Edition 2: No. 49
By Ranjan Solomon
18 November 2012
Gaza under barbaric attack yet again
Once again, Israel has opted for chosen the worst form of military conduct – ruthlessly blasting Gaza. Israel has obviously learned nothing from the lessons of Operation Cast Lead. In fact the ongoing strikes resemble what Israel did in 2008-2009 when no less than 1400 people were killed and subsequent investigations accused Israel of committing serious crimes. Already reports have it that Israel has destructed 800 targets in the Gaza Strip, 40 Palestinians have been killed most of whom are women and children. The air strikes and preparation on land are similar to the preparation of Israel’s last intervention to Gaza in 2008-2009.
Israel’s reliable ally- the western media- is perpetuating Israel’s lies with stories that pretend that Israel is victim of hostilities from Hamas fighters in Gaza and hence the retaliation. There is not much else one can expect from the western media controlled, as it is, by Zionist interests.
In Gaza, hospitals run into frenzied and disturbing scenes, as passages and rooms become congested with people trying to ascertain whether their relatives or neighbours have been hurt. There is panic and fear. People everywhere are looking for missing relatives. No one knows where the next missile will hit; no one knows where they can be safe. Parents are unable to keep their children safe, let alone provide them a sense of security. The hospitals in Gaza are having a hard time coping with all the wounded coming in. Medical supplies are running low. One report claims that Israel launched 30 air raids against Gaza in 10 minutes, 20 wounded. Fear and panic storm Gaza, children suffer severe trauma. 13 Palestinians wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli naval boats open fire. The Israeli military boasted carried out more than 500 air strikes against the densely populated territory of Gaza since launching its latest offensive, dubbed Pillar of Defense. The escalating air war is unfolding amid growing signs that the Israeli government is on the brink of launching a ground invasion of Gaza that would spell a huge increase in the bloodletting. The relentless bombardment has resulted in widespread destruction and carnage.
Under pressure, even churches and international NGOs – those who know the truth about Palestine – are calling for restraint from ‘both sides’, thus making this out to be an equal war between two enemies who have equally wronged each other. But this is an asymmetric situation. Israel is not merely the superior military power (aided and abetted by the US and Europe); it is the occupier of Palestinian territories. It is Israel that has converted the Gaza Strip into an open air prison that houses some 1.6 million people under atrocious circumstances. It has imposed an economic blockade against the people leaving starved for the essentials of life and dependent on aid that must be funnelled through Israel. The people of Gaza have borne it all to the extent they can.
Pragmatists would deem the rocket attacks on Israeli territory unnecessary but only because the retaliation is disproportionate and the suffering inflicted on innocent people severe. Helped by the smuggled goods trade through tunnels from Egypt, Gaza militias have smuggled in longer-range rockets. But their estimated 35,000 fighters are still no match for Israel’s F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gun ships, Merkava tanks and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve.
There would be no rockets flying into Israel had Israel done the politically moral thing to do – de-occupy and hand Palestine back to the Palestinians according to pre-1967 borders. Yet, resistance is a right that Israel – nor any imperial power – can deny to the Palestinian.
The UN Security Council has proven once again that it is impotent. It has failed to silence the guns and tell Israel that the onus is on its government to restart and complete the peace process in line with UN resolutions and international law. Israel treats the UN with contempt because it has the United States and the United Kingdom on its side. To the US and UK, justice can be dispensed with when their interests are at stake. The Zionists control them and they are too afraid to act justly and with any sense of political morality. In fact the notion of political morality seems to have vanished from the political lexicon of these nations- as well as many European countries and the EU itself. As far as Obama is concerned, one must expect a nil account in the peace process. He is a slave of the Zionists and does not have either the courage or conviction to stand up to their lobbies. In any case, he does not run America. The corporates do- and many are the Zionists who constitute their ranks.
The Palestinians have invested far too much trust in the West- hoping against hope that somehow they will do the right thing. 45 years of occupation should have served as enough time for Europe to abandon its sense of guilt over the holocaust and prevent the ongoing holocaust and ethnic purging of Palestinians from their homes and villages.
The international community has failed the Palestinians for far too long. Arab neighbours have betrayed the Palestinians preferring to protect themselves from what might come from antagonizing the USA. Such is the bullying capacity of the US. That, of course, is the essential character of a ‘rogue’ state- to browbeat potential antagonists into submission and co-opt them to their way of thinking.
These are not easy days to be a Palestinian. People, in general, live in fear not knowing when their homes may be demolished, when someone in their home will be arrested, detained, and tried in ‘kangaroo courts’ on false charges and, of course, imprisoned unfairly under harsh conditions. Or, for that matter, when they will be expelled or punished in a myriad of ways that Israel has acquired expertise in inventing.
Just before the current fighting escalated, thirteen-year-old Ahmad Abu Daqqa was killed outside his southeast Gaza home while playing football. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), the life of the football-obsessed 13-year-old was cut short when a bullet fired by Israeli soldiers stationed nearby hit him in the stomach. So much so for barbarity with impunity!
“If I believed in miracles,” declared David Ben-Gurion in an October 1956 Knesset speech, “I would pray that Gaza would be washed down into the sea.” After 1967, Gaza’s inhabitants not only remained above water but came under direct Israeli rule. Today, Gaza has become living hell. And yet, they will not surrender to Israel bullets and rockets. They may not be able to hit back. With Oslo, they surrendered their right to resist using armed resistance. They believed that peace was around the corner. Now, they must rely on crude weapons, an underground economy, and charity to keep afloat.
Palestine Update shares with you an eye-witness account from Adie Mormech is a human rights advocate based in the Gaza Strip. He contributed the report (below) to the Palestine Chronicle. It is a stirring account of what takes place on-the-ground.
The least well meaning people can do is to make their voices heard through protests and strongly worded letters to the Israeli authorities in their countries. It may not silence Israel guns, but it will certainly convey the displeasure of a critical mass that says to Israel: End the occupation. Free Palestine!
In solidarity,
Ranjan Solomon