At this stage, Hamas' task is daunting as Haaretz reports Israeli Labor Party Chairman, former prime minister, and new Olmert government defense minister Ehud Barak, plans to launch a large-scale military operation on Gaza in weeks. It will include 20,000 troops and an air assault aimed at destroying Hamas' military capabilities quickly. Haaretz cited a close Barak aide saying Israel won't allow a "Hamastan" in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and an attack on it is certain. Air attacks are now ongoing daily, border crossings are closed, and Israel cancelled Gaza's commercial customs code. That cuts off essential supplies like food and medicines from entering the territory. Israel is now increasing its collective punishment against 1.4 million Palestinians already enduring unbearable hardships in what's considered the world's largest open-air prison with a population density three times that of Manhattan.
Israeli-Washington-Directed Fatah Declared Coup Illegal Under Palestinian Law
Virginia Tilley is a South African-based political science professor. On June 18, her article appeared on The Electronic Intifada titled "Whose Coup, Exactly?" It documented in detail that according to the Basic Law of Palestine, serving as the PA's constitution, "Abbas has violated a whole stream of Articles as well as the spirit of its checks and balances" limiting the power of the presidency. He "badly trashed numerous provisions" in it "with full US and Israeli support." The Basic Law states:
-- Under Article 45, the President can remove a Prime Minister but can only appoint a new one from the majority party - Hamas.
-- Under Article 83, if the Prime Minister is removed, the serving (Hamas-led) Cabinet is to govern until the (Hamas-led) Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) appoints a new one.
-- Only the PLC has authority to confirm a new Prime Minister and Cabinet.
-- Under Article 43, in emergencies, the President can rule by decree subject to all decrees approved by the PLC.
-- Under Article 113, in emergencies, the President cannot suspend the PLC.
-- The Basic Law gives the President no power to call for early elections.
-- No provision in the Basic Law authorizes an "emergency government."
Conclusion: Abbas' actions constitute a lawless coup d'etat usurpation of power, or as Tilley puts it: "The (Fatah) Fayyad government is the step-child of an extra-legal process with no democratic mandate. The whole manoeuvre is not precisely a palace coup," but enough like one, in fact, to be one. She also notes "the diplomatic landscape is now in utter disarray" with the extra-legal Fayyad government only a "facsimile" of the real thing.
So far, its illegitimate creation hardly seems to matter to Israel, the US and European Union shamelessly flouting Palestinian and international law. They're ending their political and economic PA West Bank (only) embargo to bolster Fatah and Abbas while continuing to isolate Hamas in Gaza. It's an outrageous effort rewarding lawlessness and continuing to crush democratic movements when they become too democratic as Hamas did. Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri denounced it accusing the West of hypocrisy. He noted Hamas was democratically elected and added "This confirms the falseness of the international community's support for democracy."
From Dublin, Ireland at a human rights conference, former President Jimmy Carter denounced it as well. He accused the US, EU and Israel of harming and seeking to divide the Palestinian people by aiding Abbas in the West Bank while withholding similar help to Hamas in Gaza. Carter stressed Hamas is entitled to be the ruling Palestinian government because it was democratically elected. Representatives from his Carter Center observed the election and judged it free, open and fair. He urged the international community to work toward reconciliation of Hamas and Fatah but sees nothing being done to do it.
He condemned US, EU and Israeli efforts to undermine Hamas as "criminal." He continued saying "The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people of Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah." He then added Washington and others supplied Fatah security forces with superior weapons aimed at "conquer(ing) Hamas in Gaza, but the plan failed because of Hamas' "superior skills and discipline."
A Hopeful Look Ahead
Everything happening in the Middle East in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan in Central Asia is interconnected. In all of it, Washington is partnered with Israel and the EU aiming to subdue the people in both regions, control their resources, and rule over this vast area in colonial-occupier fashion directly on the ground or ideally with puppet-installed governments. Washington leads the effort and intends taking the lion share of what it can plunder provided things go as planned. The EU is tagging along led by Britain and Israel in key roles with the Jewish state getting huge amounts of funding to do it. According to a James Tucker American Free Press May, 2003 report it was at a level of $10 billion a year then with Israel wanting it upped to $12 billion.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
Your extensive research, open heart and mind to the other side is very encouraging to me.
A few excepts from WAWA blog June 24, 2007:
In November 2006, I was one of over 330 international ecumenical Christians who had gathered in Jerusalem to learn more about the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land and the facts on the ground for all citizens living under occupation throughout the West Bank.
The Anglican Reverend Naim Ateek, a '48 refugee and author of Justice and Only Justice, sent chills through me when he stated,
"Israel will not survive unless it does justice! The situation is deteriorating and we must frustrate Israel's plans and actions because they are not built on justice. All we are asking for is that they honor International Law! Israel is afraid of International law and this proves something is very wrong with Israel. We want Israel to live in peace and with security. The only way is honoring International law. That is the bottom line and what we work and pray for."
On June 20, 2007, the Washington Post published an article by Ahmed Yousef, a senior political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, who is currently contesting his dismissal as prime minister by Mahmoud Abbas.
Yousef wrote from Gaza City:
The Palestinian National Authority apparently joins the list of elected governments targeted or toppled over the past century by interventionism: nations that had the courage to take American rhetoric at face value and elect whomever they would...
...For the first time in months, Gaza is secure. This may be a momentary peace as Israel prepares an attempt to retake parts of Gaza. Yet neither blunt force nor U.S. subterfuge will extinguish Palestinian aspirations for self-governance, free from outside interference...
...Palestinians want, on their terms, the same thing Western societies want: self-determination, modernity, access to markets and their own economic power, and freedom for civil society to evolve. Those who warn of "failed states" and "Hamastan" as a breeding ground for terrorism forget where blame for failure belongs -- at the feet of the American administration, which has chosen to isolate, rather than deal with, the elected government...
...Yet it remains that Hamas has a world in common with Fatah and other parties, and they all share the same goals -- the end of occupation; the release of political prisoners; the right of return for all Palestinians; and freedom to be a nation equal among nations, secure in its own borders and at peace. For more than 60 years, Palestinians have resisted walls and checkpoints intended to divide them. Now they must resist the poisonous inducements to fight one another and resume a unified front against the occupation. http://www.washingtonpost.com/
...If ever there was a time for a Kitchen Table Conference, one where ALL sides come together as equal human beings who all seek freedom from tyranny and hopelessness, liberty from oppression and terror and are allowed to express their side of the issues; and then as equal human beings, begin the hard work of compromise and the end of military occupations; that time is now!
"In the long run, there is no justice without FREEDOM. There can be no human rights without LIBERTY. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty, we stand with you." -President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address
When he made that promise, I wondered if he even gave a thought to Palestine...
Had to weigh in on this it obsesses me so much and level of outrage keeps getting greater just when think it can't get worse. Shows the extent of criminality at highest levels here and in Israel. Prediction - things will get worse, maybe much worse, before getting better. But these bastards won't prevail, I guarantee, though likely a long time till justice wins out in end. It will for the Palestinians and others too.
by
Stephen Lendman (289 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 77 comments)
on Monday, June 25, 2007 at 8:13:59 AM
About 2,000 years ago, a Hebrew Prophet told the story of a Persistent Widow, who daily banged on the doors of an UNJUST Judge and demanded JUSTICE.
Justice for what, we do not know, but daily she kept it up until the Unjust Judge -who cared nothing for her, for God, but only for himself-got so tired of her persistent demands for JUSTICE;
And only to get her off his back;
Did the Unjust Judge give in and gave her JUSTICE!
The moral; NEVER, never, never, never, never, ever give up, for persistence is omnipotent!
"HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
Be blessed brother, for everytime you write an article and speak out for the poor and oppressed and challenge hypocricy in high places; it makes a difference!
Maybe we will never live long enough to see the fruits of our labors, but as Gandhi understood; the work of justice and peace is a birthing process,
All those obsessed with this issue have been called to be midwives.
"You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. FEAR NOT the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens."-Rilke
by
Eileen Fleming (157 articles, 58 quicklinks, 268 diaries, 611 comments)
on Monday, June 25, 2007 at 12:51:38 PM
3 comments
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