Boots red with blood, it’s just another day in Palestine

Posted on November 11th, 2006 by Richard Catto 1,639 views

Pain and disbelief in Gaza

Another week of shame for Israel, as Israeli tanks kill 18 Palestinians, some of them women and children, some as young as four years old.

Read the harrowing and poignant account of a BBC journalist in Beit Hanoun, a town in the Gaza strip, who came home from his reporting to discover his boots drenched in blood.

Perhaps, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is right? Why should the Palestinians have to suffer because of what the Jewish people have suffered?

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4 Responses to “Boots red with blood, it’s just another day in Palestine”

1. Ray Says:
   November 16th, 2006 at 11:50

   I’m outraged by yet another absurd example of one-sidedness in the responses to the conflict between Jews and Palestinians. In this case, as usual, the Israeli Defence Force was engaged in the elimination of several rocket launching systems operated in Gaza by those who relentlessly pursue their expressed commitment to destroying Israel – who show no evidence whatsoever of a commitment to peaceful co-existence with Israel. Do people actually believe that the Palestinians have a legitimate right to repeatedly and deliberately initiate attacks on ordinary Israeli citizens – non-military targets – while Israel is regarded as behaving “shamefully” for unintentionally harming Palestinian “innocents” while taking protective action against terrorists who deliberately conduct their disgusting offensives from civilian quarters, precisely because they know full well that Israel’s military is inhibited by the prospect of harming civilians.
   It is also important to note that these “innocents” have voted for a governing authority that displays no desire whatsoever to co-exist with Israel, bringing into serious question their “innocence”!!
   Israel’s political and military actions are clearly and unequivocally the actions of a people that loves and respects all human beings, that is and always has been committed to peaceful co-existence with others, that continues to share of it’s powerful technological and knowledge resources, that strives to model a humanitarian attitude and above all, that cherishes the sanctity of Life.
   Enough of this insane bias against Israel. Let people wake up to the truth.

2. ctn editor Says:
   November 16th, 2006 at 16:31

   1. The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has himself stated publicly that the tank attack on Beit Hanoun was a mistake. Read further here:
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6131860.stm

   2. Your description of Israel is at odds with reality. In the recent conflict against Lebanon, Israel liberally sprinkled them with cluster bombs a few days before ending the conflict. Read further here:
   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061106/ap_on_re_eu/red_cross_cluster_bombs

   3. I am not biased against Israel. I recognise that Israel has a legal right to exist. That is not the way the Palestinians (nor many other Arabs) see it. They have a right to disagree and refuse to recognise Israel as a sovereign nation. The Palestinians feel that the land currently occupied by Israel, all of Palestine, rightfully belongs to them. And they have a good reason for this belief. It was promised to them by the British during World War I. T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia enlisted Arab aid to drive the Ottoman Empire out of Palestine. The British promised Palestine to them in exchange for their help. In 1917 Palestine became the British Protectorate of Palestine and in the same year the Balfour Declaration earmarked the territory for a Jewish homeland. The British betrayed the Arabs when they reneged on their promises, and this set the stage for all the problems the world has experienced in the Middle East since the establishment of Israel in 1948. This problem is not going to go away. This is what happens when people get betrayed. They become angry and frustrated and if their dissatisfaction is about an important enough issue, it leads to war and strife, which is precisely what we have. Clearly, it was a huge mistake to ignore the wants, needs and desires of the Palestinian people. Israel seems content to continue to do so, and so the problem remains and grows ever more intense. The fact that the Palestinians voted in Hamas, a virulent terrorist organisation, shows how far along the path they are in their extreme frustration. Will they ever get satisfaction? Do they deserve satisfaction? I believe they deserve more than what they have been handed, which is precious little.

3. Ray Says:
   November 22nd, 2006 at 10:22

   Dear Ctn Editor.

   The first link you refer to contains the following statement -

   Surely you can see this is self-evidently the expression of a remorseful attitude – emphatically not the words of deliberate and wilful perpetrators. dramatically distinguishable from the typical celebration and rejoicing of the palestinians when a terror attack on jewish civilians is successful. They have never claimed to have made a “mistake”, or that that their murderous acts were the result of a “technical failure”. They declare repeatedly that their purpose is Israel’s destruction. Why are you ignoring Israel’s repeated (and many have begun to belioeve, futile) attempts – over and over and over again to find reconciliation through dialogue. Why are you ignoring the fact that the Palestinian re-settlers of Gaza have utterly trashed the magnificent agricultural and architectural infrastrucure handed over to them in good faith and at incalculable cost by the hard working, productive Jewish families who wer forced out by their own government.
   How can any sane human being regard it as the Palestinians’ “right” to refute israel’s existence, pledging instead to destroy the lives of people who in truth pose no threat to them at all except as defendants against attacks on their lives and property, who, despite all this, continue to offer contribution without prejudice to their welfare (hospital care is one example).

   The handing over of Gaza is one piece of clear evidence that Israel is not at all “content to ignore the wants, needs and desires of the Palestinian people”? Whatever reluctance may have ever been evident historically is only because no sane people will expect a positive outcome from extending a hand of friendship to those who respond with nothing but murder and destruction. They have repeatedly betrayed Israel’s trust by making agreements and reneging in them. despite this, Israel continues to demonstrate a willingness for co-operative, peaceful, mutually beneficial co-existence. For me and many others this has begun to raise questions about Israel’s sanity!

   As for The Palestinians’ “right to disagree” – that’s fine in principle. but their refusal to grant that right reciprocally constitutes a travesty of the concept and must be regarded as de facto withdrawn.

   My friend, Instead of vilifying Israel, and instead endorsing the “rights” of those who persistently undermine goodwill and teach their children to hate, I urge you to stand with all the sane citizens of planet earth who pray for a world that is peacefully unified, that acknowledges and celebrates the wonderful, diverse contributions all human beings.

4. Brian Smart Says:
   August 6th, 2007 at 03:27

   All my adult life and ever since those heady days in Jerusalem when the 10th Annaversary of Israels was celabrated, as a Gentile I have prayed that its people would find a way to share the land of thier forefathers. Such a sadness that almost 50 years on, there now seems less hope of them wanting to share the land, than there was then. Certainly, they have to stop wanting to kill each other as a first step !
   I have a Moslem friend when asked to join in a local protest against Israel, refrained from doing so. His comment to me and to his fellow Moslems was ” How can I come between cousins sqabbling over thier inheritance ?” A simple view perhaps, but is this ongoing saga between these lovely people, not the best example ever of just how sinfull we have all become ?
   For without Christ guiding us on how to forgive one another, we are indeed without hope.

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