Shalom 1492: Cast Lead

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domingo, 28 de outubro de 2012

NETANYAHU/LIEBERMAN UNITE FOR WAR

October 27, 2012, Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca (Canada)

By Stephen Lendman*

American crimes of war and against humanity perhaps exceed all other rogue states in history combined.

Pound-for-pound, however, Israeli lawlessness matches the world’s worst. Long ago, it graduated from a regional menace to a global one.

It enforces barbaric occupation harshness. Its war machine threatens and attacks neighbors. It gets away with murder because world powers don’t intervene to stop it.

It wages intermittent war on Gaza. It murders innocent civilians. It uses illegal depleted uranium, chemical and other weapons. Nuclear missiles and bombs are stockpiled. It plans more war now.

Gazans know they’re vulnerable to Cast Lead 2.0. Iran long ago prepared to defend itself if attacked. Rogue Israeli coalition partner unity makes it more likely. Netanyahu and Lieberman represent Israel’s worst. They’re out-of-control warmongers.

Netanyahu heads Israel’s most extremist ever government. He exceeds the worst of Ariel Sharon and previous hardline leaders. He’s unfit to serve. He spurns democratic values. He deplores peace. He menacingly threatens war.

Lieberman is an ultranationalist extremist. He represents the worst of Israel’s lunatic fringe. Critics call him an embarrassment to legitimate government.

He’s a modern-day Kananist. Kahane headed Israel’s racist Kach Party. In 1988, Israel banned it. It was too extreme to tolerate. In his youth, Lieberman was a Kach Party member. He remains true to its ideological roots.

Israel under Netanyahu/Lieberman assures institutionalized racism in its worst form. Arab hatred is promoted. Rule of law principles and other democratic values are spurned. War for regional dominance is prioritized.

As long as these rogues govern Israel, Palestinians face horrific persecution short of total expulsion or outright extermination. But those possibilities can’t be ruled out.

Other regional states must brace for war. Even if not attacked directly, it may spill across their borders destructively.

On October 25, Haaretz headlined “Netanyahu, Lieberman to unify parties ahead of upcoming Israeli elections,” saying:

“The planned unification could have a far-reaching influence on the makeup of Israel’s next government….” Perhaps other like-minded parties will join them.

Netanyahu may have a “super-party” in mind too strong to unseat. He’ll have more latitude to further his destructive, hardline agenda. Lieberman will be his second in command. Together they menace Arabs, Jews, and others alike.

Netanyahu heads Likud. It’s hardline, anti-democratic, racist and militant. Founded in 1973, it united the right wing revisionist Herut party with Gahal and centrist Zionist parties. Its former prime ministers included Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Netanyahu during his 1996 – 1999 tenure), and Ariel Sharon.

In 1999, Lieberman founded Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home). It’s ultranationalist and revisionist Zionist. It represents the worst of Israel’s hardline right wing.

Uniting these two parties burnishes Israel’s credentials as an out-of-control menacing rogue state. Not all Likudniks are pleased. Haaretz quoted an unnamed senior party official saying:

“What does Netanyahu think? That he can dictate to us who we run with? We’re repulsed by this partnership with Lieberman. I don’t want to run with a person like (him), with the kind of values he stands for.”

Partnered with Lieberman, Likud will be “committed to advancing such controversial issues as the loyalty-citizenship bills….Why is Netanyahu going for this….It’s a very problematic move.”

Most Likudniks are hardline. They welcome the move or at least don’t object. Perhaps they see it as a way for super-party rule. Their own electoral chances may improve. At least they hope so.

On October 26, Haaretz headlined “With Lieberman at his side, Netanyahu’s war cabinet is on a one-way track to Iran,” saying:

Uniting these rogues “obligates the left-wing and centrist parties to offer an ideological and practical alternative….”

Both men don’t hide their intentions. They prioritize preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons even though they know Tehran has no program to obtain them.

Admitting it would undermine their plan to remove their main regional rival. Bogusly calling Iran an existential threat is red herring cover to enlist support for war.

Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu unity may “dissolve any domestic opposition to war, since after the election, Netanyahu will be able to argue that he received a mandate from the people to act as he sees fit.”

Once US elections decide who’ll be president, and which side of America’s duopoly will be strongest, getting America on board will be prioritized.

“In announcing the merger Thursday, Netanyahu has finally renounced his attempt to portray himself as a centrist….” With Lieberman as number two and potential heir, Likud will be more radicalized and aggressive than ever.

Expect like-minded extremists to fill top cabinet posts. Anti-war officials will be spurned. Domestic policy will also be hardened. Tougher neoliberal measures may follow.

Remaining checks and balances may disappear. Crackdowns will target resisters. Expect the worst. It’s likely coming. October US/Israeli war games may or may not signal war.

They’re allegedly intended to counter potential Iranian, Syrian, Hezbollah, and/or Hamas attacks even though none would occur except defensively in response to Israeli and/or US aggression.

Washington often holds joint exercises. Doing so doesn’t automatically signal war. Nonetheless, the possibility against Iran is real. Plans are longstanding. Updates are made strategically. Israel readies its own. It also prepared for homeland emergencies.

Perhaps it won’t be long before it’s known whether something imminent is planned. Regime change plans are longstanding. Israel wants a regional rival removed. Washington wants unchallenged dominance.

Virtually everything short of war was thrown at Iran unsuccessfully. War is the final option.

Stepped up Israeli attacks on Gaza, bombing a Khartoum weapons plant allegedly producing Shehab missiles for Iran, and very likely killing intelligence head of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, General Wissam al-Hasan, aren’t good signs.

Regional war games combined with domestic emergency preparations increase tensions. They weren’t eased by Netanyahu’s comments about attacking Gaza, saying:

“Today we engaged in exchanges against terrorist aggression that comes from our southern border in Gaza, but it actually comes from Iran and a whole terror network that is supporting these attacks.”

He’s itching for war. He wants Washington and Israel acting jointly. Let America lead, and he’ll ride shotgun. Perhaps post-November 6, he’ll get what he wants.

It depends on whether Obama or Romney feel the same way. Nothing’s known for sure, but signs look ominous. Brace for the worst.

A Final Comment

On October 25, Reuters headlined “Iran filling nuclear bunker with centrifuges – diplomats,” saying:

“Enrichment takes Iran closer to potential bomb material.” Western officials claim it’s “potentially boosting its capacity to make weapons-grade uranium if it chooses to do so.”

Activities are concentrated at its fortified Fordo plant. One unnamed diplomat said “I understand that they have installed all the centrifuges there.” Another said piping and other preparations must be completed to operate them.

Reuters cited nuclear experts Olli Heinonen and Simon Henderson saying “Iran may be able to accumulate up to four ‘significant quantities’ of weapons-grade uranium – each sufficient for one bomb – in as little as nine months from now.”

Even though it’s well-known that Iran has no ongoing nuclear weapons program, these, similar comments, and inflammatory headlines irresponsibly heighten tensions for war.

Separately, Ship to Gaza Sweden (Estelle) activists arrived home safely. Israeli commandos lawlessly interdicted their humanitarian mission in international waters.

Participants and crew were tasered multiple times. Some suffered burns and bruises. Others reported being handcuffed and dragged. Everyone was treated harshly.

They were imprisoned for several days. Their vessel, humanitarian cargo, and personal possessions were confiscated. Three Israeli citizens on board potentially may be charged with attempting to breach Gaza’s siege or violating Israel’s 1954 infiltration law.

Home in Canada, former parliamentarian and retired United Church Minister Jim Manly spoke publicly for the first time.

He’s glad to be back home, he said. He thanked everyone who expressed support. He called it “a privilege to be on the Finnish sailing ship, Estelle, as the representative of the Canadian Boat to Gaza and Gaza’s Ark movement and it was good to know that the members of that movement were working night and day to make our voyage a success.”

He explained Israel’s attack and violent treatment of activists on board. He called what happened an “act of piracy.” Israeli commandos “celebrated (it) by taking down the flag of Finland and running up the Israeli flag.”

He said it “replaced the skull and cross bones” for these type Israeli missions. “This pirate action dishonours the Israeli flag.”

It “must make many humanitarian Israelis deeply ashamed of their country. We were taken prisoner, brought into Ashdod, interrogated and taken to prison for three days before being deported for ‘having entered Israel illegally.’ ”

In prison, we “were subjected to indignities,” he added. “We need to put things in perspective. The real story is not our arrest, not even the hijacking of the Estelle in international waters. The real story concerns the death dealing chokehold that Israel holds over the people of Gaza.”

“The voyage of the Estelle and my participation in it was our attempt to rouse the peoples of the world to take action against this evil and to send a message of hope and solidarity to the Palestinian peoples of Gaza letting them know that they are not forgotten.”

“The blockade of Gaza has not yet been lifted, but be assured that we will continue our efforts until it has been and the Palestinian peoples can once again live with freedom and dignity.”

*Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

segunda-feira, 9 de abril de 2012

Israel’s dumb Zionist atomic bomb

8 April 2012, Alternative Information Center (AIC) http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Uri Yaakobi-Keller

One of the most recent “achievements” about which the Israeli government brags is the diversion of international attention to Iran and its development of nuclear weapons, a situation perceived as an end of the world by the Israeli mainstream.

It is possible that, to a certain extent, this is indeed an achievement of the Israeli public relations machine, and as evidence the world was a bit more apathetic than usual to last month’s Israeli bombings of Gaza (not that the world is normally so sensitive). However, the overall Israeli position toward Iran, just like its “achievement”, contains the fundamental flaws existing in the overall Israeli perspective.

Zionism, which established and rules Israel, is a not so special national movement in comparison to others like it from the 19th century. Like similar movements, it aspired to establish national hegemony and what has forever guided it is military force and not all sorts of contentions concerning justice or rights. The Zionist explanation, which transformed into Israeli public relations, is that the Holocaust of European Jews occurred as “we were not sufficiently strong to prevent it”.

According to this, the behaviour of the Zionist movement - and the state of Israel which was controlled by parts of the Zionist movement and its supporters - was forever founded on an obsession with power and military rule, all the while ignoring the long-term situation and political implications of Israeli actions.

To this day the Israeli mainstream does not understand what is so bad about the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948, as numerous other movements and countries in the world did much worse things. On the face of it there is a modicum of truth in this contention; only a few years earlier, at the end of World War II, the deportation of peoples on an ethnic basis was still occurring in Europe itself. What Israel finds difficult to understand is that whilst there were indeed times in which deportations and horrific acts were accepted, today these acts are now defined as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” and they are finally considered a barbaric anachronism – so that today not all problems can be solved with the sword.

The Israeli obsession with power and the blindness it inflicts on the Zionist state led Israel to numerous strategic, tactical and political errors in the past. So it was, for example, in Lebanon, where Israel offhandedly declared war against Hizbullah only because it could, and so it was with the strengthening of the Hamas movement by Israel in order to weaken the PLO and Fatah, and so it was with the fundamental Israeli error which led to the current situation.

Decades ago already Israel clarified to the world that it possesses nuclear weapons. The step of attaining nuclear arms appears in the Israeli mainstream as a substantial achievement for the Israeli military power. It is almost pitiful that a majority of Israelis do not understand that as a direct result, the other regional powers also wish to gain similar weapons.

The Americans managed to sufficiently bribe Egypt so it wouldn’t go down this route; this is, of course, before the American puppet regime of Mubarak fell, so who knows what will occur now. Syria was apparently never sufficiently strong and wealthy to develop such weapons. The Saudi power has always been founded on petroleum money and friendship with the United States. Iran, in contrast, is simply doing the most logical thing – if Israel, the most aggressive country in the region for the past six decades, is doing it, there is no reason that Iran will not attempt to attain nuclear bombs (which will, of course, force Egypt and Saudi Arabia to reconsider their previous decision on this matter).

In a recent article in Haaretz, Uri Avnery notes there is no chance that Israel will attack Iran – the United States will not permit it due to the implications of war with Iran on the price of oil, and because Iran’s nuclear weapons are almost a done deal and Israel must begin to get used to the idea. This is almost true. The coming months, with a heating up of the American presidential election campaign and a short time following the November 2012 elections, are the most dangerous period from the perspective of Israeli actions.

While all candidates for the American presidency are competing to be virulently pro-Israeli, Israel traditionally feels the most freedom (whilst ignoring, which is also a tradition, the long-term political implications of its actions). It is not by chance that Operation Cast Lead occurred just a bit less than four years ago – only a few months after the election of a new American president, and that the most deadly attack on Gaza since then is happening now. There is too big of a chance that the two clowns of Netanyahu-Barak, who control Israel, in a typical Zionist move lacking all long-term thought, will decide to attack Iran in order to grasp at Israel’s dying military hegemony in the region.

The implications of such a move will be disastrous for Israel in the best case scenario, and for the entire world in the worst case, and in any event will not prevent the Iranian attainment of nuclear weapons, but will simply delay it. Israeli missed the real opportunity to prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East when it decided to develop its own nuclear weapons.

Translated to English by the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

segunda-feira, 5 de setembro de 2011

ALVOS CIVIS E ARMAS TÓXICAS: MAIS CRIMES EM GAZA

3 Setembro 2011, Carta Maior http://www.cartamaior.com.br (Brasil)

Baby Siqueira Abrão

Israel admitiu ter usado fósforo branco em 2006, contra o Líbano, e em 2008-2009, em Gaza. O problema é ainda mais grave porque vários metais muito tóxicos foram acrescentados às bombas de fósforo branco. Além de ferir, mutilar e matar pessoas no momento em que são aspirados ou tocam a pele, esses metais produzem mutações genéticas.

Data: 26/08/2011

A nova investida do governo israelense na Faixa de Gaza levanta algumas questões muito importantes. A primeira é o ataque a alvos civis, segundo documentou o Centro de Direitos Humanos Al-Mezan, de Gaza. Mísseis foram atirados diretamente sobre transeuntes e motoristas, matando-os e matando quem estava por perto. “Trata-se de execução sumária”, protestou o Al-Mezan. Casas, armazéns, plantações, sedes de ONGs e até uma estação de saneamento foram parcial ou totalmente destruídas.

Dessa vez, o primeiro ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyhau, foi obrigado a reconhecer que suas forças armadas tinham passado do limite ao recomendar “ataques cirúrgicos” a alvos “militares”. Ele se referia a residências de líderes e campos de treinamento das brigadas palestinas que costumam lançar foguetes Qassam, de fabricação caseira, no sul de Israel. Se até Netanyhau, conhecido pelas posições extremistas e as soluções de força, fez esse tipo de indicação, imagine-se o caos em que se encontra a faixa costeira palestina.

A segunda questão diz respeito às substâncias químicas com que Israel fabrica bombas e mísseis atirados contra a população palestina.

Recentemente, líderes do comitê de luta popular de Al-Wallajah, vila de refugiados próxima a Belém, denunciaram o uso de um tipo de arma desconhecido, de cor preta e tamanho menor do que os cânisters comumente utilizados pelo exército sionista, que liberou um gás muito forte. Esses mesmos líderes viram os soldados israelenses pegarem os cilindros protegidos com luvas grossas e papelão. “É óbvio que eles não quiseram deixar nenhum cânister no terreno, para evitar que descobríssemos que substâncias havia ali dentro”, afirmou Mazin Qumsieh, ativista de direitos humanos e professor da Universidade de Belém.

No primeiro dia de 2011, elementos químicos desconhecidos misturados ao gás pimenta mataram Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 35, pacifista da vila de Bil’in, a 17 quilômetros de Ramallah, na Cisjordânia. Ela sofreu asfixia, ficou inconsciente e foi levada ao hospital, onde faleceu. Médicos que a atenderam desconfiaram de que, pelo conjunto de sintomas que Jawaher apresentou, e pela devastação orgânica causada pelo gás, possivelmente havia fósforo branco misturado a ele. O fósforo branco causa queimaduras profundas dentro e fora do corpo, e pode matar ao ser inalado. Seu poder tóxico e letal levou à proibição de seu uso pelas Convenções de Genebra.

Em 15 de maio deste ano, dia em que os palestinos rememoram a Nakba (catástrofe) – processo em que seu território foi tomado pelos sionistas de maneira violenta, por grupos paramilitares como Irgun e Stern –, os médicos do hospital de Ramallah alertaram para efeitos desconhecidos em ativistas atingidos por bombas de gás pimenta. Houve tontura, sangramento, confusão mental e paralisia temporária. Menos de uma semana depois eu mesma experimentei sintomas parecidos. Quando os soldados começaram a atirar bombas em nossa direção, na manifestação semanal de Bil’in, identifiquei um cheiro diferente, muito mais forte do que o gás costumeiro, e de imediato senti a cabeça pesar. Durante uma semana tive tonturas, cambaleei e fui tomada por um sono intenso, que me fazia dormir dias inteiros. Alertei outros manifestantes, e então soube que alguns – os mais expostos ao gás, como eu – haviam sofrido sintomas semelhantes aos meus.

Israel admitiu ter usado fósforo branco em 2006, contra o Líbano, e em 2008-2009, em Gaza. O problema é ainda mais grave porque vários metais muito tóxicos foram acrescentados às bombas de fósforo branco. Além de ferir, mutilar e matar pessoas no momento em que são aspirados ou tocam a pele, esses metais produzem mutações genéticas. Mais: ao contaminar o solo, o ar, a água e as construções, eles têm efeitos, a médio e longo prazos, ainda não estabelecidos. E sua mistura pode potencializar os danos.

Um dos metais utilizados é o urânio, radioativo, utilizado em usinas nucleares e na produção de bombas atômicas. Sua vida útil é de cerca de 4,5 bilhões de anos (urânio 238) e aproximadamente 700 milhões de anos (urânio 235).

Em Gaza, tecidos retirados de ferimentos das vítimas foram analisados e os resultados, divulgados em 11 de maio de 2010 pelo New Weapons Committee (NWRG), grupo de pesquisadores, acadêmicos e profissionais de mídia que estuda os efeitos das novas tecnologias de guerra. A mídia corporativa, como é de praxe, não noticiou. Com exceção de especialistas e pesquisadores, poucas pessoas souberam da existência dessa pesquisa e de seus resultados.

A nova investida de Israel em Gaza foi analisada por especialistas da NWRG com base em imagens de feridos transmitidas por uma estação de TV de Gaza em 19 de agosto de 2011. “Parece que estamos vendo as mesmas armas usadas em 2008”, concluíram os especialistas. Veja também: http://youtu.be/F9Oeo54lmtc (mas atenção: contém imagens fortes).

Leia, a seguir, a tradução do release do MWRG, feita por mim quando de seu lançamento. É aterrador. O original em inglês pode ser encontrado em http://www.newweapons.org/?q=node/113 e em http://www.newweapons.org/files/20100511pressrelease_eng.pdf. Os destaques são nossos.

“Metais tóxicos e cancerígenos, capazes de produzir mutações genéticas, foram encontrados nos tecidos dos feridos em Gaza durante as operações militares israelenses de 2006 e 2009. A pesquisa foi realizada em ferimentos provocados por armas que não deixam fragmentos nos corpos das vítimas, uma particularidade apontada pelos médicos em Gaza. Isso mostra que foram utilizadas armas experimentais, cujos efeitos ainda são desconhecidos.

Os pesquisadores compararam 32 elementos presentes nos tecidos utilizando o ICP/MS, um tipo de espectrometria de massa altamente sensível. O trabalho, realizado pelos laboratórios da Universidade Sapienza de Roma (Itália), da Universidade de Chalmers (Suécia) e da Universidade de Beirute (Líbano), foi coordenado pelo New Weapons Research Group (NWRG), comitê independente de cientistas e especialistas na Itália que estuda o uso de armas não convencionais e seus efeitos de médio prazo sobre a população de áreas atingidas por guerras. A presença de substâncias tóxicas e cancerígenas nos metais encontrados nos ferimentos é relevante e indica riscos diretos para os sobreviventes, além da possibilidade de contaminação ambiental.

Biópsias dos tecidos foram feitas pelos médicos do hospital Shifa, da cidade de Gaza, que selecionaram e classificaram os tipos de ferimentos. A pesquisa foi realizada em 16 amostras de tecidos, pertencentes a 13 vítimas. Quatro biópsias foram levadas a efeito em junho de 2006, durante a operação "Chuvas de verão", ao passo que as outras aconteceram na primeira semana de janeiro de 2009, durante a operação "Cast lead".

Todos os tecidos foram devidamente preservados e, em seguida, analisados pelas três universidades, separadamente.

Alguns dos elementos encontrados são cancerígenos (mercúrio, arsênio, cádmio, cromo, níquel e urânio); outros são potencialmente carcinogênicos (cobalto e vanádio); e há também substâncias que contaminam fetos (alumínio, cobre, bário, chumbo e manganês). Os primeiros podem produzir mutações genéticas, os segundos podem ter o mesmo efeito em animais (ainda não há comprovação em seres humanos), os terceiros têm efeitos tóxicos sobre pessoas e podem afetar também o embrião ou o feto em mulheres grávidas. Todos os metais, encontrados em quantidades elevadas, têm efeitos patogênicos em humanos, danificando os órgãos respiratórios, o rim, a pele, o desenvolvimento e as funções sexuais e neurológicas.

Paola Manduca, porta-voz do New Weapons Research Group, professora e pesquisadora de genética da Universidade de Gênova, comentou: ‘Ninguém ainda realizara análises bióticas em amostras de tecido de feridas. Concentramos nossos estudos nos ferimentos provocados por armas que, segundo os médicos de Gaza, não deixam fragmentos. Queríamos verificar a presença de metais na pele e na derme. Suspeitava-se que esses metais estivessem presentes nesse tipo de armas [que não deixam fragmentos], mas isso nunca tinha sido demonstrado. Para nossa surpresa, mesmo as queimaduras provocadas por fósforo branco contêm alta quantidade de metais. Além disso, a presença desses metais nas armas implica que eles se dispersaram no ambiente, em quantidades e com alcance desconhecidos, e foram inalados pelas vítimas e por aqueles que testemunharam os ataques. Portanto, constituem um risco para os sobreviventes e para as pessoas que não foram diretamente atingidas pelo bombardeio’.

A pesquisa segue dois estudos anteriores conduzidos pelo NWRG. O primeiro foi publicado em 17 de dezembro de 2009 e estabeleceu a presença de metais tóxicos em áreas ao redor das crateras provocadas pelo bombardeio israelense na Faixa de Gaza. O último foi publicado em 17 de março de 2010 e apontou a presença de metais tóxicos em amostras de cabelo de crianças palestinas de Gaza. Ambos apontam para a presença de contaminação ambiental, agravada pelas condições de vida naquele território, que propiciam o contato direto com o solo e, muitas vezes, a vida em abrigos expostos ao vento e à poeira, devido à impossibilidade de reconstruir as moradias, imposta pelo bloqueio israelense a Gaza, que impede a entrada de materiais de construção e das ferramentas necessárias para a reconstrução das casas.”

Trata-se de limpeza étnica, sem dúvida, a médio e a longo prazos. Daqui a bilhões de anos Gaza ainda sofrerá os efeitos dessas substâncias. Haverá alguém lá para testemunhar a tragédia?

Atualização:
O médico Ayman Al-Sahbani, do hospital de Shifa, em Gaza, denunciou em 26 de agosto que as armas usadas pelo exército israelense nos ataques dos últimos dias são piores do que as utilizadas na Operação Cast Lead (2008-2009). A denúncia, feita a Julie Webb-Pullman, de Scoop Independent News: "Queremos que o mundo tome conhecimento do que está acontecendo em Gaza. Precisamos saber que armas são essas. Temos aqui [no hospital] vinte crianças com ferimentos que eu nunca tinha visto, nem mesmo na Operação Cast Lead, quando vi pela primeira vez as queimaduras deixadas pelo fósforo branco. As armas de agora são ainda piores, causam queimaduras terríveis, despedaçam pés, pernas, mãos, enchem os corpos com centenas de pequenos pedaços de metal".

(original em http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1108/S00321/gaza-why-is-the-question-my-son-asks-me-dr-al-sahbani.htm)

quarta-feira, 24 de agosto de 2011

BIBI AND BARAK’S TERROR FRAUD: EGYPTIAN NEWS REPORTS ATTACKERS WERE EGYPTIAN, NOT GAZAN

22 August 2011,Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)

Al Masry Al Youm, an independent liberal Egyptian newspaper, reports that Egypt has identified at least three of the Eilat attackers and that they are Egyptian, and not Gazan as Israel has claimed:

Egyptian authorities have identified three of the people responsible for carrying out a terrorist attack in Israel, just north of Eilat, on Thursday, in which seven Israelis were killed, according to an Egyptian security source.

The same source added that one of the men identified is a leader of terrorist cells in Sinai, while another is a fugitive who owns an ammunition factory.

What is intriguing about this story is that it would explain many things which appeared to be discrepancies when the theory was that Gazans were involved. First, the Israeli bus driver said the attackers wore Egyptian army uniforms. Now, it might be possible for Gazans to get such uniforms, but it would be much easier for Egyptians to do so. Second, the Israelis themselves have disagreed about the authors of the crime, with Netanyahu claiming the Popular Resistance Commitee was behind it and the IDF spokesperson specifically rejecting her boss’ claim. All of which leads one to believe that the Israelis don’t have a clue who was behind it. Third, well over half the attackers escaped, which is highly unusual for a terror attack on Israel. It would be much easier for Egyptian terrorists to melt back into Sinai than for Gazans to do so. Fourth, it would be a lot easier for Egyptians to mount an attack on Eilat than for Gazans to do so considering how far the latter would have to travel to get to the Israeli city. Fifth, Israel bombed a house containing the entire top leadership of the PRC, killing three commanders. If the PRC was responsible for the attack it simply beggars belief for their top leaders to be sitting in the same house together when they should be going into deep hiding. Sixth, there have been five bombings of the Egyptian pipeline bringing gas to Israel. Clearly, there are Egyptians who, in the light of the new Egyptian leadership, are not happy with continuing good relations between Egypt and Israel and willing to engage in terror to disrupt it.

All this would mean, if true, that Israel was not only caught with its pants down by the attack itself, but it hasn’t been able to pull them up in the aftermath either. I can’t recall previously seeing such disarray within the Israeli military-political echelons as a result of a terror attack. But it would seem to indicate some serious dysfunction.

H/t to readers Mary Hughes Thompson and Chayma for the story and link.

UPDATE: I’m just as competitive as the next political blogger, and to my chagrin I wrote this post last night (18 hours ago) and then queried a few Egyptians I knew about how realiable a source Al Masry was. Then I waited for a reply, but one never came. Then I somehow forgot I hadn’t actually published the post. A comment in another thread by a reader made me realize I hadn’t published this and so did so a few hours ago. But this delay allowed me to read Yossi Gurvitz’s 972 Magazine post which goes over some of the ground here, but adds a few interesting points I either didn’t know or hadn’t considered, which further buttress the argument that Bibi and Barak are perpetrating a fraud of massive proportions.

First, Gurvitz argues that Israel always releases the names and home villages of captured or killed terrorists within hours of the attack. For Israel, it is a way of pinning blame where Israel feels it belongs. But in the case of this incident, not only hasn’t Israel released this information, but IDF spokesperson Avital Leibowitz, when asked for it by Gurvitz, flatly refused to provide it. Sorry fellas, but something ain’t right here. Israel is a creature of habit. It follows a time honored routine in matters like this. The fact that it’s deviating from SOP is a major “tell.”

Also, Gurvitz notes that B’Tselem has tried to identify, through Gaza sources, who the attackers might’ve been, and has failed. In addition, any Gaza family which discovers a relative was killed in a terror attack would do the Jewish equivalent of sit shiva. This would be a public ritual and known to everyone in Gaza. Yet somehow mysteriously there are no such mourning tents for the dead attackers.

If those of us who smell a rat here are right, then it would appear that Barak and Bibi knew the attackers were Egyptian. That meant that they had two choices: either commence a major row with Egypt over the attack which might lead to a regional or international escalation which Israel couldn’t afford considering it’s already feuding with Turkey. Or Israel could blame its usual whipping boy, Gaza and Hamas. This way it could attack the usual suspects, draw blood, and go home after declaring victory. Israelis wouldn’t be any the wiser, and Israel wouldn’t have to upset the unsteady apple cart of relations with the new Egyptian regime.

Something ain’t right about this picture. It is the duty of the Israeli media to start asking questions, and pronto. We may have yet another scandal brewing here.

UPDATE I: Prof. Joel Beinin, a respected Egypt studies scholar confirms that Al Masry is an indepencent liberal newspaper with no particular axe to grind regarding this story. He says that Al Masry’s story makes sense and might explain why Israel killed Egyptian security forces by accident. In other words, I’ve reported earlier that the Israeli bus driver whose bus was attacked near Eilat said the attackers wore Egyptian army uniforms. Most of these terrorists escaped back into Egypt. Israel would’ve alerted the Egyptians to this and the latter would have pursued them. But then you’d have legitimate Egyptian soldiers pursuing attackers wearing Egyptian military uniforms. It stands to reason that Israeli forces also pursuing the attackers inside Egypt might’ve easily mistaken the good guys for the bad guys.

Interestingly, the killing of the Egyptian soldiers by Israel indicates that Israel violated Egyptian sovereignty in hot pursuit of the terrorists. It’s common for Israel to do this with weak states like Lebanon, but not more formidable neighbors like Egypt. This potentially could be a incendiary issue if it got out widely inside Egypt.

UPDATE II: Prof. Ellis Goldberg, an Egypt specialist at the University of Washington, also just confirmed the reliability of Al Masry in the context of this story. He sent me a link to a new story in today’s Al Masry. It describes the Israeli incursion which killed the five Egyptian security officers (not three, as the NY Times has reported):

Reliable sources said that an Israeli unit entered (Sinai) at border point 79, in pursuit of the Eilat attackers, and then fought with the Egyptian unit stationed there. The sources said that an Israeli helicopter intervened in the clash, and fired two missiles, and then hovered vertically over the Egyptian unit and opened fire with two machine guns, killing instantly Captain Ahmed Galal–with nine shots and a number of [missile] fragments–two soldiers, and two others [who] died later.

…A vehicle belonging to the border security forces, was on its way to the scene, and was exposed to a barrage of fire launched by the Israeli force and the armed groups.

What is extraordinary about all this is that Israeli forces not only invaded Egypt to pursue these attackers, but that they engaged with legitimate Egyptian security forces (rather than the militants), and severely sabotaged the Egyptian operation to capture the killers. This meant that in the gun battle, the Egyptian forces were not just fighting the Eilat militants, but the IDF as well. Man, this is a screw-up of massive proportions.

It is one thing to kill terrorists who’ve attacked your citizens, this may be justified. But in this case the IDF has killed 14 Gazans who likely had nothing to do with the Eilat assault, not even the ones Israel has identified as Gaza militants. Just as many parts of Operation Cast Lead qualify to be investigated as war crimes, I’d say the Gaza reprisals are right up there on the scale of impunity. Can the leader of any nation get away with attacking another that didn’t even attack it at all? If this isn’t a war crime, what is?

The Al Masry describes the three Eilat attackers its forces killed and there can be no doubt that they are Egyptian and not Gazan:

The 3 attackers are … the actual commander of the terrorist and takfiri (militant islamists) in central Sinai, one of the inmates who escaped from Egyptian prison during the recent security chaos, and a member of the (Salafist) group “Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad” who owns an ammunition factory that (Egyptian) security forces discovered last week.

Idan Landau also writes an extraordinarily comprehensive blog post, Conspiracy in the South, about this in which he reaches similar conclusions to Yossi and I. Idan puts this incident in the historic context of a number of other Israeli operations, among them the 1982 Lebanon invasion, which used equally bogus information to justify themselves. He also equates the Israeli government’s fake account to the Bush administration’s bogus claims of WMD which led us to invade Iraq in 2003.

Idan also reinforces a post I wrote during the height of the J14 protest uproar. I reported a story by Shalom Yerushalmi in which he warned the Israeli leadership not to engage in a military adventure that would distract the Israeli public from the very real social issues raised by the tent protests. If we are all correct, and Bibi and Barak took advantage of the terror attack to escalate it into a major regional crisis, then Yerushalmi’s point will have been proven. Bibi did precisely what the reporter had warned him not to do. Masterful (unfortunately only in Hebrew).

sexta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2011

WHY ISRAEL SHOULD NOT ATTACK IN GAZA

18 August 2011, + 972 http://972mag.com (Israel)

Yossi Gurvitz*

A terrorist attack in Israel has claimed seven victims. Barak plans a large-scale attack on Gaza. We shouldn’t do it.

Seven Israelis were killed earlier today in a terror attack in the south of Israel, near Eilat. As these words are written, IAF fighters are circling in the skies of Gaza, and reports just came in of an airstrike in Rafah that claimed three lives. We still don’t know who is responsible for the attack, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already found the guilty parties, the residents of the Gaza Strip. Borrowing the language of the settler pogromchiks, he actually promised a “price tag” operation (Hebrew). In Gaza, people are already huddling in shelters, and following the tweets from there, you can feel the despair, the terror, the feeling of “not again”.

We are all familiar with this circle: Attack, terrorist attack, attack, terrorist attack, attack, major terrorist attack, major operation, terrorist attack, attack and so on and so forth. Maybe we should, for once, break the circle? Here are a few reasons why:

A. Enough with the Pavolvian instinct. Barak wants to take us to a major operation in Gaza? He should first explain to the public what proof he has the attack originated there. I may well be proven wrong in the coming days, but right now this looks more like an Al Qaeda job, certainly much more professional than anything Hamas ever managed to pull off. Al Qaeda has already attacked Eilat before (a rocket attack – Hebrew), and it threatened an attack on it last year (Hebrew). Secondly, Barak should explain how, precisely, will his attack change the situation. The ease, almost absent-mindedness, in which the government can take us to war should be stopped.

B. Nobody does it anymore. Israel is one of the few countries still clinging to the punitive raids method of the 1950s. Does Barak claim the Hamas is responsible for the murder of Israeli citizens by a rocket attacks on busses? He should go the UN and demand an investigation of what seems to be a bona fide war crime. What does Israel stand to lose, if for once it should let international law take its course, instead of breaking it? Will the coming blow will show any different results from the previous ones? Take a deep breath, let the blood recede from your eyes, let’s talk this over; don’t make decisions when you’re in this state.

C. Fear for civilian life: The IDF does not know how to fight without harming civilians – even assuming that i wants to. Much of its lore is fighting against civilians, making them a pre-mediated target. This began in the late 1960s, with the bombing of the Suez Canal cities, and reached its climax in operations Grapes of Wrath and Law and Judgment in 1990s Lebanon – both of which directly attacked the population so that it would pressure its government to end the fighting. Barak led one directly and was involved in the planning of the other. Politically and diplomatically, Israel cannot afford another such operation, particularly not after Cast Lead.

D. The suspicion of a putsch: A large segment of the Israeli people will not believe that a major offensive – which will entail the calling up of reserves – is the result of today’s attack. Given that one deputy minister, Ayoub Qara, already asked the tent-towns of the J14 protests to go home, and given that this morning saw particularly heavy fighting between the Treasury and the Ministry of Defense, this suspicion would be very hard to disperse. Particularly when the minister in charge is Ehud Barak, whose cynicism is only rivaled by the hatred the public feels for him.

Let’s, for once, not open fire as our first move. If this fails, we can always fire later.

----------

I am Yossi Gurvitz*, a 40-year old journalist, blogger and photographer.

I write for several Israeli publications, including the influential financial daily Calcalist and the Nana portal. In the past, I’ve been deputy editor of Nana News, and with Itamar Shaaltiel edited its 2006 Knesset elections section.

I was raised as an Orthodox Jew, graduated from a Yeshiva (Nehalim), but saw the light and turned atheist at about the age of 17. After the mandatory three years in the military, much more strictly enforced in 1988 than now, I studied history and classics, earning a BA degree, and studying three additional years towards an MA, but abandoned the project in favor of earning my living as a journalist. [It seemed a good idea at the time.]

ISRAEL’S FOREIGN POLICY LINKED TO ITS GROWING SOCIAL INEQUALITY

13 August 2011, World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org (Australia)

By Jean Shaoul

Unprecedented social protests sweeping across Israel against soaring housing costs, social inequality, and declining living standards have focused on Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s embrace of “free market” reforms—and the resulting stranglehold of Israel’s dozen or so billionaires over the economy.

Little has as yet been said about one of the key factors behind this assault on Israeli workers’ living standards: the enormous economic strain coming from Israel’s brutal suppression of Middle Eastern workers in neighbouring countries, as part of Israel’s broader alliance with US imperialism. In recent years, the Zionist regime has spent billions of dollars on occupying and suppressing the Palestinian people, invading Lebanon, and building up a large military machine. Its crimes have been financed at the expense of the working class.

Moreover, these policies have been carried out largely in violation of the will of the Israeli population. In particular, repeated polls have shown that the majority of Israelis want a peaceful resolution of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A report by the Adva Centre’s Shlomo Swirski, The cost of occupation: the burden of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2010 report, exposes the social cost to Israel of occupying Palestinian land—excluding East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed directly.

Swirski says that both sides are paying a heavy price, although “Palestinians are paying the heaviest price”. But his report shows how the occupation’s costs have been placed squarely on the backs of the Israeli working class, via a sustained assault on its wages, working conditions, social, education and health care.

Military expenditure in the Palestinian territories took off primarily after the first Palestinian uprising or Intifada in 1987—before which Israeli bosses had profited by using Palestinian cheap labour to drive down Israelis’ wages. After the Intifada, however, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) stationed two special units permanently in the Occupied Territories. Moreover, the expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories after the 1993 Oslo Accords came at the expense of investment in peripheral towns in Israel itself and required more military spending to protect them.

The suppression of the second Intifada starting in September 2000 led to extra security costs and an economic downturn to which the government reacted by slashing all civilian spending. The cuts amounted to NIS 65 ($18) billion between 2001 and 2004, which the report described as “an unprecedented retrenchment”. From 2001 and 2005, child allowances were cut by 45 percent, unemployment benefits by 47 percent and income maintenance by 25 percent—cuts that the Ministry of Finance admitted were made to pay for the defence budget.

The 2001 levels of spending were not restored after Israel’s bloody suppression of the uprising. Social spending per capita has fallen every year following 2001, while defence expenditure has risen.

Israel receives $3 billion a year in aid from the US, much of it for military expenditure, but this in no way covers Israel’s total military budget, believed to be at least $13 billion or approximately 7-8 percent of GDP, one of the highest in the world.

Swirski adds that the prolonged conflict also prevented the integration of Palestinian Israelis into Israeli society, and their social and economic advancement. This marginalisation of 20 percent of the population has further undermined Israel’s economic development.

The occupation’s precise cost is unknown, however, because the military budget is never published. All that is published is the “additional special expenditures” for the occupation. These additional appropriations alone came to NIS 45 ($12.6) billion in 2009 prices between 1989 and 2010. The report notes that this is “larger than the total budgetary outlay on elementary, secondary and tertiary education in Israel”.

The 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza cost NIS 9 ($2.5) billion; the Brodet Commission estimated the cost of building the Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank at NIS 13 ($3.7) billion, a sum equivalent to the health care budget.

The 2006 Lebanon war to eradicate the pro-Palestinian infrastructure in Southern Lebanon cost NIS 8.2 ($2.3) billion; Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in 2008-09 cost a further NIS 4.5 ($1.3) billion, plus an additional NIS 1 billion ($280 million) to fortify the area adjacent to Gaza.

The impact of such military spending has been nothing short of catastrophic for all layers of Israeli society—save the very rich. The Israeli government does not represent the interests of its citizens, or even of all its Jewish citizens, but those of a section of Israel’s financial elite, a corrupt and venal clique that operates as international gangsters on behalf of its masters in Washington.

Adva’s 2009-10 Annual Social Report shows that inequality is high and growing, not only between rich and poor but between different sections of the working class: Jewish Israelis of European origin, of Middle East and North African origin, Palestinian Israelis, migrant workers, the impoverished orthodox Jews, and the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2010, Israel’s Gini coefficient was 39 percent, making it one of the most socially unequal of the world’s wealthy countries.

The gross average income of 80 percent of workers fell in 2009, with the income of the poorest 40 percent declining most. The middle income group has shrunk from 33 percent of all households in 1988 to 27 percent in 2009, with the share of total income falling from 28 percent to 21 percent.

While 52 percent of Israelis are poor or very poor, the annual per capita income of Palestinian Israelis is about one third that of Jewish Israelis. They face discrimination in terms of employment and education, social welfare and housing investment budgets. Half of all the 850,000 poor children are Palestinian Israelis.

All levels of education, another key focus of the protest movement, are almost universally acknowledged to be dreadful. Teachers’ pay is low relative to other developed countries, while classroom sizes are above average. Students, including Israel’s top students, perform badly by international standards. Some 54 percent of 17 year olds failed to graduate from high school in 2009, reflecting even more starkly the income disparities between social groups.

Access to healthcare is no better, as reflected in average household expenditure on supplemental healthcare insurance, which has continued to grow as public provision has declined. While the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on healthcare, their more limited insurance buys them significantly fewer benefits.

The elderly have been particularly badly affected as the state pension is far below even a minimum standard of living, and the income of the majority is so low that they are unable to save for their retirement. According to Adva’s report, the bottom 20 percent saved almost nothing towards their retirement.

These conditions underscore that a successful struggle against social inequality in Israel poses the urgent necessity of a united struggle by the Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab working masses against the bourgeois Zionist state and the criminal policies of world imperialism.

sexta-feira, 22 de julho de 2011

THE CHARGE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES or - Baksheesh for the Doorkeeper

23 July 2011, Gush Shalom גוש שלום http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)

Uri Avnery אורי אבנרי

A Riddle: Which fleet did not reach its destination but fulfilled its mission?
Well, it’s this year’s Gaza solidarity flotilla.

It could be said, of course, that last year’s “little fleet” – that’s what the word means in Spanish, much as “guerrilla” means “little war” – is also a reasonable candidate . It never reached Gaza, but the commander of the Israeli navy could well repeat the words of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, whose victory over the Romans was so costly that he is said to have exclaimed: “Another such victory, and I am lost!”
Flotilla 1 did not reach Gaza. But the naval commando attack on it, which cost the lives of nine Turkish activists, aroused such an outcry that our government saw itself compelled to loosen its land blockade of the Gaza Strip significantly.

The repercussions of this action have not yet died down. The very important relations between the Israeli and Turkish militaries are still ruptured, with Turkey demanding an apology and indemnities. The victims’ families are pursuing criminal and civil proceedings in several countries. An ongoing headache.

Flotilla 2 reached its end this week, when a huge naval action led to the capture of 1 (one!) little French yacht and the detention of its sailors, journalists and activists –all 16 (sixteen) of them. Even our tame broadcasters could not help themselves from sneering: “Why didn’t they send an aircraft carrier?”

The 14 boats that were prevented from sailing, and the one that did sail, not only kept our entire navy on alert for weeks, but also helped to keep the Gaza blockade in the news. And that, after all, was the whole point of the exercise.
WHAT HAPPENED to the 14 boats which did not sail?

Incredible as it sounds, the Greek navy and Coast Guard forcibly prevented them from leaving Greek ports. There existed no lawful grounds for this, nor was there any pretense of legality.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the Greek navy was acting under orders from the Israeli Chief of Staff. A proud sea-faring nation with a nautical history of thousands of years (“nautical” even happens to be a Greek word) degraded itself to perform illegal actions to please Israel.

It also ignored acts of sabotage carried out by naval commandos – guess whose - against the boats in Greek harbors.

At the same time, the Turkish government, the defiant sponsor of the Mavi Marmara, the ship on which the Turkish activists were killed last year, prevented the same ship from sailing this year.

Also at the same time, groups of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to reach the West Bank by air were stopped on their way. Since there is no direct access to the West Bank by land, sea or air except through Israeli territory or Israeli checkpoints, they had to travel via Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel’s gateway to the world. Most did not make it: under instructions from our government, all international airlines blocked these passengers at check-in, using “blacklists” provided by our government.

It seems that the long arm of our diligent security service reaches everywhere, and that its orders are obeyed by countries large and small.

A HUNDRED years ago, the secret police of the Russian Czar, the dreaded “Okhrana”, forged a document called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.

(In those times, the secret police everywhere was still called Secret Police, before being dignified as “Security Services”.)

The document reported a secret meeting of rabbis in the old Jewish cemetery of Prague, to decide upon strategy to secure Jewish rule over the world. It was a crude falsification, which lifted entire passages verbatim from a novel written decades earlier.

In its pages, the real situation of the Jews was grotesquely distorted – they actually had no power at all. In fact, when Adolf Hitler – who used the Protocols for his propaganda – set in motion the Final Solution, almost nobody in the whole world lifted a finger to help the Jews. Even US Jews were afraid to raise their voices.

But if the authors of the falsification were to return to the scene of their crime today, they would rub their eyes in disbelief: this figment of their sick imagination looks like coming true. The Jewish State – as Zionists like to call us – can order around Greek naval authorities, get Turkey to climb down, instruct half a dozen European states to stop passengers at their airports.

How do we do it? There is a simple answer, consisting of three letters: USA.
ISRAEL HAS become a kind of Kafkaesque doorkeeper to the world’s sole remaining superpower.

Through its immense influence on the American political system, and especially on the Congress, Israel can levy a political tax on anyone who needs something from the US. Greece is bankrupt and desperately needs American and European help. Turkey is a partner of the US in NATO. No European country wants to quarrel with the US. Ergo: they all need to give us a little political baksheesh.

To cement this relationship, Glenn Beck, the obnoxious protégé of Rupert Murdoch, visited us and was enthusiastically received in the Knesset, where he told us “not to be afraid”, because he (and, by implication, Fox and all of America) was supporting us to the hilt.

IT IS because of this that a few lines, which appeared this week in the New York Times, caused near panic in Jerusalem.

The NYT is, perhaps, the most “pro-Israel” paper in the whole world, including Israel itself. Anti-Semites call it the Jew York Times. Many of its editorial writers are ardent Zionists. A news story critical of Israeli policies has almost no chance of appearing there. No mention of the Israeli peace movement. No mention of the dozens of demonstrations in Israel against Lebanon War II and the Cast Lead operation. Self-censorship is supreme.

But this week, the NYT published a blistering editorial criticizing Israel. The reason: the “Boycott Law”, passed by the right-wing Knesset majority, which forbids Israelis to call for a boycott of the settlements. The editorial practically repeats what I said in last week’s article: that the law is blatantly anti-democratic and violates basic human rights. The more so, since it comes on top of a whole series of anti-democratic laws that were enacted in the last few months. Israel is in danger of losing its title as the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”.

Suddenly, all the red lights in Jerusalem started to blink furiously. Help! We are going to lose our only political asset in the world, the pillar of our strength, the basis of our national security, the rock of our existence.

THE RESULT was immediate. On Wednesday, the right-wing clique that now controls the Knesset, under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman, brought to final vote a resolution that would appoint two Committees of Inquiry into the financial resources of human-rights NGOs. Not all NGOs, only “leftist” ones. This was another item on the long list of McCarthyist measures, many of which have already been adopted and many more of which are waiting for their turn.

The day before, Binyamin Netanyahu appeared specially in the Knesset to assure his followers that he fully approved, and indeed had sponsored, the Boycott Law. But after the NYT editorial, when the Commission of Inquiry resolution came up, Netanyahu and almost all his cabinet ministers voted against it. The religious factions disappeared from the Knesset. The resolution was voted down by a 2 to 1 majority.

But one ominous fact emerged: Apart from Netanyahu and his captive ministers, all the Likud members present voted for the resolution. This included all the young leaders of the party – the coming generation of Likud bosses.

If the Likud remains in power – this group of ultra-rightists,[] will be the government of Israel within ten years. And to hell with the New York Times.
FORTUNATELY, THERE are signs that a new phenomenon is in the making.

It started innocently with a successful consumer strike on cottage cheese, in order to compel a cartel of fat cats to reduce prices. This has been followed by a mass action by young couples, mostly university students, against the impossibly high prices of apartments.

A group of protesters put up tents in the center of Tel Aviv and have now been living there for over a week. Soon after, such encampments sprang up all over the country, from Kiryat Shmona on the Lebanese border to Beer Sheva in the Negev.

It is much too early to tell whether this is a short-term protest or the beginning of an Israeli Tahrir Square phenomenon. But it clearly shows that the takeover of Israel by a neo-fascist grouping is not a foregone conclusion. The fight is on.
Perhaps - just perhaps! - even the New York Times could be starting to report on the reality of our country.

sexta-feira, 15 de julho de 2011

Israeli ship attacks international solidarity boat crew off Gaza coast

14 July 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)

Hama Waqum*

I am writing this exactly twelve hours after I was attacked by an Israeli warship, off the Gaza coast.

As a member of the Civil Peace Service, I board the Oliva boat around twice a week to monitor Gazan fishermen’s human rights. But today, it wasn’t just the fishermen who were targeted.

We approached a cluster of hasaka fishing boats that were being attacked with water cannons at midday on July 13. As we got closer all I could focus on was the officer manning the machine gun, covered from head to toe with black, which struck me as very medieval, if you know what I mean.

Our boat, along with the fishing vessels, was around two miles out to sea, well within the three-mile fishing limit imposed by Israel. We saw marines congregate on deck to watch as the water cannon was angled slowly but deliberately towards us. To my delight they struggled against the wind initially, but eventually managed to angle round us as we fumbled with the water-logged engine. I took one look at the jet being generated vertically and knew what was coming. Sure enough, pellets of water began to rain down on us with stinging force. Then I, camera in one hand, felt the jet stream slap my face directly, staying there for several seconds, before the boat was yanked away by the fishermen around us. I was flung backwards and words I never utter escaped my lips. Struggling to stay up, I forced myself to take it on the chin. Literally. As the assault continued, they repeatedly aimed at my face and each time my nose, eyes and mouth filled with seawater. At one point I even saw a naval officer indicate to the marine controlling the cannon to aim for me. He gleefully obliged.

Israeli naval water cannons are able reach high into the air; even when fired vertically they can reach about four times the height of the gunboat. This warship was about 10 metres away. Imagine someone boxing your face. Imagine that their fist is larger than a bowling ball. Now imagine that punch lasting for ten minutes. This is what it felt like.

For ten minutes we were pursued as we tried to escape the gunboat. There were several fishing boats around us and, if there is a silver lining, it is that our presence distracted the Navy from attacking them.

Our boat began to fill with water and we struggled, along with the fishing boats around us to return to shore. Even as we picked up speed, the gunboat honed in on us, with relentless attack after attack. Eventually at just over one mile off the Gaza shore, the gunboat lagged behind and we were on the home straight.

We were completely drenched through. Our captain had to order us to corners of the boat, worried it was about to capsize or sink from all the water with which it had been filled. My body started to buzz and I’m surprised I didn’t electrocute everyone with the static that was building in my bloodstream. The fishermen were safe, we escaped and I felt like we had won. Even though rinsing my mouth with the salinated Gazan water to make wudu that evening brought my brain right back to gargling waterjets on the Oliva boat, the footage is gold dust and we refused to cower from their water-taunting and domination.

Although the attack was challenging for those of us who experienced it, it is essential to remember that this an everyday occurrence for Gazan fishermen. Earlier that very day, the boat of one fisherman was shot at repeatedly. There were too many bullet holes in the bow of his boat for me to count. His netting cables were shot through and he lost his catch. I’m sure he must have been fishing for grenades or something, right? Whereas I returned to shore simply with a stinging face and drenched clothes, when fishermen are attacked, they are unable to make their living. For the one attack on CPS Gaza, there have been tens if not hundreds of attacks on fishing boats.

International observers of Gaza are being targeted evermore frequently, as witnessed with the sabotage and interception of the 2nd flotilla fleet. Such attacks prevent those who have easier access to the world beyond the siege from witnessing attacks on Gazan civilians. These are the actions of a nation that has something to hide.

Human rights volunteers will continue to monitor violations, regardless of what the Israeli Navy fires at us, not only because we aren’t doing anything wrong, but because we know, and I mean this graciously, we are doing what is right and is what no authority is willing to do: ensuring that when fishermen are shot and attacked, somebody is there to witness and document it. Not everyone is able to get to Gaza, so hopefully the video footage and this account will help to bring Gaza to you.

Update - The Civil Peace Service - Gaza sent out the following press release this morning:

When: 14 July 2011, 6:00 pm local time
Where: Port of Gaza, Palestine
Who: Alexandra Robinson, United States human rights monitor for Civil Peace Service Gaza
Khalil Shaheen, Director of the Economic and Social Rights Unit, Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Mahfouz Kabiriti, President of Palestine Association for Fishing and Marine Sports
What: CPSGAZA crew members and leaders will denounce recent Israeli naval aggression and announce their plans for future missions

For the second consecutive day, the CPSGAZA human rights monitoring boat came under sustained attack by Israeli naval forces, and was threatened for the first time with lethal force.

At approximately 8:15 am, two Israeli gunboats approached the Oliva as it cruised within the three-nautical mile fishing zone unilaterally imposed and enforced by Israeli forces.

After circling it several times, they opened fire on it with water cannons, nearly filling it with water in an apparent attempt to sink it.

Two United States crew members and the Palestinian captain were rescued from the vessel, in imminent danger of capsizing, by a small fishing boat, which transported them to a nearby trawler.

One of the warships then circled the trawler for nearly an hour, firing water cannons at it and taunting its fishing crew over its loudspeaker with cries of, "Where are your fish? Show me your fish!"

The warship eventually departed, after an amplified warning that if it returned to the sea, the Israeli navy would shoot both Palestinian fishermen and international human rights observers.

"Such behavior and threats towards unarmed international observers clearly demonstrates an attempt to hide the ongoing crimes of an illegal blockade," said Alexandra Robinson, a United States citizen and CPSGAZA crew member who experienced the attack.

Civil Peace Service Gaza is an international third party non-violent initiative to monitor potential human rights violations in Gazan territorial waters.

Background
Restrictions on the fishing zone are of considerable significance to Palestinian livelihood. Initially 20 nautical miles, it is presently often enforced between 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010). The marine 'buffer zone' restricts Gazan fishermen from accessing 85% of Gaza's fishing waters agreed to by Oslo.

During the Oslo Accords, specifically under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994, representatives of Palestine agreed to 20 nautical miles for fishing access. In 2002 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan empowered Catherine Bertini to negotiate with Israel on key issues regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a 12 nautical mile fishing limit was agreed upon. In June 2006, following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit near the crossing of Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the navy imposed a complete sea blockade for several months. When the complete blockade was finally lifted, Palestinian fishermen found that a 6 nautical mile limit was being enforced. When Hamas gained political control of the Gaza Strip, the limit was reduced to 3 nautical miles. During the massive assault on the Strip in 2008-2009, a complete blockade was again declared. After Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli army began imposing a 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010).

The fishing community is often similarly targeted as the farmers in the 'buffer zone' and the fishing limit is enforced with comparable aggression, with boats shot at or rammed as near as 2nm to the Gazan coast by Israeli gunboats.

The fishermen have been devastated, directly affecting an estimated 65,000 people and reducing the catch by 90%. The coastal areas are now grossly over-fished and 2/3 of fishermen have left the industry since 2000 (PCHR: 2009). Recent statistics of the General Union of Fishing Workers indicate that the direct losses since the second Intifada in September 2000 were estimated at a million dollars and the indirect losses were estimated at 13.25 million dollars during the same period. The 2009 fishing catch amounted to a total of 1,525 metric tones, only 53 percent of the amount during 2008 (2,845 metric tones) and 41 percent of the amount in 1999 (3,650 metric tones), when the fishermen of Gaza could still fish up to ten nautical miles from the coast. Current figures indicate that during 2010 the decline in the fishing catch continues. This has caused an absurd arrangement to become standard practice. The fisherman sail out not to fish, but to buy fish off of Egyptian boats and then sell this fish in Gaza. According to the Fishermen's Union, a monthly average of 105 tons of fish has been entering Gaza through the tunnels since the beginning of 2010 (PCHR 2009).

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). "The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip." Oct. 2010.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. "A report on: Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Fishers in the Gaza Strip." August 2009.

*Hama Waqum is a volunteer for CPS Gaza, she writes in a personal capacity and tweets at @WelshinGaza.

terça-feira, 5 de julho de 2011

SIEGE OF GAZA HAS BECOME A MORAL BLOCKADE OF ISRAEL

5 july 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

Israel is merely one subject out of several that the political - or the apolitical - complaining is busy with.

By Yitzhak Laor

Israel is indeed connected to the centers of power in the world. The predictions of a tsunami at present seem to be exaggerated, but nevertheless, before the victory ball, it is worth remembering - the Israeli occupation is the longest military occupation of modern times. The subjects of the occupation in its two forms - the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - live under a brutal regime that few other occupations allowed themselves, without any law - the blockade and the morbidity rate among children, the roadblocks and the arbitrariness of the soldiers, breaking in to people's homes (imagine your children being awakened at night by the shouting of armed men, breaking down doors and blinding them with flashlights; imagine living without any protection ), the prolonged occupation, a disaster for us and for the Palestinians - because Israel enjoys the support of the West.

The settlements have turned the occupation into something insolvable, at least in the next few decades, so that the occupation will not merely raise another generation of Israeli troopers, egged on by the rabbis of the rabble, but also a third and fourth generation of Palestinians without another kind of life.

The fact that the Gaza Strip has become an international symbol of cruelty is yet further proof of the stupidity of our leaders. Operation Cast Lead and the blockade of Gaza - both of them with broad national consensus - have turned Gaza into a symbol that no longer needs coordination on the part of the Palestinians. Israeli democracy appears as it actually is: In the name of the majority (six million Jews ) it is permitted to do to the minority (five million, in Israel and the territories ) almost anything.

The national minority in Israel has the right to vote but it does not have television of its own ; it has health insurance but also heavy unemployment and infant mortality rates that are much higher than among the Jews (8.3 compared with 3.7 for every 1000 births ). Tel Aviv, which sells itself to the world as a liberal city, is the only metropolis in the West that does not have a Muslim population. Its "coolness" is racist - the 20 percent minority does not appear at all in the life of the city. And it is advisable for propagandists not to point to Jaffa as proof of diversity - Jaffa with its yuppie immigration is a perfect example of apartheid carried out by "secular" and "liberal" Tel Aviv.

Official propaganda, too, will not help. The more pressure Israel brings to bear on centers in the West - countries and media giants - the more the wave against it grows, because the hatred of the occupation and of Israeli racism springs from the knowledge that what Israel does is funded by the West, gets assistance from the West, and from connections with the focuses of power - as a living memorial to colonialism. There is nothing better than the way in which the Greeks thwarted the Gaza aid flotilla's departure to reinforce this. It was not just Greece that thwarted it.

The coalitions that are being organized against Israel in the West include members of the left. There are also many others and not all of them are humanistic. They are not always Jew-lovers. These coalitions will continue to grow as long as the western political community presents itself as "helpless" in the face of Israeli obduracy. Of course it is not helpless, and when it has actual interests, it is capable of behaving in typically western barbaric fashion, as it is doing now in Libya and in Iraq.

The loathing of Israel fits in with the growing anti-establishment wrath, within the context of politics where there is no difference between the parties. The protests in Greece are an example of lack of faith of this kind, which does not spring from the Israeli occupation but from the powerlessness of the masses to influence what is taking place in their countries - economics and war.

Israel is merely one subject out of several that the political - or the apolitical - complaining is busy with. Very few people join flotillas, but many more participate in sending them and even more internalize their oppression. The complaining and mumbling is part of a burgeoning anti-establishment consensus. The record of what is always known as "the hypocritical politicians" has been joined by the hypocritical attitude toward Israeli cruelty.

It is not surprising therefore that the blockade of Gaza is getting tighter in the form of a moral blockade of Israel. Slowly but surely, in a world filled with injustice and war crimes and racism toward minorities and migrants, Israel has learned, during decades of stupidity, how to become the symbol of injustice and these crimes. We are no longer the embodiment of progress, as we were trumpeted as being for a long time, but the exact opposite. And this is truly just the beginning.