US Senate votes to endorse genocide

From Glenn Greenwald:

This afternoon, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate did just that by enacting -- via a cowardly voice vote -- a completely one-sided, non-binding resolution that expresses unequivocal support for the Israeli war, and heaps all the blame for the conflict on Hamas and none of it on Israel.  Harry Reid -- who jointly sponsored the Resolution with GOP Leader Mitch McConnell -- proudly proclaimed: "When we pass this resolution, the United States Senate will strengthen our historic bond with the state of Israel."  On its website, AIPAC is already patting the U.S. Senate on its head for "for conveying America's unequivocal and steadfast support for Israel's right to self-defense."

Yeah.  Self-defense.  Right.  As in this photo, which has gone viral under the heading Hamas Rocket Causes Devastation in Israel:

It didn't even make a damn pothole!!!  Gee, let's compare this chintzy little delivery system for fireworks with the white phosphorus, cluster bombs, and thermobaric bombs used by Israel.  (If you think napalm is bad, you just don't know about white phosphorus.)  So far, about 800 Palestinians have been slaughtered-- most of them civilians, a quarter of whom were children.  Meanwhile, 11 Israelis, 8 of them soldiers, have died in the conflict (however, half the soldiers were killed by other Israelis in friendly fire incidents).  So you can certainly see why Israel feels its entire existence is at stake, as evidenced by its constant ranting about its "right to exist," which apparently the Gazans have put in peril.  Uh-huh.  Sure.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of "unacceptable" conduct and breaching international humanitarian law after discovering four emaciated children living next to the [twelve] corpses of their mothers and other adults in bomb-shattered houses in Gaza City.

The ICRC said that it had spent four days seeking Israeli guarantees of safe passage so that it could gain access to the houses in the badly damaged Zaytun neighbourhood of the city. It was finally allowed to send in a rescue team and four Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulances yesterday afternoon....

The children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances by donkey cart because earth walls erected by the Israeli army made it impossible to bring the vehicles close enough to the houses....

The ICRC accused the Israeli military of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and remove the wounded, and called the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.

The ICRC's charges were another setback for the Israeli military. On Tuesday it killed more than 40 people in a bomb attack on a UN school in the Gaza Strip that it claimed was being used by a Hamas mortar team, and international aid organisations say that its 13-day offensive is creating a humanitarian catastrophe among Gaza's 1.5 million residents.  (source)

The Israelis are routinely shooting at ambulances, the Red Cross, and anyone else attempting to save the lives of wounded civilians.  After all, when your intent is genocide, you certainly don't want survivors.

For those who still believe the Israeli lie that they are not targeting civilians, and that if they do target civilians, then those civilians (including infants) must be "terrorists," this is a recount of the butchery displayed by the US-funded Israeli military earlier this week.

According to surviving members of the al-Samouni family, on Sunday of this past week, Israeli soldiers ordered approximately 100 members of the extended al-Samouni family to gather into one single house in the town of Zeitoun near Gaza City. Just after dawn the following morning, knowing that the house was filled with civilians including mothers with infants and children, the Israeli military repeatedly shelled the house, killing approximately 70 members of the family. (source)

This was confirmed by the UK Telegraph:

Mohammed Shaheen, a volunteer with Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the first convoy of ambulances to reach the site of the blast in Zeitoun since it was first occupied then shelled by the Israeli army.

His testimony confirmed accounts, first reported in The Telegraph, from survivors of the extended al Samouni clan who said they feared between 60 and 70 family members had been killed.

"Inside the Samouni house I saw about ten bodies and outside another sixty,'' Mr Shaheen said.

"I was not able to count them accurately because there was not much time and we were looking for wounded people...."

"[W]e ran out of time and the Israeli soldiers started shooting at us.  We had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay." (source)

And not only do they shoot at the Red Cross, they shoot at the UN, too:

The UN's main aid agency has suspended its operations in Gaza because its staff have been hit by Israeli attacks.

The suspension would continue "until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security", the UN said.

What a proud day in the US Senate.  Thank you, Harry Reid, for giving that metaphorical pat on the back to soldiers who napalm civilians, shoot paramedics, shell UN food convoys, and refuse aid to babies whose parents they just killed.  Now those are the kind of psychopaths America likes, aren't they, Harry?  That Abu Ghraib kind of man.  That Guantanamo water-boarder.  That's the kind of man Harry Reid admires.

(You think your Senator didn't vote to endorse Israeli genocide?  Well, you'll never know, since they did it by voice vote... like the cowardly little bought-and-paid-for toads that they are.)