I thought I was done. Guess what?

I saw this on my Google page.

“An investigation that refuses to look at contradictory evidence can hardly be considered credible,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch.

“The IDF’s partisan approach highlights the need for an independent, international investigation.”

Israel has ruled out an international probe.

The army has said shelling of the area, in response to rocket fire into the Jewish state, had ended before the beach blast. Retrieved shrapnel samples also ruled out the possibility of a direct Israeli artillery barrage, it said.

As I mentioned before, I’m inclined to believe at least the sincerity of the Israeli claims that it was not their rockets that day that hit the civilians on the beach. A false denial would serve no one, considering Israel’s history of owning up to and apologizing for her botches, and also considering the fact that no one believes Israelis anyway, except when they admit guilt. Israel is condemned regardless, so if the Israeli military believed that the civilian deaths were, in fact, a result of the shelling, what is the point in denying it?

But what really interested me was the assertion that “Israel has ruled out an international probe.” Because last I heard

An Israeli foreign ministry official said no request had been received from the UN to conduct an inquiry, but said Israel would co-operate if one were received. “We have nothing to hide,” he said.

So which is it? Who can we turn to to give us accurate news? Not that I look to Al-Jazeera for impartial reporting any day, but I’d like it if someone would just provide some factual information, at the very least about who said what and when. Is that really so hard to do?

Ultimately though, I mean, realistically, lets be honest about this:

Who gives a fuck?

Something terrible happened. Innocents died on a beach from an explosion. The explosion may have been caused by a number of things, including a shell from Israeli artillary. Israel shells Gaza. Israel shells Gaza because Gaza fires rockets at Israel. Is Gaza condemned for this? Yes, from many sides. But no one is “outraged” anymore by what the Palestinians do to and in Israel. No one is outraged because they’ve been doing it for so long and everyone is used to it. They come to expect it of the Palestinians. They’ve been so tenacious in their campaign of guerrilla warfare that the international community has grown so bored with the Palestinians that when they attack Israel is as though nothing has happened. Just another day, nothing special, nothing worth noting.

In such a climate, what ends up happening is that Israel’s retaliation looks out of the blue. Do the Palestinians concern themselves with whether or not they kill civilians? No, every Israeli death is a victory for them, and the world clucks their tongues and says “gee, that’s awful.” If Israel retaliates and kills militants, it’s looked at with ambivalence by the international community and outrage by Arabs. If Israel retaliates and unintentionally kills civilians, the world is outraged… and Hamas celebrates the outrage.

The persistence of Palestinian hostilities does not mean that they are right. The fact that they are willing to fight until Israel is detroyed does not mean that Israel should be destroyed so that the fighting will stop. Sometimes I really feel that this is what people think and, I can’t help it, it makes me very very angry.