The second part of our summary from the Civilian Press Conference that took place on twitter earlier today. The conversations were ‘expanded’ (meaning we removed the short ‘twitter talk’ and re-wrote fully spelled words) but otherwise unchanged.
shelisrael: Why have you chosen to come on Twitter. Is that not political in itself?
We saw debate on Twitter and saw people who had unreliable information. We felt Twitter would be a good way to put an official voice out there.
EshanAhmad: Another question: If you are at war with Palestine, then they have every right to attack Israel in order to protect themselves.
We’re not at war with the Palestinian people. We’re at war with Hamas–a group declared a terrorist organization by the US and the EU.
lagwolt: What are you doing to ensure the media is objective when covering the conflict?
This is one of our attempts to open Israel up to questions, in addition to using the mainstream media.
rahathartoush: How will you deal with oncoming humanitarian crisis in Gaza? (Situation was dire before Israel’s attack.)
The border crossing into Gaza have remained open for humanitarian aid. See, for example: http://tinyurl.com/93serf
anotherpundit: What is your definition of “terrorism”?
We have the same definition as the rest of the international community: targeting civilians.
penalba: Do you accept HAMAS as a democratically elected government?
Democracy is not only casting a vote at the polls; it is a set of values including: free speech, tolerance, respect for others with differing viewpoints.
eastmad: If everyone in Gaza holds a bit of a Qassam, will you try to kill them all?
As you can see on CNN a Hamas rocket brigade is pretty easy to spot. Unfortunately, they use civilians as human shields.
knkyvxn: Please explain what a Hamas militant looks like. How old? What gender?
What do they wear? Where do they live? Where do they walk?
They fire Qassams at Israeli civilians. See, for example: http://tinyurl.com/9u4jdl
rahathartoush: Do you think it’s possible for people with such a bloody history to ever forgive each other and move forward?
Israel seeks to live in peace with her neighbors. As a result, we are working with the Palestinian Authority and other moderates toward a two-state solution.
Amy2Israel: Can you update us on the 48 hour ceasefire?
As of now we have no more data on the matter.
joelpollak: What is the objective of the Gaza operation? To deter Hamas? To destroy Hamas? Also, what is your PR plan for next week?
To stop the rockets fired at 500,000 Israelis
brianoflondon:
How much attention does Israel pay to the religious motivation of Hamas and its effect on their method and tactics?
Hamas has declared jihad on Israel. This means they will go to any extreme to injure Israeli citizens. In addition, they have activated their suicide bombers
isaacson: Its interesting that Hezbollah is sitting this one out. I wonder why.
We’re keeping our eyes on the situation in Lebanon.
xjimenez: The Obama transition team has been relatively “silent online” regarding
the Gaza violence. Has Israel been in contact with them?
See: ” http://tinyurl.com/9tpyma ”
EhsanAhmad:
You didn’t get my point that Hammas is an elected government, and if you keep attacking them, then they have the right to attack you.
If Hamas’s goals were to better the lives of its citizens, they wouldn’t target Israel. They would invest in education and health, not in bombs.
re EhsanAhmad’s comments, a democracy is not defined by a one-time election followed by a facist government restricting free speech, restricting freedom to leave the country, and subsequent elections to replace a government that acts against the best interest of its people. Additionally, if Hamas were to run Gaza by true democratic principles and the people democratically choose terror (not the case today) the people would have to deal with the consequences of their democratic choice, i.e., Israels right to defend its citizens from terror. Ideally, a democratically run Gaza would negotiate in good faith through international diplomatic channels available to all states. As my wife says to her the 3-year-old students, “don’t hit; use your words”.
Incidentally, Benjamin Netanyu has pointed out many times that no government that rose to power via terror has then ruled by democratic means.
I’m so glad you’re on twitter, this allows me to much more easily follow a good dialogue. Wherever people are talking, if you have the time, that’s where you want to be. It seems like you really get that and I’m impressed.
RE: EhsanAhmad: If a people elected Al Qaeda to be their “elected government” the US would pulverize the government institutions, navy, air force and army of those people and would do everything in their power to avoid civilian casualties at the same time. Electing a group that has been designated a terrorist organization by the international community to be you leaders does not grant them immunity for their terrorism.
It doesn’t seem like you care about the Palestinian civilians anywhere near as much as Israel and the IDF cares about Palestinian civilians. That is rather telling, EhsanAhmad.
Don’t forget that although they were elected to the government, they became the sole government of Gaza through a bloody military coup that they staged against Fatah, in order to take over the PA.
Thanks. If you can point me to other places where dialog is taking place, I will gladly go and participate.
I submit to you the following excerpt:
Fox News, April 3, 2007:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263666,00.html
“A new textbook is teaching Palestinian kids to hate Israel and think of fighting Israelis as a holy Islamic duty, according to an Israeli media monitoring group.
The textbooks, published in December and distributed in the West Bank and Gaza to Palestinian students, deny Israel’s existence and teach kids — many as young as 11 — that Palestinians are in the midst of a holy war between Muslims and their enemies, according to a Palestinian Media Watch report entitled “From nationalist battle to religious conflict.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education said it was reviewing the issue, the organization reported..
“The books don’t allow for a Palestinian child to accept Israel as a neighbor,” Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch’s director, told the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) of the United Nations. “When you define the conflict as a religious war you are no longer fighting for your own national identity or territory but for Islamic destiny. You have to accept either Islam or Israel,” Marcus said.
“I would be happy if the books talked about a national struggle to get as many rights as possible. But to package it as an everlasting war is to generate years of conflict. It’s child abuse against their own kids,” he said.”
_______________________________________________
With a policy such as this, where children are indoctrinated into hatred and “holy war” against Israel in school classrooms and by singing songs and watching videos glorifying suicide bombing attacks against Israelis, how can Palestinians possibly claim that their goal is for their children to grow to live in peace?
How long shall this farce be allowed to continue with the implicit blessings of the anti-Semitic leadership of the U.N. and uninformed masses of Hamas sympathizers around the world?
How long will Israelis allow themselves to countenance the lie that there can ever be peace with such people?
Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas and their Allies. Even Palestinians are speaking out against Hamas’ attacks against Isreal. We hope that Israel continues to act smartly in its own defense and does not fold to the so-called “international criticisms” and make a “truce”; it is not being a cynic to know that there is no such thing as a “truce” with Israel’s enemies- just a breathing period to re-arm, re-position, etc.” There has to be some western country that is realistic and has some sense of survival. America and the Europeans sure don’t.
If another country continually fired rockets at civilians seeking to terrorize them and refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of your country you have to counter this. If the Palestinian people simply stopped firing rockets and
Shalom, Israel. Kick some ass, and don’t bother taking names. They certainly haven’t when sending rockets into civilias areas, or sending suicide bombers, or building and using tunnels to ferret weapons into the area, or when they setup legitimate military targets in their own civilian areas.
Certainly not when they wrote their own charter, which explicitly calls for your destruction, a stand they have refused to modify, mollify, amend, or even just ignore.
Mohammed and his followers are a plague on the world, and until they can be beaten into having to accept the notion that not everybody has to buy into their 7th century notion of civilization, they will stay a plague. May the God of Abraham and Peter bless you in your defense.
(Note: I found it telling that Israel, in pulling out of Gaza (unilaterally) in 2005 left behind infastructure, such as some greenhouses. These were functional, with naught but willing persons to keep them as profitable enterprises. Unacceptable to the less-than-grateful new inhabitants, apparently. Being of Jewish origin, the greenhouses were destroyed. Nose, meet thy spited face.)
Very clear,short,sweet and to the point.
Keep it up.