"It is still hard to say that the killing of hundreds of Palestinian children represents a Jewish failure, whatever else it may be. It is not easy to convey the point that the open-air prison of Gaza in which Hamas has thrived exists in part because Israel has shown a strong preference for the status quo, failing to reach out to Palestinian moderates and extending settlements in the West Bank, fatally tempted by the idea of keeping all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River."
In short, more road apples from Cohen.
Yes, there have been many pictures of dead civilians (some of these pictures taken in Syria), and every dead civilian is a tragedy. But civilians and particularly children do die when Hamas stores weapons in schools, hospitals and mosques, and also shoots missiles from these locations:
And as long as we are on the subject of dead children, it's interesting how both Cohen and an anti-Semitic Europe have ignored the 160 Palestinian children who died digging the tunnels under Gaza and into Israel. No pictures were taken by Hamas and the Western media of their limp bodies for display on the Internet, and as the saying goes: Out of sight, out of mind.
In addition, we are now learning that many Palestinian civilian casualties were caused by errant Hamas rockets (see: http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/30/italian-journalist-defies-hamas-out-of-gaza-far-from-hamas-retaliation-misfired-rocket-killed-children-in-shati/).
We are also now learning that almost half of the Palestinian dead in the current conflict were combatants (see: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553723,00.html).
Gaza is an "open-air prison"? Cohen fails to mention that Gaza's current population of 1.8 million was some 300,000 in 1967 after Israel occupied Gaza during the Six Day War (Israel unilaterally evacuated Gaza in 2005). Needless to say, the main reason Gaza is so crowded is that Gazans have been very busy having children. Then, too, life expectancy in Gaza of 74.64 years, according to the CIA World Factbook, is considerably higher than life expectancy in Turkey amounting to 73.29 years.
Cohen doesn't tell us about Gaza's eight universities and colleges, or its gourmet restaurants (e.g., "Roots"), or its 5-star hotel ("The al-Mashtal"). And then there was also the "Crazy Water Park," which was burned down by Hamas, because Hamas didn't want men and women intermingling.
Cohen also fails to note that the border between Israel and Gaza was not always closed. It was shut down after suicide bombers, sent into Israel from Gaza and the West Bank, killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians. By the same token, Cohen ignores the more than 10,000 rockets and mortar rounds that were fired from Gaza at Israeli towns and cities prior to the current war.
Of course, there is Cohen's hackneyed refrain that Israel is intent upon "keeping all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River." Cohen makes certain not to mention that in 2008, when Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered Palestinian Authority President Abbas an independent state along the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps and Palestinian control of east Jerusalem, Abbas refused. Cohen also ignores the fact that several years earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Barak similarly offered to withdraw from 97 percent of the West Bank and tear down 63 Israeli settlements. In exchange for the settlements that would remain part of Israel, Barak said he would increase the size of Gaza by a third. Barak also agreed to Palestinian control of much of East Jerusalem, which would become Palestine's capital, and Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Arafat, however, also refused.
How the New York Times continues to publish Cohen's sickening rubbish is beyond my ken.
Cohen is kept at the NYT because of his last name.
ReplyDeleteIt makes easier for this perfectly evil rag to do what they do. They don't even have to do what antisemites love to do - justify their antisemitism with: "Even Jews, such as ... say" because everyone knows that the guy named Cohen is a Jew. Friedman is precious for the same reason too - in his supporting role - two Jews say, it must be true.
This "Even Jews ... say" is antisemitic in so many ways and on so many levels that I wouldn't even know where to start.
How do people raise perfectly evil individuals? I don't know.