Democrats and Republicans share equal guilt. They fund Israeli state terror, are partnered in its aggression, and have collaboratively planned, supported, and/or agreed to it for the past 41 years. Continuity under Obama is assured. The current Gaza carnage is the worst since 1967. In spite of its “unilateral” ceasefire, sporadic Israeli attacks continue. The IDF merely redeployed. Gaza remains under siege, and human suffering is overwhelming and unrelieved.

Since December 27, Israel conducted terror bombings, tank and naval vessel shellings, and assault troop slaughter on the ground. Illegal weapons were used. Neighborhoods are burning and in ruins. Horrific wounds are reported. Civilians were willfully massacred. They comprise 80 – 90% of the casualties according to human rights organizations and medical authority reports. All 1.5 million Gazans were targeted. They still are. There’s no place anywhere to hide.

Sporadic fighting continues after Israel’s January 17 announcement. Earlier, Israeli Radio reported that more reservists were activated and that IDF operations were in “phase three.” Forces on the ground pushed deeper into Gaza where they remained up to now. Attacks on neighborhoods and refugee camps intensified. Death and injury tolls mount. They approach 7000 but exclude potentially hundreds of unidentified bodies under rubble.

A Brief History of Israeli Terror Killings Since 1946

Gaza is full-scale war but just the latest bloodstained episode in Israel’s six-decade reign of terror against Palestinians. This section reviews others since 1946, two years before the establishment of a Jewish state. The list is long, way-incomplete, very disturbing, and shows what Palestinians have endured for over 60 years. Their ordeal continues in the West Bank and Gaza under siege, still attacked, and, as always, betrayed by the dominant media.

The King David Hotel July 22, 1946 Bombing

The Menachem Begin-led Irgun planned and conducted the massacre of 92 Brits, Arabs and Jews, wounding 58 others. As head of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion approved the operation. It was to destroy British-gathered evidence that its leaders colluded with the Haganah, Palmach, Irgun and Stern gangs in a wave of terrorist crimes and killings. Bombing the King David Hotel was the most notorious and followed a pattern before and since of brutal Israeli state terrorism.

The British Secretariat of the Palestine Government and British Army HQ kept offices in the hotel. Attackers disguised as milkmen, planted explosives in milk containers, placed them in the basement and left. At the time, the action shocked the civilized world and outraged the British leadership and House of Commons.

Other Israeli Terrorist Incidents against Palestinians

– Tira, December 11, 1947 – five Palestinians were killed and six injured;

– a village outside Haifa, December 12, 1947 – 12 Palestinians killed;

– a village outside Tel Aviv, December 14, 1947 – 18 Palestinians killed and 100 injured;

– al-Khias, December 18, 1947 – the paramilitary   Haganah killed 10 Palestinians, most inside their homes;

– Haifa, December 30, 1947 – six Palestinians killed and 42 wounded;

– Jerusalem, December 30, 1947 – Irgun terrorists threw a bomb from a speeding car killing 11 Palestinians and two Brits;

– Balad Esh-Sheikh, December 31, 1947 – the Haganah killed 60 Palestinians, most inside their homes;

– Jaffa, January 4, 1948 – the Stern Gang killed up to 30 and wounded 100 in a truck bombing;

– the Semiramis Hotel, Jerusalem, January 4, 1948 – the Haganah bombed the hotel killing 25 civilians;

– Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, January 7, 1948 – 17 Palestinians killed;

– Tireh, February 10, 1948 – seven Palestinians killed and five injured;

– on a bus from Safad, February 12, 1948 – five Palestinians killed and five injured;

– Sa’sa’, February 14, 1948 – 60 Palestinians killed, mostly in their homes;

– Qisarya, February 15 – 20, 1948 – 25 Palestinians killed;

– Haifa, February 20, 1948 – six Palestinians killed and 36 wounded;

– Haifa, March 3, 1948 – the Stern Gang blew up the Salameh Building killing 11 Palestinians and wounding 27;

– al-Husayniyya, March 12 and 16 – 17 – the Palmach twice raided the village killing 15 and wounding 20 in the first attack; killing 30 in the second one;

– Jews blew up a train near Benjamina on March 31, 1948 killing 25 Palestinians and wounding 61;

– al-Sarafand, April 5, 1948 – 16 Palestinians were killed and 12 wounded, most when a house was mortared;

– Dier Yassin, April 9, 1948 – the Menachem Begin-led Irgun slaughtered well over 120 Palestinian men, women and children in a bloody rampage; The New York Times reported 254 killed on April 13; 53 orphaned children were dumped like trash along the wall of the Old City; homes were dynamited with inhabitants inside; people were shot at close range, including children; the massacre marked the beginning of what followed during Israel’s “War of Independence:” depopulating 531 towns and villages; 11 urban neighborhoods; massacring or displacing 800,000 Palestinians; and committing  countless rapes and other atrocities;” remember Dier Yassin; it, too, is immortalized;

– Tel Litvinsky, April 19, 1948 – Jews killed 90 Palestinians;

– Tiberias, April 19, 1948 – Jews blew up a home killing Palestinians inside;

– Ayn al-Zaytun and nearby villages, May 1 – 4, 1948 – 27 Palestinians killed;

– Acre, May 18, 1948 – Israeli troops killed over 100 Palestinians;

– al-Kabri, May 20, 1948 – Israeli forces killed villagers and machine-gunned children who survived;

– al-Tantura, May 22 – 23, 1948 – Israeli troops killed over 200 villagers, mostly unarmed young men shot in cold blood;

– on May 26, 1948, David Ben-Gurion formed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from the Haganah;

– Lydda, July 11 – 12, 1948 – the IDF killed several hundred civilians, including 80 machine-gunned inside the Dahmash mosque;

– Elot, late July, 1948 – the IDF arrested 46 young men; on August 3, several were found dead, and 14 of those arrested were shot in cold blood in an olive grove – in full view of the villagers;

– Suqrir, August 29, 1948 – the IDF killed 10 villagers;

– Hula, Lebanon, October 24 – 29, 1948 – the IDF machine-gunned 50 villagers;

– al-Dawayima, October 29, 1948 – the IDF killed up to 200 villagers;

– Majd al-Kurum, October 30, 1948 – the IDF slaughtered 20 or more villagers in cold blood;

– Saliha, October 30, 1948 – IDF forces blew up a house killing 94 Palestinians;

– Sa’sa’, October 30, 1948 – hundreds of Palestinians were slaughtered in cold blood; the entire village was expelled;

– Nahf, October 31, 1948 – a brutal massacre was carried out of unknown numbers;

– Khirbat al-Wa’ra al-Sawda, November 2, 1948 – the IDF killed 14 villagers;

– Beit Jala, January 6, 1952 – seven Palestinians were slaughtered in cold blood;

– Jerusalem, April 22, 1953 – the IDF killed 10 Palestinians;

– Bureji Refugee Camp, August 28, 1953 – the IDF killed  20 Palestinians and wounded 62 others;

– Qibya, Jordan, October 14, 1953 – Ariel Sharon’s infamous Unit 101 killed 70 villagers;

– Nahalin, Jordan, March 28, 1954 – the IDF killed nine Arabs and wounded 19;

– Gaza City, April 5, 1956 – IDF shelling killed 56 and wounded 193;

– Kafr Kassem, October 29, 1956 – the IDF killed about 50 men, women and children;

– the Suez War, October 29 – November 7, 1956 – the IDF executed about 273 Egyptian soldiers and civilians in cold blood;

– Khan Yunis, November 3, 1956 – the IDF killed dozens of civilians in cold blood;

– Rafah Refugee Camp, November 12, 1956 – the IDF slaughtered over 100 Palestinians;

– Nuqeibi, Syria, March 16 – 17, 1962 – IDF artillery and aircraft killed at least 30 unarmed villagers;

– Samu, Jordan, November 13, 1966 – the IDF destroyed 125 houses, a school, clinic and 15 houses in a nearby village killing 18 and wounded 54 in cold blood;

– the Six-Day War, June 5 – 11, 1967 – IDF forces preemptively and without cause attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan; they massacred as many as 2000 helpless or captured Egyptian soldiers; killed about 340 Syrian villagers in the Golan Heights and displaced more than 300,000 Palestinians who fled to the Jordan River’s east bank along with others to Lebanon, Egypt and Syria;

– the USS Liberty incident, June 8, 1967 – Israeli forces attacked and killed 34 Americans and wounded 171 in international waters; a Department of Defense inquiry whitewashed it as a case of “mistaken identity” despite clear knowledge it was a willful attack on a US naval intelligence vessel;

– Rafah Refugee Camp, June 1967 – the IDF killed 23 Palestinians and buried them in a mass grave;

– following the Six Day War, June 1967, 56 Palestinians were shot in cold blood trying to cross the Jordan River to the West Bank;

– February 21, 1973, the IDF shot down Libya Airlines Flight 114 killing 106 passengers, including one American;

– Hebron, February 25, 1994 – Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 praying Palestinians;

– the First (1987 – 1992) and Second (2000 – 2005) Intifadas – thousands of Palestinians were killed and injured during IDF rampages against them;

– the 1982 Lebanon invasion and occupation; 18,000 Lebanese and Palestinians were killed, including 3000 massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps;

– Jenin, 2002 – the most infamous of numerous massacres during the Second Intifada; the IDF invaded the city and refugee camp; cut them off from outside help; destroyed hundreds of buildings; buried many alive in them under rubble; cut off power and water as well as food and other essential to life supplies; refused to allow in help, including medical aid; and killed and wounded dozens of Palestinian civilians; some accounts cite hundreds as Israeli forces swept up bodies and buried them to avoid an accurate count;

– the summer 2006 33-day (Second) Lebanon War – the IDF inflicted mass terror attacks and destruction throughout the country; around 1300 were killed; many more were wounded; one million (or one-fourth of the population) were displaced; and most vital infrastructure was destroyed to bring the country to a halt;

– the June 2006 Operation Summer Rain against Gaza; all border crossings were closed isolating the Territory and preventing essential to life supplies from getting in; air strikes and shellings were used; three main bridges were destroyed; the main water pipe for the Nusairat and al-Boreji refugee camps as well as the Strip’s only power plant supplying 80% of the Territory’s electricity; the IDF moved into Gaza and took control;

– the assault followed a series of bloody Israeli attacks: a weekend beach shelling killing eight Palestinians, including seven members of one family; 32 others were injured, including 13 children; a highway missile attack killing 11 and injuring 30; another missile attack killing three children and wounding 15;

– during the same period, the IDF conducted around 50 incursions into Palestinian West Bank communities; farmland was razed; homes were raided; dozens taken into custody, including children; on June 29, nearly the entire Hamas leadership was arrested, including eight cabinet ministers, 25 PLC members from the Change and Reform Party, and other Hamas officials.

Palestinians have endured all of the above and far more for over 60 years, 41 under occupation:

– many thousands of Palestinians were killed, injured, imprisoned, and tortured; since 1967, over 700,000 have been incarcerated; the great majority are tortured; many are held uncharged in administrative detention; anywhere from 10 – 12,000 Palestinians or more remain in prison at all times;

– rampaging military incursions occur repeatedly throughout Occupied Palestine; in November 2007 alone, 786 West Bank raids were conducted; several Palestinians were killed; dozens wounded; and around 400 arrested; in addition, public and private properties were damaged; crops destroyed; land seized; curfews imposed; and free movement was and remains severely restricted;

– in addition, settlement expansions seize West Bank land; the Separation Wall is taking another 10%; Palestinians have few rights, and since Hamas won a January 2006 PLC majority none at all in Gaza; desperation now plagues them with the Territory under siege, and approaches disaster since Israel launched late December terror bombings and ground and offshore attacks.

Professor Joseph Massad on Gaza Under Attack

Columbia University Professor and Middle East expert Joseph Massad, a Palestinian American, wrote this about Israel’s Gaza attack and invasion:

– “Since 2006, Arab regimes, neoliberal Arab intellectuals (in America and elsewhere), as well as (Fatah under president Mahmoud Abbas and appointed prime minister Salam Fayyad) reached an understanding that only Israel will be able to save them from Hizbollah and Hamas, both organizations constituting a threat to the open alliance Arab regimes have with the US and Israel against Iran and all progressive forces in the region;”

– “A veritable open alliance now exists between (Fatah), Arab regimes, and Israel (with neoliberal intellectual Arab support), wherein Israel is subcontracted to decimate the Hamas government – the only democratically elected government in the entire Arab world,” and therein lies its problem; Washington and Israel won’t tolerate democracies; they want repressive regimes they can control; Fatah is a collaborationist ally; Abbas and Fayyad its quisling leadership; Massad calls this “treachery;” it and other Arab regimes “rule by terror and fear;”

– Israel’s carnage is its latest attempt “to ensure that all Arabs and all Palestinians are ruled by dictators and never by democratically elected officials;” Fatah and world powers approve; nonetheless, Palestinians “understand very well that Abbas, his clique, the Arab regimes, the US and Europe are all culpable in their slaughter” as is Israel; they’re all “co-conspirators and active partners in crime.”

The IDF performs admirably against defenseless civilians. The aftermath, however, is another matter. “Palestinian determination” is strong enough to make Fatah and Abbas “losers” provided popular resistance won’t let Israel conquer populations, steal their land, destroy their livelihoods, imprison them in ghettos, and starve them into submission.

For the last century, Zionists haven’t learned that “the Palestinian yearning for freedom (can’t) be extinguished no matter how barbaric Israel’s crimes become,” how collaborationist are other Arab regimes, or how traitorous are some of their own people like Fatah. “The Gaza Ghetto Uprising will” continue their proud resistance never to “accept the legitimacy of a racist European colonial settlement in their midst.”

Collaborationist Fatah West Bank Crackdowns

On January 8, AP reported that with Gaza fighting raging, West Bank police violently suppressed pro-Gaza demonstrations. “It’s as if Gaza has become another country,” said university student Mohammed Akram standing next to pictures showing injured Gazans. “You watch TV and see an entire family killed by a missile,” said Hossam Salim. “They’re not militants or Hamas or anything.”

Other reports said PA police assaulted street demonstrators, focusing mainly on anyone carrying Hamas green flags. Violence and arrests followed as Abbas won’t let street protests become large, persistent, or openly hostile to Israel. Demonstrators were shocked that police attacked them for supporting their own people in Gaza. Abbas has orders to crack down, and some say he’s “on the side of the Jews.”

The Jerusalem Post highlights a Fatah – IDF “Iron Fist” policy, a massive crackdown, against all opposition. Reporters and photographers are threatened and assaulted. It’s too early to tell, but Massad believes this may backfire and defeat Abbas.

The New York Times may agree. In a January 14 article, correspondent Isabel Kershner headlined: “War on Hamas Saps Palestinian Leaders.” She says Fatah and Abbas “seem increasingly beleaguered and marginalized, even in the Palestinian cities….they control….The more bombs in Gaza, the more Hamas’ support (grows) at the expense of the (PA).” It wants control over Gaza, but according to Palestinian analyst Ghassan Khatib: “How can it make gains in a war in which it is one of the casualties?”

As a result, Hamas (like Hezbollah in Lebanon) is more popular than ever – among their own people and the Arab street. They represent popular resistance against colonial rule and complicit Arab regimes. If history is a guide, oppression in the end won’t work. It provokes anger, dissent and revolt, then liberation. Palestinian unity must denounce Fatah and Abbas, back Hamas, support its popular resistance, and continue struggling for peace, social justice, self-determination, and freedom.

Israeli Human Rights Violations in a Typical Week

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) compiles them daily for its weekly report. It’s disturbing reading even without conflict and affects the West Bank as well as Gaza. Palestine is under military occupation. It’s oppressive, illegal and continuous for the past 41 years.

PCHR gives detailed daily accounts of the Gaza slaughter. It also reports on Israel’s West Bank oppression with collaborationist Fatah PA (Palestinian Authority) help. Abbas blamed Hamas for the violence, and prime minister Salam Fayyad said nothing to condemn it for the first 13 days of fighting. Afterwards, he made tepid comments, more indicative of complicity than condemnation. Why so? He’s a former IMF and World Bank official with no standing among his people. In the 2006 PLC elections, he got 2.4% of the vote as a measure of his illegitimacy. He and Abbas are Israeli tools, enforcers, with considerable Western aid and weapons.

PCHR’s West Bank report states:

“IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) have continued to impose severe restrictions on (free movement), including (in) occupied East Jerusalem.” It cites hundreds of checkpoints, roadblocks, closed and controlled roads, and the illegal “Annexation Wall” that will stretch 724 kilometers when finished. It mentions continued assaults, killings, harassments, searches, neighborhood incursions, arrests, and numerous other indignities against a traumatized people like Gazans:

– two-thirds of West Bank roads between Palestinian communities are closed and/or fully militarized; 500 kilometers of roads are restricted;

– one-third of the West Bank, including Occupied East Jerusalem, is off-limits to Palestinians without a military permit; very few are available;

– from January 8 – 14, six Palestinians, including two women were arrested at checkpoints;

– on January 8 in Hebron, Israeli forces raided homes; arrested two brothers; and shot and killed Ibrahim Shamlawi in cold blood;

– the IDF fired on al-Fawar refugee camp demonstrators wounding two, including a child;

– on January 9 in Madama village southwest of Nablus, the IDF raided homes and arrested three men plus another in Nablus;

– another man was arrested in Qabatya village, southeast of Jenin; homes were raided and searched;

– in two East Jerusalem areas, Israeli police, border guards and undercover units fired rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and sound bombs on young men and children demonstrating; dozens of children were treated for tear gas inhalation;

- in Hawara village, south of Nablus, Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, and southern Hebron, the IDF fired on demonstrators, wounded five men and one child, and arrested two others;

– on January 10 in Azmout village, northeast of Nablus, homes were raided and searched;

– in Sa’ir village, northeast of Hebron, the IDF fired on demonstrators, wounding three;

– on January 11 in Beit al-Roush village, southwest of Hebron, homes were raided and searched;

– in Askar refugee camp, northeast of Nablus, more homes were raided, searched and one man was arrested;

– on January in Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, homes were raided, searched, and two men were arrested;

– in Sa’ir village, northeast of Hebron, homes were raided, searched, and one young teenager was arrested, age 14;

– on January 13 near Kiryat Arba settlement and Jouhar Mount in east Hebron, dozens of homes were raided and searched;

– in Dura village, southwest of Hebron, homes were raided, searched and two men arrested;

– in Beit Oula village, northwest of Hebron, homes were raided, searched and one man arrested;

– in Ethna village, northwest of Hebron, the IDF shot and killed one man while he was farming his land; according to witnesses, he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and violently beaten for hours, then fired on and killed at point blank range;

– on January 14 in Awa village, southwest of Hebron, homes were raided, searched and six men arrested;

– in Sa’ir village, northeast of Hebron, homes were raided, searched and one teenager arrested; and

– in Kufor Qallil village, east of Nablus, homes were raided, searched and another teenager arrested.

On January 19 (for next week’s PCHR’s report), sources indicate that the IDF “kidnapped seven Palestinian civilians” during morning pre-dawn West Bank city and town invasions.

Under military occupation, this is daily West Bank life today made harsher by oppressive Fatah security enforcement for Israel. New checkpoints, restrictions, curfews, and other measures are imposed at any time – against peaceful, non-combatant civilians. Palestinians live in daily fear of being harassed, arrested, tortured, or killed. Under siege and terror attacks, conditions in Gaza are worse, but no place in Occupied Palestine is safe, “ceasefire,” or no “ceasefire.”

Gaza Aggression Timeline

On December 27 without cause, Israeli aircraft launched terror bombings on Gaza – not coincidentally timed for when children were leaving and arriving at school. Relentless round-the-clock attacks have continued for over three weeks. Ceasefire negotiations continue. Under immense pressure and with US collaboration, IDF assaults may pause. This section reviews the timeline.

December 27 – Day One:

At 11:25AM, an initial “shock and awe” attack was launched with 60 aircraft hitting 50 targets simultaneously. By early afternoon, over 100 tons of bombs had fallen. Around 230 deaths were reported and 400 injured, many seriously. Most victims were civilians, many women and children. The same pattern continues daily. From 80 – 90% of casualties are non-combatants according to medical authorities and three human rights organizations on the ground. News reports and independent observers called December 27 the bloodiest day in Occupied Palestine since the 1967 Six Day War.

Day Two

Deaths rose to about 300, injuries to around 900. Dozens of round-the-clock sorties were flown plus helicopter and naval vessel attacks and tanks shellings from inside Israel. Targets from the start included government buildings, the parliament building, police stations, roads, a main water pipe, fuel tanks, schools, the Islamic University of Gaza, mosques, power facilities, sewage systems, TV stations, fishing boats, animal farms, charities, a mental health center, pharmacies, the main prison, ambulances, medical storage warehouses, private dwellings, commercial buildings, workshops, the control room of a telecommunications company – Gaza’s entire infrastructure network and civilian neighborhoods. The Territory is being reduced to dysfunction and ruin. The idea is to render Hamas impotent and let Fatah control all Occupied Palestine.

Day Three

Around 335 deaths and 1400 injured have been counted. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights(PCHR) reported that dozens of missiles hit “civilian facilities and mosques in densely populated areas (including refugee camps). In (one) very horrible crime (over night to early early morning), 22 Palestinian children were killed or wounded” while asleep at home.

Day Four

Deaths are up to 360. Injuries exceed 1400. PCHR reported that 23 private homes so far were bombed and 37 other civilian facilities.

Day Five

Deaths are now 390 and 1600 injured. PCHR reported that Israel “used fighter jets, helicopter gunships, drones and gunboats to launch hundreds of barbarian indiscriminate raids….with disregard for the (welfare), security and safety of the (entire) civilian population (and) vital services” they need. The humanitarian situation is “desperate.”

Day Six

By New Year’s day, deaths were up to 400 with 1700 injured.

Day Seven

Death and injury tolls mount – up to 420 killed and 1850 wounded, many so seriously they won’t survive. Senior Hamas resistance leader Dr. Nizar Rayan was killed at home along with his wife and 11 of his children. PCHR reported that in the last 24 hours aircraft bombed and completely destroyed eight homes and a family meeting hall in Gaza City, 11 others in northern Gaza plus dozens of badly damaged neighboring homes in both locations. Six more were destroyed in central Gaza and three in Rafah. In the first seven days, 66 private homes were destroyed and their inhabitants killed or wounded.

Day Eight

Around 100 children and women so far were killed. More private homes and refugee camps are targeted. The New York Times reported that “Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night opening a ground war….after a week of intense airstrikes.”

Day Nine

Around 455 deaths are reported and 2300 injured. In one horrific incident, aircraft bombed a Jabalya mosque in northern Gaza killing 15 civilians, four children, and injuring 27 others. Ambulances trying to reach the wounded are attacked. AP reported that “Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swarths through the Gaza Strip on early Sunday, cutting the (Territory) into two and surrounding its biggest city (as the offensive) gained momentum.”

Day Ten

Deaths reached 510. Injuries exceeded 2300. Daily counts are the best estimates. PCHR reported that Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza and fighting was intense in “densely populated residential areas;” whole families have been killed in attacks, many inside their homes.

Day Eleven

Deaths total 600 and injuries around 2400, including 130 children, 33 women and six medical personnel according to PCHR. Its investigations show “at least 90%” of Palestinian killed in the past few days are civilians. Everything is coming under fire. Israeli tanks shelled an UNWRA school used as a shelter killing at least 40 civilians inside. No place is safe. There’s nowhere to hide. Gaza is totally isolated, surrounded, and cut off.

Day Twelve

Deaths jumped to 660 and injuries to 2800. The entire Strip is bombarded. Everything is targeted, including medical personnel and journalists. The enormity of the crimes is appalling. International community silence is shameful. Mass killing and destruction continue. No relief so far is in sight.

Day Thirteen

Deaths exceeded 700, including 169 children and 46 women. Injuries hit 3000. PCHR reported that even hospitals are attacked.

Day Fourteen

Deaths reached 760 and injuries around 3100. Thus far, 189 children, 50 women and six medical personnel have been killed.

Day Fifteen

The death toll hit 800. Injuries topped 3100. PCHR reported that the IDF “continued to attack and obstruct the work of medical, civil defense crews and humanitarian relief crews….(Israel) intends to cause maximum deaths and casualties among Palestinian civilians, and maximum destruction to their property.”

Day Sixteen

Deaths numbered 852 with injuries up to 3200. PCHR reported that bombings against residential neighborhoods have been relentless, and ground operations expanded into more Palestinian towns, villages and residential areas. The IDF is using incendiary white phosphorous bombs “against civilians.” They’re shelling them with “flaming objects that explode into potentially lethal shrapnel while releasing suffocating white smoke.” Severe burns to the bone, spasms, serious breathing difficulties, severed limbs, and other injuries are reported, many life-threatening.

Targeting civilians with white phosphorous (called Willy Pete) is illegal. It works by interacting with oxygen to produce fire and smoke for use as smokescreens or as a terror weapon. It’s an incendiary like napalm and thermites. As a weapon, it can destroy an enemy’s equipment, limit vision, or burn flesh to the bone. Exposure to the smoke can also cause liver, kidney, heart, lung, other organ damage and death. Ingesting it causes throat and lung blistering until victims suffocate while phosphorous burns their insides. Israeli forces are using this against civilians along with other terror weapons.

They’re also forcing people from their homes, holding them in detention, treating them inhumanely, denying them food and water, and using them as human shields during clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters. Amnesty International’s Israeli investigator Donatella Rovera told the London Guardian that:

“It’s standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the ground floor, and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper’s position. That is the absolute textbook case of human shields.” Other instances involved forcing Gazans at gunpoint to precede them into buildings to shield them from possible attack. The 1907 Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention prohibit these practices. Its Article 27 states:

“Protected (non-combatant) persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons….They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence….”

Its Article 28 states:

“The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points immune from military operations.” Civilians may not be placed alongside soldiers or military facilities to deter attacks on them.

Articles 31 and 51 also prohibit use of physical or moral coercion to force civilians to perform military tasks. Nonetheless, Israel uses these tactics repeatedly in defiance of its own High Court ruling against them.

Day Seventeen

Deaths reached 885 and injuries 3900. Indiscriminate attacks continued. The great majority of casualties are civilians. At least 211 are children.

On January 12, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC – the successor body to its Commission on Human Rights) passed a Cuba-sponsored resolution condemning Israel’s aggression and recommending international observers investigate atrocities on the ground. The vote was 33 ayes, one nay (Canada), and 13 abstentions by Germany, represented EU nations, South Korea, Switzerland, and others. Countries in support included Russia, China, Brazil and Argentina. America isn’t a member.

Day Eighteen

Deaths hit 910 and injuries 4250.

Day Nineteen

Terror bombings and savage ground attacks continued round-the-clock. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that confirmed deaths passed 1000 and over 4580 have been injured, many seriously with hundreds “clinically” dead. A Gaza City municipal facility was struck by a blast described as enormous. A central Gaza City cemetery was also hit spreading body parts and rotting flesh over a wide area and simultaneously destroying homes in Sheikh Radwan. Jabaliya Refugee camp was targeted with deaths reported, and Israeli tanks continue to shell houses in densely populated areas.

Entire neighborhoods have been leveled. Agricultural land has been razed. Attacks continue night and day. PCHR cites the “massive forced internal displacement of the civilian population of Gaza City” and other targeted areas.

Reuters, Haaretz, and the Egyptian news agency MENA reported that with changes Hamas may be ready to accept an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil praised Egypt’s initiative as “the only one calling for an immediate stop to Israeli aggression.”

Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan told Al-Jazeera that changes still must be made. “There are still points of difference” so far unresolved. “The initiative in its present form does not realize the (Palestinian national) interest. Specific points have to be changed….We believe there is no initiative which cannot be modified or changed.”

Key sticking points remain, including Israel wanting Fatah (the PA) in charge of administering Gaza’s reconstruction and controlling its borders – essentially empowering the Abbas – Fayyad government in Gaza as well as the West Bank and neutralizing Hamas.

Other problems also exist, according to Deputy chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk. He told Al-Arabiya television that:

“Israel did not abide by any of the previous truce conditions, and therefore there must be a short and pre-defined period between each stage that would allow us to evaluate the situation and agree to move on to the next stage.”

In addition, Abbas’ presidential term expired on January 9. He claims the right to retain it for another year until January 2010 parliamentary elections are held. Hamas disagrees and no longer recognizes him as president. Its spokesman, Mushir al-Masri said: “He’s in power only because the Israelis and Americans want him to stay.”

Either way, Hamas PLC representative Salah al-Bardawil said ceasefire negotiations seek the following goals: ending Israel’s aggression; withdrawing all Israeli troops from Gaza; lifting the siege; reopening border crossings, rehabilitating the Strip, and compensating Gaza residents for the damage. From Damascus, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal offered the same terms and said: “We will not accept any political movement that doesn’t satisfy these demands.”

White House spokesperson Dana Perino said: “We have every right to be skeptical of things that you see in the newspaper reported about Hamas. And so I think we need to wait and see what actually happens. And as things develop, we’ll comment from there.” A State Department official added that Hamas hasn’t met ceasefire terms. “It’s not a done deal. There are a number of Hamas conditions that (have) to be dealt with.” It’s clear that means empowering Fatah and neutralizing Hamas.

Day Twenty

Haaretz: “Gaza City hospital (Al-Quds) in flames after hit in Hamas-IDF fighting.” Thousands of Palestinians fled in fear as Israeli tanks stormed the city and shelled it, including randomly on residential areas. At the same time, terror bombings continued round the clock. Before midday, confirmed deaths reached 1097 (including 335 children) plus around 5000 injured (including 400 children). Over 400 of the injured are in critical condition.

Israeli aircraft bombed UNWRA headquarters, injuring three employees and attacked two other hospitals from the air and ground. The IDF surrounded Al-Aqsa Hospital, according to volunteers inside. No one can get in or out. Reuters also reported that a media compound was attacked. Several injuries were reported. An IDF spokesperson said attacks will continue despite reports that Hamas may be near accepting an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Hamas confirmed that its Interior Minister, Sa’ed Sayam and six others (including his son, brother and internal security department chief, Saleh Abu Sharekh) were killed when Israeli aircraft bombed his home.

Gaza Professor Said Abdelwahed emailed that his “neighborhood is under total control of Israeli army tanks, infantry and others after 13 hours of bombing and raiding. Snipers are outside (his) door.” His later emailed included photos of his building that was damaged by shelling.

At the same time, Israeli gunboats intercepted another mercy ship (the Spirit of Humanity) in international waters. On board were doctors, journalists, European parliament members, and desperately needed medical supplies.

Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Hugo Chavez in severing diplomatic ties with Israel and said he’ll ask the International Criminal Court to bring “genocide” charges against its government. He also denounced UN inaction and called for Shimon Peres to be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize for supporting the slaughter.

Reports say the IDF “kidnapped” five West Bank Palestinians in pre-dawn raids, 60 more in Hebron since January 1, and others in Jenin and elsewhere. At the same time, foreign minister Livni “urge(d) the Red Cross  (ICRC) to press Hamas for access to (the captured Israeli soldier) Gilad Shalit,” according to “News Agencies” reports. She rises to new heights of hypocrisy.

While Gaza attacks continue, the Lebanese daily Al Safir reported a build-up of Israeli tanks, military vessels and Apache helicopters on its border:

“The Israeli army has mobilized its troops along the (southern) border from the western Lebanese village of Naqurah to the southern border village of Al Wazzani.” As a result, the Lebanese army and Hezbollah are on high alert, and why not. Lebanon may be next according to Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s January 18 “Israel’s Next War” article on Global Research.ca. He cites reports that:

“This war is already in the advanced planning stage. In November 2008….the Israeli military held drills for a two-front war against Lebanon and Syria called Shiluv Zro’ot III (Crossing Arms III). The military exercise included a massive simulated invasion of both Syria and Lebanon. (Earlier), Tel Aviv also warned Beirut that it would declare war on the whole of Lebanon and not just Hezbollah.”

Given Israel’s past aggression on the country, this threat must be taken seriously. It may also be Obama’s baptism of fire proof that permanent “wars on terror” will continue on his watch – against Lebanon, perhaps Iran, Syria, Pakistan, and so forth to solidify US hegemony while diverting attention from the collapsing the domestic economy.

Day Twenty-One

Casualties keep mounting. The latest confirmed death toll is 1133. Over 5150 have been injured. Israel is using Egypt to pressure Hamas to surrender. Abbas is on board in support. Khaled Meshal said never. “Israel will not be able to destroy our resistance, and the United States will not be able to dictate us their rules.” They don’t negotiate, they demand.

Hamas’ spokesman in Lebanon, Usama Hamdan, said it will ignore an Israeli unilateral ceasefire agreement. “Either we hear what we have demanded or the result will be the continuation of the confrontation on the ground.”

Meanwhile, reports claim Israeli forces are shooting Gazans waving white flags. On January 13, B’Tselem stated:

“Munir Shafik a-Najar (said) the army has been demolishing houses in his area.” They use gunfire and loudspeakers ordering people out of their homes. “Rawhiya a-Najar stepped out of her house waving a white flag” and was shot in the head. Others were ordered to a school in a village center and were shot in cold blood. Casualties included three dead and many wounded.

General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann called Israel’s assault “genocide” and told Al-Jazeera that he never believed the Security Council would do a thing. How can it with Washington vetoing all resolutions against Israel.

Day Twenty-Two

Confirmed deaths reached 1205. Injuries top 5300 with hundreds in critical condition. Six people were killed, including a woman and two of her children, when aircraft fired missiles at an UNWRA Beit Lahyia school used as a shelter. White phosphorous incendiaries and DIME weapons (that shred flesh to pieces) were used in the fourth attack on a UN school. In each case, Israel had the coordinates, knew the facilities were shelters, and shelled them anyway. Haaretz reported that a UN official wants “an investigation into possible war crimes…and that anyone who is guilty should be brought to justice.”

In similar instances, Israel accuses Hamas of firing from schools, mosques, and civilian neighborhoods – the blame game, always against the victims to absolve the aggressor.

Meanwhile, Israel’s cabinet will consider a “unilateral” ceasefire, according to Haaretz (and then declared it), in the wake of Washington and Tel Aviv signing a Friday agreement to:

– “work cooperatively with neighbors….to prevent the supply of arms and related material to terrorist organizations….with a particular focus on” Gaza and Hamas;

– NATO partners will be involved;

– enhanced “US security and intelligence cooperation with regional governments” will as well;

– enhanced “existing international sanctions and enforcement mechanisms” also;

– “the United States and Israel will assist each other in these efforts” through intelligence sharing;

– “the United States will accelerate its efforts to provide logistical and technical assistance and to train and equip regional security forces….;” and more.

In other words, Washington will reward Israeli aggression and war crimes with more aid and support. After a Tizpi Livni – Condoleezza Rice Washington meeting, the deal was done, but according to Livni, “If Hamas shoots, we’ll have to continue. And if it shoots later on, we’ll have to embark on another campaign.”

For now, however, it appears that Israel and the Bush administration will quiet things down for the January 20 transition of power. Call it a “no-ceasefire” ceasefire, a pause, a conditional one, not a meaningful cessation of hostilities. Gaza is still occupied, under siege, isolated and alone. The Palestinian liberation struggle continues.

Day Twenty-Three

Overnight, Israel, as expected, announced a “no-ceasefire” ceasefire (beginning 2AM January 18), but vowed to assess the situation “minute-by-minute (and) respond with force” freely at any time. No Hamas demands were met. The occupation and siege continue. Borders will stay closed. Gaza remains isolated. The IDF keeps killing civilians. New deaths and injuries are reported. Corpses are being unearthed under rubble. The official known death toll exceeds 1300 but will rise considerably as new bodies are discovered.

Among the dead – 417 children, 108 women, 120 elderly, 14 medical personnel, and at least four journalists. Injuries exceed 5450. Dr. Muawiya Hassanen of the Palestinian Ministry of Health said dozens are still missing and believed dead.

Israel’s Channel 10 reported that the IDF used half its air force over the past three weeks. It flew over 2500 sorties, dropped over 1000 tons of explosives plus tanks, artillery and navel vessels fired hundreds of shells from land and sea. Nonetheless, Hamas held firm and vows to resist until Gaza is free. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said:

“A unilateral ceasefire does not mean ending the aggression and ending the siege. These constitute acts of war so this won’t mean an end to resistance.” Nonetheless, on January 18, Hamas official in Cairo, Ayman Taha, announced a temporary ceasefire to “give Israel a week to withdraw,” open all border crossings, and allow in “all materials, food, goods, and basic needs.” Other Gaza resistance groups, except the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), agreed to honor the truce. It rejects a ceasefire, insists that “Israeli attack(s are) continuing,” and said “armed resistance (will) continue as long as there is one Israeli soldier in Gaza.”

For now, explosions are still heard in parts of the Strip. Reports also say shells hit a group of Rafah residents, and white phosphorous bombs struck the At-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. Also an attack helicopter shot at civilians in Jabaliya. So much for the “ceasefire” that can start and stop as Israel chooses in spite of Israeli Channel 10 reporting Israeli tanks and soldiers redeploying from deep inside Gaza positions. Israeli aircraft are still active overhead and naval vessels control coastal areas

Medical crews report “horrifying scenes” of dead bodies “found in pieces.” Many are women and children. Images reveal mass destruction, death and despair.

New York Times Apologetics for Israeli War Crimes

On January 16, Jerusalem-based Steven Erlanger headlined: “Weighing Crimes and Ethics in the Fog of Urban Warfare” in typical New York Times fashion. Poor Israel. Despite three weeks of round the clock war crimes against isolated, beleaguered, and defenseless civilians, he quotes Israeli spokesman, Mark Regev saying that the IDF makes every effort “Not to target civilians, not to target UN people, not to target medical staff. All this is very clear in Israeli military doctrine” in spite of clear contradictory evidence.

Tel Aviv University’s Asa Kashar helped write Israel’s military ethical code. Erlanger cites him calling the IDF’s ethical and legal standards high and conscientiously taught to its military. Another unnamed Israeli chief army legal officer as well saying war crimes charges are “deeply unfair and unjust.”

He dismisses attacks on civilian neighborhoods, hospitals, ambulances, mosques, schools, UN shelters, Gaza’s entire infrastructure, and civilians with no weapons waving white cloths. He cites Israeli claims of being attacked and responding, with no evidence to prove it. He quotes Israeli officials denying collective punishment and claiming no humanitarian crisis exists. He mentions Major Dallal saying: the fundamental question is “How does an army fight a terrorist group?”

Most fundamental is how The New York Times fronts for Israel, conceals its state terrorism, war crimes, and Washington’s complicity in their commission.

A Final Comment

So far, it hardly matters whether or not a ceasefire holds. What does matter is growing world outrage, millions globally condemning Israeli terrorism, and potentially gathering enough momentum to matter. It’s crucial to maintain pressure, demand Israeli war criminals be punished, and build a world movement for sanctions, divestment, boycott, isolation and UN General Assembly expulsion until Israel complies with international law, ends the Gaza siege, the occupation of Palestine, makes just restitution, grants Palestinians self-determination, and is held accountable before the International Criminal Court or a special tribunal for Israel.

On July 9, 2005, the Global BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) called for action until Israel “complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” It’s long past time to stop inaction, timidity, and weak-kneed indecisiveness.

Since its illegitimate May 14, 1948 birth, Israel defiled the rule of law, abused its neighbors, committed genocide against the Palestinians, stole their land and future, and affronted all humanity with its arrogance. It’s high time these practices end and Israel be held to account. If not now, when? If not by us, who? If that’s not incentive enough, what is?

“Almost certainly, the only hope of a lasting solution is a single state in Israel/Palestine, committed to the civil and human rights of all peoples within its boundaries, irrespective of religion or ethnicity. That is, after all, the standard to which we hold all other states in the world, Israel alone excepted.”

Who said there was no hope in the US civil society? This is perhaps one of the most promising statements to come out of the US in response to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and, in fact, to its 60-year-old, multifaceted injustice against the indigenous people of Palestine.

January 12, 2009

Open Letter

Editor’s note: The following is a letter addressed to US President-elect Barack Obama calling for the United States to change its policies vis-a-vis the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially in light of Israel’s current onslaught against the Gaza Strip. It was signed by more than 900 academics, most of them based in the United States, and made available to The Daily Star by the campaign’s organizers.

Once, in what was perhaps an unguarded moment, you stated that: “Nobody’s suffering more than the Palestinian people”. After days of relentless Israeli bombing in the Gaza strip that has already killed over seven hundred people, most of them civilians or policemen, and injured over three thousand, many of whom may yet die for lack of medical supplies and facilities, your words have never rung more true. And yet, so far, your signal response to this latest assault on the Palestinians, that the UN Secretary General diplomatically calls “disproportionate”, has been to defend Israel’s right to respond to rocket attacks that, while rightly condemned, are mere pinpricks in comparison to the horrific consequences of Israeli bombardment and of the ongoing blockade on Gaza.

Does this mean that on the long way to the White House you have trimmed your sails and, for the sake of securing the power you will soon assume, fear now to speak truth to power? Does this mean that, unlike Dr. King, your sense of justice is adjustable for the sake of political expedience? Those who supported you from the early days of your primary campaign did so not on account of your response to economic crisis, but because they believed in your sense of justice and your commitment to put an end to business-as-usual in Washington, and because they believed in your genuine desire to shape a new and different world order.

In 1981, while you were an undergraduate at Occidental College, you were among the first of a courageous group of students and faculty who, while the cause was still unpopular or unheard of, spoke out for divestment from the apartheid regime in South Africa. You knew then that it was imperative to place pressure on a racist regime which shamefully oppressed a black and coloured population that was discriminated against, subject to pass laws and control of its every movement, parceled into Bantustans, and subject to detention, torture and extra-judicial execution. When the black population protested, like the school children of Soweto, they could be summarily shot down by police or army. The ANC, under Nelson Mandela, was proscribed as a terrorist movement, its leaders were imprisoned, tortured or killed, its guerillas faced the overwhelming power of the South African army, equipped and trained in part by the United States and its European allies. A regime that was so unafraid to use violence in the defense of its discriminatory and racist regime, and so unashamed to do so in the face of international condemnation, could only understand the language of force. The divestment movement in which you so actively participated understood that the euphemistically and cynically named policy of “constructive engagement” was a moral and practical failure and that only the non-violent force of a financial boycott on the South African regime had any hope of bringing an end to apartheid without an horrific bloodbath.

Public figures as diverse as Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Jimmy Carter have recognized that Israel too maintains an apartheid regime, in practice if not in name. South Africa, now a functioning  multi-racial democracy, was a white state for a white people. Israel is a Jewish state for a Jewish people. Its non-Jewish, mostly Palestinian Arab citizens are discriminated against in numerous ways, economically and civilly. The dispossessed and ethnically cleansed Palestinian populations, dispersed in the diaspora and in the refugee camps of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, are denied the internationally recognized right of return. They have had their lands and homes taken from them by armed and “legal” force, are subject to collective punishment, prolonged states of siege, the absolute and deliberately destructive control of their daily movements. Where South Africa instituted the pass laws, the checkpoints that have proliferated all over the West Bank and at the exits from Gaza prevent students from reaching their schools and hospitals, workers from reaching their places or work, keep farmers from their fields, the sick from the few hospitals that survive to serve them. The illegal settlements, that in contravention of all international laws regarding occupation have proliferated across the West Bank, are designed to be permanent “facts on the ground” and have divided recognized Palestinian territory into segmented islets, into besieged Bantustans, with the intent of preventing a contiguous Palestinian state. A so-called security wall, illegally built, as even the Israeli Supreme Court recognized, on Palestinian territory, has cut farmers from their lands and turned formerly prosperous villages into isolated prisons. Regular Israeli military incursions into Palestinian cities and refugee camps, and bombings from the air, have killed innumerable civilians, many of them children. Since the election of Hamas, in fair and open elections, Israel has subjected the civilian population of Gaza to a prolonged state of siege, designed to suffocate them into submission, depriving them at will of water and power, medical supplies and food, and of access to the outside world. The most recent, all-out assault on Gaza, the disproportionate and bloody use of excessive force, is no act of self-defense, but the dramatic extension of an insidious policy of extermination of a people that refuses to disappear.

Every one of these acts is a crime against humanity. In their ensemble, they constitute one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times. Almost alone among nations, Israel acts in flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions and does so with impunity. That it can do so is in large part the consequence of the uncritical support offered to Israel by a succession of American administrations. Without the military and economic aid of the United States, which amounts to more than a third of all US foreign aid, Israel could not have mounted its violent offensives against the Palestinians or Lebanon, could not maintain its security apparatus, could not afford the illegal settlements that seek to expand Israel into what remains of Palestinian territory. The United States has supplied the F-16s that are bombarding the Palestinians, their schools, police stations and mosques, and the cluster bombs that continue to kill and maim children and farmers in southern Lebanon. America continues to support Israel to the tune of billions every year at the expense of US taxpayers and at the expense of its moral standing in the world.

You will continue to do so, according to your own web page, because “our first and incontrovertible  commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America’s strongest ally in the region.” You and your Vice-President, Joe Biden, not only “defend and support the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel”, but moreover “have advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met.” In doing so, you lend your support, in the name of the United States, to a regime no less criminal in its acts and in its policies towards its own minority population and its dispossessed Palestinian neighbors than South Africa was in the 1980s. Then, it was argued, South Africa was our strongest ally in the region, a bulwark in the war against communism, a crucial supplier of uranium and other minerals, a prosperous Western-style democracy, if not the only democracy on the continent. To bring down the South African apartheid regime, it was argued, would be to create chaos in southern Africa, unleash a bloodbath in which whites and blacks alike would suffer, and pave the way for a communist or dictatorial postcolonial regime. The divestment movement, a non-violent coalition of students and academics, union members and churches, came together in the spirit of the Civil Rights movement to challenge those self-serving assumptions. It changed the direction of US foreign policy, disgracing its support of a racist regime, and placed effective pressure on the apartheid regime to begin serious negotiations with the ANC. Through a combination of diplomacy and divestment, we did end apartheid, making way for a functioning multi-racial democracy that confronts its challenges, indeed, but has not dissolved into chaos or tyranny.

It is time for the United States to place a similar pressure on Israel. That Israel has been America’s beneficiary, unchallenged in its war crimes and in its acts of terror, uncontested for its racist civil constitution and illegal occupations, has not been to the United States’ advantage. On the contrary, such unquestioning support of Israel has fuelled the legitimate anger of the Islamic world, supplied the justification for terrorism, and continually tarnished the United States’ reputation among the democracies of the world. That the United States has stood so often alone in defending Israel before the court of world opinion in the United Nations is not a sign of its virtue, but of the obstinacy and arrogance of its stance. But it is not for the sake of the reputation or advantage of the United States that you should take a new path in relation to Israel. It is in the name of justice. It is not just to support the territorial ambitions, realized settlement by settlement, of a Zionist minority in the region. It is not just to continue to supply Israel with the most advanced weapons and the most deadly arms in order that it may murder civilians, children and policemen. It is not just that we should support Israel with all our diplomatic force and financial aid, while leaving Israel’s victims to die slowly for lack of food, medicine, water and power. It is not just that we should sacrifice a dispossessed people for the security of a state that discriminates and expropriates, continually and violently ignores UN resolutions and international appeals, collectively punishes those whose right to resist occupation is recognized in international law.

There is no road to peace through such injustice. It may be that the compromise in the end will be the establishment and security of two separate states. Almost certainly, the only hope of a lasting solution is a single state in Israel/Palestine, committed to the civil and human rights of all peoples within its boundaries, irrespective of religion or ethnicity. That is, after all, the standard to which we hold all other states in the world, Israel alone excepted. But no solution at all will be possible until we hold Israel accountable for its criminal violence and its illegal acts, until we cease to supply it with the means to pursue a course of domination and expansion, with arms and warplanes, with finance and diplomatic support. In wake of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, your recent expression of “deep concern” is not enough. It is time for constructive disengagement from Israel, financial, diplomatic, military. What worked in the case of South Africa, divestment and pressure, may finally work in the Middle East.

Without such justice, there will be no peace.

David Lloyd

University of Southern California Los Angeles

On his third day in office President Grant revoked two pardons that had been granted by President Andrew Johnson. President Nixon also undid a pardon that had been granted by President Lyndon Johnson. There may be other examples of this, as these two have somewhat accidentally come up in a discussion focused on numerous examples of presidents undoing pardons that they had themselves granted, something the current president did last week. (See http://pardonpower.com ). In 2001, President George W. Bush’s lawyers advised him that he could undo a pardon that President Clinton had granted.

Much of the discussion of this history of revoking pardons deals with the question of whether a pardon can still be revoked after actually reaching the hands of the pardonee, or after various other obscure lines are crossed in the process of issuing and enforcing of the pardon. If President Bush issues blanket pardons to dozens of criminals in his administration for crimes that he himself authorized, he will probably — with the exception of Libby — not even name them, much less initiate any processes through which they are each formally notified of the pardons. He will be pardoning people of crimes they have not yet been charged with, so the question of timing is something you are unlikely to have to worry about (except perhaps with Libby).

Virtually none of the discussion of these matters ever addresses the appropriateness or legitimacy of the pardons involved or of the revoking of them. The history would appear to establish that you will have the power to revoke Bush’s pardons. I want to stress that you will also have a moral responsibility to do so and a legal requirement to do so. Morally and legally, you have no choice in this matter. When you take the oath of office, you will be promising to faithfully execute the laws of the land. Through Article VI of our Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment are the supreme laws of this land. Those laws bind you to prosecute violations, including torture and other war crimes of which Bush, Cheney, and their subordinates are guilty and which Bush is likely to try to pardon.

Bush’s pardons will not be like other past pardons. Even when his father pardoned the Iran-Contra criminals, he was pardoning crimes for which President Reagan, not he himself, held ultimate responsibility. Here we are facing the unprecedented outrage of a president pardoning crimes that he openly admits having authorized. The closest thing to this in U.S. history thus far has been Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence, to which he is expected to add a pardon. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice in an investigation that was headed to the president. Evidence introduced in the trial, including a hand-written note by the vice president, implicated Bush, and former Press Secretary Scott McClellan has since testified that Bush authorized the exposure of an undercover agent, that being the crime that was under investigation.

The idea that the pardon power constitutionally includes such pardons ignores a thousand year tradition in which no man can sit in judgment of himself, and the fact that James Madison and George Mason argued that the reason we needed the impeachment power was that a president might some day try to pardon someone for a crime that he himself was involved in. If impeachment was created to handle the abuse of pardoning a crime the president was himself involved with, how can we imagine that the pardon power legitimizes such abuse, much less the pardoning of crimes authorized by the president, much less the pardoning of obstruction of an investigation into a crime committed by the president? In fact, all such pardons are themselves obstruction of justice, as well as violations of treaties requiring the president to prosecute the types of crimes involved.

The problem is not preemptive pardons of people not yet tried and convicted. The problem is not blanket pardons of unnamed masses of people. Both of those types of pardons have been issued in the past and have their appropriate place. The problem is the complete elimination of any semblance of the rule of law if Bush pardons his subordinates for crimes he instructed or authorized them to commit. We elected you to restore the rule of law, and you will soon have the opportunity to either do so or to place a final nail in its coffin. Bush is likely to attempt to pardon torture, warrantless spying, all sorts of war crimes, fraud and aggressive war, and the various abuses of the politicized Justice Department.

We will call on the courts to challenge these pardons and on Congress to reject them. We will demand that Congress reject any nominee for attorney general who accepts such pardons as legitimate. But we are also asking you for leadership. We’ve elected you for it. We strongly encourage you to uphold your oath of office and faithfully execute the laws, not the illegal decrees of your criminal predecessor. If you do this for us, if you help ensure that government of, by, and for the people does not indeed perish from the earth, we will commit to working with you in the years ahead as you advance the eternal project of improving our democracy.

In Solidarity,

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Posted in Uncategorized on January 20, 2009 by freepalestinenow2009

Nu när anklagelserna om krigsbrott verka ha fått fart måste man gå tillbaka och se vad Israel säger. Israels propagandister (betalda och icke-betalda) argument att de höga civila offren berodde på att Hamas gömde sig bland civila kan lätt avfördas med lite rätt tankegång och rätt fakta.

För den första vad skulle ni tycka om man hade fått ett tips om en mycket farlig person beväpnat med kniv i en galleria en lördagsförmiddag, alltså full med folk, och man skickade dit den nationella insatsstyrka full och tung beväpnat och de började skjuta urskillningslös inne i galleria med den kanske giltiga avsikt att skjuta ihjäl den farliga brottslingen innan han skadar någon? Skulle Ni tycka att polisen gjorde ett bra jobb? Alla rättänkande människor inser att det är jävlig fel metod utom några korkade fanatiker som stödde detta i Sveriges tidningar och TV-kanaler.

För den andra har alla folk som lever under ockupation rätt att göra motstånd med alla tillgängliga medel enligt FN stadgar, art. 51. Nu är det så att palestinierna inte har tillgång till flygplan, artilleri, pansarvagnar, eller andra vapen som en självständig stat skulle kunna anskaffa. Då tar dem vad som finns till hands, inklusive mycket dramatiska åtgärder.

För den tredje Palestina har inte heller en armé. Det finns inga förläggningar där militära enheter är samlade eller regemente. De har miliser, alltså vanliga civila med mer eller mindre militär utbildning och organisation. I fallet Hamas har de troligen någon form av officerskår med lön och dessutom en polisstyrka som också är vanliga anställda. Men största majoritet av de 15-20 000 medlemmar är folk som bor bland de andra. För att jaga dem måste man söka eller bomba i princip allt, för det vet man inte säkert var de sover, äter eller uppehåller sig. Detta visste Israel eller så är dem helt korkade.

Att Hamas inte byggde skyddsrum för den civila befolkningen är nästan skrattretande och visar också på vilken intellektuellt nivå ligger dem som försvarar den oförsvarliga. Gaza har under nästan två år varit belägrade, vilken i sig är en krigshandling, så att nästan ingen mat, inga mediciner, inget material kom in och inga pengar heller. Hur i helvete skulle man bygga skyddsrum när folk inte ens har mat eller vanliga bostäder! Belägring stöddes av USA och genomfördes av Israel i syfte att störta Hamas som kom till makten tack vare den enorma inkompetensen, stupiditeten och fanatismen i Washington och Israel.

En annan vidd spridd uppfattning är att Israel har en av världens bästa armé och soldater. Denna myt har också tagit skadad när de istället för att skicka in dessa ”rambo” valde att bomba på avstånd utan urskillning med tungt artilleri rakt in i en urban miljö. Om de hade varit så bra som de påstår sig att vara kunde de gå in och bekämpa milismän på gatorna, man mot man så att säga. Dessa 10-15 000 israeliska soldater valde fegt istället att hålla sig på avstånd och gjorde enstaka strandhugg in i städerna och alltid gick dem in med stridflyg och pansar som jämnade marken framför dem. De drogs sig snabbt tillbaka när deras förluster började stiga (deras förluster kan ligga på minst det dubbla de anger). Av de 22 dagar långa slakten, gick IDF in endast de 5-6 sista dagarna och när de insåg till sist att det var en omöjlig uppgift inledde de en vapenvila. Det pratas naturligtvis inte om det med faktum kvarstår att dessa speciella trupper och elitförband sket på sig när det gällde att slå på mer eller mindre jämlika villkor. Alltså om det var fegt av Hamas att inte gå ut på den öppna fälten för att bli utplånade med artilleri och stridsflyg, var det tveklös fegt av IDF att inte skicka deras infanteri för att slå ut Hamas milisen. De var helt enkelt för fega för det!

På den militära planen har Israel som var väntat inte lyckas med något. Det visar deras ofattbara inkompetens. Enligt en säkerhetskälla i Israel finns tunnlarna kvar eller kan byggas på nytt relativt snabbt, raketer avfyrades medveten efter den ensidiga vapenvila i en klar signal att de fortfarande finns, av de 15 000 Hamas milismän kanske 300-400 miste livet, kravet på att lyfta belägring har fört fram från tunga politiker, vilken är ett enormt nederlag för Tel-Aviv som håller på att förlora det starkaste kortet de hade för att få Hamas på fall: hunger i Gaza, Mubarak och Abbas har förlorat folkligt stöd p.g.a. sin agerande och nu försöker Mubarak rädda det som räddas kan, och sämst av allt: Nu har världen börja adressera grunden för konflikten: den illegala ockupationen! Notera hur Israels propaganda apparat försöker med alla medel tysta den frågan! Det förlorade dem också!

Att tro att man kan gå in tättbefolkade orter och skjuta vild med massiv eldgivning gav endast världens avsky för det stora antalet civila offer. Det sägs att andelen civila offer ligger runt 50 % men detta därför att man räknar som civila endast kvinnor och barn. Andelen borde ligga på ca 60-70 %. Alltså efter att ha lagt städer i ruiner så att folk inte kan leva där lyckades dem bli av med ca 300 milismän av en total på ca 15 000. Nu är det så att kanske VAR målet att lägga städerna i ruinerna. Alltså en gigantisk och brutal etnisk resning som överträffar många gånger om vad Serbien någon gång gjorde i Kosovo. Den gången bombades Serbien till återhållsamhet och Kosovo fick självständighet. I detta fall kan vi inte hoppas på något liknande om inte Ni sätter er i grunderna för konflikten och bloggar vidare om det. Tystnaden är bruten. Nu är det hög tid att föra fram vad det här handlar om. Ockupationen!

Mediakrig: Mediekonglomerat mot infoguerrilla

Israel fick vika sig denna gång för den massiva informationskampanj från tusentals bloggare, yuotubare, skribenter och demonstranter som trots den mediala blockaden lyckades föra fram sanningen och tvinga deras regeringar att agera. Detta är en triumf för det fria ordet och för de nya mediernas demokratiseringseffekt. Nu kommer dem att intensifiera deras försök att kontrollera Internet med olika lagar och deras säkerhetstjänster kommer att skanna det för att hitta de obekväma åsikterna. Det öppna nätet är ett stort hot mot deras monopol på ”sanningen”.

Ett annat misstag med den här slakten, som i medierna kallas Gazakriget, är att Israel har genom att bomba skolor där civila sökte skydd, sjukhus och otaliga civila bostäder och nu senast bomba Gaza stad med stridflyg och tungartilleri med otaliga civila offer öppnar dörren för alla slags vedergällningar mot sin egen befolkning. Det betyder att våldets spiral kommer att fortsätta och de barn som ser det kommer att bli framtidens krigare på båda sidor.

Om det hade varit vilken annan stat som helst som hade gjort sig skyldiga till detta skulle hela världssamfundet varit beredd att bomba förbrytaren. Varför ingenting händer i detta fall är ett klart tecken på hyckleriet i den officiella diskursen om terrorism, mänskliga rättigheter, ”skurkstater” och ”Ondskans Axel”. Allt detta blir en tom prat när man bombar en hel stad utan att någon höjer rösten. Inte de vanliga röster i alla fall som fördömde skarpt Ryssland, Serbien och andra när de utförde operationer i samma riktning. Den internationella lagstiftningen blev därmed också allvarig skadad.

Den internationella opinionen kan inte acceptera något annat än en totalt tillbakadragande från alla de ockuperade områdena i Palestina till 48 eller 67 års gränser, skapande av en sammanhängande palestinsk stat och skapande av säkra gränser för båda stater för att på en gång på alla sätta slut för den 60 åriga slakten. Israel och palestinierna måste pressas ekonomisk och politisk genom allmänhetens bojkott och klagomål. Regeringar i världen kommer inte att göra något åt saken. Det måste vara folket runt om i världen som bojkottar den starka parten, i detta fall Israel, att dra sig tillbaka till de erkända internationella gränserna och på så sätt möjliggöra en palestinsk stat som kan leva i fred med Israel inom erkända gränser. Innan Israel drar sig tillbaka kommer ingen fred att vara möjligt. Utan en palestinsk stat kommer alla möjliga desperata grupper och tendenser från ett förtryckt folk sedan 60 år till uttryck. Också åtgärder som ett folk i frihet, suveränitet och verklig demokrati inte skulle tillgripa.

Gaza kan inte fortsätta att vara belägrade av den sionistiska regeringen! Hamnarna, det territoriella vattnet utanför kusten och dess gasfyndigheter på bottenhavet måste vara i palestiniernas händer och så gränserna till alla frisinnade stater runt omkring så de kan föra in mat och allt vad de behöver för att leva som ett fritt folk.

Så småningom ska hela det palestinska området nå fullständigt självständighet. Det är den enda vägen till varaktig fred! Det finns ingen annan väg. Allt annat är bluff som inte leder någonstans! Vi måste komma ihåg att den nuvarande situationen har stort del av sitt ursprung i den långvariga belägringen av Gaza och mer grundläggande i den illegala ockupationen av Palestina sedan 60 år tillbaka.

Låt inte missledas av Hamas tjatet. Om det inte är dem kommer andra i deras ställe. Orsaken ligger i ockupationen så dess lösning! För den delen ska palestinierna själva välja sina ledare när de blir fria på riktigt och det måste omvärlden respektera. Det finns ingen demokrati utan verklig suveränitet och frihet!

En fri Palestina är den enda lösningen så vi slipper mer blod på båda sidor. Lämna alla ockuperade områdena, lämna alla bosättningar, kompensera de som har blivit bestulna på sina hus och mark, låt de som vill återvända till Palestina göra det! Kräv ömsesidig erkännande! Att Palestinierna erkänner Israel räcker inte. Israel måste erkänna Palestina som en fri stat också!

Kriget i Palestina inte över tills de stulna områdena återlämnas. Enda vägen till en varaktig fred är en totalt återlämnande av de ockuperade områdena i Palestina till FN- godkända gränser! Nu när världens folk har lyft sina blickar mot den här 60-årig lång konflikt är det tid att kräva att Israel drar sig tillbaka till de internationella erkända gränserna.

“Bandits with planes …
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children’s blood.”  

(Pablo Neruda’s poem About the Nazis raids in Spain)

Läs också mitt tidigare inlägg from den 9 januari:

Nobody likes thieves 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us launch this debate, once and for all.

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Obama has to support the International Tribunal for War Crimes against Israel…

Or The World Order lead by the US and the rule of International Law will definitely fall apart

The Attack by Israeli forces to the populated Gaza strip and the silence of the world could mean the end of the structures and institutions created after the Second World War. If a new order emerge of the chaos in the international relations when the old rules are been used discretionary by the world powers and the United States loses definitely its position is still not clear. Shall Russia, China and Europe work together a new framework or are we heading to a time of disorder and chaos? Obama has the historical opportunity to revive at least the illusion of an international order respected by everyone. He can choose now if his administration will be a respected one by showing leadership or will continue the path of G. W. Bush and further destroy the US reputation.

The passivity in the blooded attack by military Israeli forces to an enemy with almost nothing to put against in military terms and the bombardment of cities with huge numbers of civilian causalities can be compared with the worst crimes perpetrated in times of war in the past. Here are Guernica, Warszawa Ghetto, Dresden, Faluya, Leningrad and Gaza in the same shameful company.

To clarify my opinion that we are heading to the total disintegration of the World Order can we take some recent events in the international arena.

Georgia attacked the South Ossetian capital last year in order to recover what they considered was Georgian territory from the separatist that wanted being included in the Russian Federation. Russian reacted with unexpected force sending a large contingent of tanks and military aircraft to “punish the aggressor” and “save lives of Russian Citizens”. The Russian military power crashed in a few days the Georgian army and bombed a few small towns in Georgia. The situation bring the world to the edge of a bigger war when the USA send war ships to the black sea and the NATO made sharp statements against Russia. The press in the West condemned Russia without exception. The Russian opinion could not understand why the West could see what was happened there, but the Russians government retired relatively quickly from Georgia due to the international press ion. Now, the question is: Do you thing that Russia shall doubt to bomb anybody that treat their citizens in the future when Israel can do that without punishment? The relation of forces involved in the two cases can not be different in any realistic timeframe.

We can compare too how the so called “International Community” i.e. The US and the EU treated the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo and how they treated Israel-Palestine. It is obvious that despite the great similarities in the two conflicts the reactions are very different.

Serbia send the army to take control of the historical Serbian region of Kosovo that was claiming independency and carried out armed attacks to the Serbian population and government institutions in the region. The population of Kosovo was mainly emigrated Albans that had become majority. The West reacted with unrestricted support to the Kosovo rebels and together with the US bombed Serbia in order to stop the Serbian military operation in the region that was classified as “Ethnic Cleaning” by human right defenders in the West.

In Palestine have we a people that had been displaced from their properties, houses and soil during more that 60 years by now. All attempts to resist this crime have been declared as terrorism, despite that the UN: s foundation chart gave the right to every people in the world to resist foreign occupation by any means. We have to have in mind that the Nazis also called terrorists to the resistance fighters in France, Norway, Greece, Italy, Russia and many others places.

However when the Palestinian people resist the “Ethnic Cleaning” of Palestine and Israel react as Serbia did when Kosovo Albans claim Serbian soil, West react completely different, despite that Kosovo was Serbian from the beginning meanwhile Palestine had been Palestine for more that thousands years now. Here nobody talk about an independent Palestine, About a Palestine State, about to bomb Israel in order to put a stop to the killing of the Palestinians as they did to save the Albanian population from Serbian retaliation. Instead The West recognises Kosovo as an independent state and gave the power to a narco-terrorist organisation in Kosovo.

When Israel react harder than Russia did in Georgia to the attacks of the Islamic resistance in Gaza nobody send wars ship to the coasts of Israel as they did with Russia. Not Russia that take note of the situation and surely glad can cons ate that there is not such a thing as international law. The governments and free press of the West have not condemn Israel as they did with Russia and surely they are not going to treat with broken commercial and military cooperation as they did with Russia.

We see the end of the World leaded by the West.

If the US chose the wrong way this time nobody will hear what they have to say in the future. Not Russia, Not China, Not South America, Nobody. Maybe is better in this way. Why maintain in artificial life something that does work anyway. The Chairman of the UN General assembly seems to think in similar terms when he said last week that the Security Council is in practice dead and called to the General Assembly to treat the siege and bombardment of Civilians in Gaza. The Result was 142 votes in favour of the condemnation of Israel, 4 against (of which one vote was against because Venezuela demanded harder measures and the others 3 were the US, Israel and a little Island in the Pacific) and 8 abstentions. This shows a broad international consensus about what the world feels and what the US supports.

Barak Obama has one time opportunity to initiate his period with justice and restore some credibility to the damaged image of the US. In a time in which the US is heading to an economic meltdown and thereby further loose of its influence in the international relations will be sound and wise to adhere to the rest of the World and stop being the eternal opponent to the will of the community of nations. We can wait and see what Barak Obama will do but not so long time. He has at most 6 month to begin deliver concrete changes in the right direction. After that the disillusion will growth exponentially in the US and around the world.

“Bandits with planes …
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children’s blood.”  

(Pablo Neruda’s poem About the Nazis raids in Spain).dn. 

Israel fick vika sig denna gång för den massiva informationskampanj från tusentals bloggare, yuotubare, skribenter och demonstranter som trots den mediala blockaden lyckades föra fram sanningen och tvinga deras regeringar att agera. Detta är en triumf för det fria ordet och för de nya mediernas demokratiseringseffekt. Nu kommer dem att intensifiera deras försök att kontrollera Internet med olika lagar och deras säkerhetstjänster kommer att skanna det för att hitta de obekväma åsikterna. Det öppna nätet är ett stort hot mot deras monopol på ”sanningen”.

På den militära planen har Israel som var väntat inte lyckas med något. Det visar deras ofattbara inkompetens. Att tro att man kan gå in tättbefolkade orter och skjuta vild med massiv eldgivning gav endast världens avsky för det stora antalet civila offer. Det sägs att andelen civila offer ligger runt 50 % men detta därför att man räknar som civila endast kvinnor och barn. Andelen borde ligga på ca 60-70 %. Alltså efter att ha lagt städer i ruiner så att folk inte kan leva där lyckades dem bli av med ca 300 milismän av en total på ca 15 000. Nu är det så att kanske VAR målet att lägga städerna i ruinerna. Alltså en gigantisk och brutal etnisk resning som överträffar många gånger om vad Serbien någon gång gjorde i Kosovo. Den gången bombades Serbien till återhållsamhet och Kosovo fick självständighet. I detta fall kan vi inte hoppas på något liknande om inte Ni sätter er i grunderna för konflikten och bloggar vidare om det. Tystnaden är bruten. Nu är det hög tid att föra fram vad det här handlar om. Ockupationen!

Angående Israel propagandister (betalda och icke-betalda) argument att de höga civila offren berodde på att Hamas gömde sig bland civila kan lätt avfördas med lite rätt tankegång och rätt fakta.

För den första vad skulle ni tycka om man hade fått en tips om en mycket farlig person beväpnat med kniv i en galleria en lördagsförmiddag, alltså full med folk, och man skickade dit den nationella insatsstyrka full och tung beväpnat och de började skjuta urskillningslös inne i galleria med den kanske giltiga avsikt att skjuta ihjäl den farliga brottslingen innan han skadar någon? Skulle Ni tycka att polisen gjorde ett bra jobb? Alla rättänkande människor inser att det är jävlig fel metod utom några korkade fanatiker som stödde detta i Sveriges tidningar och TV-kanaler.

För den andra har alla folk som lever under ockupation rätt att göra motstånd med alla tillgängliga medel enligt FN stadgar, art. 51. Nu är det så att palestinierna inte har tillgång till flygplan, artilleri, pansarvagnar, eller andra vapen som en självständig stat skulle kunna anskaffa. Då tar dem vad som finns till hands, inklusive mycket dramatiska åtgärder.

För den tredje Palestina har inte heller en armé. Det finns inga förläggningar där militära enheter är samlade eller regemente. De har miliser, alltså vanliga civila med mer eller mindre militär utbildning och organisation. I fallet Hamas har de troligen någon form av officerskår med lön och dessutom en polisstyrka som också är vanliga anställda. Men största majoritet av de 15-20 000 medlemmar är folk som bor bland de andra. För att jaga dem måste man söka eller bomba i princip allt, för det vet man inte säkert var de sover eller äter. Detta visste Israel eller så är dem helt korkade.

Att Hamas inte byggde skyddsrum för den civila befolkningen är nästan skrattretande och visar också på vilken intellektuellt nivå ligger dem som försvarar den oförsvarliga. Gaza har under nästan två år varit belägrade, vilken i sig är en krigshandling, så att nästan ingen mat, inga mediciner, inget material kom in och inga pengar heller. Hur i helvete skulle man bygga skyddsrum när folk inte ens har mat eller vanliga bostäder! Belägring stöddes av USA och genomfördes av Israel i syfte att störta Hamas som kom till makten tack vare den enorma inkompetensen, stupiditeten och fanatismen i Washington och Israel.

En annan vidd spridd uppfattning är att Israel har en av världens bästa armé och soldater. Denna myt har också tagit skadad när de istället för att skicka in dessa ”rambo” valde att bomba på avstånd utan urskillning med tungt artilleri. Om de hade varit så bra som de påstår sig att vara kunde de gå in och bekämpa milismän på gatorna, man mot man så att säga. Dessa 10-15 000 israeliska soldater valde fegt istället att hålla sig på avstånd och gjorde enstaka strandhugg in i städerna och alltid gick dem in med stridflyg och pansar som jämnade marken framför dem. Det pratas naturligtvis inte om det med faktum kvarstår att dessa speciella trupper och elitförband sket på sig när det gällde att slå på mer eller mindre liknande villkor. De var helt enkelt för fega för det! Och när andra upptäcker det kommer den psykologiska spärr att lossna.

Ett annat misstag med den här slakten, som i medierna kallas Gazakriget, är att Israel har genom att bomba skolor där civila sökte skydd, sjukhus och otaliga civila bostäder och nu senast bomba Gaza stad med stridflyg och tungartilleri med otaliga civila offer öppnar dörren för alla slags vedergällningar mot sin egen befolkning. Det betyder att våldets spiral kommer att fortsätta och de barn som ser det kommer att bli framtidens krigare på båda sidor. Om det hade varit vilken annan stat som helst som hade gjort sig skyldiga till detta skulle hela världssamfundet varit beredd att bomba förbrytaren. Varför ingenting händer i detta fall är ett klart tecken på hyckleriet i den officiella diskursen om terrorism, mänskliga rättigheter, ”skurkstater” och ”Ondskans Axel”. Allt detta blir en tom prat när man bombar en hel stad utan att någon höjer rösten. Inte de vanliga röster i alla fall som fördömde skarpt Ryssland, Serbien och andra när de utförde operationer i samma riktning. Den internationella lagstiftningen blev därmed också allvarig skadad.

Den internationella opinionen kan inte acceptera något annat än en totalt tillbakadragande från alla de ockuperade områdena i Palestina till 48 eller 67 års gränser, skapande av en sammanhängande palestinsk stat och skapande av säkra gränser för båda stater för att på en gång på alla sätta slut för den 60 åriga slakten. Israel och palestinierna måste pressas ekonomisk och politisk genom allmänhetens bojkott och klagomål. Regeringar i världen kommer inte att göra något åt saken. Det måste vara folket runt om i världen som bojkottar den starka parten, i detta fall Israel, att dra sig tillbaka till de erkända internationella gränserna och på så sätt möjliggöra en palestinsk stat som kan leva i fred med Israel inom erkända gränser. Innan Israel drar sig tillbaka kommer ingen fred att vara möjligt. Utan en palestinsk stat kommer alla möjliga desperata grupper och tendenser från ett förtryckt folk sedan 60 år till uttryck. Också åtgärder som ett folk i frihet, suveränitet och verklig demokrati inte skulle tillgripa.

Gaza kan inte fortsätta att vara belägrade av den sionistiska regeringen! Hamnarna, det territoriella vattnet utanför kusten och dess gasfyndigheter på bottenhavet måste vara i palestiniernas händer och så gränserna till alla frisinnade stater runt omkring så de kan föra in mat och allt vad de behöver för att leva som ett fritt folk.

Så småningom ska hela det palestinska området nå fullständigt självständighet. Det är den enda vägen till varaktig fred! Det finns ingen annan väg. Allt annat är bluff som inte leder någonstans! Vi måste komma ihåg att den nuvarande situationen har stort del av sitt ursprung i den långvariga belägringen av Gaza och mer grundläggande i den illegala ockupationen av Palestina sedan 60 år tillbaka.

Låt inte missledas av Hamas tjatet. Om det inte är dem kommer andra i deras ställe. Orsaken ligger i ockupationen så dess lösning! För den delen ska palestinierna själva välja sina ledare när de blir fria på riktigt och det måste omvärlden respektera. Det finns ingen demokrati utan verklig suveränitet och frihet!

En fri Palestina är den enda lösningen så vi slipper mer blod på båda sidor. Lämna alla ockuperade områdena, lämna alla bosättningar, kompensera de som har blivit bestulna på sina hus och mark, låt de som vill återvända till Palestina göra det! Kräv ömsesidig erkännande! Att Palestinierna erkänner Israel räcker inte. Israel måste erkänna Palestina som en fri stat också!

Kriget i Palestina inte över tills de stulna områdena återlämnas. Enda vägen till en varaktig fred är en totalt återlämnande av de ockuperade områdena i Palestina till FN- godkända gränser! Nu när världens folk har lyft sina blickar mot den här 60-årig lång konflikt är det tid att kräva att Israel drar sig tillbaka till de internationella erkända gränserna.

“Bandits with planes …
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children’s blood.”

(Pablo Neruda’s poem About the Nazis raids in Spain)

läs också min tidigare inkägg from den 9 Januari:

Nobody likes thieves
Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred?

True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us launch this debate, once and for all.

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

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http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/16/moorowebb/index.xml

http://nyhetskanalen.se/1.809777/2009/01/16/israel_avvisar_hamas_forslag

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http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/ekot/artikel.asp?Artikel=2571559

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/gaza-israel-attacks-ceasefire

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/16/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/35939

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/gaza-israel-attacks-ceasefire

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/ekot/artikel.asp?Artikel=2571559

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4193832.ab

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“The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians,” Sir Gerald Kaufman, a veteran MP of the governing Labour Party and a long-time critic of Israel, said Thursday in parliament.

Referring to his personal background, as the son of Jewish refugees from Poland, he 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.”

Kaufman compared the Hamas militants in Gaza to Jewish resistance fighters during the Second World War, saying: “The spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Major Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians. The total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that ’500 of them were militants’. That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.”

Israel launched major operations in Gaza on Dec. 27 after Hamas ended a fragile cease-fire with a massive intensification of rocket attacks into southern Israel.

Israeli War Crimes on Gaza in youtube:

Former Captain in the Israeli Air Force said “Israel is committing War Crimes in Gaza”

What Israel Army Is hiding from the world (video)

And watch this one!!! what do you call this??

Images of Israeli war crimes against Palestinian children in Gaza, If there is a God,They will pay for that… in this life or the next…

And this one…

If your child become a bit of carbon like this little child maybe you also become a suicide bomber. What I know about that..

VIDEO; What You Need To Know About Israel’s “Colonies”
Anna Baltzer, a young Jewish American, went to the West Bank to discover the realities of daily life for Palestinians under the occupation. What she found would change her outlook on the conflict forever. She wrote this book to give voice to the stories of the people who welcomed her with open arms as their lives crumbled around them. For five months, Baltzer lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists, and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across endless checkpoints and roadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves.

Baltzer witnessed firsthand the environmental devastation brought on by expanding settlements and outposts and the destruction wrought by Israels Security Fence, which separates many families from each other, their communities, their land, and basic human services. What emerges from Baltzers journal is not a sensationalist tale of suicide bombers and conspiracies, but a compelling and inspiring description of the trials of daily life under the occupation. Anna Baltzer is a Jewish American graduate of Columbia University, Fulbright scholar, and two-time volunteer with the International Womens Peace Service in the West Bank, where she documented human rights abuses and supported the nonviolent resistance movement to the occupation.

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http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/16/moorowebb/index.xml

http://nyhetskanalen.se/1.809777/2009/01/16/israel_avvisar_hamas_forslag

http://nyhetskanalen.se/1.809418/2009/01/15/det_var_den_sista_sakra_platsen

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/ekot/artikel.asp?Artikel=2571559

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/gaza-israel-attacks-ceasefire

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/16/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/35939

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/gaza-israel-attacks-ceasefire

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/ekot/artikel.asp?Artikel=2571559

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4193832.ab

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Global Solidarity with Palestine

In the Middle East, for example, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered and marched in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt. In many cases, these protests have blamed the Arab regimes for colluding with Israel and the United States, and have faced severe repression as a result. Protests and riots have also occurred across the occupied West Bank and have suffered repression from the joint forces of Israel and Fatah. In Israel itself, protests by Arabs, communists, anarchists and Jews have also taken place, including a few “civil disobedience” actions.

Expressions of solidarity from outside the region have been no less remarkable, especially in terms of their size, intensity and political composition.

As part of the global day of protest on January 3rd, up to 60,000 people gathered in London against the war and British complicity. After the rally, more than one thousand shoes were tossed at the Prime Minister’s Office on Downing Street. Solidarity protests were also held in smaller cities in England such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle. On January 10th, more than 100,000 people marched in a loud, militant protest in London.

The size and scope of these demonstrations cannot be overestimated: for the first time, they mark the Palestinian struggle as a central, galvanizing issue for the anti-war movement in Great Britain, even in small towns and cities.

Protests have been similar across Europe. On the weekend of January 3-4, up to 20,000 people marched in Paris and 10,000 in Berlin and Frankfurt. Demonstrations were also held in Stockholm, Helsinki, Rome, Lyon, Madrid, Amsterdam and other large cities on the continent. After a demonstration in Athens outside the embassies of Israel and the United States, an effigy of George Bush was burned along with a number of banks. Building on a long tradition of solidarity with Palestine, demonstrations were also organized in Belfast and Dublin. On January 8th in Norway, at least 40,000 people marched in Oslo, as well as in five other cities, in a protest called by an alliance of about 80 organizations. This past weekend, rallies in Paris, Berlin and other European cities drew equally large numbers, including 100,000 in Madrid. In Greece, a planned demonstration for January 15th has forced the government to cancel a contract with the U.S. military, which hoped to use the port of Astakos as a transit point for new arms shipments to Israel.

These demonstrations in Europe have catapulted the issue of Palestine to the fore of anti-war organizing and sparked new demands for a boycott and divestment campaign and for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes. The protests have also forced many European governments to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to put new trade relations between the E.U. and Israel on hold.

Down Under, protests have also occurred in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, as well as in Auckland, New Zealand, where a monument to Israel was recently doused in blood and paint.

Similarly, on January 5th, university students in Delhi, India threw 200 shoes at the Israeli embassy before being arrested. Over the past two weeks in Srinagar, Kashmir, police have repeatedly used tear gas and batons against hundreds of protesters chanting, “We’re with the Palestinians” and “Down with Israel.”

In Afghanistan, demonstrations have been held at mosques in Kabul and Herat, where thousands of people chanted “Death to Israel, America and Great Britain.”

Outrage was also demonstrated this past week in South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Thailand, where thousands of people participated in protests.

In Latin America, the governments of Ecuador and Brazil have accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” and “state terrorism,” while the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, have expelled Israeli ambassadors. At the grassroots level, protests have occurred across the region, from Mexico and Nicaragua to Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica and Cuba.

North American Demonstrations

Even in North America, there has been a clear outpouring of anger against the bombing and ground invasion. In Canada, hundreds of people have gathered in Ottawa, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver for vigils and protests. In Toronto, up to 10,000 people attended a protest on January 3rd organized by a large coalition of Palestinian solidarity and anti-war groups. On January 7th eight Jewish women were arrested after occupying the Israeli consulate in downtown Toronto. In Montreal, 4,000 people gathered on January 4th for an emergency protest against the war. Last Thursday, thirty people occupied the Israeli consulate in Montreal, demanding the expulsion of the Consular General and an immediate end to the Israel invasion and siege of Gaza. In Canada, these protests and the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions have also been supported by a number of trade unions, such as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees who have both issued public statements against the Israeli actions in Gaza.

Most surprising, perhaps, are the demonstrations in the United States. In more than 100 American cities, both large and small, thousands of people have attended protests and vigils since the bombing began on December 27th.

For example, two weekends ago, up to 20,000 people gathered for a protest in Manhattan, New York. This demonstration was the largest ever on the issue of Palestine in the city and brought together many groups of the Left and Arab community.

San Francisco in particular has been the scene of raucous protests. Over the past two weeks, hundreds of people have engaged in marches and civil disobedience, including a street “sit-in” of approximately 50 Jewish anti-occupation activists. In record numbers, Americans have also gathered in Boston, Houston, Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Nashville, Denver, Kansas City, New Orleans, Portland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Greenville, Sioux Falls, Toledo, Dayton, Raleigh, Des Moines and Oklahoma City, amongst other places. Most recently on January 14th about 15 Jewish activists attempted to shut down the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles by blocking its driveway and locking themselves to the entrance.

The Importance of Emerging Palestinian Solidarity Activism

These demonstrations are significant for a number of reasons.

First, they have re-galvanized an important layer of the U.S. anti-war movement, which has been relatively dormant since the failed campaign to elect Senator John Kerry as a Democratic President in 2004.

Second, they are the first demonstrations in the United States to put the question of Palestine at the centre of the anti-war movement. In the past, the movement has been seriously divided over whether or not to address the issue of Palestine as part of the broader campaign against U.S. policies in the Middle East. In this context, the current demonstrations represent a potential watershed moment in which Palestine becomes a leading issue for the anti-war movement. While UFPJ (United For Peace and Justice) has so far refrained from organizing a mass demonstration, it did encourage people to attend the protest in Washington DC last weekend held by ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) and a number of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian organizations. Pressure and protest from below will have to be maintained in order to keep the large anti-war organizations focused on Palestine over the long-term.

Third, these protests reflect an important shift in popular consciousness against Israeli policies. According to a new Rasmussen poll, the American public is highly divided on the current war, with 44 percent expressing support and 41 percent dissent. Amongst Democratic voters, however, 55 percent oppose the Israeli operation against 31 percent in support. These numbers are highly significant given the full support offered to Israel by the Democratic Party leadership, Congress, and mainstream media. Indeed, the poll suggests that increasing numbers of Americans are starting to question and oppose the consensus on Israel within elite circles.

Fourth, the protests create hope that the anti-war movement will operate independently of the incoming administration of Barack Obama. While Obama has an old history of working with the Palestinian and Arab communities in Chicago, and has promised a new approach to American foreign policy in the Middle East, his more recent positions on Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Palestine demand protest and strict opposition from the anti-war movement. For example, his decision to remain quiet during the current conflict in Gaza stands in stark contrast to his condemnation of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and suggests a tacit nod of support for Israeli measures. In this context, it is positive that anti-war and Palestinian solidarity activists have already demonstrated outside of Obama’s vacation hotel in Hawaii and his transition headquarters in Washington, DC. These demonstrations are hopeful signs that the anti-war movement will not be incorporated and marginalized by the Obama-machine, which is stacked with veterans from the Clinton and Bush II administrations.

Fifth, the protests are a vindication of the small-scale, community organizing around Palestine over the last few years. Every major city in the U.S. (and in Canada and much of Europe) now has a wide-ranging network of Palestinian solidarity activities, from film festivals and poetry groups to active campaigns around the Right of Return, the siege of Gaza, and the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Protests are organized on a regular basis outside of Israeli consulates, and boycott campaigns are being directed against a host of companies with ties to Israel.

Palestinian and Arab activists in the diaspora are leading these struggles across North America, and are generally unified around (1) the critique of Israel as an apartheid state; (2) building a movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel; and (3) the demand for a one-state, bi-national solution to the conflict, with the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees.

As the protests reveal, this organizing around Palestine has developed a real momentum and significance. In fact, there is a real possibility that Palestine may emerge as a central issue for the anti-war movement and the radical left in the U.S. in the near future. While the media and political elite continue to offer full support to Israel as the main ally of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, there are unequivocal signs of grassroots opposition on a national scale to this alliance and to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.

In both the United States and around the world, then, we are witnessing the emergence of a global movement of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. From New York to London, from Caracas to Beirut, this movement encompasses people of all nationalities and faiths, and asserts that “We Are All Palestinian” and support the right of resistance to occupation, colonization and state terror.

As such, these protests build the potential foundation to isolate and sanction Israel through a boycott and divestment campaign, as demanded by Palestinian civil society institutions around the world. Just as the 1976 massacre in Soweto, South Africa led to the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime, so too might the war on Gaza spark the same kind of international movement against the Zionist state.

The global character of recent protests gives hope for such an outcome.