Tuesday Updates (From the Top) on Israel-Gaza Tragedy

My Wednesday live-blog here. 

Great piece by Rashid Khalidi at The New Yorker, includes:  "It is about an unswerving, decades-long Israeli policy of denying Palestine self-determination, freedom, and sovereignty.  What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of Gaza has never been lifted. As Netanyahu’s own words show, however, Israel will accept nothing short of the acquiescence of Palestinians to their own subordination...

"If the U.S. government wants to fund and arm Israel and parrot its talking points that fly in the face of reason and international law, so be it. But it should not claim the moral high ground and intone solemnly about peace. And it should certainly not insult Palestinians by saying that it cares about them or their children, who are dying in Gaza today."

Huff Post piece by good guy Mike Calderone is better than most on the tunnels, and links to my piece at this blog, but like others he fails to mention the key fact--not a single Israeli civilians has been killed because of someone using a tunnel.  And only about 10 soldiers until the past week.  

In fresh revision, typical NYT headline just now: "Israel Broadens Targets in Gaza Barrage; Power Is Out." You see, it's out--maybe a lightning strike?  Someone threw the wrong switch?  But this reflects the story (see below) which is virtually the only one at a major site that does not clearly attribute the attack to the Israelis. 

Jodi Rudoren in gentle radio interview today with understatement of the year:  "I've been criticized for  just taking what the IDF hands out."  Now, why in the world would anyone think that?  (h/t Patrick Connors)

Please see my new lengthy piece on the Hamas "terror tunnels" as main pretext for continuing slaughter, and promotion of this by U.S. media.  How often have they been used for "terror" in the past? 

So revealing:  AP feels need to correct tweet that accurately stated the U.S. lawmakers are "falling over" each to support Israel.  Classic. 

Jodi Rudoren of NYT, who has emphasized IDF denials in hitting schools and hospitals in past week, now quotes with a straight face spokesman asked about Gaza's only  power station blasted and on fire, who replied "he was still looking into the circumstances of the fire, including 'whether we had anything to do with it.'” Note how she accepts this, refusing to describe the attack on the power station as coming from Israel.  You know, Palestinians claim, IDF won't confirm, so...who knows?  Even though Israel has bombed it before.  Later she declares that this "threatened to turn the deprivations in Gaza into a humanitarian crisis."  Only now!

Worth recalling Wash Post on private talk by Netanyahu exposed in 2010.   "I know what America is.  America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction." (Note: An Ariel Sharon quote that appeared here has been deleted due to strong questions that it is real.)

Glad to see Michael Shaw's always excellent and respected BagNewsNotes destroy David Frum's claim--he made it eight times--that the NYT and Reuters had fallen for "faked" atrocity photos.  Frum's source was the same clown who claimed, also widely covered, that the young man shot by a sniper in a viral video from two weeks ago had also faked the whole thing.  Then the young man's father claimed the body.  I guess that was faked, also.  

Susan Rice with strong defense of Israel, hits UN, claims Gazan kids merely "caught in crossfire" and it's Hamas' fault.

The Guardian says at least 110 killed in Gaza in past 24 hours.  Media center, TV, radio stations, power plant,  hit which somehow count as "strategic targets."   Power plant may take a year to repair--if Israel allows full entry.  Reuters on the harshest, perhaps deadliest, night yet in Gaza.  Death toll there at over 1156 with 6700 injured.  Over 180,000 now in UN shelters in humanitarian disaster.  Ten Israeli soldiers killed yesterday, perhaps inspiring latest spasm of response.  Civilian death toll in Israel remains:  one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler. 

Over 140 international law experts sign petition hitting Hamas launching rockets--but stressing that Israel is illegally enacting "collective punishment" with "disproportionate attacks" on entire Gaza population.  

Well, I've had an interesting back and forth late last night with 1) a well-known Hollywood director and 2) CNN's Jake Tapper.   Jake did a segment on the tunnels today that, as I complained, did not reveal how many Israelis have been killed due to them over many years; did not explain why Israel is using them as main pretext for slaughter now when he mentioned himself "they've known about them for years"; and why he closed the spot with reference to claims that Gaza kids may have died in building them--to help bring in fuel and goods during a blockade--when hundreds are perishing now due to Israeli bombing. 

CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.

ViceNews visit scenes of attacks in Gaza and hospitals.