Dear Editor,
The action of Hamas, whether justified or unjustified, is not the causa belli but is rather the casus belli in Gaza. The action of Hamas cannot rationally be regarded as causatively related to the genocidal conduct of Israel against the Palestinian people. Rather, it has merely provided the occasion for the Israeli attack on the Palestinian people.
Israel cannot plausibly claim that the action of Hamas in hiding and firing rockets from among the Palestinian people is justification for military exercises against the Palestinian people on the ground of self-defence, since the killing of innocent people cannot be classified as collateral damage from necessary defensive action. Self-defence is inconsistent with the intentional killing of innocent people. In any event, the use of excessive or unreasonable force is inconsistent with acting in self-defence.
The force being used by Israel in its claim to be acting in self-defence is plainly and grossly excessive and inconsistent with the defence of self-defence.
It is not open to Israel to causatively attribute its current genocidal conduct against the Palestinian people to Hamas, since Israel at the very least must have foreseen as a certainty that its military action in Gaza, even if motivated by its desire to incapacitate Hamas, will involve the killing of innocent Palestinians in large numbers.
Therefore, Israel is intentionally killing innocent Gazan Palestinians and this nullifies Israel’s claim to be acting in self-defence. The conduct of Hamas is therefore not the causa but the casus for the genocidal conduct of Israel against the Palestinian people.
It is significant to note that Hamas is a Palestinian organization and not a state power. However, Israel is a state. Israel simply cannot use genocidal conduct by Hamas against it to justify its own genocidal conduct against the Palestinian people because Hamas is not a state but merely an organization which has no United Nations recognition as a representative organization of the Palestinian people. Nor are the innocent Palestinians being killed representative of Hamas.
Yours faithfully,
Shawn Williams
Halloooooooooo! Where are you? I’ve not seen certain people commenting on this one… So read this:
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert Claims to be Able to Order Bush Around
http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/israeli-pm-ehud-olmert-claims-to-be.html
No. “Claims” is the word.
i tend not to bothered about religous conflicts because this is what this thing is all about, islam against judaism, islam against christianity, strange the ppp (mostly hindu)appear to support hamas who are muslims, taking into consideration the history between islam and hinduism(pakisthan and india)i will support no one because they both are killing each other and each blameing one another, now my thing is if hamas wants to fire rockets and provoke the isrealis(who are much more powerful militarally)then they must be prepared for retaliation, the isarelis too has their citizens to protect and what i’ve notice is that hamas has a way of attacking the isrealis from where they are lots of civilians, so the isrealis would and will retaliate where they believe the strikes are comming from, hence the heavy civilian casualties of the palistine people.
Imagine a world without religion. (John Lennon)
Tiger my bretheren,
Sedrot is a Palestinian village whose inhabitants have been ethnically cleansed by the israhell war criminals. These residents are alive and well living in refugee camps. israhell invaded and set up shop and OCCUPY… for it is an israhell OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE proper. This is the root of the missiles.
Let israhell come set up shop at Linden, starve the inhabitants, targeted killings of the people, bomb hospitals, mosques, schools, economic embargo and economic destruction, bomb UN buildings when the UN chief is in israhell. What chutzpah!!!!
Tiger Guyanese have not forgotton who financed slavery of Africans then armed the aparthied regime of South Africa to destroy our people. Do you take Guyanese for FOOLS??? We remember Sabra and Shatilla, Lebanon,Syria, Egypt which is Afrika. These are ALL WAR CRIMES. Time for the guilty to pay. While at this tell the TRUTH…***Hamas is the elected government of the People of Palestine***. Abbas is illegal and a zionist with his corrupt Fatah regime. Abbas sure looks good now eh!!!!
What is happening in Palestine is a WAR CRIME….end of debate.
Guyanese keep it “LIT” with “TRUTH”
Shawn, sorry I missed this one …
Your comments, though seemingly well-intentioned, are mostly just plain wrong, and many have been addressed aat the comments page of the story “Hamas Is Guilty of War Crimes” ; http://www.stabroeknews.com/letters/hamas-is-guilty-of-war-crimes/comment-page-2/#comments .
You are right about one thing. Gaza and the West Bank are not states, merely pockets of Arabs who insist on targeting Israelis. As the Sri Lankan government has illustrated against the Tamil Tigers, such activity cannot be tolerated.
Many towns in northern and southern Israel are tonight enjoying peaceful sleep for the first time in years because of Israel’s recent strikes at the heart of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Palestinians foolishly elected Hamas on a promise of continued aggression against Israel, and have reaped the fruit of that error time and again. They should/must learn from their numerous mistakes of the past, reject Hamas and Hezbollah, and negotiate with Israel on non-violent terms. They will find Israel not only willing, but forgiving!
You could, and should, check your facts. An initial effort in this direction could be achieved by reading the following:
“Chronology of terrorist attacks in Israel”
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/terrisrael.html
Israel has always sought to pacify its avaricious Arab neighbours by ceding land in “land for peace” deals, preferring sovereignty to territory, and has exercised unprecedented tolerance of Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank by keeping them on Israeli soil. Yet, the savagery and terrorism does not go away. The should not yield another inch.
Secondly, read the following article:
“War is terrible, but the alternative in Gaza was worse”
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=636
Finally, you should read the following document prepared by Eli E Hertz. It carefully explains the Israeli position, exploding countless Arab myths in the process:
“Mandate For Palestine: The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights”
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate%20for%20Palestine-11-20-07-English.pdf