Elie Wiesel Condemns Hamas Use of Children as Human Shields

[oberliner]

Elie Wiesel has published an open letter condemning Hamas’s use of human shields–in particular the use of children in the practice.

In the write-up, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate calls on Gazans to rise up against the terror group and reject the killing of their children in the name of martyrdom.

“In my own lifetime, I have seen Jewish children thrown into the fire. And now I have seen Muslim children used as human shields, in both cases, by worshippers of death cults indistinguishable from that of the Molochites,” Wiesel wrote in the letter that ran in US newspapers.

“What we are suffering through today is not a battle of Jew versus Arab or Israeli versus Palestinian. Rather, it is a battle between those who celebrate life and those who champion death. It is a battle of civilization versus barbarism..”

The piece was titled “Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it’s Hamas’ turn,” and was organized by This World: The Values Network, a Jewish organization executive directed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

http://www.jspacenews.com/elie-wiesel-condemns-hamas-use-children-human-shields/

[4now]

1. Some people only see what they want to see.

[hifiguy]

2. Pretty hard to avoid civilians

anyplace in Gaza. There is no place for them to go to get away. Not that the IDF are even trying to avoid civilians. The recklessness and lack of regard for Palestinian lives is sickening.

These stats don't lie:

With its population at approximately 1.82 million people, Gaza has a population density of 13,064 people per square mile. That is about half the density of New York City (27,778 people per square mile) and about equal with Boston (13,321 people per square mile).

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-maps-show-what-the-gaza-invasion-would-look-like-in-major-us-cities-2014-7#ixzz39ScR5Glt

The city's population has continued to increase since that time to 515,556 in 2012, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.[3][99] Gaza has one of the highest overall growth rates and population densities in the world: 9,982.69/km² (26,424.76/mi²).[57][100]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_City#Population

[LittleBlue]

3. Israel is "celebrating life" by keeping people in open-air prisons and

then firing mortars at them.

Cool story, bro

[NightWatcher]

4. There had to be some good reason for the Israelis to shell a UN shelter/ school

So they have to point at it and say "there were weapons (of mass destruction) in there". Now where have I heard that before?

Truth is the first casualty of war.

[BillZBubb]

5. Elie Wiesel is supposed to be a great humanitarian.

Instead he's a mouthpiece for disproven Israeli propaganda. That is really sad.

Seeing that Boteach is involved in this is all the confirmation you need.

[whatchamacallit]

6. ...

[A-Schwarzenegger]

7. This Nobel Peace Prize winner is against other wars at least, such as in Iraq.

Oh, wait.

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/11/opinion/oe-wiesel11

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Nobody made Israel kill those children except Israel. Fuck the wife-beater's excuse.

Elie Wiesel has reached his "sell by" date.

[m-lekktor]

9. "Elie Weisel plays the holocaust trump card." ( a Mondoweiss response)

I know you don't like the liberal Mondoweiss site but here it is anyway:

<>
"Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it does. I’m not thinking about the actual war in Gaza – that’s bad enough.

It’s the Jewish civil war over Israel, a civil war that includes both sides appealing to non-Jews and American foreign policy.

Of course, it’s also about the Holocaust, that vast swathe of traumatized Jewish identity that keeps breaking open even as Israel’s occupation regime and war machine go haywire.

The veterans of Holocaust discourse are older now, all in their eighties, but periodically they’re trotted out to support Israel – especially when there isn’t any viable way of doing so.

the rest...

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/wiesel-holocaust-trump.html

[oberliner]

11. Mondoweiss isn't a liberal site

They've been hating on Elie Wiesel for years over there.

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. No, it's a progressive Jewish web site.

Maybe they've been "hating on" Wiesel for his illiberal, unprogressive positions.

http://mondoweiss.net/about-mondoweiss

About Mondoweiss

Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective.

It has four principal aims:

To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion.
To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues.
To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy.
To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity.
This blog is co-edited by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz. Weiss is 56 and lives in New York state. Horowitz is 39 and lives in Atlanta.

We maintain this blog because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background.

This site aims to build a diverse community, with posts from many authors. The views of these authors do not necessarily represent the views of Horowitz and Weiss.

[oberliner]

14. No it's not

And Elie Wiesel is a liberal.

Interesting how they accuse him of playing "the holocaust card" when Mondoweiss runs articles from holocaust survivors themselves quite often to make rhetorical points.

I guess if it's the points they agree with (i.e. Israel is like Nazi Germany) then it doesn't count as a card.

[0rganism]

10. even if Hamas was deliberately using Palestinean children as human shields

(and that in itself is debatable, given the population density of the Gaza strip)
IT WOULD NOT EXCUSE THE KILLING OF SAID "HUMAN SHIELDS" BY THE IDF

There's a reason the idea of a "human shield" exists. Humans aren't materially very good shields, but when a nominally well-intentioned person kills "human shields" in an effort to take down a criminal, it exposes that person to justified criticism. The truly well-intentioned person avoids killing "human shields" at all costs because (1) they are human and (2) they are typically innocent in the context of the conflict.

It'd be like police just shooting indiscriminately through hostages to take out a kidnapper. "Hostages" are people, not sandbags, which is why we send in negotiators to a hostage situation before sending in SWAT teams. You don't get to kill hostages off, especially in large numbers, and then claim the moral high ground.

[oberliner]

12. This is a great point

And why Israel's actions are so condemnable.

They aren't "human shields" if they don't prevent Israel from attacking.