Comments on: Col. Gibli, He Dead. (Dirty business lives on.)

By: Naftush

Naftush — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:57:39 +0000

Hi, Joe. By combining “cursory knowledge” of international law and utter ignorance of the process used to create the Gaza settlements, you tumble into an unworthy and groundless tirade (e.g., fallacious use of the pregnant term “Lebensraum”). Israel’s claim to sovereignty in Gaza is (or, perhaps, *was*, by Israel’s own ill-advised actions) the strongest claim around absent a treaty to the contrary. Such a claim includes the right to settle and refutes the argument that the Geneva Convention precludes settlement.

By: Y. Ben-David

Y. Ben-David — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:32:17 +0000

Joe-
Jews have been living CONTINUOUSLY in the Gaza area for over 2000 years. The largest synagogue mosaic floor (dating from about 1600 years ago) ever found in the country is in Gaza City. Jews lived in Gaza city up until 1936 when they were driven out by Arab terror. The land of the Kfar Darom settlment was purchased around 1929. Jews have as much right to live in Gaza as they do in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
Jews are as much “native inhabitants” of the country as Arabs, if not more so.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:51:31 +0000

Y, I think the difference is that the settlements (I assume in Gaza as I don’t know them all by name) were considered illegal by the government of Israel since the late 60′s and are ipso facto illegitimate to anyone with even the most cursory understanding of international law.

The two cases are not at all symmetrical. I can’t believe that you really don’t see the difference between a country displacing the native inhabitants of of another to make way for it’s own people’s lebensraum versus giving back the usurped land and dismantling what were the essential instruments for carrying out said usurpation.

There’s simply no moral equivalence here.

By: Y. Ben-David

Y. Ben-David — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:19:00 +0000

You can add to Sharon’ s list of crimes, in addition to his expulsion of Beduins in the Negev, his expulsion of thousands of Jews from Gush Katif without getting any public mandate to carry it out, in direct contradiction to his election promises and his promise to honor the results of the Likud party referendum which he called and then lost. It’s odd you didn’t mention this crime of Sharon’s, only the expulsion of the Beduin.

Funny, Olmert justified turning the police loose on mostly teenagers passively protesting the destruction of Amona and having them break their heads, crippling some for life, on the fact that they were “lawbreakers” involved in an illegal demonstration. I certainly hope that Olmert himself will face a similar punishment when he is convicted of breaking the law, as he has done repeatedly.

So you see, Israeli attitudes towards “lawbreaking” are selective. If a politician or a person we like breaks the law, we look the other way. If we don’t like the person or his policies, we are filled with “righteous indignation”.

By: Chris Dornan

Chris Dornan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:32:51 +0000

Excellent article Gershom. Your blog is an education in many things. Thanks.