Israeli Prime Minister Olmert – in a meeting of the Israeli cabinet – was not shy about his government’s embrace of war crimes:
"The cabinet’s position from the outset was that if there is rocket fire at residents of the South, there will be a response that will essentially be disproportionate," he said.
Not to be left behind, Foreign Affairs Minister Livni went even further - calling for immediate attacks:
"We need to use strength and a lot of it," continued the Kadima leader. "In my opinion, there is no reason to wait. We need a response and an immediate one."
For all the bluster, you really have to question whether Israel has any desire to see the rocket launchings actually stopped. First they begin their assault on Gaza with a calculated strike on all Gaza police facilities – an attack on the very force that is used by the Gazan government to stop rocket launches – now, in response to 3 rockets last night, they sent jets to bomb a Gazan Police station.
On top of this apparently counterproductive strategy, note that even the Jerusalem Post reports that at least some rockets being launched at Israel are coming from their pals Fatah, not Hamas, yet Israel is hitting back at the Hamas led security infrastructure:
Fatah’s military wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, took responsibility for one of the rocket attacks. The other attacks were not claimed.
Following the attack, Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called for an immediate IDF response. "We need to respond severely and immediately… Hamas must pay for this," he told Army Radio, adding that no one should give the excuse that a smaller faction was responsible for the attack.
This after even Israeli "Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Sunday in the weekly cabinet meeting:"
"Two weeks after the cease-fire began, terrorists not belonging to Hamas are challenging the organization and carrying out attacks in order to bring on another escalation. Hamas is deterred and respecting the cease-fire, but not doing enough to discourage the others," he continued.
Not surprisingly, calls for war crimes prosecutions are getting louder and:
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, has told The Times that he is examining the case for Palestinian jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Gaza.
Even the New York Times is now discussing this possibility – and a judge in Spain has initiated a charge based on Israeli actions in 2002. (h/t markfromireland)
All of which has led at least one Israeli pundit to suggest following the American model to avoid war crimes trials – adoption of legislation similar to the 2002 American Service-Members Protection Act (ASMPA):
ASMPA gave the president far-reaching powers to take action against those who might try to prosecute soldiers, especially the ICC. Most strikingly, ASMPA provides the president with "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the ICC." Simply stated, the law permits the president to employ military force, if necessary, to free any American soldier arrested on charges of war crimes from the custody of the ICC. It was for this reason that ASMPA has earned the nickname "The Hague Invasion Act."
Imagine that.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Imagine that, indeed. We will reap a bitter harvest for all the evil we have sown. The the least of which will be how others will model themselves some of the worst things we have done. Thank you for this post Siun.
Sounds like Israel got the green light from Mitchell.
The ASMPA is perhaps the most vile thing to come out of Washington. Tough competition, but I think it wins. It tells the world that we intend to commit war crimes and then commit more war crimes to prevent prosecutions for the original crimes. Can’t get much worse than that.
Diggable.
Evening …
Not really sure where Mitchell is at … his statements are so vague.
Mitchell probably asked them nicely to refrain from further military action in the short term, if for no other reason than the fact that the Obama admin has more enough trouble at the moment. Israel doesn’t care. They’ll take U.S. assistance but thumb their nose at any advice which runs counter to their (political) agenda.
Diggable. And Dugged
thank you siun – israeli elections, iirc, are feb 10 – 9 more days.
The election prospects for Kadima and Labor aren’t looking good so Olmert (who’s leaving) and Livni have only one answer: Bomb more civilians.
I have said this a lot of times but it is really impossible to describe how bankrupt Israel’s political elites are across the board. They make Bush and Cheney look like FDR and Churchill.
Dugg!
Where’s Solomon when you need him?
I don’t know if there will ever be a solution that will one day lead to peace .
Am I correct in thinking Hamas, particularly in light of Gaza’s damaged infrastructure, is powerless to curtail the launching of rockets even if they want to?
maybe not mitchell. from sos clinton on tuesday:
So killing Palestinians is a campaign strategy !?
Simply stated, the law permits the president to employ military force, if necessary, to free any American soldier arrested on charges of war crimes from the custody of the ICC.
hmmm…. georgie’s now the *ex* Commander-In-Chief….
Its terrible to feel part of a rouge nation. I want my country back. This was a great post, thanks.
Fatah can’t control Hamas and now Hamas can’t control the smaller groups. No one can control Israel let alone the one giving them money every year. This situation is sad joke.
Don’t give Bush and Cheney too much credit, or FDR and Churchill for that matter. Their policies resulted in a lot of needless civilian carnage. In the case of FDR and Churchill, the firebombing(s) of Dresden and Tokyo are two examples (out of many).
That part of the world has been shedding blood since antiquity! Read Mitchner’s “The Source”
Thanks. Forgot that I read that.
The silence is deafening
When’s the election? We may see some reduction in killing rage rhetoric after it.
If you wipe out the police force, it’s hard to keep order – particularly in the chaos the attacks have left.
Israel made sure that there were not enough security forces to police the rocket launchers – or that’s my interpretation. If you see Israel’s actions as just an attempt to stop rocket launches, the attack on police does not make any sense. If you see Israel’s actions as a step to wipe out Hamas – and Gaza? – then it begins to make sense, eh?
Hamas has done a good job kneecapping any Fatah members seen on the streets. You’d think they could stop the rockets.
Since Netanyahu is expected to win the election, I suspect we’ll see even more.
My fav book of all time. I re-read it every few years.
Please cite your sources for that?
We must wake up to compassion fatigue for the children in Congo
If the Isreali’s knew enough about individual Hamas members to call their homes before blowing them up, then why couldn’t they simply just round em up arrest them . I mean if you know where they live and you even have the phone number ,you probably know the persons whole daily routine!
Absolutely. Kadima and Labor were losing in the polls so they launched a campaign against Gaza to show that they could be just as tough as their even more right wing opponents. There was no strategic reason or policy objective in such an attack, just as there was no reason that such an attack should take place now, other than the approaching elections.
1300 Palestinians died and 5,000 were wounded all for the sake of internal Israeli politics. Understand this and you understand the rhetoric that Siun quotes in her post.
Probably just an ignorant question but doesn’t Israel own a significant amount of defensive weaponry? Whatever the contemporary version is of the “Patriot” antimissile battery? Are they really so over hyped as to be completely useless against incoming Palestinian rockets?
Good point – of course, the Israeli approach is to send a rocket, not a arrest warrant.
With war over, Fatah members say Hamas sees them as the real danger
Hamas admits killing ‘Israeli collaborators’
Hamas Under Fire from EU, Human Rights Groups
Given the “quality” of the rockets, Patriots are unnecessary. The rockets are mostly rather ramshackle tubes – with no explosives.
I agree the world is highly selective about the crises it cares about.
As for Fatah and Hamas in Gaza, you have to understand the chaos and destruction there. To put this in perspective Israel with all its armed forces couldn’t stop the rockets so how is a lightly armed militia recently shot to pieces by the Israelis supposed to do it?
would you consider writing a diary about what is the current situation in the DRC and what we might do about it? thanks!
No doubt some cost/benefit analysis has proven it is better to sacrifice the occasional settler than try to knock down the rockets. On the other hand, the frequent shelling and military incursions are not exactly cost effective.
Quoting Fatah sources and Ynet is pretty selective. i
That there have been some killings of those who collaborated with Israel’s attack is not surprising – it also is rather different from your comment “Hamas has done a good job kneecapping any Fatah members seen on the streets.”
The original article in Ma’an is here: http://www.maannews.net/en/ind…..8;ID=35304
A good place to start is here.
you might appreciate this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02770.html
PA official: Israel made ‘big mistake’
you’re kidding, right? the first post begins with:
that’s what i’m supposed to read for the current situation in the DRC? i don’t think so.
Kenosha – the PA is Fatah. Trusting Fatah rhetoric in the Jerusalem Post?
Reports from more reliable sources do suggest that some kneecapping has gone on – but no reliable number has been reported and more reliable reports note that who did what to whom is pretty hard to sort out at this stage. As I said, i would not be surprised if Hamas killed or wounded spies and collaborators who worked with Israel to plan and carry out the attacks on Gaza.
Siun and fellow firedogs … your work is so important for now and the long haul… communicating truth and reality against the legitimitized IMMORAL rationalizations of Israel and US leaderships.
How formidable this fight against the steamrolled, spun propaganda that is truly crazymaking to anyone who is minimally abreast of the reality.
What a crazymaking (I keep using that word because it is) tease to have vile Bushco out of office, and then have Obama and Congress and Israel defend and/or minimize the undefendable.
Here are some ideas, facts, insights swirling about in my horrified head and heart, along with your latest news, Siun:
Meds Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor: “I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons.” (the horrific amputating “DIME”s)
Israel broke a 6-month cease fire on American election day (how under-handedly strategic was that when media was so consumed with the election) and killed 7 Hamas militants. Hamas had sent no rockets for those six months. Israel was being provocative? Did they want Palestine to act out so they could justify their “shock and awe” forthcoming slaughter?
Israel has had a blockade since 2005, withholding adequate supplies and nourishment from the Gazan population, not to mention the pyschological degradation of the checkpoints and ghettoization.
The US provides Israel with $3 billion a year and vast industrial weaponry, F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters for its “self defense” which the Congress will readily rubber stamp in defiance of the reality of its pre-emptive nature. The US has provided the cruel, inhumane phosphorous that burns to the bone.
1,330 (at least) lives lost in Palestine. (more than 400 children) 5450 injured. Traumatized children. Devastated infrastructure. 50,000 malnourished. 100,000 Palestinians to refugeedom.
300 humanitarian groups are protesting this slaughter, including 8 Israeli humanitarian organizations.
Israel and the US and the media refuse to acknowledge the situation of Gazans to the Israelis suffering in the Warsaw ghetto.
At least 5 “white flag incidents” are being explored during the 22 day massacre. Civilians were not protected. The hundreds of air strikes prove that civilian casualties were irrelevant, but anecdotal stories of inhumane ground murders of civilians are surfacing.
Gunboats have wounded 62 Palestinians after the 22 day land slaughter ended.
The Palestinians are being punished as in slaughtered by the Israeli necons overtly for the rockets, covertly it seems for democratically electing Hamas three years ago. George Bush pushed for such election, and then when it occurred not with his deemed outcome, his regime covertly tried to help Fatah oust Hamas. It failed.
Racist exclusionism, apartheid, genocide? Obama talks about being on the wrong side of history. Yes, the Bush regime was. And the US and Israel presently are.
And do our countrymen and women dismiss our attempts at communication as bleeding heart babblings of the “hard left”? How obtuse are they? Or are we so divided up and conquered by spin-mastery of media and Israel lobby and our long ago compromised Congress?
Evening, Siun. Before you get to talking about more Israeli war crimes, could you suggest why rockets are being fired out of Gaza? What’s the point of it?
Is there any crime these terrorists could commit that you won’t rationalize away?
The point – and I think we can all agree that the rockets are not the way to go – is that the rockets are the only weapon available to Gazans to respond to the continuous shelling of the Gazan coast (with resulting casualties), the continued blockade preventing needed food, medicine and supplies from entering and the recurring air strikes and other attacks by Israel. A reaction is pretty likely given those conditions. That said, I do find the involvement of Fatah factions in the rocket launches … interesting but who knows.
Note the comment from Yadlin quoted in the post itself:
Given the homemade nature of the rockets – for the most part – and the ease with which a few guys can head out to a field and shoot them off – and remembering that the police forces were destroyed very purposefully by Israel, I’d be surprised if there were not some rocket launches even before we get into Yadlin’s territory of “challenges” to Hamas.
Defiance?
Sorry, that was in reply to macaquerman @ 44 .
Thanks. I just can’t understand why shoot these stupid, senseless things now. The gazans are surrounded by an Israeli army that just went all out to show that they’ll do any and every stinking thing to Gaza and the shooting finally stopped.
Reports all over the place suggest that a year-long truce is very close.
Why shoot?
Anybody have any more info about this video? would like to know if it is from date posted or much earlier.
Israeli Ambassador slips up — description with the video reads, “The Israeli Ambassador in Australia asks for the media to stop filming after letting slip plans concerning Iran.”
Kenosha – come on.
Perhaps you would like to explain how the killing of 1300 people – 1/3 of whom were children – is justified?
I do not support the killing of innocents. I do understand occupied people responding to attacks with the limited weapons at hand – and I would find it hard to argue that those who worked with Israel to carry out the attack on Gaza are noncombatants.
And as you might have noticed, I quoted above the ICHR’s statement which seems quite reasonable to me.
No one is pure, everyone has blood on their hands – but some have more.
Just for the hell of it? That’s a little too macho, isn’t it?
That report looks accurate and in fact, I was working on a post for later/another day about it.
There’s been a theme in a lot of US and Israeli coverage of Gaza that links the attacks to a future attack on Iran …
I have been reading about that as ultimate goal of provocative IDF.
Is US not just a willful codependent ally of Israel (some friends help you move, others help you move bodies) but is motivated by its continuing imperialist obsession with “oilness” of Iran???? Iraq’s “oilness” not living up to expectations. More, more, more. Blood for oil.
The cease-fire situation is confusing – and every time the sources look clear, the next report gets muddied.
I suspect – and it really is hard to know with such a chaotic situation – that we’re seeing a mix of freelancers hitting back at Israel, some “defiance” as hmmm says, and also a decision by Hamas that some response is necessary to continuing Israeli attacks – after all, there is some pressure in Israel to do something to stop the rocket attacks hence some small leverage in the negotiations. (I hesitate to say that since Israel has admitted that the June cease fire was only joined in order to buy time to plan for the attack we just saw … so perhaps even internal Israeli pressure to find a solution to the rockets is not so persuasive?)
Not a word of “propaganda” in that tirade. Nope, not a one.
oooh, I see my comments have been placed in insta-Mod. What a surprise.
So tell me which are wrong.
Sri Lanka again? Hoo boy.
kenosha,
My taxes don’t support either side in the Congo or Sri Lankan disputes.
How many people who write studies for the Sri Lankan and Congolese governments, advocating large international military operations end up being senior officials at the State Department?
Are there any people who volunteered to fix trucks and tanks during battle for the Sri Lankan and Congolese governments, working as Chief-of-Staff to the US president?
The Israeli government just killed hundreds and hundreds of innocent women and children to boost Tzipi Livni’s positives and lower her negatives in a national election. The excuse Livni and Olmert and the rest gave was attacks that resulted in less lives lost in Israel than by Israeli drunk drivers in 2008.
Why don’t you advocate the IDF start bombing Israeli vineyards, wineries, breweries and taverns? Surely that would save more Israeli lives than Hamas has claimed.
The main treason the IDF is attacking right now is because Israeli political polls still show Livni probably losing to Netanyahu.
The fundamental mistake we step into sometimes (me at least) is that we attribute singular motives to groups…
Israeli, therefore…
Palestinian, therefore…
duh
It is pretty clear that many in Israel are horrified by the death raining down on Gaza, and that a whole lot of Palestinians could care less about the politics, but just want to raise their families.
So we all bring our biases to this. You and I are no exception.
Your views are no less propaganda than mine, or anyone else’s, by your calculation.
I think you’re right. These things are probably just about negotiations.
The rockets and the Israeli BS about more massive attacks are both preliminary to some tatter of sanity being pulled over this shameful shit.
This all comes as Obama has released $21.3 million in aid for Gaza. The pro-IDF/Likudniks are doing the OMG OMG Hamas is going use it to buy more rockets!!! stuff whereas the pro-Palestinian folk are chastising this amount of aid as a mere band-aid.
I have been wondering how we put the events of the September ‘07 airstrike in Syria into this entire mess, too, seems like a big thing to push aside given all that’s happened from Lebanon ‘06 forward.
Almost calls for one of EW’s patented timelines.
The fact that Obama has just released $21.3 million in aid for Gaza is a clue. I suspect that not even the IDF would bomb a place as it was getting American aid money.
I would love to see a tatter of sanity … but I’m not holding my breath.
That Syria attack still bothers me – the reports of the site as some sort of nuclear facility, etc just does not add up.
The piece that makes the most sense to me is that it was a “gesture” to show that Israeli jetfighters could pull it off – similar to the maneuvers by Israel this summer to test and demonstrate their ability to fly the distance to Iran complete with in air fueling – without direct US involvement.
I think not also. The IDF isn’t going to be getting blank checks from Obama.
Bless him for the aid money now. Twenty million buys a big bunch of food and anitbiotics, unless the UN does it’s usual half-assed procurement and distribution.
Anyone know what happened to the Iranian/Cypriot weapons ship?
So post bloodshed … start from here … but any accountability on what went down and why… this level devastation? It seems the work of “shock and awe” has been successful … ripples of intimidation of Israel and US emanating from Gaza. Yeah, and sure to cultivate and ensure radical blowback.
I am glad Obama is releasing aid.
I don’t apologize for being emotional about this. And I try to list facts adn reasons that have inspired that emotion.
Wanting explanations for why IDF is justified, one often gets called out as anti-Semitic instead. I am not nor have ever been. I am anti-atrocity.
300 humanitarian organizations are citing war crimes. 8 from Israel.
The reports that it was nuclear add up pretty well. Al Baradei seems to think it was.
No, I don’t chiefly interpret it as ‘for the hell of it’ nor as ‘macho’ per se, though it’s not hard to imagine that for some individuals there’s probably a “from Hell’s heart, I spit at thee!” component to it. More as a way of demonstrating to Israel as a whole — and to the world at large — that if the primary argument for the assault on Gaza was to stop further rocket launches, then it’s simply failed to do that. And by extension, any future disproportionate assaults on Gaza will also fail to do that. So continued launches may among other effects serve as a way to defang that line of thinking. (And before you go all strawman about me rationalizing or defending what they are doing — if you were planning to do so — please know that I intend nothing of the kind; I’m just analyzing and understanding it. There’s plenty of time to demonize everyone later.)
The ship is sitting in a Cypriot port … reports remain confused.
The picture just does not add up …
but I have to admit I’m too sleepy tonight to pull together the info, had a bit of flu this weekend and feeling a bit mush here – but will come back to it at some point since it really is intriguing.
Na. When I screw up understanding somebody’s comment it’s because I screw up. I pretty much take the folks here as sincere and well-intentioned.
(Unless I think they don’t take every word I say as brilliant and indisputable.)
Good night then. Maybe clarity is a day away.
I know of many in Israel who are horrified at the behavior of their government, and among the most eloquent is Uri Avnery.
hasbara hasbara hasbara…all the time.
FWIW: I admire fdl for its priority of accurate reporting. Sometimes it is hard for me, as a “feeler” and “intuiter” type, to feel grounded in sharing even when I try hard to relate evidence and reasoning to support my perspective. But I think having both “thinking-oriented” and “feeling-oriented” members is not unhealthy for fdl. I do think the feelers are outnumbered. (IMHO).
As long as you’re feeling, you can be sure you’re alive. Some people just think they’re living.
thanks, mac … well put. I needed to hear that. :) g’nite
One of the wisest thing I’ve heard in my entire life is “Have your feelings; then make your decisions.” I.e. to be a whole person you need to do both parts, but whenever you’re storming inside there’s a risk of your thinking getting kinda skewed. It may not look like it, but for the most part I try to do my storming part offline and limit my online commenting to the thinking part. (Though I’ll freely admit that my record in this regard has been poor lately, especially when I/P issues are involved — purely my own fault there.)
The IAEA was not asked to check out the site; an intentional undermining of the legitimacy of the IAEA. Israel bombed it. Satellite pictures disappeared. No evidence found to indicate that anything illegal was going on. The IAEA’s spy who would have told if there was a program, was murdered. Cui bono? “
******************
“We have no evidence that Syria has the human resources that would allow it to carry out a large nuclear programme,” Mohamad El Baradei, the IAEA director-general, told Al Arabiya television. “
“We do not see Syria having nuclear fuel,” he said in an interview aired by the Dubai-based television station on Tuesday. “
http://english.aljazeera.net/n…..77990.html
“The director general deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the agency in a timely manner, in accordance with the agency’s responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts,” the statement said. “
” Additionally, “the director general views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the nonproliferation regime,” it said. “
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24306434/
” IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei says there’s no legal reason to prevent Syria from receiving a $350,000 assistance package from the U.N. agency, making the comments after an investigation of a Syrian site bombed by Israel as a suspected nuclear reactor revealed traces of uranium, the Voice of America reported Tuesday. “
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/20…..227619039/
” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei did not point any fingers in the “baffling” failure of his agency’s efforts to obtain the images of the Syrian site immediately after it was bombed by Israel last year. “
” But diplomats familiar with the IAEA’s Syria investigation said agency officials were considering several scenarios, including the possibility that Syria or other nations with an interest in a cover-up had bought the photos and all rights to them from commercial satellite companies. “
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..248S43.DTL
eek…get rid of one..please mod..
~~~ModNote:
bluebutterfly, we had a technical glitch that caused your comment to be duplicated several times. Please perform a hard-refresh and you will see that the original is intact and the duplicates have vanished.
Thanks.
~~~
Hmmm…. one last visit. Thanks for your advice. I am working for balance. Though as St. Francis once said, “Nothing to excess, including moderation.”
Since feelings are what most powerfully inspire me to commit to intellectual exploration, it is hard for me to rein them in. And when reining them in and feeling restrained, to some I probably still sound strident. And maybe as persuasive and compelling as Charlie Brown’s squawking teacher. (One man/woman’s ceiling is another person’s floor, so to speak?)
Back on Gaza topic, here is a link to a seriously “committed to peace” friend.
http://www.danceforpeace.org/nancy/
Thank you, Siun.
I’d like to thank bluebutterfly,too.
You both do so much to keep us educated.
My personal mission is to keep calling our congress; state and federal. Keep being the voice of the common citizen, over and over and over. Having small conversations with their staffers about the horror our congress is applauding, while I once again play phone tag with their bosses. Our employees.
To my sorrow, Obama has shown that killing Pakistani families is okay in the New War on Terror. He has blood on his hands. He now has war crimes hanging from his belt, if it’s still against International law to up and bomb another nation. He will not be in a position to work for peace and justice.
It’s up to the world community.?.
” Israel admits: “No Hamas rockets were fired during ceasefire”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfFMZ7Y-s_c
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told United States Mideast envoy George Mitchell that Israel would respond to every Hamas violation of the cease-fire, be they rocket attacks, strikes along the border fence or smuggling through tunnels.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059730.html
Olmert told Mitchell that the stability of the cease-fire in Gaza would be determined by two parameters: A complete cessation of Qassam rockets and attacks along the fence and an end to arms smuggling by Hamas.
“It is important that following the operation in Gaza, Hamas’ strength will decline and the Palestinian Authority will get a foot in the door in Gaza,” Olmert said.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059730.html
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell Wednesday afternoon that the border crossings into the Gaza Strip will not reopen permanently unless the issue of captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is resolved.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059406.html
Rocket fire is the excuse. This is the reason.
***************
“Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement “
” The official database, the most comprehensive one of its kind ever compiled in Israel about the territories, was recently obtained by Haaretz. Here, for the first time, information the state has been hiding for years is revealed. An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements – about 75 percent – construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued. The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police
stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents. “
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060043.html
I do think that it is; sad to say. I so did not like his speech to AIPAC, the White House vote to support Israel, or Hillary’s words against Hamas. The rest of the world is angry and writing up war crimes paperwork. Even Iran called for a war crimes investigation. Iran should speak of International Law when the US refuses to? Stranger things have happened, I guess. Israel had Jewish Black Panthers once, too, so anything is possible..’g’..
If Israel actually wanted to live in peace with the Occupied Palestine, there would be more hope that what I see at the present time. Israel wants the rest of the Palestinian land and the natural gas reserves that Palestine owns. US politicians are helping Israel get what the Zionists want.
***********
Joe Biden ” I am a zionist “
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sRqqS1peWk
Wonderful news..it wasn’t my fault..’g’..
Unless Israel doesn’t let the aid through to Gaza would be the more realistic problem to worry about. The UNRWA warehouse lost thousands of tons of food thanks to Israel; they were procuring and distributing just fine until their supplies and people seeking refuge where greeted by phosphorous bombs. No blank checks, eh? Well, maybe you’re sort of correct..the checks will be filled in with lots of zeros. Here is Obama speaking at AIPAC.
*************
” That starts with ensuring Israel’s qualitative military advantage. I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat — from Gaza to Tehran. Defense cooperation between the United States and Israel is a model of success, and must be deepened. As president, I will implement a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade — investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation. First, we must approve the foreign aid request for 2009. Going forward, we can enhance our cooperation on missile defense. We should export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO. And I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world. “
http://www.informationclearing…..e21604.htm
A disproportionate response is illegal under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court because they are targeting civilians, not military. Israel is ratcheting up their tough talk; not even pretending to be following International Law anymore. All in the pursuit of votes on Feb 10th.
*****************
” GAZA (Reuters) – Israel launched a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip Sunday, targeting a Hamas security complex and tunnels used to smuggle weapons after vowing a “disproportionate” response to cross-border fire.”
” Israel’s renewed air strikes came as its leaders took a hard line against rocket fire from Gaza ahead of a February 10 national election, which opinion polls predict right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who favors a tougher stance toward Hamas, will win. “
” Israeli radios quoted Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a candidate for prime minister as head of the centrist Kadima party, as saying Israel would mount a new offensive in Gaza if necessary to halt rocket fire from Gaza. “
http://www.reuters.com/article…..me=topNews
” The International Criminal Court is exploring ways to prosecute Israeli commanders over alleged war crimes in Gaza. ”
” When Palestinian groups petitioned the ICC this month, its prosecutor said that it was unable to take the case because it had no jurisdiction over Israel, a nonsignatory to the court. Now, however, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, has told The Times that he is examining the case for Palestinian jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Gaza. “
” Part of the Palestinian argument rests on the Israeli insistence that it has no responsibility for Gaza under international law since it withdrew from the territory in 2006. “They are quoting jurisprudence,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said. “It’s very complicated. It’s a different kind of analysis I am doing. It may take a long time but I will make a decision according to law.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..636069.ece
-” in spite of being Palestine’s legitimate government and proposing a one and a half year truce (conditional on ending Gaza’s siege and reopening all border crossings), Mitchell won’t meet with Hamas to “pursue lasting peace and stability in the region;” he rebuffed Hamas’ overture; affirmed the Bush administration’s one-sided diplomacy; said nothing about continued Israeli attacks, arrests, and settlement expansions, paid lip service only to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, insisted that the PA be in charge of Gaza’s borders, reiterated that Hamas is a “terrorist group,” then headed for Ramallah to meet with Mahmoud Abbas and his coup d’etat government.”
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/420979.html
” The Gaza operation was merely a “pre-introduction” to the challenge Israel would face from Iran, which will become a nuclear power within a year, the Israeli ambassador to Australia said Sunday. ”
“He said that Israel’s recent military offensives were a pre-introduction to the challenge Israel expects from a nuclear-equipped Iran within a year,” Channel 7 reporter Sarah Cummings said. She also quoted Rotem as saying “Israel’s efforts in Gaza were to bring about understanding that we are ready to engage in a decisive way.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060802.html
You need a legitimate project. Go discover who the true genetic Semites are.
I wonder who else is buying Israel Bonds? First your tax dollars go to Israel to conduct genocide and then your governments invest in Israel. I dare say that would preclude complaining about the aforementioned genocide?
************
–” The state of Illinois has purchased $10 million worth of Israel Bonds. “
” This is not the first purchase of Israel Bonds by Illinois, which started buying foreign government bonds in 2003.”
http://www.palestinianmothers……jor-israel
” An overview of some of the army rabbinate’s publications made available during the fighting reflects the tone of nationalist propaganda that steps blatantly into politics, sounds racist and can be interpreted as a call to challenge international law when it comes to dealing with enemy civilians.”
” The IDF rabbinate, also quoting Rabbi Aviner, describes the appropriate code of conduct in the field: “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre.’”
” This view is also echoed in publications signed by Rabbis Chen Halamish and Yuval Freund on Jewish consciousness. Freund argues that “our enemies took advantage of the broad and merciful Israeli heart” and warns that “we will show no mercy on the cruel.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058758.html
late to the post. dugg and thank you so much siun. what the israeli government is doing to the people of gaza is heart-wrenching.
What most upsets me is that the Israelis offer no carrot whatsoever. If the rockets continue, Israel reserves the right to react ‘disproportionately’ against civilian infrastructure, police stations, schools, you name it. But if the Palestinians give up all resistance entirely what do they get? Continued complete subjugation by the Israelis, continued expansion of Settlements, continued denial of citizenship in any nation. Israel demands the Palestinians accept an apartheid state and maybe, if they’re very very peaceful, they can work in Israeli factories or on farms they used to own for a subsistence wage.
This is the context those who support Israel’s razing of Gaza leave out- that Israel refuses to grant the Palestinians anything like the rights they demand for themselves, both as individuals and as a state. Even if the current far-right fantasy were to come true and all the Palestinians could be dumped on Egypt and Jordan, Israel would still reserve the right to bomb them at will. Look at Lebanon.
Morning,bb.
Those thousands of tons of aid that the Israelis bombed in the huge food warehouse; how did they get there?
There are some even worse examples of rabbinical rhetoric that were spoken during the fighting. Some didn’t just sound racist, but was indisputably racist.
please excuse the grammar.
How can you even write things like this seriously? In your eagerness to bash Israeli politics you reveal your ignorance of facts on the ground.
I’ll dumb this down, so please try and follow……
Hamas is the elected government in Gaza Strip and in control of all state services, including POLICE. The rockets being launched from Gaza into Israel are primarily launched by Hamas fighters.
Anyone with half a brain would therefore realize that Gazan police are not “the force used to stop the rocket launches” because the police force are an arm of the same organization shooting those rockets!
If Gazan police were actually preventing the fire of rockets then Israel would have no need to militarily engage Gaza at all.
Thank you again, Siun.
There is an approach that makes more sense to me than other allegations, claims, accusations; that is the possibility that the rocket attacks out of Gaza could be false flag ops by Israel. The Mossad is notorious for F/F ops. I Googled: Israel false flags and got many good articles on this idea. Here is link to one of them:
Possible Israeli False Flag
Did you read anything saying that it was the Iranians who bombed Gaza? They’re tricky, coulda blamed it on someone else.
Sometimes it’s best to accept the simple explanation. Rockets from Gaza might mean rockets from Gaza.
Mitchell needs to go into Gaza to see the situation firsthand, and open the border for aid to enter. How can he be the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace without even see the situation on the ground?