Reader Israel Palestine

On Saturday, December 27, 2008 the Israeli doctrine of overwhelming force
claimed the highest number of Palestinian lives in a single day
since it was captured and occupied by Israel 41 years ago.
At least 310 people were killed and more than a thousand reported injured
in the first 48 hours alone.

ISRAEL INVADING GAZA AGAIN

Israel, as history has shown, is using defense as a pretext to carry out
inhuman measures on the Palestinians.
The fact is that during the last seven years,
14 Israelis have been killed by mostly homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip,
while more than 5,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel
with some of the most advanced US-supplied armaments in the world.

I can see your site is still running and going strong. Hopefully you remember that I sent you the "We" essay. Now here is an article I just wrote on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the recent invasion of the Gaza strip:

The present situation in the Gaza strip is attributed in response to Hamas rockets retaliation against southern Israel. Israel began its military campaign on Saturday (December 27th, 2008) at 11:30 am. The six month cease fire ended after Hamas started launching quassam rockets and mortar shells at Israel during the month of November, or so we are told. Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni stated that an expected response was to come and she hoped that the international community would support their actions and methods. Nonetheless, the Israeli response has been nothing short of a powerful escalation of violence and termination, or as Defense Minister Ehud Barak states a "war to the bitter end against Hamas" and allied militants.

An editorial in the Financial Times writes “it fits the Israeli doctrine of overwhelming force, which on Saturday claimed the highest number of Palestinian lives in a single day since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day War.” One should also not forget that Israel actually broke the cease fire first “when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire” (Barel, Haaretz 2008). The obvious response that has come from the Western media is that Israel’s reaction is completely understandable in order to prevent more disastrous events from unfolding by terrorist groups. The attack on Saturday was hailed as a “stroke of brilliance” by the countries biggest selling paper Yediot Aharonot and “the element of surprise increased the number of people who were killed.” However, maybe there would be a different feeling from the West if the media did not censor the violence that has shown a mother holding her dead baby in her arms, or teenagers being extinguished as they walk from school, or regular civilians being incinerated. As Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote in Haaretz this weekend, "little or no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians", as in US operations in Iraq (qtd. from Milne, The Guardian 2008). It has been the “bloodiest onslaught on blockaded Gaza since it was captured and occupied by Israel 41 years ago, at least 310 people were killed and more than a thousand reported injured in the first 48 hours alone” (Milne, The Guardian 2008).

Nonetheless the US president-elect has stated he would “monitor” the situation and British Prime minister calls for “restraints on both sides.” President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is keen on visiting Jerusalem and finding some sort of truce, which he is scheduled to visit this upcoming Monday (Sofer, Yediot Aharonot 2008). Now imagine that if the same situation was occurring in Israel or any US ally, the response would be much different. Not only large condemnation, but a call to action to stop the disastrous dealings occurring. Instead the West has remained passive and not denounced Israel’s military surge against the Palestinians of Gaza, although interestingly enough Iranian Jews are protesting and calling the invasion a “serious war crime” (The Jerusalem Post).

The outlook presented is that Israel was attacked by Hamas militias that were launching rockets into Israeli territory. How could any government not respond to this overwhelming force? However, it is worth mentioning that this supposed fact has another twist. The media forgets to mention that the cease fire was actually “sunk by Israel's assassination of six Hamas fighters in Gaza on 5 November and its refusal to lift its siege of the embattled territory as expected under an Egyptian-brokered deal” (Milne, The Guardian 2008). And the most obvious and transparent figure is that Israel is still occupying territory that is illegal under international law, this being the West Bank and Gaza strip. After Hamas was elected in 2006, Israel, with US support, has done everything to completely block necessary supplies being delivered and punish the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the area. Now some may argue that Israel gave these territories back to the Palestinians, but is it considered giving it up when you still control the “territory by sea, air and land” (Milne, The Guardian 2008). The fact is that Israel, as history has shown, is using defense as a pretext to carry out inhuman measures on the Palestinians. “During the last seven years, 14 Israelis have been killed by mostly homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, while more than 5,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel with some of the most advanced US-supplied armaments in the world” (Milne, The Guardian 2008). But weapons and military power should not be an issue here, even while no rockets have been fired earlier this year, “45 Palestinians have died there at Israel's hands this year alone” (Milne, The Guardian 2008).

Tariq Ali from CounterPunch presents this year’s agenda from Israel, rooted within the superpowers of the world, “the assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the Right and the Far Right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon a few years, sit back and watch (Ali, CounterPunch 2008). The present events that have unfolded are just another edition to the evidence that has piled of the injustice pointed toward the Palestinians. Those running for election in Israel during February, that being Tzipi Livni (Kadima Party), Ehud Barak (Labor Party), and Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud Party), might try to possibly have some sort of moral principle to guide the way, one that involves not murdering thousands of Palestinians.

- Ali, Tariq. “Official Apathy: The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant.” CounterPunch. December 2008
- Barel, Zvi. “Delusions of victory in Gaza.” Haaretz. December 2008
- Barzak, Ibrahim. “Chaos in Gaza as Israel's strikes continue.” Haaretz. December 2008
- "Bombing Gaza is not a Solution.” Financial Times (editorial) 2008
- Milne, Seumas. “Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is a crime that cannot succeed.” The Guardian. December 2008
- "Iranian Jews protest Gaza slaughter.” The Jerusalem Post. December 2008
- Sofer, Roni. “Sarkozy to visit Israel to promote truce.” Yediot Aharonot. December 2008

Yes, I remember your ESSENCE OF WE & 1984 essay. And yes, "Orwell Today" is still running and going strong (battling Big Brother is not for the weak or faint of heart).

Thanks for sending along your article on the most recent Israel-Palestine conflict which has been going on, in one form and another, since the Jews set their sights on Palestine centuries ago. See TACITUS ON ORIGIN OF HEBREWS.

Israel's latest attack on Palestine is a bad omen on this eve of 2009. It wasn't PEACE ON EARTH during Christmas 2008 and sadly, it isn't looking like A HAPPY NEW YEAR either.