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Israel Attacks Gaza Border Areas

By Stephen Lendman 11-30-14

Doing so breaches August ceasefire terms. Not Israel's first violation. Nor its last. It egregiously flouted all agreed on terms straightaway. Complicit PA officials remain silent. Dismissive of horrendous Gazan suffering. Diverting half or more of October's so-called donor conference raised $5.4 billion. For unspecified budget purposes. Rife with corruption. Giving Israel total authority over Gaza reconstruction. Controlling what enters or leaves. Palestinians have no say. Over virtually everything affecting their lives and welfare. At a time of extreme deprivation and hardship. Compounded by days of flooding. UN refugee agency (UNRWA) declaring a state of emergency. Torrential rains besieged Gaza City. Filing streets with sewage. Causing greater misery. Compounding an ongoing humanitarian disaster. Especially for tens of thousands remaining homeless. Thousands more in emergency shelters. According to UNWRA: "The flooding is exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by blockade and the unprecedented destruction from the latest Israeli offensive." Israeli forces along Gaza's southern border fired on area Palestinian homes and property. Without just cause. At the same time, targeting Palestinian fishermen. One of numerous post-Operation Protective Edge (OPE) attacks. Violating ceasefire terms. Meaningless given how Israel operates. Pledging one thing. Doing another. Witnesses to Israel's latest attacks reported one after midnight. Another in daylight hours. Willfully targeting civilian homes. In gross violation of international law. The incident followed Israeli cross-border tank fire. Since both sides agreed on August ceasefire terms in, Hamas and other resistance groups scrupulously observed them. Israel violated them straightaway. Unaccountably. Continues doing so. Media scoundrels ignore their crimes. So do Western leaders. PA officials conspire against their own people. Aiming to profit from Gazan destruction. Mindless of horrendous humanitarian conditions. Commenting disingenuously on Israel's draft nation-state legislation. "(D)efining the identity of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and to anchor the values of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the spirit of the principles of the Declaration of the Independence." Saying it destroys what's no longer possible. A two-state solution. Possible years ago. Not now. Israel controls about 60% of West Bank land. Much of East Jerusalem. More stolen daily. When completed, its Separation Wall will control over 10% of Palestine. PLO officials do nothing to intervene against it. Or act against illegal settlement construction. Abbas was disturbingly silent through most of OPE. Now diverting billions of reconstruction dollars for unspecified budget purposes. PLO rhetoric condemning Israeli racist laws rings hollow. Oslo terms agreed to reflected unilateral surrender. A Palestinian Versailles. Getting nothing for renouncing armed struggle. Agreeing to enforce Israeli authority. Recognizing its right to exist. Leaving major unresolved issues for final status talks. Twenty-one years later, they're still waiting. The PA functions as a wholly-owned Israeli subsidiary. At the expense of millions of Palestinians. PLO officials claiming "dozens of laws enacted since 1948 and (draft nation-state) legislation… blatantly discriminate against the Palestinians and defy all the basic principles of democracy and human rights" comes dozens of years too late. Especially post-Oslo. Surrendering to Israeli authority. Calling on all international community members disingenuously. The UN. EU. United States "to hold Israel to account immediately…(T)o curb (its) violations and deliberate acts of racial discrimination and violence against the Palestinian people…" "(T)o support Palestinian efforts to seek justice and protection in all international legal venues…" "(I)ncluding (a) Security Council…timeframe for ending the occupation…" "(E)stablishing (an) independent Palestinian state (within) 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital." These statements and similar rhetoric ring hollow. Given how little PA officials work toward goals they ask world authorities to accomplish for them. Suggesting disinterest. Preferring status quo conditions. For special benefits they derive. At the expense of their own people. Exposing their phony high-minded rhetoric. Disingenuous and then some. Gazans face slow suffocation. PA officials remain dismissive. Months after conflict ended, virtually no reconstruction began. Exacerbated by flooding. PA officials conspiring with Israel and the UN against 1.8 million Gazans. Agreeing to unreasonable demands no responsible government would accept. Letting Israel control virtually everything. Including access to private Palestinian family information. Collected by UN authorities. Used to decide who's helped. Who's not. Israel committed genocidal high crimes against peace. Mass destruction. Slaughter like shooting fish in a barrel. Including hundreds of children. Many too young to understand. Yet not assessed a dime for its crimes. For reconstructing lawlessly destroyed property.   Murdering dozens of entire families. Leaving large parts of Gaza in rubble. One of history's great crimes. Demanding accountability not gotten. Profiting from mass destruction. Studies showing half the $5.4 billion pledged directly benefits Israel. At the expense of beleaguered Gazans. Disaster capitalism writ large. Profiting from human misery. Enforcing Israel's blockade. Despite pledges to end it. Exacerbating intolerable conditions. UN officials estimate around 100,000 residences damaged or destroyed. During 51 days of premeditated Israeli aggression. Affecting one-third of 1.8 million people. EU representative John Gatt-Rutter saying "(a) long time has gone by without enough cement or enough materials coming in that will allow people to rebuild their houses." UNWRA Commissioner-General calling Gaza's reconstruction mechanism "far too slow…(L)argely ineffective." Accomplishing virtually nothing. Western governments able to intervene responsibly refuse to hold Israel accountable. PA officials conspire with Israel and UN authorities against their own people. Not giving a damn about beleaguered Gazans. Doing nothing for over eight years to ease siege conditions. Or dire ones following OPE. UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness said Gaza remains "submerged in despair." Lives in disarray. Flooding compounding other horrific problems. With no end of human suffering in sight. Little hope for improvement. On Monday, the Palestinian National Committee (BNC) issued an action alert. Against UN complicity with Israel. Partnering with its crimes. Compounding Palestinian suffering. Collectively punishing 1.8 million Gazans. A genocidal war crime by any standard. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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