World conscience on trial

Published Date: 05/02/2009 - 02:41 AM
Dr. Ahmed Yousef

For the past 15 days, the small area of 150 square miles jammed with 1.5 million Palestinians has been subjected to the most brutal military campaign against a civilian population of this new 21st century and ranks among the most heinous. There is absolutely no equivalence between the limited capabilities of the Palestinian fighters and the military might of Israel’s armed forces, equipped with the most sophisticated technologies—delivering death and destruction by air, land and sea. Their victims are the thousands of defenseless civilians, men, women and children injured, and the hundreds killed; victims of an act of unparalleled cowardice and immorality delivering death and suffering to our besieged and virtually starving people.

And the numbers speak for themselves: now approaching 1,000 dead, and over 3,000 injured at the time of this writing, many yet to be found in the rubble of buildings, residences, schools, offices and religious places. No genuine democracy—a claim to which Israel aspires—could excuse such violence; its scale wildly disproportionate to any possible harm that our simple, home-made rockets that we fire as a signal of our resistance to Israel’s inhumane and illegal occupation. We cannot accept the arguments made by Israel that the reason for this massive destruction and loss of life is the continued firing of our rockets. They provoke us with the intention to justify their actions, while the rest of the world, and much of the media, continue to operate under the flag of political correctness; they are inadvertently but painfully projecting a highly distorted picture of the respective responsibilities of aggressor and victim.

Hamas governs in Gaza because our people have elected us. We may not be beloved by Israel for the moral and religious values we hold. We have been elected by the majority of Palestinians, but we were denied the chance to govern. And this denial has been underscored through imprisonment of our political leadership under the guise of war on terror. Israel continued to devour our land while orchestrating with international support an endless and meaningless peace process. We formed a government of national unity, but those who wished otherwise chose to label us terrorists and worked systematically to isolate us. No honest and independent observer could interpret our takeover in Gaza as an act of usurpation of power, when in fact it was an act of affirmation of the right to govern granted us through an internationally monitored, genuine, democratic election process.

From our perspective, Israel withdrew from the interior of Gaza only to enclose us in a sarcophagus, intending to suffocate our will to resist. They claim that if we were moderate and willing to meet their terms—sadly and unjustly imposed on us with the support of the Quartet—we could have the privilege of joining the meaningless Annapolis process, while our lands continue to be stolen and our people humiliated, all under Israel’s mindless mantra of security for themselves and their illegal settler populations.

Because we will not submit to such bullying tactics, their present goal is to bring us to our knees by wreaking havoc and destruction on the whole population of Gaza. They will not succeed in achieving this.

We are grateful to those who have understood our just cause and have shared our suffering. To them we shall be eternally grateful. In strong contrast, we have been shocked and dismayed by the lack of either empathy or understanding from the international community in general. While seeing the horror of Israel’s actions, many seem to support their goal: the dismantlement of our popularly supported movement. They call for a halt in the fighting, but they place preconditions that all but ensure that the killing and destruction goes on.

We love our country and are willing to die for it. We wish harm to none. The time has come for a minimally fair path to the future that restores to our people their rights to sovereignty and independence. We shall never be slaves to any power, and our struggle shall continue at whatever cost until we are free.

We welcome President-elect Obama’s remarks of 11 January committing his new administration to addressing seriously this much-too-long-neglected conflict. We call on America under his leadership to set a new and just course that can bring peace, fairness and justice to our bleeding land.

Our people have extended their hand in peace; time and again we have offered a ‘hudna’. We are waiting for the Israeli people to look beyond the shortsightedness of their present leadership and to demonstrate their willingness to make the sacrifices that are necessary for a just and genuine peace.

It is only then that Palestinians and Israelis can learn to live side by side and to lay to rest the historical horrors and sufferings of both our peoples. Thus we can look to cherish the heritage of this holy territory with which both our peoples have been entrusted, and to ensure that henceforth it will again be a place of peace on earth and goodwill to all.

*Former senior political advisor to PM Ismael Haniyeh

http://www.ptimes.org/main/default.aspx?...5ok3n%2FHbDQ%3D

Oh yeah Davey; the conscience of the whole world is on trial?

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UN halts aid to Gaza, cites Hamas disruption
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Josef Federman, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 37 mins ago

JERUSALEM – The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday it has halted all aid shipments into the Gaza Strip due to interference by the ruling Hamas militant group.

The U.N. Relief and Works agency said it made the decision after Hamas personnel intercepted an aid shipment for the second time this week.

In a statement, UNRWA said 10 truckloads of flour and rice that had been delivered into Gaza on Thursday were taken away by trucks affiliated with the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. Earlier this week, Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

UNRWA said the suspension would remain in effect until the aid is returned and the agency receives credible assurances from the Hamas government that such thefts will end. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would continue to distribute aid from its existing supplies in Gaza, but that stocks were running low.

"There is enough aid for days, not weeks," he said. Complicating the situation, he said the agency has not been able to import plastic bags used for food distribution, and that existing supplies will run out early next week.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called UNRWA's decision "unjustified."

He said Hamas supports UNRWA's work but believes the agency gives some of its aid to groups attached to Hamas' rivals.

He urged UNRWA "to put an end to using aid for political means, and to distribute it to all the needy equally."

Some 80 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people rely on the U.N. agency for food and other support, and U.N. officials say the need for aid has increased since Israel ended a military offensive in Gaza last month.

The offensive, meant to halt years of Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, killed nearly 1,300 people and caused widespread destruction.

Also Friday, Israel deported 15 activists from an aid ship it intercepted en route from Lebanon to Gaza. The activists, all Lebanese and Syrian citizens, were deported overnight, the military said.

Three others — two Indians and a Briton — remained in police custody pending deportation, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The ship had attempted to reach Gaza on Thursday in defiance of an Israeli blockade. Israel intercepted the vessel and towed it to Ashdod port, where it remained docked Friday. It was not immediately clear when the boat would be allowed to sail.

Israel and Lebanon are officially at war. Israel said it was concerned about the ship's cargo and called the boat a "provocation." Israel, which is enforcing a naval blockade aimed at Gaza's Hamas rulers, has allowed several similar aid ships into Gaza and has turned several more back, but had never before boarded or detained one.

While the boat remained docked, some 1,000 units of donated blood were quickly unloaded and sent into Gaza, military spokesman Peter Lerner said. The rest of the supplies on board were being examined and would also be sent to Gaza, he said.

Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. Since then, it has allowed in little more than basic humanitarian supplies.

Despite Israeli concerns, no weapons were found on board. The organizers of the aid ship, Lebanese political and human rights activists, said the cargo comprised of medicine, food, toys and basic humanitarian supplies such as mattresses and blankets.

Israel unilaterally halted its devastating Gaza operation on Jan. 18, and Hamas followed with an announcement that it would hold its fire.

Sporadic fighting has persisted. On Friday, Gaza militants launched two more rockets into Israel, the military said. There were no injuries, but it illustrated the fragility of the Gaza cease-fire. Late Thursday Israeli forces on the Gaza-Israel border shot and killed a Palestinian who the military said approached the fence armed with a grenade.

Egypt's attempts to mediate a long-term cease-fire have not succeeded so far. Hamas is demanding that Israel open Gaza's blockaded border crossings as part of any agreement, but Israel says it will not turn the crossings over to Hamas control. It also wants international guarantees that weapons smuggling into Gaza will stop.

The attempts to negotiate a cease-fire are unfolding in the shadow of Israel's national election on Tuesday, as Israel's leaders compete over who can take the toughest stand against Hamas.

New polls Friday showed the likely winner would be hard-line Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who says the current government ended the Gaza operation too early, without causing enough damage to the Islamic group.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

I think you need to start doing drugs again. It may well be that you`re so far out of touch when you`re clean, that you lose touch with reality.

Oh yes yes, Israel is the baddest of the bad. Meanwhile the Palestinians continue fighting Israel, committed to the destruction of Israel and all Jews. Of course, there`s not a damn thing wrong with killing each other during a lull in attacks on Israel. Go shoot some skag, then come back to your keyboard eh?

"Meanwhile the Palestinians continue fighting Israel, committed to the destruction of Israel and all Jews."

More BS - Israel/US is the one who doesn't observe the cease fires, not Hamas.

Israel/US is the one that ignores the offers of truces - not Hamas.

Israel/US is the one that doesn't want the two-state solution - not Hamas.

Hamas may be a bunch of thieves, but the Israel and US governments are a bunch of mass murderers who scream "THIEF" and point their fingers hoping nobody notices the war crimes.

Bullshit? The people who do not want to be killed or injured, their houses and schools damaged or destroyed and get along with each other deserve a settlement which ends all fighting.

So I see now that you side with Hamas and Hezbollah and want Israel and the United States destroyed before there can be any peace? That`s sick David. I knew that eventually your words would reveal your underlying motivations which are clearly in favor of terror groups. It does not even bother you that these guys kill their own and use civillians as shields for propaganda. You are a shill for Anarchy which anyone who has taken the time to discover the truth, is a schlep for fomenting bloody revolutions and war. So, when are you going to put down the keyboard and start liquidating Jews and Americans? Let me know. Just don`t get in range of me.

You're weird ben...quite the thinking you've got there.

"The people who do not want to be killed or injured, their houses and schools damaged or destroyed and get along with each other deserve a settlement which ends all fighting."

Israel could end the fighting any time it wanted to - but it doesn't want to.


"So I see now that you side with Hamas and Hezbollah and want Israel and the United States destroyed before there can be any peace?"

Hamas can't destroy the two most powerful armies on planet Earth. The US and Israel don't want peace - that's why they keep ignoring calls for a truce from Hamas:


"A narrow alternative would be for Israel to abide by a cease-fire, for example, the cease-fire proposed by Hamas political leader Khaled Mishal a few days before Israel launched its attack on December 27. Mishal called for restoring the 2005 agreement. That agreement called for an end to violence and uninterrupted opening of the borders, along with an Israeli guarantee that goods and people could move freely between the two parts of occupied Palestine, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The agreement was rejected by the US and Israel a few months later, after the free election of January 2006 turned out "the wrong way." There are many other highly relevant cases.

The broader and more significant alternative would be for the US and Israel to abandon their extreme rejectionism, and join the rest of the world -- including the Arab states and Hamas -- in supporting a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus. It should be noted that in the past 30 years there has been one departure from US-Israeli rejectionism: the negotiations at Taba in January 2001, which appeared to be close to a peaceful resolution when Israel prematurely called them off. It would not, then, be outlandish for Obama to agree to join the world, even within the framework of US policy, if he were interested in doing so.

In short, Obama's forceful reiteration of Israel's right to defend itself is another exercise of cynical deceit -- though, it must be admitted, not unique to him, but virtually universal.

The deceit is particularly striking in this case because the occasion was the appointment of Mitchell as special envoy. Mitchell's primary achievement was his leading role in the peaceful settlement in northern Ireland. It called for an end to IRA terror and British violence. Implicit is the recognition that while Britain had the right to defend itself from terror, it had no right to do so by force, because there was a peaceful alternative: recognition of the legitimate grievances of the Irish Catholic community that were the roots of IRA terror. When Britain adopted that sensible course, the terror ended. The implications for Mitchell's mission with regard to Israel-Palestine are so obvious that they need not be spelled out. And omission of them is, again, a striking indication of the commitment of the Obama administration to traditional US rejectionism and opposition to peace, except on its extremist terms. "

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090124.htm

David replied with a more high minded response, but I will actually engage your trolling, albeit in a manner which will not satisfy you.

First, this is not about Jews. No one is talking about liquidating anyone, except for the Israelis trying to exterminate the Palestinian population.

Most of the world understands that Israel is strong. Most of the world knows that America has openly stated its alliance with Israel, and will protect its integrity, as ell as permitting its various war crimes. So it goes.

What do you call it when the strong attack the weak? Tyranny.

What should you call those who will not bend before a tyrant? Heroes.

You can look to your own countrys revolution, reading the writings of your founding fathers and see their response to tyranny. Apply that same determination for self - rule and freedom, and rights to the Palestinians. Should they sit and await their own doom?

You speak with such fervour about a subject that you frame incorrectly. This is not about territory, or democracy, or Jews, or Muslims.

It is about Justice. It is about human rights.

The administration of Gaza and the West Bank is wrong on many fundamental levels. Blockades, selected assassinations, aerial bombardment, the wall, treatment of pilgrims, restrictions on movement, and treatment of Palestinians by settlers.

All of these things must end because they are not just. They are morally wrong.

Do you see the difference?

Those of us who call for the end of the crimes committed in Palestine are occupying the moral high ground. We are seeking an end to violence. We are seeking a restoration of human rights. We are seeking dignity, and honour, and self determination for an oppressed people.

That is our position.

Those who support Israel seek a continuation of the conflict, a return to stealing land, killing civilians, and subjugating a population that consists of 35% minors. They seek the right of Israel to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity against a population they have been attacking for 40 years. They seek the right of the most powerful army in the region to attack a crudely armed militia with HE and WP.

I know which side I am on. You have made it clear where you stand.

Masses of people have fought revolutionary wars over the principles I espouse. Dictators and their armies have fought for yours.

Hamas is incapable of providing justice to anyone who opposes them. The truth about Hamas is that they are not desirous of obtaining peaceful settlements, nor are they eager to govern an independant Palestine. Hamas is a war crime. The day when the war stops is the day Hamas is unemployed because Iran stops supplying them with weapons. Hamas has no alternatives anymore but to continue killing people. After time passes, it no longer matters who dies, as long as Hamas says they are enemies. This too has been one reason the fighting never stops, death has become a permanent occupation. That`s a war crime, to have some motherfucker sit in Syria and direct Hamas in the systematic liquidation of all opposition within and without Gaza.

How can you say Hamas doesn't want a settlement, when Hamas has been the only side offering such? Just because Hamas doesn't want to settle on a fully Israeli agreement doesn't make them opposed to resolution.

The only war crime Hamas may be guilty of is firing unguided rockets. Compared with their enemy, it makes them paragons of justice and virtue.

If you really believe that Hamas is a Syrian(or Iranian) construct than you don't know a thing about the history of the region.

Can you even explain your positions? Can you present the logic behind them? If you think you have done so, you have failed miserably.