Israel hits Palestine again while West Cheers Them On
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
I think Hamas changed their policy of destruction of Israel in 2006.
The Hamas movement is ready to recognize agreements signed with Israel, and in fact recognize Israel, but only within the '67 borders, senior Hamas member Khaled Suleiman said Wednesday.
According to Suleiman, the movement will be ready to accept a Palestinian state inside the '67 borders and will not operate to thwart diplomatic negotiations held by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas...
It is pure cunning stupidity for the HAMAS leadership to expect Israel to return to the '67 borders - which had place Israel in a perilous situation then.It was the 6-Day War that gave Israel the present enlarged borders that afforded Israel the depth of defensible space, which are part of the spoils of war when the Middle-eastern Arabs refused any settlement and allowed Israel an effective de-facto status to consolidate her hold over the next 20 over years.
HAMAS is nothing more then a metamorphisis from the Muslim Brotherhood that is continuously sponsored by Iran, and their common purpose is to destroy Israel.
Can there be any peace when HAMAS' objectives are clear, and the methods employed by HAMAS are made with the known fact that it will place their own people in jeopardy first ?
When the fragile truce ended in December 2008, HAMAS began to launch rocket attacks at Israel - knowing that any military response will cause Palestinian casualties that will surely garner world opinion to condemn Israel.
Israel is in a no win situation, and is better off by conducting a punishing reprisal to extract the venom from HAMAS, and create a more secure environment for herself - as no one is willing or able to do it for Israel.
Using the Islamic code in "an eye for an eye" - will help the Israelis make HAMAS learn the lessons the only way they can understand.
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
I think Hamas changed their policy of destruction of Israel in 2006.
The Hamas movement is ready to recognize agreements signed with Israel, and in fact recognize Israel, but only within the '67 borders, senior Hamas member Khaled Suleiman said Wednesday.
According to Suleiman, the movement will be ready to accept a Palestinian state inside the '67 borders and will not operate to thwart diplomatic negotiations held by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas...
Please do not attempt to pull wool over people's eyes, least you get suspected of being a terrorist Hamas plant. Why the deliberate leaving out of actual statements and reports? Hamas is a terrorist organisation dedicated to death of innocents and a slur to faithful muslims around the world.On 8 February 2006, Hamas head Khaled Mashal speaking in Cairo had clarified that "Anyone who thinks Hamas will change is wrong", stating that Hamas would "possibly" agree to a ceasefire with Israel if it withdrew from the lands conquered in 1967.
However, in remarks released on the same day he stated that Hamas would not impede other Palestinian groups from carrying out armed "resistance" against Israel.
According to Steven Erlanger of the New York Times, Hamas excludes the possibility of long-term reconciliation with Israel. "Since the Prophet Muhammad made a temporary hudna, or truce, with the Jews about 1,400 years ago, Hamas allows the idea. But no one in Hamas says he would make a peace treaty with Israel or permanently give up any part of Palestine.".
Mkhaimer Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University explains that “They (Hamas) talk of hudna, not of peace or reconciliation with Israel. They believe over time they will be strong enough to liberate all historic Palestine.”
Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
I call for an immediate ceasefire on BOTH sides. Innocents are dying as this moment on BOTH sides!
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Originally posted by Deino:
hmm...why would the christians blame the jews?
wasn't it supposed to happen anyway?...as in, isn't the sacrifice necessary in order for "god" to cleanse the world?
Today's Chrisitans are sensible people. Let bygone be bygone.
The Christians blamed the Jews but don't hate the Jews. Instead we have many reasons to thank them for their huge contribution to humanities, although Jews are not without fault.
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There was a ceasefire, which Israel broke on November 4 in order to destroy Hamas provoking a resumption of rocket attacks, which has now culminated in the recent Israeli offensive. Even during the ceasefire, the Israeli leadership was planning Operation Cast Lead.
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Originally posted by googoomuck:
Today's Chrisitans are sensible people. Let bygone be bygone.
The Christians blamed the Jews but don't hate the Jews. Instead we have many reasons to thank them for their huge contribution to humanities, although Jews are not without fault.
I dont see why there should be any blaming because the death of Jesus was a good thing and was planned by God since Adam's fall. If any Christian believes the Bible, there is no reason to hate the Jews.
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Originally posted by Stevenson101:
This sort of questions rarely get asked by the media so i'm gonna ask them here.
Though they are given Gaza strip and West bank to self govern, are they given proper access to food, electricity, clean water, medical care and sanitary facilities? Are they hindered in any way to obtain the infrastructure for such things?
If they aren't, why do they need to dig tunnels to Egypt to get supplies?
They have Gaza strip and West Bank but if they're being isolated you might as well put them on an abandoned island.
I ask this because i've read a lot of articles of Palestinians being prevented from leaving or foreign aid being forbidden from going in the Gaza Strip.
It takes two hands to clap.
Blame Israel again?
Those are retaliatory action against Hamas for disrupting the lives of the Israelis.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
I dont see why there should be any blaming because the death of Jesus was a good thing and was planned by God since Adam's fall. If any Christian believes the Bible, there is no reason to hate the Jews.
The Chrisitans are afterall humans.
I repeat. Today's Christians don't hate the Jews.
In fact, we have many reasons to thank the Jews for their huge contribution to humanities, although Jews are not without fault.
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Originally posted by Atobe:
It is pure cunning stupidity for the HAMAS leadership to expect Israel to return to the '67 borders - which had place Israel in a perilous situation then.It was the 6-Day War that gave Israel the present enlarged borders that afforded Israel the depth of defensible space, which are part of the spoils of war when the Middle-eastern Arabs refused any settlement and allowed Israel an effective de-facto status to consolidate her hold over the next 20 over years.
HAMAS is nothing more then a metamorphisis from the Muslim Brotherhood that is continuously sponsored by Iran, and their common purpose is to destroy Israel.
Can there be any peace when HAMAS' objectives are clear, and the methods employed by HAMAS are made with the known fact that it will place their own people in jeopardy first ?
When the fragile truce ended in December 2008, HAMAS began to launch rocket attacks at Israel - knowing that any military response will cause Palestinian casualties that will surely garner world opinion to condemn Israel.
Israel is in a no win situation, and is better off by conducting a punishing reprisal to extract the venom from HAMAS, and create a more secure environment for herself - as no one is willing or able to do it for Israel.
Using the Islamic code in "an eye for an eye" - will help the Israelis make HAMAS learn the lessons the only way they can understand.
I dont deny that Hamas' goal was always been to destroy the state of Israel. However, the ones responsible for breaking the ceasefire was Israel, which purposely broke the truce on November 4, provoking Hamas to retaliate.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
There was a ceasefire, which Israel broke on November 4 in order to destroy Hamas provoking a resumption of rocket attacks, which has now culminated in the recent Israeli offensive. Even during the ceasefire, the Israeli leadership was planning Operation Cast Lead.
Ceasefire? Since you know of the Nov 4 details, why did you not tell others here the FULL details? Why hide critical information and then blame Israel?
Hamas militants digging infiltration tunnels into Israel were discovered by Israeli Defense Forces and fired upon.
Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets which led to Defense Minister Ehud Barak giving approval for Operation Cast Lead, a series of airstrikes across Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after discussion with Barak decided to put the operation on hold.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
There was a ceasefire, which Israel broke on November 4 in order to destroy Hamas provoking a resumption of rocket attacks, which has now culminated in the recent Israeli offensive. Even during the ceasefire, the Israeli leadership was planning Operation Cast Lead.
Rockets were fired first by the Hamas after Hamas ended the ceasefire.
Slowly but steadily, we begin to understand why treaties signed with the Arabs always ended by one side breaking the treaty.
It's easy to guess which side broke the treaty.
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But if that's the case, then the justification for Operation Cast Lead is a lie, because the Israeli leadership themselves admitted that it was planned more than six months before.
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Israel and Palestines long time, historical, bibilical enemies. Palestines had taken Bethleham from Israel. I don't see there will ever be peace between these two countries.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
But if that's the case, then the justification for Operation Cast Lead is a lie, because the Israeli leadership themselves admitted that it was planned more than six months before.
Not 'IF that's the case', but IT is the case! That's why i never trust conspiracy theorists - twisting of facts or denial of facts, feeding on ignorance to others to perpetrate lies.Any military commander would have plans to hit enemy targets updated regularly thru intelligence EVEN in peacetime for a quick response in the event of surprise attack! Your ignorance is astounding.
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Originally posted by xtreyier:
Not 'IF that's the case', but IT is the case! That's why i never trust conspiracy theorists - twisting of facts or denial of facts, feeding on ignorance to others to perpetrate lies.Any military commander would have plans to hit enemy targets updated regularly thru intelligence EVEN in peacetime for a quick response in the event of surprise attack! Your ignorance is astounding.
I understand there is a need for contingency planning, but in this case, it wasnt planning for an emergency. The intention for an invasion was there even while there was a ceasefire. This is from an Israeli news agency, noted for its "conspiracy theories":
P.S Is Globalresearch.Ca still reporting about Elvis still being alive?
Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning.
The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.
This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.
The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.
On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.
However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments.
That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches.
"This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza.
In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations.
What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said.
The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized."
At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time.
While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas.
In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders.
On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. -
Originally posted by googoomuck:
Blame Israel again?
Those are retaliatory action against Hamas for disrupting the lives of the Israelis.
Small wonders why the world still continues to be overwhelmed with war when retaliatory actions justifies everything.
I'm not placing the blame solely on Israel, but i do not believe their hands are clean as you seemed to think either.
The problem is hardly based on racial grounds, there is a serious unemployment problem with the Palestinians and jobless men always lead to a chaotic society.
If Israel always insist on retaliatory actions and continously destroys the infrastructure and economy of the Palestinians, Hamas will always gain support in the populace and rockets are always going to fall no matter what.
Short term solutions like the airstrikes and tanks are never going to solve the problem.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
I dont deny that Hamas' goal was always been to destroy the state of Israel. However, the ones responsible for breaking the ceasefire was Israel, which purposely broke the truce on November 4, provoking Hamas to retaliate.
Was the ceasfire broken by Israel on November 4 ?Try digesting the following report :
Israel’s strike on Gaza: a primer
2 January 2009
The Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, signed on June 9, 2008, had long been a porous one. While Hamas, for the most part, until November 2008 did not fire its own rockets at Israel, it permitted other groups, such as the Iranian-supported Islamic Jihad, to do so.
These limited rocket attacks, while clear violations of the ceasefire agreement, did not precipitate major Israeli responses, other than periodic limited closures of the border crossings into Gaza, through which Israel supplied food, fuel and other humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Whether Israel should have allowed any humanitarian aid into Gaza in the face of the rocket fire is a very open question: Israel was in fact in a state of war with Hamas, an organization pledged to destroy it, and the rockets fired at Israel simply underlined Hamas’ long term objective by demonstrating its “resistance” to the Jewish State. Under these circumstances, a full border closure might have brought home to the people of Gaza, the majority of whom voted for Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, the costs of supporting Hamas.
In any case, fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified in November when Israel found and destroyed a tunnel between Gaza and Israel which the Israeli military thought would be used to kidnap another Israeli soldier, much as Gilad Shalit had been kidnapped in 2006.
Ironically, the kidnap attempt was not aimed primarily at Israel, but at the Palestinian rival of Hamas, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority on the West Bank headed by Mahmoud Abbas.
The kidnap attempt appeared timed to occur as Hamas and Fatah were jockeying for position before the start of what proved to be abortive Palestinian unity talks in Cairo. Had Hamas been successful in capturing another Israeli soldier, it would have shown that Hamas was demonstrating greater “resistance” against Israel than Fatah, which had been engaged in fruitless peace talks with Israel.
Following the Israeli attack on the tunnel, the number of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza escalated, reaching a new high after Hamas announced it would not extend the ceasefire unless Israel fully opened the border crossings and stopped arresting members of Hamas living on the West Bank—the latter demand not included in the original ceasefire agreement.
When Israel refused to agree to the new Hamas demands, Hamas further escalated its firing of rockets, hoping, apparently, to force Israel to accept the new ceasefire terms in return for restoring quiet to southern Israel. Hamas may have also believed that Israel’s ruling Kadima party desperately needed a ceasefire so as to remove the issue of the rocket firing from the ongoing Israeli election campaign. It had been Kadima that had undertaken the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, and presumably it did not want to remind the Israeli electorate that the withdrawal had resulted in the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
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Backed by the U.S.: Israel Unleashes a Massacre in Gaza
by Larry Everest
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11578
...
Israeli and U.S. government officials, as well as the U.S. media, claim that Israel’s attack was provoked by rocket attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas (that controls Gaza) into Israel. The Bush regime called Hamas “thugs,” blaming Hamas for provoking Israel and demanding it end its rocket attacks—while pointedly refusing to call on Israel to stop its assault.
...
This step-by-step campaign of ethnic cleansing began with violently driving some 750,000 Palestinians from their lands during the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli war; the destruction of hundreds of conquered Palestinian villages; the military conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war; the illegal colonialization of these “occupied territories" afterward, coupled with a steady assault on Palestinian economy and society. Israel claimed each assault was simply a response to Palestinian “terror,” or refusal to make peace; while each Israeli assault furthered its strategic objectives of destroying Palestine.
Most of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians were forced from their homes in other parts of Palestine during the establishment of Israel. From 1967 until 2005, Israel militarily occupied Gaza. After ending the occupation, Israel kept complete control of this desert strip’s land, sea and air borders. Israel sent armored bulldozers to destroy Gaza’s fruit orchards, blockaded the fishing port, cut off supplies to factories and other businesses, and forbid most Gaza residents the right to work elsewhere or even leave. Gaza today is a humanitarian crisis, its population living in prison-like conditions.
Hamas—which governs Gaza—is not about liberating Palestine as a secular state free of imperialist domination; it represents forces that would restructure the oppressive relations that enslave the people of Palestine within an Islamic theocratic framework.
Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce in order to lift the siege of Gaza. A truce was finally agreed upon in June 2008, under which Hamas agreed to stop missile attacks, and Israel was supposed to end its blockade of Gaza. According to the pro-Israel New York Times, Hamas was "largely successful" in stopping the launches of the Qassam missiles, some of which are carried out by groups other than Hamas. But Israel refused to ease its blockade. Then, on November 4, Israel launched an attack that killed six Palestinians. The next day, it sealed all Gaza’s borders, intensifying what had already been a horrific situation for the people.
Israel’s siege has turned Gaza into the world’s largest open-air concentration camp—its impoverished inhabitants are being starved and subject to indescribable suffering. 80% live below the poverty line. About 97% of factories and workshops cannot operate. Gaza’s industrial zone is completely closed. Unemployment is about 50%. In 2006 Israel bombed Gaza's only power plant, making Gaza dependent on power supplies from Israel and Egypt. Fresh drinking water is often not available for days at a time. Irregular power means that sewage treatment plants cannot function and that raw sewage gets dumped into the Mediterranean. Medicines are in short supply, and Israeli bans on travel mean that Palestinians seeking advanced medical care that is not available in Gaza are left to die. (For more on the state of Gaza under siege, see the article from A World to Win News Service, "Gaza: Tottering on the Brink," in Revolution #150, available online at revcom.us)
In light of all this, the claims by Israel and the U.S. that the current bloody invasion is a “response” to small-scale and largely ineffective rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza are obscene. They are like the method the U.S. used to justify the genocide of Native Americans by settlers and the military: according to the official narrative, that story “began” with claims of the first Native American scalping of some settler family or soldier—and then anything goes to “respond” to what is declared an atrocity. What came before—what provoked the scalping, the genocidal lies and brutality visited upon the indigenous peoples, and America’s actual agenda of forcible conquest and colonialization—all this is ignored and covered up.
Even by its own terms, Israel’s longstanding policies of near-starvation, and the current massive reign of death from the air are violations of international law—serving as “collective punishment” against the entire population of Gaza. This collective punishment of all Gaza residents is contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention and is illegal under international law. Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, states that "to the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."
Israel has served as U.S. imperialism’s unsinkable aircraft carrier and regional enforcer in the Middle East for decades, and the U.S. has been Israel’s staunchest backer, providing it with billions of dollars a year in aid. And, with the “war on terror”—in reality a war for empire—Israel’s strategic relationship with the U.S. has become even more pivotal.
According to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, in addition to supplying the F16 fighter jets and the missiles used in Israel’s recent attack, the U.S. transferred more than $200 million worth of spare parts for Israel’s fleet of F16's between 2001-2006. “In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and ‘bunker buster’ missiles.” And according to U.S. government officials, the U.S. was fully informed ahead of time of Israeli plans and apparently gave them a green light.
In short, Israel’s massacre and its ongoing crimes against the people of Gaza could not have happened without U.S. support—and people living in the U.S. have the responsibility to oppose the crimes of “our” government. Protests have erupted across the Middle East, and there have also been protests (with more planned) in the U.S. and Europe.
There needs to be massive, visible political opposition to the U.S.-sponsored assault on Gaza, here, and now. Silence and acquiescence to these crimes in any form is complicity. The world needs to see that within the U.S., there are people who are not going along with the crimes being sponsored by their government. -
Its not that I want to evoke any pathos from referring to WWII, but the Gaza Strip today parallels the Warsaw Ghetto, while Hamas launches rockets at Israeli forces, they're like the Jewish resistance throwing molotov cocktails at German tanks amid artillery fire (read F-16s and GBU).
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
Its not that I want to evoke any pathos from referring to WWII, but the Gaza Strip today parallels the Warsaw Ghetto, while Hamas launches rockets at Israeli forces, they're like the Jewish resistance throwing molotov cocktails at German tanks amid artillery fire (read F-16s and GBU).
Comparing the present Gaza strip to the Warsaw Ghetto of the 1940s will take a leap of speculative imagination.In the 1940s, the Warsaw Ghetto was purposefully built by the Nazis to isolate the Jewish community as part of a FINAL SOLUTION to exterminate German CITIZENS of Jewish descent.
The Gaza Strip was governed by an ELECTED HAMAS government that decided to unilaterally evict themselves from the Palestinian "Central" Government, and UNILATERALLY declared themselves a separate entity from the West Bank.
The HAMAS government continued to allow itself to be used as a proxy of Iran, and execute the Iranian determined destruction of the State of Israel by all means.
The present condition - that the residents of the Gaza Strip have now found themselves in - was self-imposed when they did not reject the HAMAS-Iranian agenda but embraced it.
Was Israel singularly responsible to wall the residents into the Gaza Strip, or have the Egyptians also similarly been alarmed by the HAMAS-Iranian agenda - when the Gaza Strip share a common border with the Egyptian Sinai Peninsular, and the Egyptian has similarly restricted border crossings ?
The economic situation and living condition in the Gaza Strip is brought about by the Palestinians residents themselves in their continued stupidity in supporting the HAMAS-Iranian agenda, instead of working as a unified community to confront Israel based on their own Palestinian Agenda.
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
Backed by the U.S.: Israel Unleashes a Massacre in Gaza
by Larry Everest
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11578
...
Israeli and U.S. government officials, as well as the U.S. media, claim that Israel’s attack was provoked by rocket attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas (that controls Gaza) into Israel. The Bush regime called Hamas “thugs,” blaming Hamas for provoking Israel and demanding it end its rocket attacks—while pointedly refusing to call on Israel to stop its assault.
...
This step-by-step campaign of ethnic cleansing began with violently driving some 750,000 Palestinians from their lands during the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli war; the destruction of hundreds of conquered Palestinian villages; the military conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war; the illegal colonialization of these “occupied territories" afterward, coupled with a steady assault on Palestinian economy and society. Israel claimed each assault was simply a response to Palestinian “terror,” or refusal to make peace; while each Israeli assault furthered its strategic objectives of destroying Palestine.
Most of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians were forced from their homes in other parts of Palestine during the establishment of Israel. From 1967 until 2005, Israel militarily occupied Gaza. After ending the occupation, Israel kept complete control of this desert strip’s land, sea and air borders. Israel sent armored bulldozers to destroy Gaza’s fruit orchards, blockaded the fishing port, cut off supplies to factories and other businesses, and forbid most Gaza residents the right to work elsewhere or even leave. Gaza today is a humanitarian crisis, its population living in prison-like conditions.
Hamas—which governs Gaza—is not about liberating Palestine as a secular state free of imperialist domination; it represents forces that would restructure the oppressive relations that enslave the people of Palestine within an Islamic theocratic framework.
Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce in order to lift the siege of Gaza. A truce was finally agreed upon in June 2008, under which Hamas agreed to stop missile attacks, and Israel was supposed to end its blockade of Gaza. According to the pro-Israel New York Times, Hamas was "largely successful" in stopping the launches of the Qassam missiles, some of which are carried out by groups other than Hamas. But Israel refused to ease its blockade. Then, on November 4, Israel launched an attack that killed six Palestinians. The next day, it sealed all Gaza’s borders, intensifying what had already been a horrific situation for the people.
Israel’s siege has turned Gaza into the world’s largest open-air concentration camp—its impoverished inhabitants are being starved and subject to indescribable suffering. 80% live below the poverty line. About 97% of factories and workshops cannot operate. Gaza’s industrial zone is completely closed. Unemployment is about 50%. In 2006 Israel bombed Gaza's only power plant, making Gaza dependent on power supplies from Israel and Egypt. Fresh drinking water is often not available for days at a time. Irregular power means that sewage treatment plants cannot function and that raw sewage gets dumped into the Mediterranean. Medicines are in short supply, and Israeli bans on travel mean that Palestinians seeking advanced medical care that is not available in Gaza are left to die. (For more on the state of Gaza under siege, see the article from A World to Win News Service, "Gaza: Tottering on the Brink," in Revolution #150, available online at revcom.us)
In light of all this, the claims by Israel and the U.S. that the current bloody invasion is a “response” to small-scale and largely ineffective rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza are obscene. They are like the method the U.S. used to justify the genocide of Native Americans by settlers and the military: according to the official narrative, that story “began” with claims of the first Native American scalping of some settler family or soldier—and then anything goes to “respond” to what is declared an atrocity. What came before—what provoked the scalping, the genocidal lies and brutality visited upon the indigenous peoples, and America’s actual agenda of forcible conquest and colonialization—all this is ignored and covered up.
Even by its own terms, Israel’s longstanding policies of near-starvation, and the current massive reign of death from the air are violations of international law—serving as “collective punishment” against the entire population of Gaza. This collective punishment of all Gaza residents is contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention and is illegal under international law. Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, states that "to the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."
Israel has served as U.S. imperialism’s unsinkable aircraft carrier and regional enforcer in the Middle East for decades, and the U.S. has been Israel’s staunchest backer, providing it with billions of dollars a year in aid. And, with the “war on terror”—in reality a war for empire—Israel’s strategic relationship with the U.S. has become even more pivotal.
According to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, in addition to supplying the F16 fighter jets and the missiles used in Israel’s recent attack, the U.S. transferred more than $200 million worth of spare parts for Israel’s fleet of F16's between 2001-2006. “In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and ‘bunker buster’ missiles.” And according to U.S. government officials, the U.S. was fully informed ahead of time of Israeli plans and apparently gave them a green light.
In short, Israel’s massacre and its ongoing crimes against the people of Gaza could not have happened without U.S. support—and people living in the U.S. have the responsibility to oppose the crimes of “our” government. Protests have erupted across the Middle East, and there have also been protests (with more planned) in the U.S. and Europe.
There needs to be massive, visible political opposition to the U.S.-sponsored assault on Gaza, here, and now. Silence and acquiescence to these crimes in any form is complicity. The world needs to see that within the U.S., there are people who are not going along with the crimes being sponsored by their government.Another long winded opinionated piece, ignoring facts, from a site of no accountability.
Are you here to discuss solutions or lay blame on everyone else, and become a tool of terrorists propaganda?
The facts are:-
1. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It broke the truce by Egypt and fired missiles into Israel urban centres with intention to murder innocent men, women and children.
2. Israel, which any other nation would have retaliated before even the 2nd missile landed, had restrain themselves when faced such oppression with more than 200 missiles daily for months. No one called for a halt in hama's agression.
3. Israel realized they are alone, and retaliated last week, as any nation would to prevent further dead in their homeland.
Whatever happened 1400 years ago, who was right or who was right, what was conspired, is immaterial. The fact is that the carnage is now happening, and death of innocents are happening on BOTH sides which must end.
Hamas, a terrorist organisation dedicated to the death of innocents to achieve their national agenda, recieves sympathies, funds and recruits from faithful muslims thru a misinterpretation on their holy book.
Faithful muslims around the world assured the human race that they condemn terrorism and terrorists acts - killing of innocent men, women and children - done in their religion's name, which is a mis-interpretation of their holy book, no matter the causes, since 911.
Therefore it is time now for the faithful muslims around the world, without any excuses, must honour their words - to condemn the factual terrorists acts conducted by Hamas, whom slay innocent people in Israel thru their daily missile barrage, as well as now hiding amongst the civilian population ensuring more innocents die in facing Israel's wrath.
The muslims must condemn the atrocities of Hamas, capture their terrorists and turn them over to the authorities, and place more effort to correct the misinterpretation of their holy book so that no more muslims be misled or used by evil men.
Terrritorial claims can be civiliy discussed, but not by piling innocents dead in the meeting room.
I am under no illusion that my written word here will have any effect or even read by anyone, but hope is like a droplet of water into the ocean which will affect the tide, and when more considers my post, it will be a Tsunami of change that will help our fellow humans in the middle east.
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Originally posted by googoomuck:
Today's Chrisitans are sensible people.
This statement is laughable as heck.
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Originally posted by xtreyier:
Another long winded opinionated piece, ignoring facts, from a site of no accountability.
Are you here to discuss solutions or lay blame on everyone else, and become a tool of terrorists propaganda?
The facts are:-
1. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It broke the truce by Egypt and fired missiles into Israel urban centres with intention to murder innocent men, women and children.
2. Israel, which any other nation would have retaliated before even the 2nd missile landed, had restrain themselves when faced such oppression with more than 200 missiles daily for months. No one called for a halt in hama's agression.
3. Israel realized they are alone, and retaliated last week, as any nation would to prevent further dead in their homeland.
Whatever happened 1400 years ago, who was right or who was right, what was conspired, is immaterial. The fact is that the carnage is now happening, and death of innocents are happening on BOTH sides which must end.
Hamas, a terrorist organisation dedicated to the death of innocents to achieve their national agenda, recieves sympathies, funds and recruits from faithful muslims thru a misinterpretation on their holy book.
Faithful muslims around the world assured the human race that they condemn terrorism and terrorists acts - killing of innocent men, women and children - done in their religion's name, which is a mis-interpretation of their holy book, no matter the causes, since 911.
Therefore it is time now for the faithful muslims around the world, without any excuses, must honour their words - to condemn the factual terrorists acts conducted by Hamas, whom slay innocent people in Israel thru their daily missile barrage, as well as now hiding amongst the civilian population ensuring more innocents die in facing Israel's wrath.
The muslims must condemn the atrocities of Hamas, capture their terrorists and turn them over to the authorities, and place more effort to correct the misinterpretation of their holy book so that no more muslims be misled or used by evil men.
Terrritorial claims can be civiliy discussed, but not by piling innocents dead in the meeting room.
I am under no illusion that my written word here will have any effect or even read by anyone, but hope is like a droplet of water into the ocean which will affect the tide, and when more considers my post, it will be a Tsunami of change that will help our fellow humans in the middle east.
1. Israel kills civilians without batting much of an eyelid too. And they kill many more.
2. I don't think "occasional" ROCKET (not missile) strikes during the ceasefire or even during the ending of the ceasefire would somehow amount to 200 a day.
3. Israel retaliated......if retaliation meant bring misery to the whole Gaza strip and destroying the homes of people, and the lives of many others.
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1. Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
If you regard Hamas as terrorist organisation, then what about Irgun?
Do you consider Irgun a terrorist organisation?
Some of the better-known attacks by Irgun were the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre (accomplished together with the Stern Gang) on 9 April 1948. In the West, Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by The New York Times newspaper,[2][3], The Times (of London) [4][5], the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry[6], and prominent world and Jewish figures, such as Winston Churchill[7], Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, and many others.[8] Irgun attacks prompted a formal declaration from the World Zionist Congress in 1946, which strongly condemned "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare".[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
Menachem Begin (help·info) (Hebrew: ×žÖ°× Ö·×—Öµ×� בְּגִין, Polish: MieczysÅ‚aw Biegun, Russian: Менахем Вольфович Бегин, 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was the sixth prime minister of the State of Israel. Before the establishment of the state, he was the leader of the Irgun, playing a central role in Jewish resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin
xtreyier, what are your views on Irgun?
Menachem Begin, was a leader of Irgun and later a prime minister of Israel.
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2. Israel, which any other nation would have retaliated before even the 2nd missile landed, had restrain themselves when faced such oppression with more than 200 missiles daily for months. No one called for a halt in hama's agression.
What about the 40+ years of Israeli occupation and oppression?
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The muslims must condemn the atrocities of Hamas, capture their terrorists and turn them over to the authorities, and place more effort to correct the misinterpretation of their holy book so that no more muslims be misled or used by evil men.
They consider Hamas as legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation and oppression.
How to capture them and turn them over?
That is impossible.