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January 7, 2009 at 11:30:14
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 1/7/09: by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Page 1 of 3 page(s) |
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Israel claims it is fighting in Gaza to stop Hamas rocket-fire against Israel, the continuation of which constituted a flagrant breach of the six-months ceasefire. Hence, the objective of the military operation is limited by the aim of putting an end to the rocket-fire. In fact, the current outbreak of violence cannot be understood without analysing the asymmetries in military violence between the two parties; the structural dynamic of the conflict in the context of the character of the Israeli occupation; the central role of recent discoveries of substantial natural gas reserves in Gaza; and joint Anglo-American and Israeli attempts to monopolise the lucrative (and strategic) energy resources through a political process tied to a corrupt Palestinian Authority run by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. Hamas’ unprecedented victory in democratic elections in 2006 fundamentally threatened these plans. Operation Cast Lead, the concurrent Israeli military venture, was operationalised as a war plan in early 2008, and already finalised in detail as far back as 2001 by Israeli military intelligence. Its execution in late December 2008 into January 2009 is designed to head-off not only domestic Israeli elections, but more significantly, the outcome of further incoming Palestinian democratic elections likely to consolidate Hamas’ power, to permanently shift the balance of geopolitical and economic power in its favour. The long-term goal is the “cantonization” of the Occupied Territories making way for increased Israeli encroachment, and ultimately the escalation of Palestinian emigration. Disproportionate Violence – 700: 4 Who bears primary responsible for the violence? You decide: Nearly 700 Palestinians are dead, and 4,000 Palestinians injured. Around 15,000 civilians – half of them children – have been forced to flee their homes, now turned to rubble. (Save the Children Alliance, 02.01.09) Israeli human rights groups, like B’Tselem (The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) based in Jerusalem, confirm that the Israeli military is committing war crimes by intentionally targeting the civilian population in Gaza. 
As I write, here comes news of example: “Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza” reports the London Guardian. More than 40 Palestinians were killed “after missiles exploded outside a UN school” in Jabaliya refugee camp by two Israeli tank shells, “where hundreds of people were sheltering from the continuing Israeli offensive.” Several dozen civilians were wounded. The school was clearly marked according to officials. And elsewhere, “at least 12 members of an extended family, including seven young children, were killed in an air strike on their house in Gaza City.” Hours earlier, “three young men – all cousins – died when the Israelis bombed another UN school, the Asma primary school in Gaza City,” where about 400 Palestinians had sought shelter “after fleeing their homes in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.” Israel claimed they were targeting Hamas fighters using the UN school as cover, but UN officials confirmed that no Hamas operatives were at the bombed school.
As foreign journalists remain banned from entry into Gaza for for no plausible reason, Israeli human rights groups like B’Tselem are reporting extensively on the deliberate mass destruction of civilian life and infrastructure by Israeli forces. B’Tselem points out that Israeli officials have described how the entirety of Palestinian society can be considered as providing a support network to Hamas, and is therefore a legitimate target. But worse, the stories that B’Tselem brings to light, ignored by mainstream media pundits, are deeply horrifying. Here are some examples:
On 1 Jan. 2009, the Israeli army killed four women and eleven children in the Jabalya refugee camp. B’Tselem comments: “Such extensive loss of civilian life constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law and cannot be justified on military grounds.” (B’Tselem, 4.01.09) The Israeli human rights group documents dozens of eye-witness testimonies confirming. On 4th January, “soldiers opened fire from a tank toward a passenger taxi outside Gaza City. The four children in the taxi witnessed their mother and another woman killed.” On 27th December, two Palestinian toddlers “aged three and six, stepped out of their home to feed chickens in the yard. Before they reached the coop, the house was hit by the bombing of a nearby building.” The three year old was killed.
This barely scratches the surface of what has been done. Other Israeli human rights groups, UN agencies, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, along with dozens of other credible independent organizations confirm that Israeli forces are indiscriminately targeting the entire Palestinian civilian population, blowing up residential areas, destroying power plants, bombing sewage facilities, annihilating hospitals, pummelling roads, all into bloody rubble.
Compare the hundreds of Palestinians killed, thousands injured, and tens of thousands made homeless, to the fact that only 4 Israelis have been killed due to Hamas rocket-attacks since the outbreak of conflict in December. (Guardian, 03.01.09) Of course, these deaths are condemnable and outrageous. But they are not cases of massive, systematic massacres of civilians - which are precisely what Palestinians have been experiencing under Israeli politico-territorial domination for the last decade.
The Long-Term View - 5000: 14
Consider, for instance, that on 19th September 2007, Israel’s security cabinet unanimously declared the entire Gaza Strip an “enemy entity” – solely due to ongoing Hamas rocket-fire. Yet that rocket-fire was and is a response to continued indiscriminate Israeli military bombardments. In January 2007, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) staged three days of air strikes killing 30 Palestinians, and on the 17th, the Gaza strip was placed under total closure. In response, over 150 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel between the 15th and 18th of that month by Hamas. Yet while these caused no injuries or fatalities to any Israelis, in that same period, nearly 700 Palestinians (including 224 civilians of whom 78 were children) were killed by Israeli extra-judicial executions.
Indeed, over the last 7 years of conflict, a grand total of 14 Israelis were killed by Hamas’ rocket-fire, compared to an estimated 5,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces with advanced American and British-supplied military equipment (Guardian, 30.12.08) “Among those killed in the first wave of strikes”, reports the Guardian, “were eight teenage students waiting for a bus and four girls from the same family in Jabaliya, aged one to 12 years old.”
Who Broke the Ceasefire?It is a matter of historical record that the tentative six-month ceasefire was broken by Israel. On 4th November 2008, Israeli forces raided Gaza late at night killing 6 Palestinians, eliciting Hamas rocket-fire. (Guardian, 05.11.08) By late December, Israel called for a 48-hour truce in retaliatory attacks. An official from the UN Relief and Works Agency reported that Israel flagrantly violated the lull, exploiting the opportunity to drop 100 tonnes of bombs on Hamas government installations. (Ha'aretz, 30.12.08)
Root Cause of Palestinian Resistance: Structural Genocide in the Occupied TerritoriesAfter Hamas came to power in democratic elections, Israel imposed a brutal siege on Gaza in 2005, denying 1.5 million Palestinians electricity, fuel, food imports, medical supplies, and vital maintenance goods and spare parts. As water and sanitation services deteriorated, hunger and ill-health intensified, and mortality rates increased. International aid agencies like Oxfam warned of a major public health crisis.
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, said that the siege of Gaza warned that the Israeli siege of Gaza, threatening the lives of an entire civilian population, expressed genocidal intent:“Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty. The suggestion that this pattern of conduct is a holocaust-in-the-making represents a rather desperate appeal to the governments of the world and to international public opinion to act urgently to prevent these current genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy... But it would be unrealistic to expect the UN to do anything in the face of this crisis, given the pattern of US support for Israel and taking into account the extent to which European governments have lent their weight to recent illicit efforts to crush Hamas as a Palestinian political force.”
“Here’s One I Prepared Earlier…”
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| 8 comments |
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No doubt there are US "Defense" benefits as well
like the Guernica-style field testing of GBU-39 bombs. http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/investor-relations/ by Michael Fury (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 88 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009 at 11:52:12 AM  (0+)
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Blame Extremist Hamas for the death and destructions
What the people are not saying, what are the solutions? The majority of the people are writing about the Palestinian atrocities; what about the Israeli atrocities before this small wars. The people in USA are thinking that Israeli Governments are running by white house. They are blaming the US Government and probably the American Jewish too. When you are under attack by Mexico, we are sure the US Government and the US people are not going to blame Canada for it. You are going to defend on yourself and your families. The war are ugly the people will get killed. If Iran tomorrow acquire Atomic Bombs, then there are very good possibilities they are going to use it against Israel first. Why the people have to blame Israel if the Israeli have to use every means to defend their own survivals. We are Iranian and Kurds from Iraq and see the dangers of the bigger wars in the region. We are trying to change Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) peacefully because we want to save our people in Iran and Iraq. Do you blame us we do not like the IRI because they are trying to bring us death and destructions. The Palestinian people and their supporter in the USA and other English speakers should blame the Hamas for Gaza problems no Israeli. If you really like peace and have some humanity then try to find solutions instead of blaming Israel. We are sure if the USA some day does not want to help Israel, then Israeli people will be more aggressive in the war for defending their own people. Which are logical reactions? People are blaming President Bush for not stopping the Israelis. Do you ever think there are possibilities that Israeli won’t listen to the US Government. Do Iranian Government are listening to the US Government. by Jaff Sassani (19 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 138 comments) on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:27:35 PM (0+)
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Reply: Children make up third of Gaza dead
Children make up third of Gaza dead by William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4880 comments [1686 recommended, 28 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:28:00 PM (0+)
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Reply: 2+2=?
People are blaming President Bush for not stopping the Israelis. Do you ever think there are possibilities that Israeli won’t listen to the US Government. Do Iranian Government are listening to the US Government. Sassani, The US government suppies all of the weapons and money to Isreal What does 2+2 equal Sassani? I wonder if you can add that high. by William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4880 comments [1686 recommended, 28 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:32:02 PM (0+)
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What??
Greetings, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas fires rockets into Israeli cities. Hamas hides in the civilian population, then bemoans, "look at the dead children". If Hamas weren't in the civilian population, then perhaps the children wouldn't be dead. Simple logic. I wonder where this sympathy was for the Afghan children, or the Iraqi children, or the US children who were killing the Afghan and Iraqi children. Where is the sympathy for the Israelis who are killed? How are the Israelis racist? Weren't the Jews and the Palestinians from the same geographical area? Aren't they of a common heritage? Until Hamas, or any of the other groups that have tried to destroy Israel, recognizes that Israel has a right to exist, then there will be war. And when there is war many are harmed. And all of you critics would change your stance if it were your family hit by a rocket fired from 20 miles away, or if it were your family killed by a suicide bomber. by Kellis R. Solomon (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 123 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 at 12:58:59 AM (0+)
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Reply: That's what:
The facts of Israeli extermination have become known: In the first six days of round the clock terror bombing of major and minor populations centers, the Jewish State has murdered and seriously maimed over 2,500 people, mostly dismembered and burned in the open ovens of missile fire. Scores of children and women have been slaughtered as well as defenseless civilians and officials. They have sealed off all access to Gaza and declared it a military, free fire zone, while expanding their target to include the entire population of 1.5 millions semi-starved prisoners. According to the Boston Globe (December 30, 2008): Israeli military officials said their target lists have expanded to include the vast support network on which the Islamist movement relies to stay in power “…we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel”. A top Israeli in its secret police apparatus is quoted saying, “Hamas’ civilian infrastructure is a very sensitive target” (ibid). What the Israeli Jewish politicians and military planners designate as “Hamas” is the entire social service network, the entire government and the vast majority of economic activity, embracing almost the entire 1.5 million imprisoned residents of Gaza. Israel’s ‘target’ list thus involves the ‘total population’, using the totality of its non-nuclear weaponry and for an unlimited time period (until the ‘bitter end’ according to the Israeli Prime Minister). by William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4880 comments [1686 recommended, 28 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 at 1:10:11 AM (0+)
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Reply: King David Hotel
"How are the Israelis racist? Weren't the Jews and the Palestinians from the same geographical area? Aren't they of a common heritage?" The only reason you can ask this question is that you don't know history. The vast majority of Israelis are Ashkanazi from the Russian area. The Semitic Jews that lived in the area along side the Palestinians are a small minority of the Zionist state. The two Semitic tripes lived in the area in relative peace for centuries until the colonial period, and eventually the terrrorist beginings of the Ashkanazi Zionist in the early 1940s. Go to Google and type in King David Hotel, then trace the history from there tic by tic. You might loose you biased filters. by William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4880 comments [1686 recommended, 28 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 at 1:17:16 AM (0+)
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Reply: William
If you would shut up and listen you might learn; until then, you are just noise. by Kellis R. Solomon (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 123 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 at 2:51:45 AM (0+)
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