Arab League Asking United Nations For No-Fly Zone Over Gaza
One wonders if it’s their success at getting the U.N. to intervene in Libya that is causing the Arab League to make this request:
CAIRO, April 10 (Reuters) – The Arab League called on the United Nations on Sunday to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza and lift an Israeli siege of the territory after a flare-up of violence that is stoking fears of a wider escalation.
The death toll since Israel launched retaliation for an attack on a school bus that critically wounded a teenager on Thursday has climbed to 19 Palestinian militants and civilians. [ID:nLDE73901M]
Condemning what it called Israel’s “brutal” aggression in Gaza, a gathering of the Arab League’s permanent delegates chaired by Oman called on the U.N. to convene its Security Council.
The meeting would “consider the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip on an urgent basis to stop its siege and impose a no-fly rule on the Israeli military to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the Arab League said in a statement.
This has little or no chance of being taken up by the UN, but still it’s likely to make Israel just a little upset to say the least.
OF COURSE the Arab League is feeling empowered by Obama’s “un-war” in Libya. And what’s frightening is, I can’t just automatically assume Obama will dismiss this out of hand.
However, I would find it most satisfying if Israel were to reply by saying “OK, we’ll stop using precision weapons fired from aircraft. From now on, we’ll be responding to Hamas attacks with the same kind of weapons they use — mortars, unguided rockets, and the occasional laser-guided anti-tank missile fired at a school bus or other similar target.”
Oh, and they can also ratchet up the use of standoff weapons fired from Israeli airspace, and offshore naval bombardment… don’t need to violate Gazan airspace with those, either.
J.
Gaza has been a problem for far too long. It should not only be a no fly zone, it should just be off limits period until something is done to fix the problems permanently.
Jay Tea says:
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your bitterness, spite, lack of perspective, and lack of empathy, not to mention your glib attempt to score points on a political blog using real human suffering, are embarassing. seriously.
CB, sorry if I seem bitter and spiteful. I tend to get that way when people SHOOT SCHOOL BUSES WITH ANTI-TANK MISSILES.
I guess I’m just too empathetic to school kids getting blown up. Or nearly entire families wiped out by knife-wielding “oppressed Palestinians” who express their demand for freedom by slaughtering infants.
Can you suggest any treatments for that?
J.
way to completely steamroll past my point, chief. its a pretty telling reaction.
Your point seems to be “we need to just get past how much Hamas wants to kill Jews, and how many they’ve already killed, and to what lengths they will go to kill Jews.”
I find your false moral equivalency and willingness to excuse the slaughter of so many innocents beyond repugnant.
J.
Tell you what, CB — why don’t you tell us how a “no-fly zone” will actually help the situation? How it will keep Hamas from continuing its attacks into Israel?
Its only purpose is to keep Israel from hitting back. Which is why I suggested that Israel explore its options vis-a-vis mortars and artillery, unguided rockets, and other weapons like Hamas is using.
J.
except i said nothing of the sort. or even close to it. good try, though.
Actually, CB, you said nothing. You simply said you didn’t like what I had to say, with the standard condescending tone that says I shouldn’t question my betters — such as yourself, presumably.
You actually make a proud point of not putting forth your own opinions, just content to mock others who do.
So if you won’t put up an opinion, just mock mine, I’ll presume that you believe in the things I oppose and react accordingly.
Feel free to correct me at any time, and put forth something of actual substance.
I ain’t holding my breath.
Coward.
J.
Jay, I suspect that CB isn’t aware of the specific incidents you’re referring to.
Dave, not only will I agree with you, I’ll take it one step further — I’d wager his ignorance on those incidents is deliberate.
After all, what’s a few more dead Jews, in the big picture, anyway? What’s a few more dead Jews, when there’s Big Peace at stake?
J.
what i was commenting on was your instinctual reaction to view the issue through a partisan political lens, attempting to score points with cute, pithy remarks, with blithe disregard for the human toll on both sides of the divide.
moreover, your answer seems to be to match wanton brutality with more wanton brutality. far be it from me to question whether that actually works towards an ends, or whether it simply perpetuates the conflict. do i know the answer? hell no. but i do know that the solution is, at this point, decades in, well beyond eye for an eye retaliation, no matter how viscerally satisfying it may be.
regardless, i was simply commenting that, yeah, i find your outlook dishaeartening, and id be a little embarrassed if it were me. i see alot more mindreading and projection in your posts as opposed to mine too, but hey, if calling people cowards on the internet is your thing, go for it.
Shorter CB: don’t let emotion sway your opinions.
Nothing on the actual substance of the matter, of course. Just “it’s bad when Israel hits back, mmmkay?”
As I expected.
Coward.
I’d accuse you of not having the courage of your convictions, but you seem to take pride in not having any convictions.
J.
I tend to get that way when people SHOOT SCHOOL BUSES WITH ANTI-TANK MISSILES.
I guess I’m just too empathetic to school kids getting blown up. Or nearly entire families wiped out by knife-wielding “oppressed Palestinians” who express their demand for freedom by slaughtering infants.
—
im very aware of the specific events, and admittedly missed his mention of them. im not sure what either of you want, however. a denunciation of murdering sleeping infants? a statement that blowing up buses is bad? im not advocating for hamas, nor arguing against israels right to operate in their own self-interest and self-defense. a NFZ over gaza would be stupid, and i think, ultimately irrelevant. what im bemoaning is the reflexive political reactions to each action and reaction that seem to be, from my pov, based on spite, vengeance, and yeah, an ignorance to the suffering of innocents everywhere, whether its a family being murdered or kids being blown up by missiles while playing soccer.
and J, if you want to criticize my (actual) opinions and arguments, absolutely feel free. but the projection and bitterness tell me youre probably just looking for a fight.
Well, CB, you got any suggestions on how to make things better? Israel gave the entire Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, including some very nice greenhouses, as they departed and ended the “occupation.” Gaza is now an armed terrorist camp that routinely launches military attacks (the anti-tank missile at the school bus was merely the most egregious example; hardly a day goes by without the Palestinians launching rockets and mortars into Israel proper. The Palestinians were given pretty much everything they asked, and Israel is under worse attack than ever.
Israel withdrew from Lebanon at the insistence of the United Nations, which passed a Resolution ordering the disarming of Hezbollah and that Lebanon’s army occupy southern Lebanon. Now Hezbollah controls pretty much all of southern Lebanon, and has at least four times as many rockets and missiles as before the last war they launched against Israel — many of which are concealed in and around highly-sensitive civilian targets, like schools and hospitals.
There’s a lesson there for those who are able to learn from them: when Israel makes nice and gives in to the demands from the “global community” and makes concessions to terrorist groups, it is almost guaranteed to end up with Israel in a worse position than ever and more dead Jews.
Tell me this, CB: how many dead Jews and terrorist attacks should Israel shrug off as “the price of peace?” Or, more accurately, “the illusion of the price of peace?”
Before you answer that, perhaps you oughta look up the actual numbers of terrorist and paramilitary attacks Israel has absorbed in the past couple of years — it would be pretty embarrassing if you were to pick a number that was passed a while ago.
J.
I wonder if the no fly rule would apply to rockets being launched and mortars being fired from Gaza?
Even if the Jews were pushed into the sea, we wouldn’t have peace. The Muslims would just start fighting amongst themselves over who got what.
I don’t think there’s much mystery as to what at least part of the motivation is: they’re just doing political pandering, similar to what our Congress does when they attempt to pass a constitutional amendment against flag burning. The Arab League knows that their no-fly zone request won’t go anywhere, but it provides a nice distraction from events in Bahrain and the possibility that the Arab public might have second thoughts about our Libyan intervention as it drags on.
ratufa, as I said, my biggest problem here is that I am not fully confident that this push will go nowhere with this White House. Even a hint that they are entertaining it could be ruinous.
J.