Calling Israel: Stop the murderous rampage in Gaza

We all know now that Israel welcomed 2009 by launching a murderous raid into Gaza.

More than 120,000 people all over France mobilised last Saturday calling for a stop to this senseless war that has killed more than 700 Palestinians of whom more than 200 were children.

This blog supports the call for this murderous rampage to cease!

AFP/PIERRE VERDY Manifestation à Paris contre la guerre à Gaza, samedi 10 janvier.

AFP/ERIC CABANIS Manifestation à Toulouse contre la guerre de Gaza, samedi 10 janvier.

AFP/VALERY HACHE A Nice, samedi 10 janvier.

From Le Monde:

A Toulouse, une mobilisation similaire a eu lieu en fin de matinée. Entre 1 600 et 4 000 personnes ont défilé dans les rues de la "ville rose", sans que les autorités ne constatent de débordements. Réunis derrière un grand drapeau palestinien, les manifestants ont scandé de multiples slogans, notamment "Bush, Olmert, Livni, Barak assassins, Sarkozy complice" ou encore "Etat d'Israël, Etat criminel" et "solidarité avec le peuple de Palestine". Des syndicats et l'ensemble des partis de gauche étaient visibles en fin de cortège. A Lyon, entre 8 000 et 10 000 composaient le cortège qui s'est rassemblé devant la préfecture du Rhône avant de défiler dans le centre de la ville.

A Lille, ils étaient près de 10 000 à défiler derrière d'immenses drapeaux palestiniens et une banderole de l'Association France-Palestine solidarité (AFPS), alors que la précédente manifestation avait mobilisé près de 3 000 personnes. Entre 2 000 et 3 000 manifestants ont été recensés au Havre, au moins 3 500 à Grenoble, entre 2 500 et 3 000 à Mulhouse et près de 2 000 à Rouen. Des incidents ont été signalés lors d'un rassemblement qui a réuni entre 2 500 et 6 000 à Nice, samedi. Les vitrines d'un Mac Donald dans l'avenue Jean Médecin, la principale artère de la ville, ont été brisées avec des chaises et des tables qui se trouvaient sur la chaussée. La police n'a pas fait état de blessés. A Marseille , entre 2 000 et 5 000 personnes ont défile et à Bordeaux, entre 1 800 et 8 000 manifestants ont traversé les rues de la ville aux cris de "Israël assassin" et "Gaza vaincra, Gaza vivra". Dans un tract distribué aux manifestants, le comité Action Palestine a par ailleurs dénoncé la poursuite du jumelage de la ville de Bordeaux avec la ville israélienne d'Ashdod, "élevée sur la destruction de villages palestiniens et le massacre de leurs habitants".

D'autres manifestations ont eu lieu à Nantes, Strasbourg, Colmar, Besançon, Lorient, Saint-Brieuc, Caen, La Roche-sur-Yon, Laval, Albi, Auch, Agen, Angoulème, Pau, Roanne, Le Creusot ou encore Evry, partout à l'appel d'un Collectif national pour une Paix juste et durable entre Palestiniens et Israéliens. Outre les incidents à Nice et Paris, le ministère de l'intérieur a signalé de légers problèmes à Toulouse et Perpignan.

Worthy of note in the blogsphere: A Miquelon post that hits back French bashers with facts and figures

Worthy of note in the blogsphere: A Miquelon post that hits back French bashers with facts and figures is Huffington Post’s PICK.

Enough with the “SURRENDER MEME” in the comment sections every time the Huffington Post has an item about France.

For over five years, we - French expatriates in America - have had to endure all kinds of harassment, public humiliation and ridicule, all because our government refused to follow the Bush / Cheney in lock and step over the invasion of Irak.

Mocking the 1940 armistice by Marshall Pétain show lack of understanding and respect. 92,000 men died fighting in 1939-40 and 20,000 French resistance fighters and 40,000 POWs died from 1940 to 1945. Civilian losses include 120,000 killed due to military action and 230,000 victims of Nazi reprisals and genocide including 83,000 FRENCH Jews.

This is no laughing matter, yet day in, day out, Monday morning quarterbacks spew their hatred of the French here and elsewhere with the impunity that comes with remote disconnection.

Once again I shall maintain that mocking the 1940 deblacle is as funny to the French as 9/11 is to Americans. It’s time to get past the Jonah Goldberg / Grounds keeper Willie zingers and show some mutual respect between our sister republics.

Marc A. Cormier

A huge bravo for Marc who has remained dignified and calm amidst the vitriol against the French because our government refused, and rightly so, to sanction President Bush's illegal, immoral and criminal invasion of and war on Iraq.

Not all Americans deserve to be rebuked. But I maintain that those Americans who take to bashing the French because America's own president lied to his people are the parochial, insular, ignorant types, much like their blundering warmonger for a commander in chief, Bush. Frankly, this blog is tempted to to deal with people of this caliber by simply letting them wallow in their pathetic and flawed self-righteousness but, heck, Marc Cormier is right: something has got to be done to educate them!

Lest there be any misunderstanding: Most French backed our government’s refusal, as Marc stated, “to follow Bush/Cheney in lock and step over the invasion of Irak” because we believed that Bush and his fellow hawks were totally wrong to invade and cause havoc on a nation based on deceit and lies… Didn't America’s own officials involved in the Iraq Study Group virtually prove that Bush had been completely inept when he insisted that Iraq must be invaded and its people violated on the basis of fixed intelligence?

It is not a measure of courage or intelligence for a government and a people who have at their command an omnipotent military to be able to poke holes on every square foot of land in a third world country and cause devastation and misery to its already suffering population but it takes immense courage and great intelligence NOT TO DO something as odious and ignoble as that.

And for that we are called cowards?

Photo of commemorative plate in the tunnel at Plage Bonaparte from Mathieu GUY's photostream and also from here.