IDF shoots up women outside mosque. posted by Richard Seymour

Israel's ongoing seige in Gaza reached a new low today as they shot at a large demonstration by Palestinian women. The Israelis, typically, are saying that they know they shot at some 'gunmen' (those they allege to have been hiding inside a mosque), but can't be sure if they shot at the women or not. I can't decide if this is more or less repellent than their claim that although they fired shells onto a Gaza beach, the family blown up by Israeli rocket-fire were actually killed by a rogue Hamas landmine. You can't be sure. Perhaps this is a tacit admission by the Israelis that they kill civilians so regularly, with such impunity, that they don't even notice when they are doing it.

Of course, it is a matter of policy to kill female civilians now. Aviad Kleinberg reports that the IDF are firing shells deliberately at Palestinian homes, and that former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon has announced that the wives of wanted Palestinian men are fair game. The israelis are purportedly re-colonising the Gazan open air prison in order to deal with Qassam 'rocket fire', but this is preposterous. These 'rockets' are nothing of the kind. They are ineffectual, improvised explosives whose impact is slight. They do not reach their targets most of the time, and have killed in all the time they have been used a maximum of eight people. They are a paltry retalation for Israeli attacks - specifically, these 'rockets' began to be fired by Hamas and other groups following the slaughter of the Ghaliya family on the Gaza beach, thus breaking an eighteen month unilateral ceasefire.

The reality is that the killing of these women is part of a routine policy of gunning down civilian protesters: this one simply made the air waves. I cited some sources before on this, and we need to bear it in mind at all times. Israel specifically and deliberately targets civilians as a matter of routine policy. Never forget this, especially when you are confronted with idiots like Sam Harris or some other oleaginous hack ever-ready to remind you of the difference between Us and Them.