Bomb damage to the Islamic University -Reuters
I have been following this story ever since it broke out. Amazingly, the first 24 hours received very little live TV attention. I resorted to getting my news from LINK's Mosaic, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now and other non-mainstream TV programming.
Today, I caught Martin Savidge on his World Focus half-hour program. He dedicated the entire segment to the situation in Gaza and the ramifications of Israel's operation "Iron Fist". He relied on reports from both sides, on the ground, and from government spokesmen. One of the people who always has intelligent commentary is James Zogby, who has his own TV show, and is president of the Washington, D.C.-based Arab American Institute.
Also of interest were the comments made by Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour, who termed the events as a massive human tragedy, and said that the Palestinians must set aside their differences and come together. He is calling on the international community to pressure Israel to stop the attacks.Naturally, this latest development doesn't reflect well on Mahmoud Abbas.
I was very surprised that the program went into a hospital in Gaza and showed the wounded, including children. One could hear the sirens of ambulances in the background and the conversation had to be cut short due to a forthcoming bombardment.
It is reported that the Hamas leadership is "hiding" as they don't want to become easy targets.
James Zogby reflected on the fact that this will not benefit anyone, not the occupier, nor the occupied and least of all the U.S. He reminds us that pictures of wounded Palestinians will be flashed across the Arab world and in their minds, the folks to blame will be the Israelis and the Americans, whom they regard as the enablers. Calls for retaliation are already being heard in demonstrations which were shown on the program.
So the next time terrorists decide to strike, yes, they will be asking for American passports again. Just like they did in Mumbai. Because everytime there are massive killings of this kind, the U.S. is implicated, whether it likes it or not. That is the price it pays for rubber stamping Israeli actions.
Recommended reading: Punishing Gaza in Vain
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