Saturday, August 9, 2014

Apocalypse ignored: As Gaza grabs the headlines, epic slaughter engulfs the rest of the region. But where are the protests?

Apocalypse ignored: As Gaza grabs the headlines, epic slaughter engulfs the rest of the region. But where are the protests?  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2719460/Apocalypse-ignored-As-Gaza-grabs-headlines-epic-slaughter-engulfs-rest-region-But-protests.html

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza was still holding last night after three days, offering a glimmer of hope that the brutal conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas might be at an end.

Israel believes it has killed more than 700 Hamas fighters in the past four weeks and destroyed at least 32 of the underground passages through which Hamas smuggles weaponry and launches terrorist attacks on the country.

In their cold-blooded parlance, Israel’s military leaders say they have ‘mown the grass’ sufficiently to enable a withdrawal of troops from Gaza. In other words, they have degraded Hamas’s military capacity to the extent that they believe it will take three or four years before the terrorist organisation can become truly belligerent again; before the gruesome cycle of Hamas provocation and ruthless Israeli retaliation begins once more.

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Militant: Palestinian fighters from Islamic Jihad hold their weapons at the funeral of a fellow militant in Gaza
Militant: Palestinian fighters from Islamic Jihad hold their weapons at the funeral of a fellow militant in Gaza
Aftermath: A Palestinian rides past residential buildings in Beit Lahiya town, all but obliterated by Israeli shelling and air strikes, in the northern Gaza Strip
Aftermath: A Palestinian rides past residential buildings in Beit Lahiya town, all but obliterated by Israeli shelling and air strikes, in the northern Gaza Strip
Destruction: A boy sits among the ruins of a destroyed house in Beit Lahiya, hours before the 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to an end
Destruction: A boy sits among the ruins of a destroyed house in Beit Lahiya, hours before the 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to an end
Cost: Mohammed Ali Wahdan, a two-year-old Palestnian boy, lies on his bed at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as he receives treatment for burns and other injuries
Cost: Mohammed Ali Wahdan, a two-year-old Palestnian boy, lies on his bed at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as he receives treatment for burns and other injuries
Recovering: Wala Abu Zaid, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl injured in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, lies in a bed at the the Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, where she was transferred by the Red Cross during the ceasefire which has endured since Tuesday
Recovering: Wala Abu Zaid, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl injured in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, lies in a bed at the the Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, where she was transferred by the Red Cross during the ceasefire which has endured since Tuesday
Hanan Abu Leil, a six-year-old Palestinian girl injured by an Israeli airstrike, recovering in the Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem. Doctors and aid agencies are trying to capitalise on a truce in Gaza to evacuate more wounded Palestinians for life-saving medical treatment in east Jerusalem, Israel and Jordan
Hanan Abu Leil, a six-year-old Palestinian girl injured by an Israeli airstrike, recovering in the Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem. Doctors and aid agencies are trying to capitalise on a truce in Gaza to evacuate more wounded Palestinians for life-saving medical treatment in east Jerusalem, Israel and Jordan

The battle raging in the Gaza Strip has transfixed the world. Relentless TV and media coverage has concentrated on the appalling death toll of 1,900 Palestinians, hundreds of them children.

Protest marches sprung up across the globe as the conflict caused widespread outrage and some of the worst manifestations of anti-semitism the West has witnessed since the Thirties.

At Westminster, Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi — who was passed over for promotion in David Cameron’s latest reshuffle — resigned allegedly as a matter of conscience, while the Tricycle Theatre in North London cancelled its annual Jewish film festival.

Horrific though events in Gaza have been, they were actually a sideshow to the appalling slaughter now raging across much of the Middle East as well as Libya in North Africa.
 
What is so extraordinary is that the voices protesting so vehemently against Israel’s actions remain resolutely silent over this bloodshed which is on a far greater scale than ever took place in Gaza.

Despite the indignation of so many at Israel’s ruthless display of power, the country has gone to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties by using leaflets, text messages and phone calls in Arabic to warn people to leave targeted buildings.
No such niceties were afforded the hundreds of innocent victims of armed militia groups running rampant in Libya and battling for control of its major cities Tripoli and Benghazi. There were a staggering 1,700 of these groups at the last count. 

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