- In his January 8 article, "Gaza Under Fire,"
John Pilger quotes the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko saying: "When
the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie." America's
dominant media suppress facts, sacrifice accuracy, and conceal the greater
lie that:
-
- -- all Israeli aggression is collaboratively planned
months in advance with Washington;
-
- -- American aid makes it possible - billions of dollars
annually, the latest weapons and technology, and Security Council vetoes
to assure no anti-Israeli resolutions with teeth are passed;
-
- -- six months of preparation preceded Israel's terror
bombings followed by invasion, occupation, and repeated war crimes on
the ground;
-
- -- Hamas "rockets" were pretext (not cause)
to abet Israel's overall strategy - with initial measures planned years
ago and implemented in steps; Gaza 2008 - 09 is the latest with much more
to come unless stopped;
-
- -- grievous international law violations are being willfully
committed;
- -- innocent men, women and children are slaughtered;
- -- civilians and legitimate resistance are called "terrorists;"
- -- basic infrastructure unrelated to defense is destroyed
- government buildings, police stations, schools, mosques, private dwellings,
TV stations, commercial structures, water mains, power facilities, fishing
boats, vehicles, ambulances, medical facilities, UN relief ones, and visible
civilian targets, even young children coming from and going to school;
-
- -- refugee camps, women, doctors and journalists are
attacked;
-
- -- terror bombing and shelling continues round-the-clock;
from 50 to 100 or more sorties a day but fire from naval vessels, tanks,
and troops on the ground;
-
- -- illegal terror weapons are used;
- -- as of January 14, around 5500 have been killed or
wounded; hundreds still alive are "clinically dead," according
to medical officials; a handful of Israelis have died; small numbers have
been injured as well unknown true numbers of military casualties since
Israel controls the reporting; Hamas claims over 30;
-
- -- Gaza remains under siege; beyond token amounts, no
outside aid gets in; electricity, fuel, medical supplies and clean water
are nearly exhausted; medical workers can't reach the wounded; foreign
journalists can't report on the scene; volunteer doctors can't enter
through Rafah; no remnants of normal life exist; Gaza is totally dysfunctional;
and
-
- -- world leaders, the White House, and both Houses of
Congress sanction Israel's genocide; its "final solution" destruction
as a legitimate society; its right to a sovereign state; a government
of its choosing; normality for the people; and defense of their rights
by a world community that cares - it doesn't.
- Instead, Israel plans to remove a legitimate leadership;
eliminate or neutralize the Hamas government; displace Palestinians from
their land; confine them to isolated cantons, make them a hellish, ghoulish
dystopia, and according to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni on January
13 to an American Jewish Committee delegation:
-
- "Israel's campaign against Hamas (is in the) interest
of the 'moderate' Palestinian people." And, of course, "War
is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength," and Israel
kills to save lives.
-
- Media reports echo this, suppress truths, and maintain
the lie of silence. None show pictures of vast destruction; dismembered
bodies; children with lost arms and legs; head wounds so severe they'll
die; blood, bones, and limbs everywhere; entire families wantonly massacred;
human desperation and need so great it rivals anything in memory.
-
- No brave reporters condemn these crimes and support the
victims. None say Palestinians deserve the same rights as Jews; that laws
of war and occupation protect everyone; that illegal acts must cease
and perpetrators be punished.
-
- None report the American Jewish Alliance for Justice
& Peace (Brit Tzedek v'Shalom) condemning Israel's attack and demanding
that Barack Obama "call for an immediate ceasefire (and assure the
prompt) delivery of (urgently needed) humanitarian aid to Gaza."
-
- None cite the rule of law. None report accurately, and
on matters of truth, distortion and "silence" are their chosen
options.
-
- Samples of their work are below - daily in major broadsheets,
publications, and on radio and TV. It's why America is the most ill- informed
society anywhere in spite of every opportunity to know vital truths and
react. Bread and circus distractions take precedence so wanton killing
continues below the radar - and not just in Gaza.
-
- Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Page Pro-Israeli Zealots
-
- They appear daily in editorials and guest op-eds but
never as easy reading. A January 5 editorial says "Israel can't afford
to lose its second war in two years." It echoes poor Israel, surrounded
"by enemies on all sides (so it) needs to maintain an aura of invincibility
if it is to have any chance for peaceful co-existence."
-
- Task one - "eliminat(ing) Hamas rule in Gaza (and)
its military threat." Then on to "the broader Middle East issue....expansion
of Iranian influence and terror. Hamas has become part of Tehran's bid
for regional hegemony (like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Sadrist 'special
groups' in Iraq)."
-
- Bush is on board for their elimination. It's now up to
Obama. He must show Israel and Iran "that the new president understands
the US stake in the success of Israel's Gaza" offensive and assure
no efforts are made to halt it.
-
- On January 5 hawkish Max Boot was back with an "Israel's
Tragic Gaza Dilemma" op-ed. Again, poor Israel:
-
- "There is little doubt that Israel is morally justified
in its offensive against Hamas. No nation can sit by and allow its territory
to be rocketed with impunity." As for "accusations of (IDF)
brutality, (Israel's) conduct has been exemplary by historical standards.
They have shown far less propensity for indiscriminate killing or torture
(than other nations) confronting insurgencies. The only comparable example
of restraint is the conduct of the US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States, too, earns worldwide opprobrium for alleged brutality
rather than approbation for its humanity."
-
- Millions of dead Iraqis and Afghans might disagree. Thousands
of others incarcerated, tortured, and brutalized. Palestinians also after
six brutal decades of occupation and repeated war crimes committed with
impunity. "Restraint (and) humanity" indeed.
-
- Never mind, Boot voices concern, not over mass slaughter
but "on how the offensive turns out." It's not likely "they
will be able to defeat the terrorist organization on their southern border."
That requires a much greater and prolonged effort. A better choice is
to depose the Hamas government and for Israel to administer the Territory
itself. If Israel's troops leave, "Hamas will rebuild its infrastructure,
forcing Israelis to go back to the future."
-
- Boot calls it a "quagmire," but "Israel
has no choice. It cannot simply pack its bags and go home....Israel is
one battle away from destruction....If (it's) to continue to exist, it
will have to continue to wage low-intensity war for a long time to come
- definitely years, probably decades, possibly centuries." In other
words, permanent war instead of the alternative - "annihilation."
Off the table is the obvious solution. Never mind the simplest and most
righteous: A just peace, Palestinian self-determination, respect for human
rights and the rule of law, and stop attacking them so they'll have no
need to respond in self-defense.
-
- A Bret Stephens January 6 "Endgame for Israel"
op-ed says: "If Israel is going to achieve a strategic victory in
this war, it will have to stand firm against (the) global wave of hypocrisy
and cant. (It) will have to practice a more consistent policy of deterrence
than it has so far done. One option: For every rocket that falls randomly
on Israeli soil, an Israeli missile will hit a carefully selected target
in Gaza." Stephens calls this "proportionality (and) the endgame
that Israel needs."
-
- Not explained is that Hamas responds only in self-defense
to Israeli preemptive attacks and killings. No Journal contributors say
this or provide fair and accurate commentary.
-
- On January 7, former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht shared
op-ed space with Benjamin Netanyahu's "Militant Islam Threatens Us
All" in which he equated Hamas rockets to "the same terror goal
as Hitler's blitz." The old Hitler analogy again.
-
- Gerecht addressed "Iran's Hamas Strategy" and
accused "Tehran (of) aiding Hamas for years with the aim of radicalizing
politics across the entire Arab Middle East." Hamas gives Iran "an
important ally. Through Hamas, Tehran can possibly reach the ultimate
prize, the Egyptian faithful....With Gaza and Egypt conceivably within
Tehran's grasp, the clerical regime will be patient and try to keep Gaza
boiling....In 30 years, they have not seen a better constellation of forces
(with Gaza in conflict and the prospect of their being) "nuclear-armed....just
around the corner."
-
- That said despite the unanimous conclusion of 16 US intelligence
agencies that Iran stopped pursuing a nuclear weapons program in 2003
even though no proof shows it ever had one.
-
- On January 9, military strategist Edward Luttwak's op-ed
headlined: "Yes, Israel Can Win in Gaza." He downplays Hezbollah's
impressive 2006 performance saying it was "thoroughly shocked by
the Israeli bombing campaign (in spite of Israel's) inconclusive ground
actions."
-
- In fact, Lebanon was shocked, not Hezbollah. According
to researcher Andrew Exum of Kings College, London: "Hezbollah, far
from being weakened in the 2006 war or subsequent (Beirut) political
battles, is stronger than ever."
-
- Israel can do to Hamas what it did to Hezbollah, says
Luttwak - weaken it with further ground operations "that cannot be
attacked by the air - typically because they are in the basements of crowded
apartment buildings - and by engaging Hamas gunmen in direct combat.
Hamas will claim a win no matter what happens, but then so did Hezbollah
in 2006....yet (it remains) immobile. If Israel can achieve the same with
Hamas in Gaza, it would be a significant victory."
-
- Luttwak forgets how Hezbollah outfoxed and embarrassed
the "vaunted" IDF that hasn't fought a comparable adversary
in 35 years, forgot how, and only outperforms against civilian men, women
and children, much like America in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, Luttwak
wouldn't get op-ed space if he admitted that.
-
- On January 8, Rabbi Marvin Hier's Journal op-ed appeared
titled: "The Jews Face a Double Standard" and asked - "Why
doesn't Israel have the same right to self-defense as other nations?"
Hier may know scripture, but clearly not international law or fundamental
morality.
-
- He condemns worldwide protests as "so full of hatred
that they leave me with the terrible feeling that (they're unrelated to)
so- called disproportionality....a great many people....can't bear the
Jewish state having the same rights they so readily grant to other nations....because
they don't believe Israel should exist in the first place."
-
- Hier cites isolated incidents indicative of world sentiment
in his judgment. He ignores growing public opinion before and after his
article:
-
- -- many hundreds of thousands protesting in cities globally;
- -- many thousands of outraged Jews as well, including
in Israel;
-
- -- Haaretz reporting "tens of thousands (in) the
streets in European capitals;"
-
- -- 100,000 in London alone (on January 10), including
20,000 outside the Israeli Embassy;
-
- -- at least 30,000 in Paris; 90,000 or more in over 120
other French cities and towns;
-
- -- tens of thousands more in Berlin and across Germany;
-
- -- Rome as well and across Italy;
-
- -- the same in Athens, Oslo, Stockholm, Budapest, Sarajevo,
Madrid, Istanbul, Belfast, Edinburgh, Bern, Moscow, and dozens more European
cities;
-
- -- globally across America, Asia, Latin America, Africa,
the Arab street expressing outrage over mass slaughter.
-
- Poor Israel, according to Hier; an "insidious bias
against the Jewish state" he claims; a "double-standard;"
a humanitarian crisis? "There have been hundreds of articles and
reports....falsely accusing Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies
from reaching beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza."
-
- Blame Hamas for the conflict - "the same terrorist
group that brought disaster to the Palestinians in the first place....the
real lessons of World War II have yet to be learned."
-
- This from a man of God getting prominent Journal space
for his hateful, disturbing, and grossly inaccurate commentary.
-
- Pro-Israeli Washington Post Columnists
-
- Many appear, these two as regulars. On January 9, Charles
Krauthammer contributed an "Endgame in Gaza" op-ed. In August
2006, Steve Benen said this about him in the Washington Monthly:
-
- "About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out
in synagogue on Yom Kippur (the most solemn of Jewish high-holidays).
The rabbi offered some timid endorsement of peace (on Israel's terms)
but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing
at the rabbi from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to 'shush'
him. (He) kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant
as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating
peace? Those neocon hawks are such a charming bunch, aren't they?
-
- Krauthammer contributes weekly to the Washington Post
and is syndicated in 200 newspapers. He's also a Fox News regular where
he's welcome among like-minded friends.
-
- In his latest column, he's on the warpath against "an
increasingly wobbly US State Department" and Ehud Olmert for "hinting
that (he's) receptive to a French-Egyptian cease-fire plan....That would
be a terrible mistake....It would have the same elements as the phony
peace in Lebanon (abjuring the) use of force, a (weak) arms embargo (letting
lots of them) flood in, and a cessation of hostilities until the terrorist
side is rearmed and ready to initiate the next round of hostilities."
-
- "The 'international community' (now wants) a replay
of (the Lebanon) charade....Weapons will continue to be smuggled. Deeper
and more secure fortifications will be built....Mosques, schools and
hospitals will again be used for weapons storage and terrorist safe havens.
Such a deal would buy Israel maybe a couple of years - with Hamas rockets
then killing civilians in Tel Aviv (and maybe hitting) Israel's nuclear
reactor in Dimona."
-
- "Which is why the only acceptable outcome (is the
total) disintegration of Hamas rule....The fall of Hamas is within reach
(as long as) Israel does not cave in to pressure to stop now. (It's)
disintegration....would be a devastating blow to Palestinian rejectionists....to
Iran as patron of radical Islamic movements (and Sadrists) in Iraq."
A Bush State Department "premature (ceasefire) imposition....would
not just be self-defeating but shameful."
-
- Why would any rabbi accept this man in his congregation
even if he kept quiet and didn't shout.
-
- Post columnist Richard Cohen is hardly better, and it
shows in his January 6 op-ed: "A Conflict Hamas Caused....It takes
real stupidity to blame it on Israel. As the leaders of Hamas understand,
the war in Gaza is about Israel's incessant fight to be a normal country...so
(Jewish) kids can swim in a lake."
-
- How can they when "Hamas has vowed to destroy Israel....Anyone
could have seen this war coming. As always, though, it's a lot harder
to see how it ends." Cohen hints that destroying Hamas is the way.
Some call Cohen liberal because he's pro-choice and pro- gay. He's also
pro-war and zealously pro-Israel, even though occasionally critical. He
has a "strong emotional attachment" to the country...."whose
survival is not only important for the Jewish people but for the rest
of mankind as well." So if mass slaughter assures it, so be it.
-
- The New York Times "Incursion Into Gaza" Editorial
-
- On January 5, The Times called Israel's "ground
incursion (a gamble) that it can finally silence the Hamas rockets that
have terrorized its people for years." No mention of:
-
- -- unilateral Hamas ceasefires;
-
- -- that Israel never observed them;
-
- -- that the IDF killed over two dozen Gazans during the
one ending November 4;
-
- -- that no Israelis were killed or injured during the
period;
- -- that Israel, not Hamas, ended it; and
- -- that Hamas responds only in self-defense as international
law allows.
-
- Instead The Times cites "no justification for Hamas'
attacks or its virulent rejectionism." Of what? It repeatedly offers
peace, is willing to recognize a Jewish state provided Israel reciprocates,
stops killing Arabs, and grants Palestinians their own state inside pre-1967
borders - a mere 22% of their original homeland.
-
- The Times also worries that the longer the conflict continues,
the more casualties mount, the more likely "moderate" Arab states
will become alienated, that "more regional instability (will be)
fueled, and the harder it will be for Obama to be a peacemaker after
January 20.
-
- "Israel, aided by the United States, Europe and
'moderate' Arab states, must try to end this conflict as soon as possible
(and) ensur(e) at a minimum that Hamas - a proxy of Iran - is not seen
as gaining from the war, that rocket fire is halted permanently, and
that the 'terrorist' group can no longer restock its arsenal with more
deadly weapons" from across Egypt's border.
-
- "There is little chance of restraining Hamas without
dealing with its patrons in Syria and Iran....Palestinians (want a) way
out of their misery (but) Hamas and its rockets are not the answer."
-
- As always, The Times' distortion and silence speak louder
than its comments. Peace? Hamas rockets? Its patrons? Neither Israel or
Washington wants peace. Conflict serves their interests. Hamas rockets
are for defense, not offense. They're weak and ineffective compared to
Israel's awesome power. Its weapons are for offense and come from its
Washington patron. Peace depends on not using them so Hamas will have
no reason to respond. These facts aren't in The Times' editorial or other
material in its pages.
-
- Nor in columnist Tom Friedman's commentaries. His January
6 op-ed is titled: "The Mideast's Ground Zero." He addresses
the ongoing struggle. Who'll end up the "regional superpower - Egypt?
Saudi Arabia? Iran? Should there be a Jewish state....and, if so, on what
Palestinian terms? And (who'll) dominate Arab society - Islamists who
are intolerant of other faiths and want to choke off modernity or modernists
who want to embrace the future, with an Arab-Muslim face?"
-
- Friedman is a neoliberal hawk, a supporter of the Afghan
and Iraq wars, zealously pro-Israel, very hardline against Muslims, unsupportive
of Palestinian issues, and he earlier called the Second Intifada "idiotic,
braindead, insane (and) a reckless, pointless, foolish adventure."
-
- He espouses Camp David mythology - that Ehud Barak made
a generous offer but Arafat preferred "to play the victim rather
than stateman. (He sought to) provoke the Israelis into brutalizing the
Palestinians again." Friedman to Arafat: "Please don't tell
me you can't control your own people. You've sold us that carpet one too
many times." He accuses Palestinians of "adopt(ing) suicide
bombing as a strategic choice, not out of desperation." These provocations
and others "triggered (justifiable) Israeli retaliation...."
-
- Friedman's analysis is one-sided, extremist, and immoral.
He distorts facts, makes assertions with no evidence, lets emotion and
intellectual dishonesty trump good commentary, and on everything Israel,
Jewish interests matter. Arab ones don't. Now there's a winning formula
for regional peace and stability.
-
- From Jerusalem on January 10, Times columnist Steven
Erlanger headlined: "A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery"
- a one-sided article full of bias and misinformation. With Iranian and
Hezbollah help, Erlanger states:
-
- Hamas "used the last two years to turn Gaza into
a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs.
Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the
leadership's war room is a bunker beneath Gaza's largest hospital, Israeli
intelligence officials say."
-
- If they said it, Erlanger reports it, and it once got
journalist Robert Fisk to say that The New York Times should be renamed
"US Officials Say," Government spokesmen say, unnamed sources
say, or in this case "Israeli officials say."
-
- Erlanger: "Israeli officials say that they are obeying
the rules of war and trying hard not to hurt noncombatants but that Hamas
is using civilians as human shields....Israeli press officers call the
tactics of Hamas cynical, illegal and inhumane; even Israel's critics
agree that Hamas' regular use of rockets to fire at civilians in Israel,
and its use of civilians as shields in Gaza, are also violations of the
rules of war."
-
- Erlanger cites "Israeli military men and analysts"
claiming these tactics "come from the Iranian Army's tactical training
and the lesson of the 2006 war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah
in Lebanon."
-
- Erlanger is in Jerusalem, not Gaza, nor will "Israeli
officials" let him go there. His sources are them alone. His point
of view is theirs. He ignores conditions in Occupied Gaza and is Israel's
man at The New York Times. His article is "full of traps and trickery,"
instead of accurate, unbiased reporting. So is "All the News That's
Fit to Print" that reveals the true record of the "Paper of
Record."
-
- The Hawkish Right-Wing Jerusalem Post
-
- On January 9, its editor-in-chief David Horovitz's article
headlined: "Time running out for an escalation Israel's leaders
don't really want." Neither Israeli air power or its ground operation
has broken Hamas' will to resist, and that concerns Horovitz. "Its
main fighting force is largely intact (and) as of (January 8), it was
plainly not crying out for a cease-fire, confident that the international
diplomatic clock" is on its side.
-
- "Israel's dilemma....is whether or not to proceed
to an intensified ground operation - involving thousands (more) troops,
penetrating far more deeply into Gaza's most dense urban areas."
Doing so would greatly increase casualties on both sides, and there's
"every indication that Hamas is braced (and thinking) it can inflict
heavy damage on incoming forces, and thus bolster its standing and capacity
to impose its terms on any cease-fire arrangements."
-
- Operation Cast Lead "appear(s) in some kind of pause."
Perhaps on the ground when he wrote this but not now nor in dozens of
round- the-clock sorties inflicting wanton slaughter fast approaching 1000
confirmed deaths and well over four times that number of injuries, many
serious.
-
- Horovitz: "This pause cannot last long. The IDF
is most vulnerable when....static. (It must decide) whether it is moving
forward or pulling back." The key leadership agrees that "Hamas
is hurt but not beaten....No mechanism is in place to ensure it cannot
quickly rearm."
-
- Hamas remains "cocky, (is) playing down its losses,
and (is) anything but troubled by the deaths of Palestinians." If
it "remains intransigent (and won't agree to Israel's terms), a
reluctant political echelon (will order in) many thousands to confront
(it) as never before....a full-scale invasion to overthrow Hamas and reoccupy"
Gaza.
-
- As usual, Horovitz, twists facts and invents myths. Hamas
worries greatly for its people and continues struggling for them. Why
else would it resist a three-year embargo, the arrest of its officials,
killing others, a crippling 18 month siege, and three weeks of Israeli
savagery to wage guerrilla battles against an overpowering foe.
-
- Israel offers its terms alone - deposing Hamas' leadership,
surrender of its weapons, continuation of Palestine's colonization, and
ending any hope for a just and lasting peace or Palestinian self-determination
in a sovereign independent state inside pre-1967 borders. Hamas spent
the last 21 years fighting for them. They won't likely stop now, nor will
Palestinians. As a result, continued bloodshed may continue if Israeli
extremists prevail.
-
- Horovitz seems unconcerned that most casualties will
be civilian men, women and children, or that UN and human rights organizations
accuse Israel of willfully targeting them. No concern either that UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, says Gaza's
crisis is "worsening day by day," refuting Israel's claim that
none exists. The situation is so extreme that he and others no longer
can be silent.
-
- Even the Vatican's Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, compared Gaza to a "concentration
camp," reminiscent of Nazi-era atrocities. That kind of criticism
has impact, yet Israel's mass slaughter continues.
-
- The independent Al Haq human rights organization estimates
80% of Palestinian deaths are civilians, including many women and children.
The IDF follows so-called "Dahiyah Doctrine" tactics reflecting
official change in Israel's National Security Concept. It calls for:
-
- "wield(ing) disproportionate power against every
village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage
and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases. This
is not a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."
-
- Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security
Colonel Gabriel Siboni believes responses should "disproportion(ately)
strike at the heart of the enemy's weak spot, in which efforts to hurt
(rocket) launch capability are secondary."
-
- It's why Israel calls civilian areas "legitimate
military targets" in gross violation of international laws. Mosques,
medical facilities, private dwellings, fishing boats, and food markets
pose no strategic threats. Attacking them is terrorism. Those involved
are war criminals. No Dahiyah doctrines change that. Nor do high- level
wrongdoing denials. Israel is a serial offender.
-
- For international law expert Francis Boyle, justice awaits
an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as "the Only
(possible) Deterrent" to all out war, to put an end to these crimes
of war and against humanity, and to let other Israeli leaders and generals
know that committing these crimes will be punished. He urges the General
Assembly to act before Arab anger erupts into something far greater than
conflict in Gaza.
-
- He advocates other needed actions as well:
-
- -- "immediately move for the de facto suspension
of Israel throughout the entirety of the United Nations System, including
the General Assembly and all UN subsidiary organs and bodies;"
-
- -- carry out all further talks with Israel "under
principles of public international law (Geneva Convention 1949 and Hague
Regulations 1907);"
-
- -- "abandon the fiction and fraud that the US government
is an 'honest broker;"
-
- -- "move to have the UN General Assembly impose
economic, diplomatic, and travel sanctions upon Israel pursuant to the
terms of the (General Assembly) Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950);"
and
-
- -- "the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine
must sue Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the
Hague for inflicting acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in
violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention."
-
- Boyle accuses "the United States (of) Promot(ing)
Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians. Although the United States
is a founding sponsor of, and a contracting party to, both the Nuremberg
Charter and the Genocide Convention, as well as the United Nations Charter,
these legal facts have never made any difference to (US officials from
either party) when it comes to (their) blank-check support for Israel
and their joint and severable criminal mistreatment of the Palestinians
- truly the wretched of the earth!"
-
- "The world has not yet heard even one word uttered
by the United States and its NATO allies in favor of 'humanitarian intervention'
against Israel in order to protect the Palestinian people, let alone
a 'responsibility to protect' (them) from Zionist/Israeli (American) genocide."
-
- "Rather than rein in the Israelis, the United States
government (and) Congress" feed its war machine." Boyle calls
this "humanitarian extermination" through a joint US - Israeli
partnership. He expects no policy change under the new Obama administration.
-
- Alternative Voices for Sanity and Peace
-
- On January 8, Jimmy Carter in a Washington Post op-ed
headlined: "An Unnecessary War." A few quotes:
-
- -- "Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both
the West Bank and Gaza, and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other
than Gaza;"
-
- -- "We knew that 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza
were being starved....acute malnutrition (is evident) on the same scale
as in the poorest nations in southern Sahara, with more than half of all
Palestinian families eating only one meal a day" - and a very inadequate
one for proper nutrition;
-
- -- "The top Hamas leaders in Damascus....agreed
to a cease-fire, provided Israel would not attack Gaza and would permit
normal humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Palestinian citizens;"
they also agreed "to accept any peace agreement....provided....a
majority vote of Palestinians" approved it; yet
-
- -- Israel remains unwilling to negotiate with Hamas for
peace or on other issues.
-
- Comments like these from a former US president are important
- despite falling woefully short. The war isn't "unnecessary,"
it's illegal. Those responsible are war criminals. Justice demands they
be punished. Israel should be isolated, embargoed, and boycotted until
they are and hostilities and the Gaza siege end. Carter nonetheless deserves
praise for going this far and refusing to be silent.
-
- Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, like his colleague Amira
Hass, as well. In his January 9 "time of the righteous" commentary
he refers to:
-
- -- Israel's "unbridled aggression and brutality,"
-
- -- about 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli;
-
- -- is Palestinian blood "worth one hundred times
less than ours...;"
-
- -- "all the disasters now occurring in Gaza are
manmade - by us;"
-
- -- "Anyone who preaches for this war and believes
in the justness of mass killing....has no right....to speak about morality
and humaneness;"
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