An Israeli air attack on Gaza, which has massacred over 200 people including women and children, has been portrayed by the global media as a “retaliation” for the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza (map source: Wikipedia). The Israeli air-strike comes at a time when Israeli politicians are campaigning for a general election.
Three key points that have not been highlighted in the corporate media:
- It was the Israelis who broke the truce, as the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom points out.
- The rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory have not killed or injured a single Israeli, reports Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada.
- Gaza has been under a terrible and suffocating Israeli siege, which has caused immense suffering among the entire 1.5 million population. “Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren,” says Ali Abunimah. It is vicious collective punishment.
According to the reknown Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery, peace between Israel and Palestine is not impossible to achieve. The terms of such a peace settlement would include:
- A sovereign and viable state of Palestine to be established side by side with Israel.
- The border based on the pre-1967 Armistice Line (the “Green Line”). Insubstantial alterations by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
- East Jerusalem and all Arab neighborhoods as the capital of Palestine. West Jerusalem and all Jewish neighborhoods as the capital of Israel.
- All Israeli settlements will be evacuated
- Israel will recognise in principle the right of the refugees to return. … The number of refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population.
- The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
- Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted directly or by proxy.
- In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states of the Arab League will recognise Israel and establish normal relations with it. …
First the article by Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace group:
Saturday 27/12/08
The war in Gaza – vicious folly of a bankrupt government (and Amos Oz will soon regret having supported it)The war in Gaza, the bloodshed, killing, destruction and suffering on both sides of the border, are the vicious folly of a bankrupt government. A government which let itself be dragged by adventurous officers and cheap nationalist demagoguery, dragged into a destructive and unnecessary war which will bring no solution to any problem – neither to the communities of southern Israel under the rain of missiles nor to the terrible poverty and suffering of besieged Gaza. On the day after the war the same problems will remain – with the addition of many bereaved families, wounded people crippled for life, and piles of rubble and destruction.
The escalation towards war could and should have been avoided. It was the State of Israel which broke the truce, in the ‘ticking tunnel’ raid on the night of the US elections two months ago. Since then the army went on stoking the fires of escalation with calculated raids and killings, whenever the shooting of missiles on Israel decreased.
The cycle of bloodshed could and should be broken. The ceasefire can be restored immediately, and on firmer foundations. It is the right of Israel to demand a complete end to shooting on its territory and citizens – but it must stop all attacks from its side, end completely the siege and starvation of Gaza’s million and half inhabitants, and stop interfering with the Palestinians’ right to choose their own leaders.
Ehud Barak’s declaration that he is stopping the elections campaign in order to concentrate on the Gaza offensive is a joke. The war in Gaza is itself Barak’s elections campaign, a cynical attempt to buy votes with the blood and suffering in Netivot and Sderot, Gaza and Beit Hanun. Also so-called peace seekers such as Amos Oz, who give this offensive their support and encouragement, could not afterwards shrug off responsibility.
Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson, adam@gush-shalom.org
And this article from Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada:
Gaza massacres must spur us to action
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2008“I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing.” Those were the words, spoken on Al Jazeera today by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot area adjacent to Gaza, as images of Israel’s latest massacres were broadcast around the world.
A short time earlier, US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing at least 195 persons and injuring hundreds more. Many of these locations were police stations located, like police stations the world over, in the middle of civilian areas. The US government was one of the first to offer its support for Israel’s attacks, and others will follow.
Reports said that many of the dead were Palestinian police officers. Among those Israel labels “terrorists” were more than a dozen traffic police officers undergoing training. An as yet unknown number of civilians were killed and injured; Al Jazeera showed images of several dead children, and the Israeli attacks came at the time thousands of Palestinian children were in the streets on their way home from school.
Shmerling’s joy has been echoed by Israelis and their supporters around the world; their violence is righteous violence. It is “self-defense” against “terrorists” and therefore justified. Israeli bombing — like American and NATO bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan — is bombing for freedom, peace and democracy.
The rationalization for Israel’s massacres, already being faithfully transmitted by the English-language media, is that Israel is acting in “retaliation” for Palestinian rockets fired with increasing intensity ever since the six-month truce expired on 19 December (until today, no Israeli had been killed or injured by these recent rocket attacks).
But today’s horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel’s method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the two year-old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Palestinians died silently, for want of basic medications: insulin, cancer treatment, products for dialysis prohibited from reaching them by Israel.
What the media never question is Israel’s idea of a truce. It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce, Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren.
As John Ging, the head of operations of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told The Electronic Intifada in November: “there was five months of a ceasefire in the last couple of months, where the people of Gaza did not benefit; they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence. We in fact at the UN, our supplies were also restricted during the period of the ceasefire, to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position and with a few days of closure we ran out of food.”
That is an Israeli truce. Any response to Israeli attacks — whether peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in Bilin and Nilin in the West Bank is met with bullets and bombs. There are no rockets launched at Israel from the West Bank, and yet Israel’s attacks, killings, land theft, settler pogroms and kidnappings never ceased for one single day during the truce. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has acceded to all of Israel’s demands, even assembling “security forces” to fight the resistance on Israel’s behalf. None of that has spared a single Palestinian or her property or livelihood from Israel’s relentless violent colonization. It did not save, for instance, the al-Kurd family from seeing their home of 50 years in occupied East Jerusalem demolished on 9 November, so the land it sits on could be taken by settlers.
Once again we are watching massacres in Gaza, as we did last March when 110 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed by Israel in just a few days. Once again people everywhere feel rage, anger and despair that this outlaw state carries out such crimes with impunity.
But all over the Arab media and internet today the rage being expressed is not directed solely at Israel. Notably, it is directed more sharply than ever at Arab states. The images that stick are of Israel’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo on Christmas day. There she sat smiling with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Then there are the pictures of Livni and Egypt’s foreign minister smiling and slapping their palms together.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that last wednesday the Israeli “cabinet authorized the prime minister, the defense minister, and the foreign minister to determine the timing and the method” of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Everywhere people ask, what did Livni tell the Egyptians and more importantly what did they tell her? Did Israel get a green light to turn Gaza’s streets red once again? Few are ready to give Egypt the benefit of the doubt after it has helped Israel besiege Gaza by keeping the Rafah border crossing closed for more than a year.
On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people feel at Israel’s renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to channel it into a political response that can change the course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.
But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them. Already I have received notices of demonstrations and solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the world. That is important. But what will happen after the demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?
Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group reaffirmed this today as it “called upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.”
The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) provides the framework for this. Now is the time to channel our raw emotions into a long-term commitment to make sure we do not wake up to “another Gaza” ever again.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).
Hypocrisy in Action:
Where were Egypt, Russia, OIC, EU, Britain, Sarkozy, US & Austria when Hamas was pounding Israel with daily barrage of rockets?
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muslims against sharia…
where were they when hundreds of palestinian women and children die every day from inadequate water, food, medicine etc?
idiot!
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Gaza is today’s Warsaw Ghetto – where the Nazis caged and slaughtered Polish Jews in WW2. They treat the Palestinians as brutally as the Nazis once treated them.
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PEACE can only be achieved when BOTH sides desire peace; and will work towards peace. Violence begets violence; just like revenge begets revenge.
No religion ( religion has be used whenever it suits the purpose of the perpetrators like jihad, for example) advocates suicide attacks which had killed or maimed millions in various parts of the World. And the fault lies with leaders who want to boost their selfish , politicial aims: it is blatant, self-preservation. The more extreme stand a leader takes, the better for his political agenda.
Look at Zimbabwe, for example. African leaders could do nothing when Mugabe over-ruled all objections agains inilateral appointment of Cabinet posts, though coalition was cemented.
Look at Burma. The lady, Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest. Even UN could do nothing. Where is its moral force? High-sounding speeches at the UN, and Foreign Ministers and even Presidents and Prime Ministers flying in and out of Capital cities were futile exercises, for public consumption.
Rwanda genocide is still going on. Nothing has been done to stop it.
In the Middle East, rockets are launched to kill Israelis; and retaliation kills innocent lives. Violence begets violence. There is no end to bloodshed.
What is the UN doing? It appears to be just a Debating Society, to air views for self-glory and self-promotion, to show statemanship. Where are teh big and medium -sized POWERS like US, Russia, France, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, etc ?
Wheer there is justification, negotiated settlements may solve problems. I say ” justification” because tehre are soem Parties which make UNREASONABLE demands which no nation of dignity will allow!
Another solution, which is more aggressive, is to REMOVE such leaders who are the ROOT causes of violence. While leaders sit in comfort , their henchmen are sent out to cause havoc.
S.H. Huang
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Israel used state terrorism to destroy terrorist organization(Hamas) with weapons supply by USA and UK, at a time Hamas want to stop Zionist expansion by destroying state of Israel with weapon supply by Iran and Syria. Both are terrorists continue to kill innocent men and women in both sides of the border. Both refused to full filled their obligation under UN peace treaty and failed to reign in radical elements within their territory.
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The power and death
The innocent suffer in silence
Gone are the days
Of peace and tranquility
When you are born into the hot spots
Of religious rivalry
The wolves’ control
The state of power
Unleashing it
The death on the ground
Where is peace?
Where is the tolerance?
What happen to hands of friendship?
It dies in the eye of power
On the ground death takes
Is this the way to go?
Brewing hot smoke
The wings of death fly
Into the homes and ground
The power and death
They don’t give peace
They don’t know its meaning
For them it is power and death
The innocent die
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The israeli government is the new nazi government.
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and as usual , the OIC is left useless and helpless except for rethorics and million-dollar world forum that produces yet-another-wasteful resolutions.
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As long as both Palestinian and Isrealis have no wisdom of ‘forgive and forget’, conflicts between them could not be solved, however powerful, merciful and compassionate they claim their God to be.
Put aside your ‘God’ and solve your conflicts by ‘forgive and forget’. If you guys cannot do that, go ahead, keep on fighting and revenging.
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This is outrageous. I rather vomit blood than see idiots like muslim against shariah (its not sharia) defend doings of Israel.
Shame on you.
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The killings in Gaza is the world’s headline news today. I am not sure if it is in the Arab part of the world and it doesn’t surprise me if it isn’t .
A million Iranians have perished during Saddam’s war with Iran. More than a million Iraqis have died and are still dying by Bush’s Operation Iraqi Liberation. So what with a few hundred or a few hundred thousand deaths of the Palestinians!?.
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People everywhere and in Malaysia will do well to remember Gandhi’s words. ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’
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Have the “Palestinians” really desired peace all along? No one asks the un-PC question.
Gandhi’s success lay with the fact that, in that given scenario of India, both sides wanted a peaceful resolution. His idea didn’t work while he was an activist in South Africa.
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Really, Anil, there are enough KTemocs to do this type of pathos. You’ll only diminish your own credibility by chorusing the same. Ditto with matters such as the “Global Warming” fad as well.
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Israel claimed they were bombed first and they retaliated. Were they bomb first? I do not know if if they were, retaliation is expected despite no one died. What do you expect when peace is so fragile in middle east.
When peace is so fragile, all that is needed is one excuse to break it. So to all parties, pls forgive (not forget) what hatred can do to mankind. Do we need more people to die before we realise tolerance and acceptance is the way to peace?
The article also reinforced my view that the Iraqi shoes thrower is a hero. I would have done the same thing too, if Bush were in front of me, perhaps with a bit extra i.e. lace the shoes with s*** first.
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Arab nations want to exterminate their smaller neighbor Israel, while Zionist want to exterminate its smaller neighbor Palestine, the cycle of violence manage to escalate within both countries with the help of USA , UK, Syria, and Iran by continue their arms supply to both parties at war, so how can anybody can sincerely expect “PEACE” will ever reach that region?
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Those … muslim … have got nothing better to do than to kill every day bombing and here and there. To them it is absolutely OK to do so and no muslim country ever condemn and do something about it. When people hit them back they start jumping and complaining civilians are killed and they must revenge. Who started it in the first place?
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Gandhi’s words: ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’
Gandhiji’s thoughts in his 1940 ‘open letter’ to the British:
“I want you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings… If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child to be slaughtered… I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty’s government, should they consider them of any practical use in enhancing my appeal.”
-(From Stanley Wolpert’s “Jinnah of Pakistan”.)
Sri Aurobindo’s reaction when he heard this, as recorded in his book “India’s Rebirth”: “He must be a little cracked.”
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Some people need to read the Hamas Charter instead of expending time on verbal calisthenics, the Hamas charter specifically mandates the murder of Jews in compliance with what it believes is Divine will. Violence and terror, which Hamas refers to as “resistance”, are considered legitimate tools to be used for this purpose.
Hamas has worked hard to promote this ideology and to train the current and future generations toward this end, using a Mickey Mouse-like character to teach the precepts to PA Arab children and other TV and radio programs to reach the adults.
The PA population has, for the most part, responded enthusiastically to this campaign. Others who are frightened by the fanaticism and culture of murder are doing their best to flee.
Branch offices of foreign ministries from various Arab countries report they have been besieged with tens of thousands of applications by PA Arabs who are desperate to take their families out of the madness.
Islamic clerics, meanwhile, exhort them to remain, resorting even to religious legal rulings that it is forbidden to leave the Palestinian Authority territories and abandon what they insist is their land.
It is clear that Hamas has no intention of ever recognizing the State of Israel’s right to exist. Nor does it intend to end its terrorism, regardless of international mandates to do so.
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If everyday I throw items with capacity for destruction, at any what time of the day, though I have not killed anyone, my action would be an act of terrorising my neighbor,
who would be very justified in getting his relatives from Bidor to come and help put an end to my madness.
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200 wounded or slaughtered, and who were they:
Israel launched Saturday morning the start of a massive offensive against Qassam rocket and mortar fire on its southern communities, targeting dozens of buildings belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group.
Palestinian medical sources said that at least 195 people had been killed in the strikes, which began with almost no warning at around 11:30 A.M.
Medical personnel in Gaza said that more than 200 people were also wounded in the series of Israel Air Force strikes. Egypt has opened its long-sealed border with Gaza to allow in the wounded for medical treatment. Hamas said that the attacks had caused widespread panic in the Strip.
The first wave of air strikes was launched by a 60 warplanes which hit a total of 50 targets in one fell swoop. The IAF deployed approximately 100 bombs, with an estimated 95 percent of the ordinance reaching its intended target. Most of the casualties were Hamas operatives.
—-
Immediately following the first wave, some 20 IAF aircraft struck 50 Palestinian rocket launchers in an effort to minimize Hamas’ retaliatory strikes.
The IDF emphasized that civilians located in areas whence Palestinians launch rockets and who quarter Hamas operatives in their homes are liable to be hurt.
The targets that were hit included training camps and installations as well as police stations, some of whom were located in civilian buildings.
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Today`s victim when Qassam rocket hit a home in Netivot Saturday was Beber Vaaknin. He was 58 years old.
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Hamas was the one which ended the truce, on 19 December.
Hamas formally ends truce with Israel
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Israel responded to continuing rocket attacks with air strikes on 27 December, 8 days AFTER the truce ended and Hamas resumed firing rockets.
This pro-Palestinian activist admits as much:
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Over 3000 rockets have been fired into Israel over the year of 2008. Shouldn’t such resources be better used providing infrastructure to the Gazans? As rocket attacks only achieve Israeli retaliation.
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