(update below)
Four Palestinian boys, who were from the same family, were targeted and bombed by Israeli military forces while they were playing football (or soccer) on the beach. The boys were killed nearby the Al Deira hotel, where international journalists have been staying. They appeared to be targeted yet to the United States State Department the children would not have died if Hamas had accepted the ceasefire proposed yesterday.
Ayman Mohyeldin, a journalist for NBC News who has been reporting from Gaza, said he had been kicking around a ball with the boys minutes before the air strike that killed them. He, along with other journalists, including The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont, helped provide medical aid to children who were hit by the strike.
An eyewitness account from Washington Post reporter William Booth indicates the boys were nearby a fisherman’s shack on the “quay at the port, a little after 4 o’clock in the afternoon.” The kids were running from the shack to Al Deira. Waiters, a cook and journalists were shouting at them to run here. A second missile was fired and killed them.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced that their names were: Mohammed Bakr, 9 years-old; Ahed Bakr, 10 years-old; Zakaria Bakr, 10 years-old; and Mohammed Bakr, 11 years-old. They were all “scrawny fishermen’s kids whom we saw every day, running around on the beach, playing in the waves,” according to Booth.
Beaumont wrote in his firsthand account that as the second missile hit the children his colleagues, who were standing on the terrace wall, shouted at “unseen Israeli gunners” who could not hear them: “They are only children.”
A report from Reuters contained an even more shocking detail. Ahmed Abu Hassera, a 22 year-old who witnessed the bombing of children, said. “It looked as if the shells were chasing them.”
The State Department held its daily press briefing at 12:30 pm EST. By that time, the world could read messages from journalists, who witnessed the attack, that Israeli forces had bombed four children. But State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki essentially said she was not in a position to confirm what was happening on the ground and did not want to address the specific attack.
Al Jazeera English reporter Rosalind Jordan explained to Psaki that several of her colleagues had witnessed an attack on “what could only be described as a civilian target.” Journalists who witnessed the attack said “there wasn’t any rocket strike that they could see or detect or hear that might ostensibly” have come from Hamas.
“How is an Israeli air strike on what can only be described as a civilian target in full view of international journalists acceptable to the US government?” Jordan asked.
Psaki launched into talking points about the “circumstances” on the ground being of “great concern, including the deaths of civilians and “tensions” which have impacted the “civilian community.” Obviously, she added, a number of lives have been lost (over 200 Palestinians at this point). The loss of children is “absolutely tragic.”
Jordan followed up, “Why would it be reasonable to expect that civilians who, for whatever reason, happen to be living in Gaza would not become more hardened in their view of the Israeli government, of the Israeli people, when their own children can’t go play in the surf and instead the next time they see their children they’re on funeral biers?”
She answered with a typical talking point about deaths of any individuals, any civilians, and how this is why Secretary of State John Kerry is working on this issue daily. Then came the true position of President Barack Obama’s administration.
“I would remind you that yesterday there was a ceasefire proposed that was abided to by Israelis for a couple of hours that Hamas did not abide to. And they’re putting their own people at risk by continuing to escalate the situation on the ground,” Psaki declared.
In one statement, she absolved Israel of responsibility for civilians in Gaza. They aren’t Israel’s people, they are Hamas’ “own people.” And, if the world does not want children to be bombed on beaches, the world’s anger should be directed at Hamas and not the Israeli forces, which actually fired the shells at innocent civilians playing soccer.
Hamas did ultimately reject the ceasefire proposal. Its military wing did immediately reject the proposal and continue to launch rockets. However, the terms of a ceasefire proposal were decided between Israel and Egypt and then reported in the media. Egypt negotiated with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, humiliating Hamas leaders who were sidestepped entirely. Although Israel (and the United States) regard Hamas as a terrorist group, one can easily argue that Israel did not approach the issue of a ceasefire in good faith and that they wanted Hamas to reject it so the country could garner renewed support for bombing Gaza.
How can there be a ceasefire if the group you are at war with is not part of negotiations?
Jordan continued to press Psaki, “If Israel does have the legal right to defend itself, and I don’t think anyone in this room would dispute that, because I would expect the U.S. to protect this territory from attack, how is this considered an acceptable form of retaliation? Why wouldn’t people on the ground—who weren’t near any sort of Hamas airstrike into Israel—why wouldn’t they believe that this is not an act of retaliation?
“I’m not sure what your exact question is,” Psaki answered.
“Put it more simply: If rockets didn’t emanate from where I happened to be living or playing or visiting or doing whatever, and suddenly my area is targeted by a foreign government’s airstrike, why wouldn’t it be reasonable for me to think this is an act of retaliation and punishment, vengeance, rather than a direct response to a military attack?”
“I still don’t understand what your question is,” Psaki said.
Truly, these are the answers of a soulless institution.
*
There were another set of questions that merit just as much attention.
Matt Lee of the Associated Press asked Psaki about a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing Israel of violating international law by “targeting civilians.” He mentioned the beach. He asked if they believed “civilian structures” were being targeted. She completely dodged his question.
“Does the Administration believe that Israel is in violation of the laws of war?” Lee asked.
“I have not heard that concern expressed internally, Matt, specifically,” Psaki replied. She later stated that the “operation in Gaza” is Israel “defending itself therefore it’s not in any violation.”
But what about Palestinian armed groups? Lee informed her that HRW objected to their “indiscriminate rocket attacks launched toward the Israeli population.” Did the State Department agree with Human Rights Watch on this?
“Certainly, we would agree,” Psaki stated. “And we view and need to urgently bring an end to the escalation that we’re seeing on the ground.”
“So you agree with Human Rights Watch when they say that the Palestinians should stop their shelling, but you don’t agree with them when they say that Israel should; is that correct?” Lee asked. Psaki maintained that was not exactly what she said.
Not only was that what she was saying through her answers, it perfectly fit with an exchange she had with another reporter last week when asked if Palestinians had a right to defend themselves.
QUESTION: Do you believe that the Palestinians in Gaza have the right to defend themselves?
MS. PSAKI: I think – I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Said.
QUESTION: I am asking you: Do they have the right to defend themselves against Israeli aggression?
MS. PSAKI: What are you specifically referring to? Is there a specific event or a specific occurrence?
The reporter was not asking Psaki about anything specific. He was asking the State Department spokeswoman, in general, to respond, in general, to the issue of the “right to defend themselves,” as the State Department generally is so willing to do when generally taking a position in support of Israel’s “right to defend” itself. She would not and did not want to address this point because it would expose the US government’s real position on Israel’s conduct.
What the State Department—and Israel refuses to concede when confronted with questions—is that Israel is an occupying power. Its occupation, which includes a blockade of Gaza, means that it has a duty and obligation to protect the lives of civilians. It should not be permitted to kill over 200 Palestinians, seventy-five to eighty percent of which are civilians, and still claim it is merely “defending” itself. Yet, this is what the United States does.
The United States stands by Israel and covers for war crimes by pointing fingers at Hamas when children are killed by Israeli forces while playing soccer. This effectively gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carte blanche to, as he has said, “restore the quiet” however the country chooses, whether that be through force that may include killing of civilians to sow division and induce the population to turn against Hamas in greater numbers.
Update
Here’s another exchange that took place, which should not go ignored (h/t Rania Khalek):
QUESTION: So the people who have been killed, including these children – it’s – frankly, it doesn’t seem to – it doesn’t faze you?
MS. PSAKI: That’s not at all what I said. I think I’ve stated multiple times that the deaths of civilians, the loss of lives for children and individuals in Gaza is horrific and is a tragedy. And that’s why we’re so focused on bringing an end to the violence, and I think that’s far more important than a speculation about —
QUESTION: Right, but it’s – but it’s horrific and it’s a tragedy, but you’re saying that it’s the fault of Hamas for not stopping the rocket fire.
MS. PSAKI: They certainly are at fault in part here, yes


32 Comments


Oh, how totally servile and accommodating the US State Dept is to the interests of the Zionazi faction of the Israeli nation which, sadly, appears to be the overwhelming majority of today’s Israeli Jews.
I am sure, the same US State Dept would jump to the defense of various rapists and mass murderers, accusing the victims of ‘asking for it’.
As an American, I find the US gov’t complete subservience to the gov’t of ‘the Jewish State’ to be absurd and humiliating.
So, yeah, I guess the Palis have been bad little boys and girls lately and they fully deserve what they’re getting and more. Because they asked for it. And our Jewish State-serving US government is going to make sure that the state of the Jews has all the weapons and the ammo and the cash and of course all the diplomatic support it needs to implement the final solution on the bad, bad, Palis.
.
Thanks Kevin for putting this out there. I am of course appalled and disgusted by both the actions of the Israeli military and the USSD’s response. To try to “spin” this is unconscionable, but tragically this is what we have come to expect.
I’d just warn you that anti-Semitism is not going to be tolerated here. So don’t use this thread to equate Jewish people in Israel with Nazis.
It may be what we expect. It certainly isn’t anything we should stand for and tolerate. Thanks for reading.
Totally agree. Expected or otherwise, this act of murder and others like it are intolerable, (to put it mildly), and should provoke an international outcry.
This is going to get so much worse although that is hard to imagine. When children playing on a beach are fair game, no one there will ever be safe again. Decent people all over the world should be outraged.
Real life drama plays out
The role of the world is played by Joe Welch, and the role of the USG is played by Sen Joe McCarthy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqQD4dzVkwk
It’s reasonable to assume that some people in the state department, not to mention the rest of the corrupt regime, have enough intellectual honesty and self-awareness to realize that their behavior is utterly villainous. I wonder how they must feel about themselves, having to play that role.
We have to find a way to hit the reset button. I wasn’t a fan of the term “New World Order” when I first heard it but something significant and radical has to happen in the way that governments of the world are structured. I wish that there was a power on earth that could wipe everyone’s slate clean, guarantee basic human rights, maintain the most salient points of individual culture, yet be managed by one world government. Borders are only walls that limit human exchange. There is currently enough resources in the world to assure that every person has clean water, efficient sanitation, basic nutrition, adequate healthcare, and limitless education. We have everything we need to have true peace only if we stop seeing God in the mirror and start seeing Him in the face of our neighbors.
Kevin: I agree not to use the word “Nazi” in this forum. However, having lived and worked in Israel and the West Bank, Israelis use the word quite often. (Let’s also not forget that the Gestapo funded Jewish nationalist groups during WWII in Palestine as they were attacking the British.) When I was there religious Jews were caught painting swastikas on Founders’ graves. In a well-known story, Gideon Levi was falsely claimed to have called IDF soldiers “Nazis” for keeping a sick woman from getting to the hospital. But, yes, just because black people call each other “nigger” does not mean whites can do it.
Thanks for the complete coverage in your post, Kevin. Psaki’s tin ear was in evidence multiple times instead of the most blatant ones that set off a Tweetstorm.
Thank you, Kevin. It appears the psychopaths in charge of this final obliteration of Palestine are proud of it. I hate this.
I agree with your general sentiment, but I think people’s notion of “god” is a big part of the problem, not the solution. It’s not what they see in the mirror per se, but what they absorb in their places of worship, that reinforces the separation of “us and them.”
I blame this administration for failing to honestly work toward a peace agreement, and for giving carte blanche to the Israeli government to stonewall every attempt to ease tensions — particularly refusing to stop the settlement expansions in the West Bank and blocking the rebuilding of Gaza’s infrastructure after the last onslaught. The recent announcement of Fatah and Hamas cooperation should have been welcomed by the U.S., but instead was rejected with the same hardline position as the Israeli government. The U.S. has no credibility on this conflict.
Just for the record.
This is what a real television journalist looks like when actually doing his job according to the highest stardards of the profession — to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable — without fear or favor.
Veteraan award-winning journalist, Jon Snow, from the Britain’s Channel 4 News, grills Israeli spokesman and hasbara specialist Mark Regev within an inch of his life:
GAZA 2014 | Jon Snow ’annihilates’ Israeli spokesperson Mark Regev [8:52]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_-76H-YRjs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
One can only imagine what might happen if one (or more) members of our own pusillanimous and sycophantic press corps decided to go after Jen Psaki with the same degree of pre-interview preparation, coupled with the same degree of dogged determination, to tear the mask from the smug, patronizing, evasive, lying liar’s face to demand the truth.
To be fair to Matt Lee of the Associated Press and Rosalind Jordan of Al Jazeera English, they do a better job generally in questioning Jen Psaki — in the referenced clip and many other examples — than the vast majority of their colleagues in the State Department briefing room, but they would have to go a long way to rise to the level of Jon Snow. Of course, I recognize that these State Department briefings take place in a different type of setting and are rarely televised for the wider audience, but that’s still no excuse for allowing such evasions to occur repeatedly without a fight.
Especially disappointing was the way in which Ros Jordan had Psaki on the hook regarding the sham “ceasefire” — actually, a diktat to Hamas to surrender on Israel’s terms — and then she neglected to drive home the fact that the Hamas leaders were never contacted or notified about the arrangement cooked up in Cairo by Bibi Natanyahu, war criminal Tony Blair, and military junta leader President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and that they learned about it in the media.
Clearly, the calculation behind the phony “ceasefire” was the faint hope that Israel might gain a slight advantage in the public relations war, which backfired and Israel lost, except for the reflexive uncritical support from Barack Obama and his stable of tail-wagging toadies, in particular, David Cameron (spaniel), Angela Merkel (dachshund), and François Hollande (poodle).
Perhaps the latest request by the U.N. to broker a five-hour cease-fire on Thursday — to which Israel and Hamas have agreed — might be a start, but then a senior Israeli military official has already muddied the water with a cynical mixed message emphasizing that the likelihood of a ground invasion of Gaza remains “very high” regardless of the temporary humanitarian pause in the violence.
PS — Thursday, July 18, will be Day 10 of Israel’s latest assault on Gaza and its beleaguered population of almost two million people, and, apparently, the best effort the world community could muster was a fucking five-hour humanitarian pause in the bombing raids by on civilian targets by the IDF — pathetic!
Those are all good points.
I heard NBC reporter mention filming of this atrocity but none was shown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWPxlFaDh28
“Stand and deliver!” said the highwayman. “Else I shall be forced to shoot you and you will be down as a murderer.”
The logic of an outlaw.
Well… if it quacks like a quack…
I think the Israelis may be savoring their last superior moment as the storm front of real change approaches. Islamic State forces are in Gaza recruiting and organizing for the coming struggle to liberate all of Palestine.
The Israelis know this and seem to fear sending ground forces into Gaza where their first incursion was quickly repulsed.
With all due respect, may I ask what you find to be anti-Semitic in that post?
Israel has decided to partake of slow motion genocide of the Palestinians. That’s no different than the Nazis’ despicable “final solution”. Tiptoeing around this isn’t going to help.
Likud, an Israeli party of Israelis, like the coup government in Ukraine are wholly comparable to Nazis (and others) as fascists, racial purists and perpetrators of genocide.
x 2 Kevin’s comment seems out of character?
Very dear friend, holocaust survivor left divided germany for Israel. Left Israel for America. When asked why he came to America his reason was simple. “I as a German citizen of Jewish faith suffered brutal discrimination by oppressors.” “In Israel, the oppressed have become the oppressors.”
I would say my dear friend, no gone, had more “standing” that most to speak.
There is enough blatant “disregard for life,” these day. Seems to be the one thing we human’s monopolize and embrace to satisfy bloodlust and that eye for an eye tooth for a tooth mentality, codified in old booKs?
Of course it’s Hamas’ fault the 4 boys playing on the beach were killed.
In Israel’s view, everything that happens to the Palestinians is their own fault – for being alive at all.
The Israelis truthfully say they want “peace,” but the peace of which they speak is the Biblical peace that comes when all their enemies are dead.
“Shalom,” far from being a warm and fuzzy blessing of Israeli humanitarianism, is better understood when translated as “Death To Non-Jews.”
Most of them are psychopaths…
psychopaths have no regard for other.
They’re also pathological liars.
No, the USG and and EU both approved of Abbas’ forming of the Unity Gov’t which included Hamas
It was/is Bibi who is furious because they approved, making him look bad. So, it is his mission to smash that Unity Gov’t… in addition to simply doing the bi-annual hunting and killing of Palestinians. And besides, Gaza has newly gas resources…
See, Bibi has lots of reasons to kill civilians.
Have no problem with this comment. But it’s different from the one Arth Denton left.
The actions of Israel are starting to look more and more like they go beyond apartheid and nudge closer and closer to genocide.
The number one way they are killing people, disproportionately children and the old, is starvation. The number two way is non-access to medical care. Plus they continue to steal water and land, to control and limit people’s movements, to deny people even common building materials, to control access to Gaza from other nations …
These actions continue to be implemented in more and more extreme fashions. I do not believe we have to wait until the actual day that Israel starts gassing people en masse to use the word “Nazi” in describing their behavior. It has certainly gone way way beyond apartheid and is now skirting way more awful behaviors.
Nor is it anti-Semitic to point out the actual bad behavior of a state or of state actors. A clue for you, Kevin, would be sentences starting with words like “All Jews ..”. Giving a strong name to the behavior of a government is not the same as saying that everyone who is associated with that government by virtue of that religion is bad.
I do regularly see comments by people on TV, for example, Bill Maher and the various Fox-crumbbums that begin “Muslims .. ” – have many more fanatics, are more fanatic than those of other religions, etc. I am a Christian but I believe those comments say more about the people saying them than they do about Muslims.
In any case, the word “Jewish” is not synonymous with “Israel”. And when the behavior of Israel is called out, even in very harsh terms, it is not the same as calling out wrongly all Jewish people — which is what “anti-Semitic” implies.
I would also point out that very prominent people in Israel are calling for genocide – the mass killings of civilians.
When that man in Iran said about Israel “This too will pass in the passing of time” or “This too will pass” which is a common saying there, he and the entire nation of Iran was demonized as calling for and having the official position of wiping Israel from the earth.
If such a mild, meaningless platitude can be so interpreted, the continuous calling for the wiping out of large numbers of Palestinians by prominent Israelis certainly merits calling those people and the state that supports their views and implements them “Nazis”.
I see use of the word Nazi distracting even when it is being used against some really awful government or group of people who are doing really awful things like mass-killings in Africa or Asia. I think you are actually taking an extreme position in equating use of the word with the behavior of the nation of Israel to anti-Semitism.
… noted
… Concur with your summation Twain … decent people should be and would be outraged …
>>> It is knowable and on record USian Empire and it’s CIA and Pentagon military forces have been / have kept and still are serially killing children in Afghanistan and elsewhere for some time — repeatedly so. The hollow apologies made or tossed out by Obama WH and USian Empire and CIA/ Pentagon are legion in number.
>>> Barack Obama(D) has been POTUS since Jan.20, 2009 — just how many CIA or Pentagon employees has BHO publicly rebuked / had removed / had officially brought up on charges related to any of these knowable USian Empire killing(s) of innocents — be they adults or children — non US citizens or US citizens? How many? Is it none? Yet this same BHO did and allowed what and to what degree done to Chelsea Manning because CM wanted to tell and show what USian Empire has been doing? Decency and BHO have been strangers since BHO became POTUS … this being so is on record and knowable.
>>> Obama WH conducted CIA and Pentagon military forces have been routinely doing what is currently being done again by TelAviv and the IDF in Gaza and to the Gazans for years now. USian Empire KillBot Drone killings of children are well documented as are the hollow and now become pathetic serial apologies issued by USian Empire as it keeps doing so.
>>> What has been an enduring question since BHO was given a Nobel Peace Prize is for what peace sought or done by BHO and where? It is plainly evident TelAviv is killing Gazans because it can do so with impunity basically guaranteed by USian Empire which since GWB and RBC left the WH in Jan 2009 has been conducted by BHO(D) as POTUS.
>>> Barack Obama is no Man Of Peace but is a War Monger and Killer Of Innocents and Children. Knowably so.