Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves
Yesterday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."
This morning, he said:
"We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy."
But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gazacoast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state" as "misguided." The problem, he said, is that:
"Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel…
A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three… It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."
Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).
Since the discovery of oil and gas in the Occupied Territories, resource competition has increasingly been at the heart of the conflict, motivated largely by Israel's increasing domestic energy woes.
Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to "eliminate" Hamas as "a viable political entity in Gaza" to generate a "political climate" conducive to a gas deal. This involved rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in the West Bank, and "leveraging political tensions between the two parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of financial aid."
Ya'alon's comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.
Meanwhile, Israel has made successive major discoveries in recent years - such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which could transform the country from energy importer into aspiring energy exporter with ambitions to supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt. A potential obstacle is that much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters where borders are hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.
Amidst this regional jockeying for gas, though, Israel faces its own little-understood energy challenges. It could, for instance, take until 2020 for much of these domestic resources to be properly mobilised.
But this is the tip of the iceberg. A 2012 letter by two Israeli government chief scientists – which the Israeli government chose not to disclose – warned the government that Israel still had insufficient gas resources to sustain exports despite all the stupendous discoveries. The letter, according to Ha'aretz, stated that Israel's domestic resources were 50% less than needed to support meaningful exports, and could be depleted in decades:
"We believe Israel should increase its [domestic] use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority's estimates are lacking. There's a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years!"
As Dr Gary Luft - an advisor to the US Energy Security Council - wrote in theJournal of Energy Security, "with the depletion of Israel's domestic gas supplies accelerating, and without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a power crisis in the next few years… If Israel is to continue to pursue its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources."
Israel's new domestic discoveries do not, as yet, offer an immediate solution as electricity prices reach record levels, heightening the imperative to diversify supply. This appears to be behind Prime Minister Netanyahu's announcement in February 2011 that it was now time to seal the Gaza gas deal. But even after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.
Earlier this year, Hamas condemned a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from Israel Leviathan field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing. Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas – and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds. That plan had been the brainchild of Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
But the PA was also courting Russia's Gazprom to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
According to Anais Antreasyan in the University of California's Journal of Palestine Studies, the most respected English language journal devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel's stranglehold over Gaza has been designed to make "Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas wells impossible." Israel's long-term goal "besides preventing the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources, is to integrate the gas fields off Gaza into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations." This is part of a wider strategy of:
"…. separating the Palestinians from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them, and, as a consequence, blocking Palestinian economic development. Despite all formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources."
For the Israeli government, Hamas continues to be the main obstacle to the finalisation of the gas deal. In the incumbent defence minister's words: "Israel's experience during the Oslo years indicates Palestinian gas profits would likely end up funding terrorism against Israel. The threat is not limited to Hamas… It is impossible to prevent at least some of the gas proceeds from reaching Palestinian terror groups."
The only option, therefore, is yet another "military operation to uproot Hamas."
Unfortunately, for the IDF uprooting Hamas means destroying the group's perceived civilian support base – which is why Palestinian civilian casualties massively outweigh that of Israelis. Both are obviously reprehensible, but Israel's capacity to inflict destruction is simply far greater.
In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, the Jerusalem-based Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (Pcati) found that the IDF had adopted a more aggressive combat doctrine based on two principles – "zero casualties" for IDF soldiers at the cost of deploying increasingly indiscriminate firepower in densely populated areas, and the "dahiya doctrine" promoting targeting of civilian infrastructure to create widespread suffering amongst the population with a view to foment opposition to Israel's opponents.
This was confirmed in practice by the UN fact-finding mission in Gaza which concluded that the IDF had pursued a "deliberate policy of disproportionate force," aimed at the "supporting infrastructure" of the enemy - "this appears to have meant the civilian population," said the UN report.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is clearly not all about resources. But in an age of expensive energy, competition to dominate regional fossil fuels are increasingly influencing the critical decisions that can inflame war.
'B’Tselem has discovered that the Israeli military included the al-Wafaa rehabilitative hospital in a-Shuja’iyeh neighborhood in the demand it issued to residents of the a-Shuja’iyeh and a-Zeitun neighborhoods to evacuate their homes by today, July 16, 2014 at 8:00 AM. Hospital Director Basman al-‘Ashi told B’Tselem over the phone that the hospital received a recorded message last night at around 11:10 PM, saying that a-Shuja’iyeh residents must leave the area and move north to the city center. Shortly thereafter, at around 11:30 PM, the hospital received another phone call from a person saying he was from the military who repeated the demand to evacuate the hospital specifically.
According to al-‘Ashi, the hospital currently has 17 patients, between the ages of 14 and 95, all suffering from different degrees of paralysis. There are also some thirty staff members in the hospital at this time and a number of international activists. Al-‘Ashi clarified that there is no intention to evacuate the hospital, noting that this was one of the only hospitals in Gaza to offer rehabilitative treatment for patients in these conditions.
The military’s demand to evacuate the hospital is unlawful. A hospital is not a military target and the military may not target it even after it is evacuated. The information B’Tselem has indicates that the hospital was ordered to evacuate as part of the sweeping demand to evacuate the entire neighborhood, in blatant disregard for the fact that evacuating a rehabilitation institution is a complicated task which may put lives at risk. There is no other rehabilitative institute in the area where patients can be transferred. These patients require special conditions that cannot be recreated. Transferring hospital patients is complicated and dangerous at the best of times. Under the current conditions in Gaza, the danger is mortal.' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'We now have confirmation from the Israeli daily Haaretz of what we should have suspected: that the idea for the so-called Egyptian “ceasefire proposal” was actually hatched in Washington, the messenger boy was arch-war criminal Tony Blair, and the terms were drafted by Israel.
The intention was either to corner Hamas into surrendering – and thereby keep the savage blockade of Gaza in place – or force Hamas to reject the proposal and confirm the Israeli narrative that it is a terrorist organisation with which Israel cannot make peace.
According to Haaretz, Blair secretly initiated his “ceasefire” activity after “coordinating” with US Secretary of State John Kerry. On Saturday he headed off to Cairo to meet with the US-backed Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to persuade him to put his name to the proposal.
Immediately afterwards, he travelled to Israel to meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday afternoon. Sisi and Netanyahu were then supposed to thrash out the details. When they failed to do so, Blair intervened again on behalf of the Americans and the pair spoke by phone on Saturday evening....' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'Highlights from a UK parliamentary debate in which MPs variously accused Israel of war crimes, disproportionate violence, ruining peace negotiations by building illegal settlements, running the worlds largest outdoor prison, collective punishment, and attacking water supplies, hospitals, supply centres and all manner of other civilian targets.' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'IDF ground forces began to move into the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, the prime minister's office confirmed.
The purpose of the operation was to destroy the Gazan terror tunnels leading to Israel, according to a statement released by the prime minister's office.
"Israel is committed to act to protect its citizens. The operation will continue until its goals are reached: To bring quiet to the citizens of Israel for a long period of time, and to seriously harm Hamas and other terrorist organizations' infrastructure in the Gaza Strip," the statement read.
Prior to the commencement of the ground invasion, the IDF launched a massive wave of combined air and artillery strikes on Thursday night.
The ground invasion comes hours after a Hamas assault squad of thirteen highly armed terrorists attempted to carry out a massacre of civilians at Kibbutz Sufa, near the border, before being blocked by the IDF.
Infantry, Armored Corps, Engineering Corps, artillery, and intelligence units are taking over various areas in Gaza, and are all working with one another and the air force. They are operating in central, and southern Gaza, where Hamas has dug an extensive terrorist tunnel network.
The IDF's Southern Command is overseeing the ground offensive.
The units involved have undergone intensive training recently ahead of their missions, Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz, IDF spokesman, said on Thursday night.
"The operation has reached its ground phase," Almoz said. "Large numbers of forces began a focused effort to destroy tunnels in Gaza.
We are in a new stage," he stated. At the same time, the air force is contintuing with air strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad around Gaza.
The Ground Forces are currently engaging terrorist infrastructure, and the operation "will be expanded as needed," Almoz said. "They're moving now in various areas of Gaza. We will continue to attack in every location we think needs to be struck," he warned.
The IDF is currently calling up more reserves, Almoz added.
Palestinian sources said strikes occurred up and down the Strip, adding that one strike targeted a motorcycle apparently carrying members of a rocket launching cell on their way to an attack on Israel.http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/IDF-intensifies- Gaza-attacks-with-artillery-fire-air-strikes-363289 '.
Rather a good cartoon on the site, too! _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Tell NBC News Prez Deborah Turness: Let Ayman Mohyeldin report from Gaza
Take Action!
After ten days of bombarding Gaza, the Israeli military has killed 230 Palestinians, 80% of them civilians. And now they have begun a ground invasion that they promise will be even "messier.”
While all of us at JVP are working around the clock to stop this unfolding disaster—and will keep you posted regularly—NBC news just made our work a whole lot harder by pulling from Gaza Ayman Mohyeldin, one of the most respected, experienced correspondents covering this crisis.
Unless we act now, we may lose some of the most balanced, fair and accurate reporting on Gaza in any mainstream news network. Please tell NBC to let Mohyeldin report from Gaza.
Click here: jvp.org/NBC
Mohyeldin was removed from his post yesterday, shortly after he filed moving eyewitness reports on Israel’s killing of four Palestinian boys on a Gaza beach.(1) He was the most experienced reporter – and the only Arabic speaker - NBC had covering Gaza.
NBC claims it was for Mohyeldin’s security, but they immediately sent in another reporter with less experience. And while there is a long history of intimidating media outlets that report fairly on Israel and Palestine, we can’t say what NBC executives’ real motives were.
But this isn’t just about Ayman Mohyeldin. It goes to the very core of how the United States continues to unconditionally support Israel’s decades-old assault on Palestinian land, livelihoods, and lives. The electorate can’t question US support of Palestinian dispossession if they only know one side--the Israeli government side. Which is why we need to stand up and support fair and balanced reporting now.
Tell NBC News President Deborah Turness to bring back Mohyeldin.
Click here: jvp.org/NBC
American complicity in Israel's ongoing and current assault on Palestinians is deep: we send 3 billion dollars in unconditional military aid each year. Our tax dollars bought the mortar fired at those four children yesterday, and supplied the tanks that are rolling toward Rafah right now.
In spite of what most U.S. reporters say, there is no symmetry in a one-sided war between a military superpower, backed by the US, and an imprisoned civilian population.
Let's insist we get to hear the real truth of Israel's war on Palestinian civilians. Because the truth is, there's no way to stop a war we cannot see. Tell NBC today.
Click here to #LetAymanReport: jvp.org/NBC
Onward,
Stefanie Fox
Director of Organizing
(1) You can see the report Mohyeldin filed on that attack here.
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Though it is a heck of a dangerous situation to be in; rather him than me.
These 'un-embedded' War Journalists are a class of people apart. He is one heck of a brave guy. God bless him and his ilk. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 10:33 pm Post subject:
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are playing into Israel's hands by firing rockets. Perhaps not surprising, as Mossad created Hamas, and the brother of the Head of "Islamic Jihad" is a Sociology Professor at a major Israeli University. He is a part time worker for the "Royal Institute Of International Affairs". How interesting...'
http://www.whale.to/b/mossad89.html
Here is a Palestine Solidarity Campaign newsletter, with appeal and details of next demos in London:
'URGENT - latest protests and actions for Gaza
Thank you so much - to the 100,000 people who filled the streets of London on Saturday, and all the countless thousands who have protested on streets right around the country, who have lobbied their MP and tried to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
We know the British public is overwhelmingly opposed to the horrific loss of life in Gaza. Some photos are available on our Facebook page, as well as press coverage including from the Guardian, Huffington Post, Channel 4 and even the BBC. Channel 4's Jonathan Miller reported that a photo of the demonstration was greeted with 'joyous disbelief' in Gaza.
Protests also took place in other cities including Glasgow, and around the world. But as we poured onto the streets, Israel intensified its massacre. Yesterday night Israel hit Gaza with the heaviest bombardment yet over the last 13 days. Witnesses have described the death and horror in Gaza. Israel is also using flechette shells, which indiscriminately release thousands of lethal darts.
Yet the government is refusing to act to end the slaughter, and respect Palestinian lives. More than 425 Palestinians have now been killed, and more than 3,000 injured. Today, Israeli troops massacred 67 Palestinians in one district alone - the Shejaiya district east of Gaza City.
In a tweet just hours after this massacre, the Foreign Secretary was quoted as saying 'Israel has the right to defend itself' This is a shocking statement. Israel is not defending itself. This latest attack on Gaza is simply the latest stage in a long, brutal, illegal, military occupation.
Please take action!
Please help us force the government to act to not only end this massacre, but act to stop Israel from committing war crimes with impunity. Please tell your MP that the government must impose sanctions, and end the arms trade with Israel, NOW. Over 59,000 of you used our last e-tool to send a message to your MP - we desperately need even more voices to speak up against this slaughter. So please:
1. USE OUR NEW E-LETTER to tell your MP to end the massacre in Gaza, and impose sanctions and an arms embargo
2. Protest outside the Israeli Embassy Tuesday 5.30-7.30pm - sending the message that the British public are appalled and horrified by Israel's war crimes.
3. DEMONSTRATION FOR GAZA Saturday 26 July - take to the streets for GAZA.
We will send out an email with more details very shortly. And check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest information.
Help PSC!
We have seen millions of people following our news, actions and events over the last few days. Please help us build solidarity!
Join PSC and get involved in the fastest-growing, largest solidarity movement!
Donate whatever you can - every penny will be used to increase our campaigning capacity!
http://ymlp.com/zXeM5u _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'...Ayelet Shaked is a member of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, which is part of the ruling coalition. She is quoted as calling for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.” Shaked posted a screed on Facebook that various critics are denouncing as a call for genocide. Shaked reportedly stated: “They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists . . . are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands. This also applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists.”
The Facebook posting stated:
“Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”..'
Article in Haaretz, hardly an anti-Semitic paper:
Israel's real purpose in Gaza operation? To kill Arabs:
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.604653
'...Since the first Lebanon war, more than 30 years ago, the killing of Arabs has become Israel’s primary strategic instrument. The IDF doesn’t wage war against armies, and its main target is civilian populations. Arabs are born only to kill and to be killed, as everyone knows. They have no other goal in life, and Israel kills them....'
'..Retired generals and commentators on active duty compete to make the most monstrous proposal: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them,” explained Maj.Gen. (res.) Oren Shachor, without batting an eyelid. “We must create a situation such that when they come out of their burrows, they won’t recognize Gaza,” others said. Shamelessly, without question — until the next Goldstone investigation...'
'..The inhumanity of Israel’s murder and repression machine is continuously justified by the needs of so-called “Jewish safety” after the Nazi Holocaust. Since 2000, this machine has killed a Palestinian child every three days on average. If we, as descendants of multiple histories of genocide and persecution against Jewish peoples, accept that this is the “price of our safety,” we become complicit in what can only be described as a practice of human sacrifice. Less than two weeks ago, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager, was horrifically set on fire and burned alive by a band of Israeli vigilantes. The perpetrator, however marginal themselves, were acting on the continuous drip of racist incitement against Arabs by the political and moral leaders of Israel. As Israeli fighter jet pilots set out once again on missions that will incinerate Palestinian children with the highest and most sophisticated technology of death, we have an obligation to make every effort, not just to say “not in our name”, but to help put an end to this.
Many of us have learned our family’s endurance of political violence, have heard from our parents and grandparents of being abandoned to their fates. Let that history resonate within us and move us to act. At this moment, when Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked calls publicly to kill Palestinian mothers, and Israeli general Oren Shachor justifies killing whole families “to frighten them,” let us remember that genocide begins with the indifference of the world...' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive
By Harriet Sherwood in Sderot
July 20, 2014 "ICH" - "The Guardian" - As the sun begins to sink over the Mediterranean, groups of Israelis gather each evening on hilltops close to the Gaza border to cheer, whoop and whistle as bombs rain down on people in a hellish warzone a few miles away.
Old sofas, garden chairs, battered car seats and upturned crates provide seating for the spectators. On one hilltop, a swing has been attached to the branches of a pine tree, allowing its occupant to sway gently in the breeze. Some bring bottles of beer or soft drinks and snacks.
On Saturday, a group of men huddle around a shisha pipe. Nearly all hold up smartphones to record the explosions or to pose grinning, perhaps with thumbs up, for selfies against a backdrop of black smoke.
Despite reports that millions of Israelis are living in terror of Hamas rockets, they don't deter these hilltop war watchers whose proximity to Gaza puts them within range of the most rudimentary missiles. Some bring their children.
In the border town of Sderot, which has been struck by countless missiles from the Gaza Strip in recent years, one family gathers on a top-floor balcony, draped with an Israeli flag and banner of the army's legendary Golani Brigade. A house with a war view may even command a premium price these days.
An atmosphere of anticipatory excitement grows as dusk falls, in the expectation that Hamas militants will increase rocket fire after breaking their Ramadan fast, and the Israeli military will respond with force.
The thud of shellfire, flash of an explosion and pall of smoke are greeted with exclamations of approval. "What a beauty," says one appreciative spectator.
Shimrit Peretz, 19, has come with her off-duty soldier boyfriend, Raz Sason, whose army-issue assault rifle is slung across his shoulders.
"We come to look at the bombing," Peretz says, adding that this is their fourth visit to the hilltop. They plan to stay several hours: "It's interesting." The pair have brought a backpack filled with bottles of water and bags of crisps.
Peretz says that she doesn't worry about the Palestinian civilians caught in the bombing; Sason disagrees. Despite his concern for the innocents caught in the assault, the young conscript soldier wishes he was with his comrades across the border in Gaza. "I'd like to be going in, to help my country and help the soldiers inside," he says.
Given the dramatic views, media crews are coming to the area to cover the fighting. On a nearby hilltop, an ugly scene develops as a group of Israeli men threaten a photographer, accusing him of being a "leftist". We are warned against asking for interviews, as another cheer goes up.'
Warning: This short RT video clip is extremely graphic. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'..The wickedness continues, with at least 425 Palestinians, mostly civilians, now murdered by Israel. The names of those killed is being updated by the authorities in Gaza.
In one of the most horrendous assaults to date, over 60 people have been massacred in the Al-Shejaia area of northeast Gaza. (Strong warning: the images from Al-Shehaiai are deeply disturbing.)
Norwegian surgeon Dr Mads Gilbert has been at al-Shifa hospital, working in desperate conditions trying to save the dying and assist the injured.
In A doctor writes from Gaza - 'there are lakes of blood', he observes:
My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock. My admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless. My closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" - or steadfastness - gives me strength. But, in glimpses, I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Channel 4 News reporter Jonathan Miller has recorded much of the horror, a traumatic experience in itself.
He tweets:
Jonathan Miller @millerC4
#c4news #Gaza Doctors at Shifa Hospital describe last night as "a massacre". I have seen there which I will never be able to unsee.
It's admirable that such journalists are there on the ground witnessing the killing and terror. But isn't it also just as vital that they bear witness, via their reporting, to the true cause and context of that killing and terror: Israel's enduring siege and the relentless Occupation of Palestinian land?
That needs to be said, clearly and consistently. Otherwise, we see the suffering - or what fraction of it the media deem permissible - but remain ignorant or mystified about the fundamental reason why it's happening.
All of which helps reinforce the spurious 'two-warring-sides' line, the facile 'tit-for-tat' narrative so seamlessly delivered by the BBC.
This vast media distortion provides invaluable cover for political evasion. As with previous mass attacks on Gaza, where's the outcry from the US, Britain and all those 'responsibility to protect' liberals? Where's the international reaction we heard when Nato was rushing to 'defend' and 'liberate' Libya, that 'Benghazi moment'? Would we ever remotely hear them talk now of an 'Al-Shejaia moment'?
Kerry has, apparently, been caught 'off mic' reacting to Israel's blanket killing in 'Al-Shejaia: "It's a hell of a pinpoint operation", he said.
It was a small, but revealing, moment, confirming not just what craven elites like Kerry really do see, but, much more shamefully, what they pretend not to. As he continued flawlessly again into 'we support Israel' mode, it confirmed the sheer venal deceit of his 'peace-shuttling diplomacy'.
Contemplating the poor victims of Al-Shejaia, the horrors being inflicted on Gaza, and the West's protection of the perpetrators, people may despairingly ask: how do those like Kerry live with their wicked deceptions? Their work is not remotely about the promotion of peace and resolution, but the calculating mitigation of state terrorism.
Yet, as Jonathan Cook suggests, we should also think deeply about the seemingly 'human motivations' behind Kerry's unguarded words, for, together with his pledge to keep supporting Israel's killing machine, they help explain the darker, delusional psychology that allows such people to rationalise mass slaughter in the 'higher interest'.
Alongside Israel's state gangsters, we can only hope such Western criminal complicity is one day exposed in the highest court of law.
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk ..'
There are many extremely horrific photos in the article.. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:33 pm Post subject:
Hard to believe, 100 (=all) Senators backed Israel's attack on Gaza! And the Congress also passed a unanimous Resolution backing Israel! What a shower!!
Action Alert
On Friday, the US Senate voted 100-0 to support Israel's invasion of Gaza. So far, over 500 Palestinians have been killed. Your elected officials need to hear from you: stop funding this massacre.
Unconditional US support makes Israel's attack on Gaza possible.
Tell Obama and Congress: no US aid for human rights violations
Take Action!
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I’ve been waking up every morning to the latest news reports feeling outraged, heartbroken and speechless. I'm sure you have too.
This weekend was the bloodiest yet of Israel's assault on Gaza.
On Sunday alone, some 100 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, and many of them children.
As of this morning, the death count in Gaza has passed 500. But we can't stop this war on an imprisoned and occupied civilian population by simply asking the Israeli government nicely.
We must apply real pressure— specifically the boycotts and divestment campaigns that we know are changing the political landscape.
And we must demand that the United States, Israel’s greatest ally and patron, stops the billions in unconditional funding, and diplomatic cover that make this all possible.
Click here to help us flood President Obama and US Congress with emails and calls: jvp.org/Obama
Last Friday the US Senate passed a resolution supporting Israel’s attack on Gaza by a vote of 100-0. A week earlier, the House of Representatives passed a similar resolution.
Worse, elected officials have been attending pro-war rallies all over the United States.
The U.S. has essentially given Israel carte blanche for this assault. And this extreme agenda doesn't only hurt Palestinians. It also undermines Israelis who are working for peace and justice.
But we’ve heard it countless times from DC insiders including members of Congress: they need to hear from us a lot more often, and more loudly, to feel safe going against the Israel Lobby.
You and I can hold corporations accountable through divestment and boycotts, but governments need to hold governments accountable.
Please, tell your elected officials we demand that they end the use of US aid to violate human rights and US law.
Click here to act: jvp.org/Obama
Just 3 days ago, together we mobilized more than 13,000 people to challenge NBC's decision to remove their most experienced Gaza correspondent – and helped get him reinstated. When we use our voices together, change happens.
We must do everything we can to end this. Now.
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Executive Director
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Subscribe to our blog Muzzlewatch _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:13 pm Post subject:
As they said, so they do:
B'TSELEM (gush-shalom.org)
21 July 2014
Press release – immediate release
Initial findings: 25 members of a single family killed when their house was bombed, apparently without warning
On Sunday, 20 July 2014, at around 7:00 PM, the home of the Abu Jame' family in the Bani Suheila neighborhood, northeast of Khan Yunis, came under attack.
Israeli forces bombed the four-story building that is home to the extended family: the matriarch, Fatmeh Abu Jame', her four sons, and their wives and children. The family were eating iftar, the meal that breaks Ramadan fasting for the day. B’Tselem’s initial findings indicate that the likely target of the attack was Ahmad Suliman Sahmoud, a member of Hamas’ military wing, who was visiting a member of the family.
Everyone in the house at the time of the bombing was hurt: 25 members of the Abu Jame' family were killed, as well as Hamas operative Sahmoud. The rest were injured, including at least three of Fatmeh Abu Jame's sons and one of her daughters, who were taken to the a-Nasser medical center in Khan Yunis. Many bodies were buried under the rubble and removed only this morning.
Information B’Tselem has at this stage indicates that no warning was issued and no warning missile was fired prior to the attack. B’Tselem continues its investigation of the incident.
Full list of fatalities, according to B’Tselem's initial field investigation:
The family matriarch:
1. Fatmeh Ahmad Abu Jame’, 60
Her daughter-in-law and her family:
2. Sabah Abu Jame', 35
3. Razan Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 14
4. Jawdat Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 13
5. Aya Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 12
6. Haifaa Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 9
7. Ahmad Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 8
8. Maysaa Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 7
9. Tawfiq Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jame', 4
Her daughter-in-law and her family:
10. Shahinaz Walid Muhammad Abu Jame', 29, pregnant
11. Fatmeh Taysir Ahmad Abu Jame', 12
12. Ayub Taysir Ahmad Abu Jame', 10
13. Rayan Taysir Ahmad Abu Jame', 5
14. Rinat Taysir Ahmad Abu Jame', 2
15. Nujud Taysir Ahmad Abu Jame', 4 months
Her daughter-in-law and her family:
16. Yasmin Ahmad Salameh Abu Jame', 25, pregnant
17. Bitul Bassam Ahmad Abu Jame', 4
18. Soheila Bassam Ahmad Abu Jame', 3
19. Bisan Bassam Ahmad Abu Jame', 6 months
Her son and daughter-in-law
20. Yasser Ahmad Muhammad Abu Jame', 27
21. Fatmeh Riad Abu Jame', 26, pregnant
22. Sajedah Yasser Ahmad Abu Jame',7
23. Siraj Yasser Ahmad Abu Jame', 4
24. Nur Yasser Ahmad Abu Jame', 2
Two others killed:
25. Husam Husam Abu Qeins, 7 (Fatmeh’s grandson)
26. Ahmad Suliman Sahmoud, 34 (Hamas operative)
For additional information: Sarit Michaeli - +972(0)50-5387230 _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
The BBC's Chris Morris: "One of the few places in Gaza they hoped they would be safe"
At least 15 people have been killed and more than 200 injured when a UN-run school used as a shelter in Gaza was shelled, the Gaza health ministry says.
Hundreds of Palestinians were in the school in Beit Hanoun, fleeing heavy fighting in the area.
It is the fourth time that a UN facility has been hit in Israel's offensive against Hamas militants.
In the past 16 days of fighting, more than 750 Palestinians and 32 Israelis have been killed, officials say.
Israel launched its military offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping Hamas firing rockets from Gaza.
Pools of blood
Earlier on Thursday, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said that it was "vital" to have a ceasefire.
"We have over 118,000 people now who are sheltering in UN schools... people are running out of food. Water is also a serious concern," she said.
Baroness Amos: "People are running out of food, water is also a serious concern"
She said the conflict meant 44% of Gaza was a no-go area for Palestinians, and residents were running out of food.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he regretted each Palestinian civilian death, but said they were "the responsibility of Hamas".
Correspondents say pools of blood lay on the ground in the courtyard of the school in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
UN officials said that during the course of the day they had been trying to negotiate a window of time with the Israeli army for civilians to leave the area because of the heaving fighting.
But Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa), said it was never granted.
He said the Israeli army had been formally given the co-ordinates of the shelter in Beit Hanoun.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it was in the midst of combat "with Hamas terrorists in the area of Beit Hanoun, who are using civilian infrastructure and international symbols as human shields".
"In the course of the afternoon, several rockets launched by Hamas from within the Gaza Strip landed in the Beit Hanoun area. The IDF is reviewing the incident," it said.
The BBC's Chris Morris in Gaza says casualties from the attack have been taken to several local hospitals.
Al-Aqsa hospital hit as strikes on Gaza's medical facilities continue
#GazaUnderAttack
Latest strike on hospital and ambulances wreaks havoc on an already stretched medical infrastructure
Monday 21 July 2014 20:01 BST
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza - At least five Palestinians were killed and 70 others injured by several Israeli tank shells fired by at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
The bombing carried on throughout much of the day, and according to hospital sources has continued well into the evening.
One patient was killed while patients, visitors and hospital staff were among those injured and some 20 medical workers caught up in the shelling, said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, head of public relations at the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The strike has left the hospital unable to receive or treat medical cases, with ambulances forced to try and ferry the wounded to other facilities.
However, two ambulances which tried to move the wounded to Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, were then also hit by tank shells....
Israel put a gag order on the fact that the hijackers and murderers spoke Hebrew, and had a Hebrew radio station on (this could have been to entice the youths to get into the car) and only revoked the gag order when the story had broken through social media.
Also, Gaza has a trillion cubic feet of gas off it's coast; BP is negotiating with Israel about it's exploitation.
And the widely disseminated propaganda about Israelis 'living in bomb-shelters, or scurrying to them every few minutes, is shown to be just that, propaganda, when you see Israelis from Sderot going to a hilltop overlooking Gaza, to enjoy the spectacle of Gaza being bombed. They are obviously well within range of Palestinian rockets, but take their kids, and food and drink, to enjoy the 'spectator sport' of seeing civilian ares being mercilessly bombed and shelled. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'..BARGHOUTI: The Palestinian response in general to Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza--and that's what it is; it's a full-fledged massacre of civilians in Gaza--has been more or less united. Even the Palestinian Authority, which really lacks a democratic mandate at this point, was forced under public pressure to take a tougher stance in the last couple of days. It has adopted the main demands of the resistance in Gaza, saying that a ceasefire without ending Israel's brutal siege of the Gaza Strip is unacceptable. So they have to go hand-in-hand, the ceasefire plus ending the siege, taking effective measures to end Israel's siege, opening the borders, so that Gazans will not be incarcerated in the world's largest open-air prison.
At the civil society level, at the popular level, support for our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza has been overwhelming. It has been unprecedented, in fact. We have not seen this much support among Palestinians when they're in the West Bank or Palestinians in the '48 territory, Palestinian citizens of Israel. It has been absolutely overwhelming support for the resistance, support for defending Palestinian rights and Gaza and everywhere else.
DESVARIEUX: Yeah. And, Omar, some people are suggesting that the real motivation for this aggression is that Israel would not accept that unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas. How much do you think this unity agreement motivated Israel's attack?
BARGHOUTI: I think it's one of the motives. But Israel has attacked Gaza three times in the last six years. There was no unity government in the last two wars of aggression on Gaza, but still Israel managed to commit those wars. So it's not really the only reason. We've got to look elsewhere.
Israel is continuously trying to break the Palestinian will to resist, to make Palestinians give up, and to build what they call an iron wall, to sear into our consciousness that we can never succeed in resisting Israel's regime of occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid. They do this through military means, through imprisoning many, many Palestinians, house demolitions in the West Bank, destroying homes, and confiscating the most fertile lands and water resources, keeping them for Jewish-only colonies in the occupied territories, encircling Jerusalem, denying access to education, to health, and so on. So they're trying, their continuing the Zionist program of the maximum amount of land with the minimum number of Palestinians, the indigenous Palestinians. So the war on Gaza has to be seen in that context. Sometimes it's taken extreme violent measures, as we're seeing in the current Israeli massacre in Gaza, and sometimes it's more low-key, as we're seeing in parts of the West Bank.
DESVARIEUX: But, Omar, you did mention that you do think it's one of the reasons that they started to be aggressive. But it's not really making sense in my mind, because in a sense, they're always--if Hamas and Fatah were moving towards a more Fatah deposition, essentially accepting Israel's right to exist, why would they want to break up this negotiation, this unity?
BARGHOUTI: Yeah, you're assuming that the Israeli government is very rational, and I think that's not a very accurate assumption. The current Israeli government is the most fanatic right-wing, extremist government with real control by extremist settler movements within the government. We've never seen such a fanatic right-wing government in Israel's history. In this current government, with several fascist elements in fact openly calling for ethnic cleansing and sometimes genocide, there isn't much rationalism. They're not really worried about what 20 years from now Israel will look like. They're thinking now they want to get rid of as many indigenous Palestinians as possible, and sometimes they're not even watching what that is doing to Israel, how that's even eroding Israel's regime, its entire regime of repression against the Palestinians. So, yes, rationally what you're saying is correct. A national unity government that is accepting, more or less, the PA, the Palestinian Authority position in Ramallah would theoretically serve Israel's purposes. And that's why people like me, a human-rights activist, I'm opposed to the political program of that unity government. Every Palestinian wants unity, but not on any grounds. It has to be grounds of human rights or basic rights under international law. But the current government is not very rational.
DESVARIEUX: Alright. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the status of the movement that you have helped found, BDS, or the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. Before the kidnappings and the bombings, the movement was really picking up steam. You had renowned physicist Stephen Hawking who joined the academic boycott, European companies who had decided not to do business in Israel. Give us an update. How is the movement changing or evolving with this recent attack, and what do you make of the international community's sort of measured response to Israel's assault on Gaza?
BARGHOUTI: I think BDS has reached a qualitative level of development before the aggression, the massacre in Gaza, and we expect it to expand much, much faster when this massacre is over. Israel will pay a very steep price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, 'cause this time around there is a BDS movement that enables activists around the world, conscientious people around the world, including Israeli people of conscience, to act effectively, resolutely against Israel, to isolate Israel academically, culturally, militarily, economically, financially. BDS has reached new heights, [as] I mentioned, even before the aggression, with huge pension funds in Europe, banks, even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation divested from G4S, a British security company involved in Israeli prison systems, checkpoints, settlements, and so on, various violations of human rights. The Presbyterian Church, the Methodist church, divested from U.S. companies involved in the occupation and settlements. So it has really grown into the mainstream. BDS related success proliferated [inaud.] [why] we expect it to rise even faster, to grow even faster with Israel's current massacre...'
'..‘Operation Protective Edge (OPE) directed against Gaza is reminiscent of the infamous 2001 Dagan Plan entitled “Operation Justified Vengeance” in which the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians had been envisaged and foreseen by IDF military planners.
The deaths are then used to muster the support of the Israeli public as well as provide a justification for a “legitimate” counter-terrorism operation in the eyes of the international community directed against the Palestinian occupied territories.
Contrived behind closed doors in July 2001, the Dagan Plan (named after Mossad chief Meir Dagan) was slated by its IDF and Mossad architects to be “launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians.” (See Ellis Shuman, “Operation Justified Vengeance”: a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, Intelligence Ploy behind the “Suicide bombings”, Global Research, February 01, 200)
‘Operation Protective Edge (OPE) directed against Gaza was planned well in advance of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers. Prime Minister Netanyahu has called up 40,000 reservists. In the wake of the shelling and bombing raids, a major ground operation scenario is envisaged.
Moreover, similar to the logic of the Dagan Plan, the head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad) had “predicted” the kidnapping of the three teenagers. Under the title Mossad chief’s chillingly prescient kidnap prophecy, Haaretz confirms that
“Mossad chief Tamir Pardo had “outlined a scenario that was spookily [sic] similar to the kidnapping of three teens missing in the West Bank” (Haaretz, July 13, 2014, emphasis added)
Israeli civilian deaths are blamed on Hamas without evidence to justify military action against Gaza. The ultimate objective of “Operation Protective Edge” is to break the institutional base of the Hamas leadership and destroy Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, with a view to eventually carrying out the annexation of the Gaza Strip to Israel. As of July 13, Israel is reported to have struck 1,320 sites within Gaza, resulting in 167 deaths and more than 1,000 injured (Maan News, July 13, 2014)
Were the three boys killed by Hamas?
Israeli press reports intimate that the three teenagers could have been executed by the Al Qaeda affiliated jihadist entity the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which just so happens to be supported “covertly” as well “overtly” by the State of Israel.
Under the title Jihadist group takes credit for teens’ killings, the Times of Israel confirms that:
A new Palestinian jihadist group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the killing of three Israeli teenagers last month in the West Bank, … as well as other recent deadly attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians…..
The actions were carried out in honor of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed “caliph” of the Islamic State, the reincarnation of the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL)declared last month, the statement said.”(Times of Israel, July 3, 2014)
The ISIL (renamed the Islamic State) (see image) constitutes the main Al Qaeda rebel fighting force in Syria directed against the government of Bashar Al Assad. More recently, ISIL brigades have entered Iraq, confronting government forces.
While ISIL is an Al Qaeda affiliated entity funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, retribution by Israel for the deaths of the teenagers was directed against Gaza rather than Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
The supportive role of the US and Israel to the Al Qaeda affiliated entity is not limited to the realm of covert operations. The Israeli military (IDF) is supporting the jihadist entity out of the occupied Golan Heights. Moreover, amply documented, there are Western and well Israeli Special Forces within ISIL rebel ranks.
In March, an Austrian military officer of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the occupied Golan Heights “confirmed that Israel has provided large-scale logistical and military support to the [ISIL and Al Nusrah] terrorists and rebels in different parts of Syria”
The UNDOF official confirmed the existence of “a joint operation room” between Israel and the Al Qaeda rebels pertaining to “the delivery of [Israeli] assistance to the terrorists.”
This assistance is not limited to logistics:
“According to the Israeli Channel 1 television, ‘security sources’ informed of a new missile system named ‘Mitar’, established in Golan for giving backup coverage to anti-Syria militant groups.
The system includes middle-range and long-range missiles, according to the report.” (Al Alam May 3, 2014 emphasis added)
An IDF military hospital in the occupied Golan Heights was established to treat wounded Al Qaeda rebels...'
'Thanks to the Mossad, Israel's "Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks", the Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat's Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation
Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)"....' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Israeli spokesmen have their work cut out explaining how they have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, compared with just three civilians killed in Israel by Hamas rocket and mortar fire. But on television and radio and in newspapers, Israeli government spokesmen such as Mark Regev appear slicker and less aggressive than their predecessors, who were often visibly indifferent to how many Palestinians were killed.
There is a reason for this enhancement of the PR skills of Israeli spokesmen. Going by what they say, the playbook they are using is a professional, well-researched and confidential study on how to influence the media and public opinion in America and Europe. Written by the expert Republican pollster and political strategist Dr Frank Luntz, the study was commissioned five years ago by a group called The Israel Project, with offices in the US and Israel, for use by those "who are on the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel".
Every one of the 112 pages in the booklet is marked "not for distribution or publication" and it is easy to see why. The Luntz report, officially entitled "The Israel project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary, was leaked almost immediately to Newsweek Online, but its true importance has seldom been appreciated. It should be required reading for everybody, especially journalists, interested in any aspect of Israeli policy because of its "dos and don'ts" for Israeli spokesmen.
These are highly illuminating about the gap between what Israeli officials and politicians really believe, and what they say, the latter shaped in minute detail by polling to determine what Americans want to hear. Certainly, no journalist interviewing an Israeli spokesman should do so without reading this preview of many of the themes and phrases employed by Mr Regev and his colleagues.
Mark Regev Mark Regev The booklet is full of meaty advice about how they should shape their answers for different audiences. For example, the study says that "Americans agree that Israel 'has a right to defensible borders'. But it does you no good to define exactly what those borders should be. Avoid talking about borders in terms of pre- or post-1967, because it only serves to remind Americans of Israel's military history. Particularly on the left this does you harm. For instance, support for Israel's right to defensible borders drops from a heady 89 per cent to under 60 per cent when you talk about it in terms of 1967."
How about the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled in 1948 and in the following years, and who are not allowed to go back to their homes? Here Dr Luntz has subtle advice for spokesmen, saying that "the right of return is a tough issue for Israelis to communicate effectively because much of Israeli language sounds like the 'separate but equal' words of the 1950s segregationists and the 1980s advocates of Apartheid. The fact is, Americans don't like, don't believe and don't accept the concept of 'separate but equal'."
So how should spokesmen deal with what the booklet admits is a tough question? They should call it a "demand", on the grounds that Americans don't like people who make demands. "Then say 'Palestinians aren't content with their own state. Now they're demanding territory inside Israel'." Other suggestions for an effective Israeli response include saying that the right of return might become part of a final settlement "at some point in the future".
Dr Luntz notes that Americans as a whole are fearful of mass immigration into the US, so mention of "mass Palestinian immigration" into Israel will not go down well with them. If nothing else works, say that the return of Palestinians would "derail the effort to achieve peace".
The Luntz report was written in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and January 2009, when 1,387 Palestinians and nine Israelis were killed.
There is a whole chapter on "isolating Iran-backed Hamas as an obstacle to peace". Unfortunately, come the current Operation Protective Edge, which began on 6 July, there was a problem for Israeli propagandists because Hamas had quarrelled with Iran over the war in Syria and had no contact with Tehran. Friendly relations have been resumed only in the past few days – thanks to the Israeli invasion.
Frank Luntz Frank Luntz Much of Dr Luntz's advice is about the tone and presentation of the Israeli case. He says it is absolutely crucial to exude empathy for Palestinians: "Persuadables [sic] won't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show Empathy for BOTH sides!" This may explain why a number of Israeli spokesman are almost lachrymose about the plight of Palestinians being pounded by Israeli bombs and shells.
In a sentence in bold type, underlined and with capitalisation, Dr Luntz says that Israeli spokesmen or political leaders must never, ever justify "the deliberate slaughter of innocent women and children" and they must aggressively challenge those who accuse Israel of such a crime. Israeli spokesmen struggled to be true to this prescription when 16 Palestinians were killed in a UN shelter in Gaza last Thursday.
There is a list of words and phrases to be used and a list of those to be avoided. Schmaltz is at a premium: "The best way, the only way, to achieve lasting peace is to achieve mutual respect." Above all, Israel's desire for peace with the Palestinians should be emphasised at all times because this what Americans overwhelmingly want to happen. But any pressure on Israel to actually make peace can be reduced by saying "one step at a time, one day at a time", which will be accepted as "a commonsense approach to the land-for-peace equation".
Dr Luntz cites as an example of an "effective Israeli sound bite" one which reads: "I particularly want to reach out to Palestinian mothers who have lost their children. No parent should have to bury their child."
The study admits that the Israeli government does not really want a two-state solution, but says this should be masked because 78 per cent of Americans do. Hopes for the economic betterment of Palestinians should be emphasised.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted with approval for saying that it is "time for someone to ask Hamas: what exactly are YOU doing to bring prosperity to your people". The hypocrisy of this beggars belief: it is the seven-year-old Israeli economic siege that has reduced the Gaza to poverty and misery.
On every occasion, the presentation of events by Israeli spokesmen is geared to giving Americans and Europeans the impression that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians and is prepared to compromise to achieve this, when all the evidence is that it does not. Though it was not intended as such, few more revealing studies have been written about modern Israel in times of war and peace.
Sit quietly with this just-released joint Jewish and Palestinian video about Gaza. If you are with loved ones or colleagues—ask them to sit down and watch with you.
And take it in.
For this heartbreaking but necessary video, we asked for help from Jewish Voice for Peace members worldwide, and every hero, every artist, we knew.
And they all said yes. Yes to an end to all bombing. Yes to justice for Palestine. Yes to freedom for all people.
Gloria Steinem said yes, Chuck D and Brian Eno said yes, Angela Davis and Jonathan Demme said yes. Diana Buttu and Tony Kushner said yes. Alison Bechdel and Eve Ensler said yes. Noura Erakat, Maya Wind and Remi Kanazi said yes.
Rigoberta Menchu and Desmond Tutu said yes.
In short, the people in this video represent the human family, standing on the side of freedom— for Palestinians and Israelis alike. And we say No to this unspeakable carnage wrought by one of the world’s most powerful militaries dropping explosives on an imprisoned and defenseless population.
Watch the video, share it on Facebook and via email, join the campaign and add your own photo. Invite others to do the same.
Click here: Freedom4Palestine.org
And take in just some of the names and faces and ages of the children, mothers and fathers, and entire families who have been killed in this horrific assault on the captive population of Gaza.
And take in our message, one that truly comes from a place of love for justice: that a lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians will never be possible until we address decades of Palestinian dispossession, statelessness, inequality, exile, occupation and siege.
Click here to watch: Freedom4Palestine.org
Then share this video with 10 people:
People who are scared to say publicly what they think privately.
People who hold tightly to their fantasy that Palestinians and Jews are mortal enemies, so they don't feel the horror of what the Israeli government is doing to human beings, just like them.
People who may need to be reminded that injustice will go on long after the bombing stops - unless we make real change.
People who feel isolated and powerless in the face of this ongoing massacre.
Click here: Freedom4Palestine.org and add your photo.
I just ask that if you choose to memorialize the name of someone who has died, that you memorize that name, find out everything you can about them, tape their name or image to your wall, and make him or her a part of your story.
And most important, honor their lives by taking to the streets, joining a JVP chapter, starting a divestment campaign, talking to your family and friends.
Sincerely,
Cecilie Surasky
Deputy Director
PS: In Israel, radio spots naming those killed in Gaza have been banned. In the US, media coverage hasn’t been much better. Please, share this video today – we have to take responsibility ourselves for sharing our humanity, our grief, and our hope for the future. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'CAIRO — An echo of the anti-Hamas rhetoric coming from Israel during its conflict with Gaza is resonating from what many would consider a surprising corner since fighting erupted July 8: Egypt.
A country whose leader just over a year ago had been a close Hamas ally is now one of its principal antagonists. It is stirring up public opinion against the militant group because Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has outlawed.
Normally, Egyptians would be decrying Israel for the Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is at more than 750 and rising. But Abou Ahmed Shehab, 60, who sells scarves at a sidewalk stand in central Cairo, was quick to attack Hamas.
"The reason for what's happening to our Palestinian brothers is because of Hamas," he says. "Hamas is an extremist group."
Last summer, the Egyptian military ousted Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi as president and jailed him. It branded the Islamist group a terrorist organization and threw thousands of its leaders and members in jail. Hundreds were killed as the Islamic movement became the focus of a security crackdown.
Since then, a military-backed government that is now led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who went from military strongman to elected president this past spring, has succeeded in stoking anti-Islamist sentiment among a large swathe of Egypt's public. Both state-run and privately owned media have helped fuel the anti-Hamas attitudes.
Hamas has "terrible policies and the outcomes of those policies are being felt by women and children," said taxi driver Medhat Kamel, 40, about civilian deaths in Gaza. "They rely on violence and don't use dialogue."
From a political standpoint, Hamas is criticized in Egypt for its "unwise ways" of managing the crisis with Israel, said Mustapha Al Sayyid, a political science professor at both Cairo University and the American University in Cairo. Last week, Hamas rejected an Egyptian cease-fire initiative, saying it wasn't consulted and the proposal wouldn't end an Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, which is suffering economically as a result.
Egypt's hostility toward Gaza may be one reason Hamas lamented last week that it feels "alone" in battling Israel without support from the Arab region.
Today's situation is different from 2012, the last conflict between Israel and Hamas. At the time, Morsi brokered a cease-fire that Hamas accepted.
Two years later, the Egyptian government, which has accused Hamas of helping militants attack soldiers and police in Egypt, is doing little to help the Palestinians. It's keeping its Rafah border crossing with Gaza closed, even preventing a humanitarian aid convoy from crossing.
Khaled Fahmy, chair of the history department at the American University in Cairo, has observed a sea change in public discussion about Hamas recently.
"There has been an alarming outpouring in the past two weeks, not only dumbing down and toning down criticism of Israel, but also — in fact — a very, very sharp increase in vitriolic, racist discourse against Palestinians and Hamas in particular," Fahmy said.
Last week, an Egyptian writer accused Hamas of militant violence in Egypt, and called on people in Gaza to rebel against the group.
"We are not going to support you going forward or have sympathy for you unless you get rid of the Hamas gang, which puts you in conflict with the world, Israel and the Egyptians," Adel Nouman wrote in an opinion piece for daily newspaper El Watan. "This is the stance of the Egyptian people."
Some went further, praising Israel's assault on Gaza.
"I'm telling the Israeli army, the Israeli people and the Israeli leaders: You are men," media personality and staunch adversary of political Islam, Tawfiq Okasha, declared in a TV broadcast.
Despite the Hamas bashing, support for Palestinians and hostility toward Israel have not disappeared from Cairo's streets.
Umm Youssef, 33, who was visiting from southern Egypt, said, "Egyptians and Palestinians are one people, one nation." _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jumOKdpbqM
Netanyahu’s is a vicious, racist government that does not value Palestinian lives and properties. It is collectively punishing everyone – from an infant to a nursing mother to a handicapped Palestinian – for the rockets fired from Gaza. Such actions qualify as war crimes. So far only 7 militants have died as a result of Israel’s latest campaign, i.e., a whopping 95% of the Palestinian victims have been unarmed civilians who have no protection against bombs and missiles dropped on them.
As aptly noted by the veteran British Jewish lawmaker, Sir Gerald Kaufman, Israeli offensive in Gaza is comparable to the Nazis who forced his family to flee from Poland. Kaufman, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, said: “My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.”
Sir Kaufman is right in comparing Netanyahu’s criminal activities in Gaza with those of the Nazis. Khaled Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian father, has claimed that he saw two of his young daughters (Amal – aged 2, and Suad – aged 7) shot dead and another (Samer, aged 4) critically injured by an Israeli soldier who emerged from a stationary tank and opened fire as the family obeyed an order from the Israeli forces to leave their home. He said, “Two soldiers were on the tank eating chips, then one man came out of the tank with a rifle and started shooting the kids.” By the way, this incident is not an exception. As Al-Jazeera has shown the IDF did not allow even two minutes to safely evacuating elderly Palestinians from their targeted homes for demolition. Many elderly Palestinians have been buried with the ruins of their homes in Gaza.
An estimated 17,000 Palestinians remained holed up at U.N. facilities Monday after fleeing their homes the day before as Israel advised civilians to evacuate the town of Beit Lahiya and its surroundings ahead of an attack. The number of Palestinians killed in the nearly week-old campaign has already topped the death toll of Israel’s operation in Gaza in November 2012, an eight-day offensive that ended with a cease-fire that more or less held up until the recent eruption. What’s next?
Zionist hawks like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman want a permanent solution to the crisis by annihilating the resistance, or more correctly, the entire Palestinian people. “Postponing the problem won’t solve it. It will just explode later,” Lieberman said. Other moderate Zionists see Gaza war as Israel ‘grass mowing’ exercise, necessary to periodically trim the Palestinians to size.
'WE ARE doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.
On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.
We ask our colleagues, old and young professionals, to denounce this Israeli aggression. We challenge the perversity of a propaganda that justifies the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre, a so-called “defensive aggression”. In reality it is a ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity. We wish to report the facts as we see them and their implications on the lives of the people.
We are appalled by the military onslaught on civilians in Gaza under the guise of punishing terrorists. This is the third large scale military assault on Gaza since 2008. Each time the death toll is borne mainly by innocent people in Gaza, especially women and children under the unacceptable pretext of Israel eradicating political parties and resistance to the occupation and siege they impose.
This action also terrifies those who are not directly hit, and wounds the soul, mind, and resilience of the young generation. Our condemnation and disgust are further compounded by the denial and prohibition for Gaza to receive external help and supplies to alleviate the dire circumstances.
The blockade on Gaza has tightened further since last year and this has worsened the toll on Gaza’s population. In Gaza, people suffer from hunger, thirst, pollution, shortage of medicines, electricity, and any means to get an income, not only by being bombed and shelled. Power crisis, gasoline shortage, water and food scarcity, sewage outflow and ever decreasing resources are disasters caused directly and indirectly by the siege.1
People in Gaza are resisting this aggression because they want a better and normal life and, even while crying in sorrow, pain, and terror, they reject a temporary truce that does not provide a real chance for a better future. A voice under the attacks in Gaza is that of Um Al Ramlawi who speaks for all in Gaza: “They are killing us all anyway—either a slow death by the siege, or a fast one by military attacks. We have nothing left to lose—we must fight for our rights, or die trying.”2
Gaza has been blockaded by sea and land since 2006. Any individual of Gaza, including fishermen venturing beyond 3 nautical miles of the coast of Gaza, face being shot by the Israeli Navy. No one from Gaza can leave from the only two checkpoints, Erez or Rafah, without special permission from the Israelis and the Egyptians, which is hard to come by for many, if not impossible. People in Gaza are unable to go abroad to study, work, visit families, or do business. Wounded and sick people cannot leave easily to get specialised treatment outside Gaza. Entries of food and medicines into Gaza have been restricted and many essential items for survival are prohibited.3 Before the present assault, medical stock items in Gaza were already at an all time low because of the blockade.3 They have run out now. Likewise, Gaza is unable to export its produce. Agriculture has been severely impaired by the imposition of a buffer zone, and agricultural products cannot be exported due to the blockade. 80% of Gaza’s population is dependent on food rations from the UN.
Much of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure had been destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, 2008—09, and building materials have been blockaded so that schools, homes, and institutions cannot be properly rebuilt. Factories destroyed by bombardment have rarely been rebuilt adding unemployment to destitution.
Despite the difficult conditions, the people of Gaza and their political leaders have recently moved to resolve their conflicts “without arms and harm” through the process of reconciliation between factions, their leadership renouncing titles and positions, so that a unity government can be formed abolishing the divisive factional politics operating since 2007. This reconciliation, although accepted by many in the international community, was rejected by Israel. The present Israeli attacks stop this chance of political unity between Gaza and the West Bank and single out a part of the Palestinian society by destroying the lives of people of Gaza. Under the pretext of eliminating terrorism, Israel is trying to destroy the growing Palestinian unity. Among other lies, it is stated that civilians in Gaza are hostages of Hamas whereas the truth is that the Gaza Strip is sealed by the Israelis and Egyptians.
Gaza has been bombed continuously for the past 14 days followed now by invasion on land by tanks and thousands of Israeli troops. More than 60 000 civilians from Northern Gaza were ordered to leave their homes. These internally displaced people have nowhere to go since Central and Southern Gaza are also subjected to heavy artillery bombardment. The whole of Gaza is under attack. The only shelters in Gaza are the schools of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), uncertain shelters already targeted during Cast Lead, killing many.
According to Gaza Ministry of Health and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),1 as of July 21, 149 of the 558 killed in Gaza and 1100 of the 3504 wounded are children. Those buried under the rubble are not counted yet. As we write, the BBC reports of the bombing of another hospital, hitting the intensive care unit and operating theatres, with deaths of patients and staff. There are now fears for the main hospital Al Shifa. Moreover, most people are psychologically traumatised in Gaza. Anyone older than 6 years has already lived through their third military assault by Israel.
The massacre in Gaza spares no one, and includes the disabled and sick in hospitals, children playing on the beach or on the roof top, with a large majority of non-combatants. Hospitals, clinics, ambulances, mosques, schools, and press buildings have all been attacked, with thousands of private homes bombed, clearly directing fire to target whole families killing them within their homes, depriving families of their homes by chasing them out a few minutes before destruction. An entire area was destroyed on July 20, leaving thousands of displaced people homeless, beside wounding hundreds and killing at least 70—this is way beyond the purpose of finding tunnels. None of these are military objectives. These attacks aim to terrorise, wound the soul and the body of the people, and make their life impossible in the future, as well as also demolishing their homes and prohibiting the means to rebuild.
Weaponry known to cause long-term damages on health of the whole population are used; particularly non fragmentation weaponry and hard-head bombs.4, 5 We witnessed targeted weaponry used indiscriminately and on children and we constantly see that so-called intelligent weapons fail to be precise, unless they are deliberately used to destroy innocent lives.
We denounce the myth propagated by Israel that the aggression is done caring about saving civilian lives and children’s wellbeing.
Israel’s behaviour has insulted our humanity, intelligence, and dignity as well as our professional ethics and efforts. Even those of us who want to go and help are unable to reach Gaza due to the blockade.
This “defensive aggression” of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity must be stopped.
Additionally, should the use of gas be further confirmed, this is unequivocally a war crime for which, before anything else, high sanctions will have to be taken immediately on Israel with cessation of any trade and collaborative agreements with Europe.
As we write, other massacres and threats to the medical personnel in emergency services and denial of entry for international humanitarian convoys are reported.6 We as scientists and doctors cannot keep silent while this crime against humanity continues. We urge readers not to be silent too. Gaza trapped under siege, is being killed by one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated modern military machines. The land is poisoned by weapon debris, with consequences for future generations. If those of us capable of speaking up fail to do so and take a stand against this war crime, we are also complicit in the destruction of the lives and homes of 1·8 million people in Gaza.
We register with dismay that only 5% of our Israeli academic colleagues signed an appeal to their government to stop the military operation against Gaza. We are tempted to conclude that with the exception of this 5%, the rest of the Israeli academics are complicit in the massacre and destruction of Gaza. We also see the complicity of our countries in Europe and North America in this massacre and the impotence once again of the international institutions and organisations to stop this massacre.
Paola Manduca: New Weapons Research Group and University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Iain Chalmers: James Lind Library, Oxford, UK
Derek Summerfield: Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, UK
Mads Gilbert: Clinic of Emergency Medicine, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromso, Norway
Swee Ang: Barts and the Royal London Hospital, London, UK On behalf of 24 signatories.' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:28 pm Post subject:
What an outrage! All out Aug. 2 in D.C.!
Pentagon rushes ammunition to Israel to supply the slaughter in Gaza:
'Just minutes after the White House made a tepid criticism of the deadly shelling of a United Nations-run girls’ school and refugee center in Gaza, the U.S. military announced that it was resupplying the Israeli army with several types of ammunition. At least 15 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in the attack on the school. An Israeli air attack the same day on a crowded market in the Jabaliya refugee camp killed at least 17 people and injured more than 100.
While the U.S. statement criticism of the shelling of the school was obviously a reference to an Israeli military action, the statement pointedly failed to name Israel in keeping with U.S. support for Israel in its murderous assault.
Now, the Pentagon announced, it will provide 120mm mortar rounds and 40mm ammunition for grenade launchers among other munitions from a $1 billion stock of ammunition pre-positioned in Israel for use in other U.S. wars in the region.
The Israeli occupation forces have expended so much firepower in their devastating assault on Gaza, a tiny and densely populated strip of land, they needed an emergency resupply in order to keep up the killing and destroying.
More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 wounded since July 8. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers and 3 civilians are reported killed and hundreds wounded.
The emergency resupply operation illuminates the real relationship between the U.S. and Israel. The differences between the leaders in Washington and Tel Aviv are secondary to the military alliance. Bottom line, Israel is an extension of Pentagon power and has been for many decades. That is why Israel has received hundreds of billions in military and economic aid.
What’s more, this latest episode demonstrates once again that Israel could not do what it does without the support—economic, military, diplomatic and political—of the United States.
The people of the United States will be marching together on Saturday, August 2 to demand an end to all U.S. aid to Israel. This will be the biggest march yet in support of the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza.
People are coming from all over the United States.
Please make an urgently-needed donation. We can do this with you, but not without you.'
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/ info@AnswerCoalition.org _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'..CAIRO — Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.
Not this time.
After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.
“The Arab states’ loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,” the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents.
“I have never seen a situation like it, where you have so many Arab states acquiescing in the death and destruction in Gaza and the pummeling of Hamas,” he said. “The silence is deafening.”
El Salvador becomes fifth Latin American country to recall Israel envoy;
Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru have also recalled ambassadors to protest Israel's operation in Gaza Strip:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.607915
'..The Chilean foreign ministry in Santiago said it was calling back its ambassador, Jorge Montero, because of "the escalation of Israeli military operations in Gaza."
"Chile notes with great concern and dismay that such military operations, which at this stage of development are subject to a collective punishment against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, do not respect fundamental rules of international humanitarian law."
The Chilean foreign ministry noted that more than 1,000 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed during Operation Protective Edge, which was in its 23rd day Wedneday.
The statement condemned rocket fire by Hamas against civilians in Israel, but said "the scale and intensity of Israeli operations in Gaza violate the principle of proportionality in the use of force, an essential requirement to justify self-defense." The statement also called "for an immediate end of hostilities" in Gaza.
In Lima, the Peruvian foreign ministry published a similar statement condemning Israel's operation in Gaza...' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'..Given his background, what American Jewish leader Henry Siegman has to say about Israel’s founding in 1948 through the current assault on Gaza may surprise you. From 1978 to 1994, Siegman served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, long described as one of the nation’s "big three" Jewish organizations along with the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. Born in Germany three years before the Nazis came to power in 1933, Siegman’s family eventually moved to the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement that pushed for the creation of a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied the religion and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, later becoming head of the Synagogue Council of America. After his time at the American Jewish Congress, Siegman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now serves as president of the U.S./Middle East Project. In the first of our two-part interview, Siegman discusses the assault on Gaza, the myths surrounding Israel’s founding in 1948, and his own background as a German-Jewish refugee who fled Nazi occupation to later become a leading American Jewish voice and now vocal critic of Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories.
"When one thinks that this is what is necessary for Israel to survive, that the Zionist dream is based on the repeated slaughter of innocents on a scale that we’re watching these days on television, that is really a profound, profound crisis — and should be a profound crisis in the thinking of all of us who were committed to the establishment of the state and to its success," Siegman says. Responding to Israel’s U.S.-backed claim that its assault on Gaza is necessary because no country would tolerate the rocket fire from militants in Gaza, Siegman says: "What undermines this principle is that no country and no people would live the way that Gazans have been made to live. … The question of the morality of Israel’s action depends, in the first instance, on the question, couldn’t Israel be doing something [to prevent] this disaster that is playing out now, in terms of the destruction of human life? Couldn’t they have done something that did not require that cost? And the answer is, sure, they could have ended the occupation."
'..In the second part of our interview, Henry Siegman, the former head of the American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America, discusses the assault on Gaza, Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel, and how peace could be attainable if the Obama administration reverse decades-long support for the Israeli occupation. Born in 1930 in Germany, Siegman fled as the Nazis came to power, eventually arriving in the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement pushing for the creation of a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. He now serves as president of the U.S./Middle East Project. Commenting on the Hamas charter that calls for Israel’s destruction, Siegman says: "The difference between Hamas and Israel is that Israel is actually implementing [a destruction policy] — actually preventing a Palestinian state which doesn’t exist. Millions of Palestinians live in this subservient position without rights, without security, without hope, and without a future." Commenting on Israeli justifications for killing Palestinians in the name of self-defense from 1948 through today, Siegman responds: "If you don’t want to kill Palestinians, if that’s what pains you so much, you don’t have to kill them. You can give them their rights, and you can end the occupation. And to put the blame for the occupation and for the killing of innocents that we are seeing in Gaza now on the Palestinians — why? Because they want a state of their own? They want what Jews wanted and achieved? This is a great moral insult." _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqBZ-JoxhQY _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
A Palestinian relative carries the body of four-year-old Qassim Elwan
In a video recording dated in 2012, Netanyahu can be seen speaking to what presumably are family members, women and children, completely unawares to the fact that his remarks are being recorded the entire time.
Netanyahu explains that, “The main thing, first of all, is to hit them [the Arabs]. Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne,” a policy doctrine we are now seeing play out in Israel’s current assault on Gaza in which the ‘price’ that is intended to be ‘too heavy to be borne,’ is measured in the indiscriminate murder of innocent civilian lives- their homes, their playgrounds, their beaches, their schools, their mosques, their hospitals; Israel has shown in Protective Edge that no one and no place in Gaza, not even children’s playgrounds and hospitals in which no militants whatsoever are present, is immune from the all-powerful roar of the highly-tuned, well-oiled and technologically sophisticated multi-billion dollar US-made killing machine that it has now descended upon the mostly defenseless, economically strangled, and poverty-induced population of Gaza (a WikiLeaks cable quoted an Israeli official in 2008 telling the US that they would “keep Gaza’s economy on the brink of collapse,” to ensure that the economy was “functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.”)
The UN reports as of 29 July that a total of 1,118 people have been killed in the now 23 day assault on Gaza, 827 (or 74%) of which are innocent civilians. Updated figures for 30 July from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights put the current death toll at 1324, of which 1130 (or 85%) are innocent civilians, along with 5,924 wounded; Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed the death of at least 1,359; a number of 7,677 wounded has been confirmed by emergency service spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.
These figures clearly tell us that only a very small amount of the targets are actually military targets, Hamas militants or resistance fighters, given that they account for only 20-25% of the deaths. The vast majority of those killed have been innocent civilians, this despite the IDF’s sophisticated US-made and financed military technology capable of precision striking and advanced intelligence capabilities, including joint cooperation between Mossad and the NSA.
These figures make more sense however when you put them in the context of advice given to the IDF from Israeli lawyers and statements by top military and political officials.
Don’t Make Me Shoot You
Nafeez Ahmed reports that,
“White highlights a Ha’aretz report from 2009 which revealed that “IDF officers were receiving legal advice that allowed for large numbers of civilian casualties and the targeting of government buildings.”
“The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields,”
said one senior official of the international law division (ILD) of the Israeli Military Advocate General’s Office.
“From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them. In the case of people who return to their home in order to protect it, they are taking part in the fighting.” (emphasis added)
This statement presupposes that Israel has the right to order people out of their homes, without having to give a justification, without having to prove that it is a military outpost, just an arbitrary pronouncement by the military and either the civilians must flee or be murdered in cold blood by the IDF, in which case they will be referred to as ‘human shields’ and their extrajudicial slaughter justified in the eyes of the military machine and its legal aides; even if the civilian does flee, Israel presupposes the right to destroy their homes, property, and belongings- in other words, their property (and as well their lives) belong to us, because we say so.
According to U.S. Army Manuals terrorism is defined as, the
“calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear. It is intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies … [to attain] political, religious, or ideological goals.” [U.S. Army Field Manual No. FM 3-0, Chapter 9, 37 (14 June 2001).]
Israel’s actions are therefore the exact definition of terrorism according to the U.S. army, where even just the threat of violence to obtain political goals is terrorism; Israel is saying to the civilian population “leave your homes, or else,” while then presupposing that if their orders are not heeded they are thus absolved from the responsibility of the murder which they will then go about committing. Even if they were just to threaten the use of violence to get people out of their homes it would be an extreme terroristic crime, let alone when they actually go through with the bombing, indiscriminate of who is inside.
What this amounts to is basically the military/war-time equivalent of holding a gun to someone’s head and saying “don’t make me shoot you,” and then demanding that they give you their wallet… or else. When the person doesn’t comply with your terror demands and use of intimidation, you then shoot them dead and claim that it was their fault for not giving you the money, I wonder how well that defense would hold up in a US court of law? Yet this is exactly what Israel is doing in Gaza, this is exactly what their lawyers and military generals are attempting to justify and codify into law.
Take Away Half the Land; Say the Dead Killed Themselves
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 2:03 pm Post subject:
Very short, 40-second clip of UK/Israeli woman burning her Israeli passport:
'End the occupation!' British woman burns her Israeli passport:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shk5dOyqXI0&feature=em-uploademail _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Google games, include "Bomb Gaza", "Iron Dome" & “Gaza Assault: Code Red” controlling a drone to “secure the region”
Wonder how "Yid Killer" or "Nuke Tel Aviv" would go down with the censors?
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