Condi dearest has finished her useless visit, and as predicted, the Israelis will continue on with their regular programming. The killing in Jerusalem provides a convenient pretext to go forward with these murderous plans, and Bush wasted no time offering his full support. The following information comes from a journalist in the West Bank who monitors Israeli television news:

Channel Two of Israeli Television disclosed yesterday, Wednesday, that the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has gotten the green light from the Security and Political Council of Ministers, which met yesterday to decide how to end the problem of the Qassam rockets, to initiate implementation of the new plan aimed an ending the problem of the Palestinian Qassam rockets aimed at southern Israel.

The televised report cited high-level security sources as saying Barak intends to plan for the removal of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, namely from the region that the resistance uses for the launch of these rockets, and to move them toward Gaza City and to confine them there. The Israeli reporter added that Barak is turning to legal advisers in the Defence Ministry, in order to obtain legal authorization for the removal of the Palestinian civilians. Barak is also asking Professor David Friedmann, minister of Israeli Affairs [Justice Minister], who supports toughening of penalties on Gaza to end the launching of rockets, in order to obtain his authorization to begin execution of the plan.

The reporter said that once [or if] the plan becomes operational, it would start immediately: In the first stage there would be a drop of leaflets advising residents to leave their homes, in addition to special radio announcements in Arabic directed to the residents, and in the event residents didn’t obey the warnings, the occupation army would begin bombing the inhabited areas, in order to compel them to leave their homes and go to Gaza City.

The Council [of Ministers], which met yesterday after the departure of the American Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, stressed that they did not agree with previous army planning for [only] a partial end to the Qassam rockets. And the Council decided to target the leaders of Hamas, political and military alike, and to desroy every symbol of Hamas authority in the Gaza Strip.

Essentially, a bunch of people who already agree with each other about what they want to do, ask each other for permission to do it, and that is passed off to the world as some kind of meaningful deliberation.

And more pathetically, the world will accept this. Bush has already offered his support.

US President George W. Bush on Thursday assured Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the United States stands with Israel after the “barbaric and vicious attack” on a school in west Jerusalem.

“I have just spoken with Prime Minister Olmert to extend my deepest condolences to the victims, their families, and to the people of Israel. I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack,” Bush said in a written statement released by the White House.

At least eight people were killed on Thursday night when a Palestinian gunman opened fire inside a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem in an attack threatening peace efforts amid escalating violence.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation,” said Bush.

The Jerusalem attack came after more than a week of flaring Israeli-Palestinian violence in and around the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where more than 130 Palestinians have been killed in eight days.

In Beirut, Hezbollah’s television announced that the authors of the Jerusalem attack were members of a previously unknown group called “Phalange of Free Men of Galilee — Groups of the Martyr Imad Mughnieh and Martyrs of Gaza.”

The claim was made in a tag line running across the bottom of the screen, and no further details were immediately given. Hezbollah official Nawaf Moussaoui, reached by AFP, said he had no comment on the attack.

Imad Mughnieh was a top Hezbollah commander slain in a Damascus bombing on February 12.

Isn’t it so predictable how Bush notices the vicious and barbaric attacks on Israeli civilians, but he doesn’t notice them against the Palestinians? Even though they occur ten times more frequently, at least? Isn’t it predictable that the corporate media fails to tell the story of innocent Palestinian babies, women, children and students ruthlessly murdered by the IDF? There are so many stories to choose from, with pictures, but they don’t notice. However, as soon as some Israelis get killed, they’re all over it?

Regarding this ‘terrorist attack’ at the school, color me suspicious. When the radio announced it yesterday, they did not mention who these killers were. That was strange. It’s not like we can expect any kind of journalistic restraint from the corporate media. If they wanted to blame it on the Palestinians, they would have done so immediately. But no, it took me three times to find out that it was a Palestinian. That just strikes me as odd. And now we hear that it’s some previously unknown group.

Sure, sure. It’s probably something arranged by Mossad as a false flag for the sole purpose of giving them cover to murder lots more Palestinians. Another problem solved.

Tags: Bush, Israel, Palestinians