It's The Civilians, Stupid! / Es sind die Zivilisten, Dummerle!

(Deutsche Version am Ende des Beitrags)

In the German media the picture of the “spiral of violence” is enthusiastically used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The image of a balance of blame is supposed to be generated. This picture hides the reality: the conscious, calculated murder of Israeli civilians through Palestinian assassins.

This statistic proves the Palestinian strategy: Civilians are the first-ranking, the desired target group of the Palestinian terror – the Israeli military have suffered noticeably fewer victims. For suicide bombings, the ratio of civilian to military casualties is about 8.5 to 1. (Al-Qaeda prefers civilian victims as well by the way as 9-11 and Madrid showed.)

And if it helps, the Palestinians also use children as suicide bombers as well. (via lgf.)

But for many journalists it is really the Israelis who started. And who like to target civilians:

“Each time the Israeli Army kills civilians or extremists in the Palestinian territories the spiritual leader of Hamas makes threats that a bloody answer will follow.”

Cycle of violence, started by the Israelis… and so it’s no wonder, that the Palestinians hit back:

“The murder of Sheik Jassin must be treated as a targeted declaration of war on the Palestinians, who, because of their hopeless military inferiority, will forseeably grasp at the one thing available to them: Terror.”

They don’t have any other options, the poor terrorists…

Finally, as a breeze of fresh air:

"The Security Council would have committed an unforgivable act of hypocrisy had it come to the defence of a man who was nothing less than a mass murderer and the godfather of terrorism"

Statement by Ambassador Dan Gillerman, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations.

(Translation by Ray D.)

Deutsche Version

Es sind die Zivilisten, Dummerle!

In den deutschen Medien wird gerne das Bild vom "Kreislauf der Gewalt" verwendet, um den israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt zu beschreiben. Es soll die Vorstellung eines Gleichgewichtes der Schuld erzeugt werden. Dieses Bild verdeckt die Realität: die bewußte, kalkulierte Ermordung israelischer Zivilisten durch palästinensische Attentäter.

Diese Statistik belegt die palästinensische Strategie: Zivilisten sind die erstrangige, die gewollte Zielgruppe des palästinensischen Terrors - das israelische Militär verzeichnet deutlich weniger Opfer. Bei Selbstmordattentaten ist das Opferverhältnis Zivilisten / Militär etwa 1 zu 8,5. (Auch Al Queida bevorzugt übrigens zivile Opfer, wie 9/11 und Madrid zeigten.)

Und wenn es hilft, setzen die Palästinenser auch gerne mal ihre Kinder als Selbstmordattentäter ein. (via lgf)

Aber es sind ja für manche Journalisten eigentlich die Israelis, die anfangen. Und die sich gerne die Zivilisten vornehmen:

Jedes Mal, wenn die israelische Armee in den Palästinensergebieten Zivilisten oder Extremisten tötete, meldete sich der geistliche Führer der Hamas zu Wort, um mit einer blutigen Antwort zu drohen.

Kreislauf der Gewalt, begonnen von den Israelis... Und so ist es kein Wunder, wenn die Palästinenser zurückschlagen:

Der Mord an Scheich Jassin muss als gezielte Kriegserklärung an die Palästinenser gewertet werden, die wegen ihrer hoffnungslosen militärischen Unterlegenheit absehbar zum ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Mittel greifen werden: dem Terror.

Bleibt ihnen halt nichts anderes übrig, den armen Terroristen...

Schließlich, als eine Prise frischer Luft:

"Der Sicherheitsrat hätte einen nicht zu vergebenden Akt der Scheinheiligkeit begangen, hätte er sich zur Verteidigung eines Mannes bekannt, der nichts geringeres war als ein Massenmörder und der "Godfather" des Terrorismus."

Stellungnahme von Botschafter Dan Gillerman, Permanenter Repräsentant Israels bei den UN

Comments

[tictoc]

I noticed there was another spam attack by a Chomsky-worshiping idiot this evening.

You know you are your winning when your opponents resort to dirty tricks :-)

[FKNAB]

@tictoc
You know you are your winning when your opponents resort to dirty tricks :-)

That's exactly what I always keep telling to these US-conservatives when they give each other advice in their forums how to use dirty tricks in online-polls (like cookie-deleting, scripts, etc.)

But would you believe: They ain't listening!

[kid charlemagne]

There's a big difference between manipulating an insignificant poll and spamming a comment board. The former doesn't disrupt discussion, as the latter does, nor does it threaten to overload a website.

[Sandy P.]

Found this via An Englishman's Castle - he was spammed by a German, to boot!

"A successful business woman I know, late thirties, international travelling, threw down her copy of the Guardian and said to me. "This wall is so stupid, why have they put it up, the bastards I hate them." As she carried on a bit I meekly suggested that the Jews might feel it was for self defence. She rounded on me "But the Israelis have put it up to drive the Jews out". I was a tad perplexed by this, until I discovered that she believed that the Israelis were the Arabs and the Palastinians were the Jews. I am not sure she believed me when I tried to persuade her she was wrong, somehow it clashed with her opinions which she liked to share with everyone, and as she read the Guardian she was obviously better informed about the real world than all those American rednecks who voted for that unbelievably dumb cowboy - did you know he has an IQ of 86?....

[no comment]

@ kid charlemagne
>>>There's a big difference between manipulating an insignificant poll and spamming a comment board.

ah - well. and who decides, which poll is significant and which one isn't? the free republicans? david kaspar? i think poll manipulation as well as spamming a blog are bad style, but if the former is considered to be part of the fun, so is the latter.

[Eric B]

All online polls are insignificant.

[flursn]

@no comment, the spammers are using electronical means to sabotage this blog, also known as "hacking". You might have missed the latest legislature measures in Europe and the US which accurately describe those attempts as what it is - criminal.

But it's always good to be reminded on which side you're standing.

---

On a different note, you all might want to read this:

What Israeli Illegality?

(...) Leaving aside the Old World's growing consensus that the war on terror should be treated as a criminal law-enforcement matter — a recipe for disaster and defeat — most European states have accepted the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions. Like the 1949 Geneva Conventions (to which both the United States and Israel are parties), this instrument preserved the classification of unlawful combatant. But it also can be interpreted to provide new and extraordinarily beneficial advantages to such groups. In particular, under one of Protocol I's provisions, irregular or guerilla fighters can arguably be attacked only when they are themselves attacking. At all other times, they must be treated as part of the civilian population.

Of course, this absurd rule disadvantages the lawful armed forces of sovereign states (as it was designed to do), by giving the practitioners of asymmetric warfare incalculable advantages, since lawful combatants can still be attacked at any time. It also allows them to benefit from their own violations of otherwise applicable legal norms, such as the requirement that combatants clearly distinguish themselves from the civilian population and carry their arms openly. Protocol I was relentlessly promoted by third-world governments — not a few of which had started out as guerilla movements — and was embraced (whether from guilt, fatigue, or absentmindedness) by the former imperialists of Western Europe.

Fortunately for the American people, Ronald Reagan was paying attention, and rejected Protocol I outright, making clear that the advantages it provided to irregular and unlawful combatants were entirely unacceptable to the United States. Fortunately for the citizens of Israel (although not for Hamas), Jerusalem also refused to ratify Protocol I. Thus while European states may not be permitted to target a known terrorist in the context of an armed conflict, it remains entirely lawful for both Israel and the United States to do so. The next time Europe's leaders jump to condemn Israel for such actions, they would do well to keep this in mind.

[no comment]

@ eric b

>>>All online polls are insignificant.

online polls approximately reflect the opinion of the readers of an online magazine about a given topic, not more and not less. this works as long as the poll is not manipulated. it only becomes insignificant when it is manipulated.

@ flursn

i repeat in other words: i do *not* endorse spamming (or dos-attacks to be more precise), neither here nor in blogs and fora you would consider as left-left nor elsewhere. by the way, freeping a poll can turn into a dos-attack and could therefore be considered illegal as well.

[Michael Goldberg]

Gestern Abend auf RTL wiedermal ein toller "objektiver" Bericht über die Situation im Irak!
Frau Antonia Rados hat wiedereinmal einen wunderbaren Hetzbericht gegen die bösen Amerikaner verfasst!
Die permanente Gehirnwäsche deutscher Journalisten ist fast nicht mehr zu ertragen!
Wo bitte gibz es noch eine objektive Beurteilung und Analyse dieses Weltkrieges?

[FKANB]

flursn wrote
@no comment, the spammers are using electronical means to sabotage this blog, also known as "hacking". You might have missed the latest legislature measures in Europe and the US which accurately describe those attempts as what it is - criminal

Flursn, are you one of those people who will stop at a red pedestrian light at 4AM in the morning with no traffic around and wait for it to turn green? :-)

Yeah, I must have missed the latest legislature which will outlaw flooding like this. I thought it was about Spam-mails. And while this spammer is obviously a twit (cut that crap out, would ya?) and should be complained about at abuse@his_isp.com to have his accout yanked and/or his incoming IP-ranges blocked, it seems hardly to be a criminal offense to post a dozen repeat messages to a forum.

Pls let's not get carried away here in wanting to criminalize people.

[scum of the univ]

@FKANB

There is a very good reason to stop at red lights at 4AM: there is often an idle cop around. The spammer is also not so easily blocked. You should try it someday.

And yes, it is in fact a criminal act to post repeated messages to a forum if the intent is Denial Of Service ("no comment" referred to it as dos-attack). Crimes (e.g., fraud) that are based on intent are always a little fuzzy, however.

However, I would generally agree with no comment that it's something you need to learn to address on your own, however.

[FKANB]

scum of the univ wrote: There is a very good reason to stop at red lights at 4AM: there is often an idle cop around.

At _pedestrian_ crossings, as I had written? In what police-state exactly do you live where they chase pedestrians on empty crossings at 4AM?

And yes, it is in fact a criminal act to post repeated messages to a forum if the intent is Denial Of Service ("no comment" referred to it as dos-attack). Crimes (e.g., fraud) that are based on intent are always a little fuzzy, however.

If this is DOS, why can everybody still post? And it is hardly a criminal matter for Germany: It's a civilian matter and David could get the spammer to sign a quite costly "Unterlassungserklärung" via his lawyer.

But I can not imagine a prosecutor here opening a criminal case over a few dozen flood-postings. They got bigger fish to fry.

But hey, let's not guess, but let's find out who is right, whether this is criminal or only civil:

Let's ask David to take the IP-adress of the spammer to his local prosecutor and let David report back to us the outcomes of that criminal case! Shall we?

Note from David: "If this is DOS, why can everybody still post?" Answer: Because we stop it and erase the spamer's comments once it starts. Otherwise the comment sections would be flooded with this garbage. "David could get the spammer to sign a quite costly "Unterlassungserklärung" via his lawyer." Answer: that's funny. You're absolutely clueless. He's using fake e-mail-addresses and fake IP's, of course. It's called spoofing. Welcome in the 21st century, FKANB!
You live in Germany, by any chance?

[To FKANB]

FKANB,
thank you for showing what German Besserwisserei really means. :-)
You are better than any explanation. Now I understand Germany much better.

[no comment]

@ FKANB
>>>If this is DOS, why can everybody still post?
nee, wollt' ich gar nicht so hoch haengen. wenn man unter "service" die bereitstellung des diskussionsforums versteht, dann ist "denial" einfach, dass jeder, der sich die kommentare anschaut einfach nur genervt ist. noch 'ne frage: wurde nur der name aufgegeben, oder auch die neutralitaet (;-)?

[FKANB]

Anonymous wrote:thank you for showing what German Besserwisserei really means. :-) You are better than any explanation. Now I understand Germany much better.

You are very welcome to use the anecdotal experience with me as personal evidence for your stereotypes on Germany.

Isn't this was the main purpose of these IMO in tone divisive comment-boards here is? To collect anecdotal evidence to prove a pre-existing thesis that Bush is without failure and Germans are only evil anti-Americans, who know it all better? :-)

[FKANB]

@no comment:

Na, die Neutralität hab ich aufgegeben. Wenn Dinge wie "wie vor 60 Jahren" aus der Mottenkiste geholt werden, fällt es mir ein wenig schwer, noch ernsthaft zu antworten.

Whatever you do, don't mention the war!

[Thomas]

Something very interesting that I saw on CNN International yesterday - it may be just a coincidence but if fits so nicely that I can't really believe that:

CNNI showed parts of Mr. Rantisi's hate-filled speech yesterday. In front of him, three microphones could be seen: one I couldn't identify and those of - well, ARD and ZDF. Seems as if there are some people who are especially keen to get the view of 'the Palestinians' and their only partly terrorist, but also enormously caritative leadership straight from the (new) horse's mouth...

[Helian]

@no comment

"freeping a poll can turn into a dos-attack and could therefore be considered illegal as well."

Where in this blog has "freeping" ever been advocated, unless you define the suggestion that blog readers take the time to vote is "freeping," and where do you find any connection whatsoever between this blog and the "freepers." You are promoting retaliation for a "sin" that was never committed. Do you just assume, along with the morons that are trying to spam this site, that everything SPIEGEL claims is the truth?

[Joe]

WHy are there even such laws against spamming if they can't be enforced? To make people think that something is happening? Sheesh!

[no comment]

>>>Where in this blog has "freeping" ever been advocated, unless you define the suggestion that blog readers take the time to vote is "freeping," and where do you find any connection whatsoever between this blog and the "freepers." You are promoting retaliation for a "sin" that was never committed. Do you just assume, along with the morons that are trying to spam this site...

read this: http://www.davidkaspar.com/ "bush needs your help" (freep a poll)
and this: http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/bush_needs_your_1.html
but especially this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1093575/posts

and then ask yourself who's the moron. why do i have to play the guide dog in here...?

>>>...that everything SPIEGEL claims is the truth?
well, not everything. sometimes i wait until it is confirmed by folks like freerepublic.com.

Note from David: I'm not the David Kaspar from http://www.davidkaspar.com/. Also, no connection to the Free Republic people. I didn't even know their web site...

All I did - actually, it was Ray's great idea - was to suggest participating in a SPIEGEL ONLINE poll. That's "freeping"? I didn't even know the expression at the time...

OK, I admit it. It was all a neocon conspiracy. Damned, some smart German folks took this very serious and uncovered it!

[Helian]

@no comment

"read this: http://www.davidkaspar.com/ "bush needs your help" (freep a poll)
and this: http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/bush_needs_your_1.html
but especially this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1093575/posts"

You only cite one link to David's blog, no comment, which makes it clear from the start that you didn't bother to read my post. The one link to David's blog you do cite does not recommend or suggest "freeping" in any way. If you bother to follow your own link you will read;

"Go to this page and click "1" or "2" and then "ABSTIMMEN" in the lower right field. You can't vote twice since SPIEGEL ONLINE installs cookies on your computer..."

Hmmm, doesn't look like incitement to "freeping" to me, no comment. If you bother to look at your third link, you will see that it wasn't posted by David, but by someone with the handle, "Jabba the Nutt." The similar link posted by SPIEGEL "proving" David's connection to the freepers was actually posted by "eabinga," who, according to his fact sheet lives in Brunswick, Georgia. You as "guide dog," no comment? I don't think so.

[FKANB]

David wrote:
Answer: that's funny. You're absolutely clueless. He's using fake e-mail-addresses and fake IP's, of course. It's called spoofing. Welcome in the 21st century, FKANB! You live in Germany, by any chance?

Oh, clueless me.

Bidirectional "IP-spoofing" would surely be the most efficient way to fully communicate with this server (and not just the one-directional way for SYN-floodstuff) only to annoy us with just a few handful of messages each day. Right. Why use simple things like chained proxies or simply find open accounts in some foreign country, when you can do full IP-spoofing! :-)

And what is this "clueless" and "you live in Germany"-stuff anyways? I read on the web somewhere that it's a weblog by a German here - are you a German citizen yourself or not?

Note from David: Sure, I am German and living in Germany... that's why I recognize German Oberlehrer's so easily when I spot them. End of discussion.

[no comment]

>>>>"Go to this page and click "1" or "2" and then "ABSTIMMEN" in the lower right field. You can't vote twice since SPIEGEL ONLINE installs cookies on your computer..."

>>Hmmm, doesn't look like incitement to "freeping" to me

oh, no? fyi, you can delete the cookies stored by your browser. as the numerous david-kaspars certainly know. the simplest way to manipulate a poll is to vote, delete cookies, vote again. this is infantile of course, but some people can't help...

@david
something technical: isn't it possible to compare each incoming posting against the previous postings of the same thread in order to identify spammers? spam could the be identified, when there are, say, more than 95% coincidence. should work at least for the kind of spam we see in this blog.

Note from David: Again, no "freeping" intended when I pointed to SPIEGEL ONLINE's poll. It's really a non-problem. Online polls are not to be taken serious, freeping or not. They mean nothing.
Let's lay it to rest now...

Spamming in our comment section is easy to identify and to stop. In any case, the whole problem will cease to exist once Typepad introduces Typekey, a comment registration system.
Just wondering: why do you insist on calling yourself "no comment"?

[Sandy P.]

This is OT, but something for our German friends to keep in mind:

Secrets of Timothy McVeigh
Lingering questions about the Oklahoma City bombing could get answered during Terry Nichols’ second trial

LA Weekly article, can find at Little Green Footballs - if you can handle the site, kind of rough for those w/a different POV.

In a nutshell - unanswered questions as to whether or not McVeigh had ties to Iraq and aid in the Oklahoma City bombing.

If so, either FBI incompetence or coverup.

[no comment]

@david
>>Let's lay it to rest now...
i agree.

>>Just wondering: why do you insist on calling yourself "no comment"?
err - well - got no special reason. i was posting in some other forum and that day 'no comment' was the first thing that came in my mind. i realized that sometimes people are playing with it when they reply...