Massacre in Gaza: Part 2

thanks for all the updates here, esp. the take action links.  very helpful.

particularly the sample letter confronting some of the media lies,

"I am writing to express my deep disappointment in your coverage of the ongoing massacre in the Gaza Strip. The media have been focusing on Palestinian rocket fire into Israel as the immediate context for the deadly attacks, diverting attention away from the fact that it was Israel that broke the ceasefire many times during the last six months, particularly on November 4th, 2008, when Israeli forces killed six Palestinians.

What is missing in current media reports is the fact that the truce between Hamas and Israel was holding until Israel broke it on November 4, 2008. The Guardian reported this on November 5th. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians). Even Fox News reported on the attack, although it characterized it as a “clash” that was “the first battle since a June truce mostly quieted violence in the volatile territory.” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446805,00.html).

Why, then, are the media forgetting their own reporting? It is evident that Israel broke the ceasefire, irrespective of whether it thought the Rafah tunnels were a threat (since the tunnels were the targets in the attack). Israel knew full well that its attack would provoke Hamas’s retaliation.

Indiscriminate fire into a heavily populated civilian area—Gaza is the most densely populated area in the world—is the equivalent of a willful intent to kill civilians, and constitutes a war crime under international law, particularly under the Fourth Geneva convention. None of the Western media outlets dared raise this issue, or to interview international law experts.

In a news report on December 28th, 2008, the BBC aired interviews with Israeli officials who stressed the notion that Israel’s citizens were in danger. The BBC report emphasized the Palestinian rockets, how Hamas has acquired rockets with a longer range that can reach more Israelis, while showing footage of Israeli civilians scurrying towards their homes in anticipation of a missile launch. Israeli Foreign Minister Livni was shown dismissing the high death toll in Gaza, saying that the question was not to count numbers here and there, not of how many people had died, but that Hamas is a “terrorist organization” and a dangerous threat to Israel’s civilians. Sadly, however, it is a question of numbers, especially when so many of the 350 killed and over 1600 injured (so far) are women and children. As stated, this act violates international law.

This form of biased journalism has to stop. Misinformation hurts the cause of peace, and insults the memory of the Palestinians massacred during this dark event. Demonizing Palestinians encourages further Israeli aggression. Raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the unacceptable massacre that took place on December 27th is essential to achieving justice for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and beyond."

Oh, and for the record, the world is (not) watching Gaza be razed again. What else is new? Like Cueball, I have almost nothing to add. The reality is so stark, it doesn't need my outrage to magnify it.

Quote:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak (the Hebrew surname means "lightning," German "Blitz") did it again: a historic record of over 200 Palestinians killed in a single Sabbath's blitz (Dec. 27). Polls now predict five additional Knesset seats for his Labor Party in the coming February general election. That's 40 Palestinian corpses per seat. No wonder he promises it's just the beginning: at this pace, it will take Labor just about two thousand additional corpses to go from rags to riches, from a dead political party to an absolute majority in parliament like in the good old days. For Barak, then, the Gaza obituaries are a matter of political survival: they are pasted up on his party's obituary. A similar sickening logic sent former Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, etc., etc.) back in 1996 to devastate southern Lebanon and solve the problem of Hezbollah once-and-for-all in Operation Grapes of Wrath, just weeks before the general election – in which he was defeated by Netanyahu. When the so-called doves behave like hawks, the voters prefer the real hawks, following the Talmudic saying "Whatever looks like an egg, a true egg is always better." But warriors like Barak never learn.

Pacifying Gaza

aljazeera is reporting that iran is making statements now, and the ongoing bombing slaughter seems to be much more than an electoral tactic.  i know you know this, but i'm wondering if we can get that list of UN embassies circulating again, maybe it is already, i'm not on lists at present.  all out writing and phoning to all country contacts.  even if i found the old list i couldn't post it all here.  does someone have it on a website somewhere?  united for peace and justice?  i'll check around too. 

and we could add in letters the explosion of indiscriminate civilian attacks elsewhere. 

AS citizens of the world we demand our rights to peace, justice, absence of war crimes and the rule of international law in all countries.

How about this propaganda:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2008/Israeli_humanitarian_aid_to_Gaza_31-Dec-2008.htm

 It cannot be true - I thought they were genocidal maniacs?

Right, easy to call them "fucking lies", great response remind. I will take that for what it is worth...zilch!

ohara wrote:

Right, easy to call them "fucking lies", great response remind. I will take that for what it is worth...zilch!

Nice article, ohara. It says the Israelis are no worse than the U.S. and British in Iraq and the Russians in Georgia. What kind of Einstein came up with this scintillating logic?

If I thought there were any yiddishkeit left in Israel, its actions would make me ashamed to be a Jew. As things stand, however, as a proud Jew, I proudly declare my stand on the side of the Palestinian people against the Israeli mass murderers and aggressors. Their acts of desperation will end with their own destruction, as is always the case. The only concern is how many dreams, aspirations, and corpses (of Arabs and Jews) will be left along the way.

Quotes from the Hamas Covenant:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory). "

"This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised. "

"Article Eight:

Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes. "

"Article Thirteen:

Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. "Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know."

Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?

"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah." (The Cow - verse 120).

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:

"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."

 

 

 

Ghislaine wrote:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2008/Israeli_humanitari...

It cannot be true - I thought they were genocidal maniacs?

Those Israeli soldiers are just too kind. They must have been trained by the U.S.:

[u][b][url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/344810/iraqi_baby_arrives_in_us_for...
Iraqi baby arrives in US for medical treatment[/url][/b][/u]

Quote:

An Iraqi baby with a life-threatening birth defect arrived in the United States on Saturday for medical treatment after being sent by [b]U.S. soldiers who found her during a raid on her family's home[/b].

ohara wrote:

If only this was as black and white as some here would like to believe. Here is an article to at least cogitate upon.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3647296,00.html

 

Quote:

3) “It’s all because of Israel’s siege. Israel should allow aid into Gaza.”

...Tuesday, another 100 trucks – double the
normal number –are expected to enter Gaza after Defense Minister Barak
approved the move.

Double the normal number? So does this mean that during the six month cease fire Israel was only allowing 50 trucks in a day to supply a population of 1.5 million? Pretty much, according to Barghouti's article

Quote:

Israel, however, did not live up to any of its obligations of ending
the siege and allowing vital humanitarian aid to resume in Gaza. Rather
than the average of 450 trucks per day being allowed across the border,
on the best days, only eighty have been allowed in - with the border
remaining hermetically sealed 70% of the time. Throughout the supposed
'cease-fire' Gazans have been forced to live like animals, with a total
of 262 dying due to the inaccessibility of proper medical care.

So in fact YNet's attempt to refute the claim that "It's all because of Israel's seige" inadvertently confirms what the Palestinians are saying. 

Care to comment, ohara?

KenS wrote:

There's nothing new there Ghislaine.

The Hamas document does not even begin to establish the justification for a massacre- leaving aside whether such a possibility should be allowed for.

While your propaganda is not as offensive as Ohara's- it is at best meaningless. For example, even IF there is some exaggeration about Israel cutting off humanitarion aid... so what? That means there isn't a massacre?!??

So in the context of the reality ypur propaganda also serves no purpose other than to make people even madder.

That is not my propoganda, it is Hamas stated Covenant and goals. They wrote it, not me. It does not justify the killing of innocent people at all. I posted it to give some perspective here, as there have been scant condemnations of Hamas rockets, rocket factories, etc. Those firing the rockets though, if they believe in the Hamas Convenant, have no stated interest in an international peace agreement. Hamas is intent on killing civilians in Israel.

 Israel has been broadening the appeal of Hamas over the past few days with their bombing campaign and working in direct opposition to its own interests. I can see how a Palestinian survivor whose family was just killed by an Israeli bomb would be looking for a violent organization to support. Someone needs to lay down their arms first, and it is not going to be Hamas. Israel should do it. Now, will this stop the rockets? Will a two-state solution an end to an occupation stop it? I am not sure, but it needs to be tried.

Ghislaine wrote:

Hamas is intent on killing civilians in Israel.

What a horrendous comment, both from a factual and a moral viewpoint.

Unionist wrote:

Ghislaine wrote:

Hamas is intent on killing civilians in Israel.

What a horrendous comment, both from a factual and a moral viewpoint.

How is it horrendous? What are rockets fired into a civilian area supposed to accomplish?

remind wrote:

aka, the right wing Christian zealots in Canada, do not want to know the truth, they want to believe in Israeli lies, of the type Ghislaine is now espousing, so I am sure your words will fall on deaf ears.

___________________________________________________________ "watching the tide roll away"

I posted quotes from Hamas' own Covenant, not Israeli lies. There are plenty of disgusting comments and lies from both sides to be found. However, the post you are referring to was not an Israeli lie, but a Hamas quote.

Ghislaine wrote:

aka Mycroft wrote:

Ghislane, Israel created Hamas as part of a divide and conquer strategy to undermine the PLO's authority over Palestinians. "According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 'Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)'". How's that working out?

 

Your link does not indicate that Israel created Hamas, it states that Israel provided support - legal and otherwise. The article notes that Sheik Yassin created Hamas. 

Ok fine, let's just agree then that Israel helped Hamas with legal and other support in order to build them up for the purposes of undermining the PLO. The question remains the same - how's that working out?

aka Mycroft wrote:

Ok fine, let's just agree then that Israel helped Hamas with legal and other support in order to build them up for the purposes of undermining the PLO. The question remains the same - how's that working out?

Well, now Israel is helping the PLO with legal and other support in order to build them up for the purposes of undermining Hamas.

If at first you don't succeed...

This is an interesting column - showing that it's pretty hopeless, but not completely:

...some research published last year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Scott Atran and others suggests that we can go a little further than that and that there is a logic to religious disputes and in particular the conflict in Israel and Palestine which cannot be reduced to secular calculations of interest but which can be treated with on its own terms....the absolutists who rejected with contumely the offer of profane money (or peace) for sacred land would accept deals that involved their enemies giving up things that they considered sacred. The paper cites both Israeli and Hamas leaders saying that they could make peace if only the other side would apologise for 1948, or recognise formally Israel's right to exist. Demanding this kind of wholly intangible mutual surrender of pride makes no sense on a utilitarian calculus, and yet it may be the only thing to unlock the situation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2008/dec/31/religion-psychology

"That is not my propoganda, it is Hamas stated Covenant and goals. They wrote it, not me. It does not justify the killing of innocent people at all. I posted it to give some perspective here, as there have been scant condemnations of Hamas rockets, rocket factories, etc. Those firing the rockets though, if they believe in the Hamas Convenant, have no stated interest in an international peace agreement. Hamas is intent on killing civilians in Israel. "

 It's a good thing you qualified that statement, since according to Azzam Tamimi, in his Hamas: A History from Within, few Hamas members pay any attention to the "Covenant."  He writes:

"The Charter...was Hamas' first attempt to produce a written document for others to learn what Hamas stood for. It was published on 18 August, 1988, less than nine months after the foundation of the movement. Since then, however, it has hardly ever been quoted or even referred to by the Hamas leadership or its official spokesmen.  Their language has become virtually indistinguishable from that of any freedom figher in Latin America, South Africa, or East Asia" (Page 147).

"According to (Hamas leader) Khalid Mish'al, the Charter was rushed out to meet what was perceived at the time as a pressing need to introduce the newly founded movement to the public.  Mish'al does not view it as a true expression of the movement's overall vision..."it should not be regarded as the fundamental ideological frame of reference from which the movement derives its positions, or the basis on which it justifies its actions" (Page 149).

Doug, quoting from Andrew Brown's blog: wrote:

The paper cites both Israeli and Hamas leaders saying that they could make peace if only the other side would apologise for 1948, or recognise formally Israel's right to exist.

This sentence shows the folly of reading a summary of a study without referring back to the source.

[u][b][url=http://www.pnas.org/content/104/18/7357.full]Here is what the original study said:[/url][/b][/u]

Quote:

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader and spokesman for the Palestinian government, stated in an interview on June 20, 2006: "In principle we have no problem with a Palestinian state encompassing all of our lands within the 1967 borders, with perhaps minor modifications on a dunam for dunam basis [10 dunams = 1 hectare]. But let Israel apologize for our tragedy in 1948, and then we can talk about [b][i]negotiating over our right of return to historic Palestine[/i][/b]."

"Historic Palestine" includes post-1948 Israel.

Andrew Brown, in his so-called "summary", reduces that to: "Apologize for 1948, and we can have peace."

Nice try, Andrew.

KenS wrote:

Not to mention that the Knesset itself includes Arab MPs.

It might be more appropriate to say that there are MPs who oppose the Gaza pogrom. This is not an ethnic issue.

True. But I thought people would assume that some MPs oppose the massacre. And I wanted to correct impressions there may be out there that the Knesset- or Israel for that matter- is only composed of Jews.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

“If you support democracy and peace for Palestinians and Israelis, Hamas has to go.”

"Canadians
who support peace and human rights for all people must demand that
Hamas give up its violence or give way to Palestinian leaders who truly
want a state more than they want Jewish blood. Palestinians need an
intifada against the tyranny of Hamas. When this happens, a Palestinian
state at peace with Israel will be possible. That is a goal all
Canadians should be in solidarity with."

It doesn't get clearer than that. It's from a succinct and saucy essay by my comrade Jonathon Narvey (in the photo, with the brolly), one of my co-founders at the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee, in today's Vancouver Province.

While
everyone's been droning on about Israel's conduct in recent days, it's
refreshing to see the focus properly turned on the culpability of Hamas
in the sufferings of the Palestinians, and I see Michael Weiss has
written a splendid and finely balanced essay setting out the complicity
of Hamas in it all. Most pertinently, from my point of view - what with
all the demented braying about Israeli "genocide" these days - Weiss points to this report last year from B'Tselem, the eagle-eyed observer of human rights violations in the Occupied Territories.

The
report documents the slaughter of at least 344 Palestinians over the
space of a few months by the Palestinian "leadership," which is to say
Hamas and the Iz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades and their rivals among Fatah
loyalists and the Palestinian Authority security forces. Thousands were
injured in the bloodbath. The casualties were mainly in Gaza. The
terror included summary executions, illegal arrests, torture, the
deliberate crippling of prisoners by gunshots, revenge attacks,
abductions, and looting. I guess it doesn't count as a Palestinian
"genocide" when Hamas and Fatah are doing it.

The rest here:

http://transmontanus.blogspot.com/2008/12/if-you-support-democracy-and-p...

The rest here