Dear Editor,
Haiti, the Congo, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia − there are many countries and societies that suffer interminably and almost silently as the world powers press on expanding their military and economic might on a global scale. The deliberate bombing of women, children and men with powerful rockets and artillery fire is an atrocity and a war crime. The actions of the Israelis in Gaza have so outraged the world that even the normally tongue-tied Security Council of the United Nations has had to criticize Israel’s relentless assault and leading members of the Jewish community in London, usually passionate defenders of the state of Israel, have expressed their abhorrence at the wanton killings and atrocities of the invasion.
Israel is a state with influence, with powerful friends and with clout in the international community. The actions it complains of against a Palestinian faction, Hamas, cannot be condoned, but Israel’s response is disproportionate and barbaric, modelled on the most obnoxious examples of human cruelty, the genocide of native Americans, the Atlantic slave trade and the Nazi holocaust of the Second World War.
The heavy and merciless blowing up of children, women and men cries out for condemnation and world action to stop the unfolding slaughter. James Petras, American academic, wrote the following on the nightmare unfolding in Gaza:
“Moving directly from its totalitarian vision to its military blueprint to the savaging of Palestinian population centers, the Jewish state destroyed the principal university with over 18,000 students (mostly women), mosques, pharmacies, electrical and water lines, power stations, fishing villages, fishing boats and the little fishing port that provided a meager supply of fish for the starving population. They destroyed roads, transport facilities, food warehouses, science buildings, small factories, shops and apartments. They destroyed a women’s dormitory at the university. In the words of the Israel leader: ‘…because everything is connected to everything…’ it is necessary to destroy each and every facet of life, which allows humans to exist with some dignity and independence.”
Israel’s defenders are reduced to bringing up a quasi-religious argument that seeks to somehow present nuclear armed Israel as a victim in the Middle East. A cursory glance at the facts and the Israeli military industrial complex with a seven billion dollar annual budget says otherwise.
There are also the massive support tentacles of AIPAC – the high-powered lobby group and the greatest supporter and benefactor of the Israeli state and policy – with ties to boardrooms, media, the USA Congress and the Pentagon. Any objective observer, after considering these facts, would hopefully develop a more clear-eyed assessment of the manner in which the Jewish state behaves in the Middle East.
What are the reasons for this latest incursion? There are several theories but one is very straightforward: the continuation of a policy of expansion under the guise of the survival of the Jewish state. Most of Gaza’s populations are survivors of 1948 when 13,000 Palestinians were murdered and hundreds of towns were erased and people driven from their homes in the area. History records that in 1967 Israel, to cite one source, “seized the remaining 22 per cent of Palestine including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and continues to hold them in violation of United Nations resolutions.”
A second probable reason for the Gaza invasion is the Jewish state’s apprehension about the possible new direction of the incoming US president and the fact that the economic morass in the United States might lead to a fall-off in economic support for Israel.
The US military and state provide Israel with billions of dollars annually, by far the largest recipient of US foreign aid in the world.
The third reason is revenge for the defeat of the Israeli military at the hands of Hezbollah in their last incursion into Lebanon.
The fourth reason for the incursion is the forthcoming Israeli elections and its main contenders. Defence Minister Ehud Barak (the once and would-be prime minister) − his eye fixed on February elections – is employing mass murder as his party’s latest vote-getting appeal.
The western media hardly report protests of Jews in Israel, North America and Europe against the slaughter in Gaza. One of the foremost critics of the Jewish state is Noam Chomsky, himself a Jew. Other Jews inside and outside of Israel have condemned the incursion into Gaza. Naomi Klein, the internationally acclaimed writer and activist, has recently argued that the best strategy to “end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” While she admits this will be a difficult task, she sees it as perhaps the only way that these massacres will end. And the massacres in Gaza have in fact provoked a rise in anti-Zionist activism by Jewish women and men who believe that the apartheid practised by the Israeli state is a betrayal of all that Jews have historically stood for.
Yours faithfully,
Andaiye, David Hinds, Rupert Roopnaraine, Karen de Souza, Wazir Mohamed, Denis Canterbury, Alissa Trotz, Nigel Westmaas, Eusi Kwayana, Chris Ram, Abbyssinian Carto, Moses Bhagwan
What are the reasons for this latest incursion?
hmmm maybe months of rockets killing innocent civillians for years? Or the suicide bombers that kill any and everyone they want to.
Not like it matters what you or i say anyway 1/3 of hamas will be destroyed and when Israel retreats from Gaza hamas will launch 1 rocket and claim victory.
When the Germans slaughtered the Jews it was based on racial superiority and hatred for them.
The Jews are now slaughtering the Palestinians and it is based on an expansionist mentality and religious hatred for them.
These are European Jews that came to Israel and occupying Palestinian land. The Palestinians are fighting for their rights the only way they know how….their bodies and yes rockets, because that is all they have. The Americans have armed the Israelis to the teeth with weapons that is a financial boon to the Yankee war factories and Yankee jobs.
The base conclusion here is :-
Greed….kills
Racial Superiority….kills
Religion …kills
What’s amazing to me is…the religions in that region, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all Abrahamic based. The basis for those religions…in my opinion…are all based on lies and myth. This universe is older that 6000 years and is vastly more complex than all religious explanation and reasoning.
The sooner Man can unshackle their minds from religion and race, we can evolve and progress at a much faster rate.
you are fighting to return to your home land and you are called terrorists…the ones that kill you and chased you off your very own land are not terrorists…because the world powers says so…case closed..agreed with the writers
When Israel retreats, the Palestinians will count their losses and those whose innocent family members were killed would resort to violence by joining Hamas…. it will grow even bigger than it is now and none will be better off. Sigh.
CFO
On the other hand, maybe a few discerning Palestinians will see the carnage, then reflect on the following:
1. Is it possible that we Palestinians made a huge mistake when we invaded Israel in 1948 after the UN had established our state and a state for Israel!
2. Is is possible that we Palestinians made a huge mistake at Camp David when Yasser Arafat refused Israeli offers of land for peace (See Adam Frankowski’s concise contributions elsewhere)
3. Is it possible that we Palestinians made a huge mistake when we decided to rain 6,000 rockets … unprovoked … on Israel over 7 years … knowing full well that our day of reckoning would come …
4. Is it possible that we Palestinians should have learnt from Israel’s recent invasion of Lebanon, and Georgia’s abortive attempt against Russia, that there would be serious repercussions to military action?
5. Is is possible that we Palestinians miscalculated our capacity to manipulate world opinion on this issue, and that we miscalculated the resolve of the Israeli people on this issue?
Then they will renounce violence, dethrone Hamas, and sue for a lasting peace in their lifetime.
Roger, your comments sound like they came out of a dream. When you loose someone in war, its unlikely that you’ll stop to think and reflect.
CFO,
If the Palestinians do not remember their horrible lapses of judgement in the past, they are condemned to repeat the same mistakes ad infinitum.
That, sadly, means more body bags need to be ordered by the Gazan authorities, because Israel has now shown that it will not tolerate any rocket fire on its territory, and will never again give up her territory because of previous Palestinian treachery and broken promises on the issue.
So … are you implying that the Palestinian mindset is incapable of saying … “We messed up! We need to re-think this”
Israel’s ambition is clearly seen when the map of the middle east is compared 1967 vs 2008 . The Palestanians are cannon fodder. Israel replaces South Africa for apartheid.
I
The Jews are not Israelis , they are Zionists and they have an agenda. Any criticism of the Jews is anti- semitic no matter what despicable act they perform . Israel is an occupying power in the Middle East
Bluebird
The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. As to the non-Biblical evidence for the legitimacy of Israel, we should consult any encyclopedia … or assess the following excerpt:
“…. On the day after Ben-Gurion declared its independence, six Arab armies invaded and tried to wipe it out. With the current exception of Egypt and Jordan, the Arab and Muslim world has been trying ever since.
ISRAEL IS THE ONLY COUNTRY whose creation was approved by the UN; yet it is the only country whose legitimacy is called into question.
II IS THE ONLY COUNTRY which the world requires to compromise with its Palestinian Arab attackers and accede to their demands, even while they are firing rockets at its schools and houses and blowing up its citizens.
IT IS THE ONLY COUNTRY which continues to provide electricity and basic services to those attackers and routinely treats thousands of Palestinians in its own hospitals, even those who have Israeli blood on their hands.
ANY YET IT IS THE ONLY COUNTRY which, in the court of public opinion, is condemned for behaving ‘disproportionately’ when it uses targeted military means to defend itself, and is accused of causing the very ‘Nazi’ or ‘apartheid’ atrocities of which it itself is the victim….”
( http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=582 )
Hamas is using civilians as human shield that is a war crime, if Hamas wants peace they will have to stop their rockets and suicide bombers against Isreal then the peace process can begin
coolieman they had a truce before and they kept it, but israel never did what they were supposed to do, so know the facts before you start talking.
It seemed the phrase “war crimes” are being used glibly these days by any one depending on which side of the fence they are sitting. Israel attempt to put an end to years of rocket bombardment by Hamas of Israeli civilians, is now criticized high and dry, without consideration for what the Israeli civilians have had to endured for number of years now. Where is the condemnation of Hamas for hiding cowardly among civilians and using them as human shields? Actually Hamas might really be the party guilty of war crimes.
Unfortunately it is the Palestinian people who are caught in middle of a vicious cycle of war againt terrorism. But Hamas must held accountable!
What nonsense. Hamas was never hiding. They were the ELECTED officials. The Israelis and the yankees never accepted this and decided to undermine their authority from the beginning.
Remember what the yankee CIA did in Guyana in 1964? When you take off your dhoti, do your research and base your statements on facts.
…. even tho i agree with ur “reasoning” i can not help notice
ur racial innuendo of the “dhoti” !…..
was it necessary to to lend support to ur facts which anyone of a balanced mind would be inclined to lean on ???????
So, Concerned …
What ARE some of the facts ABOUT HAMAS that we should be considering?
“….This is a war that Israel spent more than seven years trying to avoid, while no fewer than 6,000 rockets and other missiles rained down from Gaza upon its southern towns. No other country in the world would have sat on its hands while its traumatised children were raised in bomb shelters….”
( http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=636 )
Concerned … I need to know … is the relentless launching of 6,000 rockets on a soverign state be considered a “war crime” in the Islamist mentality?
a. persaud is right, the leader of hamas was and is hiding. he directs all his instructions from iran and not palistine where he should be along side his people.
So Michael Tannassee….I understand that you are lonely person and why you have to blog everyday. There is an old guyanese saying…”When you come to crab dance, you must expect to get mud” and since you infer that I’m racist…let me ask you this…
- when you finish your curry and roti for lunch…I’m racist?
- when you finish your plantain and dumplin’….. I’m racist?
If that’s your conclusion….then you are intellectually barren. Do not assume anything about me, for you are not up to it.
Here’s my Guyanese saying…”In my sleep…I’m more intelligent than you are or will ever be. What I have forgotten, you are now probably learning, and what I know now, you will never know”.
Moderators…leave my statement alone. Please. It will probably be my last one.
cheers.
The real terrorists are your (American) government and the Zionists (you refer to them as Israelis). How many countries have they (the Americans) invaded and placed their puppet governments in power, (Guyana included). Anyone who takes a stand against them are labelled terrorists. Like a wise man (Eric Margolis) said “One man’s terrorist, another man’s freedom fighter”.
You got it!!
Hammas/Palestinians should not have been zoned on that piece of land within Israel in the first place – I guess that was an UN deceision. I can’t imagine how they decided to divided up that tiny piece of land – Israel. It is what UN or whoever thought it was a bright idea to do so then = death. Instead decision should have been for them (Jews and Hammas/Palestinians) to be more tolerant to each other; learn to live in a more civilized way and have respect each other’s lives – especially the innocent – the children.
Have any one you – undersigned – visited there to know what I am talking about?
“Jokey” part is that every day many of the Hammas/Palestinians come out of that zoned area every day – Gaza Strip – to go to work in Israel – and go back into the ‘cage’ at the end of the day.
Let’s hope that current situation open up the eyes of UN and every body involved to decide whether or not that situation -zoned- should continue.
UN – please break down the walls of Gaza – let the people go free – because after this I don’t think the right thinking Palestinians would like to live that way for the rest of their lives – caged up.
Hamas leaders need to be rounded up and charged and tried for war crimes against their Palestinian people. How on earth can Hamas leaders allow militants to fire rockets from densley populated areas in Gaza into Israel for seven days, knowing that Hamas does not have the military firepower to fight in event Israel retaliates? And now that Israel retaliates by going after the locations where the rockets are coming from, it turns out the militants are using women, chilredn and the aged as human shields to sway world opinion.
If Israeli leaders are to be tried for war crimes, then Hamas leaders need to be instantly executed, without trial, for their stupidity. Not even South Africa’s leaders used women, chilren and the aged as human shields against the brutal apartheid South Agrican regime.
For the record… Hamas was aided and abetted by the very Israelis as a counter to Arafat’s PLO.
That bastion of Democracy called teh USa called for Free & Fair elections in the Occupied Territories and when the people elected HAMAS fair & Square, the US and ISrael refuse to recognize them. A couple of days ago Condi Rice had the audacity to say that Hamas came to power by a coup.
Now, before we talk about Hamas rockets.. which is teh Israeli line. let’s talk about what cause these people to resort to home made rockets in teh first place. Ther has been a blocade of goods and movement of Palestinians for over 2 years. The israelis hasve been building illegal settlements continuously on Palestinian land. Is that not terrorism. How many people were killed by those Hamas Rockets before the recent invasion by the Israelis.. how about NONE!
About Hamas using women and children as shields.. this is an out and out lie that has been debunked by independent reporters in the area.
Do you know that teh Israelis have refused to let non Israelis reporters enter the current war zone. Furthermore,it has been documented that Israel ask their own reporters not to show ait any video that will show Israel in a bad light. Recently the Israelis bombed a UN facility (a schol was there) and then claimed that “Rockets were fired from there”. The UN people who were there denied it and the next day the Israelis backed off their claim when confronted.
You want the truth about Israel.. go to http://www.antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com the truth shall set you free
Mohamed
We will visit antiwar.com and see what descriptives they have for the paradox of Hamas dropping 6,000 rockets on Israel … and the sane explanations they will give us as to why attacking with 6,000 rockets constitutes an “antiwar” effort.
In the meantime we should note that Hamas, Hezbollah and other Palestinian degenerates have been trying (have managed?) to infect a gullible minority in the onlooking world with a nasty disease called “delusional denial”.
Melanie Phillips captures … and answers … the classic symptoms:
“…. The main complaint is that Israel’s response is ‘disproportionate’, since some 500 Palestinians have been killed compared with ‘only’ four Israelis since the war started nine days ago.
This is absurd. In World War II, 20 times more civilians were killed in Germany than in Britain. Did that make the war against the Nazis ‘disproportionate’? Of course not.
Then there’s the belief that the Hamas rockets are some kind of homemade, harmless Dad’s Army effort which could and should be ignored.
But the only reason more Israelis haven’t been killed by them is that in the south, the population has been all but living in bomb shelters. And there is nothing ‘homemade’ about the Russian-designed Katyushas and Iranian Grad rockets now putting around one-tenth of Israel’s population within their range.
Contrary to Arab propaganda, the Israelis are taking enormous pains to avoid civilian casualties in their attempt to curb these rocket attacks. The UN has confirmed that the vast majority (75 per cent) of the dead in Gaza have been Hamas terrorists. Given the huge number of bombing sorties that have been conducted, this proves that the Israelis are specifically targeting the Hamas infrastructure.
Alas, the civilian death toll will unavoidably mount, which is deeply regrettable. But what must be understood is that Hamas have deliberately situated their weapons under apartment blocks, in mosques and in hospitals.
The Israelis build bomb shelters for their civilians; Hamas store bombs underneath their civilians in order to create as many civilian casualties as possible to manipulate world opinion.
What people find so hard to grasp is that Hamas actually want to maximise the number of Palestinians who are killed because, as they boast: ‘We desire death as you desire life.’
Despite this fanaticism, many fear that Israel’s attack will merely create yet more suicide bombers. There is a grain of sense in this — but only a grain.
This is because every single act of self-defence against Islamist aggression is used as a recruiting sergeant for the Islamic holy war. So if this is allowed to dictate world responses, it follows that no one can ever defend themselves against Islamist rockets and bomb attacks — not just in Israel but in Afghanistan or against Al Qaeda anywhere.
Islamists such as Hamas are galvanised into battle by the perceived weakness of their victims, and are deterred only by implacable strength ….”
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=636
How does the penultimate paragraph grab you?
“Most important of all, this war is not actually about Israel and the Palestinians. Hamas is controlled by Iran. Unless Hamas is stopped, Iran’s growing influence in the region will be entrenched and put Britain and the West in even greater danger from Islamist aggression and blackmail.”