Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation

[blackbear]

Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation
John Mearsheimer

For American readers, the great virtue of Avraham Burg's important new book is that he says things about Israel and the Jewish people that are hardly ever heard in mainstream discourse in the United States. It is hard to believe how stunted and biased the coverage of Israel is in the American media, not to mention the extent to which our politicians have perfected the art of pandering to the Jewish state. The situation got so bad in the recent presidential campaign that journalists Jeffrey Goldberg and Shmuel Rosner -- both staunch defenders of Israel -- wrote pieces titled "Enough about Israel Already."

Let's hope that The Holocaust is Over is widely read and discussed, because it makes arguments that need to be heard and considered by Americans of all persuasions, but especially by those who feel a deep attachment to Israel. The fact that Burg wrote this book also matters greatly. He cannot be easily dismissed as a self-hating Jew or a crank, as he comes from a prominent Israeli family and has been deeply involved in mainstream Israeli politics for much of his adult life. Moreover, he clearly loves Israel.

Burg makes many smart points in his book, but I would like to focus on what I take to be his central arguments. His core message is that Israel is in serious trouble at home and there is good reason to think that things could go horribly wrong in the future. He emphasizes that Israel has changed greatly since 1948. He quotes his mother on this point: "This country is not the country that we built. We founded a different country in 1948, but I don't know where it's disappeared." Israel today, he writes, "is frighteningly similar to the countries we never wanted to resemble." Talking about Israel's shift to the right over time, he makes the eye-popping observation that "Jews and Israelis have become thugs."

Burg makes it clear that he is not equating Israel's past behavior with what happened in Nazi Germany, but he does see disturbing similarities between Israel and "the Germany that preceded Hitler." This raises the obvious question: could Israel end up going on a murderous rampage against the Palestinians? Burg thinks it is possible. He writes, "The notion that this cannot happen to us because our history as persecuted people makes us immune to hatred and racism is very dangerous. A look inside Israel shows that the erosion has begun." He even raises the possibility that there might be a civil war inside Israel, which "will be not a war between members of the Jewish people of different shades of beliefs, but an uncompromising struggle between good people and bad people anywhere."

Burg is aware that many American Jews will dismiss his arguments because they are so at odds with the picture of Israel that they have in their heads. Accordingly, he reminds the reader: "I come from there, and my friends and relatives are still there. I listen to their talk, know their ambitions, and feel their heartbeats. I know where they are headed." And where they might be headed worries him greatly. Again, he fears that Israel will end up following in the footsteps of Germany, where "slow processes altered the perception of reality to the degree that insanity became the norm, and then we were exterminated. It happened in the land of poets and philosophers. There it was possible, and here too, in the land of the prophets. The establishment of a state run by rabbis and generals is not an impossible nightmare. I know how difficult this comparison is, but please open your ears, eyes, and hearts."

Many American Jews think that Israel is in trouble today because of anti-Semitism or because it is surrounded by dangerous adversaries who threaten Israel's very existence. Israelis themselves, Burg reminds us, love to emphasize that "the entire world is against us." He dismisses these wrongheaded beliefs: "Today we are armed to the teeth, better equipped than any other generation in Jewish history. We have a tremendous army, an obsession with security, and the safety net of the United States ... Anti-Semitism seems ridiculous, even innocuous compared with the strength of the Jewish people of today."

For Burg, Israel's troubles are self-inflicted. Specifically, he maintains that the principal cause of Israel's problems is the legacy of the Holocaust, which has become omnipresent in Israeli life. "Not a day passes," he writes, "without a mention of the Shoah in the only newspaper I read, Ha'aretz." Indeed, Israeli children are taught in school that "we are all Shoah survivors." The result is that Israelis (and most American Jews for that matter) cannot think straight about the world around them. They think that everyone is out to get them, and that the Palestinians are hardly any different than the Nazis. Given this despairing perspective, Israelis believe that almost any means is justified to counter their enemies. The implication of Burg's argument is that if there was less emphasis on the Holocaust, Israelis would change their thinking about "others" in fundamental ways and this would allow them to reach a settlement with the Palestinians and lead a more peaceful and decent life.

There is some truth in this defensive psychological argument, but Burg also provides much evidence for a different interpretation of how the Holocaust relates to Israeli life. In particular, he shows that Israeli society is plagued with a host of serious problems that are threatening to tear it apart and that the Holocaust is a "tool at the service of the Jewish people," which they use to protect Israel from criticism and to keep those centrifugal forces at bay. He identifies three basic problems: 1) Israelis are badly divided among themselves; "the Jewish world always had colossal disputes between colossal figures"; 2) the grave danger that large numbers of Israelis will emigrate to Europe and North America; and 3) the Occupation, which has had a corrupting effect on Israeli society and has drawn criticism from all around the globe. Playing the Holocaust card, Burg shows, is thought to be the best way to deal with these problems. He quotes the Israeli writer, Boaz Evron, to make this point: the Shoah "is our main asset nowadays. This is the only thing by which we try to unify the Jews. This is the only way to scare Israelis into not emigrating. This is the only thing by which they try to silence the gentiles." Of course, there is another instrument that Israel and its defenders frequently employ, which is the charge of anti-Semitism.

To take my instrumentalist argument a step further, Burg provides evidence that the main reason that Israelis and their supporters constantly invoke the Holocaust is because of the Occupation, and the horrible things that Israel has done and continues to do to the Palestinians. The Shoah is the weapon that Israelis and their supporters in the Diaspora use to fend off criticism and to allow Israel to continue committing crimes against the Palestinians. Burg writes: "All is compared to the Shoah, dwarfed by the Shoah, and therefore all is allowed – be it fences, sieges, crowns, curfews, food and water deprivation, or unexplained killings. All is permitted because we have been through the Shoah and you will not tell us how to behave."

The best evidence that Israel's obsession with the Holocaust is linked with the Occupation is found in Burg's discussion of the evolution of Israeli thinking about the Holocaust itself. He shows clearly that Israeli thinking about the Shoah has varied considerably over time. The leaders of the Yishuv "did very little in response to the annihilation of Europe's Jews" when it was happening. "They did not want to waste emotional resources that could otherwise be channeled into building the Jewish state." Moreover, Israelis did not focus much attention on the Holocaust in the first decade or so after 1948 and they showed surprisingly little sympathy for the survivors who came to Israel after the war. But all that changed in the 1960s, starting with the Eichmann trial, but picking up a head of steam after Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and began the Occupation. "To understand the wrong turn we took," he writes, "we need to go back to the 1960s, the Eichmann trial, the Six-Day War, and all that lies in between." He goes even further and notes that the 1990s -- and remember that the First Intifada broke out in December 1987 -- was the "decade of transition from the mythology of the early state to the obsessive journeys to the scene of the crime." The pattern seems clear: the Holocaust has been the main weapon that Israelis (and their supporter abroad) have employed to provide cover for the horrors Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

All of this is to say that the best way to rescue Israel from its plight is not simply to get beyond the Holocaust, but to end the Occupation. Then, the need to talk incessantly about the Holocaust will be greatly reduced and Israel will be a much healthier and secure country. Sadly, there is no end in sight to the Occupation, and thus we are likely to hear more, not less, about the Holocaust in years ahead.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/09/for_american_readers_t he_great/

[Disco_Destroyer]

NAZI ISRAEL … INDEED
December 23, 2008 at 4:22 pm (Corrupt Politics, Genocide, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, War Crimes, zionist harassment)




Nazi Israel … Indeed

By Elias Akleh

Richard Falk, the professor of international law at Princeton University and the UN’s special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, had accused Israel of violating international law, international humanitarian laws, and the Geneva Convention. He described Israel’s policies against Palestinians and its siege of Gaza as “war crimes”, “genocidal tendencies”, “holocaust implications”, and “holocaust-in-the-making”. He urged the International Criminal Court to look into the possibility of indicting Israeli leaders for war crimes.



Professor Falk had a little taste of Israel’s Nazi-like crimes and human rights violation when he traveled to Israel, last Sunday December 14th, 2008, to visit the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to report on Israel’s compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. The Israelis “detained” Professor Falk at the airport, treated his as a criminal and a threat to the state, humiliated him and deported him next day back to Geneva.



Despite Israel’s strong declaration that every Jew in the world is automatically granted full Israeli citizenship with all the protections this entails, and despite being a Jew himself, Professor Falk was not spared the humiliations and cruelty Israel treats its enemies with.



Emboldened by the American blind and unconditional support, defiant Israel wanted to publicly give its finger to Falk and to the UN he represents, declaring itself above all international laws and above any criticism of its crimes and human rights violations even if such criticism comes from a Jew himself. Such defying humiliation of the world political body is meant to distract the UN, and thus the whole world, away from the holocaust it is perpetrating against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, and all its on-going war crimes against the rest of Palestinians throughout the whole Palestine.



Falk’s accusations of Israel’s Nazi-like holocaustal implications are no different from those made by John Dugard, his predecessor, in several reports on conditions in occupied Palestine. Many conscientious political figures, as well as regular citizens, around the world had described Israel’s policies in occupied Palestine in specific and in the Middle East in general as war crimes and threat to world peace.



Comparing the present-day Israel with Nazi Germany one discovers that the majority of the Israeli policies are the exact copies of the Nazi policies. Nazi Germany had invaded its European neighbors extending from England to Russia. Israel had also invaded all its neighboring countries; Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It is also heavily involved in the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Its tentacles had also reached African countries as far as South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, and Sierra Leone.



Nazi war machines used to invade resisting towns, line up the men in the center of the town to be executed in cold blood, and destroyed the whole town as a deterring example for any possible other resisting towns. Worse than the Nazis Israeli forces used to invade peaceful Palestinian towns, execute men, women and children in cold blood everywhere and anywhere they encounter them, dynamite their homes on top of their residents, and finally demolish the whole town making room for new Israeli colonies. Throughout 1948/49 Israelis had committed 70 ugly massacres against Palestinian villagers, and totally destroyed 675 Palestinian towns and villages including their churches and mosques. Such massacres and demolitions followed a set pattern, repeated in one village after the other, indicating a pre-meditated genocidal plan.



In the words of the late Israeli General Moshe Dayan: “The declaration of the State of Israel in 1948 was at the expense of ethnically cleansing 513 Palestinian villages, creating over 700,000 Palestinian refugees and expropriating their lands, homes and businesses in 78% of Palestine … There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former (Palestinian) population.”



Israel is, still up till today, carrying these same genocidal Nazi-like holocaustal crimes gradually choking 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza to death by starvation, thirst, lack of fuel and disease. Israeli army is in the process of demolishing 40 Palestinian villages in the Negev desert. Army bulldozers are daily destroying Palestinian homes in major Palestinian cities such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus.



The Nazi army perpetrated many massacres against prisoners of war. They used to execute prisoners and dump them in graves the prisoners where ordered to dig for themselves. The Israeli army followed the same method of executing prisoners of war especially during 1956 and 1967 Israeli-Egyptian wars. This was reported in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper in June 27th 2000. The Egyptian Human Rights Organization Secretary-General, Muhammad Munib, submitted a report confirming that Israel had killed between 7,000 to 15,000 Egyptian prisoners of wars of 1956 and 1967. The report also identified the locations of 11 mass graves in Sinai and Israel in which thousands of Egyptian prisoners were buried.



The most prominent of these massacres was the El-Arish massacre, where Israeli forces murdered at least 150 Egyptian prisoners of war. Some of the prisoners were run over by Israeli tanks several times, a crime that is still practiced by Israeli army especially in the Gaza Strip. The story of the massacre was originally reported by Israeli eyewitnesses in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper, and later by Israeli journalist Ran Adelist on Israeli television. It was also reported by the Washington Report of May/June 1996 pages 27 and 28. The massacre was also recorded by the American USS Liberty surveillance ship that was sailing 12 miles off the shore of Gaza. This massacre was a serious war crime and could have been the main reason for the Israeli attack on the Liberty.



Worse than the Nazis the Israeli army had adopted the policy of targeting young Palestinian children in an attempt to “nudge” Palestinian families to leave the country for the sake of the future of the children, and/or to exhaust their financial resources in treating and caring for their disabled and crippled wounded children; the victims of Israeli snipers. Since the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada, September 2000, Israeli forces have murdered 1050 children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; see also the Guardian, October 21, 2008, and Al-Jazeera, October 22, 2008. A Palestinian Centre for Human Rights report documented, with eyewitness testimonies, at least 68 children were murdered by Israeli army during 12 months from June 07 to June 07 just before the cease fire agreement. The child murder toll rose dramatically during the first six months of 2008 with the Israeli army massive assault of “Operation Winter Heat” against Gaza Strip. Children were directly targeted by Israeli snipers while walking in the streets, while standing in front of their homes, and even while sitting in their school rooms, also directly by drone missiles while playing in courts. They are also the indirect victims if Israeli deliberate targeting densely populated residential areas (Gaza is densely populated) including schools, hospitals and food markets.



The average age of the targeted children was ten years old according to a thousand-page document by Save the Children. The majority of these children were innocent bystanders not participating in any “hostile” activity or causing any threat to the heavily armed Israeli soldiers. In the 80% of the cases of targeted children, the Israeli army prevented the victim from receiving any medical attention. The report also documented that more than 50,000 child victims required medical attention for injuries including gunshot wounds, tear gas inhalation and multiple fractures. A bulletin titled “Deliberate Murder” published in 1989 by the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights reported the targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli army and snipers from “special unit” had “carefully chosen” the children, who were shot in the head or heart and died instantaneously (Mike Berry & Greg Philo, ‘Israel and Palestine-Competing Histories’, Pluto Press, London, 2006, pp. 86-87).



According to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (signed by Israel) children are to be afforded special protection during international armed conflicts. Israel had, and still is violating these international laws.



Like Nazi Germany, who developed and used all kinds of new weapons including the V2 rocket bomb and nerve gas, Israel has used every kind of weapons, even new experimental ones, against Palestinian civilians. This included the Dumdum exploding bullets, nerve gas, experimental chemical and biological weapons, flying drones, and DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) and the latest remote control high power machine guns (seer shoots) installed on the high towers of the imprisoning wall (separation wall) and operated by teen aged female soldiers in far away operating rooms like computerized war games. Israel is also know to be a nuclear weapon and is always hinting at using it if/when they feel threatened.



Nazi Germans were brainwashed and driven by a social supremacist ideology of the superior Aryan Race (Der Supermann). They believed that they were superior to the rest of the people and that they should rule the world. Similarly the Israelis are brainwashed and driven by the religious supremacist ideology of god’s chosen people in god’s promised land, and believe that it is their religious duty (mitzvah) to cleanse the world from all gentiles (non-Jews), and to establish a Jewish only world government in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Such dangerous extreme ideology is taught to Israeli children since childhood.



Moshe Feiglin, who won a respectable position on the Likuds’ Knesset list for the upcoming Israeli election is an admirer of Hitler and his superior ideology. In an interview with the Ha’aretz Newspaper in 1995 he described Hitler as a military genius and a great nation builder. “Hitler was an unparallel military genius. Nazism had transformed Germany from a low to a fantastic physical and ideological status. The ragged, trashy youth body turned into a neat and orderly part of society and Germany received an exemplary regime, a proper justice system, and public order. … This was no bunch of thugs. They merely used thugs and homosexuals”. His holocaustal solution to the Palestinian problem, according to his Manhigut ha’Yehudit (Jewish leadership) website, is to order “the complete stoppage of water, electricity and communication” to the four million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.



Feiglin expresses the inner sentiment of every Israeli political leader starting from their first Prime Minister Ben Gurion up to Tzipi Livni, the latest acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affair, who have been calling for the murder and the transfer of Palestinians out of the god’s promised land of Israel (Erez Israel). Their real policies become obvious and louder in their campaign rhetoric.



Such genocidal holocaustal tendencies are nurtured, encouraged and called for by top Israeli Rabbis and political leaders. Rabbi Yousef Obadia, the top Israeli religious leader, Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the leading religious authority in Israel’s religious national current and former chief Eastern rabbi for Israel, Rabbi Dov Lior, president of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed and a candidate for the post of chief rabbi or Israel, Rabbi Eliyahu Kinvinsky, the second most senior authority in the Orthodox religious current, Rabbi Israel Ariel, one of the most prominent rabbis in the West Bank colonies, and Rabbi Yitzhaq Ginsburg, a top rabbi in Israel among many other extremist religious Israeli leaders are continually calling for total extermination and transfer of Palestinians.



Brainwashed and misguided Israelis, especially religious fundamentalists, regularly attack Palestinian towns, vandalize their churches, mosques and cemeteries with graffiti slogans such as “Death to Arabs”, “Gas the Arabs”, and “Mohammad is a pig”, occupying Palestinian after forcefully evicting their Palestinian owners, attacking farmers, burning their crops, cutting their fruit trees, poisoning their water wells, killing their farm animals, destroying properties, looting shops, terrorizing civilians and children and shooting people. Searching youtube.com for “Israeli settlers violence” to watch the hundreds of videos showing Israeli settlers terrorism.



One prominent similarity between Israel and the Nazis is their state sponsored terror groups. According to articles “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story”, Life Magazine, Volume 49, Number 22, (November 28th 1960) pp. 19-25, 101-112, and “Eichmann’s Own Story: Part II”, Life Magazine, December 6th 1960 pp. 146-161, Adolf Eichmann stated how Zionist leaders were idealist like Nazi leaders, willing to sacrifice hundred thousands of their own blood to achieve political goal. Lenni Brenner explains in his book “Zionism in the Age of Dictators”, in chapter 25, that Eichmann was referring here to a deal the Nazi struck with Zionist leaders, such as Hungarian Rezso Kastner, to save a few thousand hand-picked Zionists and wealthy Jews, who would immigrate to Palestine, in return for leading 750,000 Hungarian Jews, and other millions of European Jews to their death to make Jews “rightful victim”, so that World Zionist Organization would have the “right” to come “ before the bargaining table when they divide nations and lands at the war’s end … for only with (Jewish) blood shall we (Zionists) get the land.”



The Nazis set up Police Battalion 101, a terrorist group, whose sole purpose was hunting Jewish citizens, killing them and looting and destroying their property. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen states in his book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” that Battalion 101 was responsible for “the deportation and gruesome slaughter in Poland of tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children”.



Israel had its own exact copy of Battalion 101 called Unit 101 under the terrorist Ariel Sharon, who later became Israel’s Prime Minister. Under Sharon’s leadership Unit 101 adopted the same criminal methods to terrorize Palestinians. It also implemented what became known as jeep raids; driving jeeps, with machine guns mounted on the front and rear, into Palestinian towns murdering inhabitants, dynamiting homes, and burning their fields. Since early 1950s Unit 101 was responsible for massacres in Palestinian towns such as Bureij refugee camp, Qibya, Idna, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Falameh, Rantis, Jerusalem, Budrus, Dawayima, Beit Liqya, Khan Younis and Gaza.



Israel had always resorted to terrorist attacks against Jews in other countries especially Arab countries, such as North African Arab countries, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan, to encourage Jewish Arab residents to immigrate to Israel. The Lavon Affair is just one famous terrorist related incident in Egypt.



In January 29th 1999 article in Israeli Ha’aretz paper, Gideon Spiro, a former member of the 890 battalion, stated that Unit 101 was an early, more primitive prototype for the more sophisticated liquidation units of Duvdevan and Shimshon established during the Intifada” Its operations were characterized by “lots of killing of civilians and little real combat”.



Israel is the only county in the world with many Prime Ministers, who were members of terrorist and state-sponsored terrorist organizations directly involved in slaughter of civilians. These include Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Shimon Peres.



Arnold Toynbee wrote “It was a supreme tragedy that the lesson learnt by them (the Jews) from their encounter with the Nazi German Gentiles should have been, not to eschew but to imitate some of the evil deeds that the Nazis had committed against the Jews.”



Israelis and Jews of the world have relentlessly pursued Nazi war criminals for decades for their war crimes committed during WWII. They chased Nazi war criminals for the rest of their lives, even when they were old and close to their death, to make them pay for their crimes. No doubts in my mind that Israeli war criminals, in turn, will be pursued and sentenced for their war crimes committed against Arabs.


Dr. Elias Akleh a contributing editor to MWC, is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the “Nakba” of 1948, then from Beit Jala after the “Nakseh” of 1967. He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic. http://mwcnews.net/eliasakleh
Source

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/nazi-israel-indeed/

[Disco_Destroyer]

Remove The Blinders and See the Truth

For two years on Cif, I've detailed the miscarriages of justice I've witnessed. But many are still convinced Israel can do no wrong

By Seth Freedman

December 22, 2008 "The Guardian" -- -

I find people over here who keep harping on about 'human rights' violations by Israel conveniently forget or ignore that if Seth were to live in any, yes, ANY Arab or Iranian country in the neighbourhood, he would have been jailed, abused and then deported, if not accused of being a 'zionist' spy and then condemned to capital punishment.

Two years after penning my first piece for Cif, there is still no getting away from the kind of criticism seen in the comment above. No matter that the thrust of georgeindia's rant had nothing to do with the subject of my article, anyone perusing the thread is encouraged to believe that the fact that the Israeli regime has not beheaded me for my dissent is ample proof that all is well in our little corner of the Middle East. Which, of course, it isn't, despite the best efforts of Israel's squadron of cheerleaders to convince the world otherwise.

Although I am a relative newcomer to Israel's Mediterranean shores, the amount of exposure I have had during my four-year sojourn in the Holy Land to the daily humiliation and oppression being meted out to the Palestinians is more than most armchair critics will see in a lifetime. I should know – I was one of them myself for my first 24 years on the planet, and am all too aware how easy it is to be duped by second- or third-hand reporting from the front lines, whether through the media or via friends and family giving their skewed take from inside Israel's borders.

If you believe the official hype, it's a dolce vita in the Occupied Territories, one for which all right-minded Palestinians should be eternally grateful to their benevolent Israeli masters. If you believe the official hype, Palestinians have never had it so good, thanks to the milk of Israeli kindness which flows in rivulets alongside the honey in the Eretz Halav u'Dvash. And, if you believe the official hype, if only the Palestinians would finally give up their struggle for basic human rights, they too could eat from the tree of life in Israel's very own Garden of Eden.

Those are the lines so eagerly swallowed by the blinkered masses for whom Israel can do no wrong, for whom the mere existence of a Jewish state trumps all other, harsher truths, and which deafen them to the cries of those trampled beneath the wheels of the Zionist bandwagon. "We're here to stay," they cry triumphantly, as though the conflict really is as binary as that: 1 = Jews exert unilateral control over every last inch of Biblical Israel; 0 = Jews are instead driven into the sea by the monster that continually lurks under Israel's bed.

The reason behind the creation of the state in 1948 is the very reason the state (in its current form) is doomed to fail. Giving a severely traumatised people a land on which to go through the throes of rebirth and recovery, with no therapeutic or palliative care alongside, meant the experiment was always going to turn out for the worst. Those given the keys to the new state would always see, and fear, the worst in those around them. They were left to come to terms with their pain and fear in the midst of another battleground.

Thanks to the cyclical nature of the tit-for-tat conflict, for every punitive measure taken by the IDF in the name of Israel's so-called search for peace, reprisal attacks by Palestinians and their agents endanger thousands of Jewish lives in return, prompting ever-stronger countermeasures by the Israelis. And so it goes on. Until the fear-fuelled monkey can be got off Israel's collective back, it doesn't matter how much evidence is put in front of them about the state's crimes, since they will always turn a blind eye in favour of believing that there is no other way ensure their security.

The Palestinians are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Rise up and try to smash the chains that bind them, and what was previously a tonne of bricks will be multiplied by 10 in terms of the Israeli response. Lie back and do nothing and the authorities will walk all over them, since there is no reason for the Israelis to apply the brakes themselves.

For two years I have detailed the abuses and miscarriages of justice I witness on every foray I make into the West Bank, and for two years I've been buried under an avalanche of hate in response. It was, is, and will continue to be water off a duck's back, regardless of the outraged responses on the threads, since I'm convinced that the only way to effect change is for the truth to be brought to light. And if I can play a small part in helping that to occur, then nothing and no one is strong enough to act as a deterrent.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21510.htm

[Marigold]

Disco writes:

[Disco_Destroyer]

I didn't write the words but I agree with them
next:-

The cultivation of news from Gaza
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

(Op-ed) Stephen Lendman Saturday 17th January, 2009

In his January 8 article, "Gaza Under Fire," John Pilger quotes the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko saying: "When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie."

America's dominant media suppress facts, sacrifice accuracy, and conceal the greater lie that:

-- all Israeli aggression is collaboratively planned months in advance with Washington;

-- American aid makes it possible - billions of dollars annually, the latest weapons and technology, and Security Council vetoes to assure no anti-Israeli resolutions with teeth are passed;

-- six months of preparation preceded Israel's terror bombings followed by invasion, occupation, and repeated war crimes on the ground;

-- Hamas "rockets" were pretext (not cause) to abet Israel's overall strategy - with initial measures planned years ago and implemented in steps; Gaza 2008 - 09 is the latest with much more to come unless stopped;

-- grievous international law violations are being willfully committed;

-- innocent men, women and children are slaughtered;

-- civilians and legitimate resistance are called "terrorists;"

-- basic infrastructure unrelated to defense is destroyed - government buildings, police stations, schools, mosques, private dwellings, TV stations, commercial structures, water mains, power facilities, fishing boats, vehicles, ambulances, medical facilities, UN relief ones, and visible civilian targets, even young children coming from and going to school;

-- refugee camps, women, doctors and journalists are attacked;

-- terror bombing and shelling continues round-the-clock; from 50 to 100 or more sorties a day but fire from naval vessels, tanks, and troops on the ground;

-- illegal terror weapons are used;

-- as of January 16, more than 6,000 have been killed or wounded; hundreds still alive are "clinically dead," according to medical officials; a handful of Israeli civilians have died; some have been injured as well; military casualties are largely unknown as Israel controls the reporting; it says ten soldiers have died; Hamas claims over 30;

-- Gaza remains under siege; beyond token amounts, no outside aid gets in; electricity, fuel, medical supplies and clean water are nearly exhausted; medical workers can't reach the wounded; foreign journalists can't report on the scene; volunteer doctors can't enter through Rafah; no remnants of normal life exist; Gaza is totally dysfunctional; and

-- world leaders, the White House, and both Houses of Congress sanction Israel's genocide; its "final solution" destruction as a legitimate society; its right to a sovereign state; a government of its choosing; normality for the people; and defense of their rights by a world community that cares - it doesn't.

Instead, Israel plans to remove a legitimate leadership; eliminate or neutralize the Hamas government; displace Palestinians from their land; confine them to isolated cantons, make them a hellish, ghoulish dystopia, and according to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni on January 13 to an American Jewish Committee delegation:

"Israel's campaign against Hamas (is in the) interest of the 'moderate' Palestinian people." And, of course, "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength," and "Israel kills to save lives."

Media reports echo this, suppress truths, and maintain the lie of silence. None show pictures of vast destruction; dismembered bodies; children with lost arms and legs; head wounds so severe they'll die; blood, bones, and limbs everywhere; entire families wantonly massacred; human desperation and need so great it rivals anything in memory.

No brave reporters condemn these crimes and support the victims. None say Palestinians deserve the same rights as Jews; that laws of war and occupation protect everyone; that illegal acts must cease and perpetrators be punished.

None report the American Jewish Alliance for Justice & Peace (Brit Tzedek v'Shalom) condemning Israel's attack and demanding that Barack Obama "call for an immediate ceasefire (and assure the prompt) delivery of (urgently needed) humanitarian aid to Gaza."

None cite the rule of law. None report accurately, and on matters of truth, distortion and "silence" are their chosen options.

Samples of their work are below - daily in major broadsheets, publications, and on radio and TV. It's why America is the most ill-informed society anywhere in spite of every opportunity to know vital truths and react. Bread and circus distractions take precedence so wanton killing continues below the radar - and not just in Gaza.

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Page Pro-Israeli Zealots

They appear daily in editorials and guest op-eds but never as easy reading. A January 5 editorial says "Israel can't afford to lose its second war in two years." It echoes poor Israel, surrounded "by enemies on all sides (so it) needs to maintain an aura of invincibility if it is to have any chance for peaceful co-existence."

Task one - "eliminat(ing) Hamas rule in Gaza (and) its military threat." Then on to "the broader Middle East issue....expansion of Iranian influence and terror. Hamas has become part of Tehran's bid for regional hegemony (like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Sadrist 'special groups' in Iraq)."

Bush is on board for their elimination. It's now up to Obama. He must show Israel and Iran "that the new president understands the US stake in the success of Israel's Gaza" offensive and assure no efforts are made to halt it.

On January 5 hawkish Max Boot was back with an "Israel's Tragic Gaza Dilemma" op-ed. Again, poor Israel:

"There is little doubt that Israel is morally justified in its offensive against Hamas. No nation can sit by and allow its territory to be rocketed with impunity." As for "accusations of (IDF) brutality, (Israel's) conduct has been exemplary by historical standards. They have shown far less propensity for indiscriminate killing or torture (than other nations) confronting insurgencies. The only comparable example of restraint is the conduct of the US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States, too, earns worldwide opprobrium for alleged brutality rather than approbation for its humanity."

Millions of dead Iraqis and Afghans might disagree. Thousands of others incarcerated, tortured, and brutalized. Palestinians also after six brutal decades of occupation and repeated war crimes committed with impunity. "Restraint (and) humanity" indeed.

Never mind, Boot voices concern, not over mass slaughter but "on how the offensive turns out." It's not likely "they will be able to defeat the terrorist organization on their southern border." That requires a much greater and prolonged effort. A better choice is to depose the Hamas government and for Israel to administer the Territory itself. If Israel's troops leave, "Hamas will rebuild its infrastructure, forcing Israelis to go back to the future."

Boot calls it a "quagmire," but "Israel has no choice. It cannot simply pack its bags and go home....Israel is one battle away from destruction....If (it's) to continue to exist, it will have to continue to wage low-intensity war for a long time to come - definitely years, probably decades, possibly centuries." In other words, permanent war instead of the alternative - "annihilation." Off the table is the obvious solution. Never mind the simplest and most righteous: A just peace, Palestinian self-determination, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and stop attacking them so they'll have no need to respond in self-defense.

A Bret Stephens January 6 "Endgame for Israel" op-ed says: "If Israel is going to achieve a strategic victory in this war, it will have to stand firm against (the) global wave of hypocrisy and cant. (It) will have to practice a more consistent policy of deterrence than it has so far done. One option: For every rocket that falls randomly on Israeli soil, an Israeli missile will hit a carefully selected target in Gaza." Stephens calls this "proportionality (and) the endgame that Israel needs."

Not explained is that Hamas responds only in self-defense to Israeli preemptive attacks and killings. No Journal contributors say this or provide fair and accurate commentary.

On January 7, former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht shared op-ed space with Benjamin Netanyahu's "Militant Islam Threatens Us All" in which he equated Hamas rockets to "the same terror goal as Hitler's blitz." The old Hitler analogy again.

Gerecht addressed "Iran's Hamas Strategy" and accused "Tehran (of) aiding Hamas for years with the aim of radicalizing politics across the entire Arab Middle East." Hamas gives Iran "an important ally. Through Hamas, Tehran can possibly reach the ultimate prize, the Egyptian faithful....With Gaza and Egypt conceivably within Tehran's grasp, the clerical regime will be patient and try to keep Gaza boiling....In 30 years, they have not seen a better constellation of forces (with Gaza in conflict and the prospect of their being) "nuclear-armed....just around the corner."

That said despite the unanimous conclusion of 16 US intelligence agencies that Iran stopped pursuing a nuclear weapons program in 2003 even though no proof shows it ever had one.

On January 9, military strategist Edward Luttwak's op-ed headlined: "Yes, Israel Can Win in Gaza." He downplays Hezbollah's impressive 2006 performance saying it was "thoroughly shocked by the Israeli bombing campaign (in spite of Israel's) inconclusive ground actions."

In fact, Lebanon was shocked, not Hezbollah. According to researcher Andrew Exum of Kings College, London: "Hezbollah, far from being weakened in the 2006 war or subsequent (Beirut) political battles, is stronger than ever."

Israel can do to Hamas what it did to Hezbollah, says Luttwak - weaken it with further ground operations "that cannot be attacked by the air - typically because they are in the basements of crowded apartment buildings - and by engaging Hamas gunmen in direct combat. Hamas will claim a win no matter what happens, but then so did Hezbollah in 2006....yet (it remains) immobile. If Israel can achieve the same with Hamas in Gaza, it would be a significant victory."

Luttwak forgets how Hezbollah outfoxed and embarrassed the "vaunted" IDF that hasn't fought a comparable adversary in 35 years, forgot how, and only outperforms against civilian men, women and children, much like America in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, Luttwak wouldn't get op-ed space if he admitted that.

On January 8, Rabbi Marvin Hier's Journal op-ed appeared titled: "The Jews Face a Double Standard" and asked - "Why doesn't Israel have the same right to self-defense as other nations?" Hier may know scripture, but clearly not international law or fundamental morality.

He condemns worldwide protests as "so full of hatred that they leave me with the terrible feeling that (they're unrelated to) so-called disproportionality....a great many people....can't bear the Jewish state having the same rights they so readily grant to other nations....because they don't believe Israel should exist in the first place."

Hier cites isolated incidents indicative of world sentiment in his judgment. He ignores growing public opinion before and after his article:

-- many hundreds of thousands protesting in cities globally;

-- many thousands of outraged Jews as well, including in Israel;

-- Haaretz reporting "tens of thousands (in) the streets in European capitals;"

-- 100,000 in London alone (on January 10), including 20,000 outside the Israeli Embassy;

-- at least 30,000 in Paris; 90,000 or more in over 120 other French cities and towns;

-- tens of thousands more in Berlin and across Germany;

-- Rome as well and across Italy;

-- the same in Athens, Oslo, Stockholm, Budapest, Sarajevo, Madrid, Istanbul, Belfast, Edinburgh, Bern, Moscow, and dozens more European cities;

-- globally across America, Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Arab street expressing outrage over mass slaughter.

Poor Israel, according to Hier; an "insidious bias against the Jewish state" he claims; a "double-standard;" a humanitarian crisis? "There have been hundreds of articles and reports....falsely accusing Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies from reaching beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza."

Blame Hamas for the conflict - "the same terrorist group that brought disaster to the Palestinians in the first place....the real lessons of World War II have yet to be learned."

This from a man of God getting prominent Journal space for his hateful, disturbing, and grossly inaccurate commentary.

Pro-Israeli Washington Post Columnists

Many appear, these two as regulars. On January 9, Charles Krauthammer contributed an "Endgame in Gaza" op-ed. In August 2006, Steve Benen said this about him in the Washington Monthly:

"About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur (the most solemn of Jewish high-holidays). The rabbi offered some timid endorsement of peace (on Israel's terms) but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to 'shush' him. (He) kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace? Those neocon hawks are such a charming bunch, aren't they?

Krauthammer contributes weekly to the Washington Post and is syndicated in 200 newspapers. He's also a Fox News regular where he's welcome among like-minded friends.

In his latest column, he's on the warpath against "an increasingly wobbly US State Department" and Ehud Olmert for "hinting that (he's) receptive to a French-Egyptian cease-fire plan....That would be a terrible mistake....It would have the same elements as the phony peace in Lebanon (abjuring the) use of force, a (weak) arms embargo (letting lots of them) flood in, and a cessation of hostilities until the terrorist side is rearmed and ready to initiate the next round of hostilities."

"The 'international community' (now wants) a replay of (the Lebanon) charade....Weapons will continue to be smuggled. Deeper and more secure fortifications will be built....Mosques, schools and hospitals will again be used for weapons storage and terrorist safe havens. Such a deal would buy Israel maybe a couple of years - with Hamas rockets then killing civilians in Tel Aviv (and maybe hitting) Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona."

"Which is why the only acceptable outcome (is the total) disintegration of Hamas rule....The fall of Hamas is within reach (as long as) Israel does not cave in to pressure to stop now. (It's) disintegration....would be a devastating blow to Palestinian rejectionists....to Iran as patron of radical Islamic movements (and Sadrists) in Iraq." A Bush State Department "premature (ceasefire) imposition....would not just be self-defeating but shameful."

Why would any rabbi accept this man in his congregation even if he kept quiet and didn't shout.

Post columnist Richard Cohen is hardly better, and it shows in his January 6 op-ed: "A Conflict Hamas Caused....It takes real stupidity to blame it on Israel. As the leaders of Hamas understand, the war in Gaza is about Israel's incessant fight to be a normal country...so (Jewish) kids can swim in a lake."

How can they when "Hamas has vowed to destroy Israel....Anyone could have seen this war coming. As always, though, it's a lot harder to see how it ends." Cohen hints that destroying Hamas is the way. Some call Cohen liberal because he's pro-choice and pro-gay. He's also pro-war and zealously pro-Israel, even though occasionally critical. He has a "strong emotional attachment" to the country...."whose survival is not only important for the Jewish people but for the rest of mankind as well." So if mass slaughter assures it, so be it.

The New York Times "Incursion Into Gaza" Editorial

On January 5, The Times called Israel's "ground incursion (a gamble) that it can finally silence the Hamas rockets that have terrorized its people for years." No mention of:

-- unilateral Hamas ceasefires;

-- that Israel never observed them;

-- that the IDF killed over two dozen Gazans during the one ending November 4;

-- that no Israelis were killed or injured during the period;

-- that Israel, not Hamas, ended it; and

-- that Hamas responds only in self-defense as international law allows.

Instead The Times cites "no justification for Hamas' attacks or its virulent rejectionism." Of what? It repeatedly offers peace, is willing to recognize a Jewish state provided Israel reciprocates, stops killing Arabs, and grants Palestinians their own state inside pre-1967 borders - a mere 22% of their original homeland.

The Times also worries that the longer the conflict continues, the more casualties mount, the more likely "moderate" Arab states will become alienated, that "more regional instability (will be) fueled, and the harder it will be for Obama to be a peacemaker after January 20.

"Israel, aided by the United States, Europe and 'moderate' Arab states, must try to end this conflict as soon as possible (and) ensur(e) at a minimum that Hamas - a proxy of Iran - is not seen as gaining from the war, that rocket fire is halted permanently, and that the 'terrorist' group can no longer restock its arsenal with more deadly weapons" from across Egypt's border.

"There is little chance of restraining Hamas without dealing with its patrons in Syria and Iran....Palestinians (want a) way out of their misery (but) Hamas and its rockets are not the answer."

As always, The Times' distortion and silence speak louder than its comments. Peace? Hamas rockets? Its patrons? Neither Israel or Washington wants peace. Conflict serves their interests. Hamas rockets are for defense, not offense. They're weak and ineffective compared to Israel's awesome power. Its weapons are for offense and come from its Washington patron. Peace depends on not using them so Hamas will have no reason to respond. These facts aren't in The Times' editorial or other material in its pages.

Nor in columnist Tom Friedman's commentaries. His January 6 op-ed is titled: "The Mideast's Ground Zero." He addresses the ongoing struggle. Who'll end up the "regional superpower - Egypt? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Should there be a Jewish state....and, if so, on what Palestinian terms? And (who'll) dominate Arab society - Islamists who are intolerant of other faiths and want to choke off modernity or modernists who want to embrace the future, with an Arab-Muslim face?"

Friedman is a neoliberal hawk, a supporter of the Afghan and Iraq wars, zealously pro-Israel, very hardline against Muslims, unsupportive of Palestinian issues, and he earlier called the Second Intifada "idiotic, braindead, insane (and) a reckless, pointless, foolish adventure."

He espouses Camp David mythology - that Ehud Barak made a generous offer but Arafat preferred "to play the victim rather than stateman. (He sought to) provoke the Israelis into brutalizing the Palestinians again." Friedman to Arafat: "Please don't tell me you can't control your own people. You've sold us that carpet one too many times." He accuses Palestinians of "adopt(ing) suicide bombing as a strategic choice, not out of desperation." These provocations and others "triggered (justifiable) Israeli retaliation...."

Friedman's analysis is one-sided, extremist, and immoral. He distorts facts, makes assertions with no evidence, lets emotion and intellectual dishonesty trump good commentary, and on everything Israel, Jewish interests matter. Arab ones don't. Now there's a winning formula for regional peace and stability.

From Jerusalem on January 10, Times columnist Steven Erlanger headlined: "A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery" - a one-sided article full of bias and misinformation. With Iranian and Hezbollah help, Erlanger states:

Hamas "used the last two years to turn Gaza into a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs. Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the leadership's war room is a bunker beneath Gaza's largest hospital, Israeli intelligence officials say."

If they said it, Erlanger reports it, and it once got journalist Robert Fisk to say that The New York Times should be renamed "US Officials Say," Government spokesmen say, unnamed sources say, or in this case "Israeli officials say."

Erlanger: "Israeli officials say that they are obeying the rules of war and trying hard not to hurt noncombatants but that Hamas is using civilians as human shields....Israeli press officers call the tactics of Hamas cynical, illegal and inhumane; even Israel's critics agree that Hamas' regular use of rockets to fire at civilians in Israel, and its use of civilians as shields in Gaza, are also violations of the rules of war."

Erlanger cites "Israeli military men and analysts" claiming these tactics "come from the Iranian Army's tactical training and the lesson of the 2006 war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Erlanger is in Jerusalem, not Gaza, nor will "Israeli officials" let him go there. His sources are them alone. His point of view is theirs. He ignores conditions in Occupied Gaza and is Israel's man at The New York Times. His article is "full of traps and trickery," instead of accurate, unbiased reporting. So is "All the News That's Fit to Print" that reveals the true record of the "Paper of Record."

The Hawkish Right-Wing Jerusalem Post

On January 9, its editor-in-chief David Horovitz's article headlined: "Time running out for an escalation Israel's leaders don't really want." Neither Israeli air power or its ground operation has broken Hamas' will to resist, and that concerns Horovitz. "Its main fighting force is largely intact (and) as of (January , it was plainly not crying out for a cease-fire, confident that the international diplomatic clock" is on its side.

"Israel's dilemma....is whether or not to proceed to an intensified ground operation - involving thousands (more) troops, penetrating far more deeply into Gaza's most dense urban areas." Doing so would greatly increase casualties on both sides, and there's "every indication that Hamas is braced (and thinking) it can inflict heavy damage on incoming forces, and thus bolster its standing and capacity to impose its terms on any cease-fire arrangements."

Operation Cast Lead "appear(s) in some kind of pause." Perhaps on the ground when he wrote this but not now nor in dozens of round-the-clock sorties inflicting wanton slaughter fast approaching 1000 confirmed deaths and well over four times that number of injuries, many serious.

Horovitz: "This pause cannot last long. The IDF is most vulnerable when....static. (It must decide) whether it is moving forward or pulling back." The key leadership agrees that "Hamas is hurt but not beaten....No mechanism is in place to ensure it cannot quickly rearm."

Hamas remains "cocky, (is) playing down its losses, and (is) anything but troubled by the deaths of Palestinians." If it "remains intransigent (and won't agree to Israel's terms), a reluctant political echelon (will order in) many thousands to confront (it) as never before....a full-scale invasion to overthrow Hamas and reoccupy" Gaza.

As usual, Horovitz, twists facts and invents myths. Hamas worries greatly for its people and continues struggling for them. Why else would it resist a three-year embargo, the arrest of its officials, killing others, a crippling 18 month siege, and three weeks of Israeli savagery to wage guerrilla battles against an overpowering foe.

Israel offers its terms alone - deposing Hamas' leadership, surrender of its weapons, continuation of Palestine's colonization, and ending any hope for a just and lasting peace or Palestinian self-determination in a sovereign independent state inside pre-1967 borders. Hamas spent the last 21 years fighting for them. They won't likely stop now, nor will Palestinians. As a result, continued bloodshed may continue if Israeli extremists prevail.

Horovitz seems unconcerned that most casualties will be civilian men, women and children, or that UN and human rights organizations accuse Israel of willfully targeting them. No concern either that UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, says Gaza's crisis is "worsening day by day," refuting Israel's claim that none exists. The situation is so extreme that he and others no longer can be silent.

Even the Vatican's Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, compared Gaza to a "concentration camp," reminiscent of Nazi-era atrocities. That kind of criticism has impact, yet Israel's mass slaughter continues.

The independent Al Haq human rights organization estimates 80% of Palestinian deaths are civilians, including many women and children. The IDF follows so-called "Dahiyah Doctrine" tactics reflecting official change in Israel's National Security Concept. It calls for:

"wield(ing) disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases. This is not a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."

Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Colonel Gabriel Siboni believes responses should "disproportion(ately) strike at the heart of the enemy's weak spot, in which efforts to hurt (rocket) launch capability are secondary."

It's why Israel calls civilian areas "legitimate military targets" in gross violation of international laws. Mosques, medical facilities, private dwellings, fishing boats, and food markets pose no strategic threats. Attacking them is terrorism. Those involved are war criminals. No Dahiyah doctrines change that. Nor do high-level wrongdoing denials. Israel is a serial offender.

For international law expert Francis Boyle, justice awaits an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as "the Only (possible) Deterrent" to all out war, to put an end to these crimes of war and against humanity, and to let other Israeli leaders and generals know that committing these crimes will be punished. He urges the General Assembly to act before Arab anger erupts into something far greater than conflict in Gaza.

He advocates other needed actions as well:

-- "immediately move for the de facto suspension of Israel throughout the entirety of the United Nations System, including the General Assembly and all UN subsidiary organs and bodies;"

-- carry out all further talks with Israel "under principles of public international law (Geneva Convention 1949 and Hague Regulations 1907);"

-- "abandon the fiction and fraud that the US government is an 'honest broker;"

-- "move to have the UN General Assembly impose economic, diplomatic, and travel sanctions upon Israel pursuant to the terms of the (General Assembly) Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950);" and

-- "the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine must sue Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for inflicting acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention."

Boyle accuses "the United States (of) Promot(ing) Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians. Although the United States is a founding sponsor of, and a contracting party to, both the Nuremberg Charter and the Genocide Convention, as well as the United Nations Charter, these legal facts have never made any difference to (US officials from either party) when it comes to (their) blank-check support for Israel and their joint and severable criminal mistreatment of the Palestinians - truly the wretched of the earth!"

"The world has not yet heard even one word uttered by the United States and its NATO allies in favor of 'humanitarian intervention' against Israel in order to protect the Palestinian people, let alone a 'responsibility to protect' (them) from Zionist/Israeli(American) genocide."

"Rather than rein in the Israelis, the United States government (and) Congress" feed its war machine." Boyle calls this "humanitarian extermination" through a joint US - Israeli partnership. He expects no policy change under the new Obama administration.

Alternative Voices for Sanity and Peace

On January 8, Jimmy Carter in a Washington Post op-ed headlined: "An Unnecessary War." A few quotes:

-- "Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza, and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza;"

-- "We knew that 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved....acute malnutrition (is evident) on the same scale as in the poorest nations in southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian families eating only one meal a day" - and a very inadequate one for proper nutrition;

-- "The top Hamas leaders in Damascus....agreed to a cease-fire, provided Israel would not attack Gaza and would permit normal humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Palestinian citizens;" they also agreed "to accept any peace agreement....provided....a majority vote of Palestinians" approved it; yet

-- Israel remains unwilling to negotiate with Hamas for peace or on other issues.

Comments like these from a former US president are important despite falling woefully short. The war isn't "unnecessary," it's illegal. Those responsible are war criminals. Justice demands they be punished. Israel should be isolated, embargoed, and boycotted until they are and hostilities and the Gaza siege end. Carter nonetheless deserves praise for going this far and refusing to be silent.

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, like his colleague Amira Hass, as well. In his January 9 "time of the righteous" commentary he refers to:

-- Israel's "unbridled aggression and brutality,"

-- about 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli;

-- is Palestinian blood "worth one hundred times less than ours...;"

-- "all the disasters now occurring in Gaza are manmade - by us;"

-- "Anyone who preaches for this war and believes in the justness of mass killing....has no right....to speak about morality and humaneness;"

-- "Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes. Anyone who sees it as a defensive war must bear the moral responsibility for its consequences. Anyone who now encourages the politicians and the army to continue will also have to bear the mark of cain that will be branded on his forehead after the war. All those who support the war also support the horror."

Davids Cromwell and Edwards edit the Media Lens UK-based media watch project to provide "authoritative criticism of mainstream media bias, censorship" and much more. Their January 12 alert is titled: "An Eye for an Eyelash: The Gaza Massacre - Part I.

They quote Tony Blair making an emotional March 24, 1999 appeal to the House of Commons and British people saying:

"We must act to save thousands of innocent men, women and children from humanitarian catastrophe."

He referred to the Balkans ahead of the 78 day 1999 blitzkrieg - what Harold Pinter called "another blatant and brutal assertion of US power using NATO as its missile (to cut) children to pieces from 15,000 feet."

Blair is now the Quartet's Middle East envoy representing the UN, EU, Russia but mostly America and, of course, Israel. He blames the victims and supports the aggressor unlike his sister-in-law Lauren Booth saying his notion of a ceasefire would condemn Palestinians "to a slow agonising death."

Try finding those comments in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, or any other major US newspaper or publication. Try hearing them from guests, pundits or reporters on CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, NPR, PBS, or BBC.

Try expecting world leaders (except Hugo Chavez, Ecuador's Raphael Correa, the Cuban government, and Iran's President Ahmadinejad) to express these views and much more.

Imagine Israel ending hostilities if they did. It's defiant with Ehud Olmert saying he won't bow to "outside influence....(Israel) has a right to protect its citizens....(the IDF will) continue to change the security situation in the south (meaning attacks will continue, and no outside body can challenge our) right to defend (our) security."

A Final Comment

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) states:

"Israeli Occupation Forces have continued to wage the bloodiest and most brutal war against the Gaza Strip since its (1967) occupation, under an international and Arab conspiracy of silence. It cites:

-- the deplorable humanitarian conditions; Gaza is totally dysfunctional; its society is in total breakdown;

-- continued air raids have created confusion, fear and horror;

-- "according to (PCHR) investigations, at least 90% of the Palestinians killed....are civilians, many of whom are children; the Mezan Center for Human Rights estimates 85%; UN officials continue to cite 25% to suppress the full horror; its relief agencies say 100% of Gazans need humanitarian aid.

Deaths are now around 1000. Injuries exceed 4500. No resolution is in sight. Laila Al-Haddad reports there's "nowhere to hide from (the) bombing. You don't know who is alive....who is a target....where to? Where can I go seek refuge to?"

Your house shakes. The windows break. There's fear everywhere. Children are traumatized. The Saminu clan lost 70 members of their extended family. Professor Said Abdelwahed (in the Strip) emails about a typical Gaza night - "bloody;" air and ground attacks lasting all night to 6:45AM; "hellish; I do not believe that there was someone in Gaza who could sleep last night!;" no casualty reports yet; "situation is horrible."

Half the population has no water. On January 11, Gaza's Water Authority said it's near totally disabled and no longer can provide any. Israel attacked a major water pipe in central Gaza. Salty water from wells is all that's available. Raw sewage is running through streets. Officials warn of a "massive sewage flood throughout the Strip. One million Gazans have no electricity. Hospitals can't function. Their supplies are near-exhausted. Hundreds more will die as a result.

A modern-day Holocaust is unfolding. The hypocrisy of "Never again" repeated in full world view. Bil'in, West Bank residents marched in protest, joined by Israeli and international activists. Protesters carried Palestinian and Venezuelan flags. They wore clothes like those given Jews in Nazi concentration camps featuring yellow Stars of David.

Meanwhile, reports from Gaza are of entire neighborhood forced evacuations, but where to go! Schools are bombed, shelters and mosques attacked, everything and everyone in Gaza is a "legitimate" target. Images coming out are horrifying. It's why the US media suppress them.

In a January 10 Newsweek interview, Tzipi Livni talked tough and called the term "ceasefire" unacceptable because "it looks like an agreement between two legitimate sides....this is not a conflict between two states but a fight against terror. We will continue to fight," and blame Iran for being behind it all.

On January 8, the Senate (by voice vote) agreed to a non-binding resolution affirming support for Israel's aggression. On January 9, the House followed suit overwhelmingly in approving a similar non-binding resolution (390 - 5) calling for a Gaza ceasefire - on Israel's terms.

On January 9, Reuters reported that the Pentagon plans "to deliver hundreds of tons of (new) arms (and munitions) to Israel from Greece later this month." Indications are that "hazardous material" is involved, including explosive substances and detonators.

Weapons and munitions shipments generally signal future, not ongoing conflicts. This one, and perhaps others, may be for a larger-scale regional war, but it's too early to conclude it. Yet threats continue to be made against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah so planning for more confrontation is very possible.

On January 13, Haaretz reported:

"A US military plan to ship munitions from a Greek port to a US stockpile in Israel has been cancelled due to the conflict in the Gaza Strip," Pentagon officials said. Take it with a grain of salt, and follow-up comments indicated a delay, not cancellation, and "EUCOM (the US European Command) is developing an appropriate course of action to deliver the items to the US stockpile in Israel. (No information will be provided) on timelines or possible routes for obvious reasons of operations security."

Life in Occupied Gaza. No end of conflict is in sight. Mass slaughter continues unabated. World leaders are silent on halting it. Blame the victims. Back aggression, but people globally say otherwise: In solidarity, we're all Gazans. We're all Palestinians.

- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=454932

[TonyGosling]

Israeli minister admits using "Anti-Semite" is just a "trick" to silence
critics....


Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGVPBO9_cA

[ian neal]

Highly recommended

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pznkh/Panorama_A_Walk_in_the_P ark/

Occasionally the BBC do produce something worth watching

[xmasdale]

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:55 pm Post subject:

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

Israeli minister admits using "Anti-Semite" is just a "trick" to silence
critics....


Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGVPBO9_cA

What would induce an Israeli minister to admit it's a trick? A fit of conscience?