Fuck this.
This isn’t “self defense”.
This is murder of women and children and families.
These aren’t “terrorists” and “extremists” … these are unarmed civilians.
This isn’t a justified response to the similarly atrocious actions of terrorists. This is wholesale retaliation upon a civilian population for the actions of terrorists.
There is no excuse for this kind of shit … and we, the United States, are SENDING THEM BILLIONS OF DOLLARS PER YEAR TO SPEND ON WEAPONS. No one who considers themselves to be a christian or to have a living conscience should be in support of “Israel”, which is what people usually say when they mean the actions of the Israeli army. If you don’t want to hear this, look for yourself and show me how it’s right.
This article is just the tip of the iceberg. This barely even scratches the surface of this slaughter.
Why isn’t everyone screaming about this?
— matt
source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7952603.stm « ( the BBC, not some “wacko liberal media”, just to forestall that argument.)
Excerpts:
An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers’ accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza.
One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home.
Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the “cold blooded murder” of a Palestinian woman.
The army has defended its conduct during the Gaza offensive but said it would investigate the testimonies.
The Israeli army has said it will investigate the soldiers’ accounts.
[ My input: You don’t trust a criminal to be responsible for “investigating” their own actions. ]
[ …]
The climate in general [was that] lives of Palestinians are much, much less important than the lives of our soldiers 
Soldier testimony
Analysis: Operation Miscast Lead? Gaza war crimes probes
“[The testimonies] conveyed an atmosphere in which one feels entitled to use unrestricted force against Palestinians,” academy director Dany Zamir told public radio.
Heavy civilian casualties during the three-week operation which ended in the blockaded coastal strip on 18 January provoked an international outcry.
Correspondents say the testimonies undermine Israel’s claims that troops took care to protect non-combatants and accusations that Hamas militants were responsible for putting civilians into harm’s way.
[…]
One non-commissioned officer related at the seminar that an old woman crossing a main road was shot by soldiers.
“”The climate in general… I don’t know how to describe it…. the lives of Palestinians, let’s say, are much, much less important than the lives of our soldiers,” an infantry squad leader is quoted saying.
FROM THE BBC WORLD SERVICE More from BBC World Service
In another cited case, a commander ordered troops to kill an elderly woman walking on a road, even though she was easily identifiable and clearly not a threat
“I don’t know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don’t know her story… I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out… It was cold-blooded murder,” he said.
[…]
Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that the findings would be examined seriously.
“I still say we have the most moral army in the world. Of course there may be exceptions but I have absolutely no doubt this will be inspected on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
Medical authorities say more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s 22-day operation, including some 440 children, 110 women, and dozens of elderly people.
and more:
Israeli military T-shirts mock palestinian murder
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription “Better use Durex,” next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter’s T-shirt from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull’s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, “1 shot, 2 kills”
and more:
UN report says Israel soldiers used boy as human shield
Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, U.N. human rights experts said Monday. The Israeli Defense force ordered the boy to walk in front of soldiers being fired on in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa and enter buildings before them, said the U.N. secretary-general’s envoy for protecting children in armed conflict. The boy also was told to open the bags of Palestinians - presumably to protect the soldiers from possible explosives - before being released at the entrance to a hospital, Radhika Coomaraswamy said.
and more:
Israeli troops shut down press conference with injured American’s parents; beat activists
A woman and journalist were among those beaten by Israeli troops during a press conference held by the parents of critically wounded American peace activist Tristan Anderson Monday afternoon. Anderson had an Israeli tear-gas canister shot at his head in Ni’lin on 13 March, his skull shattered and several surgeries have left him semi-conscious in a Tel Aviv hospital. His parents arrived shortly after Tristan was hospitalized. Israeli troops detained 11, including Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and Khaled Zabaka, in addition to three foreign activists
and more:
IDF soldiers ordered to shoot at Gaza rescuers
“Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue,” was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a low-level commander wrote before giving his soldiers their daily briefing. One of the main themes in news reports during the Gaza operation, and which appears in many testimonies, is that IDF soldiers shot at Palestinian and Red Cross rescuers, making it impossible to evacuate the wounded and dead. As a result, an unknown number of Palestinians bled to death as others cowered in their homes for days without medical treatment, waiting to be rescued
