Horrors in Gaza

by **sunny** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:28 am

<a href="http://counterpunch.org/tilley06302006.html">counterpunch.org/tilley06302006.html</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>On the excuse of rescuing one kidnapped soldier, Israeli is now bombing the Gaza Strip and is poised to re-invade. It has also arrested a third of the Palestinian parliament, wrecking even its fragile illusion of capacity and reducing the already-empty vessel of the Palestinian Authority into broken shards. In the shambles, Palestinians may be observing one bitter pill of compensation: vicious angling by Fatah to reclaim control of Palestinian national politics and its rivalry with Hamas are now rendered obsolete. Even the dogged international community cannot maintain its dogged pretense that the PA is actually capable of any governance at all. The demise of the disastrous Oslo model, Israel's device to ensure its final dismemberment of Palestinian land and its fatal cooptation of the Palestinian national movement, may finally be at hand. Perhaps Palestinian unity again has a chance. But no one knows what will replace the PA. It is therefore not surprising that this transformed diplomatic landscape is absorbing the principal attention of an anxious international community. Nevertheless, politics should not be the greatest international concern. For over in Gaza, one appalling act must now eclipse all thoughts of "road maps" or "mutual gestures": on Wednesday, Israeli war planes repeatedly bombed and utterly demolished Gaza's only power plant. About 700,000 of Gaza's 1.3 million people now have no electricity, and word is that power cannot be restored for six months. It is not the immediate human conditions created by this strike that are monumental. Those conditions are, of course, bad enough. No lights, no refrigerators, no fans through the suffocating Gaza summer heat. No going outside for air, due to ongoing bombing and Israel's impending military assault. In the hot darkness, massive explosions shake the cities, close and far, while repeated sonic booms are doubtless wreaking the havoc they have wrought before: smashing windows, sending children screaming into the arms of terrified adults, old people collapsing with heart failure, pregnant women collapsing with spontaneous abortions. Mass terror, despair, desperate hoarding of food and water. And no radios, television, cell phones, or laptops (for the few who have them), and so no way to get news of how long this nightmare might go on. But this time, the situation is worse than that. As food in the refrigerators spoils, the only remaining food is grains. Most people cook with gas, but with the borders sealed, soon there will be no gas. When family-kitchen propane tanks run out, there will be no cooking. No cooked lentils or beans, no humus, no bread the staples Palestinian foods, the only food for the poor. (And there is no firewood or coal in dry, overcrowded Gaza.) And yet, even all this misery is overshadowed by a grimmer fact: no water. Gaza's public water supply is pumped by electricity. The taps, too, are dry. No sewage system. And again, word is that the electricity is out for at least six months. The Gaza aquifer is already contaminated with sea water and sewage, due to over-pumping (partly by those now-abandoned Israeli settlements) and the grossly inadequate sewage system. To be drinkable, well water is purified through machinery run by electricity. Otherwise, the brackish water must at least be boiled before it can be consumed, but this requires electricity or gas. And people will soon have neither. Drinking unpurified water means sickness, even cholera. If cholera breaks out, it will spread like wildfire in a population so densely packed and lacking fuel or water for sanitation. And the hospitals and clinics aren't functioning, either, because there is no electricity. Finally, people can't leave. None of the neighboring countries have resources to absorb a million desperate and impoverished refugees: logistically and politically, the flood would entirely destabilize Egypt, for example. But Palestinians in Gaza can't seek sanctuary with their relatives in the West Bank, either, because they can't get out of Gaza to get there. They can't even go over the border into Egypt and around through Jordan, because Israel will no longer allow people with Gaza identification cards to enter the West Bank. In any case, a cordon of Palestinian police are blocking people from trying to scramble over the Egyptian border--and war refugees have tried, through a hole blown open by militants, clutching packages and children. In short, over a million civilians are now trapped, hunkered in their homes listening to Israeli shells, while facing the awful prospect, within days or weeks, of having to give toxic water to their children that may consign them to quick but agonizing deaths. One woman near the Rafah border, taking care of her nephews, spoke to BBC: "If I am frightened in front of them I think they will die of fear." If the international community does nothing, her children may soon die anyway. The astonishing scale of this humanitarian situation is indeed matched only by the deafening drizzle of international reaction. "Of course it is understandable that [the Israelis] would want to go after those who kidnapped their soldier," says Kofi Anan (while the Palestinian population cowers in the dark listening to thundering explosions demolish their society), "but it has to be done in such a way that civilian populations are not made to suffer." Even as Israel bombs smash Gaza's roadways, the G-8 stands up on its hind-legs to intone, "We call on Israel to exercise utmost restraint in the current crisis." How about the Russians, now angling for position in the new "Great Game" of the Middle East? "The right and duty of the government of Israel to defend the lives and security of its citizens are beyond doubt," says Russia's foreign ministry, as though poor Corporal Shalit warrants any of this mayhem, "But this should not be done at the cost of many lives and the lives of many Palestinian civilians, by massive military strikes with heavy consequences for the civilian population." And what says noble Europe, proud font of human rights conventions, architects of the misión civilizatrice? "The EU remains deeply concerned," mumbles the mighty defenders of humanitarian law, "about the worsening security and humanitarian developments." Seemingly soggy phrases like "deeply concerned" are diplomatic code for "We are seriously unhappy." But under these circumstances, "remains deeply concerned" suggests that this staggering crime is just one more sobering moment in the failed "road map." Diplomatic bubbles of unreality in the Middle East are the norm rather than the exception, but at some point the international community must face the very unwelcome fact that it needs to change gear. A country that claims kinship among the western democracies of Europe is behaving like a murderous rogue regime, using any excuse to reduce over a million people to utter human misery and even mass death. Plastering Corporal Shalit's face over this policy is no more convincing that South African newspapers emblazoning the picture of one poor murdered white doctor over their coverage of the 1976 Soweto uprising. Israel has done many things argued to be war crimes: mass house demolitions, closing whole cities for weeks, indefinite "preventative" detentions, massive land confiscation, the razing of thousands of square miles of Palestinian olive groves and agriculture, systematic physical and mental torture of prisoners, extrajudicial killings, aerial bombardment of civilian areas, collective punishment of every description in defiance of the Geneva Conventions--not to mention the general humiliation and ruin of the indigenous people under its military control. But destroying the only power source for a trapped and defenseless civilian population is an unprecedented step toward barbarity. It reeks, ironically, of the Warsaw Ghetto. As we flutter our hands about tectonic political change, we must take pause: in the eyes of history, what is happening in Gaza may come to eclipse them all.<hr></blockquote> Dr. Virginia Tilley is a professor of political science, currently working in South Africa. She can be reached at tilley@hws.edu. edited to put in the correct link. sorry. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=sunny@rigorousintuition>sunny</A> at: 7/3/06 3:14 pm

by **havanagilla** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:54 am

no doubt now, the israeli government has gone mad. (brings up bad memories from 1994 kidnap of Nachshon Waxman, who died in the course of a "rescue" op by Rabin. Chilling fact, Rabin was burried precisely at the same date, a year later, after being assassinated. -- If there are any "bad omens" around this kidnap, is that it might signal another surge of dark forces (Ulmart was now a subject of Pulsa Denura, the Kabbalist death curse, last week), and another chaos wave. -- The situation here is not good. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":(">

by **sunny** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:59 am

havana, I hope you stay safe, as well. I am praying for these poor people. It is not just Israel- the whole world has gone mad, both for keeping silent about what is going on in Gaza and perpetrating it's own atrocities, especially the bad old U.S. of A.

by **havanagilla** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:20 pm

thanks sunny. my first concern now is keeping my soul in tact, not letting this drive me to the ground and also not to become jaded. I am at home most of the day, not doing much, which is what I feel is proper now. usually going to the beach daily is my medicine, but this is now the 2 weeks season of the Medusa (?? don't know if this is the name in english, its those gelly creatures who burn you when you touch them), so can't go there, they are all over, and for some reason they just crash on the beach and die there. so even sitting on the beach is impossible and unpleasant. ---- there's really nothing to do practically, i mean madness is just all over, its the "day of the army", and you can just sense that the meager protest has died, of futility. what replaces the "oh its so terrible" articles and op-ed, is now something like "there is no meaning to life" or "has the military taken over the government totally" and "there's nothing to do". a new song here, which might lead to a change of strategy, but I doubt it. Sometimes one has to admit, accept, total defeat. I think this is the situation of the "left" or "peace movement" here. defeat, and its is the beginning of acceptance. I think that's much better than the previous "more of the same" drills and protests that led to nothing except "wow, it was a nice demonstration".

by **havanagilla** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:27 pm

Unusual article in haaretz published this moment about the CIA kidnap "affair", including a detailed (FIRST TIME) account of the canadian Maher- Arar story. this was censored until now for some reason. Could there be an explanatoin to the timing of this article ? which deals with KIDNAP ? -- Another question mark. this article has very few backtalks (expected, because ANY article about the CIA here is met with silence of the lambs). But one backtalk goes "SYria cooperating with the CIA ? bullshit, this is a fantasy story" (re Maher Arar claiming that the CIA submitted him to a Syrian prison for torture, on the CIA's behalf). There IS something to this argument. any comments ? Another issue raised was the allegation that the CIA refused to allow the kidnapped people to see a lawyer.

by **sunny** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:24 pm

do you have a link for that story in Haaretz? (btw, we call them Jellyfish)

by **havanagilla** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 2:03 pm

oh, jellyfish, sure, how silly. the article is in the hebrew section, says on it <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":b"> y El Pais, could be syndicated from a latin american press. It is a summary of the "cia kidnapping", arar, the german El Masri, etc., a rather long account, pointing to an MO, the larger story is Arar. As I said, I was surprised to find out as of 2004, that it was suppressed here. In fact, i was the first, my blog has the 'scoop' in hebrew about the arar case. of course, I received total silence as response. The entire issue of CIA renditions is a big taboo here for two rasons. one, israel is a friend of the CIA second, complicity. And there is the real reason, that if this breaks loose then our very own Mossad/Shabak/Malmab "renditions" will have to be discussed (already one scandal last month, about a 30 years old "rendition" of an israeli, that ended with his accidental death from overdose of sedatives, the dumping of his body in the sea, and the lies to the family until NOW). And this is the tip of the old iceberg, with Vanunu half way, and numerous others (palestinians but more so, ISRAELIS) brought here either in a box or, like me, at gunpoint. So, when someone has a lot to hide, they usually expand the gag to anything remotely similar, or associated with it. The absurd, of course, is that the kidnap of Shalit now, actually the more reasonable act because he was a soldier in battle, is described as barbaric, compared to the utter silence around the really barbaric kidnappings of citizens by CIA and Israel. welcome to earth.

by **blanc** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:22 pm

just thanking you for the news from the front Hava.

by **sunny** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:28 am

<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13831.htm">www.informationclearingho...e13831.htm</a> I did not realize the significance of this: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Israel's second reason for striking at Gaza is political. It is seeking to destroy the Hamas government by all possible means - including physical liquidation - because it knows that Hamas's terms for a settlement would be stiffer than it could possibly accept. It abhors the recent Hamas-Fatah accord, which implicitly recognises Israel, because it threatens to produce a Palestinian partner ready to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Israel has no intention of ever returning to those borders. It is no accident that its assault followed immediately on the Palestinian accord. Israel will do everything to avoid a negotiation. Hence, it deliberately inflicts inhumane hardships on the Palestinians in order to radicalise them and drive the moderates from the scene. Moderates, who are prepared to talk, are Israel's real enemies.<hr></blockquote>

by **havanagilla** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:42 am

this is called "peace-o-phobia" a known and common syndrome among Israelis. Or the latin -PAXOPHOBIA <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":p">

by **sunny** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:48 am

Paxophobia is gripping the world. PA set to file lawsuit against Israel before the International Criminal Court. <a href="http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_18991.shtml">www.palestine-info.co.uk/...8991.shtml</a>

by **AlicetheCurious** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:20 pm

Sunny, it's a well-known pattern, Israel's most vicious, genocidal acts are usually immediately preceded by a peaceful gesture by the Arab side. A perfect case in point was the Arab League Peace Initiative in 2000, which guaranteed that, if Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders, all Arab countries would immediately recognize Israel and implement fully normal relations with it, including trade, tourism, etc., etc. In response, Israel re-invaded the Palestinian territories that had been run by the Palestinian Authority, and began a savage attack on the Palestinian civil infrastructure, destroying homes, administration buildings, schools, roads, electrical and water utilities, etc. These cold-blooded mass murderers killed and maimed indiscriminately anybody who crossed their path, including children, the elderly, the handicapped and pregnant women, and then preventing any medical help from reaching them. The Israeli leaders may be murderers, torturers and thieves at the best of times, but they reserve their cruelest punishment for Arabs who try to make peace. Incidentally, the kidnapping or even killing of an occupation soldier on duty, is not even a crime, legally speaking. Indeed, it's a legal right, enshrined in international law. On the other hand, Israel's targetting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime, no two ways about it. Israel is a Jewish supremacist apartheid nation, one of the world's most powerful militaristic states, led by criminals who commit daily acts of terrorism against a helpless civilian population. That's the truth. Where is all the indignation? The righteous condemnation against those COWARDLY TERRORISTS who kill civilians? The silence of the United Nations, the US of A, the EU and all the other self-congratulatory, self-appointed "leaders" of the "free world" is heard here by Arabs as the thunderous braying of donkeys. The true face of America, "Western democracies", and their Zionist colonialist project is not the shiny corporate PR image you get on tv, it's the one that's caught by cellphone cameras and hidden camcorders, revealing horrors too revolting to be broadcast during prime time. It's the one you only get to experience when the heavy tanks rumble down your street, and foreign soldiers can do whatever they want to you and to your family and there's not a fucking thing you can do about it. Shrugs of helplessness from abroad don't help. The Palestinians know very well that Israel is their cross to bear. How much easier it is to carry, when they see evidence that there are good people around the world who support them in their struggle, who oppose the crimes that are daily committed against them, who have the courage and the compassion to speak out. It may not seem like much, but it's amazing how such solidarity among people of conscience can transform bitterness and despair into courage and hope. There is always something a person can do. Boycott Israeli goods (and let the store know why). Join a divestment campaign. Write a letter, to your government representative, local newspaper, to any organization related to defending human and legal rights. Bring a speaker or a documentary film to your university, church or local Rotary, or whatever organization you belong to. Attend a lecture or the screening of a documentary. Join a demonstration (demonstrations may not change the world, but they do allow like-minded people to meet face-to-face -- very subversive). Organize a fund and consciousness-raiser. Attend a fund and consciousness-raiser. At the very least, read and become informed. This site is a good start: <a href="http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/index.php?or=91&from=15">fromoccupiedpalestine.org...91&from=15</a> but there are many, many good sites. I've been feeling sick lately, the news is frightening and horrible. It's a struggle, watching the sadism, the sheer evil of what is being done to people, while Orwellian platitudes about freedom and democracy remind me more and more of those cheerful murals painted on the outside of the trains transporting victims to the Nazi concentration camps. I hope that one day soon, I'll return to my usual optimism, as expressed in these words by Howard Zinn: "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many -where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." (You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A personal history of our times, p. 208<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)">

by **friend catcher** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:40 pm

Alice said "Join a demonstration (demonstrations may not change the world, but they do allow like-minded people to meet face-to-face -- very subversive)" Agree it's important and can have unseen effects. Not much but something. This from Guantanamo inmate <a href="http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9070">www.socialistworker.co.uk...le_id=9070</a> "One of the guards in Guantanamo who volunteered for two tours of Vietnam – so he’s no tree hugger – told me that people in Britain had demonstrated in their millions. It came as a huge breath of fresh air, especially after my experiences of the British government and intelligence services. I thought nobody in Britain cared except my family and friends. When I heard about people taking part in the demonstrations in their masses I started to redefine how I thought. And this from <a href="http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_leninology_archive.html">leninology.blogspot.com/2...chive.html</a> "On a similar note, I remember a friend of mine telling me how the big Stop the War demos are always covered in depth on al-Jazeera – and how this had positively influenced the Arab view of ordinary people in the West. "Every time you go on these marches you're marching through 20 million living rooms across the Middle East," was how he put it. Worth remembering next time you feel frustrated at getting blanked by the Beeb yet again. Since I’ve returned to Britain I have found there has been an alliance of Muslims and non-Muslims based on justice which is preventing the proliferation of war – my experience has been very positive

by **Gouda** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:06 pm

Olmert: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>While Israeli tanks and infantry massed along the Gaza Strip's northern border for a threatened ground incursion, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign to free Corporal Gilad Shalit could turn into "a long war"... ... "This is a long war," Olmert said. "It requires lots of patience, sometimes endless restraint. We have to know when to clench our teeth and to deal a decisive blow."<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-04T121211Z_01_L02539614_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml">today.reuters.com/misc/Pr...IDEAST.xml</a> Which Long War is he talking about: A one-off campaign that may take a long time to complete (free the soldier); a late-start portion of Cheney/Rumsfeld's New Official Long War; a mini long war running in parallel with Cheney/Rumsfeld's maxi Long War; is he reminding us that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a long war and shall continue on and on; is this a bluff; or is this just conveniently plagerized phrasing from the pentagon's quadrennial review intended to spread the meme in psychic as well as murderously real terms? Answers perhaps not mutually exclusive. I like his bit about "endless restraint." Must be tough holding back on the overt genocidal option.

by **Gouda** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:29 pm

Ah, forgot one possibility: is this a direct message to compromised sectors of Washington who do not get it? DC is the only authority able to constrain Israeli response and/or protect it from any real effects of international sanction - thus, there shall be, at minimum, no pandering to the political appearances crowd (domestic or internaitonal) regarding "restraint and limitation of civilian casualties" or any real punative measures on the diplomatic or economic fronts should things escalate... <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Washington has been urging Olmert to show restraint and take steps to minimize civilian casualties.<hr></blockquote> In other words, we are co-opting your own terms and your own unrestrained, total actions in your Long War as a reminder of your own excellent precedent, so don't meddle with us in the conduct of our long war...this is about cooperation, remember. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=gouda@rigorousintuition>Gouda</A> at: 7/4/06 11:32 am

Horrors in Gaza

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