Prayers for Gaza

Although it is only proper and right to memorialize these innocent little angels, why don't we ever see protests against the Hamas monsters who are the ones responsible for their deaths?

IDF warns Hamas, Hamas fires rockets into Israel, IDF responds, Hamas uses response as excuse to launch more attacks.

Because the media is telling one side of the story. When I ask Japanese people about the Iseali-Palestinian conflict, they always say they really don't understand why they fight and they always see on TV little suffering Palestinian children and Isreali soldiers, but they never show photos or videos of Hamas militants attacking Isrealis, firing their Qassam rockets causing destruction and death. It's one-sided and the Japanese sadly, get one side of the story.

Shoes displayed on the ground symbolize the dead children in Gaza.

It's good that the Japanese are doing this. There should be one pair of shoes to represent the 4-year old Palestinian Jewish boy killed by a Hamas rocket. It would put things into some perspective.

The display brings to mind the comments of the hawkish military analyst Ze'ev Schiff, commenting on General Moredechai Gur's description of the assault on Palestinians in Lebanon: "In South Lebanon we struck the civilian population consciously, because they deserved it…the importance of Gur’s remarks is the admission that the Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously…the Army, he said, has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets…[but] purposely attacked civilian targets even when Israeli settlements had not been struck.”

May justice be done for these souls.

Good to see this in Japan. World opinion is turning so much so that not even Mark Regev can spin enough BS to keep up.

BTW, today Israel retracted their claim that there were any rockets or mortars being fired from that UN school... (oops.. oh well, I guess?).

No-one is saying that Israel can't defend itself. However, Israel made a calculation that a ground invaision to take out the rockets would be too costly and time consuming. Airstrikes were much easier and effective. The cost for that ease and efficiency is the blood of civillians.

Ok, so let's honor one side and let's disregard another. Fair and balanced? Hmmmm....

they always see on TV little suffering Palestinian children and Isreali soldiers

Because 500 of the former were killed by the latter? How atrociously one-sided!

Rest in Peace to all these poor, innocent children. Many sadly met their deaths in their school, sleeping - and some just playing on the beach. Heartening to see Japanese citizens paying their respects.

it is brutal and shameful that some people give justification for the killing of children,,

bass4funk.. you also know that the media never say about the occupation of Palestine, this is the Israeli who come from around the world and occupied Palestine, destroyed their houses, killed them and displaced them in their own land, even in Gaza, which is an open Jail, they are surrounding them, killing them.

Its sad to see so many people commenting negatively about this , wile actually quite well know that actions of Israel army and politicians are just excuse for destruction of numerous civilian housing complex in Gaza under pretext of hunting those who are leaders of Hamas, or as a place from where it was fired .Palestinian rockets were fired, but those rockets are primitive , weak, and not guided , compared with state of the art Israel equipment, and bdw, the level of destruction is hugely different on Israel side. There is lack of willingness from Israel politicians and army to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties .

you also know that the media never say about the occupation of Palestine, this is the Israeli who come from around the world and occupied Palestine, destroyed their houses, killed them and displaced them in their own land, even in Gaza, which is an open Jail, they are surrounding them, killing them.

And the same goes for the opposite. I guess the media in all honesty want to just report on plight and death of the Palestinian children, which is very sad, but there are children also on the Israeli side that have died and no one is covering that. No one is talking about how most of these kids deaths were preventable and that Hamas is the main cause and has blood all over its hands, the media refuses to inform the people here about that.

bass4funk: who came to the land of Palestine and who are still coming Israeli or Palestinians? just answer this question first, you want impartiality, be impartial and fair yourself first and then ask others,

bass4funk,

There can never be a hierarchy of victimhood, and there certainly isn't one at play here.

Hamas need to stop using their kids as shields if they do not want to endanger their lives. They could also stop putting rocket launchers next to schools.

who came to the land of Palestine and who are still coming Israeli or Palestinians? just answer this question first, you want impartiality, be impartial and fair yourself first and then ask others,

I'm not going to debate and entertain that stupid question, because I know my answer will get you to say something different and I have to hear the Mods tell us to get back on track, so before they give us a warning, let us debate that another time, but I will stand by my statement that the media here is taking a one-sided position and that is a fact.

@John Michael White

Hamas need to stop using their kids as shields if they do not want to endanger their lives. They could also stop putting rocket launchers next to schools.

Again, Israel has today retracted their claims that there were rockets and motars near the UN school they bombed.

At the very least, they are reckless at to whether civilians are killed. That is a violation of international law and Israel must be restrained and held to account for their own sake.

The right wing zealots in Israel do more to threaten the legitimacy and existence of the Jewish state than Hamas could ever achieve on their own.

Good for them.

While I may not agree always on political issues, at least they are concerned about innocent lives lost, unlike the blood thirsty war mongering crowd out there.

This from the Telegraph:

'....Save the Children said almost a third of those injured were children. Less than a quarter of all casualties are thought to be Hamas militants.

"This is why we described the ongoing operation as a war on children," said Osama Damo, a Save the Children official in Gaza.'

Regardless of your political position, those statistics are beyond disgusting.

I think think Japan has enough of its own problems to worry about and concentrate on solving.

I feel ashamed that I didnt attended and its good to see this in japan. Every Killed (innocent) child could be the next Nelson Mandela, or ambassador of peace. Every child was a hope of future to bring ISRAEL and PALESTINE closer and end this conflict because children dont believe in cast, races or politics. They believe in love and friendship. May all children and innocent civilians Rest In Peace. since hope sustains the world we all should hope(and pray) for peace.

Until Islamic extremists like Hamas are eradicated from Gaza there will be many more poor children that become victims of their culture of death.

According to the UN, as of 16 hours ago, there are now nearly 330,000 evacuees within Gaza being housed in UN supported facilities. Approximately 1/4 of the total Gazan population of over 1,800,000 have been forced to seek alternative shelters due to the destruction of an estimated 14,300 residential buildings by IDF artillery fire and aerial bombing.

MEDIA is one sided they dont even count how many hamas militant was killed they keep on telling mostly civilian i think this pathetic media is pro HAMAS ..and why is the hell that rockets luncher are inside of hospital, un, house , mosque etc ? why media dont even report this one ? WTF

MEDIA is one sided they dont even count how many hamas militant was killed they keep on telling mostly civilian i think this pathetic media is pro HAMAS ..and why is the hell that rockets luncher are inside of hospital, un, house , mosque etc ? why media dont even report this one ? WTF

Trust me, I too, scratch my head on that every single day. Notice how the media in Japan almost NEVER show Hamas moving through their tunnels with their weapons and organizing rocket attacks, but making sure the people see the kids.but sensationalism sells and the news business is a ratings business and they know what will draw in viewers even if it is heavily one-sided.

RaNoa Neil,

one sided

bass4funk,

heavily one-sided

And the civilian casualties?

I wonder if the people who have been trained to blame Hamas for the Israeli regime's slaughter of children are going to blame JSIP (Jewish State In Palestine) militants for the death of the Israeli boy? After all, it turns out that who Hamas was actually firing at was a senior JSIP militant who chose to use the villagers, including the boy, as his human shield that day. Indeed, according to Haaretz, the attacks on Israeli villages (villages built on the remains of the villages forcibly emptied of nonJews by JSIP before the villages were wiped off the face of the earth to allow Jewish human shields against the fire by the original inhabitants to move in) have coincided with the presence within them of the JSIP commanders responsible for visiting so much death, destruction, and terror on the Refugees from those depopulated villages.

Japanese people gathering to honor children indiscriminately killed in war should not set anyone off on tirades about how the Japanese media is biased against Israel. Today, The New York Times front page center headline reads: Israeli Strike Destroys Gaza Housing Tower

This relevant to this photograph and discussion. From Haaretz, August 23, 2014:

Holocaust survivors condemn Israel for 'Gaza massacre,' call for boycott [Headline]

"In response to Elie Wiesel advertisement comparing Hamas to Nazis, 327 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants publish New York Times ad accusing Israel of 'ongoing massacre of the Palestinian people.'"

Link: < Haaretz >

The prayers for the people of Gaza in Japan is perhaps unprecedented. That Holocaust survivors should take a similar--indeed stronger--stance only highlights how insane the Israeli leadership has become.

I am an atheist but at this moment my prayers go out the children and all the victims of the Israeli state.

The anti-israeli bias in the press and in the comments here is mind-boggling. What exactly do people expect Israel to do? Sit still and let Hamas rockets rain down on their population? Which government in the world would allow that?

And regarding this body count.... as it turns out, the the 43 terror tunnelsstaring from houses in Gaza and heading to Israeli settlements (and they still keep finding more) were to be used for one coordinated terror attack on Israel at the time of Jewish new year next month. Estimates were that tens of thousands Israelis were to be killed, with a priority on killing children first. If that had succeeded, would we see a similar reaction? And should the Israeli government sit back and allow a massive Hamas terror strike to succeed, in the hope to change world bias?

The Hamas sympathizers here and elsewhere should be ashamed.

What exactly do people expect Israel to do? Sit still and let Hamas rockets rain down on their population?

I think they expect the Israelis to respond in a matter that doesn't kill countless innocents, particularly children. And looking at it long term, they are just creating more people to fight against them with their current methodology. Every time you kill an innocent child, you breed hatred in the hearts of that child's family.

And no, I'm no Hamas supporter. I fundamentally disagree with their methodology.

Strangerland:

" I think they expect the Israelis to respond in a matter that doesn't kill countless innocents, particularly children. "

...and they are trying to do that, while Hamas is placing their rocket launchers and tunnel entrances in private residences and hospitals, and urges civilians to stay there? (While the Hamas leaders themselves stay in safe bunkers...)

The IDF tries to minimize civilian casualties (they actually telephone the residents and tell them to get out, do you know any other military that does that), while Hamas tries to maximize them and use them for propaganda.

I am curious what else you expact the IDF to do? There seems to a curious double standard here. Do you expect the IDF to perform miracles that no other military can do? How exactly would you deal with terrorist who use their own population as human shields and try to maximize their casualties? I hope you can give some concrete explanation.

I am curious what else you expact the IDF to do?

I expect them to find a way to retaliate that doesn't kill large numbers of innocents. The innocent casualties are not acceptable, and while I have sympathy for the Israeli position, it does not justify their response.

And before you ask again what I think they should do, I just answered that with my last paragraph. I'm not a military strategist, nor do I have the information to say how they should do it. But while I cannot tell you what the right way to respond is, I can definitely tell you what the wrong way to respond is: their current response.

Yes, the Ebola like outbreak of negative (-) responses is suspicious. Either a rash of multiple accounts or we are being attacked by the Israeli embassy. What I reported above was prime news from Haaretz, one of Israel's prime journals. The news is about over 300 Holocaust survivors and their children registering their disgust with what the Israeli state is doing to Gaza. This fact. No one can make it go away.

So, when will there be or was there a prayer vigil for the Israeli children killed by Hamas' rockets?

I won't hold my breath waiting for that one to happen (seems like Hamas' rockets from Gaza never kill anyone in Israel)...

Praying will surely persuade Hamas and Israel to make nicey-nice.

This in your face, Israeli state apologists. You can post minuses for posters supporting the prayers for the Gaza victims and the information I conveyed from Haaretz about Holocast survivors and their children condemning the Israeli massacre in Gaza but you cannot utter a word against us here. As Israeli state fanatics you cannot dare say a word against people in prayer and, especially, against Holocost survivors. You cannot because in your hearts you know you wrong and immoral. I dare you say something agaist those Holocaust survivors. Try using your usual red herring.