Posted on January 28, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
Contributed By Fatima
Source hen do we stop being the United States of the AIPAC?
First, let’s get some things straight. The AIPAC doesn’t lobby (i.e., “dictate”) for the State of Israel; they lobby ONLY for the lunatic right wing fringe of Israel. Said differently, they lobby for a gaggle of extremist, billionaire religious fanatics.
Israel’s Labor Party, for example, is certainly not “represented” by the AIPAC, nor are internet sites like J Street (among MANY others!) who passionately speak for that large and honorable part of the Jewish Community (in and out of Israel) who want to end the bloodshed with diplomacy and compromise – not the rationalized genocide of the AIPAC.
This matter would be basically insoluble if the war mongering AIPAC was the true and complete voice of Israel, but the good news is that they aren’t. Indeed, this incredibly costly smoke-screen illusion is their ultimate power — not their blood money bribes of nearly our entire government or murder in the name of God “justifications”.
If and when Americans finally take it in that a relatively small number of VERY rich and VERY right wing Israeli’s are controlling the entire Middle East through their bought and paid for control of America’s foreign policy, we should feel an indescribable shame that we have allowed our country to be reduced to an obedient pit bull of a relative handful of elite/fundamentalists from ANOTHER COUNTRY!
Surely, once a critical mass of patriotic Americans finally wakes up and sees the “neocon cabal” for what they were (and still are), we will tell them to take their blood money bribes and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.
My God, do we still even know how to spell words like morality and rationality (obviously, our mouse-souled congress doesn’t!), at the same time we allow ourselves to be bought body and soul by these ultra right wing fanatics?
Also, we should also NEVER forget that the State of Israel DIDN’T EVEN EXIST before Palestine was “internationally raped” by paper decrees in 1948 (a carry over of the infinitely arrogant and genocidal “British Empire”) which told them their country was no longer their country, but a host, merely, for (surprise! surprise) “another country”.
However, they keep being punished for remembering that fact – although you can be certain that even after a thousand years they will never forget it.
The extra layer of this tragic and unending blood bath is that not only does the American Congress bend over on cue for the AIPAC, but this lobby continues to successfully propagandize the B.S. that they are lobbying for the entire State of Israel and the entire Jewish Community.
However, they are merely lobbying for THEIR OWN AGENDAS, just like the KKK or skin head fascists would be lobbying for their agendas if they had brainwashed the planet that they are “America’s voice”. America’s voice, hell! They’re just a bunch of immoral barbarians who represent only a miniscule percentage of Americans — and exactly the same thing is true for the AIPAC
Our end of this is to realize that our (DLC = RNC) “government” has mostly sold their souls to the AIPAC, so dealing with this Heart of Darkness is going to have to come from apolitical, activist, patriotic Americans.
And oh yes, please don’t be taken in by the everlastingly recycled rationalization that unless we let them TOTALLY dictate America’s foreign policy, Israel will be pushed into the sea (their favorite image, for some reason). “Pushed into the sea?” I think not since they have intimidated our government to load them up with several times over more atomic weaponry than the entire Islamic world combined!
Self evidently, Israel should be vigilantly self protective about a nuclear attack, but how realistically probable is such an event, since half the planet would be decimated in mater of hours if any country was insane enough to attempt it — thanks to the mountainous stockpiles of “made in America” atomic nukes, etc.
Hence, it’s imperative to see that’s not the only issue and never has been. The “other” issue was put into words by someone who objected to a much milder submission of mine that (God forbid!) suggested some real world “diplomacy” instead of this endless, lose/lose carnage.
His response (you better sit down for this) was that if the Palestinians really wanted diplomacy, why doesn’t another Arab country just take them all into their country? Duh!
So even though before 1948, Palestine was 100% PALESTINE, this self righteous (and haven’t you noticed that all AIPAC “justifications” are always nauseatingly self righteous?) psycho was saying they should all “just leave” so the country can be totally Israel.
Well, did the other shoe just drop and is THIS is secret agenda of the AIPAC?
Of course, none of this justifies murder in “either direction” (which is what makes it lose/lose for the pitiful political pawns of both groups), but it would be criminally naive to discount a TOTAL take over agenda of Palestine by extremist right wing Israeli’s.
God willing, once Bush’s “kill a Muslim for Christ” insanity no longer gives a green light to the AIPAC, Obama will supply a negotiated level playing field and this tragic horror show will finally come to some kind peaceful and even win/win resolution.
And THEN we’ll kick the AIPAC out of America’s foreign policy decisions once and for all! Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if AMERICAN’S determined their OWN foreign policy — not a fraternity of billionaire religious fanatics from another country?
How ashamed our genius constitutional forefathers must be of us, since they constructed fire wall after fire wall to keep inviolate the Church and State separation, and here we are caving into exactly what they tried to protect us from — except it’s even worse since our government of elite dem/pug puppets (with courageous exceptions who prove the rule) keeps sucking up to an acronym from another country! Time to kick the bums out. Time to be AMERICANS again.
And time to give our very, very best shot to pouring oil on these infinitely troubled waters. My God, too much death, too much greed, too much mutual massacre . . . and too many dead and dying children.
Enough! Enough! Enough! ****************************************************************** W. Christopher Epler (Bill)
My son persisted. “Why are Palestinians so smoky all the time, Daddy?”
My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.
I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail.
All the photos I received spoke of the reality that is Gaza today – homes, schools and civilian infrastructure bombed beyond description. All the faces were either of dead or dying people.
I paused as I reached a horrifying photo in the slideshow of a young boy and his sister huddled on a single hospital trolley waiting to be identified and buried. Their faces were darkened as if they were charcoal and their lifeless eyes were still widened with the horror that they experienced as they were burned slowly by a white phosphorus shell.
It was just then that Sammy walked into my room snooping around for a missing toy. “What is this, daddy?” he inquired.
I rushed to click past the horrific image, only to find myself introducing a no less shocking one. Fretfully, I turned the monitor off, then turned to my son as he stood puzzled. His eyes sparkled inquisitively as he tried to make sense of what he had just seen.
He needed to know about these kids whose little bodies had been burned beyond recognition.
“Where are their mummies and daddies? Why are they all so smoky all the time?”
I explained to him that they are Palestinians, that they were hurting “just a little” and that their “mummies and daddies will be right back.”
The reality is that these children and thousands like them in Gaza have experienced the most profound pain, a pain that we may never in our lives comprehend.
“I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons,” Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who had recently returned from Gaza told reporters in Oslo.
“This is a new generation of very powerful small explosives that detonates with extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10 metres
“We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb, because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations.”
The dreadful weapons are known as dense inert metal explosives (DIME), “an experimental kind of explosive” but only one of several new weapons that Israel has been using in Gaza, the world’s most densely populated regions.
Israel could not possibly have found a better place to experiment with DIME or the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas than Gaza.
The hapless inhabitants of the strip have been disowned. The power of the media, political coercion, intimidation and manipulation have demonised this imprisoned nation fighting for its life in the tiny spaces left of its land.
No wonder Israel refused to allow foreign journalists into the tiny enclave and brazenly bombed the remaining international presence in Gaza.
As long as there are no witnesses to the war crimes committed in Gaza, Israel is confident that it can sell a fabricated story to the world that it is, as always, the victim, one that has been terrorised and, strangely enough, demonised as well.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on January 15.
“Livni said that these were hard times for Israel, but that the government was forced to act in Gaza in order to protect Israeli citizens.
“She stated that Gaza was ruled by a terrorist regime and that Israel must carry on a dialogue with moderate sources while simultaneously fighting terror.”
The same peculiar message was conveyed by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he declared his one-sided ceasefire on January 17.
Never mind that the “terrorist regime” was democratically elected and had honoured a ceasefire agreement with Israel for six months, receiving nothing in return but a lethal siege interrupted by an occasional round of death and destruction.
Livni is not as perceptive and shrewd as the US media fantasises. Blunt-speaking Ehud Barak and stiff-faced Mark Regev are not convincing men of wisdom. Their logic is bizarre and wouldn’t stand the test of reason.
But they have unfettered access to the media, where they are hardly challenged by journalists who know well that protecting one’s citizens doesn’t require the violation of international and humanitarian laws, targeting medical workers, sniper fire at children and demolishing homes with entire families holed up inside. Securing your borders doesn’t require imprisoning and starving your neighbours and turning their homes to smoking heaps of rubble.
Olmert wants to “break the will” of Hamas, i.e. the Palestinians, since the Hamas government was elected and backed by the majority of the Palestinian people.
Isn’t 60 years of suffering and survival enough to convince Olmert that the will of the Palestinians cannot be broken? How many heaps of wreckage and mutilated bodies will be enough to convince the prime minister that those who fight for their freedom will either be free or will die trying?
Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman, a rising star in Israel, is not yet convinced. He thinks that more can be done to “secure” his country, which was established in 1948 on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian towns and villages. He has a plan.
“We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II,” said the head of ultra-nationalist opposition party Yisrael Beitenu.
A selective reader of history, Lieberman could only think of the 1945 atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But something else happened during those years that Lieberman carefully omitted. It’s called the Holocaust, a term that many are increasingly using to describe the Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip.
It is strange that conventional Israeli wisdom still dictates that “the Arabs understand only the language of force.” If that were true, then they would have conceded their rights after the first massacre in 1948. But, following more than 60 years filled with massacres new and old, they continue to resist.
“Freedom or death,” is the popular Palestinian mantra. These are not simply words, but a rule by which Palestinians live and die. Gaza is the proof and Israeli leaders are yet to understand.
My son persisted. “Why are Palestinians so smoky all the time, Daddy?”
Speaking at the panel, which was part of the World Zionist Congress conference, Professor Dina Porat said, “the comparison has now become self-understood.” She added this applied not only to Muslims in Europe, but among “leftist circles.”
WJC Treasurer Cobi Benatoff of Italy, who attended the panel, urged Jewish communities to “complain less and do more.”
He hinted criticism of European coreligionists in comparing the level of involvement in the Middle East by Muslims in Europe to that of the continent’s Jews. “I don’t remember demonstrations by Jewish Europeans when the Negev came under Palestinian fire every day,” he said.
Also speaking at the event was Lina Filiba of the Jewish Confederation of Turkey. “There was much preparation in the reaction of Muslims,” she said. “The first rally came on the day of the first attack in Gaza.” She added the operation exposed anti-Semitism in Turkey’s highest levels of government, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called for Israel’s exclusion from the United Nations.
Anne Sender, head of the Jewish community of Oslo, spoke of an “explosion of violence” in anti-Jewish protests, which, according to her, the likes of which had never occurred in the past. She also mentioned the case of a Norwegian diplomat who, as reported by Israeli daily Haaretz, last week sent an e-mail saying that Jews, “learned from the Nazis.”
Preliminary analyses by Jewish organizations estimate that during the Gaza offensive, the volume of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe multiplied more than four-fold compared to the correlating time last year.
Posted on January 28, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
Rabbi Told Israeli Troops ‘to Show No Mercy’ in Gaza
27/01/2009 An Israeli human rights group on Monday called for the immediate dismissal of the chief military rabbi, saying he gave occupation soldiers fighting in Gaza War pamphlets urging them to show no mercy.
Yesh Din said it had written to both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, urging them to “take this incitement seriously and fire Chief Military Rabbi” Brigadier General Avi Ronzki. It said a pamphlet distributed to soldiers taking part in the Israeli war against Gaza stressed that the troops should show no mercy to their enemies, and that the pamphlet borders “on incitement and racism against the Palestinian people.”
“When you show mercy to a cruel enemy you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers,” Yesh Din quoted the pamphlet as saying.
It said the pamphlet quotes at length statements by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a spiritual leader of the Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank who opposes any compromise with Palestinians.
“The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country,” the pamphlet quoted Aviner as saying.
The rights group said the pamphlet contains “degrading and belittling messages that border on incitement and racism against the Palestinian people. These messages can be interpreted as a call to act outside of the confines of international laws of war.”
The Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that far right-wing groups also gave out pamphlets bearing racist messages on military bases. It said one urged soldiers to “spare your lives and the lives of your friends and not to show concern for a population that surrounds us and harms us…”
“Kill the one who comes to kill you. As for the population, it is not innocent,” the daily quoted the pamphlet as saying.
IDF rabbinate disseminated extremist propaganda during Gaza Holocaust Source
Light unto the Nations
During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the religious media – and on two occasions, the Israel Defense Forces weekly journal Bamahane – were full of praise for the army rabbinate. The substantial role of religious officers and soldiers in the front-line units of the IDF was, for the first time, supported also by the significant presence of rabbis there.
The chief army rabbi, Brigadier General Avichai Rontzki, joined the troops in the field on a number of occasions, as did rabbis under his command.
Officers and soldiers reported that they felt “spiritually elevated” and “morally empowered” by conversations with rabbis who gave them encouragement before the confrontation with the Palestinians.
But what exactly was the content of these conversations and of the plethora of written material disseminated by the IDF rabbinate during the war? A reservist battalion rabbi told the religious newspaper B’Sheva last week that Rontzki explained to his staff that their role was not “to distribute wine and challah for Shabbat to the troops,” but “to fill them with yiddishkeit and a fighting spirit.”
An overview of some of the army rabbinate’s publications made available during the fighting reflects the tone of nationalist propaganda that steps blatantly into politics, sounds racist and can be interpreted as a call to challenge international law when it comes to dealing with enemy civilians.
Haaretz has received some of the publications through Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who collect evidence of unacceptable behavior in the army vis-a-vis Palestinians. Other material was provided by officers and men who received it during Operation Cast Lead. Following are quotations from this material:
“[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it.” This is an excerpt from a publication entitled “Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead,” issued by the IDF rabbinate. The text is from “Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner,” who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.
The following questions are posed in one publication: “Is it possible to compare today’s Palestinians to the Philistines of the past? And if so, is it possible to apply lessons today from the military tactics of Samson and David?” Rabbi Aviner is again quoted as saying: “A comparison is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land … They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country … Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence.”
The IDF rabbinate, also quoting Rabbi Aviner, describes the appropriate code of conduct in the field: “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre.'”
This view is also echoed in publications signed by Rabbis Chen Halamish and Yuval Freund on Jewish consciousness. Freund argues that “our enemies took advantage of the broad and merciful Israeli heart” and warns that “we will show no mercy on the cruel.”
In addition to the official publications, extreme right-wing groups managed to bring pamphlets with racist messages into IDF bases. One such flyer is attributed to “the pupils of Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg” – the former rabbi at Joseph’s Tomb and author of the article “Baruch the Man,” which praises Baruch Goldstein, who massacred unarmed Palestinians in Hebron. It calls on “soldiers of Israel to spare your lives and the lives of your friends and not to show concern for a population that surrounds us and harms us. We call on you … to function according to the law ‘kill the one who comes to kill you.’ As for the population, it is not innocent … We call on you to ignore any strange doctrines and orders that confuse the logical way of fighting the enemy.”
Human rights organizations have called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak to immediately remove Rabbi Rontzki from his post as chief rabbi.
In response, an IDF spokesman said that: “Overall, letters that are sent to the chief of staff [such as the request for Rontzki’s dismissal] are reviewed and an answer is sent to those who make the request, not to the media.”
Posted on January 28, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
[ 27/01/2009 – 04:43 PM ]
DAMASCUS, (PIC)– Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad stated Monday that the Gaza Strip remained steadfast until the last day of the Israeli war and if it had collapsed, then all steadfastness we see throughout the Arab world would have collapsed, pointing out that Israel failed to eradicate the structure of the Palestinian resistance.
In an interview with Al-Manar TV satellite channel, the Syrian president explained how the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine achieved victory over Israel, saying if the Israeli aim was to destroy houses and to kill civilians in the first war in Lebanon and the second war in Gaza, then with this criterion, Israel would gain victory, but if the aim was to eliminate and strike the resistance, then Israel failed to achieve this goal.
“They told us that war would not restore rights. The peace negotiations were held and did not restore rights… it was evident that Israel understands nothing but the language of force.The political investment of the resistance’s victories should be based on insisting on rights in order to get them back,” the president replied to a question about how to invest the resistance victories politically.
Assad said that his country was informed of European contacts with Palestinian resistance, adding that the West is starting to realize that resistance enjoyed popular backing and could not be wiped out.
Syrian President Bachar al-Assad praised on Tuesday the Palestinian people’s resistance, the cooperation among resistance factions during the aggression against the Gaza strip, and the people of Gaza’s support for the resistance, all of which led to achieving victory and foiling the plans and goals of Israel.
While receiving leaders of the Palestinian factions in Damascus, Assad called for investing politically in this victory to consolidate the Palestinian rights, including the right of return. Assad discussed with the Palestinian factions the developments in Palestine following the victory of the Palestinian people and the resistance in Gaza Strip in the face of the brutal Israeli aggression. He affirmed the need for continuing work to lift the siege and open all crossing points permanently.
In turn, leaders of the Palestinian factions and groups thanked Syria’s leadership and people for the support they continue to provide to the Palestinian people and the resistance, affirming that Syria is a partner in this victory. They also affirmed their determination to continue with the resistance until they achieve victory and establish the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The delegation included Head of the Hamas Politburo Khaled Meshaal, Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) Ahmad Jebril, Secretary General of the Popular Liberation War Vanguard Mohammad Khalifa, Secretary of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fath-Intifada Abu-Moussa, Secretary General of the Palestinian Public Struggle Front Khaled Abdul-Majid, Secretary General of the Palestinian Revolutionary Communist Party Arabi Awad, Secretary General of the Palestinian Liberation Front Abu-Nidal al-Ashkar, and Assistant Secretary General of the PFLP-GC Dr. Talal Naji.
President al-Assad previously met Head of the Hamas Politburo Khaled Meshaal on Saturday and members of the Politburo. During the meeting, President al-Assad congratulated the Palestinian people on the victory of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza Strip.
President al-Assad also affirmed that the failure of Israel to achieve its goals in Gaza despite using the deadliest weapons proves that the Palestinian people are committed to their rights and to their land, and that it also shows their deep faith in their inevitable victory over occupation and aggression.
The Moroccan parliamentary team that entered Gaza has expressed admiration at the Palestinian people’s steadfastness despite the immense devastation inflicted by the three weeks of IOF onslaught.
The war crimes that have been committed in Gaza are of horrendous proportions not only because of the bombing and massive slaughter of innocent civilians, as well as the destruction of enormous amounts of infrastructure by all sorts of weapons of mass destruction both so-called legal and illegal, or the blockade of food stuffs, and medical supplies etc… But these are horrendous and horrific because of how many atrocities were carried out by gangs of cruel, inhumane, and unrepentant IOF soldiers, which have been documented by people such as Barbara Lubin of “The Middle East Children’s Alliance.” __
There is one unforgettable horrific story (which is one of many) she ( Barbara Lubin) tells is of what happened to a mother and her children in a small Gaza village.
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There were a group of IOF soldiers who entered the village, in which there was a woman who was there all alone with her 10 children in her home, and 4 soldiers entered the home and told the mother she had to choose which of the 5 children would be spared, and the other 5 would be killed as a gift to Israel. The mother started screaming , and so the IOF war criminals took 5 of the children and killed them as a gift to their Zionist bloodthirsty demagogue state…They seem to have done this as if they were just re-enacting the film “Sophies Choice.” SICK!!!
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Israel and it’s sociopathic IOF forces need to be put on trial for their war crimes!
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I am posting links to the The Flashpont’s program which describes this war crime along with many others…
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And if anyone thinks Obama’s efforts in any so-called peace initiative will lead to any just peace just listen to what Ed Maloney, the author of “A Secret History of the IRA” has to say about Obama’s new old recycled envoy “George Mitchell” and his non- involvement in the Irish peace agreement. Although I don’t completely agree with Maloney about his analysis of the IRA, and the peace process, it appears that he had an inside view of the so-called Irish peace process, and what actual role Mitchell played in it’s development, and enactment.
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I am posting a link to My G-cast page which has the portion of the ‘Radio Free Erieann” Program with the Ed Maloney segment. It is also posted on my G-cast player on the right side of my blog. ___
Thursday, January 22, 2009ListenD’loadPodcast Today on Flashpoints: Middle East Childrens’ Alliance director Barbara Lubin bears witness to the devastation in the Gaza Strip; Nora Barrows-Friedman reports from occupied Palestine and Israel; we’ll also speak to the president of the National Lawyers Guild about the closing down of the Gitmo torture center, and the opening up of the Freedom of Information Act process; and the Knight Report.
01:00 Knight Report Israeli officials face possible war crimes prosecutions for the Gaza invasion, while ruling politicians press for Arab loyalty oaths following their reversal of an apartheid-style ban on Arab parties in next month’s elections.
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04:00 Scenes of Horror and Destruction in Gaza: Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Childrens’ Alliance reports from Rafah on the vicious devastation in the southern Gaza Strip following Israel’s US-supported three-week bombing campaign that has destroyed over 5.000 homes and damaged over 25,000.
WRITTEN BY KHALID AMAYREH – The meeting in Cairo on Monday 26 January, between a Hamas representative and Fatah leader Azzam al Ahmed is a glimmer of hope for millions of Palestinians and their allies who are hoping and praying for a speedy end of the enduring rift between the two biggest political camps in the Palestinian arena.
Though symbolic and procedural in nature, the meeting shows that the problems between the two sides can be overcome if both sides display good-will and especially if the Ramallah regime ends its ignominious subservience to Israel and the United States.
Needless to say, the rift has wreaked havoc on the reputation of the just Palestinian cause and caused many bleeding wounds to our people, the scars of which will take a long time to heal.
However, we are still one people, feeling the same pain, languishing under the same hateful occupation, and harboring the same hopes for freedom and justice.
But in order to reach a lasting national harmony, we need to be honest and frank, and refrain from trying to negate the other side. This is so because neither Hamas nor Fatah will go away or evaporate into nonexistence.
There is no doubt that a great calamity has hit our people in the Gaza Strip. But by no means was that evil aggression a victory for Israel unless the Zio-Nazi entity views the mass killing of innocent civilians and the mass destruction of residential homes and public buildings as an act of heroism.
Well, if so, then we would have to view Adolf Hitler as the greatest hero of all times.
Nonetheless, we should refrain from whipping ourselves too much or trying to score propaganda points one against the other.
Israel did try to decapitate Hamas, destroy its legitimate government (legitimate because Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people) and give the Gaza Strip back to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas on a sliver platter.
The fact that Israel couldn’t achieve the criminal goal was not due to Israeli magnanimity. Zionists are too thuggish and too criminal minded to know the meaning of magnanimity. After all, magnanimity requires at least a modicum of humanity and Zionism has none of that.
In truth, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions earned this spectacular steadfastness, this legendary resoluteness, in the face of overwhelming criminality, hideousness and firepower.
Hence, one can only view with utter contempt the cheap canards and calumnies coming out of Ramallah and accusing the resistance of responsibility for the widespread death and destruction in Gaza, as if the murderous pilots who were raining bombs and missiles and white phosphorous on the heads of our children and civilians were members of Hamas, not Israeli war criminals.
To be sure, such cheap accusations are made by two categories of people, ignoramuses who don’t know the facts, and bona fide traitors who are doing Israel’s work.
The former can be somehow forgiven by virtue of their ignorance or stupidity. However, the latter are willful Judases who ought to be silenced and punished. And if the time is not conducive to dealing with them the proper way, they should be isolated in disgrace.
This should be one of Hamas’s key tasks in the coming weeks and months. Otherwise, the Fifth columnists within Fatah and the PA, the very people who committed national adultery in broad daylight by collaborating with the Shin Beth and the CIA for the purpose of raping the Palestinian people’s will and achieving America’s morbid goals in this tortured part of the world, will continue to create mischief and try to rock the collective Palestinian boat.
These must be ejected, isolated, exposed, disgraced, and made to pay for their treachery and perfidy.
But Fatah is not a movement of traitors, and it is not in the Palestinian people’s interests to see Fatah catapulted into the laps of the likes of Muhammed Dahlan, Nimr Hammad and al-Tayeb Abdul Rahim who probably were dreaming, even loudly, of an Israeli victory in Gaza.
Hence, it is both right and wise for Hamas to get closer to true patriots within Fatah. And the time to do that is now.
There is no doubt that despite the enormity of the genocidal Zionist blitzkrieg against our people in Gaza, Hamas has not only managed to remain intact, but has also earned overwhelming respect and admiration from around the world.
Hamas shouldn’t treat lightly this earned outpouring of support which many movements, parties and governments even dream of receiving a fraction of.
In this light, Hamas should show enlightened flexibility toward re-establishing national unity.
It is this national unity that will eventually dump the government of Fayadh into the dustbin of history and do away with the whoring practice known as “security coordination.”
The restoration of national unity will also impose an early retirement on people like Keith Dayton and other CIA officers who have taught hundreds, if not thousands, of our beguiled and naïve young sons that the enemy is Hamas, not the Zionist thugs who have just murdered and maimed thousands of our children and civilians in the Gaza Strip and who have been stealing our land and narrowing our horizons.
In the Quran, God orders Muslims to refrain from falling into disunity and internal conflicts.
In Surat al Anfal, God says: “ And obey God and His Messenger and fall not into disputes, lest you lose heart and your power depart; and be patient and persevering: For God stands with those who patiently persevere.” Of all Palestinian factions, Hamas should understand this best.
Amen!
Kuwait decides not to give Gaza money to Abbas’s team Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Subah Al-Ahmad Al-Subah has officially announced Sunday that his government will send the money allocated for Gaza Strip to the Arab Development Fund..
Posted on January 27, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
Legal expert concerned over lives of Gaza prisoners
Jan 26, 2009
GAZA, (PIC)– Abdul Nasser Farwana, an expert on prisoners’ affairs and an ex-prisoner in Israeli jails, has expressed concern over the lives of Palestinians kidnapped during the Gaza invasion at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
He said in a statement on Sunday that those who are thought to have direct or indirect links to resistance were particularly prone to field execution as well as the wounded.
The researcher recalled that the IOF had previous record of crimes against unarmed prisoners, and expressed concern that the Red Cross was not allowed access to visit those detainees or know the fate and number of them.
He said that IOF refusal to disclose the exact number of those detainees could mean allowing the opportunity to execute some of them in cold blood, and called in this respect for investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Palestinians found under the rubble of their homes after the IOF withdrawal.
Farwana underlined that Israel’s announcement that it was dealing with those captives as “unlawful combatants” had thus allowed itself to torture those detainees or to detain them in inhuman and repressive incarceration conditions.
The expert pointed out that Israel was still detaining the bodies of 16 Gazan martyrs killed since the Aqsa intifada broke out in September 2000 and during the years that followed up to the start of the Gaza invasion.
George Habash’s contribution to the Palestinian struggle
As’ad AbuKhalil, The Electronic Intifada, 30 January 2008
Palestinian women in Nablus demonstrate to remember the life of George Habash, the founder of the PFLP, 27 January 2008. (Rami Swidan/MaanImages)
I lived more than half of my life in the US and I never felt the alienation that I felt on the day I read George Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary who passed away last week, labeled as a “terrorism tactician” in a front page obituary in The New York Times. What do you when they want to convince you that a kind and gentle man you met and respected as a person is a terrorist when you know otherwise? Do you quibble with their definitions to no avail? Do you go back and see how they wrote glowing obituaries for Zionist militia leader and later Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, a man whose record of killing civilians is as horrific and grotesque as that of Osama Bin Laden, former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, Fatah Revolutionary Council founder Abu Nidal or Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet?
But they can’t invent facts, and they can’t distort the narrative of Palestinian history. Many of my generation and older knew and respected George Habash. We did not worship him or declare him infallible. We respected that on the personal level he was incorruptible. Here was a man who refused more than the $300 monthly pension he was receiving in Amman, Jordan. Once, a group of wealthy Palestinians schemed to try to pay him in his later years because they did not want the symbol of the Palestinian — the Arab — revolution to die in poverty. He would not budge, not even to accept funds to hire a research assistant to help with his memoirs.
George Habash was the antithesis of Yasser Arafat: he was honest, while Arafat was dishonest; consistent when Arafat was inconsistent; principled, while Arafat was shifty; transparent, while Arafat was deceptive; sincere, while Arafat was fake; dignified while Arafat was clownish; modest, while Arafat was arrogant; tolerant of dissent, while Arafat was autocratic, and on and on.
George Habash embodied an era that extended from the Nakba, or mass expulsions of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, until the ending of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war in 1976, when the decline of the Left, and the launching of Sadatism began. Up until that time, when a deep ideological transformation took place in the Arab world, Habash was a major actor on the Arab political stage. He was feared by Arab regimes, and respected and loved in the refugee camps. I don’t believe I have ever seen the ordinary people of the camps react to a person as they reacted to Habash. Their love for him was genuine because they felt that he was genuine.
If there is a world revolutionary symbol for the second half of the 20th century, it should be George Habash. He may not be widely known in 2008, but anybody who read a newspaper prior to the rise of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, when Islamism eclipsed the Arab Left, would know him. Habash is one of the main makers of Arab contemporary history and one of the handful of names who changed the course of the Palestinian political struggle.
It is often said that Habash’s “Christianity” — as if he was religious — was the only reason why he was not the leader of the Palestinian national movement, instead of Arafat. I never agreed with the view. Habash’s sincerity, honesty and integrity were the reason why he did not lead the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), while Arafat’s “skills” kept him in power for all those decades. For those who were privileged to have met Habash, his sincerity and honesty came through, as did his natural modesty, and clear sense of himself. Shafiq al-Hout wrote in As-Safir that Habash was a distinctive kind of revolutionary, but then added that he was how a revolutionary should be.
George Habash was shaped by the Nakba. He was born in al-Lydd, Palestine, and his middle class family, like thousands of other families, were violently evicted from their homes by Zionist militias led by Yitzhak Rabin.
Habash was at that time a student at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he had already been inspired by the Arab nationalist ideas in the student club al-‘Urwah al-Wuthqah. He did not wait long to initiate action in revenge after the founding of Israel (we should refer to it as “the destruction of Palestine,” as Zionist propaganda in the West has succeeded in portraying Palestinian national aspirations as an act of “destruction”) — and revenge was his motive early on. He joined ranks with an Egyptian activist to engage in small-scale bombings in Lebanon and Syria. Some of the attacks were actually terrorist: as when a synagogue was bombed. The early Habash was anti-Jewish, but that would change with time. But this small group, Kata’ib al-Fida’ al-‘Arabi, was easy for the authorities to dismantle.
Habash subsequently realized that mass movement and collective action was required. He joined forces with his fellow AUB medical student, the brilliant tactician Wadi’ Haddad, who wanted action and was impatient with theorization and ideological squabbles that occupied hours of meetings. (Haddad’s slogan, “Going after the enemy, everywhere” became the motto for his organization when he was forced to split off from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1971.)
Habash and Haddad joined with other students (who were influenced by the writings and ideas of AUB history professor Constantine Zurayq) to form the Movement of Arab Nationalists. This movement was one of the early political and organizational echoes of the occupation of Palestine in 1948 and left a mark on Arab contemporary politics, inspiring and initiating political organizations throughout the Arab world.
After their graduation from AUB, Habash and Haddad established a clinic for poor refugees in Jordan. There they contributed to the Arab nationalist stirrings that forced King Hussein to oust Glubb Pasha, the British officer who commanded the army, in 1956.
Habash and his comrades also tried to reunite with the Ba’th but came away with the impression that the liberation of Palestine and “armed struggle” were not a priority for the Ba’th or for its founder Michel ‘Aflaq.
Any evaluation of Habash’s career should also take into consideration the mistakes, errors and shortcomings of the experience — some of which can only be seen in hindsight. The Movement of Arab Nationalists was late in realizing the desire of Palestinians for an armed response to the Zionist occupation and threat. It also was not clear in formulating a political explanation of “liberation.” “Revenge” was one of the mottos of the movement, but that scarcely amounted to a political program.
The Movement should also be criticized for developing into an arm of the Egyptian regime; Habash met Egyptian president and symbol of Arab nationalism Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964, and the two men clearly hit it off.In his later years, Habash would cry whenever Nasser’s name would be mentioned. Habash put a high premium on an Arab sense of dignity, which he felt Nasser represented in his dealings with the West — in contrast to the behavior of Sadat and other Arab rulers. One wonders what Habash must have thought when he saw Arab oil rulers literally dancing with US President George W. Bush.
Even in the wake of the Arab defeat in the 1967 War, Habash did not want to break with Nasser despite rising political disillusionment and even anger among the refugees.Habash’s only serious disagreement with Nasser was when the latter accepted the 1969 Rogers Plan, a US political framework for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.
After the war, Habash founded the PFLP which quickly become the second most important Palestinian organization after Fatah, and held that place until the rise of Hamas and the Islamization of Palestinian and Arab politics in the 1980s. The Movement of Arab Nationalists had effectively decided to transform into Marxist-Leninist organizations and adopted the belief that guerrilla warfare against Zionism would achieve the final liberation of Palestine. Unlike Fatah, the PFLP stressed political indoctrination and carefully screened recruits. Young Arabs from different countries joined the struggle, receiving training in camps in Jordan, and later in Lebanon — this was well before the emergence of Dubai as the object of aspiration of Arab youths. Palestine was the destination then.
The PFLP quickly suffered from schisms and defections; the first was by Ahmad Jibril, a recruit of Syrian intelligence, who formed his own splinter group, the PFLP-General Command in 1968 when Habash was in a Syrian jail. The following year, Palestinian politician Nayif Hawatmeh, who was mystified by Habash’s enormous charisma especially as a public speaker, split off and formed the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Other smaller defections followed, and the DFLP would not have long survived if it was not for the support and funding from Arafat who encouraged, funded, and armed many defections in Palestinian organizations to keep himself in control.
The PFLP argued that the liberation of Palestine would be impossible without the liberation of Arab countries from the regimes imposed by the West and Israel. Looking to Vietnam, Habash called for Arab “Hanois,” and stated that the liberation of Palestine passed through every Arab capital. “Armed struggle” was the major path to liberation.
In its early phase, the PFLP showed the promise of charting an independent leftist path, not loyal to the USSR and even flirted with Maoism. But by 1973, it had joined the ranks of Arab communist organizations that pledged allegiance to the Soviet Union.
The PFLP was active in Jordan, and played a major role in Black September — the series of massacres committed by the Jordanian regime in 1970 (with the support of the United States and Israel) against the Palestinians and their fighters. The PFLP like other organizations targeted during Black September relocated to Lebanon and helped agitate the Lebanese political situation.
Earlier in 1970, Habash and the PFLP became famous worldwide when the group orchestrated the hijacking of several airliners to Jordan, releasing all passengers and crew before the planes were destroyed. I once met a German flight attendant who told me that she became a supporter of the Palestinian cause after she heard Habash speak in English to a group of hostages in the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman — and she was one of the hostages. Habash would be a bit defensive about the hijackings in later years; he would hate to be associated with the terrorism of Bin Laden or Abu Nidal. He would argue that the practice was limited to a specific reason (highlighting the plight of the Palestinians when former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir insisted that the Palestinian people did not exist) and for a limited duration. But no fair evaluation should, for better or worse, ignore or gloss over that experience.
Habash also had to deal with Wadi’ Haddad who insisted on continuing with “international operations” despite directives to restrict armed actions to within Palestine. As a result of several actions seen as reckless, Haddad’s membership of the PFLP was “frozen.”
Haddad’s standards for action against Israel and its allies were different from Habash’s. Habash believed that high ethical and political standards should inspire any political and military action. This is not to say that his organization did not commit some acts that violated those standards, but Habash tried not always successfully to reign in the adventurist tendencies of his friend and comrade. For several years, Haddad continued to carry out operations using the name “International Operations of the PFLP” without the blessing of the organization until he was finally expelled.
George Habash was hit hard by the Mossad’s assassination of his PFLP comrade the writer Ghassan Kanafani in 1972, and he suffered a debilitating stroke. Habash himself survived several Israeli assassination attempts; in one, Israel hijacked a plane that it thought carried Habash (he had switched planes only minutes before the flight).
In 1974, Habash froze the PFLP’s membership in the PLO when he realized that Arafat was working for the two-state solution. Habash was instrumental in forming the Rejectionist Front which advocated a non-compromising stance on the liberation of “every millimeter of Palestine,” as Habash was fond of saying in his public speeches. But here was one of Habash’s major mistakes: the front included many organizations that were loyal to or creatures of Arab governments. This gave the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan regimes tremendous influence over the organizations, including the PFLP.
Generous financial subsidies were too hard to resist, and the corruption of the revolution, which had hit Fatah much earlier through Saudi and Gulf funding, also hit the PFLP, and compromised its political independence. The Lebanese base of operations, especially after the eruption of the Civil War in 1975, also compromised the revolution. It quickly became too comfortable a base and the PFLP, like other Palestinian and Lebanese organizations, did not want a radical shift of power on the battlefield. (But the major responsibility for that lies with Arafat and the Syrian regime who did not want to create a radical political order that could trigger a confrontation with Israel.) The PFLP, at least, pursued a policy of supporting the Lebanese National Movement, while Arafat and his associates dragged their feet.
The Rejectionist Front was disbanded in 1977 when Syria and Iraq briefly reconciled following Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem. This period marked the beginning of the decline of the Left and the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Habash began a gradual withdrawal from politics. He had tried for years to leave but his comrades would not let him. They knew that his symbolic presence was too valuable for the PFLP, and feared it would collapse without him. They were right, of course. One can’t speak of the PFLP since 2000, when Habash’s voluntarily resigned from the leadership.
I last saw Habash a few years ago in Damascus, after his retirement. It was very sad for me because I had to compare the last image with the first image when I first met him as a high school student in 1977. His revolutionary impulse and his passions had not waned, but the empty office spoke volumes. The PFLP was almost dead, and Habash was politically irrelevant. I shared with him some of my criticisms of the Popular Front’s long experience, and typically, he was open-minded and very democratic.
I was bothered that he seemed too resigned to the rise of the Islamists (Hamas and Hizballah). In my judgment he was too uncritically supportive of both. “We have tried, so let them now try,” he would say, “It is their turn.” I was hoping to hear words regarding the revival of the Left but I did not.
George Habash lived his life for Palestine — every minute of it. He represented a model of revolutionary struggle that is exemplary in its dedication and asceticism, no matter what one thinks of the PFLP or its long political and military experience. One should not hesitate from rendering a harsh judgment against the PFLP; ultimately it failed politically and militarily. And any evaluation of Palestinian political violence must be made in the context of Zionist mass violence that for decades had set out to destroy Palestinian society and resistance and replace it with its own exclusivist vision. But whatever that judgment it should not detract from an appreciation of the profound influence of the PFLP’s founder who helped shape the politics and worldview of a generation. The present political scene is devoid of any leaders of such character.
As’ad AbuKhalil is professor of political science at California State University and founder of the Angry Arab News Service (http://angryarab.blogspot.com/)
Posted on January 26, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
Assad to Al-Manar: Syria Will Name Ambassador to Leb. Soon
Readers Number : 110
26/01/2009 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Syria was standing firm in its decision to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon, revealing that Damascus will name its ambassador to Lebanon very soon. “If we had no intention to appoint a Syrian ambassador, then we wouldn’t have opened an embassy in Beirut under any circumstance,” he said.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Al-Manar TV, Assad confirmed Syria’s position from Lebanon, especially following the election of Lebanese president Michel Sleiman and the formation of the national unity cabinet.
The Syrian President noted that the victory achieved in Gaza, like the one achieved in Lebanon two years ago, was tantamount to a message delivered in all directions, saying that we resolve our conflicts in our hands, the cause owners are the ones who resolve problems through more steadfastness and belligerence in defending the rights.
Assad emphasized that the first criteria studied to determine the victory was the goals the enemy has determined for its war. “If the goal was destructing homes and ruining lands, then the enemy has won. The same goes for the goal of killing civilian people. However, if the goal was deleting the Resistance, abolishing the Resistance pattern in the region and achieving similar goals on ground by exterminating the Resistance, then the enemy was obviously defeated,” Assad explained.
The Syrian President expressed honor and pride for the victory achieved by the Resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, noting that it has proved the validity of the choices taken by the Syrian policy. Assad reiterated that one of the strengths of the Syrian policy was its resorting to the popular public opinion in dealing with the various issues and causes either locally or externally.
According to Assad, the major political achievement for the Gaza war was that it has consolidated the Resistance pattern and choice in the region. He noted that the various victories achieved by the Resistance throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict played an important role towards the final victory. “The war of 1982 created the Resistance in its actual form that achieved liberation in 2000, Jenine massacres in 2002 created the Resistance status in Palestine, the war of 2006 also created something similar and the same scenario repeated itself in Gaza,” Assad pointed out, adding that it was impossible to reach the final and complete victory without passing through these different victories.
“It was obvious that Israeli only understands the language of force,” Assad declared, recalling that the Zionist entity was not serious in the peace negotiations to return rights. “The political exploitation for the Resistance victories is achieved by sticking to the legal rights in order to getting them back,” he pointed out.
“Israel does not care of all political bodies here and there. The Security Council, United Nations, Arab League have all no concern in the Israeli mind,” Assad said, noting that Israel has always adopted the policy of imposing the fait accompli on Arabs. “It’s our turn to adopt this policy towards Israel. This is the only political exploitation possible,” he added, noting that resorting to all international bodies was useless with this Zionist entity.
Asked about the reconciliation meeting between Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and other countries at the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Kuwait, Assad called to define the reconciliation. “If we mean by reconciliation that the countries’ representatives sit together, then this happened before the mentioned meeting. However, if we are talking about a reconciliation in policies and stances, then this needs a long dialogue,” Assad said. He noted that what happened in Kuwait was a form of breaking the ice. “The success of this reconciliation relies on the dialogue that will take place between the concerned states and on the intention of the officials who would be charged with the mission,” Assad pointed out, noting at the same time that he was optimistic althought the actual dialogue hasn’t started yet.
Assad said the mentioned meeting didn’t enter into details, saying that it was only a “breaking the ice” meeting that limited itself in generalities without talking about specific causes. He denied rhumors about receiving an official invitation to visit the Saudi capital, but said that intercommunication was needed at this critical moment in order to strengthen the Arab-Arab relations.
Asked about the proposed Syrian-American relations with the Obama administration, Assad said that he was optimistic but noted he had no big expectations or hopes. “There are some positive signals but we learned to pay attention with the US and not to bet on such signals and indications,” he said. “As long as there is nothing tangible, we suppose that noting has changed yet,” he added.
The Syrian president said that the American-Syrian dialogue has started seriously when figures close to the new US administration visited the Syrian capital. “However, as long as there are conditions for talking with US, there won’t be dialogue,” he asserted, recalling that Syria has obvious and clear beliefs. “In the worst circumstances, we refused to surrender, and now we can refuse too simply and they know that,” he added.
Concerning the international tribunal on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Assad emphasized that there was no relation between the mentioned tribunal and the Arab inter-relations. “The tribunal is international and the Syrian citizen obeys to the Syrian justice,” Assad noted. “If there was a will of cooperation between the Syrian justice and the international tribunal, then there should be an agreement treaty on the rights and duties,” he pointed out.
Filed under: Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, USA | Tagged: The Axis of Resistance | Comments Off on Assad to Al-Manar: Victory in Palestine and Lebanon, proved the validity of the choices taken by the Syrian policy.
Death squads supplied by “Moe” Olmert, currently a perpetual prisoner inside Israel Occupied Palestine, living in fear of the coming War Crimes Tribunal.
Unconventional weaponry supplied by “Larry” Bush as one final act of mass murder before retiring to his ranch in Paraguay, from where he believes he cannot be extradited to face charges for crimes against humanity.
Access to a caged civilian population supplied by “Curley” Abbas Mazen, who avoided the recent Middle Eastern summit for fear that “they will cut my throat”, and the proud owner of the only house still left standing in Gaza.
A Palestinian man prepares lunch in front of his destroyed house in Jabalya following Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip January 26, 2009. Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed, Palestinian medical officials said, in the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks.REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Sat Jan 24, 8:05 AM ET
A homeless Palestinian boy sifts through the wreckage of his house in the devastated village of Johr El Deek following Israel’s three-week long offensive in Gaza Strip January 24, 2009.REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (GAZA)
Mon Jan 26, 10:13 AM ET
Palestinian children play on a make shift seesaw in the rubble of destroyed houses in eastern Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 26, 2009. Israel launched its 22-day offensive to try to halt Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. The assault killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights counted. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting, Israel said.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Mon Jan 26, 7:11 AM ET
Palestinian boys play next to their destroyed house in Jabalya following Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip January 26, 2009. Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed said Palestinian medical officials during the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks.REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Mon Jan 26, 10:09 AM ET
A Palestinian woman sits by her destroyed house in Jabalya following Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip January 26, 2009.(Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
Mon Jan 26, 7:22 AM ET
Palestinian boys eat lunch inside a makeshift shelter near their destroyed houses in Jabalya following Israel’s 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip January 26, 2009. Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed, Palestinian medical officials said, in the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks.REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Mon Jan 26, 12:52 PM ET
Palestinian family rests in front their destroyed house and car in eastern Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 26, 2009. Israel launched its 22-day offensive to try to halt Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. The assault killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights counted. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting, Israel said.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Sun Jan 25, 12:29 PM ET
A Palestinian youth sells cigarettes in front of a destroyed building in the devastated area of Atatra in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009. International aid organizations and the United Nations say truce talks’ priority must be to ensure the reopening of Gaza to provide relief and reconstruction help for its 1.4 million people.(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Sumia Ibrahim writing from the United States, Live from Palestine, 26 January 2009
The author’s grandparents and their children in Baghdad in 1955. I have never seen my grandmother without a large medallion hanging from her neck. As a child, I stared at the pendant’s engraving of a gold-domed structure, watched the turquoise walls glimmer as they caught light from the piercing Iraqi sun. When I asked Tata what the pendant depicted, she replied, “The place where I’m from.” I thought of it as a palace towering in a far, mythic land, like the great emerald castle of Oz.
I later understood that it was the Dome of the Rock, located at the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. The city, a religious and at times economic and cultural hub of a predominately Arab Palestine for nearly 1,200 years, has been in modern times, hotly contested with the establishment of the State of Israel on Palestinian soil in 1948. With the birth of the Zionist state, came the destruction of Palestinian society, and Tata was forced to flee her home along with more than 700,000 other Palestinians. When I finally understood the pendant’s historical context, I realized that for Tata, it symbolized a land that she treasured but could not return to, an emblem of both beauty and tragedy.
As years passed, the medallion became lackluster, its once glimmering surface now dull, corroded by decades of wind and sand. No longer charming the sun’s light, it became an unassuming feature on Tata’s body, like a scar on a friend’s face that one used to discreetly examine but now rarely notices. I overlooked the pendant and overlooked Tata’s experience. But like a scar whose origin has gone unpronounced, the desire for discovery lingers until it is fulfilled. The year 2008 began, marking the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Across the world, people celebrated Israel’s “Independence Day.” Others remembered the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed or displaced in its wake and the nearly four million Palestinians still living under the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and the brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, and the population of five million Palestinian refugees that have yet to see their right of return realized. On this memorable anniversary, and the year of Tata’s 80th birthday, I asked her for the first time, “What was it like for you?”
Tata clasped the pendant and smiled. “Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be,” she said in Arabic. “The thing I’ll remember most is my childhood in the city of Jaffa. Every day we would go to the beach and play in the sand. It was just one block from our home, the apartment building that my father owned. At night we would sit on the balcony and watch the big ships sail by, listening to them whistle.” Tata laughed. “We ate so many oranges! They called them ‘the yellow gold.’ My uncles worked as orange merchants. They would bring big bags to our house. I would pile up ten, 11 oranges in my lap and eat them all at once.”
She also told me about the hardships of being a girl in the 1930s. “When I was in seventh grade, my father heard a sermon at the mosque that girls should not be too educated. The imam said that it’s enough for girls to be able to read and write. So my father pulled me out of school at the age of 12.”
Tata’s voice softened. “I had been very happy in school. I loved learning and spending time with my friends. So I was very upset when I couldn’t go anymore. I cried a lot. I would see my friends through the window walking to school, see them walking happily without me, and I’d cry.”
As Tata began to talk about her marriage, her tears dried and her honey-colored eyes sparkled with girlhood excitement. “At first they said he was too old for me. But then they said it was fine. He was a principal of a school in a nearby village. When we first moved into our house in the village, I couldn’t believe how big it was. My friends would come visit me while your grandfather was at work and we would jump rope together in the middle of the living room.”
Soon, Tata was no longer smiling as she began to tell me about the political situation that existed in Palestine during her childhood. “When I was a child, I heard all about the Jews that were immigrating little by little to Palestine, especially Tel Aviv, which was close by us. We knew they wanted our land, but they weren’t very powerful. We didn’t pay much attention to it.”
“I remember hearing about Balfour, though,” Tata continued, “The British wrote this declaration [in 1917] which said that Jews needed their own homeland in Palestine. Palestinians didn’t agree. It was our land, why should we divide it?” Tata sighed, “Then it began.”
“We were hearing about Jews raiding Palestinian towns. My brother bought a pistol for self-defense, in case there was a raid. The Palestinian resistance began. There was a four month general strike [in 1936] throughout Palestine to protest. No one went to work. My father would stay home all day.” This has come to be known as the Arab Revolt in Palestine, which was concentrated in the years 1936 to 1939. The nearly 10,000 Arab fighters and Palestinian society at large demanded an end to the British Mandate, which helped facilitate Zionist immigration and settlement of the land. Zionist paramilitary organizations and British forces stifled the revolt and 120 Arabs were sentenced to death, my grandfather among them. Though he was tortured in captivity, he was luckily able to narrowly avoid execution.
“At this time [1947-1948] we were still hopeful. Arab forces came from all over to fight for Palestine. At the same time, huge ships came in full of Jewish people immigrating to Palestine. I saw them getting off the boats at the docks.”
“Then the massacres of villages began. There were three villages by Jaffa that were massacred. Deir Yassin was the one that led us to leave. It was a Friday and men were all out praying at the mosque. The Jewish forces entered the houses and killed children and their mothers. They threw them in wells and killed children while they were in their mother’s laps. [Your grandfather] came home. He had heard about the massacres. He said ‘that’s it, we can’t stay anymore.’ He heard about the women being raped and that was the last straw.”
“At first we moved to an apartment further away from the bay. We thought this would be safer. Everyone else in our building left too. But we didn’t want to leave Palestine for good. We thought the Arab forces would come and save us. Your grandfather was asked to give news on a radio station run by Arab troops. He did this for some time, trying to convince people not to leave our country, to stay and fight.”
“There were bombings during that time. I used to look outside the window and see explosions coming from all directions. My daughters, one four years old, the other two years old, were very scared.”
“Because of the situation, we decided it would be best for our daughters if we moved further away from the fighting, to Nablus, for some time. This was in the early summer of 1948. All we took with us were some clothes, a roll up mattress, a small carpet, a prayer rug, a few kitchen supplies, and some books. We only had 80 Jordanian dinars with us. We left our furniture because we were worried it would break on the way. We left our diplomas. We thought, ‘we’ll back in three months or so.’ We thought by then the Zionists would be defeated. When we left, we left everything.”
“In Nablus we lived in a tiny apartment. There was only one room for all of us to sleep in, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. We didn’t have any furniture, so we piled up our things on the floor against the walls.”
“We wanted the Arab troops to fight so we could return to our home in Jaffa and return to our lives. We saw Arab troops around and we would ask them, ‘Why are you here? Why aren’t you fighting?’ They responded, ‘We don’t have the orders to fight.’ We would see Arab troops spending their whole days at the public baths, so we used to have a rhyme that went ‘There aren’t orders for the battlefield, but there are orders for the bath.'” Tata smiles briefly then adds soberly, “We realized this wouldn’t be over quickly.”
“We stayed for two months in Nablus. We decided for our family’s safety, for our daughters, we had to leave the country until we got it back. Your grandfather was working for an English pharmaceutical company called Evans, in the advertising department. They had a branch in Baghdad too. He arranged to transfer his position to Baghdad. He had a friend in Iraq in the Foreign Ministry, a man who sent him translated articles for free gave us Iraqi passports. So we tied all of our things up on the top of a taxi and drove to Amman. It was very expensive, it cost us 40 dinars. From Amman we went to Baghdad.”
“On our way to Baghdad we saw many pick up trucks with Palestinian refugees in the back. They were coming from villages that had been massacred or destroyed, taken by Iraqi troops to Baghdad. They traveled all that way under the hot sun, with nothing above them to provide shade. I would see them throwing up out of the back of the trucks, getting sick from the heat. They were taken to ‘Tobchee,’ a neighborhood with government housing, and received assistance from the Iraqi government.” Tata explained that these refugees, the ones that were able to resettle in Iraq, were the lucky ones.
Many Palestinians ended up in refugee camps in squalid circumstances, both “internally” in what came to be known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and externally in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Many Palestinian refugees faced hostility from their government hosts, but in some countries such as Lebanon, they held and still hold practically no rights amid systematic policies of discrimination towards refugees.
Tata begins to describe the hardships her family faced as refugees in a foreign country. “At first, when we got to Baghdad, we stayed in the best hotel. It was paid for by Evans. But after that, things didn’t work out with their branch in Baghdad. They paid your grandfather two months salary then let him go. We were very worried. But he heard from other Palestinians that Arab Bank was opening a branch in Baghdad. He got a job there as a teller for a very low wage. His manager loaned him money to support his family. Eventually he was promoted to be a manager.”
“Your grandfather started working as a translator as well, translating books and articles from English to Arabic. He was always working. He worked two or three jobs to support us all. He got very sick. He was tired all the time and complained of pain, but he still had to work.” Tata explained that he grew up as a farmer in a small Palestinian village, Budrus, and spent his entire life engaged in relentless hard work in an attempt to advance his family’s circumstances.
Upon visiting Budrus in 2006, I was told stories of my grandfather’s determination for advancement. He used to place his feet in a pot of icy water, I was told, to keep himself alert as he studied. He used to stand on a chair with his head in a noose that hung from the ceiling while he studied through the night, motivating himself not fall asleep. “He was a great man,” people exclaimed to me. With his father, he built the first girls’ school in the village and went door to door convincing parents to allow their daughters to go to school. He also walked miles daily to a nearby town in order to attend high school, and taught himself to be proficient in English. I understood his desire for upward mobility upon seeing the house that he spent his early childhood in. He lived in a small, cobbled stone structure, the first floor of which was a stable that housed animals and the second floor of which was used for residence. It was entirely empty except for a hole in the wall where blankets were stored.
Tata recalls how my grandfather dreamed of building a large home in Baghdad for all of his children and their families, dreamed of meals together filled with enthusiastic conversation and laughter. Yet this dream died with the rise of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, and the beginning of what would be an eight year war with Iran, sending many in the family to live elsewhere. This double displacement weighed on him and Tata.
“We had to leave Palestine,” Tata said, “then our family began leaving Iraq. We were spread across the world. Your grandfather was tired. He used to come home and say ‘I just want to go back to Palestine and die there.’ He would say, ‘maybe one day my children will be able to go back.’ He died wishing to return.”
“If I could return, I wish most of all to see Jaffa,” Tata smiled distantly, “To walk down the beach like I used to. To see my father’s house.” She added, “But even if they let me return, I couldn’t go. I couldn’t see Jaffa the way it is now, taken by the Israelis, the place I was raised gone, my family’s house gone, and my family gone, dispersed around the world. I couldn’t handle facing that.”
Yet Tata’s face filled with hope. She clasped the medallion and smiled, the gold peeking through her fingers like doves through the wires of their cage. “There must be a day when we can go back, if not our children, then our grandchildren. Inshallah [God willing].”
Sixty years later, millions of Palestinian refugees have not been able to exercise their right to return, enshrined by United Nations Resolution 191. One of the “final status” issues, a resolution concerning refugees is pivotal to reaching a peace agreement. Even Mahmoud Abbas, whose official term as Palestinian Authority president expired earlier this month, and who is a favorite of the United States and Israel, has made this clear in recent months. A resolution on refugees must include the admission of guilt by the Israeli government and a public apology, which Israel has refused in past negotiations. It must include the homecoming of refugees who wish to return to their native cities and towns that are now within the borders of Israel (polls show that this constitutes only about 10 percent of Palestinian refugees). It must include the return of refugees who desire to live in a Palestinian state. Finally, it must include reparations paid to refugee families, which Israel has refused to provide, even partially.
As the 60th anniversary of the Nakba passes, we must not allow the plight of refugees to be forgotten, buried under the inevitable snowstorms of the new year. “I know that if we ever return, it will never be the same. Some things will always be lost,” Tata said. “But to walk on our soil again and to live by our people again, to know the world didn’t forget our struggle but helped us realize our rights, this would be so much. And though some things are lost forever, maybe others will be gained.”
Sumia Ibrahim is an Iraqi-Palestinian residing in the United States. She is an activist for the end of the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and can be reached by email for comments and questions at sumiaibrahim AT gmail DOT com.
This is the same Geneva Convention that Israel signed and endorsed for ratification since 1951. Please (re)read this category of the Convention. It is beholden to respect its own signature. Israel may not use the excuse of Hamas’s actions to massacre over one thousand four hundred civilians in Gaza in retaliation of Hamas’s actions nor use illegal phosphorus bombs to punish the population at large.
best, Tamzin
No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.
Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.
For fourteen years, George Qumsieh, a stonecutter, worked to build a three-story stone home in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour. In February 1981, he and his family—his wife, four daughters, and three sons—moved into their new home. Nine months later, Israeli soldiers arrived at the home to arrest their youngest son, Walid, age fifteen. The army accused Walid of having thrown stones at an Israeli military vehicle four days earlier, in which a side window was broken. No soldiers were reported to have been injured in the incident.
The following day, and before the Shin Bet (General Security Service) had completed interrogating Walid, more troops arrived at the Qumsieh home. Ariel Sharon, the newly appointed Likud defense minister had promised an “iron fist” policy against Palestinians. Members of an Israeli engineering brigade placed the explosives and blew up the Qumsieh stone house. Months later, Walid was sentenced to seven years in jail based on the confession of his friends.
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed,” and “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” Israel, however, does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention or the Additional Protocols apply to the West Bank de jure, but says it abides by the humanitarian provisions without specifying what the humanitarian provisions are.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.
On Monday, August 25, early in the morning, Israeli occupation forces demolished the home of the family of Mansour Sharem in Tulkarem. The soldiers forcibly evicted 11 residents of the two-story building. Then they planted explosives in the building and detonating them from a distance. The demolition of the home of the family of Mansour Sharem, who is ‘wanted’ by Israel, also damaged several neighbouring buildings. Sharem was believed to be the bodyguard of Raed al-Karmi, who was assassinated by Israel in January.
In their declaration, the Israeli resisters said: “The price of occupation is the loss of the Israeli Defense Forces’ semblance of humanity and the corruption of all of Israeli society.” They reported firing at Palestinians who hadn’t endangered them, stopping ambulances at checkpoints, and stripping areas clean of groves and trees necessary to people’s livelihoods. Some fear their treatment of Palestinian civilians constitutes war crimes. Attacks on a civilian population as a form of collective punishment violate Article 50 of the Hague Regulations and Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Demolition or sealing of a house is performed in accordance with a military order signed by the military commander of the region, issued pursuant to regulation 119 of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, 1945. The regulation empowers the military commander to order the demolition or sealing of a house, and to confiscate the land on which it is built, thus prohibiting the residents of the house from rebuilding or constructing a new house where their home had been sealed. As a result, thousands of Palestinians, among them hundreds of children, are left homeless.
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: “They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn’t capture anything. They didn’t find any weapons.”
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
“They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees,” said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as “a punishment of local people because ‘you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us’.” What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.
BRUSSELS, (PIC)– A Swiss parliamentary delegation has expressed shock at the sight of the vast destruction inflicted by the Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza Strip during three weeks of merciless attacks.
Anwar Al-Gharbi, the spokesman of the European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza that organized the visit in cooperation with a Swiss society, said that the delegates who arrived in Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Saturday toured the Strip and visited the Shifa hospital and the destroyed premises of the Palestinian legislative council over two days.
He said that the destruction was beyond the imagination of those delegates, adding that all vowed to convey what they have seen to the world and pledged to expose the IOF “war crimes”. Gharbi pointed out that the delegates would pressure for bringing those responsible for that destruction to an international tribunal, and added that the lawmakers have expressed rejection of Israeli detention of elected PLC members atop of whom came the speaker Dr. Aziz Dwaik.
26/01/2009 Israeli occupation soldiers who fought in the Gaza offensive were given orders to avoid “at all costs” being captured by Palestinian resistance fighters, an Israeli military source said on Monday.
Soldiers were told to open fire on anyone trying to capture them, even if this put their own lives in danger, the source said.
A lieutenant-colonel of the elite Golani unit told his men: “You must avoid at all cost that one of you be captured alive by Hamas, even if that means blowing yourself up with your grenades.”
But the army insisted in a statement there were no orders for soldiers to kill themselves in case of capture and that the words of the officer were “aimed at strengthening their fighting spirit.”
Military sources said Palestinian fighters sought on several occasions to capture Israeli soldiers during the December 27 to January 18 Israeli war against the Gaza Strip but the IAF immediately launches an air raid and kills its own soldiers.
RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Resistance has emerged stronger after the Israeli war on Gaza after it practically put to test its potentials and proved its competence especially with the backing of the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic masses, Ra’fat Nassif, a Hamas political leader in the West Bank stressed.
He said in a press statement on Saturday that even the freedom loving peoples in the world have backed the Palestinian resistance in a way that elevated its morale and boosted its steadfastness in face of the horrendous Israeli aggression.
Nassif opined that Israeli premier Ehud Olmert declared his defeat in the speech in which he declared unilateral ceasefire. The Hamas leader said that the defeat was an inevitable result of the resistance’s resoluteness and Hamas’s handling of the Egyptian and other initiatives tabled with it.
The resistance’s steadfastness sent a clear message to the “Zionist enemy” mainly that resistance is capable of challenge and of indulging in a lengthy war of attrition, “a thing which the Zionist entity cannot bear”, the Hamas leader elaborated.
He also charged that the Arab official regime’s reaction to the Israeli war on Gaza was not up to the level of the event, citing the Arab countries’ failure to convene an emergency Arab summit at the start of the aggression, which, he charged, was an “actual proof that some of those countries were involved in the aggression”.
Nassif finally saluted the Arab and Islamic masses and all freedom loving peoples in the world for their uprising against the aggression, which, he said, had the greatest effect on the Palestinian people’s morale and restored the Palestine cause to its real status as that of a just question that needs a fundemental solution to end the occupation once and for all.
“..Netanyahu’s gaze is intently fixed on Iran, a subject that consumes at least half of the interview. Iran is the “mother regime” both of Hamas, against which Israel has just fought a war, as well as of Hezbollah, against which it fought its last war in 2006. Together, he says, they are more than simply fingers of Tehran’s influence on the shores of the Mediterranean. “The arming of Iran with nuclear weapons may portend an irreversible process, because these regimes assume a kind of immortality,” he says, arguing that the threat of a nuclear Iran poses a much graver danger to the world than the current economic crisis….. Netanyahu mentions that he has met with Barack Obama both in Israel and Washington, and that the question of Iran “loomed large in both conversations.”
Filed under: Jerusalem, Palestine, Syria | Tagged: Israeli Affairs, This is Zionism | Comments Off on Netanyahu: "We’re not going to redivide Jerusalem, or get off the Golan Heights, or go back to the 1967 boundaries,"
Posted on January 24, 2009 by uprootedpalestinians
Flashback;
By Mohamed Khodr
Al-Jazeerah, August 6, 2006
Israel, American Media, Congress, Muslims and Christians
“If a heathen (gentile) hits a Jew, the gentile must be killed.”— Jewish Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 58b (Policy for Disproportionate Force)
“The gentiles are outside the protection of the law and God has “exposed their money to Israel.”— Jewish Babylonian Talmud: Baba Kamma 37b
The utter ignorance, arrogance of power, futility, and moronic belief of the Bush—Blair—Olmert “Coalition of the Killing” is that the only path to a “democratically occupied” Arab and Muslim world is through “Regime Change.” Obviously their success in Afghanistan (anarchy, warlords, opium trade) and Iraq (civil war) encourages further regime change wars in Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine, part of the mainly Jewish Zionist NeoCon’s plan since 1992.
The love and willingness for martyrdom of the Muslim world for Palestine permeates the heart and mind of every Muslim, even if “regime change” overtook every Muslim nation. The sooner Bush’s delusional mind recognizes this fact the sooner peace and security for all can be achieved.
The illegal theft and occupation of Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq must end or sooner rather than later, every Muslim will cry out: “BRING IT ON”.
This is the beginning of the end for Israel’s occupation, for America’s support and surrender of its foreign policy to Israel, and for every Arab and Muslim regime supplanting Muslim interests for Israel’s American interests
End the “Passionate Attachment” to Israel, End the Occupation, End the world’s hypersensitivity to criticizing anything Jewish or Israel.
Time to Break the Silence.
1949:
“Since we gave Israel birth we are blamed for her belligerence and her arrogance and for the cold-bloodedness of her attitude toward refugees…what I can see is an abortion of justice and humanity to what I do not want to be midwife… Israel must accept responsibility….her attitude toward refugees is morally reprehensible….Her position as conqueror demanding more does not make for peace.”
— Ambassador Mark Etheridge, President Truman’s envoy to the 1949 Lausanne Conference, Switzerland, demanding Israel comply with U.N. Resolutions 181, 194, and 273. Israel Rebuffs President Truman as it has done with every American President since. When Israel says “NO”; the world listens.
Today, August 4, 2006, American made and paid for Israeli F-16s bombed a Lebanese village in the Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian border massacring 33 civilian farmers. In Gaza, Israel also killed several civilians, including children. Israel also destroyed U.N. trucks carrying urgent humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate Lebanese refugees with starving children. There is a humanitarian crisis according to the U.N. in Lebanon and Gaza with food and medicines to last one more week. The main tertiary hospital in Lebanon, The American University of Beirut Hospital has fuel to last one week otherwise the hospital will close according to a Hospital Administrator.
Israel drops leaflets warning civilians to flee, only to bomb roads, bridges and vehicles trapping them in homes, targets for American bombs. Many of Israel’s murderous tactics were learned from the Nazi master race.
As Israel’s Chief of Staff stated: “anyone remaining behind is a Hezbollah terrorist”
This is Bush’s and Blair’s massacre as much as Israel’s. This is their definition of Israel “defending” itself, of spreading democracy and freedom, and ending tyranny. May their tyranny at home and abroad end and may Israel rot in hell.
“Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war…We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle. First and foremost, terror is for us a part of the political war appropriate for the circumstances of today…”
— Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Former Head of Jewish Terrorist Group “Stern Gang”
Since the founding of Israel, Jewish terrorism, massacres of entire villages, and assassinations without regard to nationally (including Americans) have all been “tragic” and “mistakes.”
It ‘s Israel’s very existence that is “tragic” and a “mistake.”
“The cause of unrest in Palestine, and the only cause, arises from the Zionist movement, and from our promises and pledges in regard to it.”
—Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 14 June 1921.
Oh, How Israel bites the hand that feeds it—America’s hand.
“Our American friends give us money, arms and advice. We take the money, we take the arms but we decline the advice.”
— Moshe Dayan, America’s 1967 Hero.
This all started with the arrest of a Jewish soldier.
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French officer was charged with passing military secrets to the Germans in 1894, later overturned. Theodore Herzl, a Jewish Austrian journalist, covered his trial and came to the conclusion that the entire world genetically hates the Jews and thus Jews need a separate homeland to live in security. The only solution was a “Jewish State” the Holy Land devoid of Non-Jews, i.e., no Christians or Muslims allowed. To accomplish this in Palestine, Zionists developed a deliberate policy of massacres, expulsions, propaganda, lies, and public relations to “expel” all of Palestine’s Christian and Muslim inhabitants. This policy began under the watchful eye and support of England and the League of Nations; and continues today under America’s watchful eye, the United Nations, an intimidated world, and most shockingly, the tacit approval of Arab nations from Saudi Arabia (the land of the Two Holy Mosques), to Egypt and Jordan.
DAMN. Nothing has changed, except that America’s government, media, Hollywood, and financial institutions have become more Jewish than Jews, more Zionist than Israel, more hated than Israel.
Unlike our pandering President and Congress, most Jews did not support Zionism nor are Zionists, with many honorable, courageous, moral, and religious Jews in and out of Israel opposing Israel’s murderous policies and illegal occupation of Palestinians, with many opposing today’s murderous devastation of Lebanon and Gaza killing hundreds of innocent civilians. The majority of American Jews are not members of the unpatriotic Israel lobby that’s willing to fight Israel’s enemies to the last American. In fact, the most vocal opponents to Israel’s belligerence and militarism are Jews (along with many Christians), not Arabs or Muslims
What are 3 captured Israeli soldiers, part of a brutal occupying military force, worth to America?
The Burning and Killing in Lebanon and Gaza.
While Captain Alfred Dreyfus helped form Zionism, one captured Israeli soldier in Gaza and two captured Israeli soldiers “inside” Lebanon by Hezbollah are the casus belli (i.e. the justification for war) for Israel’s invasions, total devastation of infrastructures, indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians, total destruction of dozens of villages, total blockade of Gaza and Lebanon by land, air and sea, not even allowing food, water, or medicines to the desperate civilians, destruction of electrical and water plants, hospitals, schools (even those for the blind, deaf and dumb), orphanages, nursing homes, ambulances, fire trucks, roads, bridges, mosques, churches, and so much more.
While babies die, the entire world, as it has for 60 years, meets in search for “politically correct” words and resolutions that will not offend Israel or be vetoed by its patsy, America.
Just like Bin Laden’s hijacking of Islam to make war, so have the Christian Fundamentalists hijacked Christianity to make war. Where are the voices of the world’s Muslim and Christian majority? Jewish and Christian Zionists are pushing for a world war between Christians and Muslims. Bethlehem is besieged and the Statue of the Virgin Mary has been shelled by Israel. Israel is the true enemy of Christianity and Islam.
Bush, the American “arsonist” supported by the most cowardly pandering Pavlovian Congress, has inflamed the world into a persistent state of war, chaos, anarchy, death, civil wars, and a polarized hatred between the West and Muslim world, because he ignorantly believes that every commander in chief needs a “little war” to be a successful and popular President.
This shoot ‘em up kick ass cowboy has killed over 2,600 Americans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, Lebanese, Palestinians and still thirsts for more. This world ain’t big enough for him, Israel, his Christian Fundamentalists, and the rest of humanity. The man’s dream and his father’s nightmare is winning Armageddon for the Prince of Peace.
Bush’s and Israel’s plan to destroy Lebanon and Hezbollah was formulated a year ago, while six months ago they formulated a plan for invading Gaza and toppling Hamas, a democratically elected party. Ironically, Israel created Hamas, and its 1982 Lebanon invasion created Hezbollah, while America’s war in Afghanistan and later in Iraq helped create Al Qaeda. As many government agencies and experts have written: It is America’s foreign policy that is causing terrorism not as Bush claims the other way around. What America calls terrorism and religious fundamentalism, parroting Israel, is nothing more than people seeking freedom from foreign occupation.
The Zionist design on Lebanon actually began in 1938:
“The boundaries of Zionist aspiration include Southern Lebanon, Southern Syria, today’s Jordan, all of Cis-Jordan (The West Bank) and the Sinai.”— David Ben-Gurion, 1938, in a speech to the World Council of Poale Zion in Tel Aviv. Cited by Israel Shahak in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring 1981
PLUS:
“We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon” — David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
Today, Bush’s Israeli invasion of Lebanon has accomplished this Zionist goal. Bush’s support of Israel’s killing fields in Lebanon and Gaza consists of:
1. Preventing a ceasefire because Bush believes “it’s killing time” for “terrorists” against his vision of a “Greater America, Greater Israel”.
3. Sending Arab “fuel” to Israel’s military for more “killing time”.
4. Sending more tax funded precision bombs for more “killing time.”
Besides Jewish money and Hollywood support for Israel, the U.S. Media is the most powerful accessory to Israel’s murderous campaigns and occupations.
The media focuses its total attention and coverage on the suffering of Israelis and their uncontrollable “anxiety” (ignoring the destruction and civilian deaths in Lebanon and Gaza) due to the worthless Hamas Qassam rockets and Hizbullah’s barrage of inaccurate rockets. BUT, more importantly, they accept and parrot at face value Israel’s lies and propaganda such as its lie that Hizbullah fighter were firing rockets from Qana prior to its massacre. Israel later admitted this was a lie as well as its denial about shelling and killing a Palestinian family on Gaza’s beach. Such admissions don’t make the news.
Despite Israel’s massacre of 33 civilian farmers in northern Lebanon earlier in the day, ABCNEWS World News, August 4, 2006, began their broadcast with two headlines: 1. Taunting Israel (Hizbullah threatens Tel Aviv); and 2. Taunting America (Iran protests against U.S. support of Israel); thereby linking the two superpower “victim” nations as facing mutual threats from Hizbullah and Iran, while briefly describing the latest Israeli Lebanese massacre as “an apparent mistake”. Such lies for Israel reverberate in every paper, magazine, radio, and television broadcast. Is there any wonder that the American people, uninformed and self absorbed, swallow such disinformation and reflexively regurgitate such lies in various polls on the MidEast? Inexplicably, many Americans still hold to Bush’s exposed lies that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.
Only Jewish sensibility strikes fear in the minds and hearts of the “Gentile” world, the rest of the world be damned.
The life, worth, sanctity, and property of a Jew is sacred while that of a “Gentile” is not. This comes from the main Jewish scripture, the Babylonian Talmud.
In 2003, fourteen prominent Israeli Rabbis wrote a letter to Israel’s Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, quoting the edict from the “sage” Rabbi Akiva in the Babylonian Talmud that says: “Our lives come first” to mean that in times of war “killing enemy civilians is normal.”
The Israeli paper, Ha’aretz, September 9, 2003 warned that Israeli “…soldiers, and even officers, will see this call as a kind of halakhic-ethical commandment that ought to be obeyed…”
The late Professor Israel Shahak discussed this “Jewish chauvinism, racism and exclusivism”, as he called it, in his book, “Jewish History, Jewish Religion”
America—our taxes, weapons, government and media are directly complicit in Israel’s murderous rampage in Gaza and Lebanon. Our silence is indirectly complicit in these atrocities. This genocide against civilians will come back to haunt us, thus either speak up now or forever hold your peace and never again say “why do they hate us?”
“If I was an Arab leader I would never make [peace] with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.” — David Ben Gurion, The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99.
“Should a nation which attacks and occupies foreign territory in the face of U.N. disapproval be allowed to impose conditions on its own withdrawal? If we agree that armed attack can properly achieve the purpose of the assailant, then I fear we will have turned back the clock of international order.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address to the Nation, February 20,1957.
The least we owe the innocent dead and the living in this one sided genocide is to demand from Bush an immediate “CEASEFIRE”, lest God hold us all accountable for our silence and complicity. As Americans we must save our nation from Israel’s control and our governmental pandering.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 
