Thursday, June 14, 2007
Hamas has taken control in Gaza: Hamas overruns rival Fatah's key posts
...After the rout at the security headquarters, some of the Hamas fighters knelt outside, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah gunmen out of the building, some shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.
A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.
"They are executing them one by one," Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."
The killers ignored appeals from residents to spare the men's lives, said Amjad, who declined to give his full name, fearing reprisal...
..."We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return," Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."...
Like the shield these guys are using? (photo at right - click for larger - it's another TV truck) 
The buffoons in the pro-journalism field have so much to say when someone in the West does (or is accused of doing) something they can get outraged over (remember, for instance: Professional Photographer: 'blogger extremists and their associates can go to hell right along with Al Queda'), yet where's the outrage over people thrown from buildings, summary executions, hospitals as war zones, family members of enemies attacked, journalists and photographers intimidated into silence...maybe NPR will treat us to yet another guest who informs us of the oh-so-useful news that occupation is the problem...
Update: A vision of the future?
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"They are executing them one by one," Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."
I can believe this is true, but I can also easily believe it (and a lot of these recent stories) are as nonsensical as when these "witnesses" are talking about the IDF. What happened with the five children who were supposedly killed by IDF shelling this morning? That one seems to have evaporated pretty quickly.
I think any particular story (like the quote you cite) may turn out to be BS, but these stories generally are pouring out of the place and are quite plausible. I wouldn't be overly skeptical if I were you.
Plus, what a butchery to the language they do. "The era of justice and yada, yada HAS--not have--arrived." Barbarism.
Solomon asks "where's the outrage?" but what are you comparing this too? The Israeli bombing of Lebanon. The Israeli bombing of Lebanon was far more sever than the destruction in these attacks. Squadrons of F-16's and battallions of artillery tend to do more damage than a few gunmen.
"These attacks" are ripping this society up by the roots, murdering people in the streets (and the hospitals!) and involving a laundry list of war crimes that both Hamas and Fatah are treating like a check list.
Israel bombed Lebanon in a precision manner consistent with the laws of war. They didn't, contra hysterical news reports, do what Hamas and Fatah are intentionally doing to each other here.
This certainly shows that the Palestinians deserve their own state. How about we give them Sudan? Poverty, fanaticism, bigotry, ignorance, cruelty ... they should fit right in.
I think any particular story (like the quote you cite) may turn out to be BS, but these stories generally are pouring out of the place and are quite plausible.
Sure, I don't think there's any question that people are really being thrown off buildings or that Fatah was attacking hospitals with mortars. I'd guess that a lot of the stories coming from "witnesses" are the usual fantasies.
What *did* the story turn out to be with the five dead children, anyway? Did one of the Palestinian sides kill them or was the whole thing invented out of nothing?
Err, that was supposed to be "I'd guess that a lot of the stories coming from "witnesses" are the usual fantasies, though."
There have been further reports of people being thrown off the roof and mass lootings, etc.
But most telling perhaps is the article in Ynet: people in Gaza have actually been contacting Israeli media even though it's dangerous:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3412683,00.html
Moreover the stories are well documented by Palestinian media about Palestinians committing atrocities - there are films - the chaos is self-evident.
And we've seen this kind of brutality before - look at the lynching of the two reservists in Ramallah.
People have been insensitive to the murders of Israeli civilians. In Britain they don't even call it terrorism. When the Israelis finally counterattacked during Intifada II the Guardian portrayed Sharon as a baby-eating monster.
Maybe the world in general will begin to see that pinning a medal on Arafat - especially given the history of PLO in Lebanon - wasn't such a good idea.
And maybe the people of Gaza themselves are trying to tell us something: they've made lousy choices but they've had lousy choices - between two sets of terrorists, one more polite than the other - we've got to find a new way forward somehow. Yet here we see Washington, beating the same dead horse.
Finally, the proPalestinians and would-be peacemakers in the West need to realize once and for all that the desire to destroy Israel really isn't a myth, and here we see the more radical and determined force trying to knock off its fellow Palestinians for being too reasonable about Israel's continued existence.
If this isn't a wake-up call I don't know what is.
And we've seen this kind of brutality before - look at the lynching of the two reservists in Ramallah.
The current situation is certainly a useful reminder of what Israelis would be facing if they ever truly lost a war.