"Ooops" Just Doesn't Cut It

I am worn out at this point from the lack of moral outrage expressed by our elected officials with the humanitarian crisis being played out in Gaza nor Israel's blatantly thuggish behavior. At this point the dead count more than 1,000 on the Palestinian side, many of them women and children and yet I can count on one hand with fingers to spare how many Congressmen or women have spoken up against what is going on.

One of the unintended consequences of this disconnect in this country with what is quickly becoming a world wide consensus that Israel is wrong in their actions is the fact that the U.N., the world's preeminent international body, has been exposed that it can be rendered irrelevant if the U.S. does not support them. When the U.N. school was hit a week or so ago by Israeli forces killing more than 40 Palestinians, many of them children who were there to seek refuge, there was a lot of outrage from the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon but no action. Now according to the AP another U.N. site has been hit. But because our elected officials back Israel no matter what we have blocked any action aimed at denouncing their actions. And there is no doubt that if in fact the U.N. wanted to do more than issue a strongly worded resolution we would block them at every turn. In the first instance Israel flaunted this reality and made no effort to apologize and instead tried to blame Hamas for the death and destruction and our elected officials were more than happy to cosign that message. In this most recent situation the Israelis claim it was a "grave mistake".

Well actions are supposed to have consequences even mistakes. Especially when believing it actually was a "mistake" simply defies logic. How much longer are we going to put up with this shit? How many more days or months or years are we going to allow ourselves to be lied to by our media and our elected official before we say enough is enough? How much longer are we going to allow them to risk the security of our country by failing to acknowledge the reality of any situation that involves Israel? Especially when the munitions they are using to perpetrate this violence has "Made In The USA" on the side. I just don't see how we are better off continuing to take this position.

From the AP:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli forces shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting fire to the compound filled with hundreds of refugees as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was in the region on a mission to end Israel's devastating offensive against the territory's Hamas rulers.

Ban expressed "outrage" over the bombing. He said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told him there had been a "grave mistake" and promised to pay extra attention to protecting U.N. installations. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the bombing, which a U.N. official said injured at least three people.

snip

Shells also struck a hospital, five high-rise apartment buildings and a building housing media outlets in Gaza City, injuring several journalists.

Bullets entered another building housing The Associated Press offices, entering a room where two staffers were working but wounding no one. The Foreign Press Association, representing journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, demanded a halt to attacks on press buildings.

snip

Israel launched its war on Dec. 27 in an effort to stop militant rocket fire from Gaza that has terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Some 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, roughly half of them civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian medical officials. Thirteen Israelis also have died.

snip

Ban, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning from Egypt, said he was "outraged" by the attack on the U.N. headquarters.

"I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and foreign minister and demanded a full explanation," Ban said. He said Barak told him there had been a "grave mistake" and promised to pay extra attention to protecting U.N. installations.

The U.N. compound in Gaza had only that morning become a makeshift shelter for hundreds of Gaza City residents seeking sanctuary from relentless Israeli shelling, said a U.N. official in Gaza. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

But shortly after, a shell hit the school, wounding three people, the official said. Two other shells hit a warehouse housing humanitarian supplies and a U.N. parking lot, he said.

The U.N. compound houses the U.N. Works and Relief Agency, which distributes food aid to hundreds of thousands of destitute Gazans in the tiny seaside territory of 1.4 million people.
U.N. spokesmen confirmed that at least three people were wounded but said the fire and smoke engulfing the compound made it impossible to know if it had been completely evacuated.

U.N. spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said the U.N. had given Israel the coordinates of the building and the compound was also clearly marked with U.N. flags and logos. Large stocks of food and fuel used to supply hospital and water pumps were at risk of destruction, as were valuable U.N. archives dating back to 1948, Abu Hasna said.

Hours earlier, thousands of residents had fled their homes with the advance of Israeli ground troops into Gaza City's Tel Hawwa neighborhood. Many were clad only in their pajamas, and some were wheeling elderly parents in wheelchairs, one of them with an oxygen tank. Others stopped journalists' armored cars and ambulances pleading for someone to take them to a U.N. compound or to relatives' homes.

Rasha Hassam, a 25-year-old engineer, ran out of her apartment building carrying her screaming, crying, 6-year-old daughter, Dunia.

"God help us, God help us, where can we flee?" she cried. "All I want is to get my poor child away from here. We want to survive."

Is this the kind of nation we really want to be where we feel nothing for the suffering of the Palestinian people and mindlessly cheerlead their death and destruction all in the name of supporting Israel?