Regarding the Massacres at the Gaza Fence

I can't say it any better than Andre Damon at WSWS:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/16/pers-m16.html

The money quote:

After all, if Israel’s actions are justified, would not US forces deployed on the Mexican border be justified in opening fire on refugees walking toward US territory? Would the European border police not be justified in sinking boats of migrants fleeing to Europe?

The answer to both of these questions would obviously be yes. The universal defense of Israel’s actions makes clear that the imperialist powers have adopted the mass murder of unarmed civilians as a legitimate policy tool.

 No doubt about it...

Random Notes

A lot of the commentary over the remarkable statements by Israeli PM Netanyahu that suggested that Hitler got the idea for the Final Solution from "a Palestinian" -- ie: the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem -- focused on the idea that "he's delusional," and/or "he's insane."

To the contrary, I think he knows exactly what he is doing, and it's not delusional or insane at all. He's making a spectacle of himself in order to draw attention away from the disaster of his rule on the one hand -- the rash of stabbings by Palestinians in Israel has apparently deeply unnerved the population, and the response by Israeli civilians and security forces is way over the to as demonstrated by numerous viral videos of Israelis committing acts of summary execution in the streets, sometimes of "their own people."

It's yet another domestic catastrophe  brought on by a man who apparently lacks any conscience whatever. This is not insanity. This is not delusion. It is pathological in my view, but it isn't an "illness." It is character. Or lack thereof.

It's pathological because a lack of conscience is destructive in the character of anyone who is in a position to wield power over others or to utilize the power of a nation state to accomplish political objectives.

We see this in the political class all the time, this utter lack of conscience, empathy, or even interest in the well-being of anyone outside their own circle, or even beyond themselves. It's not limited to politics, either. We see it in business and finance (especially finance), in the administrative realm generally, in policing theory and practice, and on and on, and I wonder...

Do people in these and so many other fields learn these traits or are they born that way? Is there some kind of eugenic experiment under way that is breeding out the genes for compassion, conscience, and empathy? Truly, I wouldn't be surprised.

In Netanyahu's case, it's been clear for decades that the man sees himself as a Warrior-King on a mission. That mission will not be thwarted by lowly Palestinians (I doubt he considers them to be human) or by anyone else -- who he also seems to doubt are truly human. His mission appears to be the reconstitution of Eretz Israel or its modern equivalent for his own Power and Glory.

If anyone gets crushed in his pursuit of this project, it's their own fault.

And Israelis love him for it.

It's not insanity or delusion. It's purpose and will -- ultimately antithetical to humanity.

It is commonplace in the his realm. While it seems to make no sense to those on the outside,  most of those on the inside share his perspective more or less fully. It's dangerous and destructive and deeply immoral,

One of the aspects of its immorality in the Israeli case is that their argument regarding the Nazis seems to accept everything they did -- up to the Final Solution itself. Israelis can therefore justify what they have long been doing to the Palestinians -- which is very closely patterned on Nazi practice toward Jews and other minorities in Germany. That means that the camps were OK, the roundups, deportations, the ghettoization, the prohibitions on actions, employment, travel, etc., the restrictions and/or elimination of civil rights, the confiscations and demolitions, the summary executions, the lynchings, the lootings, the general destruction levied against Jews and other minorities were all perhaps unpleasant, but they were not the Final Solution and therefore were "OK."

Well, no. They weren't "OK." Or justified. Nor has Israel any right to impose similar conditions on Palestinians. But they do it just the same.

They criticize the Nazis for the mass executions, the gas chambers, and the ovens. Not really for anything else. All the rest of it up to that point was... OK.

Jeeze.

Netanyahu is flailing for attention, and he's getting it.

-----------------------------------------

The Clinton Drama continues, and if Hillary is elected, we'll have no end of drama in the nation's capital. What did I see the other day? The radicals will be offering articles of impeachment the day she's sworn in to the presidency? Well, yes. Of course they will. It's what they do. And she'll happily do battle against them. And the attempts to impeach her will be a spectacle to feed the ravenous maw of the media -- which will love it -- for (probably) her entire term in office.

Meanwhile, of course, the nefarious and conscience-free policies of Our Betters will have free rein.

Isn't that the point, after all? Positioning Paul Ryan in the #3 slot -- ie: Speaker of the House -- is a kind of preparatory master-stroke, on the thought that however the drama plays out (she could be assassinated, after all...) there will be a dynamic conscience-free back up at the ready.

Jeebus, no matter how cynical you become, it's really impossible to keep up these days.

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Sanders has yet to impress me. He seems to be a sacrificial shepherd leading his devoted flock into a cul-de-sac. No, he will not be allowed to become the president, not on a bet, and if somehow he manages to become the Democratic Party nominee (he won't) he will be left to flounder and fade away. With him go the remnants of a "progressive" Democratic Party. That seems to be the point in any case.

The Democratic Party isn't the same as the Tories of Anglo politics, but it is in many respects the rightful conservative party of the United States. It has always been conservative whereas the Republicans are rightist radicals.

There is no political left in this country with any pretense to power -- perhaps there never has been one.  (FDR was not an exception). Without a functioning "left" in this country, it's impossible to move the governing apparatus away from or beyond its nearly exclusive devotion to the interests and demands of the Oligarchy.

The answer is withdrawal of presence and attention and consent. It happens organically, but it takes a long-long time to come to fruition. It doesn't happen in the political realm, it happens in the social realm, and eventually, the established political elements become irrelevant. "All of that" happens almost in another universe, affecting "real life" less and less, until nobody cares.

It's been happening in this country, this withdrawal, for several decades, but it's been fairly marginal in most respects. "Hippies" and such have been doing it since the 1960s, but there are many-many more elements than merely the unreconstructed hippies in the current withdrawals. "Alternatives" are everywhere, and those who pursue them find it's quite possible -- and sometimes a great deal more rewarding -- to simply let go of the necessity to serve the system as it is.

Thus I can't get too excited about the current political hoo-hah.

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Police whining has reached a crescendo. The recent incident of road rage in Albuquerque leading to the death of a 4 year old girl seems to have triggered a reaction in the media. That reaction is apparently focused on a restoration of the status quo ante -- prior to the consent decree and all the police reforms that went with it, including a steep reduction in police killings of civilians. The local media seems to want to restore previous police practices -- and the death rates that went with them -- as a means of curbing the "current crime wave."

Well, I call bullshit. There is no "current crime wave." Crime in general, and violent crime in particular, is at or below previous levels, prior to the consent decree and police "reforms." Restoration merely means adding more violence to the mix, not curbing it at all. But Warrior Cops can't help themselves, can they? They want to mix it up, they have to, it's an identity thing. If they aren't out there killing and brutalizing with impunity, what it the point of having police, right?

So they whine and whine and whine, like dogs chained up in the back yard, wanting to kill, kill, and kill some more, to be who they are.

And the media in Albuquerque is clamoring to unchain them. To root out all those criminals running wild.

Bleah.

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Enough.

Israel Rampages in Gaza Again

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

This happened was during today's "4 hour humanitarian cease fire." According to witnesses and reports from the scene, shortly after 12:00n local time, as residents (survivors?) of Gaza were attempting to get necessary supplies at a market section adjoining the Shujayea neighborhood, several mortar or tank shells landed among the shoppers, killing between 17 and 20 (a figure likely to increase significantly) and wounding hundreds. 

This is what Israel does: it declares a "cease fire" then waits for people to gather in response, then the IDF kills them. It kills them in hospitals. It kills them in refugee centers and schools. Wherever Gazans are gathered in large numbers for protection or under the banner of a "ceasefire," Israel aims its missiles and shells and kills them by the score, wounding many more. 

It is apparently an identity thing to the Israelis. 

Lull and lure the Arabs into believing their safety is assured. Then kill them.

This is how the UNRWA Representative in Gaza Christopher Gunness responded to the latest school shelling in which dozens were killed -- as they slept -- and hundreds were wounded:

The UNWRA statement is unusually blunt and harsh.

Statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl

Jerusalem

Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced. 

We have visited the site and gathered evidence. We have analysed fragments, examined craters and other damage. Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school, in which 3,300 people had sought refuge. We believe there were at least three impacts. It is too early to give a confirmed official death toll. But we know that there were multiple civilian deaths and injuries   including of women and children and the UNRWA guard who was trying to protect the site.  These are people who were instructed to leave their homes by the Israeli army.  

The precise location of the Jabalia Elementary Girls School and the fact that it was housing thousands of internally displaced people was communicated to the Israeli army seventeen times,  to ensure its protection; the last being at  ten to nine last night, just hours before the fatal shelling. 

I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces. 

This is the sixth time that one of our schools has been struck. Our staff, the very people leading the humanitarian response are being killed.  Our shelters are overflowing. Tens of thousands may soon be stranded in the streets of Gaza, without food, water and shelter if attacks on these areas continue. 

We have moved beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. We are in the realm of accountability. I call on the international community to take deliberate international political action to put an immediate end to the continuing carnage.

As many have pointed out during this latest round of Israeli rampaging in Gaza, Israelis are losing their humanity. 

Indeed. But there are so many places where just that loss of humanity has become routinized. This Blood Summer still is only half over, too.

Victim Blaming as Art Form, Sport

In the latest round of slaughter and murder in the Middle East -- now stretching in a big arc from the Gaza Strip in the south to the streets of Damascus in the north to the besieged cities of Iraq in the east -- the active participants love to blame the victims of the slaughter for their own demise.

The victims, for the most part, are only trying to stay out of the way of the drones and bombs and missiles and bullets, but unfortunately in the modern practice of "warfighting" there's no place to go. Every place in the "battle space" is a potential or actual target and there are no shelters for the victims.

Blaming them for their demise doesn't even work as a rationalization. It's simply a formula.

The Israelis, of course, have perfected the formula.

Here is an example of nearly perfect hasbara:

  

M. Cohen • 10 hours ago 

It's simple. Just stop attacking Israel with rockets and missiles, aimed arbitrarily (but hopefully with the intent of hitting civilians, preferably children), give up the objective of destroying Israel, and concede that Israel has a right to exist, and all this can be resolved.

Hamas uses civilian sites to launch it's deadly cargo. When Israel notifies civilians their buildings may be attacked, Hamas insists the residents remain and be martyred. Is no one bothered by Hamas' willingness to sacrifice its own people to further its reprehensible policy of annihilation, or are all of you indignant (to put it mildly) critics really in favor of denying Israel's right to exist as a sovereign country.

And don't get into the "Jewish" state nonsense. Name me one Arab country which isn't de facto, if not de jure, a Moslem theocracy. Also, you might ask why the considerable Christian Palestinian population has practically disappeared from the West bank and Gaza.

They didn't leave voluntarily. It's my understanding many of them went to Israel, where they joined a very large Moslem minority, few if any of whom are leaving Israel for the outside Arab world.

No other country would tolerate this kind of aggression from a neighbor without retaliation.

To my knowledge there were no Jewish populations in Europe attacking the Nazis with hand guns, no less rockets, nor did any Jews declare the intent to destroy any European entity.

The Jews of Europe posed no threat to any state or other political, or societal entity.

Comparing the Holocaust to the present situation in the middle east is nothing more than a subterfuge for anti-semitism. Expecting the Jews to behave differently than any other similarly situated country in a world where outright slaughters are going on (for example Syria and Iraq) with far less justification and a lot less regard for human life says it all.

As far as Israel's so called control of Gaza, again why should Israel concede its sovereignty to a terrorist organization dedicated to its destruction. Israel doesn't occupy Gaza. This latest round started with rocket and missile attacks from guess what - Gaza. The chances are just as good that if Israel withdrew totally from the West Bank and those Palestinians were granted statehood without a comprehensive peace agreement, Israel would be subject to attack not only from the north and south but also the east. There is nowhere in Israel that is out of range of ordinance Hamas now possesses (and is eagerly using). So from a purely defensive perspective, Israel has no choice but to react.

If Hamas gave a damn for its own people, it would cease its aggression, concentrate on improving the standard of living of its people by negotiating in good faith with both Israel and Egypt. Remember Gaza has a border with Egypt, but for some reason all the vitriol is aim,ed at Israel. Wonder why.

The reason Israel imposes embargoes on Gaza is to prevent even worse incursions over it's borders.

The author apparently ran out of time to finish the thought. But it would be a surprise to few if this hasbara was followed by a revisionist history of the region, going back at least to 1948, if not to 1948 BCE.

The formula mixes fact and fiction with repetition and victim blaming, always with the intention to leave Israel and Israelis utterly blameless, heroic and justified. All the responsibility for the deplorable state of conflict is on the shoulders of Hamas and the Palestinians. The people of Gaza deserve what they get -- because they are who they are and they do what they do.

Thence comes the dehumanizing of the foe. They are animals, savage, barbaric, subhuman, inhuman, vermin. Oh, it never fails. Just as in times past the excuse for killing the women and children of the savage foe has been that "nits breed lice." Ergo, kill them all. God will know His own.


Thus even babes in arms are held responsible for the horrors unleashed against them in classic victim-blaming fashion.

The Israelis are behaving barbarically towards their captive Gazan foe, on the theory that "nits breed lice" and killing a sufficiency of the Gazan women and children -- a sufficiency that varies arbitrarily -- will teach the Garzan warriors a lesson: to yield and surrender is their only option, and even then, it will not be enough to end the slaughter, for they and they alone are responsible for the slaughter, and as they hold human life to be of no particular value -- as opposed to the high value that those who kill them hold it -- they will pay forever with their own lives and those of the people they purport to love.

I've  remarked on the tendency of elites and those in power to cast responsibility downwards. According to their own lights, the elites and the oligarchy they serve are not responsible for anything bad that happens. Only the lower orders have responsibility for such evil. They and their various "Hitlers" -- whether in the West Bank and Gaza or lurking under the beds of the high and mighty -- are the responsible parties; the elites and oligarchs who stand with one another to denounce them never are.

Victim blaming is a constant, an art form and a sport.

300

When the death toll from the current Israeli killing spree reaches around 300, the operation should start to ratchet back. A 100 to one killing ratio seems to satisfy the Israeli bloodlust temporarily. 3 Israeli teens killed vs 300 Palestinians should just about do the trick.

For the time being.

Until the next round.

Crazy the fruits of imperialism. No?

The Israel - Iran - PalestineThing

Israel's government is apparently having a nervous breakdown -- one of many it's had over the years -- due to the US government's insistence on negotiating some sort of rapprochement with Iran's government over the Iranian nuclear energy program.

This has led to a deep division between Washington and Jerusalem, one that observers say is unprecedented.

And then come chastisements of Jerusalem from DC over the continuing provocations from the Israelis over settlements in the Occupied Territories of Palestine.

Harrumph says Jerusalem, harrumph on the lot of you.

Yes, well.

We'll see if there is a sustained breach between the capitals; I for one don't think there will be one, but you never know. Things one thought impossible are routine in Washington - Jerusalem relations (or should we say Washington - Tel Aviv relations, since Washington, like every other nation on the face of the earth, refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the Jewish State's capital, regardless of the will of the Israeli government.)

Israel's government wants war with Iran and no peace with the Palestinians, and it appears they won't rest until they achieve their objectives. The problem seems to be that the Israelis are afraid the Iranians already have nuclear weapons (could be), and the Palestinian Question keeps getting them into more and more trouble with their American partners.

What, one may ask, are they to do?

They're having a nervous breakdown, and that seems to be their preferred resolution to this and so many other self-created problems . Meanwhile Washington has its own problems to deal with.

The Gaza Thing

I've purposely stayed well away from the latest ritual Gaza slaughterfest.

It seems clear that unless Israelis slake their thirst for Palestinian blood from time to time they aren't fulfilled. The periodic death and destruction in the vast prison/ghetto that is Gaza turns the stomach and outrages the conscience of anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention.

Israel lies, thieves and murders with near impunity, hollering constantly about all the "rockets raining down" on their sleeping innocent citizens while hundreds or thousands or however many Arabs it takes are mowed down in the Gaza, regardless of "guilt" or "innocence."

And the United States is the enabler.

Is this what it takes for a nation-state to exist? Lying? Thieving? Murdering? Enabling?

Maybe it's time to re-think the nation-state notion.

It's long past time for Zionism to fade away.

[Meanwhile, Egypt seems to be undergoing a bit of... political strain. Ahem.]

On the Egypt Thing

I spent most of yesterday watching the uprising in Egypt live on Al Jazeera, really the only comprehensive and reliable English language coverage available, and for most Americans, it is only available on the internet.

I was mezmerized.

It's very important, of course, to convince Americans that these kinds of Street Insurrections don't work, and to convince them that they better not try it, no matter how bad things get in this country. Jibbering natives overseas may be able to pull off something like this, but no American should ever think that something like this can work in a civilized country like the Good Ol USA.

From what I've seen of American media on the Egypt Thing, that's been pretty much the universal message: "Don't you get uppity and try this yourself. It will not work."

Back to the coverage; there is anxious anticipation that Mubarak will indeed give up the Pharaoh's Throne in due time, which may be very soon indeed.

And as Egypt falls, attempted American hegemony in the Middle East will fall to pieces. There are uprisings in Jordan too, the Yemen, Lebanon, Algeria, etc. The paranoiacs in Israel must be shitting bricks.

And they've got nukes.

This is no time for popcorn.

Testimonies of Mavi Marmara Passengers

From Counterfire.org YouTube channel:

Start with Jamal Elshayyal of AlJazeera, but there are many more.



See them all:

http://www.youtube.com/user/adycousins

And visit Counterfire for news of ongoing struggles around the world.

Don't put up with the shit that's going on.

How the testifiers stay so calm I'll never know. And of course Washington and Tel Aviv are collaborating to "investigate" the Peace Terrorist Flotilla and justify the murder, wounding, kidnapping, brutalization, and theft from its passengers. The results of this so-called "investigation" are foregone.

Israel is blameless, Peace Terrorists are guilty, all actions by Israel justified.

Oh, and by the way, Israel will now let corriander and toys into the Gaza. So there is that. Have a nice day.

Mavi Marmara Assault -- Full Video From Cultures of Resistance

YouTube Link

I watched this last night and found it to be a very powerful documentary in this extremely raw state. I posted some comments at Glenn's Place in response to ondelette's request for peoples' impressions of what they saw.

This is a transcript of my two posts last night:

Saturday, June 12, 2010 10:33 PM ET

ondelette: On the Full video released at UN

Been watching it off and on for a while now. In some ways so sad. I know, but I don't know, that some of the men, maybe many of them, in the video are either wounded or dead now.

They are so hopeful, so frightened, so determined.

There is an early sense of calm, deliberate intensity. Many conflicting emotions simultaneously.

I paused just past the point where the Israelis are pulling alongside the Mavi Marmara. The Israelis are firing at the ship; it sounds like bullets and grenades (flash/bang?), possibly tear gas as well; they are firing constantly.

The passengers are shouting, watching over the rail, moving fast from place to place. The Israelis keep up constant fire at the ship. Their fast boat is right up against the starboard side.

—Ché Pasa
Read Ché Pasa's other letters

ondelette: On the Full video released at UN (cont'd)

Blood on the stairwell, people don't know how it got there, a passenger wounded?

Firing. One shot. One shot. One shot. Burst of shots. One shot. Helicopter overhead, passengers warding it off with sling shots, ineffective. Shots are heard. Are they firing from the helicopter?

Commandos fast roping down, not much sound, view is from the deck below. No sign of what's going on up there. Helicopter choppers away. Men with slingshots continue to aim at it.

Shots heard on the upper deck, bursts of three, four. Wounded passengers carried down, and two Israeli soldiers.

Many wounded now, some dead, shot in the head; firing continues in bursts.

Men in the stairwell armed with sticks, the famous "iron bars," one tries to open a package of pepper spray with his knife. Unsuccessful. Waiting, waiting. Firing continues outside, now a shot, now another, now three, now four. Are they firing into the stairwell? Man goes down, but there is no effort to rescue him. Firing, firing.

Blood. Blood on the walls, blood on the floor, blood on the wounded, blood on the dead, blood on the men trying to be medics. Chest compressions on a badly wounded man, compressions badly done. They're trying the best they can. Is he dead?

Many wounded, some dead.

It looks like no one is afraid anymore. Firing, firing, one shot, one shot, two shots, one shot, three shots. Firing.

Dawn. The ship is traveling away from the dawn, moving westward, away from Gaza, west. Firing, firing. Shooting continues as alarm sounds on ship. Loudspeakers in other languages, then English. "Please go to your cabins. Go to your seats. The Israelis are using live ammunition. Please go to your seats."

Men mill around holding sticks, "iron bars." They pray. Smoke. So many smokers. Dawn.

Hearts are racing. What now?

—Ché Pasa
Read Ché Pasa's other letters

Permalink

The only thing I would add at this point is that what is shown in the raw footage is how a resistance struggle actually looks from the inside as an action is taking place. Superficially, it's not very dramatic most of the time; a lot of standing and milling around, nervous waiting. Flashes of bravery. Carrying and caring for the wounded and the dead. Mostly though, it's a situation of growing tension and not knowing what will happen next, nor necessarily when your own turn will come -- for whatever Fate has in store.

The dramatic action that you see on the teevee is the exception, not the rule.

I was struck, too, by all the people sitting around smoking and nervously laughing toward the end of footage. That's part of the truth of these things that people almost never see. But it is very real.

Rude

Speaks for itself

To Expand A Bit on The Helen Thomas Thing (Now With Update!)

Helen did not use the word, "Jews." The Rabbi interviewing her did. And when she heard that, it seemed to dawn on her what was up; she cut her eyes at the person she was talking to and expanded her wish that Israelis would "go home" to "America and everywhere else."

She has long stated her guiding principle in the Middle East: innocent people should not be forced to pay for or die for the crimes of others.

It's the essence of her view of decency and justice. It's not a hard concept to understand, it's just rarely observed by the contending forces in the Middle East or anywhere else.

In fact, the universal policy in the Middle East and elsewhere seems to be that innocent people will always be made to pay or die for the crimes of others, at a ratio of hundreds to one.

If Helen's principle were observed in Europe during that Unfortunate Period of the 20th Century, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust, and if there wasn't a Holocaust, there probably wouldn't have been an Israel, either. The Palestinians might be living in peace and happiness, who knows.

Wouldn't want that.

In trying to seek some understanding of Israel's victim mentality -- and the violence that is Israelis' constant way with regard to their subjugated minorities and neighbors -- I came across a link to a brilliant documentary by Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir called "Defamation". In it, the filmmaker tries to make sense of a term he has heard all his life in Israel but has never experienced: "Antisemitism." He goes on a long journey and learns many things. One of them being that Israel lives on the corpses of the Holocaust, something that happened long ago and far away, and which is now used as an excuse to deflect any criticism of Israel or Israeli military/political action and declare it "Antisemitism." The picture is remarkable for what it bravely shows of human nature, and for the hope it gives that a less froughtful future is possible. Not easy. Possible. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Part I (of 9) embedded below:



==========================================

UPDATE The Rabbi has posted the entire interview with Helen Thomas. Watch it, and then tell the world what a hideous antisemitic old hag Helen is. Just tell the whole wide world. The Rabbi should be ashamed.

Sometimes I just want to scream.

"What Should The Israelis Have Done?"

The hasbaraniks continue to infest the Interwebs like locusts, presenting the IDF Spokesman's Line on the Mavi Marmara Affair, rigidly adhering to the talking points that they repeat by rote over and over and over again, about how surroundsed, beset and victimised poor little friendless Israel is in the midst of a ravening horde of Arabs and how necessary it is to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza, and how Hamas is a Terrorist Organization that has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, and how many times the convoy was offered safe passage to Ashdod and how cruel and vicious the passengers were to the kindly IDF Commandos who carefully rappelled down to the decks so as not to disturb the passengers' slumbers, only to be met with a ravening horde of Peace Terrorists who pummeled them with Terror Sticks and stabbed them with Terror Knives and threw them over the Terror Rails of the Terror Ship until the patience of the Gentle Commandos who were only enforcing the necessary blockade was exhausted and with Immense Sorrow in Their Hearts for what the Peace Terrorists were forcing them to do, they fired into the ravening hordes of Peace Terrorists on that one ship, just the one remember, and finally, with great difficulty, brought the unfortunate situation under control. Heroically.



That's the Line from hasbara HQ. Now some of the hasbaraniks will embroider this basic story with tales of the Holocaust and all the Little Hitlers that have popped up in our midst, or they will go on about how the many outspoken Jewish critics of Israel's behavior are objectively Pro-Terrorist and clearly self-hating Jews, etc. etc. Each hasbaranik has their own little quirk. But the core story is repeated over and over and over again, in an almost trance-like state. A wonder to behold.

Every now and again, a hasbaranik will ask, "Well, what should Israel have done, Mister Smartypants?"

My answer? Simple:

Welcome the humanitarian aid ships, issue no threats or orders, offer to escort them to the Port of Gaza, and assist in the unloading and distribution of supplies by paying for personnel and transport. Then thank the Peace Terrorists and peacefully escort them back to international waters.

Couldn't be simpler.

No deaths, no violence, and... Israel breaks its own blockade.

What a concept.

So far nearly everyone is thinking about this incident and the situation that led to it tactically. "What would you have done to preserve the blockade?" when the simple and I believe correct answer is strategic: Israel breaks its own blockade and assists the humanitarian convoy in achieving its humanitarian objectives.

If the Israelis had done that, the picture today would be very different, many people would still be alive and healthy, the situation in Gaza would start to measurably improve, and Israel's image would undergo a transformation.

Israel has the power to make this kind of strategic move, power that Hamas doesn't have. Israel has the ability to move forward.

Why doesn't it do so?

Peace Terrorists (h/t Baldie McEagle)

Of course the Whole Wide World is all abuzz over the cowardly IDF's latest atrocity, this one on the high seas, commandeering international vessels headed to Gaza to deliver 10,000 tons of much needed basic supplies like wheelchairs, medicine, cement, to the encaged inhabitants. In the process of commandeering the vessels, the IDF cowards murdered a shifting number of passengers of one vessel (the Official IDF Number today is 9, but it has varied substantially so much and so often -- from 9 to as many as 20 dead -- there is no way for an independent observer to know for sure. No doubt by design). They injured dozens of passengers, some with gunshots, others with stun grenades, rubber bullets, electrical shock devices, and just plain mano-a-mano brutality.

It's a "public relations disaster" for the cowardly Likud coalition regime in Jerusalem and the cowardly IDF, as if the only concern they or anyone else really need have about this act of war against Turkey and other nations is the "Narrative."

The perpetual Narrative. Worry about what we and others say not about what happened.

What Israel has become is heartbreaking for someone like me. I grew up with Israel.

And when I was younger, until the aftermath of the 1967 War, I was a strong supporter of Israel, even subscribed to some magazine they put out for young people all about the kibbutzim and the hardy Zionist pioneers who were transforming the Holy Land, yadda, yadda, yadda. It was really thrilling, and prior to 1967, there was no concept in my mind that there might be something a little off about this experiment of settling (mostly) European Jews -- refugees and Holocaust survivors -- in Palestine. The facts of the foundation of Israel were... murky to say the least, at least to someone like me who was fascinated with the energy and excitement of it all. Israel was the kind of progressive, forward-looking, strong, independent, youthful, happy society most Americans aspired to in one way or another. Israel was doing what so many idealists believed had to be done.

And prior to 1967, it seemed possible that Israelis and Palestinians would live together in peace, harmony and prosperity, eventually if not immediately. It seemed -- at least until then -- that the Israelis and the Palestinians were trying to come together, but Jordan and Egypt were preventing it.

Then Israel initiated war in 1967, took the West Bank and Gaza and all of Jerusalem, and while at first there was hope that this conquest would work out for the best for the Palestinian inhabitants, soon enough, it became clear that they would be under military occupation and not integrated into Israel, and it wasn't good.

The situation has deteriorated ever since.

In 1973, Israel went to war again against its neighbors and seized the Sinai Peninsula and the Suez Canal from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, and defied anyone to do anything about it.

At that time, I became a "neutral" when it came to Israel, thinking -- to the extent I thought about it at all -- that if Israel acted like a grown up, or just followed concepts of human decency, things would work out.

But they didn't.

Over the years, the Israeli dilemma has gotten worse and worse, and in the last few years, Israel has turned into a bloodthirsty rogue monster state, a tiny version of what the United States has become, without the USA's redeeming qualities, and this latest misadventure against "Peace Terrorists" has just about sealed the deal for the whole world.

Nope. No more of this shit. They've gone too far. They are a pariah state for whom the end will come.

Of course nothing will happen in the short term. Likudniks will rage and fulminate the way they do, probably killing a few score more Palestinians to prove they "can" (I heard three were slaughtered in the Gaza yesterday; there will be more).

The supply convoy intended to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza; instead the ships and passengers were abducted and hauled off to Ashdod. Oddly enough, though, the reaction of world opinion was so swift and so fierce and so negative that Egypt opened the Rafah crossing without restrictions the day after the seizure of the convoy and its passengers, thus effectively breaking the blockade, while the rest of the world called for its ending. Israel apparently swiftly unloaded the supplies from the vessels and transported them all to Gaza, apparently without restriction. (I have to say "apparently" because Israel has an annoying habit of lying about everything it does and says it is doing and/or will do. "Information Management/Information Warfare," don't you see.) Most of the passengers, if not all of them, have been or shortly will be released and repatriated.

Another convoy is on the way, this one from Ireland, and the question is whether the Israelis will try to commandeer these vessels as well. Turkey says it will escort the next convoy with naval ships. Israel has already committed an act of war against Turkey by seizing a Turkish-flag ship and murdering and wounding dozens of Turkish passengers. If there is a confrontation between the Turkish navy and the Israelis, it could turn very nasty and very ugly very fast. We'll know more within the week.

Someone asked, "What should Israel do?"

The answer is very simple: escort any aid vessels to Gaza, and assist them in unloading and distributing supplies, lift the blockade by land and sea, and pay substantial reparations to Gazans and Palestinians in general.

For a start.

And then get some national social and political therapy.

The Carnage Stops for the Moment

Image of white phosphorous falling inside the UN school in northern Gaza where a woman and a child were killed on January 17.

So they've stopped for the moment. Snipers have no doubt fanned out to liquidate/exterminate the usual "pockets of resistance," but for the moment "quiet" has descended on the smoking, blood-drenched ruins of Gaza.

Hamas, so far as we can tell from afar, didn't fight. There was no resistance to Israeli tanks and bombs and bullets. The entirety of Gaza was an Israeli free-fire zone, and there was no where at all for Gazans to find safe refuge within Gaza, no way at all for non-combatants to flee. They are trapped, encaged, without succor, without hope, to be slaughtered at will by the dartk forces of death and destruction arrayed against them.

All the European heads of state are assembled at Sharm el-Sheikh to assure Israel that they support its right to defend itself against the perfidy of the Palestinians, that they are determined to get humanitarian aid to the Gazans as quickly as possible, and (according to Gordon Brown) to provide counseling services to children who have been traumatized by the struggle.

Mouin Rabbani comments on the proceedings that it is breathtakingly inconceivable that not one of these glittering heads of state has mentioned the word "occupation". How can they discuss what's happened without mentioning the occupation? Rabanni's counclusion? The Two State Settlement is dead. The very notion of "negotiations" has been discredited.

Rabbani opines that the next step is not a One State Solution, as that ideal is unlikely in our lifetimes. The next step is more likely an extistential struggle. He doesn't describe it, not yet. But given past history, the "extistential" solution is the elimination of the Palestinians by force.

Warsaw/Gaza

Throughout the current Israeli Aktion against the Gaza Strip, observers who wish to incite Zionist Israel defenders have compared the Israeli operations to the Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942-43.

The comparison is not exact, of course. For one thing, the Germans and their allies didn't use air power against the Ghetto inmates, at least not to any great extent. They didn't have helicopters, and their fighter planes and bombers stayed on the ground. There were only about a 1000 Jewish fighters in the Ghetto, and their numbers were reduced smartly and consistently by the Germans and their allies.

The Germans had been emptying the Ghetto for months before the Uprising in 1943, and there were only about 55-60,000 people left in the Ghetto by that time. Deportations continued during the Uprising, the point being, of course, to remove all the inmates and obliterate the Ghetto.

By contrast, Gaza is sealed off completely, and there has been no effort whatsoever to get people out of there. The cordon is complete. At best, no more than a few hundred wounded and civilians with foreign passports have been allowed to leave. 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped in Gaza with no means of escape. There is no safe place, no refuge at all anywhere in the Gaza Ghetto. The Israelis bomb and shell at will, and they are using horrific weapons like White Phosphorous shells, "bunker busters", and possibly DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) weapons as well.

For its part, Hamas has been a pathetic defender of Gaza and its people. While there are supposed to be some 15-20,000 Hamas fighters in the enclave -- a small number in proportion to the population -- they have been utterly unable to defend against he Israeli onslaught. Their rocket squads have never been an effective assault mechanism, and the number of Hamas rockets fired from Gaza has been reduced to no more than a few per day. From the sketchy reports out of Gaza, mostly on Al Jazeera, it appears that there is sporadic guerilla action from Hamas, but very limited, and hardly even noticed by the Israeli Death Machine.

Israel claims that every military aged male in Gaza is a "terrorist," and so all the dead male adolescents and adults are by definition "Hamas Terrorists" in their eyes. But the casualty figures, right now being reported on Al Jazeera as 905 dead and over 4,000 injured, indicate that at least 40% of the casualties are women and children, and of the dead and injured men, only a few are actually "Hamas." There is no sign that the Israelis actually intend to wipe out or even seriously reduce the numbers of Hamas in Gaza. Many Israelis have appeared on Al Jazeera who have said that "Hamas can stay," as long as the rocket fire stops and they do not rearm. Of course the Israelis lie, but still.

Almost all the Hamas spokespeople who have appeared on Al Jazeera have been in Syria; I cannot recall seeing even one interviewed in Gaza itself, though I could be wrong. Al Jazeera does have reporters on the ground in Gaza, and they are reporting live from their Gaza studios and on location (mostly at the hospitals) in the warzone throughout the day, but their reports seem oddly sterile. It seems they are being very careful in what they show and how they report on what is happening, as if they are under some sort of censorship rule, but by whom is the question. Their reports from Israel are obviously under some Israeli control -- although it seems to be relatively light -- but their reports from inside Gaza seem to be almost sanitized, only showing the bombing and shelling from a "safe" distance (although often live), rarely going out on the streets for face to face interviews with Gaza residents, never (so far as I can recall) interviewing Hamas officials in Gaza, but very prominently featuring the panicked delivery of the dead and wounded to the hospitals -- with a special emphasis on the children. There have also been a number of reports showing the appearance of "normal life" during the alleged daily "3 hour humanitarian cease fires" -- that are nothing of the sort. Gazans are shown shopping for food and sundries in the outdoor markets, some are interviewed, the usual denunciations of Israel and complicit Arab governments are expressed, and life goes on.

How much of this somewhat tip-toe reporting is due to the nature of the conflict and the real dangers the reporters face -- and they certainly face plenty of dangers, even in London, where one reporter was stoned live on camera when he was reporting on a pro-Israeli demonstration -- and how much is due to management instructions from Doha I can't say, but it is... odd.

They are reporting on Arab government complicity and failure to act to end the carnage, and there are many reports of the massive demonstrations around the world -- and in Israel and Arab capitals as well -- against the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. Al Jazeera had extensive reporting on and from the United Nations about their actions (and inactions) toward some sort of eventual "durable" ceasefire. The extent of the reporting was surprising given the general level of cynicism in the Middle East regarding anything the United Nations Security Council does or doesn't do or say.

They have featured Barack Obama's non-statement statements about the Gaza situation, and they have had panels speculating on how the Incoming will approach the Middle East conundrum. Most panelists seem to be of the opinion that there will be little substantive change in the American government position favoring Israel, but that there may be more "engagement" in the region toward some sort of settlement of the hostilities and conflicts.

[To Be Continued...]

UPDATE: January 15, 2009

I had a wan hope that this bloody Gaza reduction campaign would be over by the time I got back to this post, but no. The efforts at a ceasefire have come to naught thanks to the intransigence of the Israelis backed by the USA, both Outgoing and Incoming Administrations, the appalling corruption of the Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian governments, along with the languid indifference of other Arab and world governments to the plight of the Palestinians.

It's tough to compare what is going on in Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and liquidation. As I've said before, it's a comparison we really don't want to make. And yet what's been going on in Gaza, the methodical and deliberate campaign of death and destruction undertaken by the Israelis, the terror the Gazans are experiencing every minute the Israeli Aktion continues, and the near futility of resistance -- no matter how heroic it may be in individual circumstances -- all evoke echoes of what happened in Warsaw in 1943.

What is significantly different is that there is no effort at all, by anyone, to get the Gazans out of there. They are being slaughtered in place and their cities are being destroyed around them. Except for a handful of injured and those with third country passports, no one is being let out -- or taken out -- of the Gaza enclave. The people are sealed in. In Warsaw, the deportations continued while the Uprising was going on. And in every other conflict I can recall, civilians have been able to (or have been required to) flee in advance of the Death Machine. In Gaza, they must stay. There is nowhere to run or to hide, no way out, and the Gazans can only await their doom.

Even the indifference of so many world governments -- not so much the indifference of the Peoples of the world -- is an echo of the disinterest of the world in the plight of the Jews of Europe during the Nazi hey-day.

The reports right now on Al Jazeera describe increasing horror in Gaza, as the Israelis are shelling and bombing UN headquarters and relief supplies warehouses, fuel depots, hospitals with hundreds of patients, apartment houses with hundreds of families still in them (reports are that some have collapsed and that perhaps hundreds of people have been killed in the latest bombings), the Red Crescent hospital is on fire, and a building housing journalists from Reuters and a number of Arab news services has been hit.

Yet the word being passed around the Al Jazeera crew is that this is a last spasm of violence before a ceasefire which, for some reason, they expect to see implemented within the next 24-48 hours. From what they have been saying, the AJ crew seems to believe that Egypt has brokered ceasefire terms with Hamas that are acceptable to Israel, and that there will be an interim agreement today when the Israeli representative arrives in Cairo, and that the fighting will stop sometime in the next couple of days.

If that's true, it will be an echo of how the Israeli campaign against Lebanon and Hezbullah sputtered to an end in 2006. In that conflict, the violence against infrastructure, civilians, and relief efforts increased the closer to the ceasefire things got. Then there was a last spasm of cluster bombing of southern Lebanon villages and then it was over, Israelis pulled out, and Hezbullah declared victory.