Mid East War Update with Dan Gordon!

I’ve worked in media for over forty years; everything from feature films to running news crews, some of them in the middle east.I remember one reporter for a major European network who was based in Jerusalem in the eighties. A nice man, in that he would always buy me drinks whenever  we met, he was indeed a raging alcoholic, ostensibly covering the events in the West Bank. He used to hang out at a bar called Goliath’s , which advertised itself as being “ a stone’s throw” from the King David Hotel. He wore what was then the expected uniform of the hard bitten foreign correspondent; namely a well wrinkled safari jacket complete with sweat stains to make it look as if he was reporting live from some native uprising in the Sahara.Next to Goliath’s was a building made of Jerusalem stone that was half in ruins. If you held him in a tight enough shot, it looked like he was standing next to a recently demolished  Palestinian house. He would sit in Goliath’s bar and drink all day and send “ stringers” , free lancers , out to the West Bank to get footage of whatever that day’s riot was occurring during the lead up to the first Intifada. His stringers would come back and describe the footage they had taken of stone throwing on the Palestinian side and tear gas from the Israelis. Then he would get up from the bar, finish his martini, go outside and stand next to the ruined stone house. He would call for a tight shot of him in the Safari jacket and record his “ heads and tails” , the lead in and tag to the report he hoped would land him some network time on the nightly news.He would look suitably somber and end each report with his name( let’s say it was Sam Jones” )by saying, “ This is Sam Jones, reporting from somewhere in the Occupied West Bank”. Then he would take off the safari jacket, go back into the air conditioned bar, and order another martini.

i always got kind of a kick out of the old fraud, because though he was a drunken huckster of the first order, and a lazy one at that, A) he did pay for the drinks, and B) outside of lying about the fact that he wasn’t even there, he basically just covered the story. He even, occasionally provided context.
I  I miss him.

So the other day I’m watching a network correspondent, reporting from Gaza. He looks into the camera. His look is concerned, empathetic, suitably somber and even, saddened, in a kind  off handed way. Not enough to be maudlin, mind you. That wouldn’t be cool and it wouldn’t play well to his audience who want to be , while, not entertained, necessarily, suitably moved to click their tongues, but not enough to be actually upset. The report needs to re enforce beliefs he feels they already hold, so they can feel…well  righteous, not righteously indignant. That would be too upsetting. Just  morally superior. That’s the effect that will guarantee his following.

But there’s one other element he needs to make sure he hooks them and keeps them , so they don’t channel surf.

He needs blood.

There’s a saying in broadcasting, which is to say, show business, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

And nothing leads like the death of a child.

How could it?

Who could turn away from that?

Whether it’s a toddler left in his car seat to bake to death by a father having an internet affair, a starving third world
infant, or, in this case, the truly tragic death of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli air strike on the house of a known terrorist, if it bleeds, it leads.

He gets the saddened, somber look, his eyes looking straight into camera and speaks his truth, “ There’s no such thing as a surgical air strike.”

I’m a professional, and this guy’s good. Tis guy’s close to perfect. He goes on to talk about the fact that the Israelis attacked the house of “ an alleged terrorist”. Well that’s only fair right? I mean the terrorist in question didn’t actually have a trial, he just murdered people and bragged about it and announced his intention to murder others. So it was an air strike on” an alleged terrorist” and yet who got killed,? This innocent child. This poor sweet little girl who couldn’t possibly have posed a threat to Israel or anyone else. And yet the Israeli air force, with all it’s might and I might add it’s American made planes( as if the US. is an accomplice to this clear act of infanticide), murdered her.

Then we cut to footage of the child’s funeral, her bereaved parents, her infuriated neighbors, family and friends; the tragedy of the latest senseless act in, at best, this cycle of violence, and at worst, this barbarous act act  of a European colonial power against the brown skinned indigenous and rightful inhabitants of this portion of the world.

Permit me , if you will a few comments, and a bit of context which the reader may find of some interest.

First, no one needs to educate me, unfortunately, as to the tragedy of losing a child in a fiery death. My son was killed at the age of 22 and to this day I cannot talk about it. My heart goes out to this and every parent who must go through the absolute horror of burying their child. It is a pain that never leaves, a wounded, unhealable, a loss of a whole world. All the experiences that would have been, go into the grave with the child, joyous occasions never experienced, weddings never celebrated, grandchildren, unborn and in the grave before drawing a first breath. I don’t need to be trained in a somber look on that one.

But let me tell you what the Israel Defense forces have done in this war in order to do everything humanly possible to avoid loss of innocent life, to prevent the death of that poor child about whom the network correspondent was seemingly so concerned, and every other woman , child and non combatant in Gaza.

Before targeting any area we drop leaflets. The leaflets are in Arabic and they warn the citizens of a number of things. If they live near a Hamas smuggling or terror tunnel( one which has been dug in order to go under the Israeli border and carry out  a terrorist attack against Israeli troops or civilians) they are warned to leave immediately, because that tunnel will be a target for an air strike. If they live with or next to a known Hamas operative, they are warned to leave immediately because the house of that operative will be a target of an Israeli air strike. If they live next to a missile launching site, or rocket storage facility ( which many do because Hamas hides it’s rockets and operatives amongst it’s civilian population, which is by the way, recognized as a war crime under international law) they are warned to leave immediately because that will be the target of an Israeli air strike.

Now there are any number of Western armies which have dropped similar leaflets in similar campaigns  for years. But here is what, I believe, only the Israeli military does. We have an entire unit whose sole purpose is to call Gazans up on their cell phones ( yes we have their numbers) and warn them in arabic, to leave immediately because we are about to attack that particular house, tunnel, launching site or storage facility.

Let me say that again, WE CALL THEM UP  AND WARN THEM TO LEAVE BEFORE THE OKAY IS GIVEN TO ATTACK!!!

Then, as if that is not enough, we have even dropped flares on the house about to be hit to show that the attack is imminent and its inhabitants still  have a chance to leave.

And what does Hamas do?

Do they have a civil defense unit standing by ready to evacuate their people before an impending Israeli air strike?

No.They tell their people to stay in the house, to become a human shield to protect their so called fighter, who hides behind his own wife and children, or their weapons, for which they are prepared to sacrifice their own people, in order to have a few more rounds to fire off at Jewish civilians.

So what is the choice offered to Israel in this instance? A) do nothing and let them kill your civilians, or B) do everything you humanly, possibly can to prevent innocent loss of life, but at the end of the day, do that which any armed force has been formed to do; protect your civilians…not your troops mind you, because by and large Hamas doesn’t attack our troops, but your women, your children, your old and infirm.

A gentleman by the name of Abu Odeh, a Hamas spokesman, was once asked by a reporter what the difference between Hamas and Al Qaida was. Abu Odeh was indignant. How could the reporter possibly compare Hamas to Al Qaida?
“ Well”, said the reporter , in a moment of candor and not a little courage, “ You both target civilians, do you not?”
“ Absolutely not!” Abu Odeh declared with his own righteous indignation, “ We never target civilians! We only target Jews.”

Like the old drunk standing outside of Goliath’s bar in his Safari jacket, that was in the good old days. Today Hamas finds itself competing with Al Qaida , Islamic Jihad and ISIS for terrorist street cred.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British regular army officer and commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, and not a Jew , last time I looked, has said that no army in the history of warfare has ever done as much as The Israel Defense Forces to avoid and prevent loss of innocent human life.

The numbers, by the way, bear him out. When the US bombed Bosnia and Kosovo, the loss of civilian life compared to the loss of combatant life was three to four to one. In the battle for Falujah the loss of civilian life compared to combatants was even higher.

According to the unverified Palestinian figures 172 Palestinians have been killed thus far of which 35 were children and 25 were women. That is a ratio of less than one to one. It’s still horrible, but not because Israel hasn’t done everything in its power to avoid civilian loss of life.

No Israelis have been killed thus far.

Not because Hamas hasn’t tried their best.You have to give them credit where credit is due. They have fired roughly 1000 rockets at Israel in this latest round of fighting, almost all of them fired exclusively at civilian targets. I’ve been under more than a dozen of them myself and can testify to three things;1) Israel’s iron dome anti missile system works. It has over a 90% success rate. But that still leaves a hundred rockets that got through , all of them aimed at our civilian population centers. 2) Israel has a civil defense system second to none, with shelters every fifty meters in the border towns which get the most rocket fire and a disciplined home front, which has not panicked and has followed civil defense measures which have saved countless lives.

What has Hamas done to save the lives of their own people? They have told them to ignore Israeli warnings to leave,and in some instances have ordered them to be human shields, have invested hundreds of millions in finding ways to kill our people and almost nothing to save their own.

And it’s not by chance. It is a cold, cynical calculation which allows them to commit acts of absolute terror, while claiming the mantle of victimhood.

No. There’s no such thing as a surgical air strike. But not for our lack of trying. To paraphrase Golda Meir, I believe peace will finally come when our adversaries want their own children to live, more than they want ours to die. Sadly, that day doesn’t seem to be coming any time soon…

L. A. Marzulli on Coast to Coast with Georger Noory, Thursday July 17th!

I will be discussing Watchers 8: Cloak of Secrecy!

I am at the Airport headed to PITN.  I will Blog most likely tomorrow morning or later today if I get the Chance.  L.A.

WATCHERS 8 - Cloak of Secrecy!
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Go to http://www.lamarzulli.net   
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http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cathiesdistantechos/2014/07/10/dr-lou-la-marzullis

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L. A. Marzulli’s Speaking Schedule 2014

New Years Eve! December 31 – Calvary Chapel Oceanside - Southern Cal. http://www.calvaryoceanside.org/upcoming-events/item/322-l-a-marzulli-2014.html

Watcher’s 7! Screening in Southern California - Saturday – Feb. 1st. 7:30 pm – Just Cause Motion Capture Stage – 4130 Del Rey Ave. Marina Del Rey!

February 21-22: Decoding the End Times Bible Conference! www.theprophecyforum.com

March 28-30: Prophecy In the News! Orlando www.prophecyinthenews.com 

April 5 & 6 - Dominion Christian Center. https://www.facebook.com/dominioncc?ref=hl

April 25 -27: Behold the Days are Coming Conference http://www.412church.org   

May 5-15: Peru tour with L. A. Marzulli & Brein Foerster!

June 13-14: Nephilim Mounds II - www.nephilimmounds2.com

June 28-29: The War of Art! Southern California! https://www.facebook.com/events/477292755732768/

July 25-27 – Prophecy in the News Colorado! www.prophecyinthenews.com
September 13:  Just ADDED! Living Word Alive – Dumont New Jersey!  Just ADDED!  http://livingwordalive.com/index.html

October 24-25: Strategic Trends with Chuck Missler - Details coming soon

November 7- 9: Tri State Prophecy Conference – W/ Gary Stearman & Russ Dizdar

To book L. A. Marzulli please email him at [email protected] L. A. Marzulli shares the platform with a variety of speakers with many different world views. Marzulli does not endorse anyones world view unless specifically noted.