The media double standards in the West on the new and tragic Israeli escalation of violence directed at Gaza were epitomized by an absurdly partisan New York Times front page headline: “Rockets Target Jerusalem; Israel girds for Gaza Invasion.” (NYT, 16 Nov 2012) Decoded somewhat, the message is this: Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel when and if it launches a ground attack on Gaza must expect itself to be further attacked by rockets. This is a stunningly Orwellian re-phrasing of reality. The true situation is, of course, quite the opposite: namely, that the defenseless population of Gaza can be assumed now to be acutely fearful of an all-out imminent Israeli assault, while it is also true, without minimizing the reality of a threat, that some rockets fired from Gaza fell harmlessly (although with admittedly menacing implications) on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There is such a gross disproportion in the capacity of the two sides to inflict damage and suffering due to Israeli total military dominance as to make perverse this reversal of concerns to what might befall Israeli society if the attack on Gaza further intensifies.
The reliance by Hamas and the various Gaza militias on indiscriminate, even if wildly inaccurate and generally harmless, rockets is a criminal violation of international humanitarian law, but the low number of casualties and minor damage caused needs to be assessed in the overall context of massive violence inflicted on the Palestinians. The widespread non-Western perception of the new cycle of violence involving Gaza is that it looks like a repetition of Israeli aggression against Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 that similarly fell between the end of American presidential elections and scheduled Israeli parliamentary elections.
There is the usual discussion over where to locate responsibility for the initial act in this renewed upsurge violence. Is it some shots fired from Gaza across the border and aimed at an armored Israeli jeep, or was it the targeted killing by an Israeli missile of Ahmed al-Jabani, leader of the military wing of Hamas, a few days later? Or some other act by one side or the other? Or is it the continuous violence against the people of Gaza arising from the blockade that has been imposed since mid-2007? The assassination of al-Jabani came a few days after an informal truce that had been negotiated through the good offices of Egypt, and quite ironically agreed to by none other than al-Jabani acting on behalf of Hamas. Killing him was clearly intended as a major provocation, disrupting a carefully negotiated effort to avoid another tit-for-tat sequence of violence of the sort that has periodically taken place during the last several years. An assassination of such a high profile Palestinian political figure as al-Jahani is not a spontaneous act. It is based on elaborate surveillance over a long period, and is obviously planned well in advance partly with the hope of avoiding collateral damage, and thus limiting unfavorable publicity. Such an extra-judicial killing, although also part and parcel of the new American ethos of drone warfare, remains an unlawful tactic of conflict, denying adversary political leaders separated from combat any opportunity to defend themselves against accusations, and implies a rejection of any disposition to seek a peaceful resolution of a political conflict. It amounts to the imposition of capital punishment without due process, a denial of elementary rights to confront an accuser.
Putting aside the niceties of law, the Israeli leadership knew exactly what it was doing when it broke the truce and assassinated such a prominent Hamas leader, someone generally thought to be second only to the Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniya. There have been rumors, and veiled threats, for months that the Netanyahu government plans a major assault of Gaza, and the timing of the ongoing attacks seems to coincide with the dynamics of Israeli internal politics, especially the traditional Israeli practice of shoring up the image of toughness of the existing leadership in Tel Aviv as a way of inducing Israeli citizens to feel fearful, yet protected, before casting their ballots.
Beneath the horrific violence, which exposes the utter vulnerability, of all those living as captives in Gaza, which is one of the most crowded and impoverished communities on the planet, is a frightful structure of human abuse that the international community continues to turn its back upon, while preaching elsewhere adherence to the norm of ‘responsibility to protect’ whenever it suits NATO. More than half of the 1.6 million Gazans are refugees living in a total area of just over twice the size of the city of Washington, D.C. The population has endured a punitive blockade since mid-2007 that makes daily life intolerable, and Gaza has been harshly occupied ever since 1967.
Israel has tried to fool the world by setting forth its narrative of a good faith withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, which was exploited by Palestinian militants as the time as an opportunity to launch deadly rocket attacks. The counter-narrative, accepted by most independent observers, is that the Israeli removal of troops and settlements was little more than a mere redeployment to the borders of Gaza, with absolute control over what goes in and what leaves, maintaining an open season of a license to kill at will, with no accountability and no adverse consequences, backed without question by the U.S. Government. From an international law point of view, Israel’s purported ‘disengagement’ from Gaza didn’t end its responsibility as an Occupying Power under the Geneva Conventions, and thus its master plan of subjecting the entire population of Gaza to severe forms of collective punishment amounts to a continuing crime against humanity, as well as a flagrant violation of Article 33 of Geneva IV. It is not surprising that so many who have observed the plight of Gaza at close range have described it as ‘the largest open air prison in the world.’
The Netanyahu government pursues a policy that is best understood from the perspective of settler colonialism. What distinguishes settler colonialism from other forms of colonialism is the resolve of the colonialists not only to exploit and dominate, but to make the land their own and superimpose their own culture on that of indigenous population. In this respect, Israel is well served by the Hamas/Fatah split, and seeks to induce the oppressed Palestinian to give up their identity along with their resistance struggle even to the extent of asking Palestinians in Israel to take an oath of loyalty to Israel as ‘a Jewish state.’ Actually, unlike the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel has no long-term territorial ambitions in Gaza. Israel’s short-term solution to its so-called ‘demographic problem’ (that is, worries about the increase in the population of Palestinians relative to Jews) could be greatly eased if Egypt would absorb Gaza, or if Gaza would become a permanently separate entity, provided it could be reliably demilitarized. What makes Gaza presently useful to the Israelis is their capacity to manage the level of violence, both as a distraction from other concerns (e.g. backing down in relation to Iran; accelerated expansion of the settlements) and as a way of convincing their own people that dangerous enemies remain and must be dealt with by the iron fist of Israeli militarism.
In the background, but not very far removed from the understanding of observers, are two closely related developments. The first is the degree to which the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements has made it unrealistic to suppose that a viable Palestinian state will ever emerge from direct negotiations. The second, underscored by the recent merger of Netanyahu and Lieberman forces, is the extent to which the Israeli governing process has indirectly itself irreversibly embraced the vision of Greater Israel encompassing all of Jerusalem and most of the West Bank. The fact that world leaders in the West keep repeating the mantra of peace through direct negotiations is either an expression of the grossest incompetence or totally bad faith. At minimum, Washington and the others calling for the resumption of direct negotiations owe it to all of us to explain how it will be possible to establish a Palestinian state within 1967 borders when it means the displacement of most of the 600,000 armed settlers now defended by the Israeli Defense Forces, and spread throughout occupied Palestine. Such an explanation would also have to show why Israel is being allowed to quietly ‘legalize’ the 100 or so ‘outposts,’ settlements spread around the West Bank that had been previously unlawful even under Israeli law. [Editor’s note: such ‘outposts’ remain in violation of international law] Such moves toward legalization deserve the urgent attention of all those who continue to proclaim their faith in a two-state solution, but instead are ignored.
This brings us back to Gaza and Hamas. The top Hamas leaders have made it abundantly clear over and over again that they are open to permanent peace with Israel if there is a total withdrawal to the 1967 borders (22% of historic Palestine) and the arrangement is supported by a referendum of all Palestinians living under occupation. Israel, with the backing of Washington, takes the position that Hamas as ‘a terrorist organization’ that must be permanently excluded from the procedures of diplomacy, except of course when it is serves Israel’s purposes to negotiate with Hamas. It did this in 2011 when it negotiated the prisoner exchange in which several hundred Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of the Israel soldier captive, Gilad Shalit, or when it seems convenient to take advantage of Egyptian mediation to establish temporary ceasefires. As the celebrated Israeli peace activist and former Knesset member Uri Avnery reminds us, a cease-fire in Arab culture, hudna in Arabic, is considered to be sanctified by Allah, has tended to be in use and faithfully observed ever since the time of the Crusades. Avnery also reports that up to the time he was assassinated, al-Jabari was in contact with Gershon Baskin of Israel, seeking to explore prospects for a long-term ceasefire that was reported to Israeli leaders, who unsurprisingly showed no interest.
There is a further feature of this renewal of conflict involving attacks on Gaza. Israel sometimes insists that since it is no longer, according to its claims, an occupying power, it is in a state of war with a Hamas governed Gaza. But if this were to be taken as the proper legal description of the relationship between the two sides, then Gaza would have the rights of a combatant, including the option to use proportionate force against Israeli military targets. As earlier argued, such a legal description of the relationship between Israel and Gaza is unacceptable. Gaza remains occupied and essentially helpless, and Israel as occupier has no legal or ethical right to engage in war against the people and government of Gaza, which incidentally was elected in internationally monitored free elections in early 2006. On the contrary, its overriding obligation as Occupier is to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Even if casualty figures in the present violence are so far low as compared with Operation Cast Lead, the intensity of air and sea strikes against the helpless people of Gaza strikes terror in the hearts and minds of every person living in the strip, a form of indiscriminate violence against the spirit and mental health of an entire people that cannot be measured in blood and flesh, but by reference to the traumatizing fear that has been generated.
We hear many claims in the West as to a supposed decline in international warfare since the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. This is to some extent a welcome development, but the people of the Middle East have yet to benefit from this trend, least of all the people of Occupied Palestine, and of these, the people of Gaza are suffering the most acutely. This spectacle of one-sided war in which Israel decides how much violence to unleash, and Gaza waits to be struck, firing off militarily meaningless salvos of rockets as a gesture of resistance, represents a shameful breakdown of civilization values. These rockets do spread fear and cause trauma among Israeli civilians even when no targets are struck, and represent an unacceptable tactic. Yet such unacceptability must be weighed against the unacceptable tactics of Israel that holds all the cards in the conflict. It is truly alarming that now even the holiest of cities, Jerusalem, is threatened with attacks, but the continuation of oppressive conditions for the people of Gaza, inevitably leads to increasing levels of frustration, in effect, cries of help that world has ignored at its peril for decades. These are survival screams! To realize this is not to exaggerate! To gain perspective, it is only necessary to read a recent UN Report that concludes that the deterioration of services and conditions will make Gaza uninhabitable by 2020.
That is, completely aside from the merits of the grievances on the two sides, for one side to be militarily omnipotent and the other side to be crouching helplessly in fear. Such a grotesque reality passes under the radar screens of world conscience because of the geopolitical shield behind which Israel is given a free pass to do whatever it wishes. Such a circumstance is morally unendurable, and should be politically unacceptable. It needs to be actively opposed globally by every person, government, and institution of good will.
So the antitank missile fired the day before and the rockets the day before that didn’t count?
Whoever started the shooting is the one
Whoever started the shooting no matter who’s the target is the first one to be blamed of the escalation. It’s common sense!! If one side is fearful to the other’s might, then why provoking? There’s a saying that ” If you can’t beat them, Join them!” Why not joining each other side peacefully without fear of being betrayed? Stop the fighting @ once coz your citizens are the one suffering most!..
The media is totally biased, hats off to RT and Aljazeera exposing the truth and reality on Israel’s war crimes. Why do they say Hamas started this, really? Perhaps they should do their homework. As credible journalist its totally shocking how biased they are. How does a ‘credible news’ clearly show their biased? The blood of Gazans killed esp the children are on the hands of Israel and U.S. The rest of the world is waking up to the Injustices suffered by innocent civilians. Think, if there were no Israel, Americans and the Muslims would live in peace and harmony. #FreeGaza#
The author conveniently ignores the fact that Israel gave Gaza back to the Palestinians, even forcibly evacuating thousands of its settlers in the process, who lived in Gaza. So much for “settler colonialism.”
It’s you who conveniently ignores the fact that Israel placed the Gaza Strip under a state of siege, collectively punishing the entire civilian population, and continued its regular attacks on the Strip; as for settler colonialism, surely you cannot have failed to notice that project continues in the West Bank. In fact, that was one of the main purposes of Sharon’s “disengagement plan” of which you speak; one, to kill the peace process and, two, to provide diplomatic cover for its illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank.
One of the phrases used by the Israelis is that “formaldehyde” had been applied to the inappropriately named peace negotiations when they withdrew from Gaza. Yes, the purpose was to kill the peace plan – formaldehydde will do that.
Sonny conveniently ignores the fact that Israel was created by taking Palestinian land.
The US appointed King-Crain commission reported in 1922 that a Jewish homeland in the Levant was not viable, because it would require the expulsion of native Palestinians and could only be sustained by force of arms, how prophetic!
4 to 6 million Palestinian refugees, denied the right of return to their historical homeland, all replaced by Americans, Russians, South Africans, Australians and Northern Europeans, non having any links with Palestine, save a religious belief.
It`s a crazy situation
Indeed, Mike, Sonny ignores that the Zionists created their “Jewish state” by ethnically cleansing three-quarters of a million Arabs from Palestine. Thanks for that additional observation.
no, Hammond Israel wasn’t created by any ethnic cleansing but by UN invitation and by the recognition of the other nations of the world.
the ethnic cleansing only came when the Palestinians opted to begin a war to prevent the partition and creation of Israel and to drive the great majority of the Jews “into the sea” or at least out of Palestine.
when you decide to run away with yourself and go gonzo with the ethnic cleansing bullspit, bear in mind that it was initiated by the Grand Mufti, the Arab Higher Committee and the Arab League.
The “Jewish state” of Israel was not created by the U.N. It was created by ethnically cleansing three-quarters of a million indigenous Arab inhabitants and by unilateral declaration of the Zionist leadership. The Zionists’ ethnic cleansing operations began five months before the unilateral declaration of statehood.
With all due respect, you’re much full of it, Mr Hammond.
it was indeed the UN…and the population wasn’t displaced by other than the wars started by the Palestinians and Arabs.
You can’t cite anything that shows massive displacement prior to war and you can repeat your crock of opinion endlessly without it meaning anything.
Israel was created via the UN and recognition by the other nations of the world.
It was expanded because the Palestinians and Arabs rejected the partition and opted for war.
Who do you think you’re kidding?
The Myth of the U.N. Creation of Israel
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/10/26/the-myth-of-the-u-n-creation-of-israel/
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1851685553/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1851685553&linkCode=as2&tag=forepolijour-20
The term “settlers” used by “Sonny” conveniently overlooks the fact that those “settlers” illegly occupied the land of Palestine in 1948 and continue to illegally expand therir zionistic settlements today, therefore noone gave the Palestinians anything since May 15 1948. Jeremy Hammond brought up a good point which is “ethnically cleansing” the Palestinians. Collective punishment and concentration camps were supposed to die with WW2 and Hitler, however the Israelis continue with their “open-air” death camps like GAZA where people reside with no adequate food, water, shelter, education, or any of the human rights afforded to us here in Canada.
Israel is solely responsible for transforming a beautiful spiritual religion like Judaism to a materialistic cuse to advance the cause of a group of zionists with no agenda but to wipe out a population of true survivors.
A final word to Israel and all of its supporters here in Canada and the entire world; Israel will never succeed in annihilating the Palestinian people as there has not been a more resilient nation in history as the nation of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Any of us educated people understand reality and facts, which all clearly show that Israel is an inhumane entity that has no respect for humanity, human rights, world order, UN regulations, and definitely have no respect for its major supporters the USA and Canada.
The propaganda Israel spreads is only believed by zionists and ignorant uneducated people that lack common sense like Sonny. So to people like Sonny I say: “I pity you dull witted and ignorant waste of a brain” and that is as “nice” as I can put it Sonny. Long live humanity and long live Palestine.
Even further back in time, the whole Zionist project has recognized that Palestinians inhabited the land and have to be dealt with. Jabotinsky’s “iron dome” was one of these plans – massive military superiority to protect the settlers in Palestine. From the begining ethnic cleansing has been part of the agenda, and the ethnic cleansing of 1948 actually started in 1947, before the Israeli declaration of independence. It has continued since then, slowly, house by house, farm by farm, missile by missile.
reminds me of waco.a good analogy is, an informer said bill had some illegal weapons in his residence.so the government sends heavily armed commandos to his home at three in the morning tosses a gernade in his window,shoots his dogs,in the process six officers are shot dead by the gunman,gunman is fatally wounded by sniper officers said he fired first,police are on paid vacation,no charges are brought against officers,they died for your freedom,we need tougher gun control,gunman was a white supremecist.this is zionist occupied america
ive paid a heavy price for supporting the palestinians,called a terrorist,etc.its my pleasure there is no price i wouldnot pay for freedom and justice,9-11 was a hardline zionist coup,along with the anthrax attacks and the wall street heist,the war for israel in iraq and iran syria libya lebanon.how did the world allow israel to lay siege to and carry out a massacre at the church of the nativity?very few people no the truth about the events in bethlehem.
This clash did not begin with rocket fire but with ramped-up terror activity on the Israel-Gaza border, including the detonation of an explosive-filled tunnel that had been dug into Israeli territory and the firing of an anti-tank missile at an IDF jeep on a border patrol. Such things must be taken into consideration when looking at the most recent confrontation.
http://jcpa.org/article/the-long-term-implications-of-the-israel-hamas-clash/
This “clash” started before WW2.
In 1937 David Ben-Gurion said “We must expel Arabs and take their places”. In 1948 that happened.
In 1948 David Ben-Gurion said “Let us not delude ourselves, we (The Israelis)are the aggressors, they (The Palestinians)fight to defend their land”.
The Holocaust did not happen in Palestine. Why then are Palestinians punished for the crimes that were committed in Europe? ……… WHY?
The Jerusalem Center neglects to mention that just before the Palestinian attacks on military targets mentioned, Israeli forces invaded Gaza and murdered a 12-year-old boy.
it was widely mentioned that a boy was killed when an Israeli patrol near the fence checking for tunnels was fired upon by Palestinian gunmen.
it’s not central, and your formulation of the incident is less honest than is omission of it,
Stating facts is less honest than omitting them? That’s your argument?
taking facts out of context and imbuing them with significance that they lack is what makes it dishonest.
should you opine that the fighting started because the PFLP was looking for publicity and thought that blowing up a jeep was cool, that might also be a statement of fact, but would also be neither central nor of honest import in what developed.
So observing that Israeli forces killed a 12-year-old boy is “taking facts out of context”, but observing that Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli army Jeep is not. Got it. Brilliant argument.
Israel within 48 hours of this truce, has shot and killed 1 Palestinian and wounded 10 others who entered the Israeli imposed 600 meter “buffer” zone on the Palestinian side where farmers grew crops.
No outcry in the US press I notice, Why?
why should there be an outcry?
the buffer zone remains and no one ever said that it would not.
a truce deal very clearly implies that the war continues.
The “Buffer Zone” is the name Israel gives when they kill Palestinians who are farming land that has existed for thousands of years, the “Buffer Zone” has never been defined, it`s a name supporters of Israel give as an excuse to continue killing Palestinians.
Since 2003, 126 Israeli children have been murdered by Palestinians, quite rightly condemned by the world and the US in particular. During the same time, in excess of 1,600 (UN figures) Palestinian children have been murdered by Israeli settlers and the occupying Israeli army, ignored by the world and the US in particular.
you’re right, Mike, and I have to admit it.
that land HAS existed for thousands of years.
great point.
No response to the number of Palestinian children murdered by Israelis, I note!
sorry Mike I was too busy giggling to give a response to your other bs.
the kid wasn’t murdered, he was shot and killed in the skirmish.
You still ignore the murders of 1,600 Palestinian children, how can that be?
I condemn the murders of 126 Israeli children, as no doubt you do, there is just no excuse for killing children, yet during the time Palestinians murdered 126 Israeli children, Israeli settlers and the occupying Israeli army murdered 1,600 West Bank Palestinian children.
And a recent UN investigation found that attacks by illegal settlers on Palestinians were increasing, with tacit approval of the occupying Israeli army, more information that will make you giggle perhaps?
— ” The top Hamas leaders have made it abundantly clear over and over again that they are open to permanent peace with Israel if there is a total withdrawal to the 1967 borders (22% of historic Palestine) and the arrangement is supported by a referendum of all Palestinians living under occupation. ” —-
other than being entirely untrue, it’s only distortive and deceitful.
What Hamas makes abundantly clear is that Israel make enormous concessions Hamas, without meeting Israeli officials, signing any agreement or making any binding commitment at all….will grant a long-term cease-war ….while still maintaining that Hamas and others are in a state of war with Israel …and that no one has the authority to make a permanent peace deal with Israel….
and Hamas WILL not make a peace deal because the war can only be ended with the destruction of Israel and the establishment of Islamic rule over every inch of the land.
It is not “entirely untrue”. It is a fact that “The top Hamas leaders have made it abundantly clear over and over again that they are open to permanent peace with Israel if there is a total withdrawal to the 1967 borders (22% of historic Palestine) and the arrangement is supported by a referendum of all Palestinians living under occupation.”
The Rise of Hamas in Gaza
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/20/the-rise-of-hamas-in-gaza/
Hamas Leader Reiterates Goal of Palestinian State Neighboring Israel
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/05/06/hamas-leader-reiterates-goal-of-palestinian-state-neighboring-israel/
well, it’s probably OK that you’re citing yourself to back yourself up in your horsespit, and certainly no one else would refer to that dog’s breakfast.
Unfortunately, it’s worthless, the UN offer that the Israelis accepted served as basis for the vast majority of the world’s nation to recognize that state of Israel and recognize it…..and that process of recognition was well underway before the fighting had gotten serious.
The US, UK, USSR and 23 other nations recognized Israel before the end of May.
sorry, kid, but you’re only kidding yourself (and stop referring to stuff published by people you see in your mirror. doing that makes you twice as silly)
I presented you with an argument showing incontrovertibly that you are wrong. If you wish to choose willful ignorance and not even read it, much less offer a substantive argument in reply, there’s not much I can do about that. I can only repeat for the sake of other readers who do not choose to be ignorant that the facts are precisely as I’ve stated them.
An embryonic UN with only 59 members voted for the creation of the State of Israel. Most, if not all were heavily reliant on US financial support, particularly the South American and Carribbean countries, including The Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The numerous Arab States were allowed only 1 vote in total, as The Arab League, The USA paid for the votes that pulled the wool over the eyes of an unconcerned world. Would it happen today? not a snowball in Hells chance.
It`s strange how Israels supporters lean on this UN resolution as justification for it`s stealing of Palestinian land (Taken without consent, is theft), yet have ignored 61 UN resolutions critical of Israel, and have had the US veto a further 41.
No other country in the world has received so many critical UN resolutions as Israel and no other country has escaped from UN punishment as Israel has.
The scary thing for me is, time is running out for Israel, as it did 1,000 years ago when western countries created a kingdom based on religious exclusivity, it was stupid then and no less so now.
Mike, your point about the hypocrisy of Israel citing the UN as granting it legal authority for its existence on one hand while perpetually violating UN resolutions on the other is well taken; however, I must stress that the UN neither created Israel nor conferred any legal authority or legitimacy to the Zionists’ unilateral declaration of the existence of the state of Israel.
You are quite correct Jeremy, the resolution was to Partition Palestine land, it had many conditions that should have ensured the rights of the intrinsic population, all totally ignored when satisfying a Zionist demand for a State.
Support for Israel is reliant on belief in myths, the “Hebrew slaves” escape from Egypt is the first, the Kingdom of Israel was within the Egyption empire (The Pharaoh Seti 1, conducted 7 annual expeditions to fight the Hittites, he would have marched his armies through the Kingdom of Israel, and probably collected some taxes!), and the Hebrew tribe were all Arabs! Their descendants are the Palestinians who subsequently converted to Christianity, then Islam, while quietly getting on with their lives.
The appeal of the first monotheist religion spread far beyond the Middle East, as did the second and the third versions, what right do believers, of any Semite religion, have to claim ownership of Levant land?
I seethe, and I`m not a Palestinian, I`m not even an Arab!