I come from there and remember,
I was born like everyone is born, I have a mother
and a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends and a prison.
I have a wave that sea-gulls snatched away.
I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
I have a moon past the peak of words.
I have the godsent food of birds and an olive tree beyond the kent of time.
I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.
I come from there, I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the
sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.
I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.
I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one:
Home

-Mahmoud Darwish

A song
I sing a sad song – -
sadder than the sunset’s walk
in the city streets;
I feel grief in my blood
flowering from some hidden spring;
my friends, we die – -
we sail into the end
without pausing to say goodbye;
our dreams, our hopes, our loves
come to an end
like footprints in the sand
chewed by the desert.
I sing a happy song – -
happier than the sunrise
on another shore;
happier than the smile
a birthday-child smiles;
happier than a new kiss;
I feel a stubborn joy
conquering my blood;
my friends, we live – -
we live each instant
to its deepest cores, collect
its treasures, trifle with its secrets,
lave ourselves within its ecstacy.
Of death and life I shall
a happy/sad sad/happy song
sing . . .

Dr. Ghazi Algosaibi

Notice that the IDF says its reports were ?flawed?, instead of saying, ?We lied.? The reports were flawed? and people don?t kill people, guns kill people. Doublespeak for the new millenium.

Fabian, you have your sensitive subjects as do we… please post up your Jenin denial sources rather then just declare that it never happened!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5074792.stm – It also has the counter-reply by local Human Rights Organizations and the UN.

You don’t need to register for this one :)

and BTW, Jenin claimed the lives of 52 Palestinians. Is that enough for you? Apparently not. But your obviously not going to believe anything that the UN says.

“The importance of the committee’s findings are obviously mitigated by the fact that ultimately, the IDF is being cleared by an IDF investigation. This is not an international inquiry, or even an external, civilian inquiry. Nevertheless, the army hopes that the findings will clear its name. Thus the next step will be leveraging these findings to affect public opinion Israeli (where the battle is already largely won; even human rights organizations cast doubt on the Palestinian claims on Monday), international and even Palestinian.”

“…leveraging these findings to affect public opinion”. Leveraging. Hmm. Another way of saying “spinning” these findings.

And where is that 6th and missing Israeli shell? And why were they firing them at the beach? Sounds like less of a mistake than Israel cares to admit.

I don’t rule out that it was a Hamas mine. I don’t rule out that it wasn’t. And neither has the IDF investigation.

Haartz: “The importance of the committee’s findings are obviously mitigated by the fact that ultimately, the IDF is being cleared by an IDF investigation. This is not an international inquiry, or even an external, civilian inquiry. Nevertheless, the army hopes that the findings will clear its name.” Yes indeed, a very good example of the lamb watching the hen house :) EVERYONE, the whole world should accept the IOF’s explanation. After all, they are all part of God’s chosen people.

Haartz: “The main hole in the army’s evidence is the missing sixth shell actually, the first to be fired whose landing site has not been determined. From an examination of the cannon, the army is convinced that the shell could not have fallen on the beach, almost half a kilometer from its intended target. But there is no firm proof of this, only an educated guess.” Sure, the world should accept the offering of the IOF”s “educated guess” We all know they are superior in their guessing and once again, accept, subject closed.

Jpost: And here’s the best explanation of all: “Unconfirmed reports further suggested attempts by Palestinians to remove shrapnel from the bodies of the wounded, treated in Israeli hospitals, thus impeding the investigation.” Yes indeed, the shrapnel that has been taken from the bodies MUST have been from a bomb planted on the beach by Hamas to prevent the IOF from landing there. Then when the truth started coming out secret Hamas agents were sent to remove the shrapnel with tweezers before they got caught. This is all after they planted camera men on the booby-trapped scene just waiting to make a snuff film and blame it on the IOF. Seems absolutely plausible to me. Case closed. Can we move on to more important matters now like finishing the wall, relocating our settlements, getting rid of the trouble makers, and sit down to a nice cup of hot tea with the bush administration?

[...]For the morons who doubt the footage of Houda’s family massacre (aka, Gaza beach massacre) which showed the world the Israeli terrorist army killing innocents; here is a slideshow of[...]