Comments:Protester killed in West Bank; world reacts to Gaza conflict
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This is not an unbiased "wiki news" type entry. This is a slanted and opinionated post that is better suited for online forums. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.223.177.6 (talk • contribs)
- So what exactly would you change about this article?Soapy (talk) 17:22, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
Iranian reaction
editAnother user (called NonZionist talk) contributed this elsewhere on Wikinews a few days ago. I think it is relevant to this discussion:
Iran's response to "Operation Cast Lead", the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, is surprisingly nuanced. Much of the criticism targets not the Israeli offensive per se, but the international double-standard that makes aggression possible. Iran reminds us that acts of aggression that harm innocent people are themselves forms of "terrorism" -- namely state terrorism. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders consistently distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, and focus their criticism on the latter. The same distinction is evidenced below by the protests and statements of the Iranian Jewish community. On Sunday (January 4), Saaed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, addressed hypocrisy and double standards, calling Gaza "a scene of disgrace for those who claim to be confronting terrorism," He said that these unnamed powers "are not only keeping quiet vis-a-vis the Zionist terrorism, they are actually confirming it", and he called on all countries to stop Israel's "war machine".
According to the semi-official Mehr News Agency, Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament, said Sunday (January 4) that the territory targeted by Israel's ground offensive would "become Israel's graveyard". He said that "The Zionists faced the powerful resistance of the zealous Palestinians".
Israel, which receives the most advanced weapons in the world from the U.S., along with $3,000,000,000 a year, has accused Iran of supplying Hamas with weapons. The Islamic Republic denies the charge and states that it provides only moral support.
Students in Tehran and other Iranian cities have repeatedly protested the Israeli attacks. Iranian MP's expressed their opposition to Zionism.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, makes a sharp distinction between Zionists and Jews:
[I]n Palestine there are Muslims, Christians and Jews who live together. We love everyone in the world - Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians... We are against occupation, aggression, killings and displacing people - otherwise we have no problem with ordinary people.
Ahmadinejad asks "How can you possibly be religious and occupy the land of other people?" and states that the Zionists he criticizes are "neither Jews nor Christians nor Muslims".
On December 30, diverse groups representing the 25,000-member Iranian Jewish community, have protested "Israeli war crimes" and the "slaughter of innocent people" in Gaza.
Rahmatollah Rafi, the chairman of Iran's Jewish community, is said to have expressed "support and sympathy with the Palestinian nation" at a protest held in front of the U.N. office in Tehran. Rafi criticized "certain Arab governments for their inaction and silence towards Israeli inhuman acts and war crimes in Gaza and the entire Palestinian territories."
The Tehran protest was led by Siamak Mara-Sedq, the Jewish representative in Iran's Parliament. In a Tuesday speech to the Iranian parliament, Mara-Sedq said that he was "shocked" by Israel's "savage acts", according to IRNA, the Iranian News Agency. He reportedly called on "all the peace-loving nations and the true advocates of human rights" to "thoroughly support the defenseless Palestinian people". He asked people to encourage Tel Aviv to stop the genocide in the region.
Links
editHashem Kalantari. "Gaza to be Israeli "graveyard:" Iran's Larijani" — Reuters, January 4, 2009
Joe Parko. "Israel is illegally using U.S. weapons in its attack on Gaza" — OpEdNews.com, December 28, 2008
William D. Hartung. "U.S. Arms Transfers and Security Assistance to Israel" — World Policy Institute Arms Trade Resource Center, May 6, 2002
"Iranian leader 'not anti-Semite'" — BBC News International Version, September 21, 2006
"CNN's Larry King Live: Transcript of Interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" — CNN, September 23, 2008
"Iranian Jews protest Gaza 'slaughter'" — The Jerusalem Post (JPost.com), December 30, 2008
""Iranian Jewish school girls and their Muslim teacher attend an anti-Israel demonstration to condemn Israel over air attacks on the Gaza Strip in front of the UN offices in Teheran, on Tuesday."" — AP photo, December 30, 2008
Hamas is asking for it
editHamas has been firing rockets at Israel for 8 years, and they are hiding among civilians. What is Israel supposed to do?