“To turn a person into a beast all you need is a uniform, separation from the family, and beating on a drum.”
Tolstoy (from his diary while serving in the army)

Obama has stated unequivocally that a resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict must involve a guarantee of the continued existence of Israel as a “Jewish state”. But what if peace is fundamentally incompatible with the existence of Israel as a Jewish state - because a Jewish state is a national-chauvinist apartheid state in its very essence. Then what, President Obama? Will you change your mind? Will you start thinking outside the box of a “Jewish state” to find the peace the world so desperately needs?

Re Frank Goodman, Sr., January 3 at 1:30 pm

Hi, Frank - glad to have you back. You may be getting old, but your posts are as incisive as ever.

All:

It’s become a ground war: Israeli troops entered Gaza overnight.  Here is an early report:

http://www.rr.com/view/content/story.cfm?storyId=6495737&view=NEWS&sSect=LP1-T2VGEN&trProv=NE_AP_3

Peace.  (In our time?)

RE: troublesum, January 3 at 1:47 pm

“I keep thinking that at some point the soldiers will rebel - “Sorry, I will not kill children.”

They already do. Support the Shministim http://www.December18th.org

troublesum:

“I keep thinking that at some point the soldiers will rebel - ‘Sorry, I will not kill children.  You may kill me, but I won’t do it.’”

Oh, that that would only happen!  A mini-rebellion of the armed forces.  Bravo!

Peace.

I don’t know where these soldiers come from who drop bombs on innocent people, especially children.  Further, where do these perverted politicians come from who order them to do it?  I keep thinking that at some point the soldiers will rebel - “Sorry, I will not kill children.  You may kill me, but I won’t do it.”

Folktruther,
Our only concern at this point should be to try to help the Palestinian cause in any possible way we can.  I don’t see how writing diatribes against the people who disagree with us helps the situation any.  Watching this unfold is almost more than one can stand.  The 21st century promises to be bloddier than the last.  There is no moral leadership in the world.  We are degenerating.

Counterpunch

Weekend Edition
January 2 - 4, 2009

An Experiment in Provocation
Stealing Gaza
By BRIAN ENO

It’s a tragedy that the Israelis - a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression - are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked “Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it’s the Palestinians”. By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw ghetto they are recapitulating their own history as though they’ve forgotten it. And by trying to paint an equivalence between the Palestinians - with their homemade rockets and stone-throwing teenagers - and themselves - with one of the most sophisticated military machines in the world - they sacrifice all credibility.

The Israelis are a gifted and resourceful people who fully deserve the right to live in peace, but who seem intent on squandering every chance to allow that to happen. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that this conflict serves the political and economic purposes of Israel so well that they have every interest in maintaining it. While there is fighting they can continue to build illegal settlements. While there is fighting they continue to receive huge quantities of military aid from the United States. And while there is fighting they can avoid looking candidly at themselves and the ruthlessness into which they are descending.

Gaza is now an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly…and, surprise, surprise - they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment?

Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now ‘under attack’ you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn’t possibly reach an accommodation.

And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.

Brian Eno is a musician and music producer.

http://www.counterpunch.com/eno01022009.html

“In fact the genocide of the Native Americans is based upon religious differences.” SHIFT

“Not entirely.  While “Manifest Destiny” was certainly a factor, equally powerful was the economics (real estate, opportunities, etc.) that were driving new immigrants further and further westward, “requiring” that more and more land be “settled” (an appropriate word here, no?) and the Native Americans either eliminated or displaced (another appropriate word)”.MAANI

I do disagree with you Maani.  Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns—and there is no consensus on when that might be.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/dominionism.htm

Both Catholics and Protestants were given religious permission to acquire the land and resources on the basis of Biblical writings.  Manifest Destiny was merely an outgrowth of Christian Dominionism. It is merely a matter of using organized religion to rationalize conquest.  Native Americans were merely seen as animals in the forest that could be killed and cleared from the land at will, especially if they refused to recognize Christianity.

A fact that is not well known is that the majority of Cherokees had been Christianized at the time of the Trail of Tears.  This clearly indicates the underlying purpose of The American Genocide as not the saving of souls but the acquisition of land, resources, and power (Dominion) in the name of Christ.

Folktruther:

“Troublesum—I am astonished that you think Maani is the most humane poster here.  In his preceding post he implicitly justifies the slaughter of the wives and children slaughtered by the Israelis.”

As usual, you put words in my mouth.  I provided an alternative scenario to Eso’s.  In his scenario, the wives and children are completely innocent of any wrongdoing (other than the fact that they know that their husband/father is an active terrorist).  In my scenario, the opposite is true: they not only support his terrorism, but actively participate in it.

My only point was that both scenarios are equally likely.  In the first, the murder of the wives and children would unquestionably be an outrage.  In the second, that outrage is tempered by their own culpability.  That is not the same thing as “justifying” the “slaughter.”

Peace.  (Without ANY violence…)

Troublesum—I am astonished that you think Maani is the most humane poster here.  In his preceding post he implicitly justifies the slaughter of the wives and children slaughtered by the Israelis.

Could I ask why you think so?

“His sons, according to their father, strove to be one thing: martyrs for Palestine.”

If Nizar Rayan wanted himself and his family to be martyrs, the IDF gave him with his wish!

Eso:

I agree to disagree that my scenario is any less likely than yours.  However, I fully agree with your overall assessment.

Shift:

“In fact the genocide of the Native Americans is based upon religious differences.”

Not entirely.  While “Manifest Destiny” was certainly a factor, equally powerful was the economics (real estate, opportunities, etc.) that were driving new immigrants further and further westward, “requiring” that more and more land be “settled” (an appropriate word here, no?) and the Native Americans either eliminated or displaced (another appropriate word).

Peace.

Norman Finelstein, “How to help the Palestinian cause”: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1464
Not by philosophical fist fighting over the issue of zionism but by using the UN resolutions and the rulings of the World Court.

Maani: “But there is a flip side to this coin, what I call “The Kingdom” side (as in the film): that the wives and children were well aware of his activities, supported them, and maybe even assisted in the creation of bombs or other things.  In that case, would they not have been just as complicit as he was?”
....................

To imply that Nizar Rayan’s family was making bombs and therefore they all deserved to die is an argument that begs contempt. Such an implication tries to divert attention from a criminal act. On the other hand, armies have long stopped fighting armies, but make innocent civilians part of the war, because, who knows, they may work in a factory making tanks. It is an argument of those who defend terror as a legitimate act of defense.

There is a way out of this conundrum, but this is not the place to argue it. Maybe Chris Hedges will write or solicit an article on non-violent direct action in which self-sacrifice is not a toy of students, but like the man in Tien Amin Square stands in front of a tank—no quarter given. The Palestinians do have that option. Let Chris Hedges solicit the ways it can be done.

“I beg to differ with you on this one occasion. These conflicts are NOT based on ‘religions differences’ anymore than the Apartheid of South Africa was based on ‘religious differences’, or the genocide of Native Americans was based on ‘religious differences’.” Cyrena

In fact the genocide of the Native Americans is based upon religious differences.

Evidence:

The Bull Inter Caetera (Alexander VI.) May 4, 1493
Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the illustrious sovereigns, our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, king, and our very dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Sicily, and Granada, health and apostolic benediction. Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.

Wherefore, as becomes Catholic kings and princes, after earnest consideration of all matters, especially of the rise and spread of the Catholic faith, as was the fashion of your ancestors, kings of renowned memory, you have purposed with the favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway the said mainlands and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith.

Let no one, therefore, infringe, or with rash boldness contravene, this our recommendation, exhortation, requisition, gift, grant, assignment, constitution, deputation, decree, mandate, prohibition, and will. Should anyone presume to attempt this, be it known to him that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, the fourth of May, and the first year of our pontificate.
Gratis by order of our holy lord, the pope.
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/indig-inter-caetera.html

Additionally:

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Brief Account of the Destruction of the
Indies, by Bartolome de las Casas

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online.

Title: A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
    Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled
    Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that
    Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish
    _Spanish_ Party on the inhabitants of _West-India_, TOGETHER
    With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in _America_ by
    Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from
    the time of its first Discovery by them.

Author: Bartolome de las Casas
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20321/20321-8.txt

The deaths of over one hundred million Native Americans was directly the result of the Bull Inter Caetera and the genocidal actions of Christian Peoples who enjoyed the full benefits of Christendom.  Two of the more recent books on the subject put the deaths of Native Americans as follows:  Stanard, The American Holocaust, One Hundred Million; Mann, 1491, One Hundred Twelve Million.

It is hubris to discount the direct effect of Christianity and Native American Genocide.  The evidence is overwhelming.

“The only way some form of quiet will ever exist in the Middle East is if Israel is given the latitude to totally defeat its declared enemies”

How delusional.  You going to kill EVERY Arab?  Every Muslim?  Every anti-semite?  Every critic?

References to nuclear weapon use are hardly helpful.  That’s the last thing we need - a trigger to a regional war that will be impossible to contain.

The more you kill, the more enemies you create.  Eventually everyone on the planet will oppose those who believe killing the opposition is the path to peace and prosperity.

Israel, Hamas, PLO, Hezbullah need find a way to acknowledge

troublesum:

Thanks for the kind words.  However, being called a “ziofascist” by the likes of Folktruther is something of a badge of honor, even if it doesn’t fit.  LOL.

Eso said: “Now suppose that the four wives and eleven children knew that their husband and father was an Israeli target, but they did not believe that the Israeli’s would hit them when at home together, but pick a time to kill Nizar Rayan when he was away from home.  Suppose that these fifteen people took a chance that the Israeli’s had some religious scruples.  Of course, their assumption cost them their lives.”

But there is a flip side to this coin, what I call “The Kingdom” side (as in the film): that the wives and children were well aware of his activities, supported them, and maybe even assisted in the creation of bombs or other things.  In that case, would they not have been just as complicit as he was?

Dan Robbins said: “Hamas and other anti-Israel terrorists love two things: killing Israelis…and killing their own.  The world doesn’t say anything when Israelis die, but say a lot when Palestinians die.  When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, Hamas and Palestine could have spent its time and effort on building the country into a respectable place, with better schools, better infrastructure and better government.  What do Hamas and Fatah do instead?  Smuggle bombs and rockets into Gaza and lob them toward Israel.  Taking care of the Palestinian people?  No…”

And this is it in a nutshell.  Instead of helping their own people in real, tangible ways, Hamas (and PLO before them) spent their time, energy and money on violent methods of resistance - and even deliberately set up rocket launch sites in civilian areas, knowing full well what would happen when Israel retaliated.

Can you imagine how much could have been done if all the money that the PLO and Hamas have spent on rockets and other materiel had been spent on the things Dan mentions?  And that would not have precluded them from engaging in NON-violent civil disobedience (and symbolic gestures) of the Gandhian type that would have garnered worldwide media attention (which was one of the main successes of Gandhi’s methods) - a method that worked to liberate a country of over 350 million from what was at the time the most powerful military force in the world.

Peace.

Hamas is at fault.  Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and Hamas simply could have improved all its schools, hospitals, infrastructure…joined the family of nations and start building.  Instead they smuggle in weapons and work very hard to continue to bombard Israel every day for the last six months.  And then unilaterally refused to continue the cease-fire 12 days agoe, not they were honoring it anyway.

They destroyed a gift of millions of dollars in buildings and farms when Israel left. Big business ventures that would have been a start.  Paid for by American donors.  No, Hamas burned them down. Imagine.

And now they still mislead their people horribly. And they are responsible for any inadvertant civilian deaths in their country.

The only way some form of quiet will ever exist in the Middle East is if Israel is given the latitude to totally defeat its declared enemies (Fadel Abdallah).

Only then will the terrorist attacks on Israel’s civilians come to an end. Perpetual negotiations, diplomatic half measures, or land for peace deals will not bring peace to the Middle East. For those who believe this is an irresponsible notion, I use history as my guide.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, in which 2,500 Americans were killed. There are lessons to be learned from our victory in that war. In his April 16, 1945 address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Harry Truman stated: “So there can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, that America will continue the fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains. We are deeply conscious of the fact that much hard fighting is still ahead of us. Having to pay such a heavy price to make complete victory certain, America will never become a party to any plan for partial victory. To settle for merely another temporary respite would surely jeopardize the future security of the world. Our demand has been, and it remains, unconditional surrender.”

On August 6, 1945, just 16-hours after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Truman issued a statement which said, in part: “The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold… We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake: we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.”

Truman understood that there could be no peace without total victory.

Once you’ll realize that the United States is an Israeli-occupied territory, everything will fall in place.

RE: Robert, January 2 at 6:24 pm

The American public response to the political brain washing of propaganda reminds me of the campaign during WW II by German and Japanese. It is reminiscent of Soviet propaganda and closer to my part of USA than is Hawaii, Alaska or Kansas City—Cuba. The Internet has the entire story with truth about Palestine. The mainstream media does also, but refuses to share it with the American public. Enough of the story is available in the media to realize that something is horribly wrong with the belief that the death of 4 Israelis justifies 450 Palestinian deaths in retaliation. Something is horribly wrong with the belief that it is OK to trap over a million and a half Palestinians in Gaza without adequate supplies or access to the outside world.

Israeli propaganda machine is quite efficient. Had Hitler used it as effectively, we would have been a Nazi supporter and if Stalin and his ilk had used it, we would be Communist by now and a Fidel Castro ally. Had Japan used it, we could be occupying China as an ally of Japanese imperialism. And if King George had used the same power, we would still be in the United Kingdom and salute the Union Jack. WOW! What power! I wonder if we could use some of that power to turn the world into our orbit?

I am optimistic that Barack Obama will begin the slow turn around of the Israeli propaganda machine to embrace true justice and equality in this world. Not very confident, but optimistic.

I am as much against Islamists as I am against Zionists. I find it comparable to Christian past adventures as the Crusades and Shinto Japan of World War II resurrection of the samarai warrior concept.

BTW: Free elections do not guarantee free people. Germany had free elections under the Weimar Republic, and George W. Bush was elected ‘Leader of the Free World’ in somewhat democratic elections where Americans voted for the rest of the people of the wold to choose their leader. Hamas may not be entirely legitimate in Gaza, but it was elected in a certified election by democratic standards better than the standards that got George W. Bush in the White House and on the throne of the Free People of the Whole World.

Stephen Zunes, (brilliant author that he is) puts all of the supporting details onto my claim that Hamas is a product of Israel. But he goes further in unveiling the role of the US in this creation, even BEFORE the Cheney regime took power. Of course it became even worse after the Thugs did their coup here in 2001, and we’ve been in free fall ever since, with the Palestinians suffering even more than they had previously, even under the corrupt (and still illegitimate) leadership of the PLO. Team Bush put the final nails in their coffins.
A lengthy read, but oh so valuable for anyone who really DOES wanna know the truth.
America’s Hidden Role in Hamas’s Rise to Power
By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet. Posted January 3, 2009.

No one in the mainstream media or government is willing to acknowledge America’s sordid role interfering in Palestinian politics.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/116855/?page=entire

Purple Girl,

I beg to differ with you on this one occasion. These conflicts are NOT based on ‘religions differences’ anymore than the Apartheid of South Africa was based on ‘religious differences’, or the genocide of Native Americans was based on ‘religious differences’. The enslavement of millions of black slaves who built this country wasn’t based on ‘religious differences’ either.

And, the only reason that I make the crucial point, is that nothing can be resolved as long as we continue to misdiagnose the cause. And, religious differences isn’t it, unless we’re talking about a religion that recognizes Human Rights, and one that doesn’t.

Purple girl: “Their Utter disregard for their own offspring, for some imaginary Religious conquest is evidence enough their Religions are immoral….”
........................

Now suppose that the four wives and eleven children knew that their husband and father was an Israeli target, but they did not believe that the Israeli’s would hit them when at home together, but pick a time to kill Nizar Rayan when he was away from home. Suppose that these fifteen people took a chance that the Israeli’s had some religious scruples. Of course, their assumption cost them their lives.

Incidentally, your rant against religion, singling out Islam, only proves that secularism, whatever its political affiliation, is a miserable failure, a castrati singing songs of romance about Western civilization.

Honstly how can anyone expect a sound mind to come out of such chaos?
The Middle East is like some sick version of Skinners Behavior modification Box.
For every Action there is a reaction, negative positive or neutral. The Middle East has only worked off the Negative re enforcment model.
How do you expect children to desire peace when violence is the only thing they know, understand and required to accept?
these conflicts origniate from Religious difference. it’s time we tell them ALL we don’t care about their religions, we care about the children you are destroying..physically and mentally.Their Utter disregard for their own offspring, for some imaginary Religious conquest is evidence enough their Religions are immoral.
If it were not for those ‘Holy’ sites located in Israel, nobody would give a shit about that crappy clump of Dirt. I’m Praying for 3 similtaneous Lightening Strikes, Perhaps then they’ll get their priorities Straight.

When the Israeli rockets hit Nizar Rayan’s home, they knew he was at home, they knew he had four wives, and they knew he had eleven children, and they knew they would all be killed. What morals justify this?

By stonejaxx, January 2 at 11:40 pm

•  “This article shows me how far I have to go to really understand this crisis and act humanely in offering any kind of support.”

Well stonejaxx, I don’t think this article provides enough to really understand this crisis, if only because even Chris Hedges doesn’t have the space to really cover the history, nor has he ever attempted to.  But, that doesn’t mean that you don’t already understand it better than most, in terms of offering any kind of support.

•  “..You say this: As an American, I find no difficulty in supporting the peace loving people of Palestinian. But, I don’t know how not to afford the same support for peace loving Israelis…”

Many of the folks here do not comprehend that peace loving Israelis actually exist, despite the huge number of Israeli organizations that have been operating for years on behalf of the Human Rights of Palestinians.  And yes, those peace loving Israelis need our support as well. Without those organizations, and the efforts of others that are rarely seen or heard, we can only imagine how much worse it would have been over these decades of sheer and unmitigated misery for the millions of Palestinians that have been so inhumanly persecuted.
So on this:

•  “Nevertheless, he is America’s best hope to support the Palestinians. Obama is smart, informed and has a sense of fairness and consensus. This comment from (prole) is unfair and premature: “...their new puppet president, Barack Obama,” Obama offers huge potential - let’s not deny untested potential…”

You might have to accept that this bitterness and the unfair comments from prole and the others like her, (troublesum is among the top Obama bashers on the site) have ZERO to do with any sympathy for the Gazans, or even any particular hatred for the Israelis. It’s just an opportunity to bash Obama. We’re used to it by now, since that’s their entire reason for existing or otherwise commenting on this site. Needless to say, such unreasonable hatred and neurosis isn’t limited to the Israelis or anyone else.  Just keep in mind that for most of these people, it’s only directed at Obama. They’re all convinced that Hillary Clinton or Ralph Nader would have been able to fix this overnight.

Actually, that’s probably not true either. It’s highly unlikely that they even CARED whether this was ever addressed by a US president before now. AT LEAST THEY’VE NEVER MENTIONED A CONCERN FOR THE PALESTINIANS BEFORE!!! In fact, I’ve never heard a peep out of any of these posters in reference to the MILLIONS of Iraqis that have been slaughtered by US under the authority of their current Congress, and they’ve never mentioned the sanctions of previous US administrations that staved millions of Iraqi children.
So, that won’t change. It’s about Obama for them, and we’ve been hearing these premature condemnations for ages. If it wasn’t Palestine, it would be something else. The weather is Obama’s fault as well. In fact, just pick any ‘headline’ of the past 18 months, and you’ll find a condemnation of Obama on it from the likes of TD’s Bitter Crew.

But for the rest of us still engaged in a effort to maintain some logic and reason, it’s clear that Obama is our best hope for whatever an American effort might provide to ending the disaster. If Obama can even just provide the backup that the International Community needs to deal with this, that alone would be a huge change from anything we’ve had before.

That’s not to say that it won’t still be difficult for him to ‘support’ the Palestinians in terms of the AIPAC apparatus that is so firmly entrenched in our political system.(which is why he needs that bulletproof underwear)But with the support of the World Community, and International Law on his side, I expect that he will use those tools effectively.

Folktruther,
Please don’t use anything I say to condemn Maani.  He is the most humane person who posts here.

Troublesum is absolutely right.  The tide of opinion is changing in the US, polarizing between ziofascists of the Zamer-Howard-Sepharad-Maani persuasion and mast decent people who are horrified by the attack of a first world military on a defenseless population.  In addition to pressuring power, a boycaott of the Israeli ecomony will help shorten the historical time it takes to destroy the ziofascist Israeli power system.

It is worthwhile to play close attention to Israeli’s bombing ofhomes,markets, schools,universities,hospitals, etc.  Because the pentagon is moving combat brigades into the US for use against the American population when the plundering of the ruling class becomes unbearable.

They will be used when the militarized SWAT teams of the police are insufficient to stem the uprisings of the American people as class inequality deepens and its implications are felt and understood.

the death sqauds and torture prisons used against Muslims today will be used against the American people tomorrow.  We are all Palestinians now and our historical defense against US-Israeli oppression in currently in Gaza.  the Bushite political counter revolution is being continued by Obama, and this continuity, replacing Change You Can Believe In, will result in increased attacked on the American population.  Defending the Palestinians now is a form of self defense from American despotism later.

It is not time for peace making because that doesn’t work.  It is time for struggle against oppressors everywhere.

This article shows me how far I have to go to really understand this crisis and act humanely in offering any kind of support.

As an American, I find no difficulty in supporting the peace loving people of Palestinian. But, I don’t know how not to afford the same support for peace loving Israelis.

What I do not support is the asymmetrical military action by Israel.

This evening, Khaled Meshaal took direct aim at Obama’s silence. I would agree. Obama has said too little. It is no longer satisfactory for him to remain silent.

Nevertheless, he is America’s best best hope to support the Palestinians. Obama is smart, informed and has a sense of fairness and consensus. This comment from (prole) is unfair and premature: “...their new puppet president, Barack Obama,” Obama offers huge potential - let’s not deny untested potential.

Obams’s presidency is going to be messy, but he can be effective even though he must deal with AIPAC and the alliance with Israel. This makes supporting Palestine difficult but not impossible. I have to believe this.

The time has come for the Palestinian people to be free. Americans must step up and utilize our channels of democracy - dialog through our representatives. Even if it’s just an incremental improvement - it will help. We, as Americans, have a responsibility to this crisis.

CJ notes:

•  “Hedges cites the ridiculous comments of Barack Obama. No different than comments from political leaders of various stripe.”

You’re correct CJ, as Hedges DOES ‘cite’ this ridiculous comment by Senator and now President-elect Barack Obama, and even claims it to be his ONLY ‘comment’. He just doesn’t bother to say when this ridiculous comment was made by Barack Obama, and even implies that it’s been since the initiation of the latest sustained slaughter of the past 7 days.

•  “Barack Obama’s only comment on the one-sided slaughter under way in Gaza was: “If my daughters were living in a house that was being threatened by rocket attacks, I would do whatever it takes to end that situation.”

It IS a ridiculous comment , which is NO different from political leaders of ALL stripes over the past several decades, and clearly an indication that he wants to stay alive himself, as I assume those other politicians have.
But, I haven’t heard Obama make this ridiculous comment recently. (though maybe Chris has). I’ve heard him say the ‘one president at a time thing’ though, and it makes damn good sense to me, considering the number of ‘presidents’ and other UN heads of the past 60 years that have so far failed to address the cancer than is Israel. Maybe he won’t be any more successful than they have, (particularly if we’re still expecting that ONLY a US President can cure the cancer that is Israel) but I’m willing to wait until he has to power to do more than talk, in order to find out.

You say he ‘advised’ on the bail-out, eh? Yeah, I guess he did. Remember when McCain wanted to stop the election campaign activities so that he and Obama could ‘advise’ on the bail-out? How did they eventually work that out anyway? Of course he should have waited for the UN Secretary General to weigh-in and advise on that bail-out. Right? I mean, it’s the same thing. If a Senator and US presidential candidate (at the time of the bail-out) took it upon himself to ‘advise’ on the expenditure of $850billion US taxpayer monies, then the UN Secretary General should have been advising on that as well, because now President-elect Obama should be ‘advising ‘ on the continuing 60-year old Holocaust perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians (of all stripes).

Yes of course I’m being facetious, because we’ve long ago heard from Obama on this ‘issue’, and reporters like Chris Hedges will continue to AVOID searching for any of that information.

2 of 2

That’s NOT to say that I’m at all encouraged by the only response that we actually HAVE heard from the Obama team, in the form of Axelrod on “Face the Nation” when he allegedly mentioned that “Special Relationship” that we supposedly have with Israel. (I say allegedly because I didn’t watch the episode – if only because I never watch “Face the Nation”)
But, I’m going to assume that when Axelrod was ‘quoted’ here on TD on the “Special Relationship” that he did say it, (we’ve heard THAT a few million times as well) so that’s is highly problematic.

I have a Special Relationship with my sister too. She’s my only sibling, and I’d do anything for her, including giving up my own life if it came to that. But, if she turned out to be a murderer, I’d have to turn her in, and do whatever was in my power to keep her from murdering anyone else.

As an atheist and a Universal Citizen, I didn’t vote for and support Obama as a Mulatto or any other kind of a Messiah. I did not support him because I believed that he could single-handedly create peace in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. I DO expect him to do whatever the power of the office of US President will allow him to do though, and that will obviously mean something completely different than any other US President has done, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Even the majority Jimmy Carter’s own work has been accomplished OUTSIDE of his presidential duties, and SINCE he left office. 

So, the “Special Relationship” stuff is gonna have to be reconsidered and probably severed. Whether Obama does that, or how he does it, remains to be seen.

Meantime, for all of the bail-out advising that you claim he did, there really IS only one president at a time. So if you want him to start entering treaties, or giving orders to withhold money, or any of the other ‘aid’ that we provide to Israel, then it’s gonna have to wait until his signature becomes the validating instrument on any document signed by US.

So far, it doesn’t look like he’s gonna tell the rest of us about it until he’s ready (and able) to do it.

Smart move. Smart guy.

Out of the darkness and into the daylight evil stalks morality and civilization in monstrous ways, tempting good people to become monsters too.  Again and again we witness genocide and the cruelest of suffering.  The lessens are never learned because there is a part of us that refuses to listen and instead seeks power over others through any means.  Mankind is in the midst of an internal evolutionary struggle between hunter killer man and civilized man.  Unfortunately hunter killer man appears to be winning.  Is mankind capable of civilizing?  If so, how many more near extinction events are required to bring about universal civilized behavior?  When will man experience a jump from killing behavior to authentic spiritual existence leading to peaceful civilizations?  I believe that there are forces at work to bring about just such an evolution in the very near term.  I encourage all who read this to prepare by respecting all life and your place within it and to seek the Creator with a cleansed spirit and an open heart. If you do so, revelation will guide you.

Re Robert, January 2 at 6:24 pm #

The Palestinians are no more of a threat to Israel than Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were a threat to the Nazi state.
——————————————————————————
Robert,

Yes, but they are a threat to the idea of Zionism.

A beautiful (horrifyingly so) piece here by Hedges. Condolences on the death of his friend/associate, Rayan, who reads to have been a most interesting man, including Palestinian in microcosm, along with his family. The way of Rayan’s murder was heinous.

But power never calls murder, murder.

What we’re witnessing—as Israeli government (with support of both Israeli and American citizens) for the umpteenth time engages in systematic cold-blooded (as it gets) murder—is demonstration of the most naked power. Power invariably justifies what it does by means of ideologies—one or more. (Fisk made mention of both sides requiring enemy.) Ideologies are widely propagated by mainstream media, especially by that in the U.S. Each and every day most all in broadcast media, along with most all politicians, utter tired refrain (excuse) that is easy lie that rolls off the tongues of those practiced in art of making excuses for the perpetration of the most horrific acts. Do not, however, expect to be granted entry to Senate club if appointed by “Hot Rod.” There are SOME things that will NOT be tolerated! SOME THINGS are just wrong! Right, Senator Reid? Still Senator Obama? Damn right.

Hedges cites the ridiculous comments of Barack Obama. No different than comments from political leaders of various stripe. On the “issue” (as though six decades of the most profound injustice were mere “issue”), all in Washington agree on appropriate policy—murder of Palestinians as necessary. “Bu…but, we’re forced to murder them. They make us do it.” (Recall how the U.S. was and still is “forced” to murder Iraqis, et al.—in the name of assorted ideologies.)

It’s not that Hamas is in possession of moral (or legal) high-ground, but that far more grandiose power is determined to remain standing on low-ground because convenient to interests. Olmert in his capacity as “regular chump” says one thing, then in his capacity as PM does another thing; namely, murder. Serial killers do exactly the same. If okay for power, why not for serial killers? (Actually, serial killers have more legitimate excuse since deranged at the psychological level, unlike “leaders” who do worse than serial killers, so long as in interest—self, class, maybe national. Killing by proxy is justified by the most offensive [to reason] ideological nonsense. I read somewhere that Sharon was real-estate developer too. Surprise.)

Body and mind constitutive of human dignity—that central thing for which American and Israeli terrorists demonstrate zero regard while hypocritically claiming they act ONLY in the interest of human dignity. There is no greater offense than this hypocrisy.

Israeli leadership is hardly the first. What leadership over history has not done the same? Monarchs, aristocrats, plutocrats and/or meritocrats, all four types kleptocrats. Others willingly serve as servants/slaves to masters. Most notably, mainstream-media personnel who are forever laying claim to “objectivity,” like Ayn Rand.

Enlightening to note Obama saying now re crisis that there is “only one President at a time” not long after advising on economic bailout, when—evidently—there were two Presidents at a time. But absolute power does indeed corrupt absolutely.

For some decades absolutely corrupt power has been staking petite power that rules what remains of Palestine with an iron fist, because Israel is projection of American Empire in but one of many regions.

And to mention one Israeli murdered to 100 Palestinians murdered—this time—is to “play numbers game.” Which is okay when 9/11s happen to us. We know how many U.S. troops have been killed, while number of enemy dead is “disputed.” No brains required to note that IDF, like U.S. militaries, is terrorist outfit replete with WMD. Never questioning ideologies is no excuse either.

Hamas is at fault.  If they had not continued to bombard Israel for the last 6 months every day with rockets there would have been no reaction from Israel.

Hamas is holding its people hostage.  What a bunch of bum leaders.  They have finally goaded and instigated Israel to take action.

Hamas rules Gaza with an iron-fist.  They could have stopped the missles in an instant.  They do not want to.

A gentle reminder.  Mahatma Gandhi and his followers liberated a country of over 350,000,000 people without firing a single shot - despite the fact that the British had been occupiers for decades, and had “all the guns” and used them.

Food for thought.

Peace.

It’s more than a little symbolic that Israel willfully shattered the shaky truce on Nov. 4, a day significant for other reasons of course, since it was the occasion of the ascension to power of their new puppet president, Barack Obama. Reports had been circulating for days beforehand that Rahm Emanuel would be named shadow president and the stage was set for Israel to go wild. The timing couldn’t have been better, the world’s media was fixated on the American election, the economic crisis was assuming center stage and the soon-to-be-president is a gutless, self-seeking opportunist. Not that the outgoing gangster president or his toady Sec.-of-State have put up any resistance either. These devout Christians ‘witnessed for the truth’ again by turning their spineless backs on Gaza as they have for the past eight years. In new lows of ‘blame-the-victim’ chutzpah,  bully Bush today claimed it was all “instigated by Hamas - a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria” and Conda-sleeza asserted Hamas “has made it very difficult for the people of Gaza to have a reasonable life”. There can be little doubt that there’s a bipartisan criminal conspiracy to liquidate the democratically-elected government of Hamas. It completely dispels any lingering doubts that the U.S. has any interest in either democracy or the rule of law. What’s even more troubling in some ways is the tacit collusion of corrupt, authoritarian Arab regimes who as usual are at odds with their own populations and unwilling to lift a finger to assist Palestinians, being more intent on preserving their own autocratic power. The Arab League has let down Palestine time and time again and is dragging its feet, heming and hawing, stalling on a proposed summit meeting, while the Israeli wehrmacht makes ‘facts on the ground.’. The craven Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit timidly fretted that such a summit, “could be dangerous and subject to criticism, especially if it does not result in practical measures.” The EU has been likewise lukewarm and unhelpful. The U.K. as usual supports the U.S. obstructionist position at the UN and the French proposal for a temporary ceasefire was contemputously brushed aside by Israel. More vague talks are scheduled for next week by both the UN and EU with little on offer. It’s anguishingly clear, despite the concern of idealistic indiviuals who can offer no real help, that Palestinians now have nowhere to turn; they’re the world’s pariahs. The Israeli ground invasion will probably begin in a matter of days, if not hours. The remaining foreign nationals have already been evacuated from Gaza in prelude to it. If Palestinians want their freedom they will be forced to fight for it, against overwhelming odds. The Zionazi cowards depend on their vastly superior arms but braver Palestinians have the example of the heroic Hezbollah in Lebanon. But even though Hamas may inflict losses on the Zionazi stormtroopers they don’t have the supplies to hold out for long - which is what the months-long, preceding Israeli blockade was all about, breaking their resistance and softening them up for the kill. Not unless Hezbollah opens another front and it turns into a wider regional war. And then anything could happen.

By troublesum, January 2 at 5:55 pm #

“What needs to happen now is for people to contact their senators and representatives and call for a suspension of military aid to Israel.  The US is complicit in what is happening in Gaza.  We should not allow this to go on in our name.”

You mean well, but this is a joke, no? This is a pitiful sorrowful joke. When has any such demand had an effect on imperial wars? This is even worse than an imperial war, it is a pathological war by people who believe that Israel has flesh and blood citizens and Palestinians are animals. Your congress-people believe this; and you are going to change that with, what, a letter?

This is why the Empire always wins and you will always lose, be a loser.

A Day Of Rage! In solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people. In solidarity with the DEMOCRATICALLY elected government of Gaza. That would be Hamas. My how the media has forgotten that little inconvenience. Screw Israel. Enough genocide is enough!

Weekend Edition
January 2 - 4, 2009

Are All Americans Guilty?

Whatever Happened to Western Morality?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

“On the last day of the old year in CounterPunch, two Israelis, Jeff Halper who heads the Israeli peace movement ICAHD and Neve Gordon who is chairman of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University, asked, “Where’s the Academic Outrage Over the Bombing of a University in Gaza?”

“Not one of the nearly 450 presidents of American colleges and universities who prominently denounced an effort by British academics to boycott Israeli universities in September 2007 have raised their voice in opposition to Israel’s bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza earlier this week,” report Halper and Gordon. They note that Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger, who has in the past ignorantly insulted Islamic representatives, “has been silent.”

It is the goyim moralists who are silent, not the Jews. It is the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, not the goyim media, that provides reports of Israel’s abuse of Palestinians. Gideon Levy’s “The Neighborhood Bully Strikes Again” was published in Haaretz (29 December), not in the goyim press. Levy’s words—“Once again, Israel’s violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom”—are not words that can appear in American print or TV media. Such words, printed in Israeli newspapers, never reach the goyim.

The extent of Americans’ ignorance is breathtaking. Israel has the Palestinians jammed into tightly controlled ghettos known as Gaza and the West Bank. With Egypt’s help, Israel controls the inflows of food, medicines, water, and energy into Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza are not permitted to enter Israel or Egypt. Last week a humanitarian ship bringing food and medicine was rammed by Israeli gunboats and turned away.

In the West Bank Palestinians are walled off from their fields, jobs, medical care, education, water, and from one another by endless checkpoints, roads for “Jews only,” walls, barbed wire, and machine gun towers. Palestinians are being evicted from their towns house by house, block by block.

Israel’s slow theft of Palestine is illegal under international law but protected by US “diplomacy.”

The Palestinians are no more of a threat to Israel than Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were a threat to the Nazi state. Yet, everywhere in America—Congress, the executive branch, the print and TV media, the universities, evangelical Christian institutions—there is the belief that Israel is on the verge of annihilation by Palestinian terrorists. This ignorance, so carefully cultivated by the Israel Lobby, turns genocidal aggression into self-defense.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01022009.html

What needs to happen now is for people to contact their senators and representatives and call for a suspension of military aid to Israel.  The US is complicit in what is happening in Gaza.  We should not allow this to go on in our name.

On Dec. 31, 2008, Eye witness and ISM activist, Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza wrote:

...they can no longer find “sensible” targets, the air force and the navy is killing time targeting places of worship, schools and hospitals. It’s another 9/11 every single hour, every minute around here, and tomorrow is always a new day of mourning, always identical to the previous one. You notice the helicopters and airplanes constantly overhead, you see a flash, but you’re already a goner and it’s too late to take flight. There are no bunkers against the bombs in the Strip and no place is really safe. I can’t contact my friends in Rafah, not even those who live North of Gaza City, hopefully because the phone lines are overloaded. Hopefully. I haven’t slept in 60 hours, and same goes for every Gazan.

Yesterday three other ISM members and I spent the entire night at the al Awda hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp. We were there because we were fearing the much dreaded ground raid that never happened. But the Israeli tanks are posted all along the Strip’s border, and their corpse-hungry creaks will apparently form a funeral march tonight. Around 11:30 PM a bomb fell about 800 metres from the hospital, the shock wave blow several windows apart, injuring the injured. An ambulance arrived, then they blew up a mosque, thankfully empty at that time. Unfortunately, though it actually has nothing to do with bad luck but with the criminal and terroristic will to massacre civilians, the Israeli bomb has also struck the building adjacent to the mosque, which was also destroyed. We watched as the tiny bodies of six little sisters were pulled out of the rubble – five are dead, one is in life-threatening conditions. They laid the little girls out on the blackened asphalt, and they looked like broken dolls, disposed of as they were no longer usable.

This wasn’t a mistake, but a voluntary, and cynical horror. We’re at a toll of 320 dead, more than a thousand wounded and, according to a doctor at Shifa, 60% of these are destined to die in the next few hours or days, after a prolonged agony.There are many missing, and for the last two days despairing wives have been searching for their husbands or children in hospitals, often to no avail.

The morgue is a macabre spectacle…

The Rest:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/01/vittorio-arrigoni-writes-from-gaza/

Thank God the tide of public opinion is turning against Israel.  For the first time in my memory the msm today is showing the suffering that is being inflicted upon the Palestinians and they would not be doing this if they did not know that the general public is in sympathy with the Palestinians.  We now know that the first bombing raids were carried out at a time when children would be returning from school and most people would be in the streets when the bombs fell.  This was a deliberate attempt to target civilians and today, NBC news showed how much the children especially have suffered.  They also showed scenes of what daily life in Gaza is like for Palestinians.  This is unprecedented on American television.

With due respect to your courageous piece, Chris Hedges, I beg to differ with you only on the title of this piece!

No, Nizar Rayan was not lost in the rubble; he just performed the most sublime embrace of the land he loved; he is a great lover who offered his soul and blood for his love! His soul will have more peace than the souls of the coward terrorists who killed him and all the souls of the living Arab and Muslim cowards who are in the business of making too much noise without action, and that includes me!

Thank you again Chris Hedges for giving us a short biography about Nezar Rayan.

Nizar Rayan is a Palestinian hero and warrior for freedom and justice.

May his ultimate sacrifice inspire generations of Palestinians and other freedom-fighters around the world to follow his example of resistance to the Israeli state-sponsored terrorism till they achieve freedom, self-determination and justice!

I am no Islamist. I am not a Christian. I detest Zionism. I condemned the Crusades. I detested Fascism. I rejected Communism. I am a capitalist, but no longer a Republican. I believe in free trade and freedom to travel the earth.

I believe in justice, equality, and freedom for all people everywhere.  Thank you Chris Hedges for this.