By Kenneth J. Theisen
As I write this article, the people of Gaza have undergone three days of bombardment by the Israeli military that is nothing short of a war crime and a crime against humanity. The death toll is more than 300 and at least another 1,400 have been wounded. Israel launched its brutal assault against the Palestinians of Gaza on Saturday, December 27, 2008. Israeli troops, backed by tanks, are presently positioned on the border of Gaza for a possible invasion. If such an invasion occurs the death toll will rapidly multiply.
Israel and its main ally, the U.S. government, portray Israeli war crimes as self-defense because Hamas has launched attacks against Israel. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, since the beginning of 2008 eight Israeli soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in such attacks. But the U.S. and Israel make no mention of over half-a-century of Israeli attacks on Palestinians, resulting in countless deaths. They also fail to mention that Israel was created on Palestinian land in 1948 and that Israel expanded its rule with a war in 1967 that conquered the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has fought numerous wars with its neighbors since its creation and been backed in these wars by its imperialist patron, the U.S. government.
Israel tries to pretend that the attacks are solely targeted against Hamas militants. Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak stated, “…we have a war to the bitter end against Hamas and its branches.” He went on to state, “This operation will expand and deepen as much as needed.” Israel is engaged in bombings and rocket attacks that can not help but kill civilians. Gaza is one of the mostly densely populated areas on the face of the earth. Its inhabitants have been held as virtual prisoners by Israel, which controls its borders and routinely has cut off needed food, water, and medical supplies. Since 2006, Israel has engaged in a war of economic and military strangulation. Its blockade of Gaza has been supported by the U.S. government.
The Gaza attack is reminiscent of similar attacks launched against the people of Lebanon in the summer of 2006 wherein Lebanese civilians were killed on a massive scale. Israel has launched more than 300 air strikes since the beginning of the attack on Gaza. The Israeli navy also launched bombardments from the sea. Last night, Israeli aircraft attacked the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City, killing five children and teenagers under age 17 from the same family. They are just a few of the casualties which are considered as “collateral damage.” Gaza’s nine hospitals are filled to capacity and the wounded are now being taken to private clinics and even homes as the clinics are also overflowing.
Despite the White House claiming that it wants to halt the violence in Gaza, it is clear that the Israeli attacks were given tacit, if not direct, approval by the Bush regime. Since its creation in 1948, Israel has been backed by U.S. imperialism as a strategic ally in the Middle East. It receives more than $3 billion in aid each year. In the last year, the U.S. and Israel concluded a $30 billion arms pact.
Israel has occupied the Gaza Strip since 1967 when it also conquered the West Bank area. Israel “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005, but has kept the Palestinians in the area in a virtual lockdown since then. Many describe Gaza as a vast Israeli prison. Israel still controls the strip’s airspace, territorial waters, and offshore maritime access, in addition to its side of the Gaza-Israeli border. Gaza is an area of about 139 square miles (about 3 times the size of the city of San Francisco). This small area contains 1.4 million Palestinians and since June of 2007 has been dominated internally by Hamas.
On the day of the attack, Secretary of State Rice, in turning reality on its head, issued the following statement: “The United States is deeply concerned about the escalating violence in Gaza. We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there.”
Later, Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe admitted “we were all aware of the authorization (for bombing Gaza) by the Israeli cabinet.” The Bush administration has gone out of its way to blame the Israeli attacks on Hamas and to excuse the Israeli war crimes. On December 29th, the White House released a statement saying “in order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable cease-fire.” Johndroe stated, “The United States understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself. Hamas has once again shown its true colors as a terrorist organization that refuses to even acknowledge Israel exists.”
The Democrats are also complicit in the Israeli crimes in Gaza, sticking to the Bush regime line that Israel is the victim. Johndroe stated that President-elect Barack Obama is receiving daily intelligence briefings. Obama has so far refused to comment on the Gaza attacks saying the U.S. has only one president at a time. But a senior advisor to Obama, David Axelrod, stated on Sunday’s Face the Nation, “Well, certainly, the president-elect recognizes the special relationship between the United States and Israel. It’s an important bond, an important relationship. He’s going to honor it…” He went on to say, “Obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks. As Hamas began its shelling, Israel responded. But it’s something that he’s committed to.” Axelrod further said, “He’s going to work closely with the Israelis. They’re a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region…”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated on Monday that he strongly supported Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket attacks from Hamas. He said, “Hamas’ failure to stop these attacks only exacerbates the humanitarian situation for the residents of Gaza and undermines efforts to attain peace and security in the region.”
Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi issued a statement concerning the Israeli attack on Gaza in which she wrote, “When Israel is attacked, the United States must continue to stand strongly with its friend and democratic ally… Hamas and its supporters must understand that Gaza cannot and will not be allowed to be a sanctuary for attacks on Israel.”
There you have it folks – the official U.S. line. Poor little Israel is only responding to attacks from its enemy. Fortunately, U.S. leaders understand the need to respond to “terrorism” and to act in self-defense. It is unfortunate that innocents must suffer, but Israel is doing it best to minimize collateral damage. What bull. This is the same propaganda the U.S. has used to justify its global war of terrorism (GWOT) for the last seven years. It is not true in the GWOT and it is not true in the attack on Gaza. Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a victim in these wars. They are the aggressors manufacturing excuses for their actions to control and dominate the Middle East.
We have no interest in supporting the U.S. GWOT or in supporting the Israeli aggression in Gaza. We must expose these wars as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Further, we must expose the fact that the U.S. is enabling Israel to conduct the Gaza operation with its military aid and propaganda.
We must demand that the attack stop immediately and that those responsible be prosecuted for their crimes.
This includes not only Israeli leaders, but U.S. leaders too.
Isreal must be stopped at all cost. Now blowing up a hospital, thank god it was empty. An there excuse was Hamas was near by. What a joke. We must stop isreal’s evil way for good. They must not be allowed to bare arms. They cant be trusted let alone relied on to hold any aggreements. The people of this world need to come together in the name of peace and stop this. Some times you have to fight fire with fire, and i think this is one of these times. Exspecially for terroristic attacks that they are doing to the palistinian civilians, Men, women and child. They do not respect life, so thou shall not respect them. Condemn them and the US for supporting. Keep on doing it until severe punshment is made on them. Isreal must pay to rebuild Gaza and get out of it. they do not be long there and have no right to control palistinians. Give the land back to the palistinians it was never america’s or the UN’s choice to take away palistinian land from the palistinians. You do not belong there “GET THE F@#$ OUT ISREAL” you have no right to oppress an isolate the palistinians. How about, you say your war is just, i say “i say all you have is excuses to kill arabs” any rocket from hamas that lands on isreal “is just, an called for”. you do not have the right to occupy palistinian land. Thats why they will keep fighting you, over and over again. You will pay Isreal
ISREAL=terrorist of the human race
[quote name=”Zer”]This web site ignores Palestinian atrocity against Israel. Israel is trying to protect it’s citizens from indiscriminate killing of civilians by use of rockets by the Hamas terror organization.[/quote]
what atrocity, Hamas kills * Isrealis and the Isrealis kill 900, your comment holds no water buddy……..stop deffending a terrorist country with evil aggenda’s
The USA and Isreal should be brought up on war crime’s, Our government (the US of A) are now co-conspirators in these war crimes, They are dening a shipment of military equipment to the terrorist country of isreal. A country that uses the excuse of killing helpless women and child and say its hamas fault for using human shield. Now i know most of americans are dumb, and do what there told by any goverment official, and believe anything they read. But this is ridiculous what we allowed isreal to do to do to a helpless country of palistine. Now our government just became the terrorist group by allowing these kinds of acts against humanity. These is not what my country stands for, i am very angry with the ignorance in this country, and the selfcenteredness, and arogants. that most americans have. Almost any body i talk to about whats happening says “who cares” or “just killem all”, people are retarded….really, The palistinians are defending there right to leave while the whole world does nothinh, and any country thats tries to help is shot down or just plain ignored. Isreal should be strip of all military equipment, they do not have any respect for human life, and are classified as the real terror of this world, they do not listen to anybody or heed warning, Isreal should be stop and government removed and as for USA, Goerge W Bush and whole administration should be locked up for helping assist isreal and the constant lies that come out of the white house.
All the Arab countries should unite an kick isreal ass, and every country in the world should hold back our government (USA), from getting involved and force our government and citizens to see the evil deeds that our government has done and make the government pay for the rebuild of Palistine for punishment.
I am a full patriot and love this country, and what our flag stands for. The red, white and blue means. and it doesnt mean to help a country distroy helpless people. Our flag is suppose to mean “free society, and peace”. That has been gone for decades and we need it back. So i say throw Goerge W. Bush in guantanamo Bay to teach him a lesson. Any shut this terrorist country (Isreal) Down. Do like they did to saddam, hang the primeminister. This Evil people must be stop. Stop the maddness and open your eyes america.
“A secular, democratic territory for Palestinians and Jews is the only solution. Palestine will be free and we will shut down the system that keeps it and the world chained.”
“and the lamb will lay down with the lion” pardon me if I pass on drinking that kool-aid.
The rest of the post is the same old blend of Marxist drivel and PLO style propaganda that always gets trotted out when someone supports Israel on this site.
commenting that all would be well if Israel should simply beat its swords into plowshares and embrace its Arab brothers is about the most ludicrous thing I have seen here. any chance of a integrated Palestine drowned in the blood of both groups long ago. and it doesn’t matter who was more skilled at the bloodletting either.
The supporters of this website would have a lot more acceptance in the main stream if you were not the Left-wing equivalent of the “nuke’em all and let god sortem’ out” crowd
but then, I suppose you would lose that oppressed martyr feeling.
I think even though the above article even fails to leave out a lot of the relevant exposure on Israel’s formation, the 67 war, and its subsequent spiral into ever more sickening levels of viciousness and bellicosity, it’s STILL already a rebuttal to the dreck posted by Rob.
There are a million reasons one could oppose Israel. Here I simply want to offer that Israel has NO LEGITIMATE RIGHT OF DEFENSE (military or moral), seeing that every time the Zionists invoke that “right” they are in fact talking about the “right” to live on land that was seized at gunpoint based on the expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinian inhabitants, the “right” to carry out ethnic cleansing, to shoot 500 pound rockets into mosques and schools in the densest area on earth and then have the chutzpah to claim they’re just targeting Hamas (whom I don’t support but nevertheless Israel still has no right to target this ELECTED group—it was Israel who violated the ceasefire in November by murdering six civilians).
With a staggering $5 billion of US ‘aid’ per year to juice its ultra-modern apartheid existence, ‘tolerant’ Israel ‘tolerates’ (legitimates) its armed religious-nut settlers who populate the West Bank eager to cleanse the desert of Arab ‘lice.’ A state that has boastfully and flagrantly violated TWICE as many UN resolutions as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with no permanently defined borders, a state that produces a culture that justifies running over an unarmed solidarity activist (Rachel Corrie) with a bulldozer—and then backing over her again. What a profoundly ugly place. A living representation of the imperialist economic and political system against which we struggle.
Israel and its defenders continue to claim this state is something of a bastion on Western tolerance and democracy in a sea of backward dark Arab dictatorships.
1) most of these have been distorted by colonialism and backed by US imperialism to crush revolutionary and independence movements throughout the region (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, etc.)
2) it will take you five minutes of actually looking up major pronouncements from the early proponents of Zionism and Israel’s founders that their intention was ALWAYS to displace the “barbarians” and erect a state founded on ethnic and religious supremacy—a remarkable evil that rehabilitates the “old” evil of Nazi fascism in content and effect.
If this sounds incredulous to the simple minds of Zionists they should indeed read Ilan Pappe’s book as well as Finkelstein’s systematic debunking of Dershowitz’s FRAUD.
Israel is the worst thing to happen to Jews since the holocaust—and NOT JUST because it is in this supposed fortress of security where Jews are LESS safe than anywhere else on earth. Morally, Zionism breaks with the venerable tradition of liberation and internationalism that many Jews historically spearheaded. It instead aligns itself with the same old chauvanist, narrow-minded, vengeful ideologies of bourgeois society, now and for 100+ years.
Today far too many Jews in Israel as well as elsewhere have become unwitting pawns and playthings of US imperialism, making a deal with the devil. Do we really need to count the dozens of other states who, totally impotent once political winds shifted and US support for them dried up, were left high and dry?
A secular, democratic territory for Palestinians and Jews is the only solution. Palestine will be free and we will shut down the system that keeps it and the world chained.
“But then he gets to his real point,and possibly the point of the invasion of Gaza in the first place:”it should not come as a surprise when it responds with force to attacks from an Iranian sponsered and led terroist group” THis is a big distortion in the first place, Hamas is not Shiite. Its origins and main support don’t appear to be from Iran, but what are facts to people wanting to justify the coming war on Iran, any more than they were leading up to war on Iraq?”
I certainly did not claim Hamas was Shii, If anything makes strange bedfellows, it is the hate radical Islam has for Israel. Sunni’s will even tolerate Shiite’s if it would cause problems for Israel….
And, I am certainly not trying to make a case for the invasion of Iran, only that Iran has no love whatsoever for Israel, and with less reason, than any gov. in the region. I can think of few things more appalling than the results of an Iranian invasion. Aside from the loss of life and human suffering, the political consequences would be disastous.
The problem is the fear, that the only thing worse than an invasion would be allowing Iran to develop a deployable nuclear weapons technology. I do not doubt, if such an event would occur, Israel if noone else, would take drastic action.
But I wander from the direction of the original article, which was not my intention
What’s up with readers on this web site? can’t let this drivel from “Rob” and “Zer” just hang there like there’s any validity to their comments.
“implying that Israel has been the agressor in its wars with other middle eastern countries is an amazing feat of political doublespeak. only in recent years has Israel been more concerned with (relatively) low intensity warfare operations (as opposed to fighting for its life in 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973 and to a lesser exent in 1982.)” THIS TURNS THE OBVIOUS REALITY ON ITS HEAD — JUST LOOK AT A MAP. THE “UN MANDATE” WAS VIOLATED BY ZIONISTS FROM THE BEGINNING (see for example:’The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,’ by Israeli historian and senior lecturer at Haifa University Ilan Pappe).
And frankly, who did give Israel the “right to exist?” NOt the Palestinean people, who had nothing to do with the crimes carried out against Jews in Europe.
But then he gets to his real point,and possibly the point of the invasion of Gaza in the first place:”it should not come as a surprise when it responds with force to attacks from an Iranian sponsered and led terroist group” THis is a big distortion in the first place, Hamas is not Shiite. Its origins and main support don’t appear to be from Iran, but what are facts to people wanting to justify the coming war on Iran, any more than they were leading up to war on Iraq?
This web site ignores Palestinian atrocity against Israel. Israel is trying to protect it’s citizens from indiscriminate killing of civilians by use of rockets by the Hamas terror organization.
“But the U.S. and Israel make no mention of over half-a-century of Israeli attacks on Palestinians, resulting in countless deaths. They also fail to mention that Israel was created on Palestinian land in 1948 and that Israel expanded its rule with a war in 1967 that conquered the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has fought numerous wars with its neighbors since its creation and been backed in these wars by its imperialist patron, the U.S. government.”
not that it should be a surprise, given the Radical stance of this website, but the ability to ignore history in the interests of propaganda continues to amaze me. granted, its a common tactic when a group wishes to reinforce an opinion that has only a fleeting acquantance with reality.
implying that Israel has been the agressor in its wars with other middle eastern countries is an amazing feat of political doublespeak. only in recent years has Israel been more concerned with (relatively) low intensity warfare operations (as opposed to fighting for its life in 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973 and to a lesser exent in 1982.)
Given the history of relations between Israel and its neighbours, and the fact it would not exist if it did not have the Ability and the will to defend it’s right to exist, it should not come as a surprise when it responds with force to attacks from an Iranian sponsered and led terroist group.
The deplorable tactic of the Hamas leadership of setting up launch sites for its rockets close to civilian population concentrations, and encourging local teenagers to assist with setting up the launchers as a method of increasing civilian deaths is given little attention in the mainstream or radical press.
Yes, perhaps Israel is given Carte blanche by the US. gov. in its conduct of its internal and external affairs, but with Stanch allies few and far between in that part of the world, that is only to be expected.
“Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a victim in these wars. They are the aggressors manufacturing excuses for their actions to control and dominate the Middle East.”
Ah, once again, Israel is painted as a aggressive power hell bent on taking over the region with aid from the Evil overlord.
Fine, Just don’t forget to include all the other players, starting with the Ottoman empire, the USSR, the British Empire, the Arab league, and many others, that led to the deplorable sitiuation in the middle east as it stands now. nor forget the fact that the vast majority of Arab gov’s in the reason refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. or acknowledge that not a single Arab country, was willing to accept Palistine’s need to place refugee’s, making certain the the problem will never go away.