Israel makes life very hard for Palestinians, says ICRC

Dear Sarah, I and many others really appreciate your writings. Keep it up!!

Another example of the dishonesty of the extreme left: who authorised you to speak in the name of 'many others'?

This is the 3rd day since the post appeared, and you're the only one to comment so far ...

Not surprising, this this IS the Jewish Chronicle, and Gold's writing is totally anti-Israeli - and thus anti-semitic - there is no difference.

Don't worry, gold-sarah, Israel will soon be out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That is, if it wants to survive.

Thank-you for your clear voice, Sarah. Avraham, to call another Jew's words anti-Semetic is perhaps a self-defeating sentiment??? Gold-Sarah clearly states that Israel government is acting to halt building now in order to build peace. It is not anti-Israel to state truths. It is a complex spiritual, political and historical situation with pain and loss on all sides running deep. We must look a little deeper than prejudice, surely? That is what Gold-Sarah is obviously doing and she has my ears and others so please do not speak for me by saying she has only one comment. Maybe others do not feel the need to comment. Let others have their own voice.

Point of reference. In Hebrew there is arguably no word truly denoting ownership. Possession yes, not ownership. There are subtle but vital differences, possession is not absolute. Ultimate ownership can therefore be seen to belong only to the Almighty creator of all. No one can claim ownership of land or person. We belong WITH one another or WITH the land and nation because we belong to G_D. We do not own the land any more than we can own G_D. It is the other way around, surely; we belonging TO the divine and belonging TO the land. We may not be the only ones who can legitimately claim this as we were all given life by the same source and the first Muslims and indeed followers of Jesus were born of sons and daughters of Avraham. Some Palestinians have acted desperately and very wrongly and have injured us but they are not the only aggressors here. Maybe we should remember what and who we belong to before we fixate on what we feel belongs to us. Destruction of a Holy Land through hatred is not 'holy'. I prefer to share land entrusted to our care rather than burn it.

Despite the laws of using only Olive or grape touched only by the hand of Jews I have used fairly traded Palestinian Olive Oil in the past. To me it is of the Holy Land and represents a way of talking without swords. I did not actually know of said rule at the time.

When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.
-Exodus 23:5

You have a right to your voice Avraham, but so does everyone else. I will not hate you for hating what I say. There are wisdoms in others as I am certain there is wisdom in you.

Cheers again Sarah and Shalom :)

How bizarre.
Never mind G_D, reads to me like someones on LSD.

Is this the same gold.sarah that a couple of weeks ago was copying and pasting stuff from Islamic resistance websites and passing it off as her own work?

its not LSD dear, some of it is the word of the Torah.

Google Rabbi Saul Berman on his findings on ownership / possession in Hebrew Language. His findings reflect many others when he says 'G_d is the "owner" of all, and we humans have simply possession rights in various degrees of complexity'. My own thoughts may or may not relate to Gold-Sarah's interesting and articulate Blogs looking at the complexities of issues in The Holy Land but was written in support of her and her words. The Talmud states 'Jews are compassionate children of compassionate ancestors, and one who is not compassionate cannot truly be a descendant of our father Abraham'.Talmud, Beitzah 32b. In showing compassion she was being called Anti-Semitic. In showing open-mindedness I am apparently on narcotics. So be it. I don't have the certainty of being absolutely right but the words underneath are the words of our forefathers, not I imagine on drugs.

G_d's tender mercies are over ALL of His creatures.
-Psalms 145:9

And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
With a little boy to lead them
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
The young shall lie down together,
And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw
-Isaiah 11:6-7

Those who have the capacity to eliminate a wrong and do not do so bear the responsibility for its consequences.
-Talmud, Shabbat 54b

One who destroys a single life is considered to have destroyed an entire world, and one who saves a single life is considered to have saved an entire world.
-Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:5

I see here, from Avraham, the standard jejune paranoid mantra of people that do Israel such a disservice by calibrating even the mildest criticism of Israeli behaviour by anyone who is Jewish as anti-Semitic.
It is just plain childish vituperative rubbish which mocks any pretense of objective analysis--and immediately raises the question among many Jews as to whether it will ever be possible to enter into meaningful discussion with Israel about anything at all.
The equivalent is to characterize any a Brit who criticizes British Foreign Policy (is there one?) as a self-hating citizen who sets out to harm Britain. It is pathetic and unconvincing as well as mirroring precisely what it sets out to expose.

We do need to look at this situation differently and need a brave person/s - to bring about peace - it's much easier and takes a weakling to pick up a gun and show bigotry to a community - but a much braver man/ woman to reach out the olive branch of peace and love for one's neighbor and at all costs puruse that knowing full well that ground must be given up in order for all to be able to call it home.

returning sephardim:
"Thank-you for your clear voice, Sarah. Avraham, to call another Jew's words anti-Semetic is perhaps a self-defeating sentiment??? Gold-Sarah clearly states that Israel government is acting to halt building now in order to build peace. It is not anti-Israel to state truths. It is a complex spiritual, political and historical situation with pain and loss on all sides running deep"

You sephardim (Shas) were the people who agreed to support the Oslo agreement in return for money (apart from that embezzled by Deri, for which he spent more than 2 years in prison). Quite a few Shas members have been caught embezzling public money. (Deri, Yair Levi, Ben-Nizri, all are or were in prison), Pinchasi and one or two others.)

You sold the Land of Israel for money for your own clan, causing death and destruction for thousands of Israelis, so please don't pontificate here about 'peace and brotherly love', and don't try to teach me what is and is not blatant anti-semitism.

returning sephardim:
"Thank-you for your clear voice, Sarah. Avraham, to call another Jew's words anti-Semetic is perhaps a self-defeating sentiment???

Not necessarily; Jews can be antisemitic - just look at Karl Marx. Besides, is Sarah Jewish? All that glitters is not Gold!

Yvetta - nice! (Except that she doesn't glitter ...)

Just when you think "Avraham" can't say anything more laughable, s/he goes ahead and does it. Now he's "blaming" Shas -- and by extension, all Sephardim -- for Oslo. Hilarious. If Shas is so Moktzeh, why doesn't he complain when the party joins far right governments, as it has done for the past decade (and it is a member of the current fascist-fundamentalist-figleaf axis)?

http://www.think-israel.org/dann.redcrosswaronisrael.html

The ICRC is a private Swiss organisation. Its views are of little consequence.

Their view that the settlements are unlawful is based on the 4th Geneva Convention but it is wrong. 4GC talks about 'forcible' settlement. No Israeli was 'forced' to settle in Judea/Samaria.

Meeting secretly in the early 1970s in Geneva, the ICRC determined that Israel was in violation of 4GC. There's no appeal, because all decisions and protocols of the ICRC are closed — even the identities of the people involved are secret.

It's a legal fraud.

During World War Two, the ICRC visited concentration camps and gave the Nazis a clean bill of health. After the war, they provided false passports to escaping Nazi war criminals.

Their website demonstrates their humanitarian efforts around the world, but when it comes to the Middle East their story is one-sided. During two decades of constant terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, the ICRC said nothing. They have written several stories about the suffering of "Palestinians" in Gaza and Lebanon as a result of Israeli actions, without mentioning the terrorist attacks that prompted a response.

The Red Cross should stick to helping people in need, and not waste resources bashing Israel.

I think the Palestinians - the only beseiged people in the entire world - are in need.