When observing the aerial bombardment, heavy artillery and haubitzer shelling of Gaza, three years ago, I remembered Erich Maria Remarqe's, book All quiet on the Western Front, and the passage that has been deeply imprinted into my memory, where he described the shelling of a graveyard during the first world war, while a platoon of troops that got caught in artillery fire while passing the site was desperately seeking cover in the craters riddled with the bones of their rotting fellow human beings. The dead were killed for a second time, he wrote. ^[1]

The mere fact that Remarqe and this passage of his book come to mind when contemplating the situation in Gaza is sufficient for me to know that I need no further contemplation to know that something is going terribly awry in our sense of humanity when it comes to Palestinians, and who would wonder that the people of the world stand idly by when schools, women and children are bombed to unrecognizable pieces of flesh, and when children are taken hostage by IDF troops who are using them as human shields, as occurred during operation Cast Lead. One could read "Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory " ^[2] if one wants to know more about why much of the world does not care about Palestinian suffering.

Early this morning Israeli jets shelled areas in Northern and central Gaza. According to Israeli military forces because the areas had been used to fire a few home made Katusha rockets into what is now called Israel. After having had a look at what these dreaded Qassam Missiles are it becomes obvious that they are nothing more than some super sized firecrackers. The damage that can be caused by 10 of them can hardly be compared to the energy that is released by a single tank shell with a killing radius of the size of a football field.

There is a very useful term called proportionality which elicits much of the problem. When an entire people is systematically deprived of it's humanity by corporate media, entertainment industry and propaganda experts, who are euphemistically called spin doctors, then it becomes understandable that the merciless butchering of a thousand Palestinians by a thousand highly explosive high tech artillery shells plus bombs and rockets, is a proportionate response to two firecracker like Qassam missiles that injured a goat and frightened someone who chose to live on illegally occupied land.

It's absolutely proportional to keep hundreds of Palestinian child prisoners, thousands of adult male and female prisoners who have been illegally arrested in prison, because those terrorists have kidnapped one of the heroic Israeli soldiers who valiantly defend the genocide.

Israeli military sources are reporting that the bombing raid a couple of days ago, on the anniversary of Cast Lead as well as the bombing raid this morning, may be precursors of a new offensive.

It seems Israel is developing a delicate sense for the celebration of genocide. "Bibi, it's the three year anniversary of our murder of 1.200 Palestinian women and children, lets celebrate."

If Bibi Netanyahu and company need a pretext for another large scale massacre, why not wait until New Year. Imagine the awesome firepower of all those celebratory rockets sent into the skies and the countless firecrackers at new years eve. Bibi could even blame the Chinese for delivering those dangerous weapons to the terrorists, right? Or when was the last time you have seen fireworks not made in China?

"There "must" be one or two of them that fall into our liberated Holy Land, so we cam murder a few thousand more Palestinians". "Bibi, you could also have a couple of delicious preemptive strikes against Gaza, because I am sure that those damned tunnels are used to smuggle all kinds of food that they use to celebrate ." "No, General, we must have the tunnels open so they can get their new years firecrackers to Gaza, how else should we find an excuse for bombing them."

My best wishes to the people who are condemned to live within the worlds largest extermination camp, Gaza. My deep respect for those who live in the worlds largest extermination camp and still make full use of their right to resist against the genocide on their people, rather than behaving like a sheep waiting for the slaughter.

And my deepest respect for them not giving up to insist on their right to live on their own land, to self determination, statehood, peace, and their right to defend themselves from an attacking, occupying or besieging military force.

Happy New Year Gaza

Happy new year Palestine

Happy Anniversary of the Cast Lead Genocide, Israel.

Slideshow photos from Gaza Massacre - Cast Lead, 2008:
[[Show as slideshow]]

1) All quiet at the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, 1928, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front

2) Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory, Lehmann Ch. 2011, nsnbc http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/palestine-israel-history-and-theirstory/

As Israeli Jewish terrorist attacks on mosques in occupied Palestine are assuming a phenomenal frequency.

Indeed, with the Israeli government and security establishment doing next to nothing to put an end to this wanton and unprovoked terror, a huge fire is being started in the region.

In religious wars, all sides are usually variably culpable and blamable. However, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jewish fanatics bear nearly 100% of the blame.

Their attacks against mosques are not provoked by similar Palestinian attacks against Jewish religious places. In fact, Jewish terror groups readily admit that arson attacks against mosques are meant to embarrass the Israeli occupation army.

The attacks are perpetrated under the slogan "Price Tag" every time the Israeli army moves to dismantle a Jewish settlement outpost.

So why is it that the Palestinians and their places of worship are attacked, not the Israeli army?

Well, it takes a thoroughly sick mind to rationalize, even glamorize such attacks, but the Israeli settler camp never faces a shortage of virulence, mental depravity and mental sickness.

We are talking after all about the worst of the worst that racist, Talmudic Judaism could breed, people who view the rest of mankind as subhuman.

The practical implications of such a venomous ideology are enormous and absolutely nefarious. If non-Jews are subhuman, then their lives must be worthless, have no sanctity and expendable.

Think not I am making an exaggeration as it is difficult to exaggerate the evilness of these racist thugs who spend a lifetime demonizing and dehumanizing humanity as they celebrate their Chosen-people or Master-race status.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government and security establishment are giving these criminal-minded thugs a free rein to gang up on virtually unprotected Palestinian civilians, torch mosques and churches and vandalize olive groves throughout occupied Palestine.

It is very hard to buy the Israeli government's argument that these terrorists are a marginal group. But even if they were a marginal group, this wouldn't minimize the gravity of their terrorist actions.

The Nazi Hitler Youth was once viewed as a marginal group. However, the world saw what that "marginal" group was able to do during Kristalnacht in November, 1938.

Hence, the question begs itself whether the Israeli government should wait until the so-called hill-top "troublemakers" morph into a Jewish Hitler Youth.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government, the most fascist ever, can't be given the benefit of the doubt.

In the final analysis, the suspected connivance and obvious leniency with which the Netanyahu government treats these despicable criminals, along with the mind-boggling reluctance to prosecute them raise many hard questions about the nature of that government.

One Israeli writer, when asked recently why the government didn't exercise its legal authority to arrest and try Jewish terrorists who attack Muslim and Christian holy place, said a venomous snake wouldn't bit its own tail.

There is another worrying dimension to this obscenity, namely the virtually complete absence of real condemnations of these terrorist acts by Jewish leaders in Israel and abroad.

Jewish leaders in Europe and North America wouldn't wait a minute to condemn the slightest anti-Semitic attack on Jewish targets, even if this target happened to be a lone Jewish grave in an isolated village in Eastern Europe .

Even remarks or even slip-of-the-tongue jokes are castigated and people are made to pay a price.

However, when fellow Jews carry out outrageous acts of terror, arson and vandalism against mosques and churches, we see that these same Jewish leaders become speechless as if the acts of terror took place in a different galaxy.

The Jewish leadership must realize that the orphans of Kahana and thuggish terrorists of Gush Emunim are more than trouble makers. They are in fact criminal fire-starters whose pyromania could burn Jews as well as non-Jews.

Hence, Jewish leaders must have the necessary courage and rectitude to admit that Jewish terrorism is a two-lane street and that Muslims won't stand idle if their peaceable holy places continue to be torched and vandalized in the most blatant and unprovoked manner.

Of course, it would be naïve to expect verbal condemnations by Jewish leaders to stem the tide of Jewish settler terror against Muslim and Christian holy places.

However, this is the very least Jewish leaders should and can do to exonerate themselves from the ostensibly logical Charge that these leaders adopt a duplicitous attitude toward Jewish terror in Palestine by denouncing it when speaking to a non-Jewish audience while praising it privately.

Finally, the Palestinians themselves must not entrust the task of protecting mosques and Churches to Israel . The Palestinian Authority (PA) must deploy armed guards in the vicinity of mosques in order to protect them from Jewish terror. Crying out for help won't help very much. We have to do our own duty first and none would blame us for doing what anyone else would if they were in our shoes.

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

Part I

On 12 December 2011 hundreds of Israeli settler fanatics besieged a West Bank IDF army base. They destroyed equipment, set fires, and even stoned the base soldiers. This was the second such attack in a month. The cause? Anger over the army's dismantlement of a small number of isolated, unauthorized settler outposts. The Chief of the Central Command of the Israel "Defense" Forces, Major General Avi Misrahi, is quoted as saying "I have not seen such hatred of Jews towards soldiers during my 30 years of service." He must not have been looking.

This was not an exceptional event. The subsequent indignation over the attack expressed by Prime Minister Netanyahu ("red lines have been crossed") was, as Alex Fishman writing in Yedioth Ahronoth put it, staged hypocrisy. The Prime Minister is certainly aware that for some time there has been on-going skirmishing between the settlers and government security forces. Right wing settlers regularly throw rocks and fire bombs at police and army vehicles and "physical altercations" between settlers and Israeli police and soldiers are "almost routine." This is so despite the fact that the government, both Prime Minister and Knesset, "either tacitly or openly" support the settlers. Then why the hatred and why the attacks?

At this stage the battle is over strategy. The Israeli government wants to gobble up all of Palestine in an orderly step by step fashion. In part, this is to avoid too much international criticism at any particular stage of the process. On the other hand, the settlers don't give a damn about international opinion – no more than does al-Qaeda, to which they have an unsavory resemblance. Led "by fundamentalist religious leaders who do not recognize the state of Israel and its laws," they are driven by religious fanaticism and have no respect for governments or their agents. It is their ideological conviction that all of Palestine (including, by the way, Jordan) must be Jewish as soon as possible. The authorities sometime get in the way of this goal and that has led the settlers to, as Fishman puts it, "terrorize not only the Palestinian population but also the police and the army."

Prime Minister Netanyahu, belatedly noticing an erosion of government authority, has begun to set rules against settler violence when it is directed toward the IDF and police (but not toward the Palestinians). The New York Times reports that from now on such "radical Israelis" attacking soldiers or policemen will be treated just like "Palestinian militants." That is they will be "detained for long periods without charge and tried in military courts."

Alas, this new toughness won't work. For years Israeli governments have looked the other way as thousands of armed religious fanatics organized themselves and got stronger and more self-assured. Now, as Adam Keller of Gush Shalom tells us, "the Golem has turned on its creator." These are the people who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin. What makes Netanyahu believe that Israel's present army, police and courts which, reminiscent of the Weimar Republic, regularly show sympathy and leniency toward these criminals, are going to change their attitude on his orders? When a military reporter asked a brigade commander if he was prepared to act toward settler hostility in the same manner as he would Palestinian hostility, he answered "you would not expect me to open fire on a Jew...I am certain you didn't mean that."

The reporter would have gotten a very different answer if she had asked the fanatic settlers about how far they were willing to go. Anshel Pfeffer writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes that "the only red line that has yet to be crossed is a scenario in which an Israeli citizen [belonging to] the extreme settler right would open fire on IDF soldiers. There are those in Israel's security forces who fear that day is not so distant."

Netanyahu's apparent change of heart comes too late. What we have here is incipient civil war. Any really serious effort to stop these fanatics will result in their turning their weapons on those who represent the government. What you sow is what you reap.

Part II

This climate of internecine hostility contaminates the Jewish diaspora as well. There is no rock throwing or armed men threatening violence, but the hatred is there. Jewish critics of Israeli behavior are categorized as "Israel-haters" or, alternatively, "self-hating Jews." This is often expressed with the same vehemence displayed by Israel's settler fanatics. And, indeed, those pointing fingers in the U.S. are often supporters of the extremists on the West Bank.

Last week Howard Gutman, the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, addressed "a group of European Jewish lawyers gathered...to discuss anti-Semitism" Gutman told them that there was now two different kinds of anti-Semitism: a "classic" type that is "directed against Jews for being Jews" and "a newer form" that is a product of "the Israeli-Arab conflict and can therefore be mitigated by reducing Israeli-Palestinian tensions." This is actually a conclusion that was reached by Israel's Defense Ministry as early as 1994. No matter, when Gutman's statement became public "the long knives" came out "for another Jewish liberal who committed the sin of stating the uncomfortably obvious truth about a causal relation between Israeli policy and Muslim anti-Semitism."

The Republican Jewish Coalition's Executive Director Matthew Brooks called Gutman's revelation "outrageous" and one that "makes excuses for anti-Semitic hatred and bigotry." Senator Joe Lieberman called Gutman's remarks "inexcusable" and Representative Gary Ackerman of New York suggested that Gutman himself might be anti-Semitic.

Again, the charge of anti-Semitism can be and frequently is leveled against fellow Jews who are critical of Israel. The logic goes something like this: Judaism and Israel are one and the same. Ergo if you are critical of Israeli behavior you are critical of Jewish behavior and that makes you an anti-Semite. Very neat. Of course, the whole train of thought rests on the false assumption that Israel and Judaism are two sides of the same coin.

Despite the viral reaction, Jewish criticism of Israel is growing quickly and this creates a frustrating dilemma for the Zionists. The pro-Israeli blogger Steven Plaut describes this situation in catastrophic terms. "Jewish anti-Semitism is all around us, part of the political air we breathe, a modern disease. In the twenty-first century the world is experiencing an explosion of it, a virtual plague."

Part III

None of this Zionist extremism can be dismissed as a passing phenomenon. It has been with us too long. In fact it has been with us since 1917 and the Balfour Declaration. That is when a certain segment of European Jewry began its obsessive drive to create and maintain a state for one group only. It was then, and continues to be an inherently racist project. Ideologies, like Zionism, that support such projects usually reject all opposition. And opposition from erstwhile members of the in-group is the very worst because it exposes the false nature of claims of ethnic, religious or racial solidarity.

When and if Israeli society comes to its senses and decides to rid itself of the Occupied Territories the settler fanatics will resist "fanatically," and the civil war that is now incipient will release its full potential violence. When and if that happens there will be repercussions for U.S. and European Jews and they too may well entail violence. It would seem that the people chosen to be a "light unto the nations" have only managed to create another badly flawed nation state–one with a preference for apartheid policies. Zionism said "let modern Israel be" and, pop, the light went out.

* Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University. He is the author of numerous books, including Islamic Fundamentalism and America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood.

On December 9, al-Nabi Saleh village residents protested peacefully against settlers stealing their land. At point blank range, an Israeli soldier fired a tear-gas canister directly at Mustafa Tamimi's head, killing him.

On December 10, thousands of Palestinians protested against his cold-blooded murder. Tamimi was the 20th Palestinian killed this way in the past eight years, besides many more by other means, especially in Gaza.

On December 12, a Haaretz editorial headlined, "In Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap," saying:

"The pictures from....Nabi Saleh are hard to swallow: An Israel Defense Forces soldier opens the back door of an armored military jeep and, from a distance of just a few meters, fires a tear-gas canister directly at a young man who is throwing stones. After the canister is fired, the jeep continues on its way without stopping."

Al-Nabi Saleh residents, like other West Bank ones, hold weekly nonviolent anti-land theft/Separation Wall demonstrations. It's their country and property. Under international law, they have every right to defend it. Not according to Israel.

Since 1967, under Military Order No 101: "Order Regarding Prohibition of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda Action," It's "forbidden to conduct a protest or march or meeting (involving 10 or more participants for political reasons) without permission of the Military Commander."

The same order forbids distributing political articles, pictures, or other materials.

In other words, an illegal occupier prohibits Palestinians from exercising their free expression and assembly rights on their own land, in their own country, under threat of intimidation, attacks, arrests, imprisonments, torture, and at times death.

In response to Tamimi's murder, an IDF spokesman said, "the army is looking into the incident." "Looking into" means whitewash. Arrests, prosecutions, justice, or even apologies rarely ever follow military, police or settler violence.

Haaretz cited a new Yesh Din-Volunteers for Human Rights report discussing 192 Palestinian complaints and 67 Military Police "investigations" involving harm to Palestinians and their property. It showed that "95.5 percent of the total number of complaints are closed without indictments."

Moreover, nearly always when they occur, penalties at most are minor and inconsequential. The "conclusion is obvious," said Haaretz. "When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law."

Soldiers, police and even settlers can kill or otherwise harm with impunity. Tamimi's death and many others show that Palestinian life is "cheap."

Nonetheless, Israel's military called his killing "exceptional," saying the offending soldier's gas mask blocked his vision, despite aiming directly at Tamimi's head from about 9 feet away.

According to journalist/editor Noam Sheizaf:

"(A)s we have reported here in the past, firing tear gas canisters at protesters from close range (in violation of army orders) is a common practice in the West Bank."

"I have seen tear gas canisters shot directly at protesters (including myself) in several demonstrations in Bil'in, in Hebron, and in Nabi Saleh."

"When you viciously fire tear gas canisters like the IDF does, someone is bound to die. The IDF is lying when it implies that incidents like these don't happen often."

According to French photographer Anne Paq, "I am wearing a gas mask all the time to take pics. I can tell you, you can see if somebody is 5 meters in front of you!" Israel lied claiming otherwise.

Moreover, IDF rules of engagement prohibit firing tear gas grenades or other projectiles from rifles pointed directly at demonstrators or from a distance within 40 meters. In addition, soldiers must use rifle sights and verify that no one's in their line of fire.

In practice, however, rules of engagement, as well as Israeli and international laws don't matter. Soldiers, police and settlers attack Palestinians with impunity. The practice is longstanding and lawless. Nonetheless, it persists virtually daily throughout the Territories.

Al-Haq Report on Repression of Nonviolent Protests

On December 10, Al-Haq published a report titled, "Repression of Non-Violent Protest in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Case Study on the village of al-Nabi Saleh," saying:

Since Israel began constructing its Separation/Annexation Wall in 2002, West Bank Palestinians protested against theft of their land. Villagers usually do it weekly on Fridays.

In response, Israel retaliates "with an intense campaign of violence, intimidation and arrests..." In the past two years especially, escalated viciousness has been common, including increased violence and brutality against peaceful Palestinian protesters. Al Haq knows of at least 13 deaths since 2004, as well as many other injuries and arrests.

Al-Nabi Saleh residents repeatedly lodged complaints in vain, despite Israel's High Court 1978 ruling that land confiscation was illegal and had to be returned to their rightful Palestinian owners. Israeli authorities refused to comply. As a result, West Bank villagers lose more land, and know no other recourse than to protest.

In Al-Nabi Saleh and other villages, Israeli forces "deliberately creat(e) a hostile atmosphere" during protests. Military commanders give soldiers "vast powers to suppress (them) and imprison participants for extended periods of up to ten years."

Residents on their own land are accused of "incitement." As a result, they face long prison terms and large fines.

As soon as protests begin, soldier attack them with tear gas canisters, stun grenades, rubber bullets, "skunk" foul-smelling chemicals, and beatings. In response, some Palestinians throw stones. Doing so escalates retaliatory violence.

Paramedics are prevented from treating and evacuating injured residents. Instead, occupying forces arrest them. Commanders lie saying soldiers only respond to stone-throwers.

Documented testimonies say "force is not directly related to stone-throwing or any other alleged physical threat to the soldiers' safety, and seems instead to be targeted against the protest as a movement."

In other words, soldiers are ordered to use force indiscriminately against nonviolent protesters. When they respond defensively, intense retaliatory violence follows. So do deaths and severe injuries.

Moreover, Palestinian bystanders and in homes are affected. Documented cases show "Israeli soldiers have fired teargas or rubber-coated metal bullets (at) people standing on rooftops, passing by the area, or watching events by their windows."

Residents estimate soldiers fire up to 500 tear-gas canisters during weekly protest demonstrations alone. They're launched from mortars atop militarized jeeps in batches of 20 or more at a time.

Thick clouds of gas then spread over targeted areas. Panic and fear ensue. So does psychological trauma. Women, children, the elderly and infirm are affected. Windows are shattered firing canisters through them. Gas inhalation harms residents inside. Property damage also occurs.

Moreover, "intimidation, arbitrary arrests, beatings, and night raids" occur regularly. Children as young as 10 are affected. Some are seized at home in middle-of-the-night raids and sent to repressive detention centers for intimidating interrogations and threats of torture for not cooperating.

Outrageously, Israel says it abides by Fourth Geneva provisions. At the same time, it doesn't specify what it considers humanitarian. In addition, it claims international law doesn't apply to Occupied Palestine. "The actions of (its soldiers) in repressing Palestinian protests reflect this position."

Nonetheless, international law is clear and unequivocal. Civilians under occupation are protected persons. Violence is absolutely prohibited. Fundamental human rights remain in force. Violations are forbidden.

"Law enforcement activities must always be subject to the international human rights standards applicable to civilian police operations, which may never be conducted like hostilities against combatants."

Israel repeatedly and willfully breaches this and virtually all other international law standards - including the right to life, the most fundamental one of all.

Instead, wanton, excessive, undisciplined force is disproportionately unleashed against peaceful protesters on their own land defending it heroically against hostile soldiers.

Israeli rules of engagement are also violated. Section 8 of the "Permanent commands from the operation department" states:

"As a rule, it is prohibited to shoot live fire in the direction of a stone thrower."

"It is allowed to execute the procedure for a suspect's arrest only when the attack is massive in a manner that endangers the life of the soldier or another person...."

"In unique danger circumstances, when an imminent and real threat to life is perceived....it is necessary to shoot directly with a purpose of hitting the body of the attacker and remove the threat."

Police must also observe these provisions, and take all precautions to avoid gratuitous violence. Nonetheless, civilian and military security forces violate these rules with impunity.

They have no respect for international law or their own. They repeatedly violate basic human and civil rights, including expression, assembly, security, liberty, health, and life.

As a result, Palestinians face daily cruel and unusual punishment. While no precise definition exists, common law refers to disproportionate fines, penalties, confinement or treatment.

America's Eighth Amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing cruel and unusual punishments. Specifically it states:

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted."

America's Fourteenth Amendment due process clause bars states from imposing such punishments. In addition, most state constitutions prohibit cruel and unusual punishment of any kind.

Despite precise definitions, it's like pornography/obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said "I know it when I see it."

It became one of the High Court's most remembered comments, despite lacking legal precision.

In contrast, no ambiguity whatever exists when peaceful protesters are violently attacked defending their rights.

It especially holds when children, the elderly, infirm and innocent bystanders are affected. In Occupied Palestine, they are repeatedly.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Stuart Littlewood * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Britain and NATO were keen as mustard to establish a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians but too cowardly to do the same for the Palestinians, who are constantly on the receiving end of Israel's vicious air strikes and armed incursions. Muslims and Christians alike have been slaughtered or maimed in their thousands and had their homes, farms and water resources stolen while waiting 63 years for the international community to deliver them from Israel's brutal occupation.

And Israel now plans to steal Palestine's offshore gas.

Not surprisingly, after decades of fruitless peace talks with a gun to their heads the Palestinians are about to apply to the United Nations for recognition of their own state based on the 1949 armistice lines that are universally regarded as the border with Israel.

But I was taken by surprise on 24 August by an email from Avaaz, those energetic organizers of global petitions, saying that "in 48 hours, the UN Security Council will meet again to discuss Palestine's bid to become the 194th country". They want one million signatures to a petition to ramp up public pressure and get governments off the fence and supporting this long-overdue bid for freedom.

I thought the Palestinian application was going to be made on 20 September or soon afterwards, under Lebanon's UN presidency. Meanwhile, the US and Israel have been conducting a huge diplomatic campaign to sabotage the Palestinian move. Perhaps somebody behind the scenes has calculated that their ridiculous propaganda will have worn thin by the time 20 September arrives.

Most of the world already supports the Palestinian cause. The trouble is, the will of the people in the US, Britain and most of Europe is downright ignored by political leaders who have allowed themselves to be suckered into the Zionist cause. That's Western-style democracy for you. Freedom fighters, beware.

It remains to be seen whether Britain, whose prime minister is a self-proclaimed Zionist and has pledged "indestructible" support for the Israeli regime and whose foreign secretary has been an adoring Friend of Israel since he was in short trousers, will join in blocking the bid for freedom.

The other day David Cameron said of the successful Libyan uprising:

Our task now is to do all we can to support the will of the Libyan people which is for an effective transition to a free, democratic and inclusive Libya. This will be and must be and should be Libyan-led and a Libyan-owned process with broad international support coordinated by the United Nations.

He's keen as mustard – again – to do all this for the Libyans, but will he do the same for the Palestinians? When they held free and fair elections in 2006 democracy-preaching Britain didn't like the result and joined the US and Israel in trashing the Palestinians' fledgling democracy and strangling their economy.

It's not difficult to imagine Cameron and Hague snapping to attention when Tel Aviv speaks, the mantra-like instructions amplified as usual by Washington: "Let there be no doubt ... blah, blah ... symbolic action to isolate Israel will not create an independent Palestinian state ... blah, blah ... no shortcut to statehood ... blah, blah ... must return to the negotiating table..."

The famous trade-mark white dog "Nipper", listening intently to his master's voice from the gramophone trumpet, comes instantly to mind.

Of course, fluffy American bitches have had their coiffed heads wedged so firmly up Tel Aviv's trumpet for such a long time that it's worn like a permanent fashion statement over there.

The question is, can "Nipper" Cameron extract his head from that trumpet long enough to put his money where his mouth is with regard to democracy and freedom in the Middle East, and do the decent thing in tune with the British people's wishes?

Of course, getting international support is only half the battle. I read with alarm that Saeb Erekat, Mahmoud Abbas's sidekick, heads the team responsible for preparing the Palestinian submission to the UN. I thought Erekat resigned as chief negotiator following revelations published by AlJazeera that his team, during peace talks with the Israelis, was willing to make suicidal concessions and couldn't negotiate its way out of a paper bag. A few months ago he was reported to be in Washington talking with US officials about reviving that same pointless peace process. How counter-productive can he get?

And such is the legal and constitutional tangle surrounding the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and their relationship to each other, that legal advisers now warn that a move towards statehood might adversely affect the rights of the refugees, who account for more than half of all Palestinians. If the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, is replaced by a state the change in legal status could mean that core rights, such as the right of return, are lost forever unless the whole deal is very cleverly handled.

Are these really the right people to be in charge of Palestine's fate?

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website.

Warning: Graphic, Blood Content

By Richard Lightbown * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Two terror attacks in southern Israel on 18 August caught the Israeli army by surprise despite having received a large number of warnings. The official story is that members of the Popular Resistance Committee in the Gaza Strip entered Egypt through tunnels from the Strip and travelled nearly 200 kilometres to near the north of Eilat where they crossed the border. Significantly, no organization in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The driver of the first of two buses attacked was reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as saying that two of the gunmen were dressed in Egyptian army uniforms. The second bus was blown up by a suicide bomber. Fourteen people were killed and 31 wounded. In addition, Israeli forces shot five gunmen while Egyptian border police killed two more. Many of the attackers, perhaps as many as 10, escaped. It appears that an Israeli military helicopter attempted to give chase and crossed into Egypt territory where it mistakenly attacked an Egyptian army unit, killing five and wounding several others.

A large variety of weaponry is reported to have been used in the attacks, including mortar fire, an anti-tank missile and an RPG device that was fired at a pursuing helicopter. Explosives were laid alongside the road. In a further shooting attack in the same area later that afternoon two Israeli soldiers were wounded and three gunmen died. The sophistication and success of this attack demonstrate an unusual level of competence.

Israel’s response has been to launch at least 50 air strikes into civilian areas in the Gaza Strip since 14 August. While the secretary-general of the Salah-al-Deen Brigades and a member of the Popular Resistance Committees have been reported killed, the total number of casualties on 20 August was 15 dead and 45 wounded. Two of the dead were two years old and another was aged 13. Ten children, eight women and two elderly people are among the injured; one 15-year-old is said to be seriously hurt. A Facebook account showing photographs depicting some of the truly horrific injuries from these attacks had gone down on the morning of 21 August, but many of the photographs were still available on the Europalestine website. [See photos at the end of the post. Warning: Graphic, Blood Content]

In a diplomatic response, the Israeli ambassador to the UN lobbied members of the Security Council in an attempt to get a Security Council Presidential Statement condemning the terror attack. The Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, said that the US, European members and India were strongly in favour of the statement. At an unofficial discussion of the US draft held on 19 August, Lebanon asked for the inclusion of an amendment citing the “the escalation in Israeli bombardment of Gaza”. The US and European members are reported to have opposed this but there was no record of any opposition from Indian or from other members, which include Russia, China and Brazil.

Rather than face criticism in a UN Security Council Presidential Statement, Israel arranged for the proposal to be withdrawn. Their UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, made acrimonious comments about the UN’s failure to condemn terror against Israelis, but avoided any comment on the children and other civilians killed by Israeli retaliatory air strikes. Meanwhile, the more compliant Middle East Quartet was prevailed upon to issue strong condemnation of the attacks in southern Israel, which it incorrectly described as “cowardly” (hardly an accurate word for a person who risks death or deliberately blows themselves up, whatever the morality of the action). Token concern was expressed for the situations in Gaza and Sinai. The Quartet’s special representative, Tony Blair, also condemned the attack in Israel but made no comment on the attacks in Gaza which have caused a higher toll of dead and injured.

The authenticity of claims of a Gaza link to the attacks in Israel has been questioned by Joseph Dana who pointed out that the Haaretz account was based entirely on anonymous sources and government hearsay accounts. (Nonetheless, most of the international media outlets published the same line.) The International Middle East Centre (IMEMC) has referred to a denial by the North Sinai governor who said that the claims of Palestinians infiltrating into Egypt through the border were impossible to believe. He added that Egypt has full control over the border with Gaza and the security presence was not affected by the regime change in Egypt. It should also be remembered that previous attacks on the Sinai gas pipeline from Egypt to Israel (there have been five such attacks this year) have usually been accredited to Bedouin. So Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovitz did not instil much confidence when she told the Real News that intelligence information from the bodies showed that the gunmen used Kalashnikov bullets and rifles and that these are very common in Gaza. The Kalashnikov after all is the most widely available weapon on the planet, and accounts for an estimated 20 per cent of all firearms available worldwide.

An Israeli government unpopular at home because it cannot or will not face up the cause of social protests must at least show that it can act with determination to protect Israel’s security. And who better to blame than the residents of the Gaza Strip, whom the international community has been shown over decades to be unwilling to help or defend? So it was that two-year-olds in Gaza died to atone for the death of Israeli citizens, who perhaps may have been victims of Al-Qaeda terror. So what? Israel can no longer attack Egypt with impunity, so the usual suspects will have to suffice.

However this still leaves the problem of the Egyptian soldiers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and an Egyptian public that has more of a voice on Egyptian foreign policy than it did under the Mubarak dictatorship. While an adventurer in Cairo scaled the 15-storey building to remove the Israeli flag from the embassy roof, protesters outside demanded that their ambassador be recalled and also protested at the bombardment of Gaza. The interim government itself seems undecided as to whether it will or won’t recall its ambassador from Tel-Aviv after Jerusalem refused to issue an apology for the killings. Most governments would probably have honoured such a demand for an apology under the circumstances, but the Israeli government is not well practised in the art of diplomacy. It is also contemporaneously being pressured to give an apology to Turkey over the assault on the Mavi Marmara; an apology it is most unwilling to give for fear of facilitating the prosecution of members of its armed forces. Quite possibly, that piece of international arrogance and contempt has come round yet again to embarrass and impede Binyamin Netanyahu. Notwithstanding, the longer this row continues, the more the Egyptian stance is likely to harden.

As the anger in Gaza manifests itself in mortars and rockets fired at southern Israel, the target population is learning that the much-vaunted Iron Dome is not a guaranteed defence against projectiles fired from Gaza. The 200,000 people in Beersheva along with the populations of Sderot and Ashdod remain at risk and in fear from these attacks. But Israeli options are not so straightforward. Launching another blitzkrieg on Gaza could trigger an onslaught from Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is reputed to have up to 30,000 missiles at its disposal for a war with its southern neighbour. Meanwhile, Israel’s Southern Command remains at a low strength following years of cold peace with Egypt.

As terrorists aim sparks at the tinder box that is the Middle East, the time has come for wise heads to prevail. Yet with a high proportion of fanatics in the Knesset, Netanyahu is more interested in political survival that statehood. And with the puppets of the Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), controlling the White House and Congress, and a weak Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, there appears to be little cause for hope. Unless Israelis on the streets can take the lead and join with those who advocate an end to violence, the options for regional peace currently appear to be very remote.

* Richard Lightbown, studied the impacts of the Rwandan civil war on four Ugandan forests for his Masters dissertation. He has been a volunteer in Gaza and the West Bank, and assisted with a forestry proposal for the Arab areas of the occupied Golan.

Warning: Graphic, Blood Content

By Amira Hass* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Of all places, it is in Azzariyeh, east of Jerusalem, that one can really learn to appreciate the activities of Palestinian law-enforcement authorities in cities like Ramallah and Nablus. In those cities, Palestinian security forces are seen as authority figures who are trying to protect and serve Palestinian citizens, not just as extensions of Fatah or subcontractors of the Israel Defense Forces or the Shin Bet security service.

Unlike Ramallah and Nablus, which are categorized as "A" areas, Azzariyeh and its neighbors Sawahra and Abu Dis are holed up in an enclave of type "B", where the IDF does not allow the Palestinian police to be fully functional. The interim Oslo 2 agreement determines that the Palestinian Authority is responsible for maintaining public order in Area B, but in the same breath it limits the PA's authority and the means by which it can protect the people from disruptions of public order. Almost every action taken by the Palestinian police in Area B requires IDF approval.

And Israel, which has no inhibitions about violating key clauses of the agreement, is particularly meticulous here: The number of police officers is limited, police are prohibited from moving from a makeshift police station in an apartment building to a proper one, they are not allowed to carry weapons or wear uniforms, and they are prohibited from bringing in reinforcements on their own to locate drug or weapons dealers or to deliver subpoenas. Is it any wonder that the Azzariyeh-Abu Dis enclave has become a place of refuge for the outlaws of the West Bank? Not that this enclave has not had its share of troubles. Since it was shut off by the wall in 2005, all its ties with its natural and immediate urban center, East Jerusalem, have been severed. The enclave's isolation, and the impoverishment and despair to which it gave rise, are as painful as a fresh burn.

The artificial division between Areas A, B and C was supposed to be erased from the map, and dropped from the discourse, in 1999. Instead, Israel has sanctified and perpetuated it. The largest share - 60 percent - is designated Area C, meaning it is under full Israeli security and civil control. It is self-evident why Israel perpetuates the Area C classification. After all, it gives Israel a free hand to continue emptying that part of the West Bank of Palestinians and encourage more Jews to violate international law and settle there.

But what about Area B? Why does Israel insist that drug and weapons trafficking should flourish in an area several dozen meters away from Ma'aleh Adumim and some three kilometers from the Judea and Samaria District police headquarters - both of which sites, as is often forgotten, are violating international law due to their location on the land reserves of Palestinian villages? True, there is also unlicensed public transportation, unlicensed construction, environmental pollution - but the drugs and weapons trade dwarfs those violations. A similar situation exists in A-Ram, the hybrid city between Ramallah and Jerusalem that is also cut off from its past, its surroundings and its land by the wall. Just a hop, skip and jump (over a wall and barbed-wire fence ) away from Jerusalem, some 100,000 people have been left to fend for their own personal safety, a situation that can be reversed.

Is there some deliberate intention behind the painstaking adherence to a clause in an agreement that was supposed to be short-lived? That's what many Palestinians have concluded. Some say the drugs and weapons dealers are collaborators, or potential collaborators, with Israel. This is why the Shin Bet and IDF are not allowing the Palestinian police to take action against them and why, according to them, Israeli security forces immediately find out about any Palestinian attempt to capture them. Some find here a strategic goal: The worse this intolerable situation gets in neighborhoods that are so close to the annexed Jerusalem, the greater the likelihood that the residents will leave and head over to Area A. In other words, it's just another expulsion trick.

Listen to the Palestinians. The subjugated excel at analyzing the implications of their ruler's actions. And if the Palestinians are wrong, then why will the IDF not let the Palestinian police operate freely?

* Amira Hass is a prominent Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz. She is particularly recognized for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years.
The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, and was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. On Oct. 20, the International Women's Media Network reward Hass the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. Hass was the recipient of the Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award in 2002, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2003, the inaugural award from the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund in 2004 and Hrant Dink Memorial Award in 2009.

An Israeli American explains why she will be among many boat passengers trying to break through Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

By Hagit Borer* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Hagit Borer

I am an Israeli Jewish American. I was born in Israel, and I grew up in a very different Jerusalem from the one today. The Jerusalem of my childhood was a smallish city of white-stone neighborhoods nestled in the elbows of hills. Near the center, next to the central post office, the road swerved sharply to the left because straight ahead stood a big wall, and on the other side of it was "them."

And then, on June 9, 1967, the wall came down. Elsewhere, Israeli troops were still fighting what came to be known as the Six-Day War, but on June 9, as a small crowd stood and watched, demolition crews brought down the barrier wall, and after it, all other buildings that had stood between my Jerusalem and the walls of the Old City, their Jerusalem. A few weeks later a wide road would lead from my Jerusalem to theirs, bearing the victors' name: Paratroopers Way.

A soldier helped me sneak into the Old City. Snipers were still at large and the city was closed to Israeli civilians. By the Western Wall, a myth to me until then, the Israeli army was already evicting Palestinian residents in the dead of night and demolishing all houses within 1,000 feet. Eventually, the area would turn into the huge open paved space it is today, a place where only last month, on Jerusalem Day, masses of Israeli youths chanted "Muhammad is dead" and "May your villages burn."

It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more "housing developments" to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts. Talbieh, Katamon, Baca, until 1948 affluent Palestinian neighborhoods, are today almost exclusively Jewish, with no legal recourse for the Palestinians who recently raised families and lived their lives there.

In his speech on Jerusalem Day, Yitzhak Pindrus, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, assured a cheering crowd of the ongoing commitment to expanding the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik, as Sheik Jarrah has been renamed.

This is not my Jerusalem. The tens of thousands of jeering youths that swarmed through its streets on Jerusalem Day have taken the city from me as well. That they speak my native tongue is almost impossible for me to believe, for there is nothing about them or about the society that gave birth to them that I recognize.

Did we know in 1967, in 1948, that it would come to this? Some did. Some knew even then that a society built on conquest and dispossession would have to dehumanize the conquered in order to continue to dispossess and oppress them. A 1948 letter to the New York Times signed by Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt, among others, foretells much of the future. Martin Buber did not spare David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, his perspective on the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948-49.

But too many others, including members of the U.S. Congress who recently cheered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are determined to not hold the Israeli government responsible or the Israeli-Jewish society culpable.

Let us note that some Israeli Jews do stand up and protest. There are soldiers who refuse to serve, journalists who highlight injustice, and human rights organizations, activist groups, information centers. In a sense, all of us seeking justice have been on a virtual boat to Gaza all these decades. We have been trying to break through the Israeli blockade, in its many incarnations. We wish to say to the Palestinians that, yes, there are people in Israel who know that any viable future for the Middle East must be based on a just peace - not the forced imposition spelled out by Netanyahu to Congress - or else we are all doomed. We want it known that the soldier is not the only face of Israeli Jews. There are those who say to the government of Israel, "You do not represent us." We say to the people of the United States in general and to American Jews in particular that yes, you do have an alternative. You can support peace. A true peace.

Hagit Borer moved from Israel to the United States to study in 1977. She became an American citizen in 1992 and is currently a professor of linguistics at USC.

By Greta Berlin* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

An Israeli army dog is seen here at the Oketz military base in central Israel. Palestinians desperate for work in Israel will go to extremes to sneak past the West Bank barrier, but now they face a new hurdle -- army attack dogs sent to attack them. AFP/Yoav Lemmer

Israel Using Attack Dogs Against Palestinian Workers

Whether this kind of brutality works or not, Israel has followed in the footsteps of the United States, using dogs to terrify Palestinian workers trying to get into Israel to find jobs. According to one Palestinian laborer, dogs are let loose to hunt down anyone trying to enter Israel looking for work, a new phenomenon which has been occurring for about two months.

Although the army's justification is that using dogs is a way of protecting the sprawling separation barrier from Palestinian vandals looking to create openings, the Israeli Human Rights organization, B'tselem, is appealing to the army senior command. Victims of the dog attacks are not security suspects, but rather day laborers seeking to enter Israel to find work and who do not have the proper permits to do so.

Are occupation soldiers using Palestinian workers as guinea pigs, trying out the dogs in preparation for use on the upcoming flotilla to Gaza? There is evidence this is exactly what they are doing. In the past few months, the Israeli military has boasted it will use trained attack dogs on our passengers.

According to one military source, "As soon as you put an attack dog in an area where soldiers are supposed to get to, it keeps the place sterile and prevents anyone from approaching. Dogs can be placed by crane or other means. They'll be the first, and after them, the soldiers."

These attack dogs, from the Oketz Unit, are trained to immobilize enemies by biting. "The dogs are weapons in every sense -- like snipers or tank shells -- but they are biological weapons," Yehida, an online military magazine, said in an article about the unit.

Is Israel really going to follow in the footsteps of the Nazis in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps and use dogs against the Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others on board flotilla ships?

During the trial of an alleged concentration camp guard in Georgia in 2007 Director Eli M. Rosenbaum of the Office of the Special Investigations (OSI), "The brutal concentration camp system could not have functioned without the determined efforts of SS men, who, with a vicious attack dog, stood between the victims and the possibility of freedom."

Attack Dogs used against protesters in the US Civil Rights Movement

Those who remember the Civil Rights movement in the US, remember when Sheriff Bull Connor on May 3, 1963 changed police tactics to keep black protesters out of the downtown business area in Birmingham, Alabama. Connor allowed white spectators to push forward, shouting, "Let those people come forward, sergeant. I want 'em to see the dogs work."

When the hoses were turned on, bystanders began to throw rocks and bottles at the police. To disperse them, Connor ordered police to use German shepherd dogs to keep them in line.

Attack Dogs Used in Apartheid South Africa

Dogs were used in South Africa during and after Apartheid as a means to terrify the local population. As late as 2000, a graphic video showed six white policemen laughing and joking as they set their patrol dogs on a group of defenseless black men suspected of illegally entering the country. One man, squirming on the ground, grimaces in agony. He is kicked by a dog-handler who eggs on his snarling dog as it bites into the man's leg and arm while he pleads to be left alone. The sound of laughter is audible during the hour-long video and one of the police officers jokes that it is a "training video."

US Military Used Attack Dogs in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib

The US military used attack dogs in Abu Ghraib, a technique they had learned from Guantanamo. In a 2005 article in the WashingtonPost, military interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq learned about the use of military working dogs to intimidate detainees from a team of interrogators dispatched from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Dogs Used against Civilians and Unarmed Detainees

In every case, these dogs were used against civilians and unarmed detainees, people who were protesting human and civil rights abuses, concentration camp detainees trying to flee, Iraqi civilians caught up in the wide net of suspicion after 9-11.

None of these victims was armed.

And neither are we.

Israel Threatens to use Attack Dogs on Unarmed Civilians of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

We go to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza, a blockade that international bodies have determined is collective punishment. We are standing up for the rights of people living in an open-air prison, just as the protestors in Birmingham and South Africa stood up for the rights of the oppressed.

If Israel is considering bringing attack dogs onto our ships while we sail to Gaza, Israeli officials should be brought up on war crimes charges for taking such action against civilians who are expressing support for an imprisoned people.

We need to ask: Does Israel have the right to attack us with vicious dogs while we sail? Does Israel understand that we are civilians, or do Israeli officials believe, as did their racist predecessors, that we are fair game?

The international community should insist that Israel let us through to Gaza without dogs, snipers and armed commandos attacking us.

* Greta Berlin is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement and was on board the Free Gaza when it sailed to Gaza in August 2008 bearing the first internationals in 41 years to reach the besieged strip of Mediterranean territory. She is a passenger on the US Boat, the "Audacity of Hope," that will sail in the international Gaza Freedom flotilla to break the naval blockade of Gaza at the end of June, 2011.

By Stephen Lendman * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

On March 7, Palestinian Prisoners Society head Qadura Fares presented a paper to the UN International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, addressing the plight of political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, saying:

Palestine "has been under criminal occupation for 44 years. During that time, (Israel) committed the worst crimes against humanity, violating every international instrument. The occupier has killed tens of thousands of our struggling people, most of them defenseless civilians. There have been over 800,000 instances of imprisonment. Tens of thousands of people have been injured," 30% left with permanent disabilities.

Moreover, thousands of homes, crops, and other property have been destroyed. "All this has been done in full view of the world." Even Israeli rabbis "legitimized the slaughter of Palestinian babies (claiming they'll) grow up to become enemies."

Citing many other lawless examples, Fares asked for UN help to end "the occupation and (let Palestinians) live in freedom in an independent sovereign State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as its capital."

June 6 marks 44 years of occupation, a crime against humanity by any standard. Yet world leaders ignore it, denying Palestinians equity, justice, and freedom, putting a lie to those endorsing democracy. Israel long ago spurned it, especially for anyone not Jewish.

In 1948, in fact, its war without mercy depopulated villages and cities, massacred innocent victims, committed rapes and other atrocities, destroyed Palestinian homes and other property, and prevented them from returning after seizing 78% of historic Palestine.

During its Six-Day War, it took the rest, claiming self-defense against neighbors it attacked preemptively during its long-planned aggression it knew it could win and did easily.

The New York Times quoted Prime Minister Menachem Begin's (1977 - 83) August, 1982 speech saying:

"In June, 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches (did) not prove that (President Gamal Abdel) Nasser (1956 - 70) was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him."

In February 1968, two time Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1974 - 77 and 1992 - 95) told the French newspaper Le Monde:

"I do not believe Nasser wanted war. The two divisions which he sent into Sinai on May 14 would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it."

General Mordechai Hod, Commander of Israel's Air Force at the time said in 1978:

"Sixteen years of planning had gone into those initial eighty minutes. We lived with the plan. We slept on the plan. We ate the plan. Constantly we perfected it."

General Haim Barlev, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief told Ma'ariv in April, 1972:

"We were not threatened with genocide on the eve of the six-day war, and we had never thought of such a possibility."

Other Israeli leaders and generals voiced the same sentiment, saying Israel wasn't threatened, yet preemptively waged war, falsely claiming no other choice. In fact, it had a clear one. It could have chosen peace, but didn't and never did earlier or since, pursuing its imperial interests like America, its paymaster/partner from then to now, supporting its worst crimes.

In 1967, it was Israel's third major war, pursuing its vision for a Greater Jewish State, justified by the myth that Jews got there first, establishing their ancestral home on "a land without people for a people without land."

Israel's 1948 "War of Independence" was its first preemptive aggression. Palestinians call it al-Nakba. More aggression followed against Egypt in October 1956, with Britain and France, after Nasser's Suez Canal nationalization. Eight days later, US and Soviet pressure ended it, Israel withdrawing its last troops in March 1957 but not further belligerent intentions.

A decade later, more war and occupation followed. Ahead it it, Foreign Minister Abba Eban got Lyndon Johnson's backing to pursue it.

Begun on June 5, 1967, it was an impressive display of power, Israel easily destroying 90% of Egypt's 300 + aircraft on the ground and two-thirds of Syria's Air Force the first day.

After 24 hours, Israeli Air Force (IAF) Commander Mordechai Hod announced the combined Arab air forces were destroyed. The devastating toll proved it. In contrast, Israel lost only 19 fighter aircraft compared Egypt's 300, Syria's 60, Jordan's 35, Iraq's 15, and Lebanon's one or two.

Palestinians, however, lost the remaining 22% of historic Palestine leaving them stateless. It began on day two when Israel invaded Gaza and the West Bank.

On day three, IDF troops entered northern Sinai, devastated Egyptian brigades, captured Jerusalem, and got Jordan to surrender.

On day four, they invaded Haram Al-Sharif and central Sinai, and by day five advanced to the Suez Canal, taking all of Sinai and the Syria's Golan (including its valuable water resources).

The war practically ended before it began, but Israel showed no mercy, using unopposed air power to massacre thousands of defenseless Egyptian troops on the ground.

It was a turkey shoot Washington supported, providing Israel with the latest weapons and munitions, including tarmac-shredding explosives preventing undamaged planes from taking off, leaving them easy targets on the ground. Moreover, a US carrier group provided intelligence and communications help, standing ready to intervene if needed. Washington effectively partnered in Israel's war, even ignoring the USS Liberty attack.

Monitoring hostilities in Mediterranean waters about 13 nautical miles off Sinai, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked it, knowing it was a US vessel as its lead pilot later admitted. Despite 34 on board killed, another 170 wounded, and heavy damage inflicted, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara called it a case of "mistaken identity," knowing full well it was naked aggression.

Later, retired Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer called the incident "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," one of many times Washington alibied for the worst of Israeli crimes, even against US forces.

End the Occupation - Americans and Other Organizations Against It

Its web site (EndtheOccupation.org) explains its "call to action," supporting "freedom from occupation, and equal rights for all....including the right to exist in peace and security."

Its members from 325 diverse groups include civil and human rights activists; faith-based organizations including, Muslims, Jews and Christians; students; and others for peace and justice in Palestine, united to end US support for occupation.

Other organizations are also involved, including the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), calling itself:

"a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli apartheid in Palestine" through nonviolent, direct activism.

Other Opposition

On May 15, the Iranian Fars News Agency headlined, "Israeli Occupation of Palestine Continues Amid Int'l Inaction," saying:

Forty-four years of occupation, "bloodshed and devastation....falls squarely on (Israel's) shoulders (in) direct violation of international laws and any reasonable moral standard." According to Global Exchange:

We "oppose the policies of the Israeli government and the United States support for them, which, in our view, prevent any peaceful resolution and guarantee that (neither side) can live" safely in peace.

Despite international law and numerous UN resolutions calling for occupation to end and demanding Israel respect its legal obligations, Palestinians are still denied.

On May 16, the General Assembly published identical letters dated May 13 from the Permanent Observer Mission to Palestine's Charge d'affairs, addressed to the UN Secretary-General and Security Council President, saying:

Palestinians are still "uprooted, dispossessed and displaced" as refugees or under "belligerent military occupation of Israel....since (June 6,) 1967 in the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, forced to endure the systematic violation of their fundamental rights and war crimes at the hands of the occupying power for nearly 44 years."

Israel clearly shows "contempt....for the rights and very existence of the Palestinian people, whom it continues to collectively punish, colonize, humiliate, intimidate and (subject) to all forms of oppression."

By not firmly confronting it, occupation, conflict and suffering continue, affecting the entire region and world peace. Again this year, Palestinians "call upon the international community to enforce its own Charter by assuming its (legal) responsibilit(y)" for Palestinian "self-determination and freedom in their independent State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and ensuring a just and lasting solution to the plight of the Palestinian refugees."

"This letter (follows 390 earlier ones) regarding (resolving) the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem....For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people, Israel....must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice."

On June 5, organizers of the Nakba Day rally said Palestinian refugees will again march to Israel's borders against 44 years of occupation, despite IDF Nakba Day violence against them, killing over 20 nonviolent demonstrators, injuring dozens more.

Organizers again said this is "just the beginning (until) Palestinian refugees return to Haifa, Haffa, Al-Majdal, Bi'r As-Sab and all occupied Palestinian towns. The Nakba Day procession was not a one-time event, but rather a new phase in the Palestinians' historic struggle."

On June 1, International Middle East Media Center writer Kevin Murphy headlined, "Protests Announced for Naksa Day ("the setback" on June 5)," saying:

Other marches are planned, including to the Israeli - Lebanese border. Eil Hilweeh refugee camp official Muneer Maqda "said that 50,000 refugees will march on Israel's borders from two separate locations, Maron Ar-Ras and Naqoura...." They'll erect tents until their right of return is granted.

Other demonstrations will support them, including ones in Gaza, the West Bank, a march to Jerusalem, another opposite Israel's London embassy, and others worldwide in support of Palestinian liberation.

A Final Comment

On June 1, ahead of Naksa Day, Israelis commemorated Jerusalem Day provocatively, marching on the forty-fourth anniversary of its reunification. On June 2, Haaretz writers Yair Ettinger, Jonathan Lis and Nir Hasson headlined, "24 held during Jerusalem Day violence," saying:

Twenty-four Palestinians and Jews "were arrested yesterday during the traditional....flag procession which saw isolated instances of racist epithets, fist fights and stone-throwing. Tens of thousands" of mostly ultra-Orthodox zealots and right-wing settlers marched through Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, home to about 2,800 Palestinians, as well as diplomatic missions and well-known landmarks.

Settlers, however, want it back and have encroached for years, displacing dozens of Palestinian families, putting hundreds more at risk.

On the same day, Netanyahu addressed a special Knesset session, affirming continued illegal East Jerusalem settlement construction, pledging also that the city never again will be divided at a Jerusalem Day Ammunition Hill ceremony, site of a key 1967 battle.

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni expressed the same sentiment, saying: "There is no 'their' Jerusalem and 'our' Jerusalem," showing contempt for Palestinian rights and rule of law justice.

Throughout the day, tensions remained high, exacerbated by Netanyahu and extremist supporters defying Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

Nonetheless, Naksa Day rallies will affirm their determination to accept nothing less than liberation on their own land in their own country, no matter the obstacles confronting them ahead. Their courage deserves everyone's support.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Ahmed Moor * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

In an April 27 op-ed, Rabbi Doug Kahn accurately quoted me as having written that "ending the occupation doesn't mean anything if it doesn't mean upending the Jewish State itself." He did not take the line out of context, nor did he misrepresent what I intended to say; democracy in Palestine/Israel and the realization of full human and political rights there for Palestinians means the end of Jewish privilege in my birth country.

The conversation around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is wrapped in a myth: That the Palestinians will one day have a viable state of their own in the West Bank and Gaza. The reality is that there will be no viable Palestinian state, ever. There are three main reasons for that:

First, the process of ethnic cleansing that created Israel and made my grandparents refugees in 1948 has not stopped. Israel continues to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and East Jerusalem of Palestinians to implant Jews in their place. There are now more than 500,000 Jewish colonists living in the midst of 3.5 million Palestinians. No one is going to remove these settlers from the lands their state has stolen for them.

Second, Israel relies on Palestinian water to survive. The Jewish state controls the mountain and coastal aquifers that sit under Palestinian land. Relinquishing control of those resources is not an option for any Israeli leader.

Finally, the Jordan Valley is too strategically important from a military perspective for Israel to withdraw from it. Israeli army regulars will always have a presence there. The Jordan Valley sits in the West Bank, which means that the Israeli army will always be in the West Bank.

There are more realities that bear on the question of whether the Jewish state will continue to exist.

Twenty-five percent of Israelis (not counting refugees like me in the Occupied Territories who don't have an Israeli passport or citizenship) are not Jewish. America is more Christian than Israel is Jewish. There are fewer African Americans proportionally in America than there are Palestinians in Israel. And all of those non-Jewish Israelis are having more children than the Jewish ones are.

In Israel, they call this the "demographic problem." I don't know how they propose to solve their demographic problem.

Today, there is numerical parity between Jews and Palestinians in the Holy Land. And since we Palestinians do not accept the argument that it was necessary to ethnically cleanse Palestine to establish a Jewish state, we are inconveniently calling for our rights.

The late Tony Judt described the Jewish state as an anachronism. Perhaps if Israel had been established in 1848 the indigenous population -- the Palestinians -- would have faded from view. But history had a different plan for the world's last colony.

Many of us in Palestine/Israel, including many non-Zionist Jews, are working toward real democracy in the country. I am confident that we will succeed in creating a race-blind society. Perhaps Rabbi Kahn will help us achieve our humanist goal.

* Ahmed Moor is a graduate student in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

By Stephen Lendman * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Despite no legitimate provocation, Israel began terror bombing Gaza on December 27, 2008. Invasion followed, attacking innocent civilian men, women and children for over three weeks, using missiles, bombs, shells, and illegal weapons against defenseless people. Mass slaughter and destruction ensued.

Brazen crimes of war and against humanity were committed. No culpable officials were held responsible. Security Council no-fly zone protection wasn't ordered. International community leaders approved or were silent. Washington was complicit by supplying Israel with weapons, munitions, and encouragement. Obama acts the same as Bush, waging a quartet of lawless wars and using proxies in others.

Operation Cast Lead remains one of history's greatest crimes. Yet Israel was green-lighted to wage it with impunity, what it's done numerous times in its history, besides terrorizing Palestinians by:

• illegal military occupation;
• collective punishment and intimidation;
• air and ground attacks;
• isolating Gaza illegally under siege;
• intermittently bombing and shooting its residents, including noncombatant farmers, fishermen and children;
• regular residential neighborhood incursions;
• bulldozing homes;
• dispossessing residents;
• land seizures;
• arbitrary arrests;
• torture as official policy, including against women and children;
• targeted assassinations;
• denying refugees their right of return;
• movement and free expression restrictions;
• violence, not peaceful coexistence;
• confrontation, not diplomacy;
• war, not peace; and
• denying Palestinian sovereignty, as well as equal justice, human rights and civil liberty protections.

Israel is a rogue terror state, a democracy in name only affording rights solely to Jews. Remember Cast Lead, one of history's greatest crimes. Justice Richard Goldstone documented them convincingly in his 575 page report titled, "Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict."

It covered Operation Cast Lead, the Gaza siege, the impact of Israel's West Bank military occupation, and much more, including:

• events between the "ceasefire" period from June 18, 2008 to Israel's initiated hostilities on December 27, 2008;
• applicable international law;
• Occupied Gaza under siege;
• an overview of Cast Lead;
• obligations of both sides to protect civilians;
• indiscriminate Israeli attacks on civilians, causing many hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries;
• "the use of certain weapons;"
• attacking "the foundations of civilian life in Gaza: destruction of industrial infrastructure, food production, water installations, sewage treatment plants and housing;"
• using Palestinians as human shields;
• detention and incarceration of Gazans during the conflict;
• the IDF's objectives and strategy;
• impact of the siege and military operations on Gazans and their human rights;
• the detention of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit;
• internal Gaza violence - Hamas v. Fatah;
• the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem;
• Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive or lethal force during demonstrations;
• Palestinians in Israeli prisons;
• Israeli violations of free movement and access rights;
• Fatah targeting Hamas supporters in the West Bank, and restricting free assembly and expression;
• rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians;
• repression of dissent, access to information, and treatment of human rights defenders in Israel;
• Israeli responses to war crimes charges;
• proceedings by Palestinian authorities;
• universal jurisdiction;
• reparations; and
• conclusions and recommendations.

It collected enough information "of a credible and reliable nature....to make a finding in fact." It established clear evidence of crimes, determining they were deliberate or reckless. An accompanying press release said:

"(T)here is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."

It explained that Israel falsely used the pretext of rocket attacks to attack "the people of Gaza as a whole" illegally.

A detailed discussion of Goldstone's findings can be accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/09/goldstone-commission-gaza-conflict.html

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Report Remembers Cast Lead

In its December 2010 report titled, "The Illegal Closure of the Gaza Strip: Collective Punishment of the Civilian Population," the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) remembered Cast Lead, saying it exacerbated isolation:

• killing over 1,400 Gazans, mostly civilians;
• injuring thousands more, many seriously; and
• causing "extensive destruction of houses and civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and industry."

Moreover, Israel violated Security Council Resolution 1860 (January 8, 2009), calling for "full withdrawal of Israeli forces," as well as "unimpeded humanitarian assistance" for Gazan victims. As a result, deepening crisis ensued.

On April 1, Richard Goldstone's Washington Post op-ed headlined, "Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes," saying:

"Our report found evidence potential war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity by both Israel and Hamas." The latter ones, in fact, were minor by comparison, responding only to Israeli provocations.

Israel's, however, "were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where....evidence (pointed to no) other reasonable conclusion."

Goldstone, however, softened his initial condemnation by commending Israel's Cast Lead inquiry, ignoring how all its internal investigations whitewash crimes of war and against humanity - most recently the Gaza and May 2010 Freedom Flotilla massacres.

According to PCHR:

"Rather than uphold the rule of law, the Israeli investigative and judicial system is artfully manipulated to provide an illusion of investigative and judicial rigour, while systematically perpetuating pervasive impunity" for crimes too extreme to ignore.

Whitewash Examples

On April 29, 2009, IDF Chief of Staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi authorized publication of the findings of five military investigate teams. Unsurprisingly, they concluded that:

"(T)throughout the fighting in Gaza, the IDF operated in accordance with international law. The IDF maintained a high professional and moral level while facing an enemy that aimed to terrorize Israeli civilians whilst taking cover amidst uninvolved civilians in the the Gaza strip and using them as human shields."

It continued at some length justifying brazen Israeli crimes of war and against humanity. In contrast, a year after hostilities ended, Human Rights Watch called Israeli attacks "indiscriminate, disproportionate (and) at times seemingly deliberate, in violation of the laws of war," condemning IDF investigations as no "substitute for impartial and thorough investigations into laws-of-war violations" they whitewashed.

In his April 1 op-ed, Goldstone failed to explain and denounce them. Instead, he defended the indefensible.

Netanyahu's (Jacob) Turkel commission investigation of Israel's Freedom Flotilla massacre also produced lies, distortions, omissions, false conclusions, and exoneration of cold-blooded murder, ordered by top government and military officials who got off scot-free like Cast Lead criminals.

Specifically, it concluded that Israel's (illegal siege) does not break international law....(and) there were clear indications that the flotilla intended to break the naval blockade....By clearly resisting capture, the Mavi Marmara had become a military objective," despite on board activists having no weapons and offering no resistance. Saying so was a lie.

In contrast, an independent UN Human Rights Council investigation "concluded that a series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation."

It added that Israel's attack:

"was unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number of civilian passengers."

Also that at least six of the dead were killed by "extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions," some shot multiple times in the head at close range.

Moreover, similar tactics were used before, during, and after Cast Lead, facts Richard Goldstone knows and should have explained instead of suggesting civilians may not have been "intentionally targeted as a matter of policy."

Indeed they always are under Israel's "Dahiya Doctrine," targeting civilians as official policy. Named after the Beirut suburb IDF attacks destroyed in the 2006 Lebanon war, it's how all Israeli wars are waged. IDF Northern Commander Gabi Eisenkot explained, saying:

"What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force at the heart of the enemy's weak spot (civilians) and cause great damage and destruction. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages (towns or cities), they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved."

It also prioritizes damaging or destroying assets, economic interests, and centers of civilian power, requiring long-term reconstruction even though international law prohibits attacking civilians and non-military related targets. Israel spurned international law in Cast Lead, against humanitarian Flotilla activists, and in all its belligerent confrontations.

Instead of condemning this policy, Goldstone softened his criticism, contradicting his detailed findings, replicated by other reputable human rights studies, unequivocally accusing Israel of crimes of war and against humanity.

A Final Comment

On March 25, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution, urging the General Assembly address Israel's Cast Lead impunity by asking the Security Council to request investigation, action and resolution by the International Criminal Criminal Court (ICC).

For over two years, justice for thousands of Palestinian victims has been denied. Gaza remains illegally under siege. Meaningful action is demanded. Crimes this great can't be tolerated.

Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council can request ICC action. Washington's veto, of course, looms. Nonetheless, it's high time other members demanded, shamed, and did whatever it takes to assure long-suffering Palestinians justice. Then do it for other victims of injustice instead of authorizing war on Libya when it should have acted resolutely to prevent it.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Safa Joudeh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Hundreds gather in Ramallah's city center to call for national unity, 15 March 2011. (Oren Ziz/ActiveStills)

The goal: a mass mobilization of Palestinians to pressure the Hamas-run government in Gaza, and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, to end the four-year-long division. But rather than topple the governments, as was the goal with the uprisings in neighboring countries, demonstrators hope to be able to bring them together. Increasingly belligerent Israeli measures, mainly the continued siege on Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank, have fueled Palestinians' discontent with their leaderships. People fear that the divide will further weaken the Palestinian front, leaving it even more vulnerable in the face of Israel's aggressive policies.

The day arrived. In the West Bank city of Ramallah crowds gathered in al-Manara Square, chanting against the division. Elsewhere in the West Bank, in Nabus, Hebron and Bethlehem, hundreds took to the streets in peaceful pro-unity marches; in East Jerusalem the Israeli military was on high alert as demonstrators gathered outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, raising Palestinian flags and calling for unity.

Gaza too was fully on board. Had you stopped any person on the street a few days before and asked them about the most likely 15 March scenario, their answer would have been as follows:

People will begin to gather in small groups in the morning, they will all be carrying Palestinian flags and repeating slogans calling for unity between the rival factions Fatah and Hamas. There will be banners and flyers, kuffiyehs (the traditional checkered scarf) and headbands emblazoned with the colors of the Palestinian flag; there will be megaphones and patriotic songs, but there will be no sign of sectarianism or factional representation.

Things will be calm until the groups of demonstrators reach the Square of the Unknown Soldier in the heart of Gaza City. If a substantial amount of protesters (more than a hundred) decide to remain for more than an hour or so, Hamas supporters, waiting on the sidelines, will begin to infiltrate the crowd and grow in number, you will begin to see green flags and green headbands and megaphones blaring Qassam-glorifying songs will drown out the national anthem and other non-Hamas tunes. Police presence will intensify and tensions will rise when the demonstrators (inevitably) clash with Hamas affiliates and members of the Hamas police force, who they feel are hijacking their demonstration. The "independent" demonstrators will attempt to move to a new location (they were indeed led by the organizers to al-Katiba square by al-Azhar University, a Fatah stronghold), and will be followed and closely monitored by the police and eventually force will be employed to disperse them.

And so the events unfolded, precisely as the hypothetical speculator would have predicted. Follow-up demonstrations occurred in the following days, smaller in size and damper in enthusiasm, and so 15 March passed, leaving behind no more than a faint twitch amid the racking convulsions of suppression and affliction.

Does it come as a surprise? Clearly Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank were prepared for a security crackdown or there would have been no need to build up so much momentum for an event supporting an end to intra-Palestinian division. And clearly escalation was sought: it is the only way both leaderships will be made to feel the pressure to resolve their differences.

Naturally, both Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank claimed unwavering support of the pro-unity demonstrations and heartfelt commitment to unifying the Palestinian front and reestablishing democracy. Assuming this were the case, it is curious that any initiatives towards either goal, by either government, have only been taken on the heels of unsettling events, and died down almost as fast as they were instigated.

For instance, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath's three-day visit to Gaza in February of last year was welcomed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, and Shaath was the first-high ranking Palestinian Authority official to visit from Ramallah since the division began in June 2007. The visit made for a good photo-op and was intertwined with memorable speeches, phony optimism and uncomfortable (phony) smiles. It was a feeble attempt by both leaderships to pacify feelings of unrest that had risen among Palestinians (especially after the PA stonewalled the Goldstone report vote at the UN, and the subsequent refusal of Hamas to sign a reconciliation agreement). Any attempts on the public's part to determine any further effects and repercussions of this visit failed.

During the 13 months that followed, both the PA and Gaza governments have done their best to crack down on members of the rival party in their respective territories. The Hamas government claims that PA security forces arrested 3,000 Hamas loyalists in the West Bank in 2010, while Hamas was accused by Fatah of arresting 3,120 of its supporters in Gaza that same year.

Illegal detention and in many cases, torture and sometimes death, followed. Condemnations were batted back and forth like a tennis ball. Hamas accuses Fatah of complicity with Israel in the Dubai assassination of its operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Fatah accuses Hamas of the attempted assassination of one of its officials in Nablus, and amid all this, "reconciliation efforts" continued. Discussions were held between a Fatah delegation headed by Azzam al-Ahmed and a Hamas delegation headed by Mousa Abu Marzouk on the Egyptian reconciliation paper in Damascus in September 2010. Of course, both sides left feeling "positive." They left as close to reconciliation as they'd ever been.

The Fatah-led PA has a long, open and well-documented record of working with Israel under the internationally-endorsed framework of "security cooperation," also a major cause of the division. Hamas is not willing to accept such cooperation which it sees as targeted against all forms of resistance, and Fatah leaders are not willing or able to give it up.

In January 2011, Al Jazeera released the Palestine Papers revealing the extent of PA concessions of Palestinian rights, and walls didn't really come crashing down in the immediate sense (except for the resignation of PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who has been in place since the Oslo accords were signed), as the scandal was somewhat overshadowed by the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. But both the leaked papers and the uprisings managed to convince Mahmoud Abbas that running for another term was a bad idea, and of course, that a reconciliation overture was due, hence Abbas' announcement that he would visit Gaza, to reach an agreement no less.

Amid these proceedings Gaza, appeared like a ticking time bomb, but just when it reached an incendiary point, it would crackle and spit, and eventually fizzle out.

This is largely due to the dissatisfaction among people in Gaza with the growing isolation and difficult conditions under Hamas, and at the same time their unwillingness to direct their fight towards an iron-handed, but otherwise commendable government.

Furthermore, although focal, Hamas' security apparatus and tight governance do not represent the full extent of Hamas' hold on the Gaza Strip. The movement is entrenched in the very fabric of Gaza's socio-economic and civilian infrastructure. Hamas as a government and as a political movement has built housing projects, vocational education centers, clinics, acquired prime real estate, runs charities and nongovernmental organizations, employs tens if not hundreds of thousands of workers, both in government offices and private enterprises, owns banks, factories, insurance companies and enjoys a wide base of supporters and sympathizers.

If recent lessons from the Arab world had not taught us otherwise, one would almost believe in the near impossibility of marginalizing Gaza's ruling party. But to borrow a phrase from other deposed rulers, Gaza is not Egypt or Tunisia.

Fragmenting Palestinian efforts and redirecting the course of the struggle away from a focus on the occupation and siege, and toward internal parties will provide Israel with the best cover for continued settlement expansion, land annexation, demolition, expulsion, land razing and killing among a multitude of other violations.

At the risk of sounding like a proponent of factionalism, I cannot but mention that many of those demonstrating in Gaza on 15 March came from Fatah backgrounds or were affiliated with the disaffected Fatah movement. This is by no means sanctioning their suppression and harassment by security forces and the intelligence apparatus, but it merely goes to show how deeply-rooted partisanship is within the masses, differing political agendas and approaches towards the conflict polarizing the population and widening the rift to unprecedented degrees. And I will venture to say that those demonstrators were out there protesting against Hamas as much as they were protesting against division. Again, it is their indisputable right to do so but the deep animosity between both factions illustrates why Hamas movement security officials felt threatened, even by a peaceful assembly.

Divided, Palestinians will surely fall and fueling the internal fire will only serve to deepen the divide. If Palestinians truly desire unity their focus should be turned within. The public needs to free itself of blind and radical factionalism as much, if not more than the leaderships, and only then will demonstrations such as 15 March be effective.

Despite differing ideologies, all Palestinian factions, whether Islamic, socialist or secular, were born from the collective struggle to liberate an occupied land. Returning to the roots of the struggle will bring down the barriers formed by self-interest and a blind desire for power, of which rival parties in Gaza and Ramallah are both guilty.

* Safa Joudeh is a freelance broadcast journalist and writer from the Gaza Strip, reporting from Gaza and Egypt. Follow her on Twitter (@SafaJoudeh).

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

By Stephen Lendman * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

In fact, repression throughout the Middle East is largely ignored except some reporting on protests in Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and Algeria, but they've faded with focus mainly on Egypt.

Though important, most Arabs live in 21 other countries and territories from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Horn of Africa and Indian Ocean on two continents. Their combined populations approach 340 million people, most of them denied freedom and dignity for centuries.

Their plight stretched from Ottoman 16th century rule through WW I, then British and French control, and now America and Israel. They're ruling hegemon partners, mainly Washington, of course, allied with its key regional partner. Together, they virulently oppose Arab nationalism and democratic freedoms. Edward Said once explained that:

"The basic premise of Arab nationalism in the broad sense is that, with all their diversity and pluralism of substance and style, the people whose language and culture are Arab and Muslim (the Arabic-speaking peoples) constitute a nation and not just a collection of states scattered between North Africa and the western boundaries of Iran."

However, any "independent articulation of that premise was openly attacked," by the French, British, Americans, and Israelis through wars and repressive occupation and dispossession of indigenous Palestinian people.

Washington and Israel especially remain deeply hostile to Arab nationalism and attempts to unify Arabs politically. Their goal, in fact, is divide, conquer and control, redrawing the Middle East to suit imperial, not Arab interests. They thrive on "Arab fragmentation, collective inaction, and military and economic weakness," Said explained.

He also said Arabs largely never achieved collective independence in "whole or in part" because outside powers coveted their lands and resources. For over half a century, in fact, Washington based its Middle East agenda on three policies:

• supporting Israel;
• controlling regional oil supplies; and
• assuring Arab states remain reliable vassals, Egypt especially as the region's lynchpin but also Palestine under leaders it controls along with Israel.

Said called it "an unprecedented crisis. Unprecedented means are therefore required to confront" what he said was "a wholesale attack....by an imperial power, America, that acts in concert with Israel, to pacify, subdue, and finally reduce (Arab peoples) to a bunch of warring fiefdoms whose first loyalty is not to their people but to the great superpower" under puppet rulers enriching themselves at their expense.

Kings do it. Shekh leaders do it. Mubarak did it, and so don't Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad and other key Palestinian Authority (PA) fellow travelers, profiting at their own people's expense as reliable Israeli enforcers.

In fact, they cooperate actively in pursuing, facilitating, or ignoring systematic attacks against civilians and property in Occupied Palestinian communities. As a result, a typical week resembles late January through early February, including:

• PA security forces arresting targeted figures, including Hamas members;
• Israeli settlers, with impunity, killing two Palestinian civilians, wounding a third in Nablus and Hebron;
• an IDF explosive killing a Gaza child;
• its forces targeting Palestinian workers, farmers, children and fishermen in Gazan waters;
• using brute force against peaceful protesters, causing injuries and at times deaths;
• bombing tunnels south of Rafah numerous times, causing more of them;
• other bombings of a Gaza medicine factory, setting it ablaze, and attacking a metal workshop in northern Gaza; at least 10 injuries overall were reported;
• announced plans for an electric security barrier to wall off Egypt; and
• Israel forces making 31 lawless incursions into Palestinian West Bank communities, arresting 23 civilians, including seven children and a PA representative.

Moreover, Gaza remains besieged over seven months after Israel's Security Cabinet's decision to ease closure. As a result, reconstruction is severely impeded, including the rebuilding of schools, hospitals, residential neighborhoods, and vital civilian infrastructure.

In addition, food insecurity as well as high unemployment and poverty rates remain major concerns. Also, virtually all exports are banned, exacerbating dire economic conditions, worsened because Israel severely restricts entry of humanitarian organizations, international diplomats, journalists, and others wanting to assess conditions or help.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, daily life involves severe movement and speech restrictions, including 585 permanent roadblocks, manned and unmanned checkpoints, and closure or militarized control of around two-thirds of all main roads between 18 Palestinian communities. Overall, about 500 km of West Bank roads are restricted, and about one-third of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is inaccessible to Palestinians without IDF-issued (very hard to get) permits.

This is how police states work, daily responsible for crimes against humanity, especially against those who dare resist. As a result, Palestinians suffer grievously, largely out of sight and mind, more than ever perhaps with world attention on Egypt.

For them, daily life involves militarized repression, police state harshness even more brutal than Mubarak's because the entire population suffers, especially besieged Gazans, suffocating under near total closure for over three and a half years, except for restricted exceptions.

On February 7, IRIN, OCHA's humanitarian news and analysis service said Egypt's uprising exacerbated Gaza's humanitarian crisis because Rafah crossing and tunnels have been closed. It explained that:

"The problem is getting fuel to the border inside Egypt. There are no military forces on the Egyptian side....so smugglers are getting hijacked on the road from Cairo and all their stuff (is) stolen. It's very dangerous for them...."

"There is nothing coming through the tunnels now." Only limited fuel amounts are available at triple the recent price. Without relief, it means "no cars, but also no electricity," that's already in short supply, forcing widespread use of fuel-powered generators.

Hospitals are also affected. Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, has less than a week's supply of fuel, creating a potentially critical situation. A senior intensive care unit nurse expressed great concern, saying:

"This unit, especially, is entirely dependent on electricity. If there's a power cut we have to operate the ventilators manually before the generator kicks in. There are power cuts here for four hours every day. It will be impossible to keep people alive without our generators - the monitors, the ventilators, everything - will be gone."

Bassam Abu Hamad, a senior Gaza health consultant, also said greater closure puts lives at risk, adding:

"People in need of radiotherapy, and advanced surgery in particular, are simply unable to get treatment. While Rafah is closed, we will see increased loss of life here in Gaza."

Already prices have skyrocketed, affecting fuel, food, other consumer goods, and the limited amounts of available building materials.

On February 9, IRIN said tunnels resumed supplying petrol, a week after it was cut off. However, Egypt's crisis means everything is uncertain, including high prices making vital supplies unaffordable for many. In addition, Rafah remains closed, affecting patients unable to reach Egypt for treatment. WHO's Gaza officer in charge, Mahmoud Daher said:

"In cases of closure, like we're seeing now," patients without Israeli permits to leave "struggle to get adequate health care in Gaza. The longer Rafah remains closed, the higher the possibility that these patients' prognosis will be affected. This is a very worrying situation." It promises to stay that way as Egypt's uprising shows no signs of ebbing.

On February 9, Al Jazeera said Egyptian labor unions went on nationwide strike, supporting street protesters. Around 20,000 factory workers were involved. Demonstrators held signs saying "Closed until the fall of the regime."

Correspondent Stefanie Dekker said there's "even an Internet campaign aimed at mobilizing thousands of expatriates to return and support the uprising." Activist Ahmad Salah told Al Jazeera that protesters are "more emboldened by the day....This is a growing movement, it's not shrinking."

Whether or not Egyptians prevail, besieged Gazans face increasing hardships heading toward crisis conditions if essential supplies and services remain spotty or unaffordable. Yet media reports largely ignore them. Even Al Jazeera offers only occasional accounts.

A brief February 9 one headlined, "Egypt events spark Gaza fuel panic," saying Gazans scrambled to make due best they can in coverage running barely over two minutes compared to hours devoted to Egypt.

It's nothing new for Palestinians. They've suffered mostly in silence. Major media coverage largely ignored them for decades, except during two Intifadas and Israeli wars when unjustly they were called terrorists, not heroic freedom fighters, struggling for rights long denied them.

They still do out of sight and mind in most Western societies, especially Americans given carefully filtered managed news, infotainment and junk food news. It leaves large majorities out of touch and uninformed, believing fantasies opposite of realities, including aggressive wars called liberating ones against people only yearning to be free.

A Final Comment

It's no exaggeration saying millions across North African and Middle East countries harbor decades of pent up anger, expressed powerfully by courageous Egyptians after 16 days of protest showing no signs of ebbing. It's also true that Washington maneuvers plan new faces under old policies, creating the impression of change, a longstanding scheme initiated numerous previous times, usually successfully, and odds favor it this time.

As a result, it's hard distinguishing between pro and anti-reformists pretending to want change, perhaps including made for television heros. The latest one comes to mind without knowing whether or not he's credible. At least, be wary. Accept nothing at face value. What's portrayed publicly may be more fiction than fact, so viewers should demand proof. Without it, remember numerous past times manufactured heros were fakes, but don't conclude it arbitrarily.

The latest one comes to mind - Wael Ghonim, Google's regional head of marketing the New York Times called "emotive and handsome....the movement's icon," quoting Professor Ibrahim el-Bahrawy (a former ruling party member) saying, "His emotions exploded. I was very, very moved."

Who, in fact, is Ghonim, a fair question since he practically emerged out of thin air, and overnight become a prime catalyst of revolt? He's Google's Middle East/North Africa head of marketing, who in January, created the Facebook "We Are All Khaled Said" page, honoring the young Egyptian blogger beaten to death by police last June.

Operated anonymously as "El Shaheed" (the martyr), the page helped rally anti-government protests beginning on January 25. On January 27, Ghonim went missing, his same day Twitter feed saying:

"Pray for #Egypt. Very worried as it seems that government is planning a war crime tomorrow against people. We are all ready to die #Jan.25."

For days, no one knew his whereabouts until learned authorities held him. On February 7, 12 days later, he emerged unharmed, and on Dream 2, a private Egyptian channel, gave a highly emotional interview, admitting he administered the Facebook page.

He also created Mohammed ElBaradei's official web site, the former IAEA head who suddenly parachuted into Egypt after living outside his native country for 30 years. Did he come voluntarily, or was he brought, perhaps serving America's imperial agena, another unanswered question.

For many in them, Egypt's jails operate like roach motels, those entering disappear after lengthy torture/ interrogations. Ghonim, however, said he wasn't harmed, just kept blindfolded incommunicado, his family unaware what happened.

After release, he said many others contributed to the Facebook page, adding, "This was a revolution of the youth of all of Egypt. I'm not a hero," endearing him to protesters.

Though so far no evidence suggests it, at issue is whether a Google executive "Internet activist," in fact, was enlisted for his role. If so, it wouldn't be the first time made-for-television heros were, in fact, villains. Hopefully, he's not the latest, but be wary until known for sure.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Majida Abu Rahmah (School teacher)

Abdullah Abu Rahmah - Bil'in Demonstration

As the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements I was convicted of "organizing illegal demonstrations" and "incitement." The "illegal demonstrations" refer to the nonviolent resistance campaign that my village has been waging for the last six years against Israel's Apartheid Wall that is being built on our land.

I find it strange that the military judges could call our demonstrations illegal and charge me for participating in and organizing them after the world's highest legal body, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, has ruled that Israel's wall within the occupied territories is illegal and must be dismantled. Even the Israeli supreme court ruled that the Wall's route in Bil'in is illegal.

I have been accused of inciting violence: this charge is also puzzling. If the check points, closures, ongoing land theft, wall and settlements, night raids into our homes and violent oppression of our protests does not incite violence, what does?

Despite the occupations constant and intense incitement to violence in Bil'in, we have chosen another way. We have chosen to protest nonviolently together with Israeli and International supporters. We have chosen to carry a message of hope and real partnership between Palestinians and Israelis in the face of oppression and injustice. It is this message that the Occupation is attempting to crush through its various institutions including the military courts. An official from the Israeli Military Prosecution shamelessly told my Attorney, Gaby Lasky, that the objective of the military in my prosecution is to "put an end" to these demonstrations.

The crime of incitement that I have been convicted of is defined under Israeli military decree 101 regarding the prohibition of hostile action of propaganda and incitement as "The attempt, verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order" and carries a 10 year maximal sentence. This definition is so broad and vague that it can be applied to almost any action or statement. Actually, these words could be considered incitement if they were spoken in the occupied territories.

On the 11th of October of this year I was sentenced to 12 months in prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years, and a fine. My family and I, especially my daughters, were counting the days to my release. The military prosecution waited until just a few days before the end of my sentence before appealing against my release, arguing that I should be imprisoned longer. I have completed my sentence but remain in prison. Though international law considers myself and other activists as human rights defenders, the occupation authorities consider us criminals whose freedom and other rights must be denied.
In the year that I have spent in prison, the demonstrations in Bil'in, Naalin, Al Maasara, and Beit Omar have continued. Nabi Saleh and other villages have taken up the popular struggle. Within this year, the International campaign calling for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions of Israel until it complies with International law has grown considerably, as have legal actions against Israeli war crimes. I hope that soon Israel will no longer be able to ignore the clear condemnation of its policies coming from around the world.

In the year that I have spent in prison, my son Laith has taken his first steps and said his first words, and Luma and Layan have been growing from children to beautiful young girls. I have not been able to be with them, to walk holding their hands, to take them to school as they and I are used to. Laith does not know me now. And my wife Majida has had to care for our family alone.

Abdullah Abu Rahmah in Israeli military court

Imagine if heavily armed men forced their way into your home in the middle of the night. If your children were forced to watch as their father or brother was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken away. Or if you as a parent were forced to watch this being done to your child.

This week the door of our cell was opened and a sixteen year boy was pushed inside. My friend Adeeb Abu Rahmeh was shocked to recognize his son, Mohammed, whom Adeeb had not seen since he himself was arrested during a nonviolent demonstration 16 months ago.

Mohammad smiled when he saw his Father, but his face was red and swollen and it was clear that he was in pain. He told us that he had been taken from his home two nights previously. He spent the first night blindfolded and shackled, being moved from one place to another. The next day after a terrifying, disoriented, and sleepless night he was taken to an interrogation room, his blindfold was removed and an interrogator showed him pictures of people from the village. When questioned about the first picture he told the interrogator that he did not recognize the person. The interrogator slapped him hard across the face. This continued with every question that Mohammad was asked: when he did not give the answer that the interrogator wanted, he was slapped, punched and threatened. Mohammad's treatment is not unusual.

Young boys from our village have been taken from their homes violently and report being denied sleep, food, and water and being kept in Isolation and threatened and often beaten during interrogation.

What was unusual about Mohammad is that he did not satisfy his interrogator and with competent representation was released within a few days. Usually children, just because they are children, will say whatever the interrogator wants them to say to make such treatment stop. Adeeb, myself, and thousands of other prisoners are being held in prison based on testimonies forced or coerced out of these children. No child should ever receive such treatment.

When the children who had testified against me retracted what they said in interrogation and told the military judge that their testimonies where given under duress, the judge declared them hostile witnesses.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah and I are the first to be convicted with incitement and participation in illegal demonstrations since the first Intifada but, unfortunately, it does not seem that we will be the last.

I often wonder what Israeli leaders think they will achieve if they succeed in their goal of suppressing the Palestinian popular struggle? Is it possible that they believe that our people can sit quietly and watch as our land is taken from us? Do they think that we can face our children and tell them that, like us, they will never experience freedom? Or do they actually prefer violence and killing to our form of nonviolent struggle because it camouflages their ongoing theft and gives them an excuse to continue using us as guinea pigs for their weapons?

My eldest daughter Luma was nine years old when I was arrested. She is now ten. After my arrest she began going to the Friday demonstrations in our village. She always carries a picture of me in her arms. The adults try to look after her but I still worry for my little girl. I wish that she could enjoy her childhood like other children, that she could be studying and playing with her friends. But through the walls and barbed wire that separates us I hear my daughter's message to me, saying: "Baba, they cannot stop us. If they take you away, we will take your place and continue to struggle for justice." This is the message that I want to bring you today. From beyond the walls, the barbed wire, and the prison bars that separate Palestinians and Israelis.