Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in public comments that his goal for Israel’s next military offensive in Gaza is the takeover and full Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory. Netanyahu’s plan has faced resistance from the military since heavy Israeli troop casualties are expected, and the Israeli captives in Gaza will likely be harmed or killed during the offensive.Israel’s offensive would end quickly if the US stopped supporting it. However, President Trump, when asked about Israel’s full occupation of Gaza, said, “I really can’t say. It is going to be pretty much up to Israel.”
There have been numerous images and reports about starvation and famine in Gaza. When asked, “To what extent are you personally troubled or not troubled by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza?”, 79% of Israeli Jews responded that they were “not so troubled” or “not troubled at all.”
Israeli officials previously announced a plan to build a concentration camp in a tiny area of southern Gaza with the goal of forcing the entire civilian population into it. Netanyahu’s ultimate goal ios the removal of the Palestinian people from Gaza, which they. now call the Trump plan. No regional countries have stepped forward to take in the Palestinians who are being pushed out.
Jimmy Dore explained that no matter what Hamas does, Israel is pursuing land grabs for ‘Greater Israel’, which has been planned for years. He said that the war was used as a pretext to clear Gaza and take the land.
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From The Jewish Independent:
Most Israeli Jews untroubled by reports of Gaza famine, survey finds
A new Israeli public opinion survey has revealed a sharp divide between Jewish and Arab citizens regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the credibility of the IDF’s reports, settler violence in the West Bank, and concerns over rising antisemitism abroad.
Conducted by the Viterbi Family Centre for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, the survey followed increasing reports and images pointing to a severe humanitarian disaster in Gaza, including widespread famine.
When asked, “To what extent are you personally troubled or not troubled by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza?”, 79% of Israeli Jews responded that they were “not so troubled” or “not troubled at all.” In contrast, 86% of Arab Israelis said they were either “very troubled” or “somewhat troubled” by the situation.
These findings align with coverage in the Israeli mainstream media, which for months largely denied or downplayed the scale of hunger in Gaza. However, according to Ruth Margalit in The New Yorker, a shift may be underway. “Even for (Israeli) politicians and journalists who are sympathetic to Netanyahu, it has become permissible to acknowledge that [the hunger crisis] is real,” she wrote. Whether this softening in tone will influence public opinion remains to be seen.
My name is Ronny, I’m 41 years old. I’m a father, a teacher, a Graphic Designer.
I’m an Israeli citizen and I need your help.
Lately, in the news, we’ve been hearing about a war coming while we the common people are sitting and watching it coming like it has nothing to do with us.
Iranians. We love you. We will never bomb your country.
Within 24 hours, thousands of people shared the poster on Facebook, and I started receiving messages from Iran.
The next day, we got featured on TV and newspapers, proving that the message was traveling. Fast.
Please help us prevent this war by spreading this message. make your own posters , send this message to your friends and share it.
We are raising money in order to produce more posters and keep the movement grow.
thanks to all of you for your support and love.
may we prevent this war.
ronny edry
………………….
AMID WAR FEVER, SOME ISRAELIS AND IRANIANS TALK OF PEACE
By Sheera Frenkel
McClatchy Newspapers / Miami Herald
March 21, 2012
Hoping to counter the incessant saber rattling from their respective governments, some Israelis and Iranians have started an online campaign to exchange simple message of friendship and love.
The initiative, which began with Israeli couple Ronny Edry and Michal Tamir, calls for residents of each country to exchange photographs with the words, “We love you.”
“I’m not an official representative of my country. I’m a father and a teacher,” Edry wrote on his blog, www.IsraellovesIran.com. He included a photograph of him and his son. “I know the streets of my town, I talk with my neighbors, my family, my students, my friends and in the name of all these people … we love you. We mean you no harm. On the contrary, we want to meet, have some coffee and talk about sports.”
Within days, the first responses from Iran began to appear. The images posted by Israelis and Iranians are strikingly similar — they show people in the midst of daily activities, posing with their children, dog or favorite book. Some include messages such as “We don’t want war,” and “I wish we both get rid of our idiot politicians.” Often, it’s impossible to tell where the message originated until the telltale tag line, Iran (or Israel) we love you.
Roee Ras said he had never taken part in a “political” movement before, but the 31-year-old was drawn to post a photograph of himself after a friend posted a link to the project on Facebook.
“It felt so human. We are talking about each other, but I don’t know anything except what the newspaper tells me. I can’t talk to an Iranian and find out what they really think and want,” he said.
He went out and took a photo on a sunny beach in Tel Aviv, then posted it to the site. By the next morning, he said, he had received replies including one from a young woman who said he was “cute” and “wished she could join me on the beach,” Ras said.
Talk of imminent war between Israel and Iran has filled newspapers, both here and abroad. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was “not afraid” to confront the Iranian nuclear threat and promised he would do what was needed to stop Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Iran’s leadership has issued similarly inflammatory statements, announcing that they “must” attack Israel by 2014 and repeating threats to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Polls conducted in Israel show that there is little appetite for an attack on Iran. One published by the Knesset Channel last week found that 50 percent of Israelis believe that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear installations, even if diplomatic efforts fail, while 43 percent favored a strike on Iran. Only 16 percent of respondents said they thought a military strike would eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability altogether.
Ras said even those who support a strike on Iran have their doubts.
“Maybe we are all being sold on a war we don’t understand. It’s scary the way some of the leaders are happy to walk us into some big war,” said Ras. “Since I don’t know Iranians, I can’t ask them what they think, and if they think their country would use a nuclear bomb against me here in Tel Aviv.”
One exchange on Edry’s blog reflected an eagerness for Israelis and Iranians to get to know each other.
An Israeli named “Asaf” wrote that years ago he traveled to Pune, India, and encountered a group of Iranian students on a trip to a local university. “Silly me I was too scared to say a word and present myself to someone (maybe someone there hates me because I’m from Israel), so I just sat quietly and watched all the other tables and saw only young beautiful men and women that all looked very nice and intelligent and looked to me very similar to the best of the people I know here in my own country.”
An Iranian with the username “SAye73″ responded to him, “Thank you so much dear friend! It’s very kind of you to think so well of us! I’m an Iranian and I know there is a long historical story of friendship between us and you! Damn Ayatollah and those Israelis fanatics politicians who abuse us! I like to visit Israel.”
Hundreds of new pictures and postings are being added daily, most of them earnest, but some posters inevitably have taken the comic route. One photograph added recently showed a fluffy white Persian cat. The caption reads: “Israeli cats we love you. Persian cats against war.”
