Israelis Watch Bombs Drop on Gaza From Front-Row Seats

[KamaAina]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/israelis-watch-bombs-drop-on-gaza-from-front-row-seats.html

Last Wednesday night, as he stood on a hilltop outside the Israeli town of Sderot and watched the bombardment of Gaza on the plain below, a Danish newspaper reporter snapped an iPhone photo of about a dozen locals who cheered on their military from plastic chairs while eating popcorn.

Allan Sørensen, a veteran Middle East correspondent for Denmark’s Kristeligt Dagblad, then uploaded the image to Twitter with a sardonic caption that described the macabre scene as “Sderot cinema.”...

Explaining that he has also previously witnessed Palestinians cheering news of bombings that killed Israelis, Mr. Sørensen said that, in a war, “this is what happens.” Civilians and fighters on both sides, he said, “go through a process of dehumanizing the enemy.”...

While some partisans of Israel on Twitter accused the Danish reporter of fabrication, the same scene, captured in photographs by several other journalists in recent days, was also witnessed by Mr. Sørensen’s colleague Nikolaj Krak, who wrote: “The hill has been transformed into something that most closely resembles the front row of a reality war theater. It offers a direct view of the densely populated Gaza Strip. People have dragged camping chairs and sofas to the top of the hill. Several sit with crackling bags of popcorn, while others smoke hookahs and talk cheerfully.”

[Fred Sanders]

1. Comfy couches to watch the slaughter, maybe sipping a mojito,..a picture says a thousand words.

How come no fear of those rockets?

Body count is now 200 to 1.

[nilesobek]

15. Are we paying for the mojitos? We are paying for their military.

[Fred Sanders]

5. Similar, but more like being at a football game, or watching it on TV.

[geek tragedy]

3. And these same people would complain about Palestinian culture and support

of terror attacks.

[Rex]

4. Yeah well we did that too at one time.

Now we just have people sit and watch a fake battle of that time...strange days imo.

[tritsofme]

6. Interesting, prior to WWI it was not uncommon for large crowds

to gather and watch a military battle unfold.

[KamaAina]

8. Indeed. Washington society rode out to Manassas, Va.

to watch the Union Army crush the Confederates at Bull Run. Or so they thought. They ended up beating a hasty, ragtag retreat.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. Thomas Paine

[malaise]

10. Paine was a very wise man

Seriously this is as sick as the 'shock and awe morons' on BBC and American TV back in 2003

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Compassion has been replaced by thrill-seeking.

[malaise]

12. That's because zealots have no understanding of the word

empathy - unless they are the perceived victim.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Yep. They're just "Supporting Our Troops".

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein

[malaise]

14. This

I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

I will never be part of it.