The Death of Too Many Innocent Civilians

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"그러나 진실은 여전하다: 팔레스타인인의 자유에 대한 부정/거부가 이 전쟁의 중심에 있다, 그건 80년대 후반의 하마스 출현보다 오랜 전에 시작됐다." 저널리스트이며 저널리즘/정치학 교수인 Peter Beinart의 칼럼에서 읽는다. Beinart 교수는 유태인이다. 내가 읽은 다른 몇 칼럼니스트의 칼럼에서는 조심성이 읽혀진다. 실제든 상상이든 압력을 느끼는가. 뉴욕 타임즈 칼럼니스트 Bret Stephens는 테러리스트 같은 소리를 칼럼 헤드라인으로 썼다: "이 전쟁에서의 모든 죽음은 하마스 탓이다." 대조적으로, 칼럼니스트 Nicholas Krisrof는 "전쟁 범죄를 더 많은 전쟁 범죄로 보복해서는 안 된다"고, 그리고 상원의원 Lindsey Graham 이 "그곳[가자 지구]을 쑥대밭을 만들어라"고 한 것을 두고는 "You've lost your humanity" -- 그러니까, 덜 점잖게는, "당신은 사람이 아닙니다"? -- 라고 쓴다. 벌거벗은 임금을 지적하는 어린이는 그래도 대학생들이 아닐까. 대학이 받는, 특히 이스라엘 지지자나 단체로부터의, 압력이 큰 것 같다.

 

" The Jewish supremacists in Netanyahu’s cabinet immediately began to challenge the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and where one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Aqsa Mosque, stands. The Netanyahu government began taking steps to impose much harsher conditions on Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza held in Israeli jails. And it laid plans for a huge expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank to prevent a contiguous Palestinian state from ever coming into being there. This is the first Israeli government ever to make annexation of the West Bank a stated objective in its coalition agreement."

       --- Thomas Friedman, "Israel: From the Six-Day War to the Six-Front War"

 

 

 

 

* 아래의 인용에서 '강조'(in boldface)는 내가.

 

 

Nicholas Kristof ("What Does Destroying Gaza Solve?"):

 

War crimes shouldn’t be avenged by more war crimes.

 

"Level the place,” advised Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. That “place” has more than two million inhabitants, including about one million children, and I shouldn’t have to remind a senator that when you care about some humans but not others, you’ve lost your humanity.

             

 

Peter_Beinart ("There Is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation. It Must Survive."):

 

But the truth remains: The denial of Palestinian freedom sits at the heart of this conflict, which began long before Hamas’s creation in the late 1980s.

 

It will require Palestinians to forcefully oppose attacks on Jewish civilians, and Jews to support Palestinians when they resist oppression in humane ways — even though Palestinians and Jews who take such steps will risk making themselves pariahs among their own people. It will require new forms of political community, in Israel-Palestine and around the world, built around a democratic vision powerful enough to transcend tribal divides. The effort may fail. It has failed before. The alternative is to descend, flags waving, into hell.

 

 

 Thomas L. Friedman  (in "Why a Gaza Invasion and ‘Once and for All’ Thinking Are Wrong for Israel"):

 

If the settler movement continues to set the terms of what is permissible in Israeli politics, another disaster is looming in the West Bank.

 

If Israel announced today that it was forgoing, for now, a full-blown invasion of Gaza, who would be happy? ... [T]he parents of every Israeli soldier and every Israeli held hostage would be relieved, every Palestinian in Gaza caught in the crossfire would be relieved, and every friend and ally Israel has in the world — starting with one Joseph R. Biden — would be relieved.

 

 

I'm Going to War for Israel. Palestinians Are Not My Enemy.

By Nir Avishai Cohen, Oct. 13, 2023

 

There’s nothing in the world that can justify the murder of hundreds of innocent people.

But I’d like to say one thing clearly, before I go to battle: There’s no such thing as “unavoidable.” This war could have been avoided, and no one did enough to prevent it. Israel did not do enough to make peace; we just conquered the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, expanded the illegal settlements and imposed a long-term siege on the Gaza Strip.

 

Israelis and Palestinians alike have been in the grip of a religious minority for decades. On both sides, the intractable positions of a small group has dragged us into violence. It doesn’t matter who is more cruel, or more ruthless. The ideology of both have fueled this conflict, leading to the death of too many innocent civilians.

 

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Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go.

By Gershom Gorenberg, Oct. 18, 2023

 

 

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The War Comes to Stanford

By Pamela Paul, Oct. 13, 2023

 

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Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres

 

Clearly, the grievances felt by the Palestinian people do not justify the terror that was unleashed against civilians in Israel.

 

And clearly, the horrific acts by Hamas do not justify responding with collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

 

Israel must see its legitimate needs for security materialized, and Palestinians must see a clear perspective for the establishment of their own state realized, in line with United Nations resolutions, international law and previous agreements. If the international community truly believes in these two objectives, we need to find a way to work together to find real, lasting solutions — solutions that are based on our common humanity and that recognize the need for people to live together, despite histories and circumstances that tear them apart.

 

 

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The Missed Chance for Peace

By David Brooks, Oct. 12, 2023

 

 

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Israel-Hamas Conflict & Famous Jews Who Have Strongly Opposed Iisrael

 

The Israel-Hamas war has entered the fourth day with casualties mounting on both sides. 

 

Noam Chomsky

American professor and one of the world’s most revered public intellectuals, Avram Noam Chomsky had once called out Israel's occupied territory and said, “In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid. To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by “apartheid” you mean South African-style apartheid. What’s happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse.”

Henry Siegman

A German-American Rabbi and director of the US-Middle East Project, Henry Siegman had earlier said that “Israel has crossed the threshold from ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ to the only apartheid regime in the Western world.” He mentioned the apartheid regime as the Occupied Palestine Territories (OPT) have been separated into different enclaves. The people living in the Gaza Strip have been isolated from the rest of the world because of Israel’s illegal blockade.

 

Richard Cohen

The famous US columnist Richard Cohen in 2014 commented that the idea of creating a separate Jewish nation in an area of Arab Muslims was a mistake. His comments came in the light of the alleged violent oppression by Israel in Gaza. He commented, “The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. The idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now.”

 

Richard Falk

Richard Falk, who is a former UN special reporter on human rights in OPT, has once described the Israeli policies in the area as “a crime against humanity.” He also compared the treatment in Israel of the Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of the Jews.

 

 

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Why Israel Is Acting This Way

By Thomas L. Friedman, Oct. 14, 2023

 

So now Israel believes it must restore its deterrence by proving that it can outcrazy Hamas’s latest craziness.

 

 

사진; 위 에세이에서