The man who bugs Israel and Hamas by unraveling their claims

[bemildred]

He has worked across the world, from Kosovo to Sri Lanka, and has been to Gaza too many times to keep track, but Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher for Emergencies Fred Abrahams still finds his work in Gaza challenging - and takes comfort in the fact that neither side of any conflict trusts him.

"In all of these conflicts we are constantly accused - by both sides - of being one-sided," Abrahams told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend.

"When we criticize the Tamil Tigers, then they say we're Singhalese nationalists, and when we criticize the Sri Lankan government they say we're Tamil Tiger terrorist sympathizers. There's a long list of people who think we're anti-Israel or that we're somehow restricting Israel's right to defend itself. At the same time we're constantly criticized by Hizbullah and Hamas whenever we mention anything about rocket fire or their internal activities," he said.

Abrahams, speaking by telephone from a Gaza restaurant, dismissed allegations that his organization focuses disproportionally on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that its research is slanted.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304656086&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Idealism]

1. Mr. Abrahams is a very wise man

During the operation, HRW was denied entry along with all foreign journalists, but he claims that "after the cease-fire, we were told that we were specifically not approved."

snip

"We have found numerous times where the IDF just outright lied," he added. "In the Lebanon war they said they didn't use cluster bombs. And here they repeatedly said that they were not using white phosphorous. But nevertheless we're going to look into their allegation and investigate them - did Hamas use human shields?"

snip

"In Kosovo, the KLA against Serbia, there were summary executions. We don't have that in this conflict. We don't have that type of violation, but we have so many others that are so powerful, starting with the closure of the borders of Gaza. It has so much impact on regular people and that is what makes it legally collective punishment."

From his vantage point, Abrahams argued, Israel's policy in Gaza is anything but successful.

snip

"When you're under fierce attack - and this was - people might be angry at Hamas for putting them into this position, people are going to rally against the aggressor. And people are afraid, too. It's not just that this strengthened Hamas, but some of the darkest elements. The military over the political wing, the hardliners over the moderates, and to be concrete, we are documenting cases of Fatah supporters who are shot in the legs and even executed, tortured."

Why would Israel specifically deny HRW entry, even after the cease-fire, while journalists were allowed in? It seems to point that there were human rights violations committed by both sides, but Israel has much more to lose than Hamas does from those.

[shira]

7. wise man? what a joke

He questions whether Hamas uses human shields?

:rofl:

He says Israel denied the use of WP? How so? They denied its NON-weaponized usage as smokescreen? I want to see that denial.

Wise man.

:eyes:

And HRW reported on all sorts of crap like Muhammad al Dura 200, Jenin 2002, and Gaza beach 2006 (google Gaza beach and Garlasco). They're politically biased hacks. Their "eyewitness" testimonies mostly turn out to be crap, they have no experts who specialize in military and forensic evidence and this is why at least 9/10 of their hostile reports vs. Israel are thrown out of court in preliminaries for trial. They're clowns.

It's no wonder HRW wasn't allowed in.

[Idealism]

9. Yes, HRW is full of hacks and CAMERA is responsible, un-biased journalism

We know, shira :eyes:

[azurnoir]

2. So both Israel supporters and Hamas dislike HRW

interesting thanks

[bemildred]

3. Nobody really likes objectivity, that's all talk.

And the war lovers are all in bed with each other under the table. (Boy is that a mixed metaphor or what?)

[azurnoir]

4. Depends on what kind of table or something n/t

[cobalt1999]

5. Pointing out the mistakes and screwups of each side is a good way to get killed.

With bullet holes from both sides.

[IndianaGreen]

6. A Marxist perspective on the conflict

Israeli barbarism in Gaza

By Dekel Avshalom in Israel
Tuesday, 06 January 2009

We are entering yet another cycle of violence between Israel's ruling class and Hamas. Such cycles began with Israel's opening up to the PLO in 1994. Each cycle brings Israel to a more violent response. However, the army has no intention of remaining entangled in the Strip for too long. This operation may last a bit longer and be much more violent than its predecessors because Barak's election campaign has to be taken into consideration. Although it is also true that once it ends, the operation always leaves behind the preconditions for the next operation.

The Zionist chauvinism that characterized the first days of the operation is gradually being replaced by fear of yet another debacle such as in Lebanon. Journalists are constantly asking political and military leaders for the actual goals which this operation intends to achieve. The answers are always vague and illusive, such as "to radically change the array of deterrence". In that background, the announcement of Barak on Saturday was especially alarming. He said that the operation would take a long time and would have numerous victims. With no one knowing what this operation is for, this holds a puzzling future for the stability of the political system in Israel: after the chauvinism fades away, the death toll will keep increasing and many questions will be raised by the masses.

To the dismay of the Israeli ruling class, thousands of Jews and Palestinians came this Saturday to Tel Aviv for a mass demonstration against the war (see video below). This is unprecedented. In the Lebanese war it took two months of bloody entanglement for so many protestors to show up. The protestors were constantly harassed by Zionist counter-protests which show just how frightened they are of the emerging protest movement in Israel. Small as it is now, the Zionists are instinctively aware of the fact that it holds the only real key to their downfall.

As this website has repeated many times over, there cannot be a solution within the confines of bourgeois politics to this or any other major political conflict in the world. However, for the moment Israel and Palestine are deprived of any other form of politics. As long as this situation persists, these cycles of violence will continue. We can be sure, though, that from the impossibility of a solution to the situation under capitalism, new political forces are bound to emerge on both sides. The nature of these new forces is impossible to predict at this stage. But if they do not base themselves on the revolutionary collaboration of Israeli and Palestinian workers and poor against their mutual oppressors, no progressive change can be forthcoming from within the Israeli-Palestinian borders.

http://www.marxist.com/israeli-barbarism-in-gaza.htm

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. For Maxism to talk about barbarism...