War in the Middle East
Rue D'Awakening
Posts: 143
ISRAEL'S NEXT WAR HAS BEGUN.
Battle Plans
by Yossi Klein Halevi
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 07.12.06
The next Middle East war--Israel against genocidal Islamism--has begun. The first stage of the war started two weeks ago, with the Israeli incursion into Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the ongoing shelling of Israeli towns and kibbutzim; now, with Hezbollah's latest attack, the war has spread to southern Lebanon. Ultimately, though, Israel's antagonists won't be Hamas and Hezbollah but their patrons, Iran and Syria. The war will go on for months, perhaps several years. There may be lulls in the fighting, perhaps even temporary agreements and prisoner exchanges. But those periods of calm will be mere respites.
The goals of the war should be the destruction of the Hamas regime and the dismantling of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel cannot coexist with Iranian proxies pressing in on its borders. In particular, allowing Hamas to remain in power--and to run the Palestinian educational system--will mean the end of hopes for Arab-Israeli reconciliation not only in this generation but in the next one too.
For the Israeli right, this is the moment of "We told you so." The fact that the kidnappings and missile attacks have come from southern Lebanon and Gaza--precisely the areas from which Israel has unilaterally withdrawn--is proof, for right-wingers, of the bankruptcy of unilateralism. Yet the right has always misunderstood the meaning of unilateral withdrawal. Those of us who have supported unilateralism didn't expect a quiet border in return for our withdrawal but simply the creation of a border from which we could more vigorously defend ourselves, with greater domestic consensus and international understanding. The anticipated outcome, then, wasn't an illusory peace but a more effective way to fight the war. The question wasn't whether Hamas or Hezbollah would forswear aggression but whether Israel would act with appropriate vigor to their continued aggression.
So it wasn't the rocket attacks that were a blow to the unilateralist camp, but rather Israel's tepid responses to those attacks. If unilateralists made a mistake, it was in believing our political leaders--including Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert--when they promised a policy of zero tolerance against any attacks emanating from Gaza after Israel's withdrawal. That policy was not implemented--until two weeks ago. Now, belatedly, the Olmert government is trying to regain something of its lost credibility, and that is the real meaning of this initial phase of the war, both in Gaza and in Lebanon.
Still, many in Israel believe that, even now, the government is acting with excessive restraint. One centrist friend of mine, an Olmert voter, said to me, "If we had assassinated [Hamas leader] Haniyeh after the first kidnapping, [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah would have thought twice about ordering another kidnapping." Israel, then, isn't paying for the failure of unilateral withdrawal, but for the failure to fulfill its promise to seriously respond to provocations after withdrawal.
Absurdly, despite Israel's withdrawal to the international borders with Lebanon and Gaza, much of the international community still sees the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as a legitimate act of war: Just as Israel holds Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, so Hamas and Hezbollah now hold Israeli prisoners. One difference, though, is that inmates in Israeli jails receive visits from family and Red Cross representatives, while Israeli prisoners in Gaza and Lebanon disappear into oblivion. Like Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who was captured by Hezbollah 20 years ago, then sold to Iran, and whose fate has never been determined. That is one reason why Israelis are so maddened by the kidnapping of their soldiers.
Another reason is the nature of the crimes committed by the prisoners whose release is being demanded by Hezbollah and Hamas. One of them is Samir Kuntar, a PLO terrorist who in 1979 broke into an apartment in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, took a father and child hostage, and smashed the child's head against a rock. In the Palestinian Authority, Kuntar is considered a hero, a role model for Palestinian children.
The ultimate threat, though, isn't Hezbollah or Hamas but Iran. And as Iran draws closer to nuclear capability--which the Israeli intelligence community believes could happen this year--an Israeli-Iranian showdown becomes increasingly likely. According to a very senior military source with whom I've spoken, Israel is still hoping that an international effort will stop a nuclear Iran; if that fails, then Israel is hoping for an American attack. But if the Bush administration is too weakened to take on Iran, then, as a last resort, Israel will have to act unilaterally. And, added the source, Israel has the operational capability to do so.
For Israelis, that is the worst scenario of all. Except, of course, the scenario of nuclear weapons in the hands of the patron state of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a foreign correspondent for The New Republic and senior fellow of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.
Battle Plans
by Yossi Klein Halevi
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 07.12.06
The next Middle East war--Israel against genocidal Islamism--has begun. The first stage of the war started two weeks ago, with the Israeli incursion into Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the ongoing shelling of Israeli towns and kibbutzim; now, with Hezbollah's latest attack, the war has spread to southern Lebanon. Ultimately, though, Israel's antagonists won't be Hamas and Hezbollah but their patrons, Iran and Syria. The war will go on for months, perhaps several years. There may be lulls in the fighting, perhaps even temporary agreements and prisoner exchanges. But those periods of calm will be mere respites.
The goals of the war should be the destruction of the Hamas regime and the dismantling of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel cannot coexist with Iranian proxies pressing in on its borders. In particular, allowing Hamas to remain in power--and to run the Palestinian educational system--will mean the end of hopes for Arab-Israeli reconciliation not only in this generation but in the next one too.
For the Israeli right, this is the moment of "We told you so." The fact that the kidnappings and missile attacks have come from southern Lebanon and Gaza--precisely the areas from which Israel has unilaterally withdrawn--is proof, for right-wingers, of the bankruptcy of unilateralism. Yet the right has always misunderstood the meaning of unilateral withdrawal. Those of us who have supported unilateralism didn't expect a quiet border in return for our withdrawal but simply the creation of a border from which we could more vigorously defend ourselves, with greater domestic consensus and international understanding. The anticipated outcome, then, wasn't an illusory peace but a more effective way to fight the war. The question wasn't whether Hamas or Hezbollah would forswear aggression but whether Israel would act with appropriate vigor to their continued aggression.
So it wasn't the rocket attacks that were a blow to the unilateralist camp, but rather Israel's tepid responses to those attacks. If unilateralists made a mistake, it was in believing our political leaders--including Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert--when they promised a policy of zero tolerance against any attacks emanating from Gaza after Israel's withdrawal. That policy was not implemented--until two weeks ago. Now, belatedly, the Olmert government is trying to regain something of its lost credibility, and that is the real meaning of this initial phase of the war, both in Gaza and in Lebanon.
Still, many in Israel believe that, even now, the government is acting with excessive restraint. One centrist friend of mine, an Olmert voter, said to me, "If we had assassinated [Hamas leader] Haniyeh after the first kidnapping, [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah would have thought twice about ordering another kidnapping." Israel, then, isn't paying for the failure of unilateral withdrawal, but for the failure to fulfill its promise to seriously respond to provocations after withdrawal.
Absurdly, despite Israel's withdrawal to the international borders with Lebanon and Gaza, much of the international community still sees the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as a legitimate act of war: Just as Israel holds Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, so Hamas and Hezbollah now hold Israeli prisoners. One difference, though, is that inmates in Israeli jails receive visits from family and Red Cross representatives, while Israeli prisoners in Gaza and Lebanon disappear into oblivion. Like Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who was captured by Hezbollah 20 years ago, then sold to Iran, and whose fate has never been determined. That is one reason why Israelis are so maddened by the kidnapping of their soldiers.
Another reason is the nature of the crimes committed by the prisoners whose release is being demanded by Hezbollah and Hamas. One of them is Samir Kuntar, a PLO terrorist who in 1979 broke into an apartment in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, took a father and child hostage, and smashed the child's head against a rock. In the Palestinian Authority, Kuntar is considered a hero, a role model for Palestinian children.
The ultimate threat, though, isn't Hezbollah or Hamas but Iran. And as Iran draws closer to nuclear capability--which the Israeli intelligence community believes could happen this year--an Israeli-Iranian showdown becomes increasingly likely. According to a very senior military source with whom I've spoken, Israel is still hoping that an international effort will stop a nuclear Iran; if that fails, then Israel is hoping for an American attack. But if the Bush administration is too weakened to take on Iran, then, as a last resort, Israel will have to act unilaterally. And, added the source, Israel has the operational capability to do so.
For Israelis, that is the worst scenario of all. Except, of course, the scenario of nuclear weapons in the hands of the patron state of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a foreign correspondent for The New Republic and senior fellow of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.
Anti Zionism is not Anti Semitism
Most antizionists are antisemites
Most antizionists are antisemites
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Quote - The goals of the war should be the destruction of the Hamas regime and the dismantling of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
No, it shouldnt. The goal should be no war, no genocidal actions taken against Palestinians or the lebanese.
Good luck with your belief in the ultra right wing Israeli government. You'll find plenty of Republicans on here who wil applaud your point of posting this vengeful, psychotic article.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
And here I thought you had the market cornered on " vengeful, psychotic articles".
If those who condemn Isreal for military actions would spread that "blame" around a bit, and condemn BOTH sides, maybe someone would actually take you seriously. But much like the America haters, everything is Isreal's fault. Its laughable.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
I think if there's one group of people who might know a little bit about genocidal actions being taken against them, it's the Jews. Military incursions against militant terrorists who continually provoke Israel are not what I would call "genocidal actions".
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gotta love the naive hyperbolic idiocy of europeans. it's telling that your list of indictments includes mention of the beach incident, of which israel has been completely vindicated -by human rights watch, no less. -or didn't the ever-so-professional bbc report that?
read up on what your foreign office did to the jews before and during world war two and realize that you have absolutely no moral right to hate israel like you do.
Most antizionists are antisemites
You criticize Israel. But, what kind of independent country lets another military (Hezbollah) operate unimpeded in their territory? If Mexico let Al Queda operate out of Tijuana, you'd better believe there would be hell to pay, no matter how much the Mexican government distances themselves from their actions. Simply put, this will be over when Lebanon takes responsibility for their country and kicks out Hezbollah.
So go and atatck Germany then. I don't rememebr seeing Palestinians pushing people into gas chambers.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Israel have obviously been poised to do this for some time, given the speed and scale of operations, and got the excuse they needed.
Even if it isn't their excuse to get going on some flimsy pretext, I find the mindset of collective punishment of all palestinians for a radical groups kidnapping 1 - ONE - soldier is sickening. What kind of message does that send anyway? One of our soldiers have far more worth than all your people and infrastructure combined, so we are entitled to destroy all for this insult...
My take is that they were just waiting for an excuse to execute the plan made a long time ago.
Sad...
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
Again, why doesn't Israel go and attack Germany then?
If revenge for the holocaust is what this Israeli government wants, leave the hungry, beaten down, interned Palestinains alone, and launch their American missiles and bullets towards Germany or Hungary or Italy or any other power that abused the Jewish race over 60 years ago.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
What do you call fearing riding the public transit system? Or fearing a Qassam falling into your bedroom at night? Or even going out to a club? Is that not collective punishment?
The fact is, if Hamas weren't such pussies, they wouldn't hide in residential areas, as they do. If they do hide there, then it is almost impossible to escape some collective punishment.
Ahh the westenr media myth makers know no bounds. These soldiers weren't kidnapped, or seized, or any of that bullshit. They were captured in war, on foriegn territory (if its even possible to call Gaza foriegn territory) whilst undergoing military operations against Palestinians in Gaza and the Lebanese in Lebanon. They were captured, and under the terms of Geneve convention, treated humanely and offered for release in exchange for other POWs.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Israel doesn't want revenge for the Holocaust. It wants to live in peace like almost every other country.
You are insane. The Geneva conventions does not apply to terrorist groups. I can't go kidnap your mom and claim its an act of war. Second, Israel is not at war with Lebanon, at least yet.
Hezbollah grew out of the need for the Lebanese to defend themselves in the early 80's. From Israel, who invaded and occupied Lebanon for 20 years.
Israeli Goverment and the US call them terrorist groups. The lebanese call them defenders, freedom fighters, and they are the largest military force in Lebanon. Semantics wont excuse anything.
Try some education, you know, fit some reading into your day, before wandering off to watch the millions interred in Gaza and the West Bank, you know, those without aid or water or freedom.
Who are Hezbollah?
Hezbollah - or the Party of God - is a powerful political and military organisation of Shia Muslims in Lebanon.
It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Hezbollah presents itself as a force of resistance for Lebanon and the region
In May 2000 this aim was achieved, thanks largely to the success of the party's military arm, the Islamic Resistance.
In return, the movement, which represents Lebanon's Shia Muslims - the country's single largest community - won the respect of most Lebanese.
It now has an important presence in the Lebanese parliament and has built broad support by providing social services and health care. It also has an influential TV station, al-Manar.
But, it still has a militia that refuses to demilitarise, despite UN resolution 1559, passed in 2004, which called for the disarming of militias as well as the withdrawal of foreign (i.e about 14,000 Syrian) forces from Lebanon.
As long ago as 2000, after Israel's withdrawal, Hezbollah was under pressure to integrate its forces into the Lebanese army and focus on its political and social operations.
But, while it capitalised on its political gains, it continued to describe itself as a force of resistance not only for Lebanon, but for the region.
Syria
The Islamic Resistance is still active on the Israel-Lebanon border. Tension is focused on an area known as the Shebaa Farms, although clashes with Israeli troops occur elsewhere.
Hezbollah, with broad Lebanese political support, says the Shebaa Farms area is occupied Lebanese territory - but Israel, backed by the UN, says the farms are on the Syrian side of the border and so are part of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Another casus belli cited by Hezbollah is the continued detention of prisoners from Lebanon in Israeli jails.
The movement long operated with neighbouring Syria's blessing, protecting its interests in Lebanon and serving as a card for Damascus to play in its own confrontation with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights.
But the withdrawal of Syrian troops in Lebanon last year - following huge anti-Syrian protests in the wake of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination - changed the balance of power.
Hezbollah became the most powerful military force in Lebanon in its own right and increased its political clout, gaining a seat in the Lebanese cabinet.
Analysts say Hezbollah has adopted a cautious policy since the Hariri assassination crisis erupted on 14 February 2005 - an event widely blamed on Syria, but which Damascus has vigorously denied.
Hezbollah leaders have continued to profess its support for Syria, while not criticising the Lebanese opposition. They has also stressed Lebanese unity by arguing against "Western interference" in the country.
Starting out
Hezbollah was conceived in 1982 by a group of Muslim clerics after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has argued against Western interference
It was close to a contingent of some 2,000 Iranian Revolutionary guards, based in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, which had been sent to the country to aid the resistance against Israel.
Hezbollah was formed primarily to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.
It also dreamed of transforming Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Iranian-style Islamic state, although this idea was later abandoned in favour of a more inclusive approach that has survived to this day.
The party's rhetoric calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. It regards the whole of Palestine as occupied Muslim land and it argues that Israel has no right to exist.
The party was long supported by Iran, which provided it with arms and money.
Passionate and demanding
Hezbollah also adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number of freelance hostage taking cells.
In 1983, militants who went on to join Hezbollah ranks carried out a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines in Beirut.
Hezbollah has always sought to further an Islamic way of life. In the early days, its leaders imposed strict codes of Islamic behaviour on towns and villages in the south of the country - a move that was not universally popular with the region's citizens.
But the party emphasises that its Islamic vision should not be interpreted as an intention to impose an Islamic society on the Lebanese.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
So get your goverment to stop oppressing the Palestinians, and give back the territories stole in 67 and 73, and really come through on the dual state solution. It's a no brainer, really.
Stop invading other countries.
Stop bombing and killing civilians.
Stop interfering in territories whose democratically elected leaders have just been arrested and expelled.
For the Americans on board, id like you to study the Palestinian elections. A true model for democracy. Unlike your country, or mine even.
Just because you do not like the victor, does not mean it was not democratic.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Few people anywhere have suffered more or longer than the beleaguered Palestinians. For nearly four decades they've lived under a harsh and unending Israeli occupation of their land. They've endured a continued assault to seize it, a loss of their personal and economic rights and a denial of any chance for justice or their very humanity. These courageous people remain isolated in their own land with little support from the outside. Yet it's never broken their spirit as they continue their heroic efforts to survive and struggle to gain their freedom.
The Israeli Assault on Gaza
This article documents events in besieged and now reoccupied Gaza since the Palestinians responded to continued Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) attacks against them by striking at an Israeli military post near Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of Rafah, on June 25 killing two IDF soldiers, injuring several others and capturing a third. The Israeli response was swift and deadly but has not yet been unleashed fully as the IDF decides when to enter Gaza full force to launch an assault against the defenseless people there already under seige. The Palestinian strike followed a series of bloody June Israeli attacks on Gaza including the widely reported beach shelling that killed 8 Palestinians and injured 32 others including 13 children. The Israelis admitted shelling the beach but denied responsibility for the deaths. They falsely claimed a Palestinian planted mine killed the civilians there despite the forensic evidence clearly proving otherwise. The corporate media reported the Israeli version of events but ignored the evidence refuting it preventing the public from knowing the truth. It also never reported that the so-called Israeli Gaza withdrawal of its 8,500 settlers in 21 settlements last August wasn't that at all. That staged media event was little more than the resettlement of Gaza's Jewish residents to new homes in Israel proper and the West Bank on other seized Palestinian land. Furthermore, the IDF didn't withdraw. It merely redeployed away from the settlements it was guarding to new positions on the border. Gaza continued to be under de facto occupation and sealed off whenever the IDF wished, as it's now done, and along with the West Bank remains one of the world's two largest open air prisons.
The Palestinian June 25 raid was its response to continued IDF daily attacks against Gaza throughout June that killed about 30 people, injured many more and caused much destruction of property. Following the incident, the IDF launched "Operation Summer Rain" that included closing all border crossings, sealing off the territory to restrict movement in and out including humanitarian supplies such as food and medicine, and surrounding the territory awaiting orders to launch a major assault which it's now begun. The IDF has also stepped up its artillery shelling that has gone on continually for months. It's been firing 200 - 300 or more shells per day into northern Gaza, many close to civilian homes. It's also launched round the clock air attacks with F16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships firing air-to-surface missiles and dropping one-ton bombs on civilian facilities; it's conducting mock air raids; and it's aircraft are breaking the sound barrier over Gaza at low altitudes deliberately inflicting eardrum shattering and terrifying sonic booms against the helpless people.
In addition, air strikes destroyed the three main bridges in the Gaza Valley cutting off the northern part of the Strip from its center and southern parts, preventing vital transportation from moving normally to provide essential needs to the people. The bombardment also destroyed the main pipe providing water for the Nusairat and al-Boreij refugee camps and knocked out the Strip's only electricity generation plant cutting off power for 80% of the population and preventing water pumps and sanitation facilities from operating. These actions increase the likelihood of a growing humanitarian crisis becoming worse with food shipments, medical supplies and other essentials cut off which may lead to starvation and a major health disaster. They're also a form of collective punishment against Gaza's civilian population which is a violation of international law according to the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Israel now and in the past has routinely ignored this Convention, including article 33 under it that prohibits reprisals against protected persons and their property. The world community so far has yet to take notice or speak out against what's ongoing other than weak-kneed and disingenuous calls by world leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for both sides to show restraint. It's hard finding the right words to respond properly to such an outrageous statement, what little else has been said, and most importantly to what hasn't been but should be.
Israeli warships also went further committing a hostile act by entering Syrian airspace and buzzing President Bashar al-Assad's home in Latakia in a deliberately provocative act before being intercepted and forced to turn back. This illegal incursion reflects Israel's continued hostility toward Syria's leadership which it accuses of harboring and supporting Hamas leaders the IDF has targeted for assassination. It may signal further Israeli action to come, with the Bush administration's full support, against a government both countries see as an enemy. An ominous sign of such potential action came in a veiled threat Israel just made against Syria vowing to strike against "those who sponsor" the Palestinian resistance.
The West Bank hasn't been spared either as the IDF conducted nearly 50 incursions into Palestinian communities, razing farmland, raiding homes, seizing five of them for military sites and arresting dozens of civilians including children. In addition, on June 29 the IDF arrested most of the Hamas leadership including eight cabinet ministers, 25 PLC members from the Change and Reform Party affiliated with Hamas, and other Hamas officials claiming they were responsible for the assault against its military post. All these actions are further illegal collective punishment reprisals against Palestinian civilians as are Israeli threats to extra-judicially assassinate Hamas leaders. Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov of The Australian, in fact, reported on July 1 that in a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Israel threatened to kill democratically elected Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if the captured Israeli soldier isn't released. The Prime Minister now fears for his life and has gone into hiding. What will it take to finally get world leaders to take note, show a semblance of courage and rectitude, speak out forcefully against this outrageous threat, and condemn Israel for what it's now inflicting on nearly four million defenseless civilians living under its oppressive heel.
This is a particularly desperate time in the lives of the 1.45 million Gazans who live in 140 square miles of the most densely populated place on earth. Daily life for them has been almost unbearable as they've had to endure continued Israeli oppression without letup. With only their spirit to enable them to resist and armed with little more than rocks, small arms and crude homemade rockets, they're pitted against the world's fourth most powerful military assaulting them at will. The toll has been devastating.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
What's now unfolding in Gaza was planned months ago by the Israelis. They've just been waiting for a plausible excuse to unleash it. The capturing, not kidnapping, of one of their soldiers as a POW provided it. So far the US, world community and UN Secretary General support the Israeli action by their near silence. And nothing is said in the major media to condemn a clear crime or report anything about the 9,000 or more Palestinian civilians forcibly arrested, now held in indefinite detention and grievously abused or tortured by the only country in the world to effectively legalize torture according to Amnesty International (the US, of course, now also has). Many of those in custody are political prisoners held administratively without charge, and Israeli human rights monitoring group B'Tselem reports Israel's use of torture is widespread and routine against them.
It must be asked why world leaders aren't speaking out to condemn this practice. International law on it is explicit and long-standing. It forbids the use of any form of torture or degrading treatment under any circumstances. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlawed it in 1948. The Fourth Geneva Convention then did it in 1949 banning any form of "physical or mental coercion" and affirming detainees must at all times be treated humanely. The European Convention followed in 1950. Then in 1984 the UN Convention Against Torture became the first binding international instrument dealing exclusively with the issue of banning torture in any form for any reason.
Israel ignores international law (as does its US ally), treats all Palestinians it holds in detention with contempt, and feels free to abuse them at will. The dominant media in the West pay no attention and have no interest. These are the ones John Pilger calls "unworthy victims" in his new book Freedom Next Time. The Israeli soldier, on the other hand, is a "worthy" one, and reports or just hints of his mistreatment would be headline news. He also deserves lengthy front page coverage in our newspaper of record The New York Times which names him so we all know and displays his picture. No Palestinian warrants any attention at all in the Times or the rest of the corporate media. They all remain nameless and faceless.
What's now unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank has been in the works for months. Since the staged summer, 2005 Gaza withdrawal, the IDF has been training for a large-scale incursion and reoccupation of the territory. This was reported earlier this year in Israel's Maariv daily in an interview the paper did with IDF Southern Command General Yoav Galant whose unit is responsible for Gaza. He clearly stated the IDF would employ "more aggressive military activity.......including (re)occupying the Gaza Strip......as a result of increased (Palestinian) attacks." The general may have forgotten to explain those "attacks" with crude weapons were Palestinian responses to daily Israeli attacks on them with the most sophisticated weapons the IDF has short of nuclear ones. He also forgot to explain how Gazans have suffered as a result of these attacks and near daily killings as well as from the effects of a near forty-year brutal occupation of their territory. The general, however, was very clear that "we (the IDF) have a plan to (re)occupy the Strip" (and) "We are in advanced states of preparing forces for readiness." Another IDF official added that "The only way Israel can stop the rockets is by occupying Gaza. It is elementary. The leadership knows it." The official explained further that in recent weeks the IDF completed its training to reenter Gaza and informed its soldiers to prepare and be ready for orders to move in.
It's quite true that the Palestinian resistance has fired about 250 crude homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel in recent months. It's also true these have been in response to the many thousands of unprovoked IDF artillery shells fired at them as well as frequent air attacks and other assaults against them. Little of this is ever reported by the western corporate media, especially in the US, and never with any context to explain the true situation on the ground. It's also not reported that the IDF trained to be ready to react once it got an excuse to do it which the June 25 incident gave it. And it would never be reported or even considered that if the Israeli leadership and IDF seriously wanted to end retaliatory attacks against them including suicide bombings, an easy way to do it would be to stop attacking defenseless Palestinians. The fact that it hasn't shows it won't and doesn't want to. Those "elementary" considerations are never reported or suggested in the mainstream. Apparently the dominant media never thought of it, but their mission isn't to think. It's only to report what government officials say.
The Gaza Assault Bears Similarity to Lebanon in 1982
The ongoing Israeli assault against Gaza may be following the same pattern as the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to destroy the PLO leadership that resulted in the deaths of about 18,000 mostly Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Back then Israel needed a pretext to invade to counter the growing respectability the PLO was gaining by observing a cease-fire and preferring to pursue negotiations instead of terror attacks. This was a catastrophe for the Israeli government as it threatened to undermine its hardened position to oppose any political settlement which it could only prevent by portraying the PLO as terrorists. To do it Israel had to find a way to get the Palestinians to reengage in terrorism or at least to defend itself to make it look like terrorism.
Why would the Israeli government then or any other one want to do this? It would seem logical to assume they all would prefer peace and security to continued conflict. Sadly, it didn't then, never did earlier, hasn't since, and clearly doesn't now. The reason why goes to the root of Zionists' aims, especially the most extreme ones. Many Zionists want all the land of "Eretz Israel," the biblical Jewish homeland many Jews believe God gave to the 12 tribes of Israel. It includes much more than present day Israel and the Occupied Territories - Lebanon, most of Syria, part of Egypt and a large portion of Jordan.
Unlike other countries, Israel has no fixed borders - deliberately. It's been that way so Israeli governments have lots of wiggle room to establish them one day as they choose or are able to do. Most important is the plan to include as part of Israel the ancient lands of "Judea" and "Summaria," the West Bank biblical parts of Israel the Palestinians call the Occupied Territories and claim as their homeland. Israel has maintained the pretense of being willing to allow the Palestinians an independent state. But by refusing to negotiate seriously and continuing to encroach on Palestinian land with new and expanded settlements as well as erecting its "separation" wall, it's clear Israel's real intent is to seize all the land it wants for its own use leaving the Palestinians only some isolated bantustan-like less valuable parts.
To achieve its aims, Israel has always sought to avoid a political solution with the Palestinians. That position was explained by its Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in the 1980s when he admitted his nation went to war with Lebanon because there was "a terrible danger....not so much a military one as a political one." But Israel couldn't attack without good reason to do it. It found none so it manufactured one after the terrorist Abu Nidal organization attempted to assassinate the Israeli Ambassador to the UK in London. The Israelis blamed it on the PLO that had nothing to do with it. It also went unnoticed or reported that the PLO had been at war with the Nidal group for years. It didn't matter, and the western media, particularly in the US, reported that the "Operation Peace for Galilee" Lebanon invasion was undertaken to protect Israeli civilians from PLO attacks even though there were none. Who would know the difference except the people living there, and the western media don't speak to them unless it's to affirm Israeli positions.
The situation today in Gaza bears similarity to 1982. Israel was horrified when Hamas won a clear majority of the seats in the January, 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Without the larger than life figure of Yasser Arafat to lead it, the Palestinian people finally rejected his Fatah party and its long record of corruption and subservience to Israeli dominance. Since the election, the Olmert led government has clamped down hard on Hamas, calling it a terrorist organization. It's refused to negotiate with it, withheld Palestinian tax revenues, and succeeded in getting an international political boycott of the democratically elected Hamas government as well as most outside aid to it cut off. All this has created an unbearable hardship on the already desperate Palestinian population.
It didn't matter that Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire, wanted negotiations and was willing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state provided Israel gave the Palestinians equal recognition, was willing to return to the pre-1967 borders, released Palestinian prisoners and stopped killing and abusing Palestinians without provocation. Israel refused and, in fact, was as concerned about the Hamas cease-fire as it was about the one the PLO observed in 1982 which Prime Minister Shamir explained was the reason Israel invaded Lebanon. Back then, the provocation was the incident in London against the Israeli Ambassador and today it's the capturing of an Israeli soldier. These are hardly reasons for going to war unless the Israelis planned to wage one anyway and only needed a reason to do it. The reasons for Israeli actions today are much the same as in 1982 - to avoid a political solution and destroy the Hamas-led government as it did the PLO then and to reinstitute one again subservient to its wishes. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) is that kind of leader, has always been in his past dealings with Israel, and is the one Olmert wants to lead a future Palestinian government or someone just like him.
The current situation in Gaza also has echos of the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in 2002. It included Israel's infamous assault against the people of Jenin, a city of 35,000, retaliating against suicide bombings that occurred during the Second Intifada that began after Knesset member Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the holy Al Aqsa Mosque in September, 2000. The suicide bombings, in turn, began in response to extreme Israeli violence against the Palestinians which by March, 2002 Amnesty International reported had killed over 1,000 of them including more than 200 children. During that Operation, Israeli forces invaded and attacked all West Bank cities causing an unknown number of civilian casualties and deaths. But the harshest assault occurred in April, 2002 against Jenin, including its refugee camp. The IDF cut the city off from any outside help, destroyed hundreds of buildings (many with people inside buried under the rubble), cut off power and water plus food and other essential needs from the outside, refused to allow any help to enter the city (including medical aid), and killed an unknown number of mostly civilian Palestinian men, women and children. No Israeli was ever held to account for these crimes.
Conditions in Jenin today remain grave as they do throughout the Occupied Territories as Palestinians now await the full impact of what an IDF reoccupation may inflict on them. As mentioned above, the Lebanon invasion killed many thousands of innocent Lebanese and Palestinians. It also resulted in what noted British journalist and Middle East expert Robert Fisk called "one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century." He referred to what happened at the Sabra and Shatila camps when Israeli Defense Minister at the time Ariel Sharon in command of the IDF sent a proxy Lebanese Phalange militia force into the camps and allowed them to massacre as many as 3,000 or more innocent mostly civilian men, women and children. Beyond a brief and unconvincing censure for his actions, Sharon never was held to account for his crime and, of course, later became Israeli Prime Minister serving until Ehud Olmert succeeded him after his disabling stroke.
It now remains to be seen what the final result of the current Israeli assault against Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinian leadership will be. It may be some time before we know as it's just beginning. But if the Lebanon and Jenin experiences are examples to go by, many innocent Palestinian lives will be lost, and the state of the Palestinian people will only get worse before it ever has any chance to become better. Will the world community finally take note and act to stop a likely impending slaughter. The past record indicates it won't. It's the purpose of this writing to demand it does so and quickly and to hold a criminal Israeli leadership accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity against the long-suffering Palestinian people who deserve the same freedoms as all Israelis and everyone else.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Could you please research your chosen subject before speaking in public.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Political organisation, operating within Lebanon, defending itself from a foreign invader. They don't even have cordial links with Syria anymore.
Move along. Next?
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Written, agreed history says yes, this IS all Israel's fault. You oppress a people, over 2 millino of them, you have to expect retaliation.
Its not about condemning both sides, when one is the 4th largest military in the world running 2 million palestinians in Gaza, a barbed wired prison camp, Auschwitz but with a slow death some have called it, into the ground, and the other are starving to death with NO AID from any other power, then yeah, this is not about SIDES, its about Israeli oppression, and Palestinian self defence.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Because Israel was invading Lebanon before they captured two soldiers? When you try to recall a timeline, please don't do it backwards.
The 2 captured soldiers were conducting military operations. As was Shilit who was captured in Gaza three weeks ago. Prisoners of war, in anybodys eyes, and the 1948 Geneva Convention, but the blood thirsty Israeli Governments.
are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider
god-fearing and pious: Aristotle
Viva Zapatista!
Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, operating all over the Middle East. Sure, I can agree that they are a "political party" in Lebanon. They are very much like the Nazi "political party" in `1930/1940 Germany - they both want to destroy Jews.
You are so misguided. You condem Israel, yet you give Hezbollah a free pass?!?!
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
by the Editors
Post date: 07.13.06
Issue date: 07.24.06
There are crises that complicate and crises that clarify. The crisis along Israel's southern and northern frontiers is of the latter sort. Hamas and Hezbollah, in accordance with their lunatic assumption that the worse, the better, crossed an internationally recognized border and killed and have taken hostage soldiers of the neighboring state whose existence they despise. The attacks were unprovoked, except by the attackers' view of the world. Israel has rightly chosen to regard these provocations very seriously, and so far it has earned the sympathy of decent observers everywhere.
What has been clarified by this round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, first and foremost, the character of Israel's adversaries. They are Islamist terrorists, and proud to be so. More ominously, they are Islamist terrorists come to power. Hamas is no longer only a movement; it is now also a government. In the months since Hamas was elected by the Palestinians to govern (or misgovern) them, the regime of Ismail Haniyeh and company has presided over the launching of hundreds of Qassam rockets into Israel, applauded a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv restaurant (it would have been hypocritical of them not to applaud it!), allowed an unprecedented escalation of the conflict with the firing of a souped-up rocket into Ashkelon--the first time such a strike has been made against a major Israeli city--and, of course, kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit. All of this, again, is the work of a government. When Hamas was elected, there was an eruption of assurances in the media that power will breed responsibility, that the drudgeries of governing will usurp the ecstasies of bombing, and so on. "Hamas?" the headline on the cover of The New York Review of Books asked hopefully. But the Hamas rulers of Palestine have made it plain that they see no contradiction between governing and bombing. Success at the ballot box has had no calming effect. It has merely conferred political legitimacy upon moral depravity.
Hezbollah, of course, is not a government, but it is a part of a government. Its freedom of action, its unreconstructed radicalism, its pervasive presence in Lebanese politics: All this brings to mind nasty memories of a few decades ago, so that it is not incorrect to say that, over the last 30 years, Lebanon has exchanged a PLO mini-state within its borders for a Hezbollah mini-state within its borders. When Shalit was kidnapped, Hamas cited the precedent of Hezbollah's kidnappings (and prisoner-exchanges) in the past, as if in exoneration of its own extortion. Hezbollah has always been Hamas's teacher in the great madrassa of anti-Israeli terrorism. Now the teacher has taken a cue from the student and taken its own Israeli hostages. Israel must now remind its adversaries that it was deadly in earnest when, decades ago, it proclaimed that it would tolerate no such aggression along its northern border.
There is also a larger strategic dimension to the Hamas-Hezbollah offensive. These provocations stink of Assad and Ahmadinejad. The Hamas action in Gaza appears to have been ordered by Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader who resides in Damascus--which is to say, it is also a piece of Syrian intrigue. Nor can anything of significance take place in Lebanon without the sanction of Damascus; and Hezbollah enjoys not only the toleration of Syria but also the time-honored support of Iran, which is also Syria's great ally in a region that may be otherwise turning in a better direction. Perhaps Meshal's responsibility for the Gaza attack will now allow Haniyeh to masquerade as a moderate. (The Washington Post this week published an op-ed by Haniyeh that was full of outrageous assertions. It seems that an election is all that stands between terrorism and punditry.)
It is also worth noting that the Hamas-Hezbollah aggression is aimed at damaging precisely those political forces in Israel--now represented by Ehud Olmert's government--that withdrew Israeli settlers from Gaza and is committed to withdrawing Israeli settlers (70,000 of them) from the West Bank. It was one of the great ironies of recent times that Olmert's party rose in Israel at the exact moment that Hamas rose in Palestine; but the irony has turned deadly. They, the Palestinians, really do want everything. And so they are about to learn, yet again, that, as long as they want everything, they will get nothing. This may satisfy the nihilists in charge, since nihilists live for nothing.
Most antizionists are antisemites
Exactly. I hate this f'ng ultra-idealism and holier-than-thou attitude taken up by some liberals. If you had a country under constant TERRORIST attack (the key being that your CIVILIANS are targeted, Israel RETALIATES against militants exclusively) you would get fed up and begin getting more aggressive. Kudos to Israel for having the balls to defend its people, and to all you people who hate the U.S. / Israel for the pure sake of being anti-establishment and "imperialism"....grrr...
1) Vitalogy
2) Yield
3) Ten
4) No Code
5) Riot Act
6) Vs.
7) Pearl Jam
8) Binaural
This occurs ALL OVER THE MEDIA. People just hate the status quo for the hell of it. I'm sure Hezbollah must be decent people ::sarcasm:: , being they target civilians and all. In my book, as soon as a group targets civilians they are crossing the line. How can you trust a political party that knowingly does such things? What does that say about their moral center? Israel goes after the bad ones, and when there is collateral damage, the media blows it out of proportion and make it seem as though the Palestinians/Lebanese/etc. are the victims.
1) Vitalogy
2) Yield
3) Ten
4) No Code
5) Riot Act
6) Vs.
7) Pearl Jam
8) Binaural
You know what, I agree with you on the bloodthirsty part. Like so:
Israel = Bloodthirsty for cowardly terrorists who keep jamming up the gears of the peace process.
Hezbollah = Bloodthirsty for INNOCENT PEOPLE, who have nothing to do with the actual establishment of Israel's borders.
Personally, I choose the former.
1) Vitalogy
2) Yield
3) Ten
4) No Code
5) Riot Act
6) Vs.
7) Pearl Jam
8) Binaural
Sounds like an immature little man afraid of debate.