Israeli tank shells 'kill 18 Palestinians in sleep'

Israeli tank shells have killed eighteen Palestinians in their sleep.

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said of the 18 dead, 13 were from the same family. He said at least 40 more were wounded, all civilians after the attack on a residential neighbourhood north of Beit Hanoun.

Palestinian hospital officials said there were several more injured. According to witnesses, all those killed were women and children.

This Israeli assault upon the Palestinians has been continuing since the kidnap of Gilad Shalit in the summer. Of course, what has been edited from this history is the fact that just before young Mr Shalit was kidnapped, on June 24th Israel kidnapped two Palestinians. But let's leave that aside for the moment.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned the attack. "This is a horrible, ugly massacre committed by the occupation against our children, our women and elderly in Beit Hanoun," he said in a statement. "We urge and call the security council to convene immediately to stop the massacres committed against our people and to uphold their responsibility to stop these massacres."

There are stories emerging of Palestinian schoolchildren attacking an empty EU mission building in Gaza City, a further sign of their frustration at our disgraceful policies against them for having the temerity to elect Hamas.

I would hope that the election of the Democrats in the US would help alleviate this situation, but actually they are just as pro-Israeli as the Republicans and seem to see the Middle East through an Israeli inspired prism exactly as their Republican counter parts do.

Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad called for Israel to be expelled from the United Nations, calling it an "animal, brutal state."

The sheer scale of brutality that the Israelis have been visiting upon the residents of Gaza has been truly breathtaking, but not as breathtaking as the world's apparent insouciance towards it.

Rarely does the matter make it to any western front page. Or rather, when this subject hits the front page it is always when a suicide bomb has killed Israelis. The deaths of Palestinians is obviously regarded by newsmen as being of lesser merit.

Indeed, during Israel's criminal assault upon Lebanon one very prominent left wing blog refused to even cover the subject claiming that the issue is too "complicated" and that both sides have positions that are hardened.

I would argue that the position is "complicated" for large American left wing blogs because the narrative they have been fed has been a false one and that for them to reanalyse what they have been led to believe is the history of this conflict would require an act of political courage that they are not prepared to make.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians continue to live under foreign occupation and the usual voices that one would expect to fight for their right to live free from the yoke of Israeli political and military might are largely silent.

That should be a source of shame for progressives everywhere.

We have deserted these people. Turned our gaze away because it is all so "complicated".

tag: Israel, Palestine, Gilad Shalit, liberals, liberalism, Gaza, strip, Israeli, raids, raid, kidnap, Beit Hanoun