Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Posts Tagged Israel

This is the only way they know to ’solve problems’

Mar 7

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Israel, Media | No Comments

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.

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Statistics 101

Mar 5

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel | No Comments

If America Knew has a very useful post up today telling the story of the Occupation in simple bar charts.

Here are the facts in words, click through the link above to see the graphs.

  • Children killed since 9/29/00: 119 Israeli, 982 Palestinian
  • Adults killed since 9/29/00: 1,031 Israeli, 4,548 Palestinian
  • People injured since 9/29/00: 6,845 Israeli, 31,815 Palestinian
  • US Aid FY 2007: $6.8 million per day to Israel, $0.3 million per day to the Palestinians
  • UN Resolutions: 65 targeting Israel, 0 targeting the Palestinians
  • Political Prisoners and Detainees: 1 Israeli currently held by the Palestinians, 10,756 Palestinians currently held by Israel
  • Demolition of Homes since 1967: 0 Israeli homes demolished by the Palestinians, 18,147 Palestinian homes demolished by Israel
  • Unemployment Rates: 9% in Israel, 40% among the Palestinians
  • Illegal Settlements: 223 Jewish-only settlements and outposts on confiscated Palestinian land, 0 Palestinian settlements on Israeli land

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again and again and again: there is no comparison. The Israelis aggres and the Palestinians defend themselves. Any other interpretation fails to fit the facts.

It’s really very simple. The only reason it became so supposedly intractable and complex and unsolvable is because the Israelis refuse to be reasonable, and other nations feebly enable them to get away with their selfish behavior. And then a bunch of people throw their hands up and say, Woe! Woe! What are we to do? It’s too hard! And while all this ridiculous kabuki goes on, the Palestinians continue to suffer and die.

It is so profoundly shameful that the world has allowed this unwilling, unjust and bloody sacrifice. Do people love Israel more than Justice? If so, I think they make a grievous error.

For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face. Psalm 11:7

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Condi crawls to Israel to make demands

Mar 4

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Israel, Language & Meaning, Unreality | No Comments

Not that I expected anything different, but look at the lame, lame words Condi uses to stop those naughty Israelis. Absolutely pathetic. She is a disgrace.

CAIRO, March 4 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she planned to tell Israeli officials to ease the humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip and avoid attacks that might kill civilians, but she repeatedly refused to say whether she supported a cease-fire.

Oh yes, she ‘plans’ to tell them to ‘ease’ the suffering and ‘avoid’ attacks that ‘might kill civilians’, but she refused to support a cease-fire. That means nothing. How could it be more toothless? Let’s see.

“Call it what you will, we want the violence to stop,” Rice told reporters traveling with her as she headed to the region during some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in years. She asserted that Hamas, which controls Gaza, is trying to disrupt the nascent peace process the Bush administration launched last year in Annapolis.

“Call it what you will” she says! She will not call it what it is, because it’s a massacre being committed by her handlers! If she were to call it what it IS, she would be in big trouble. So the reporters can say it, but Condi cannot. It can all be blamed on Hamas, you see. If it weren’t for Hamas, Condi would be getting ready to accept her Nobel Peace Prize. They have ruined everything, those bastards.

“First and foremost, Hamas needs to stop firing rockets into Israeli cities,” Rice said. At the same time, she said, “Israelis have to be very concerned about the innocent people in Gaza who were caught in this crossfire, and the Israelis need to be very concerned about the humanitarian situation. Those are discussions we’re going to have.”

See? Here’s the little double standard. Hamas has to ’stop firing rockets’, but Israel only need be ‘very concerned’. Are those two things the same? Why no, they are not. Evidently, as long as Israel says it is ‘very concerned’, they may continue to murder the Palestinians, and if Hamas doesn’t stop the rockets, they will deserve everything that happens to them. That’s what passes for logic and leadership and diplomacy in this morally depraved world we live in. Read the whole thing. Behold the pathetic, mewling, sycophant trying to appease her masters.

Who is the master here? Isn’t it so obvious that Israel will do whatever Israel wants, and the US Secretary of State, the wretched liar Condoleeza Rice, has no authority what-so-ever to tell them otherwise? Anyone who can’t see this is blind.

UPDATE: After reading this little expose on how Bush and Condi helped conceive this current catastrophe with the assistance of their evil and stupid Fatah minions, it becomes even clearer why she has no authority at all. The Israelis probably tell her behind close doors, “It’s your fault! Go home! We’ll do what we want!” They will wait ever so patiently for her two day useless visit to end, and then they will go right back to whatever murderous plans they have on the table. She should have saved the US taxpayers the money it cost us to fly her over there for nothing!

There is no one more hated among Hamas members than Muhammad Dahlan, long Fatah’s resident strongman in Gaza. Dahlan, who most recently served as Abbas’s national-security adviser, has spent more than a decade battling Hamas. Dahlan insists that abu Dan was tortured without his knowledge, but the video is proof that his followers’ methods can be brutal.

Bush has met Dahlan on at least three occasions. After talks at the White House in July 2003, Bush publicly praised Dahlan as “a good, solid leader.” In private, say multiple Israeli and American officials, the U.S. president described him as “our guy.”

…Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)

But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.

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There’s one in every neighborhood

Mar 4

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Iran, Israel, Latin America, Politics, Russia, War on Drugs | No Comments

Hugo Chavez has dubbed Colombia the ‘Israel of Latin America‘ after Colombian militants crossed into Ecuador and assassinated a long-standing Farc leader (Raul Reyes) and his group. Eighteen people were killed, most of them in their pajamas, and some were shot in the back disproving the Columbian assertion of hot pursuit and self-defense. Chavez ordered tanks and troops to the border, as did Ecuador, though it’s not clear that anything will actually happen. His remark, however, did not escape Israel’s notice.

Chavez, who has friendly diplomatic ties with Syria and Iran, said last year during a visit to Damascus that his goal was to “build a new world” free of U.S. domination.

Israel is considering downgrading its relations with Venezuela in light of the extremist anti-Israel line taken by the country’s government under President Hugo Chavez.

Israel is concerned about the growing alliance between Chavez and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A highly-placed source in Jerusalem says only preliminary talks have been held on the issue and no decision has been made.

John McCain jumped right in though, even before the US government has officially ‘reacted’ to the situation.

Washington - Senator John McCain, the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee, Monday called for Venezuela and Ecuador to remove their troops from the Colombian border. McCain called the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), whose second-in-command was killed by Colombian military forces who crossed over into Ecuador on Saturday, one of the world’s “premier terrorist organizations” which has been kidnapping, murdering and promoting the drug trade for decades.

Venezuela and Ecuador have moved troops to the Colombian border to protest the killing. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has negotiated the release of a handful of the hundreds of hostages being held by FARC for years, and wants FARC to be given political legitimacy. McCain called Colombia a “vital ally” who has been working with the US to stem the flow of illegal drugs northwards into the US. “I want to reiterate our partnership and friendship with President Uribe and the government of Colombia,” McCain said. “I hope the tensions will be relaxed and that President Chavez will remove his troops from the border, as well as the Ecuadorians.” The US government had not yet officially reacted to the situation.

Here’s some background, as I profess relative ignorance about Latin American politics and the drug trade. However, I do know that the war on drugs is a big phony fake ruse run by ‘law enforcement’, designed to and successfully generating a tremendous underground economy, which makes many corrupt people filthy rich and which reliably sends many poor people to jails and ruins communities. The jails were built to house these manufactured ‘criminals’, and the jails themselves make many more corrupt people filthy rich. So the whole thing is basically a big black ops shakedown that grinds people into the dirt. But other than that, I don’t follow it. All I can say is that seeing John McCain rush in is a red flag to pay attention.

According to the Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, the bodies of the Farc commanders and 13 guerrillas were recovered in their pyjamas after being bombed while sleeping in a tent on the Ecuadorean side of the frontier. The Colombian air force, Correa claimed, had used advanced technology “with the collaboration of foreign powers” to locate the camp and “to massacre” its occupants. Uribe’s government is a close ally of the United States and of Israel, whereas Correa belongs to the radical camp led by Chávez. Subsequent to the bombing, Colombian troops crossed the frontier into Ecuador to recover the bodies.

Ever since 9/11, the United States has requested the Colombian government to refer to the Farc as a “terrorist” organisation, a word also now used by the European Union. Yet the Colombian guerrillas are the most long-lasting of all such movements in Latin America, long pre-dating the current obsession with “terrorism”. Their leader, Manuel Marulanda, first led the Farc in the early 1960s and has survived into the 21st century, while Raúl Reyes had run the organisation’s political wing for many years. A well-known negotiator and promoter of the Farc’s cause in meetings in Europe and Latin America, Reyes was a crucial collaborator in the recent efforts by the Venezuelan president and the Colombian senator, Piedad Córdoba, to release some of the Colombian hostages.

The Farc has witnessed many changes over the past 40 years, but none of them has affected its ability to survive. One change has been the increasing production in Colombia of the raw material for cocaine and heroin, fuelling the drug markets of the United States and Europe, that was once grown in Bolivia and Peru. Land in Colombia devoted to growing cannabis, coca and poppies has grown fivefold since the 1960s, and the Farc has long provided protection to the rural workers on these plantations, as well as exacting tribute from the drug barons.

Another change has been the growth of paramilitary organisations, first sponsored by the drug barons and then by the state, that have revived the pattern of civil war that has been a particular Colombian phenomenon since the 19th century. Coupled with the growth of the paramilitaries has been the US-designed Plan Colombia, a military aid package first agreed with President Clinton in 1999, that has made Colombia the fifth largest recipient of US aid in the world.

A third change has been the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the corresponding loss of influence of the Colombian Communist Party, once the principal political backer of the Farc. The death in 1990 of Jacobo Arenas, the talented Communist leader, left Marulanda and Reyes as the Farc’s sole commanders.

The players continue to line up at the line of scrimmage. US, UK, Israel, Germany, France vs Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, Russia. Am I forgetting anyone important? Check out the ring of fire.

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Murder Suicide

Mar 2

Posted by Marlena in Israel, Unreality | No Comments

Gideon Levy wrote a strong editorial in Haaretz today, and I was encouraged to read it. The IDF’s actions in Gaza are obscene. The current leadership of Israel, just like our leaders in the US, will drag its population down into the very pits of hell because they are evil people who have no concern for any lives but their own. Charm notwithstanding. Words notwithstanding. The trappings of power notwithstanding. It’s the actions that count, and the actions condemn them. And as long as we the people fail to protest and resist their depraved lust for power, death and destruction, we deserved to be condemned also. We talk about democracy, but we have to live it.

It’s very clear that if anything is ever to change, the change must start with the people. The Israelis must stand up to their own government, just as we must. And yes, this can be exceedingly difficult once the horse has left the barn, so to speak; but it still has to happen. Don’t we know it. It’s our own fault for letting things get so out of hand. And yet, I’ve never known the Israelis to shy away from a confrontation, so what exactly is the excuse right now? Why is everyone silent? Or are they? Do they have the same propaganda machine we have here, the echo chamber that magnifies a few voices into many, confusing people?

I don’t know. But I’m afraid the Israelis have come perilously close to utterly confirming, by their actions and inactions, every horrible suspicion which they accuse others of unjustly harboring against them. Many would say Israel has long crossed that line, and they make a damn good argument. And so, I hope this editorial received a ringing endorsement in Israel. I still hope Israel is not the monster she appears to be, but time swiftly runs out for anyone to be convinced otherwise. And speaking from a country which dangles its legs over the rim of hell, ready to jump, I just have to say it’s such a shame. It doesn’t have to be this way. The United States and Israel have taken every good thing and insist on throwing it all away. For what?

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No Translation Required

Mar 1

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel | No Comments

Somebody’s son:

Somebody's son

Citizens of America, wake up. We send billions and billions of dollars to Israel every year, and this is what they are doing with it.

Murdering Palestinians.

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Israel Killed 33 Palestinians Including 9 Children in Gaza

Feb 29

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel | No Comments

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Killing is a Choice

Feb 29

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Israel, Language & Meaning, Military, Psychology, Unreality | No Comments

The Israelis continue to escalate their killing spree. They have been bombing Gaza indiscriminately this week, killing 33 people in a 24 hour span, including babies and children. Go here to see a video and read about one of the infants murdered.

From The Guardian:

Four Palestinian children were killed while playing football yesterday as Israel hit back at the Gaza Strip with more than 10 air strikes, after Hamas militants escalated their rocket fire into southern Israel. The deaths follow that of a six-month-old Palestinian baby, who was killed the previous evening when Israel intensified its attack on Gaza after a 47-year-old Israeli man was killed by a Hamas-fired rocket.

The surge in fighting began after Israel killed five Hamas rocket launchers, prompting the group that rules Gaza to more than double its missile attacks into Israel’s neighbouring towns.

While Wednesday’s Israeli fatality was the first in nine months, rockets fall on the southern Israeli town of Sderot almost daily. In February alone, three Israeli children have been severely wounded, including one who lost his leg.

Or, to put it another way, the Qassam rockets have been falling on Sderot for a very long time, but they rarely cause injury. In the past month, they have severely wounded three Israeli children. As everyone knows, the rockets are ‘notoriously inaccurate’. That phrase has been linked to the Qassam rockets in perpetuity.

The Qassam rockets are notoriously inaccurate - Hamas launched 28 yesterday and only 10 landed in Israel - but there are growing fears that the militants are acquiring an arsenal with a longer range. Israel’s police said five foreign-made rockets similar to the kind that Hizbullah fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, triggering the 2006 war, landed in Ashkelon, a city north of Sderot. One of the rockets pierced the roof of an apartment building, but no one was hurt.

Just because Israel’s police ’said’ the rockets were ‘foreign-made’ and were ’similar’ to the ones that triggered the 2006 war with Lebanon, that doesn’t make it true. It also doesn’t justify Israel murdering innocent Palestinian civilians. Israel decided to start the war with Lebanon, and Israel decided to wage a completely asymmetrical war against the Palestinians. Our ‘Decider’, GWB, decided to start an illegal war against Iraq. Nations wage wars. It’s a decision. It doesn’t just ‘happen’.

So. What does Israel have to say for itself? Do they express any remorse for the innocent lives lost? No. They can only focus on their own deaths.

Public pressure is mounting on Israel’s government to stop the rockets, which have killed 13 since 2001. While visiting Sderot, the defence minister, Ehud Barak, said: “A solution to the Qassams will be found faster than what most people believe.” But Israel refuses to talk to Hamas, because the Islamist group refuses to acknowledge the Jewish state’s right to exist, will not renounce violence and refuses to adhere to previous peace agreements signed by Palestinian leaders.

Israel’s attempts to thwart the militants with an eight month-long blockade on Gaza has driven the population into deep poverty, but it has failed to stop the militants’ missile attacks. Pressure has been mounting for a harsher military response, yet the government is divided over how to improve the effectiveness of its military strikes. Some ministers are calling for a full scale invasion of Gaza.

“We must prepare for escalation. A large, significant and tangible ground operation. We won’t flinch,” Barak said in a closed meeting, according to the Associated Press. “Israel will reach those responsible, hit them in operations, and Hamas will pay the price for its activities.”

But the interior minister, Meir Sheetrit, opposed a large scale ground operation, arguing that it would not put an end to the rocket fire. “This is the wrong approach and it won’t lead us anywhere. We won’t just go in and suddenly everything will be OK,” he said, according to AP.

Instead, Sheetrit advocated an increase in the number of targeted killings of Hamas operatives. “We must not let anyone involved in the shooting stay alive.”

Whatever the hell that means. Kicking it up a notch or two, some Israelis have actually used the term ‘holocaust’ to describe what the Palestinians ‘could bring on themselves’. No I’m not kidding.

An Israeli minister today warned of increasingly bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians could bring on themselves what he called a “holocaust”.

“The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defence minister, told army radio.

Shoah is the Hebrew word normally reserved to refer to the Jewish Holocaust. It is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi extermination of Jews during the second world war, and many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other events.

One can only hope they are loath to commit holocausts.

The minister’s statement came after two days of tit-for-tat missile raids between Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army. At least 32 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since the surge in violence on Wednesday.

…”It will be sad, and difficult, but we have no other choice,” Vilnai said, referring to the large-scale military operation he said Israel was preparing to bring a halt to the rocket fire.

“We’re getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we’ve used a small percentage of the army’s power because of the nature of the territory.”

The psychopath will always blame the victim for ‘making me do it’. Just so, Vilnai describes how Israel is reluctantly but inexorably being forced by the Palestinians to smash Gaza into smithereens. “We have no other choice.” Of course, they can wait for better weather. They’ll use that time to put the finishing touches on their plans. But remember, they have “no other choice”.

Israel would not launch a ground offensive in the next week or two, partly because the military would prefer to wait for better weather, defence sources said. But the army had completed its preparations and was awaiting the government’s order to move, officials said.

Seriously. Sderot is just a ratty little village, but Ashkelon is a whole other pail of worms. Ashkelon has great sports facilities and a beach, and a population of 120,000. Israel can’t allow rockets to fall on one of it’s cosmopolitan centers. That would be out of bounds.

Until now, the Palestinian rocket squads have largely targeted Sderot, a small town near Gaza. Ashkelon, a big population centre only 25 miles from Tel Aviv, was caught unprepared, its mayor said on Friday.

“It’s a city of 120,000 people, with large facilities – a huge soccer stadium, a basketball stadium and a beach. No one is ready for this,” Roni Mehatzri told Israel Radio.

Also please note the arrival of three US warships in the eastern Mediterranean, and a visit next week by the Princess of Darkness, Condoleeza Rice.

There were further indications that Israel was preparing for an offensive by sending confidential messages to world leaders, including the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who plans to visit the region next week.

“Israel is not keen on, and rushing for, an offensive, but Hamas is leaving us no choice,” the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, told the senior figures, according to Israel’s mass circulation daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Security sources were quoted by both Israel Radio and army radio as saying a big operation was being prepared but was not imminent.

Right. “Because they have no choice.” That, my friends, is what we call a Big Lie. Make no mistake. When they start the next war, it will be a war of choice. They will start it when they choose, they will kill whoever they choose, they will take whatever they choose, they will say whatever they choose, and so on.

But you, Citizen, you don’t have to believe them. You can choose to see the Truth.

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Completely Disingenuous

Feb 28

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel, Unreality | No Comments

The UN released a report this week that stated the obvious: the occupation causes Palestinians to respond with violence, ‘terrorism’ if you will.

A report commissioned by the United Nations suggests that Palestinian terrorism is the “inevitable consequence” of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble South African apartheid — a claim Israel rejected Tuesday as enflaming hatred between Jews and Palestinians.The report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the U.N. Human Rights Council, will be presented next month, but it has been posted on the body’s Web site.

In it, Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, says “common sense … dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation.”

The man speaks truth, but note the Israeli reaction. This Dugard, he is ‘enflaming hatred’ between Jews and Palestinians.

!!!! (eyebrows arching)

I see. Apparently we are to believe that the violent, murderous Israeli occupation doesn’t inflame hatred. It’s just the vicious people like Dugard who insist on talking about it who keep causing all the trouble. Look at what he says!

While Palestinian terrorist acts are to be deplored, “they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation,” writes Dugard, whose 25-page report accuses the Jewish state of acts and policies consistent with all three.

He cited checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement to house demolitions and what he terms the “Judaization” of Jerusalem.

As long as there is occupation, there will be terrorism, he argues.

“Acts of terror against military occupation must be seen in historical context,” Dugard says. “This is why every effort should be made to bring the occupation to a speedy end. Until this is done, peace cannot be expected, and violence will continue.”

Well…actually…that makes perfect sense. I would go so far as to say that it is obvious, and self-evident, and plain as the nose on your face, etc.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva slammed Dugard’s analysis.

“The common link between al-Qaida and the Palestinian terrorists is that both intentionally target civilians with the mere purpose to kill,” Itzhak Levanon said. “The fact that Professor Dugard is ignoring this essential fact, demonstrates his inability to use objectivity in his assessment.

“Professor Dugard will better serve the cause of peace by ceasing to enflame the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, who have embarked on serious talks to solve this contentious situation.”

That’s very rich. We have here a case of complete projection of Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians (intentionally targeting civilians with the mere purpose to kill) as well as a blatant lie (serious talks, blah blah blah).

Israel has a bone to pick with Dugard because, unlike the corporate media, which constantly and consistently tells Israel’s side of the story, he has focused only on the Palestinian side. This makes him ‘one-sided’, and therefore he is not credible. However, anyone who is ‘one-sided’ for the Israeli position is by definition credible. That’s how that works, you see. Oh and by the way, Israel refused to allow Dugard on a fact-finding mission on it’s 2006 Gaza offensive, evidently because he can not be relied upon to see the correct ’side’. So I bet that means he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about…or something.

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But remember, Israel is a ‘democracy’

Feb 27

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel | No Comments

That’s what we’re always told. Israel is a democracy, and not only that, but the only democracy in the whole Middle East. It’s a civilized place. Just don’t look in that corner over there, where they keep the Palestinians. Because it’s dirty, and it smells. But other than that, it’s just the greatest democracy you can imagine. You betcha.

The new station receives up to 40,000 cubic metres of waste water every day, and it should pump 120 cubic metres an hour through each of six water pumps.

However, only three pumps were installed in the station because the Israeli closure and blockade since June 2007 had prevented the essential parts needed to build the remaining three from entering Gaza.

Power cuts have also been affecting the efficiency of the station. The emergency generator is not functioning well as it requires maintenance and spare parts are lacking. The limited amount of fuel that is let into Gaza is not enough to run the generator for long hours.

…This station was supposed to be a blessing for the neighbourhood but it turned out to be a curse, a health hazard for us all.

Sewage water is filling the streets surrounding the station and flooding nearby houses.

The stench is unbearable.

Tenants in ground floor flats were forced to move in with neighbours on higher floors. People are now using sand bags to absorb the sewage water which continues to seep into their houses.

The amount of children who have been taken ill has increased considerably. Cases of diarrhea are mounting by the day. Even now, children continue to play outside amongst the raw sewage – where else can they go?

And we are now facing a public health crisis.

What disgusts me is that this could all have been prevented had the Israelis opened one checkpoint to allow the spare parts and fuel through.

…Despite the blockade, we have to continue our daily lives, otherwise we will have nothing left. When the crisis started, some families bought their children gasoline lamps to study by when electricity was cut. Now that fuel is not available and very expensive, children do their homework and study for their exams in candle light.To add to the deplorable situation, a friend of mine heard on the news yesterday that the course books for the new term will not reach us for at least another month.

They have been stuck at the Israeli checkpoints along with spare parts, fuel, food, and medical supplies; people are not let in or out. Gaza has now become a prison for us all.

When a Hamas rocket falls near Sderot, the Israelis are rushed to the hospital via ambulance and treated for shock. A single injured or killed Israeli civilian will be reported around the globe as a tragedy worthy of harsh retribution. But in the same country, Israel, 1.5 million Palestinians live in a cage. Palestinian children play outside in raw sewage and do their homework by candlelight.

The Palestinians live in a third-world ghetto that Israel has explicitly set aside and created for them via destructive and malicious policies. These policies have been specifically designed to prevent the Palestinians from making any sort of normal life for themselves. The Israelis complain that the Palestinians are such a burden, but of course they have created this very situation and do everything possible to exacerbate it. It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so tragic.

Israel calls itself a democracy, but that is a sick joke. Israel’s cruel and vindictive behavior toward the Palestinians must be named by it’s proper name. Israel is an apartheid state. Anyone who continues to insist that Israel is a democracy enables that government’s continued abhorrent behavior which violates international law and basic human decency.

Originally published 2/25/08.

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