“I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this,” said John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza.  “They are responsible for these deaths.”

RANT ON

Of course Hamas will say that Israel hit the school and that they had nothing to do with it.  It’s not like Hamas has used schools before as weapons dumps right?  Especially since that exact school had been used before to fire rockets and mortars for Hamas.  And there is a 2007 video of Hamas firing mortars into Israel from this same school yard.

Now you may think Israel was wrong for firing on a school however, do you think its right that Hamas is firing mortars from the same location with innocent civilians inside?  But the thought to ponder in all of this is WHY WAS THERE A SECONDARY EXPLOSION today?  And WHY did the UN allow Hamas to CONTINUE to use this location as a firing point since it was revealed in 2007?  Just thoughts to ponder!

And last week a science teacher and headmaster at a UN school was killed.  By day he was a teacher, at night, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.  Hamas hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad’s “engineering unit” – its bomb makers.  Although the UN denies any knowledge of this, and his family denies the claim while Islamic Jihad posters filled his home, the man’s body was wrapped in an Islamic Jihad flag at his funeral.

At the UN school, a handwritten notice was posted on the gate at the entrance to the school declaring the man “the chief leader of the engineering unit”, would now find “paradise”.

It is also known that Hamas hides weapons at schools.

Meanwhile, back to today, hundreds of innocent civilians had headed to a UN school for safety.  And Hamas decides to use the grounds around the school to fire at Israeli troops, knowing full well that Israel would fire back at them.  Then when Israel did fire back, it set the booby-traps off INSIDE the school.  Nice guys, them Hamas eh?

So how can you fight a terrorist organization, that uses schools as weapons dumps.  That fires weapons from schools and school yards, while innocents are inside? And what kind of government puts its own innocent civilians at risk, while that same government should be protecting its own innocent civilians?

But yet, neither Israel nor Hamas (Palestine) has a monopoly on what is right or what is wrong either.

Via The Jerusalem Post and the New York Times

According to Razi Hashmi, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ executive director, America should take immediate steps to end Israel’s “illegal and immoral” offensive against the Gaza' Strip’s Hamas rulers. “We as Oklahomans and as Americans should be concerned about this conflict because our taxes are going towards Israel,” Hashmi said.  “We should not allow our government to give Israel a blank check to allow the destruction of hopes for peace in the Middle East.”  However in a rather confusing statement, Hashmi also said as an American citizen, he agrees with the U.S. description of Hamas.

During the demonstration, one protestor held a sign that showed a swastika inside the Star of David.  According to Hashmi, the man carrying the sign, identified only as a college student from OK City, was asked to leave and the sign removed a “couple of minutes” after the demonstration started.  Also according to Hashimi, the man has been banned from future protests organized by the organization.  According to Hashmi, the organization distributed rules before the demonstration that no offensive signs or banners would be tolerated.  “The Star of David is a sacred symbol of faith and Muslims are stressed by Islam to respect all symbols of faith and I apologize,” Hashmi said.  “This [sign] does not reflect our personal views.”

However, unless the video below was taken within the first few minutes of the protest, the sign is seen during the demonstration.  But then what do you expect from a group who defends Hamas?

Michael Barlow, past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater OK City watched the protest commenting, “War is unfortunate, but the question is:  What is Israel to do, with scores of missiles being shot into Israel population centers daily?”  “How long do you allow missiles to be shot into your country from another country?”  Barlow added that it is difficult for Israel to negotiate with Hamas leaders when they do not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

United Methodist minister Rev. Andres Tevington of the Church of the Servant in OK City said the Israelis and Palestinians should quit “illegitimately calling on the name of God” in this fighting.  “We call upon the U.S. to help both sides see there is a different way to do this,” he said.

Rev. Kristen Brown, a United Methodist minister attended the protest saying, “I saw that this isn’t really a religious issue, this is an issue about people who are living under military occupation for 40 years and they’re in a very desperate situation,” she said.

RANT ON

What irritates me more and more, is the use of children in these protests.  How can a child, who is aged 2-7 years old, have a mental ability to understand the protest, and understand the purpose of these signs, or the babies swaddled in bloodied cloth they carry?  How can these children make a voluntary choice at their age to make a voluntary consent to participate in these protests.  Any child who is a minor, should not be allowed to participate in these protests, if they are a credible organization, who is looking out for a child’s best interest.  These children do not have the mentality to make an informed consent to voluntarily participate in these protests.  This is nothing more than encouraging racism.

And how can you call for the end of an “illegal and immoral” offensive against a terrorist organization and still say you support the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization?