Netanyahu: ‘A Man’s Gotta Do What a Man’s Gotta Do’ - Mediaite

[WillyT]

Netanyahu: ‘A Man’s Gotta Do What a Man’s Gotta Do’
by Evan McMurry | Mediaite
8:00 am, July 22nd, 2014

<snip>

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to NBC News’ Brian Williams Monday night as both Israeli and Palestinian death tolls rose in Gaza. When Williams asked if the prime minister felt public opinion turning against Israel due to the number of civilian casualties, Netanyahu replied that his hand had been forced by Hamas’ actions.

“Am I worried that this will have an effect? Of course it does,” Netanyahu replied

“But, you know, at a certain point you say what choice do you have? What would you do? What would you do if American cities, where you’re sitting now, were absorbing hundreds of rockets, you know what you’d say? You’d say to your leader, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, and a country’s gotta do what a country’s gotta do.”

Netanyahu has spent several days arguing that Hamas has intentionally embedded its weapon systems within civilian populations and even discouraged civilians from leaving areas after Israeli warnings, all to create “telegenically” dead civilians in order to manipulate public opinion.

<snip>

Link (w/Video): http://www.mediaite.com/tv/netanyahu-a-mans-gotta-do-what-a-mans-gotta-do/

[Violet_Crumble]

1. I must have missed the bit where Israeli cities are absorbing hundreds of rockets...

Unless he's confusing Israeli cities with Gaza...

What a scumbag...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. He's including rockets taken down by Iron Dome

as part of the hundreds.

And that's the one part of what he says I agree with. There is no reason Israel should need Iron Dome. Hamas militants with rockets should be stopped from committing their criminal activity. But until Palestinians are allowed freedom and hope for a life that isn't in a giant prison-slum, there will always be more desperate enough to lash out with more rockets, more kidnappings and bombings.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Ah. He made it sound like cities were being decimated...

I agree what what you said about the rockets shouldn't be fired at Israel regardless of Iron Dome, and I doubt there's anyone at DU who wouldn't.

I read an article in GD earlier this afternoon that gives a strong hint that Nutty's, uh, deterrence policy is going to end up creating another generation of militants, which is what killing civilians tends to do...

Of those who lived in the house, only four people survived, three men who had gone to pray, and Tawfik Abu Jameh’s toddler, shielded by the body of his mother. The children killed ranged in age from 4 months to 14 years, and included an adopted orphan whose father had been killed in an Israeli strike.

One of the survivors, Bassam Abu Jameh, lay on a mat with a broken leg, his eyes rimmed with red. His wife, Yasmeen; two brothers; and three children, Batool, 5, Sohaila, 3, and Bassam, 1, had all been killed. “There is nothing left,” he said, pressing his hand to his eyes. “It is the end for us.”

He closed his eyes, lying still and letting his neighbors continue the account. After a while, he opened them again and announced, in a shaky voice: “I will marry again four times, and I will have 10 sons with each wife, and they will all be in the resistance.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/world/middleeast/questions-about-tactics-and-targets-as-civilian-toll-climbs-in-israeli-strikes.html?_r=1

[smirkymonkey]

15. This will never, ever end.

[Fred Sanders]

26. Killing 149 children in 3 days is going to create a lot of hatred, maybe that is the plan to keep

the prisoners restless and imprisoned.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

12. Well, if they can keep Hamas from attacking

they can start putting on a serious political blitz, pushing for recognition of Palestine as a nation by more and more countries, the UN, the ICC, etc, joining into as many treaties as possible, and from there continue the pressure on Israel by noting that since World War II, the world has not recognized the validity of countries taking land from other countries by force.

Violence leads to violence. Hamas is not helping Palestine, just as Netanyahu is not helping Israel.

[pscot]

21. Actually, Israel is sitting on all of

what used to be Palestine.

[snooper2]

31. maybe if they back their ass up to where the borders were agreed to decades ago wouldn't be an issue

[malaise]

7. Bibi reminds me of Cheney

He's both a pathological liar and a war criminal.
By the way I watched BBC this morning and there was a young man from a Jewish human rights group in Israel condemning the killing in Gaza and stating clearly that it is a violation of international law.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. Was he from B'Tselem?

That's one of the main human rights groups in Israel. I just checked their site for the first time in ages and they're speaking out strongly against the bombing of Gaza. They're a fantastic group, but Nutty's government hates them...

B’Tselem calls on the Government of Israel to immediately cease the bombardment of inhabited homes, neighborhoods and areas in the Gaza Strip


The horrific developments in Gaza have reached intolerable heights: Israel is bombing houses with people in them, entire families have been buried under rubble, and streets lie in ruins. Hundreds have been killed so far, dozens in the last 24 hours only, many of them women and children. The number of refugees is rising: tens of thousands of people have nowhere to go and no safe haven, as the besieged Gaza Strip is bombarded.

Israel considers any perceived link to Hamas justification for attack. Hamas considers any place in Israel a target. One party fires at civilians, more often than not missing the target thanks to the Iron Dome defense system. The other party fires at densely populated civilian areas, with deadly results on a shocking scale.

Hamas makes no pretense to follow the laws of war. Israel does, but holds Hamas responsible for its own actions – the dead, the refugees, the destroyed homes. Yet unlawful actions by one party cannot justify unlawful actions by the other, and regardless, each party bears sole responsibility for the outcome of its actions. Israel may proclaim its actions in Gaza to be moral and lawful, but the horrifying reality on the ground makes it impossible to further countenance Israel’s cynical use of legal terms such as “proportionality”, “distinction” and “due caution”. Israel is exploiting these words to justify the death and destruction it is wreaking on the Gaza Strip.

In view of all this, B’Tselem calls on the Government of Israel to immediately cease the bombardment of inhabited homes, neighborhoods and areas in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.btselem.org/20140721_btselem_calls_on_government_to_cease_bombardment

[malaise]

9. Yes

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Yeah, that was a pretty repulsive speech.

And here's a hint - you guys can deny them those 'telegenically dead civilians', by, you know, actually using precision. Don't shoot off rockets of your own, don't just roll tanks into buildings, don't use 'flechette missiles' or throw grenades. Send in SWAT teams after the criminals, who don't just automatically shoot everyone around, but actually just target the criminals.

Some DU'er named Fozziedick said I wouldn't like it if Israel went in by ground, and turns out he was right - they're just as indiscriminate, if not moreso in their ground attacks as they are with air assaults.

If you treat militants with rockets like criminals, the world will rally behind you. If you simply stomp around like Godzilla, destroying the hovels of poor people caught in the middle of you and the criminals, the world isn't going to be so supportive.

[Fred Sanders]

4. He needs to stick to speeches involving cartoon characters...like the roadrunner cartoon he used

at the UN to do some mansplaining to the heathens at the UN on Iran, remember that?

That was when I knew Bibi had gone mad.

[NightWatcher]

6. You know, it's hard out here for a pimp/ murderous war monger

Haters gonna hate.

-says the guy who shells a hospital and kids playing on the beach

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Isn't that what rapists say?

[WillyT]

13. Kick !!!

[Avalux]

14. Yeah, he's just as bad as Bush/Cheney and should be arrested for war crimes.

Of course it will never happen, not with any of them.

[WillyT]

16. Sadly True...

[WillyT]

17. Kick !!!

[RobertEarl]

18. Kick. Also..

the mental image above of Godzilla is apt.

I can't say any more because it would draw my 3rd anti-war hide in 2 days.

[WillyT]

19. I Feel Your Pain... Did You Catch This:

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017204180

[Uncle Joe]

20. A man doesn't "gotta" murder children and women, that's a piss poor definition of a man.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[WillyT]

22. THANK YOU !!!

[Uncle Joe]

23. Hey WillyT have you seen the video by this Israeli Captain?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017204261#post1

Peace to you, WillyT.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

24. I don't know if there might not be some truth to the notion of telegenically dead civilians in order

to manipulate public opinion. I imagine the situation is complex and there is no convenient answer: some civilians are dead because Hamas prevented them from leaving, while some are dead because they're simply unable to go anywhere else. But the minute you accept Netanyahu's canned answer that ALL dead Palestinians are dead because they're human shields, then there's no limit to the number that can die and it will be their fault, not Israel's. A quarter million can die in one raid and they'll have died according to Bebe because their bodies are telegenic.

[WillyT]

25. The "Telegenically Dead" Did Not Work So Well For The Surviving Nazis At End Of WWII...

In fact... they tried to destroy the evidence...



On the way out...

[defacto7]

27. "Telegenically Dead"

No words could possibly characterize the ultimate sociopath than those. If there are people who have any concept of humanity, they will see clearly that this man is the perfect example of a sociopath just by these words alone.

He has perfectly outed himself.

[WillyT]

28. THANK YOU !!!

[Fred Sanders]

29. That was the talk of a heartless mad man, the whole world saw that clearly. Bibi thinks himself

so clever with words, he out clevered himself.

[kelliekat44]

30. If Putin and Russia can be sanctioned..why can't Bibi and Israel? Oh, I forgot, we have laws against

sanctioning Israel for anything, including war crimes.