The Ground War in Gaza has Begun

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

According to reporting by the BBC, the Israeli Defense Forces have begun their ground offensive in Gaza.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Cultural Advisor at the US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

Comments

[steve]

I don't recall so many international crises in such a short period of time as in the past 4 or 5 months: Syria, then Ukraine, then Iraq, then Israel/Palestine, then back to Ukraine with the airliner incident, then back to Gaza.

They ebb and flow like the tide, each new one replacing the old one in the news cycle and the public mind.

[House Wolf]

From some of the pictures of blown-up Gaza houses, it looks like there are tunnels connecting the buildings. Could this be a repeat of the rattenkrieg of Stalingrad?

Tanks moving into an urban place with angry, well-armed locals--it looks very dangerous for the Israelis. Someone is not thinking or is very cocky.

[Peter Brownlee]

Welcome to July 1914!

Will the "must do something/anything" crowd trump the "wait and see/first do no harm" folk? (I smell ultimata cooking.)

Will the lights go out again?

[confusedponderer]

Israeli Crowd Cheers As Missile Hits Gaza Live On CNN

“I think you can probably see there are lots of Israelis gathered around who are cheering when they see these kinds of Israeli strikes.”

A few minutes later, the reporter, CNN’s Diana Magnay, tweeted this and then deleted it about 20 minutes later:

"Israelis on hill above Sderot cheers as bombs land on #gaza; threaten to destroy our car if we say a wrong word. Scum."

http://www.buzzfeed.com/dorsey/israeli-crowd-cheers-as-missile-hits-gaza-live-on-cnn

Wonderful. The most moral people cheering on the most moral army.

Siege warfare as a live spectator sport is a new low, and it demonstrates the degree to which Israel is NOT threatened by Gaza. If it was threatened, it wouldn't be safe to sit there for Israelis and cheer as a pastime, and threaten reporters.

[Ex-PFC Chuck]

CP: "Siege warfare as a live spectator sport is a new low, and it demonstrates the degree to which Israel is NOT threatened by Gaza."

What!? You don't think shooting fish in a barrel is fair play?

[Andrew]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-israels-ambassador-to-us-justifies-bombing-hospitals-in-twitter-q-and-a-9612834.html

Just think folks if Hitler had a bigger fifth column that owned a lotta' of real estate and some radio stations in the US. Me thinks we would all be speaking German right now.

[Ryan]

confusedponderer,

Let all these people who are enjoying the spectacle suffer the same fate of those who traveled from DC to Manassas in July, 1861, to view what they thought would be similar sport.

[tv]

Does anyone remember 9/11?
Crowds in Gaza cheered at the news.

[Andrew]

@tv "Does anyone remember 9/11?
Crowds in Gaza cheered at the news"...that footage was from another all together different occasion you bad shite monger-(sorry for the language mon Colonel et al)- yes sir just like Saddam and Osama went bar hopping together, and Muhamed al Dura is having popsicle toes with Danish virgins.

[Matthew]

tv: Your point?

[confusedponderer]

Actually, they didn't.

While there WAS footage of Palestinians celebreating and iirc burning an American flag, and I recall there was some sort of scandal because the team that had filmed had also incited them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_September_11_attacks#Palestinian_celebrations

"Annette Krüger Spitta of the ARD's (German public broadcasting) TV magazine Panorama states that footage not aired shows that the street surrounding the celebration in Jerusalem is quiet. Furthermore, she states that a man in a white T-shirt incited the children and gathered people together for the shot. The Panorama report, dated September 20, 2001, quotes Communications Professor Martin Löffelholz explaining that in the images one sees jubilant Palestinian children and several adults but there is no indication that their pleasure is related to the attack. The woman seen cheering (Nawal Abdel Fatah) stated afterwards that she was offered cake if she celebrated on camera, and was frightened when she saw the pictures on television afterward.[32]"

I vaguely recall having watched that particular report on TV back then. If course, it is likely possibly that this perspective didn't make it to the US. It probably simply wasn't what people wanted to hear at a time.

But to me really interesting part here is the people who incited the people they filmed:

Clearly, they did so fully intentional and in pursuit of a specific end - to discredit Palestinians and blacken them in the US, to forestall empathy developing in the US for the Palestinians even in face of blatant Israeli excess.

More, 'linking' the Palestinians and 9/11 links the Palestinians with terrorism (like having mentioned Saddam and Al Qaeda in the same breath a gazillion times 'linked' them, and was said to justify the US invasion of Iraq).

An accidental but utterly adequate pun can be made here: 'Jemanden linken' means to screw somebody in German.

And that's ratfucking for you:
Who wouldn't hold the people who cheered on 9/11 capably of anything else israel accused them to be guilty of? People almost always like to believe the basest things of people they don't like - they want to believe. Fervently.

And in that case, truth or untruth become matters of tribal affiliation rather than a question discernable reality. In that sense, for those who believe it has long ceased to matter whether Palestininas actually did cheer on 9/11, because, in the words of Stephen Colbert, it has become 'thruth from the gut'.

[Ishmael Zechariah]

TV,

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2007/02/16/the-high-fivers/

Ishmael Zechariah

[Fred]

TV, was that simulcast with the Israelis across the Hudson dancing as Tower #2 was hit and all those Americans died?

[Fred]

Andrew, they don't even need proof before bombing. Later in the article someone tweeted WWJD. What Would Judas Do. We sure see that don't we.

[Tyler]

I think it was Bismarck that said, when asked what the biggest influence on the world would be: "That the United States speaks English instead of German."

I do like other quote attributed to him: "God watches out for idiots, children, and the United States of America."

[The beaver]

@ tv

Is that right?
Or don't you have the tools or sw to know when the media are being manipulative or manipulated.
I would expect this from an illiterate ( please excuse me Col.) but not from some troll if I can use that expression:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread491042/pg1

Just swallow everything that you are being fed through the Megaphone.

BTW: what would you say about the Israelis found dancing and laughing , watching the twin towers from the Jersey side?

[Cee]

Andrew, thank you for your remarks to TV.

Ah, TV,

I remember these Israeli citizens (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStJ5BgadPs) celebrating.

TRIO WHO CHEERED ATTACK FACE BOOT AS ILLEGAL ALIENS.

By AL GUART (NEW YORK POST) www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/

September 13, 2001 -- Three men who celebrated as the Twin Towers crumbled are facing deportation, The Post has learned. The men, described as illegal immigrants from the Middle East, were arrested Tuesday afternoon in a white Chevy van near the Meadowlands based on a tip from witnesses who saw them "cheering" and "jumping up and down" in Liberty State Park after the attack, a source said.

Witnesses took the plate number and the FBI sent out an alert to area cops, reading: "Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack . . . Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion."

Port Authority cops nabbed the three as they drove along Route 3 in East Rutherford in the van, which had the words "Urban Moving Systems" painted on it. After grilling the men and searching the van in vain for explosives, the FBI turned the men over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation.

The feds declined to release the men's identities or nationalities. "The agency has decided it will not make any comments about this at this time," said INS spokesman Kerry Gill. Officials at "Urban Moving" claimed to be unaware of what had happened.

[optimax]

tv

I remember Israeli's in a white van celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers. Should we condemn a whole people for that?

Andrew is right that the footage of Palestinians celebrating was old. Pure propaganda. Remember Iranians supporting us after 9/11 with candlelight vigils? Bush really took advantage of that opening.

[Buzz Meeks]

Andrew, Before WWI there was more German spoken in the US than English. The stellar news reporting that lied us into WWI corrected that in short order. The Fifth CNN, CBS, et al can't quite cut this time with the internets still flowing.

tv, you must be really thinking of the dancing Israelies across the river from the World Trade Center on Sept 11.

Buzz Meeks

[Castellio]

5 dancing Israelis anyone?

Much more pertinent than the false footage to which the local hasbarist refers.

[tv]

You're OK with people cheering 9/11?

[Matthew]

TV; Considering that those children were 11 and under, they certainly won't cheering on 9/11. They had been born yet. I was trying to be polite by giving you a chance to withdraw your comment. You chose to double down.

[Matthew]

Tyler: I would paraphrase Buffett on companies: You should only buy a company if an idiot could run it because someday one will. Applies to our politics too, doesn't it?

[confusedponderer]

"Andrew, Before WWI there was more German spoken in the US than English"

This needs more context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language_in_the_United_States#Persecution_during_World_War_I