SabbahBlog has an astounding slideshow. Warning, it’s graphic and is likely to make you cry.

From Gaza with Love

Diary of a Palestinian mother.

View From a Palestinian Leader: Palestine’s Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood

The depressing truth is that Israel’s current behavior is not just bad for America, though it surely is. It is not even just bad for Israel itself, as many Israelis silently acknowledge. The depressing truth is that Israel today is bad for the Jews.

… I’m Jewish and descendant of holocaust survivors. Moreover, I’ve been a Zionist all of my life. I went to a Zionist school, I was active in Zionist youth groups. I’ve always been a fervent supporter of Israel as a refuge for Jews around the world who seek a place to exercise their traditions and embrace their identity in peace.

I sang the Israeli anthem in the train rails of Aushwitz-Birkenau and I pledged to fight every day of my life to make sure the savage crimes that had taken place there would never happen again. Every year I pledged: Never Again. Remember and Never forget.

Well, I haven’t forgotten. And so to honor that pledge, to honor the memory of my family members who died in those death camps and because “there comes a time when silence is betrayal”, today I finally and publicly end my support for the state of Israel.

An occupying power is legitimately fighting against an illegal uprising by sub-human terrorists deliberately hiding amongst civilians.

The current conflict between Israel & Hamas is all over the news. But the most interesting bits aren’t on CNN or the Beeb. Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about

Amateur photographers are taking snapshots of pro-Hamas riots in Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border and West Bank unrest.

Meanwhile, Israeli newspapers are publishing photos of rocket victims in the city of Ashdod, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from Gaza and reporting that Gazans are storming the closed border with Egypt. What’s next? Israeli reservists are being called up for a likely land invasion, as Israel sets off sonic booms over Lebanon.

Note that there was not a single casualty on the Israeli side before the airstrikes began. Meanwhile, a million refugees are being bombed by the most heavily equipped army that the American taxpayers could buy.

Jews Against the Occupation has issued a call to boycott Israel. (PDF link)

Haaretz reports that 40 targets were destroyed in a span of three to five minutes. The NY Times says that children leaving school were hit and that there are hundreds of casualties. Radio Netherlands says that the IDF has bombed a mosque and that the casualty count at their air time was 230. AP currently reports the dead count at 290.

There have been more than 300 air strikes since midday Saturday — wreaking unprecedented destruction in Gaza, reducing entire buildings to rubble. Shlomo Brom, a former senior Israeli military official, said it was the deadliest force ever used in decades of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. “Since Hamas took over Gaza (in June 2007), it has become a war between two states, and in war between states, more force is used,” he said.

Israel has not ruled out ground forces going into Palestine.

Hundreds tried to get across the border to Egypt. Egypt forces responded by opening fire on the refugees.

One of the main medicine warehouses supplying local pharmacies in southern Gaza was hit. The prison was hit, nobody is sure about the casualty count there.

There is almost no food, no medicine and now no drinking water in Gaza because Israel choked off supplies after Hamas won the elections almost 2 years ago.

Gaza’s nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said more than 290 people were killed over two days and more than 800 wounded.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which keeps researchers at all hospitals, said it had counted 251 dead by midday Sunday, and that among them were 20 children under the age of 16 and nine women.

HuffP has MSNBC video without ads and adds: “In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam Hussein with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground after the 2003 invasion.” This is a “gross insult in the Arab world.”

Value added video.

Animated GIF:

via Metafilter

At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.

“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. … I literally had to fight people off my back.”

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, which represented the deceased worker, has called for a investigation by OSHA and the NY State labor department.

Director of Special Projects for Local 1500 Patrick Purcell called Wal-mart’s comments in response to the incident both “cold and heartless.” “If the safety of their customers and workers was a top priority, then this never would have happened,” Purcell stated. “Wal-mart must step up to the plate and ensure that all those injured, as well as the family of the deceased, be financially compensated for their injuries and their losses. Their words are weak. The community demands action,” Purcell concluded.

Purcell also suggested that people visit the website walmartcrimereport.com to review other incidents of Wal-mart not providing a safe work and shopping experience.

• Circuit City

• Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered

• Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 store nationwide

• Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

• Cache will close all stores

• Talbots closing down all stores

• J. Jill closing all stores

• GAP closing 85 stores

• Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January

• Wickes Furniture closing down

• Levitz closing down remaining stores

• Bombay closing remaining stores

• Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

• Whitehall closing all stores

• Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

• Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

• Home Depot closing 15 stores

• Macys to close 9 stores after January

• Linens and Things closing all stores

• Movie Galley Closing all stores

• Pacific Sunware closing stores

• Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

• Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

• JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

• Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

• Wilson Leather closing down all stores

• Sharper Image closing down all stores

• K B Toys closing 356 stores

• Loews to close down some stores

• Dillard’s to close some stores.

Ceiling cat is watching you overthink the obvious

Salon…bless its hipster heart, I believe has jumped the shark.  This article:  I can has cheesburger and pathos would have been laughed out of a freshman sociology class.

Lolcats, people.  I’ll grant that it’s a phenomenon, both on the intertron and the vast meme-like spread of the linguistic pattern.  There is some interesting research that could be done on the linguistics spread of the LOLCatz  pattern….but pathos?  Really?  You’re going to go there?

Honestly, hipsters…have you no shame?

Earth as seen by the Apollo astronauts

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive. Most were never published and are now available for the first time.

This is a tragedy of epic proportions, and figuring out how to help can be overwhelming. What can you do?

Donate to a local shelter. Donate to a food bank. Volunteer at a local charity. Build a house.

And always remember, that there but for the grace of something, go you. Treat the homeless with respect. Don’t just ignore the problem.