Up Close Look at Israel's Carnage in Gaza

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - In the U.S., few people take the time to examine the struggle of Gaza from an inside perspective. What the video below conveys, Something the Americans termed 'shock and awe' (the unleashing of heavy weapons on a civilian community) really amounts to horror and raging, epic fear and grief, shock and disbelief.

Professor Bill Cook sent this video to our newsroom this morning. He explains that it is from a friend of his; Mauritanian doctor Alfred Giannantonio, who was in Africa at the time of Israel's most recent attack on Gaza. Dr. Giannantonio saw it on huge screens at the university in Senegal as the invasion by Israel was on-going, Bill explained.

"He makes the point in his email to me that not only are the students at the university but the French students there as well condemn both Israel and the United States for this slaughter," Cook explained.

"Israel is a hazardous ally for the US. It is no friend. How many of our American citizens saw this raw footage on our TVs? This omission is why we are so ignorant of what our government does in our name. The chaos, explosive fear on the old women and the children tear at the heart. And amidst the ravaging turmoil the men pull hoses and climb ladders in the vain attempt to salvage a home. My God, what are we doing!"

The footage from the assault on Gaza was recorded by an Indonesian film crew in Gaza at the time for a doc film. The film is circulating widely in Mauritania, he informed.

Dr. Giannantonio wrote, "I was in Senegal during the attack, and coverage there was constant and continual (TV, radio) -- throughout West Africa the U.S. government's approval of the attack has once again seriously damaged the USA's image -- Americans should realize this."

Giannantonie says the film was shown in social centers throughout the region of northern Senegal where he often spend time on agricultural development projects along the Senegal River-- and on the campus of the Universite' de Saint-Louis du Senegal, close to where he was staying.

"In the evenings it was projected outside on giant screens on campus (many students from throughout the French-speaking world study at this university on exchange programmes)."

He hoped we would share this with our American readers so they can understand how much damage this does to the USA's reputation in Africa -- and the potential for blowback.

As Sara Roy recently wrote in a newspaper article in the Boston Globe reported here, Where is Our Humanity?

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

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