If you want to understand why a UN official broke down on TV, read his tweets

[bigtree]

from Raw Story:

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and former BBC reporter, was finishing up a TV interview on Al Jazeera Arabic when he broke into tears over the state of affairs in Gaza. Right before crying, he says, ”The rights of Palestinians – even their children – are wholesale denied. And it’s appalling” and then, to sign off, says, “My pleasure.” As he breaks down a colleague comforts Gunness and the camera pans away. (The video is at the end of the post.)

Gunness had been talking about the Israeli army’s shelling of a U.N. school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, on Wednesday morning. Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge at the school and between 13 and 20 people were killed. The IDF says that they were retaliating for rockets fired into Israel by Hamas from nearby the school. Regardless, it is a violation of international law to either attack a U.N. facility or store weapons in one. This is the second time Israel has hit a U.N. facility this week, having hit killed at least 16 people at a U.N. compound in Beit Hanoun, which killed at least 16 people.

Gunness told Buzzfeed,

I’m not emotionally drained… I’m made of a sterner stuff, as my English grandmother would say…. My feelings pale into insignificance compared to the enormity of the tragedy confronting each and every other person in Gaza at this time. It’s important to humanize the statistics and to realize that there is a human being with a heart and soul behind each statistic and that the humanity that lies behind these statistics should never be forgotten.

more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/31/if-you-want-to-understand-why-a-un-official-broke-down-on-tv-read-his-tweets/

[4now]

1. Very powerful

How anyone can condone the indiscriminate murder of so many children is beyond me.
But I guess they fear the children and their mothers most of all.

[billhicks76]

19. War Crimes...Hague

Put them on trial

[magical thyme]

21. It is their strategy

The Dahiya doctrine is a military strategy put forth by the Israeli general Gadi Eizenkot that pertains to asymmetric warfare in an urban setting, in which the army deliberately targets civilian infrastructure, as a means of inducing suffering for the civilian population, thereby establishing deterrence. The doctrine is named after a southern suburb in Beirut with large apartment buildings which were flattened by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 2006 Lebanon War. Israel has been accused of implementing the strategy during the Gaza War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine

[TheNutcracker]

2. I denounce Israel. No more money.

[bigwillq]

7. I've been saying this for years.

No.More.Money.

[yurbud]

22. And you know what? We've got enough troops and weapons over there to protect them from invasion

I think that would put our relationship in proper perspective for their government.

And our government might be less likely to kill Palestinians on a large scale if the F-16s and Apache helicopters have the American flag on the side instead of the Israeli star.

[Warpy]

9. If our corporate media weren't toadies to power

and most people were seeing what is really going on in Gaza, we'd have the public demanding to wean Israel off the taxpayer tit.

It's time. It's past time. Unfortunately, they will whine that their arms are depleted and they need more money and they'll get it.

[JaydenD]

10. The lobby for support of such atrocities as this is very powerful.

Everyone is afraid to speak, whether it be a politician or a newscaster.

[fadedrose]

13. Welcome, Jayden

People are afraid to speak - even big movie stars, tv people, and other unknowns - afraid of losing their jobs....

Some who have spoke out had to retract what they said because of threats of one sort or another.

[grahamhgreen]

49. Give them Texas.

[redqueen]

3. K&R nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Obviously, Mr. Guinness possesses more common human decency than most in our congress.

Who just voted for more arms for Israel.

[snagglepuss]

5. I heard Chris Gunness being interviewed on CBC As It Happens. The strain in his voice

was evident that he is a man under enorous pressure. ftr the interview is at the link

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2014/07/30/wednesday-gaza-un-school-mountain-money-kilt-message-stolen-oboe-and-more/

[Scootaloo]

6. I could not have his job.

So, what is the united nations going to do?

[nolabear]

8. He's sobbing for us all.

How can you not?

[bvar22]

11. "Last night, chuildren were killed as they slept.

This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame.
Today, the World stands disgraced.



You ill know them by their WORKS.

[malaise]

12. Now they'll go after him

Ask Kofi Annan

[Wait Wut]

14. I hope someone is taking care of him.

He's on the edge of a breakdown and we can't afford to lose more compassionate people.

[Chemisse]

15. I'd like to believe this will someday be a shameful footnote in history.

But for that to happen, it has to end.

And with the power of the Israeli lobby, I just don't see an end in sight.

[Fred Sanders]

16. The telegenically dead are piling up like cordwood, Bibi is afraid of the truth.

[hopemountain]

20. a grotesque and obscene statement by "bibi"

why would you repeat such an offensive statement?

[Fred Sanders]

24. To beat his thick skull with, he can not escape letting out his inner nature.

[hopemountain]

27. if only...

the hate he holds in his heart has affected his ability to act rationally. of course, he has no compassion, either.


i keep picturing him in a schoolyard - the biggest bully with a diaper full of shit.

[arikara]

47. How can such an evil man have a 2 year old's name like "bibi"?

What. Is it short for Beelzebub?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. The old tactic of screaming "antisemite" shouldn't work anymore....

I know a right wing nutjob who screams that shit and then tells you that you are "ignorant" and to STFU.

Then they scream about "thousands of missiles".

If Israel were actually being bombarded don't you think we'd see it? Hell, they don't even want people to cancel their planned vacations BECAUSE THOSE "THOUSANDS OF MISSILES" ARE NOT A BIG DEAL.

[Fred Sanders]

25. Where are the terrified Israel citizens cowering in their shelters? Wolf Blitzer does not count.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. You could use the google

That is from July 14. I don't see Blitzer anywhere

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. I thought more people lived in Israel.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Yup, that is one photo of thousands of shelters

That dot the country.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. It's a pipe.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. Yup

This is a far more formal affair



Pipes and these things dot the country.

I will see about finding an interior shot of a more formal one. But that pipe is a shelter, likely near a bus station



Here, what you think more formally

[Spitfire of ATJ]

41. That looks like a restroom at Huntington Beach.

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. But that is a shelter

They all are equipped with basic first aid supplies and some food and water. The enclosed ones that is.

The most basic ones, the pipes, could offer protection even in Gaza. Neither will take a direct artillery hit, but will protect people from flying shards and small arms.

So there you have it, the incredible civil defense that dots Israel. Unless a missile does a direct hit, people will mostly need clean underwear but will be fine. And mostly is the operative word. Today eight people went to hospital from the south. Most slight injuries and shock. Two more serious.

Some shelters are better (read dug deeper) some are really last thoughts. People will even shelter under tunnels and stairs cases.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. So,...we're talking VERY small blasts....

Not like this....

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. No, I don't think you would see it

Because you have not been shown this by the American media. Eight people went to the hospital just a few hours ago in Ashkelon after a rocket actually landed and did damage. I missed the breaking news in the American TV, or for that matter the New York Times. Perhaps you can point me to it.

Air raid alarms have been going off throughout the conflict in southern and Central Israel. Missiles have been intercepted by Iron Dome, and most that have managed to land, have hit empty fields.

Let me tell you the other thing your wonderful media is not telling you.

Gaza has a border with Sinai, ergo Egypt. Guess what is the status of the border crossings to Sinai? All crossings are sealed tight.

Here is one more. There are bomb shelters in Gaza. Currently they are being occupied by the leadership of Hamas. I have heard rumors this pissing Gazans to no end, but rumors are becoming a tad more concrete. I still take the block of salt when it comes to those reports though.

I bucked up, and as usual decided to monitor what it is being said in local media and social media for both sides. There is so much out media is not showing. Israeli media, they even have English services outside of the official sources, are quoting the Palestinian Ministry of Health as to casualties and where they are, gasp, they are also showing what is going on in Gaza. Far more than you saw during the whole Iraqi misadventure.

But you asked, I gave you the cynical answer, nope, you would not. And this is by design.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. Am I the only one who think's "Iron Dome" sounds like "Iron Curtain" or "Iron Hammer"?

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. It means protection and it is far from infallible.

Outside the IDF, and only because the missiles are WW2 tech, they stop about 50%.

If you ask the IDF up to 80%.

These have no guidance, so it is mostly aim in general direction and pray, like Katyusha. Most have landed in empty fields. A few have landed in towns and cities. About 20% from estimates, in Gaza itself.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. I'm just saying the name has bad roots.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. I agree, but it is meant to imply

Safety in Israel. I am betting it was polled.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. Back during the Iron Age.

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. It would not poll well in the US, agreed

[Scootaloo]

48. One by one, Nadin...

Because you have not been shown this by the American media. Eight people went to the hospital just a few hours ago in Ashkelon after a rocket actually landed and did damage. I missed the breaking news in the American TV, or for that matter the New York Times. Perhaps you can point me to it.

While terrible, 1,380+ dead people is bigger news than 8 injured people. I realize that some here would value any one of those eight injured over the entirety of those killed, but the real world doesn't work that way.

Air raid alarms have been going off throughout the conflict in southern and Central Israel. Missiles have been intercepted by Iron Dome, and most that have managed to land, have hit empty fields.

Over twelve hundred Palestinians have been murdered to avenge Israel's rabbits in thoes empty fields. Air raid alarms? Oh, you mean when an Israeli's house is smashed with an explosion a few moments before being flattened by a bigger one, that alarm? No? Funny, it's good enough for Arabs.

Gaza has a border with Sinai, ergo Egypt. Guess what is the status of the border crossings to Sinai? All crossings are sealed tight.

Due to a 2005 security agreement with Israel, which grants Israel final say over the Rafah crossing - if Israel orders it closed, Egypt closes it. This agreement is in turn based on the peace treaty between the two states that makes the Sinai - and Gaza's border - a "security interest" to Israel, paramount over Egypt's interests..

Egypt could defy the security agreement. It could broach the treaty - it would have to, to move personnel into Sinai to manage the flood of refugees (you do know Egypt can't move its forces in the Sinai without express permission from Israel, right Nadin?) But then we'd be hearing about how Israel needed to start bombing Egypt too, because Egypt "violated the peace treaty O M G!"

Not that al-Sisi, the Cannibal-King of Cairo would defy Israel. After all, he's making a mint off of not doing so - with your tax dollars.

Here is one more. There are bomb shelters in Gaza. Currently they are being occupied by the leadership of Hamas. I have heard rumors this pissing Gazans to no end, but rumors are becoming a tad more concrete. I still take the block of salt when it comes to those reports though.

There are also UN-run shelters in Gaza. israel is shelling them. I understand that this also pisses off Gazans. That's not a rumor, that's concrete.

I bucked up, and as usual decided to monitor what it is being said in local media and social media for both sides. There is so much out media is not showing. Israeli media, they even have English services outside of the official sources, are quoting the Palestinian Ministry of Health as to casualties and where they are, gasp, they are also showing what is going on in Gaza. Far more than you saw during the whole Iraqi misadventure.

And why do you think it is that US media is occluding news from Gaza?

But you asked, I gave you the cynical answer, nope, you would not. And this is by design.

What design might that be? Speak clearly so that we might understand.

[marions ghost]

18. I feel his helplessness

--can nothing be done to stop this?

[hopemountain]

23. unsure. but here is an idea

people can participate out of respect for humanity in war torn areas -

- for one hour we can observe an intentional silence in respect for the suffering and the dead on both sides of violence.

- for one day we we can abstain from purchasing everything - other than in cases of emergency or medical supplies.

- for one week we turn off our lights in the evening.

it seems all leaders across the world have other priorities far above preserving the sanctity and dignity of humanity on this planet. perhaps a withholding of our dollars may speak to them.

i do not understand the karma that is being played out but i know the unending barrage of innocent children, the disabled, and the elders - and the withholding of water and basic human rights by the israeli bullies reflect the very behaviors that have destroyed civilizations.

in a good way, hopemountain

[marions ghost]

30. Taken in a good way

thanks hopemountain. I'm feeling so down just watching this, trying to pretend it's
over there and far away. But it's not. It's insanity. Basic human rights...openly violated...barbaric.

I like your ideas. We who care need to come together and speak out. Right, the heads of nations are all keeping quiet and weighing their "options." Meanwhile people are suffering and dying. It is so wrong.

I will do those things you suggest here. Even if we all did them individually it could still have impact. At the very least we have acted and not denied the reality.

here's an idea--do you want to propose these ideas to DU and see how many will
"pledge" to carry them out...? it's a start. maybe others would have ideas to add.

Somehow we must start harnessing the power for creating a new world, a new way. Because this way of doing things is hurting all of us.

[hopemountain]

31. yes i will, marions ghost

was working on it for my fb group. i do not twitter, so perhaps others who feel moved to make a difference - at least with intention and awareness - can share with others as well.

thank you for the suggestion. here goes....

[marions ghost]

33. With ya

[Cheviteau]

29. I'll say this one more time.

The electorate of Israel has elected a person that wields a shovel that is digging the grave for Jews in that country. Sad. Sad. But true. The rest of the world is tiring of this every couple of years. Israel has the right to exist. Netanyahu does not have the right to kill innocents. Period. I absolutely detest that man. With all that is within me. Israel an do better.

[hopemountain]

32. thank you for your brave statement nt

[VA_Jill]

51. Agree with you wholeheartedly

Netanyahu is a psycho and a bully. And I thought Sharon was bad! Yeesh.

[WillyT]

50. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!