1. Oscar, New York, NY | 07.17.09

Total hasbara, everybody. Even the IDF rabbi was telling the soldiers they were fighting a holy war to expel the Palestinians and to maximize casualties.

Fortunately, there are probably a dozen groups right now actively chronicling the war crimes and human rights abuses of the IDF. (Goldstone’s inquiry will be the most balanced.)

Historians will look back on Operation Cast Lead, its use of white phosphorus weapons and limb-shearing DIME bombs, and the treatment of innocent civilians as “ants under a magnifying glass” and will note that this is the precise moment that the world community woke up to the apartheid regime and . . . took action. We pray that the US taxpayer funded humanitarian crisis comes to an end within two years under President Obama.

2. Saavedra | 07.17.09

Watch in wide-eyed wonder as AIPAC’s 100,000 strong and the myriad other organizations start their engines. Write to your congress members and see what I mean. 1,400 Gazans slaughtered, including over 900 elderly, women and children and not a blink from U.S. benefactors. Follow the lobbyists, follow the dollars. Gotta dance with them what brung ‘em.

3. Jack | 07.17.09

It’s war. Bad things happen. Good things happen. The press is free to choose what to print. The stories a news agency chooses to print tells more about the news agency than it does about the subject of the article.

4. Nordicelt | 07.18.09

From what I gathered, from watching the Gaza situation unfold,..I am inclined to believe that the “Breaking the Silence”, version, is more truthful than the “Soldiersspeakout” version, as to what was, & was not, the official policy of the Isreali Government in their murderous incursion into Gaza,..Indeed, over the years, the Iseali Government, has shown itself to be, perhaps, the most evil institution, on the planet Earth,..They never cease to wallow in their disgusting mixture of self rightiousness & self pity, while they use their overwhelming military power to brutilize those, over whom they have power,..my respects to those soldiers who did speak out on this topic,..

5. Gabriel | 07.18.09

The facts on the ground in Gaza, in addition to the use of white phosphorous, the sheer number of children dead, lend credence to the anonymous soldiers, certainly not the apologists.

Not to mention that Israel would not allow journalists in, the many instances of the IDF’s use of human shields, the callousness of the ongoing blockade, Israel’s breach of the cease-fire in the first place, the calculated de-humanization of Palestinians, the violent opposition to groups that would bring humanitarian aid, the settlements, the Israeli-only roads in the West Bank, the annexation of Jerusalem, etc., etc.

It is apartheid, bordering on ethnic cleansing. The propaganda attempting to make Israelis look like the victims has lost it’s sparkle.

6. kenny | 07.18.09

Anonymos ,& unidentified.Typical of libral left wing propaganda .Never substanciated,but always embraced by the media.

7. BBSNews | 07.18.09

The live video coverage from Al Jazeera English puts the lie to the US sponsored group “Soldiers Speak Out” - day after day of damning live video proof of the testimonies from Breaking the Silence.

Europe carries it, Israel carries it, even Washington D. C. beltway types can get it.

The average American is prevented from getting it. One suspects this is because if the average American started to see what is really happening to the Palestinians at the hand of the Israelis, American public support would evaporate because Israel’s actions in Gaza were nothing but mass destruction and terror inflicted on an entirely captive and under siege population.

Hamas was elected. Hamas is still there. Hamas is even governing. Destroying lives and public infrastructure did nothing and will do nothing to dislodge them from their land, that should be patently obvious by now even to the most warmongering of observers.

8. Zee R | 07.18.09

“We got everything they needed and took very good care of them during the operation.” lol.

Why is that statement so hard to believe? How did 1400 die if you took such good care of them?

When you ‘left the cover of a house to feed the family’s animals, did you take a shield with you? Seems like you treat animals better than the people.

9. Tor Krieger | 07.18.09

Please look at the final sentence of your second paragraph: “Now the foot soldiers upset by the allegations have come forward to push back.” “THE [emphasis mine] foot soldiers?” Which foot soldiers? Did they really ” come forward” or were they brought forward by Stand With Us International (just as you assert the soldiers who spoke out, anonymously, in the pamphlet were brought out by Breaking the Silence.” We all know some essential facts here, even as The Monitor” has published most of them: Thousands and thousands of Palestinians were killed by the IDF during this last major incursion. Though is is likely most of those deaths were caused from the air or from so far away that the soldiers firing were unaware of the mayhem they caused, many IDF soldiers (indeed not murderers by nature or inclination) found themselves ordered to use deadly force unwisely. What’s curious to me is that even though these facts are commonplace and undeniable, the Monitor publishes an article like this suggesting that “maybe it isn’t so.” If the Monitor really thinks it isn’t so, why not produce some contrary evidence? Show us that these Palestinian dead were simply shooting each other while the IDF stood around unable to help. Or? Thanks,
Tor Krieger
Santa Rosa, CA

10. Mark T. | 07.18.09

Psych 102 students should go to this site, many of the videos show the classic case of body language saying X while you are saying Y.

Hahahaha the topic is important but perhaps they should have coached their soliders a little better.

11. Fernando | 07.18.09

“Breaking the Silence” is sometimes the only way that allegations become facts. What “Soldiers Speak Out” could be right. That the orders were to minimize casualties. The issue is that maybe not all the soldiers were given the same orders. Just because 99 men are honest and behave well it doesn’t mean that 1 man can’t go and kill his neighbour.

12. Jacob | 07.19.09

There’s a very simple solution here. Take the trigger-happy and ultra-nationalist soldiers and reassign them to the rear echelons the next time war breaks out in the region. There’s too much hanging in the balance for Israel to risk derailing the peace process by allowing for so much autonomy in its armed forces.

13. Gene Guffey | 07.19.09

Exactly who is Breaking the Silence composed of and who provides their financial support?

We have a lot of these so called NGO around the world who supposedly expose the truth, but, do they really expose the truth or do they slant the truth the way they and their supports want. I question all of these organizations because it turns out in 98% of the cases they report from only one side of the issue and do not expose all the real facts.

Does this report state anything about the Hamas fighters hiding in families houses with the families in them? Does it state anything about the Hamas fighters killing other Palestinies in the conflict? The list is endless, but the NGO’s seem to forget that TRUTH is more important than an agenda.

Any war scene is pure hell as it is a life or death situation between the fighters. However, it has been proven time and time again that terrorists care less about human life and do not follow the so called Rules of Engagement as published by the Geneva Convention.

So I ask the question again - Who exactly is Breaking the Silence and who provides their financial support?

14. Sarah Smith Redmond | 07.19.09

Here’s to the best ad men on the planet. If there ever was a group that can put ‘lipstick on a pig’ it’s Israel.
the power to name and defame has kept the people of Palestine under their thumb for 61 years.
How could such a proud, talented people have sunk so far, I just don’t understand?

15. SkysoldierRecon173 | 07.19.09

This is a war of annihilation. For BOTH sides. Brutality during war is nothing new. You get used to it, it becomes part of you. I don’t doubt ANY of it..

16. JoWriter | 07.19.09

Hmmm - last-minute publication of anonymous testimonials versus comments from soldiers who use their names and allow their pictures to be used — you decide who is more believable.

17. Sari Bashi | 07.19.09

Groups like Soldiers Speak Out would do well to encourage Israel to conduct an independent investigation into serious allegations of violations of humanitarian law during the recent Gaza operation. The Israeli government has consistently refused requests by a coalition of Israeli human rights groups, including Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, to conduct an independent investigation (external to the military) and also to cooperation with the UN Committee investigating allegations of violations of the laws of war on both sides, Israel and Hamas. Those who care about Israel’s reputation - and its moral fiber - should want to investigate the serious allegations raised by Breaking the Silence. In the words of the prominent Israeli military columnist, Amos Harel, in Thursday’s Haaretz:

“We can and should hold a discussion on the subject within Israeli society, as well, rather than respond to every allegation with the chorus of, ‘The IDF is the most moral army in the world,’ as if the issue had already been settled at an Olympics in which armies competed with each other in a moral long-jumping competition.” (my unofficial translation from the Hebrew)

See the submission of a coalition of Israeli human rights groups to the UN Commission:

http://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications_/Submission_Goldstone_English.pdf

18. Earl Shugerman | 07.19.09

I live in Israel and my family has been here for decades. The only proven war crimes relating to the Gazan fighting was the use of human shield by Hamas.
They also fired thousands of missles at civilian targets before Israel responded. What did America do after one terrorist attack? How do you have a two state settlement if Hamas refuses to accept it. We accepted it sixty years ago. The Arab League invasion in 1948 caused both a Jewish and Muslim exodus; but 1.5 million Muslims still live in pre-1967 Israel. How many Jews were driven from their homes in Gaza and The West Bank in 1948? The answer is every single one. More than 20,000 Israelis have been killed by our neighbors since 1948. Our only crime is to still be alive. Why are the leaders of Hamas not being prosecuted for war crimes for the benefit of the Palestinians.

Earl in Haifa

19. Tarik | 07.20.09

“We took very good care of them”
A typical delusion of colonialists, just as the British “took very good care” of the ungrateful Indian people. Perhaps we should ask the people of Gaza if they felt that the Israeli army took “good care” of them.

20. David Smith | 08.17.09

The anti-Israel crowd should admit that Israel was forced into this defensive military action by a ruthless enemy (Hamas) whose goal is to eliminate all Jews from the Middle East, and who never hesitates to use their own people as human shields, in order to score propoganda points. Before acting, Israel sustained several years and thousands of missile strikes by Hamas specifically targeted at residential areas in Israel. Where is the outrage over this violation of human rights?

The testimony of Breaking the Silence is seriously compromised by the anonymity and lack of detail of those giving testimony. Thus, their charges cannot be evaluated. This is not to say that human rights violations did not occur. But any fair minded person will also consider the extraordinary steps taken by the iDF to minimize casualties—–making tens of thousand of phone calls and dropping leaflets to alert citizens. On the other hand, Hamas booby-trapped residential areas, used homes, schools and hospitals as munitions depots and staging areas for attacks, and indoctrinated a generation of chilkdren in anti-semitic hate and historical innacuracy.

Israel is fighting the same fundamentalist enemy that kidnapped civilians in Beirut, and murdered innocents in New York, Washington DC, Saudi Arabia, Madrid, Kenya, Tanzaniya, Bombay…the list goes on. This mindless demonization of Isarel will eventually subside as the anti-Israel crowd realizes that Israel is but one of many fronts in the war led by the Islamic fundamentalists. And in every defensive action civilians will be hurt and killed.

21. Patrick of Australia | 08.18.09

Sadly so few Christian voices of reason in these comments fields.

“We pray that the US taxpayer funded humanitarian crisis comes to an end within two years under President Obama.”

While you’re at it could you please “pray” that your beloved utopian-dream president repents of his militant pro-abortion stance and revokes his policies which are poised to increase the extermination of unborn humans by the hundreds of thousands. But if you think the only open democracy in the Middle East defending itself against Taliban-style savagery is a “humanitarian crisis” then, okay, you have strange morals…

“The facts on the ground in Gaza, in addition to the use of white phosphorous, the sheer number of children dead, lend credence to the anonymous soldiers, certainly not the apologists.”

When you say “facts”, do you mean the ones spouted by the pro-Palestinian UN groups, which are later proven completely false? The same UN groups who knowingly employ terrorist bomb-makers as principals of schools, and make false claims about IDF bombing hospitals? The ones uncritically accepted by the media without verification?

“They never cease to wallow in their disgusting mixture of self rightiousness (sic) & self pity”

You MUST be talking about the Palestinian victim industry, surely? If not, your statement resembles an alternate reality. The funny thing here is that Israel are NOT wallowing in self-pity, they are defending themselves. Perhaps this is what truly disgusts you, that they fight back, instead of laying down and dying like good little Jews. Oh, and statements of refutation against proveably false allegations is not “self-righteousness”. It’s called political debate.

“How did 1400 die if you took such good care of them?”

Ask Hamas. They love the death of their own. Their words, not mine.

“If the Monitor really thinks it isn’t so, why not produce some contrary evidence”

You uncritically accept the “Breaking the Silence” report, yet pretend to be concerned about “evidence”?? How strange.

“Perhaps we should ask the people of Gaza if they felt that the Israeli army took “good care” of them.”

Go ahead. But be warned- they lie. Again, their own words (the Koran and Hadiths), not mine. Truth and Lie is irrelevant. Whatever is expedient for Islam is relevant. Making Israel look bad to the great gullible Dhimmi (namely most commentors on this page) is expedience. Oh, and remember, the rank-and-file people of Gaza are hardly going to speak their own words anyway. They say what Hamas want them to say…on pain of death.

David Smith, Earl Shugermen , JoWriter… thanks for the oasis of commonsense amongst a sea of outraged headlines, standard anti-israel slogans, rhetoric and hyperbole. It’s almost as if some Christians are completely and utterly oblivious to the worldwide reality of Islamic Sharia brutality and it’s epicentre which is “Palestine”.