Israel's Sacred Terrorism: A Study Based on Moshe Sharett's Personal Diary and Other Documents
Most Israelis observe a conspiracy of silence by which certain subjects widely discussed in the Hebrew press are seldom aired in English-language media. One Israeli who dared to break that code of silence, however, is the late Livia Rokach, daughter of Israel Rokach, Minister of the Interior in the government of Moshe Sharett.
Sharett, a moderate who was Israel's first foreign minister and second prime minister, kept a diary in which he meticulously recorded his frustration at the determination of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, to achieve his goals by force, and at the "immense capacity for plotting and intrigue-making of Moshe Dayan," Ben Gurion's political protegé. Much of the diary concerns the 1954-55 period during which Ben Gurion had yielded the premiership to Sharett, but still sought to set Israeli policy, first from his retreat at Kibbutz Sdeh Boker, and subsequently as Defense Minister under Sharett. Throughout this time, Ben Gurion carried out a policy he described as "retaliation," but which Sharett saw as one of regular provocations designed to bring about a new war in which Israel could seize more territory from the Arabs in Gaza, the West Bank, Sinai, Syria and Lebanon.
Avneri: "Rokach Did Clean Work"
Sharett's diary was edited by his son and published in Hebrew only. When Ms. Rokach translated excerpts from it to insert into her book about this crucial period and its tragic results, the Israeli Foreign Ministry threatened her publisher, the Association of Arab American University Graduates, with legal action if they published it without the permission of Sharett's son. The AAUG went ahead with publication and, in the words of Israeli Knesset member Uri Avneri, "the Jerusalem politicians decided that pursuing a legal course in stopping the dissemination of the booklet would be a mistake of the first order, since this would give it much more publicity."
We have the word of Avneri, whose vocal opposition to Israeli war policies in the 70's and 80's in many ways parallels the silent opposition of Sharett in the 50's and 60's, that "Livia Rokach did clean work. All her quotations are real. She did not ever take them out of context, nor did she quote them in a way that contradicts the intention of the diary writer."
Through 1954 entries in Sharett's diary we watch the planting of seeds that led to Lebanon's bloody civil war and to the creation under renegade Major Saad Haddad of an Israeli-controlled Maronite enclave along Israel's northern border. Sharett attributes the idea to Ben Gurion:
"This is the time, he (Ben Gurion) said, to push Lebanon, that is, the Maronites in that country, to proclaim a Christian State..."
The tactics, Sharett writes, were Dayan's:
"According to him (Dayan), the only thing that's necessary is to find an officer, even just a major. We should either win his heart or buy him with money, to make him agree to declare himself the savior of the Maronite population. Then the Israeli army will enter Lebanon, will occupy the necessary territory, and will create a Christian regime which will ally itself with Israel. The territory from the Litani southward will be totally annexed to Israel..."
We see secret raids in 1955 into Arab territory:
"Ben Gurion reported to the cabinet ... how our four youngsters (Israeli paratrooper reservists) captured the Beduin boys one by one, how they took them to the wadi, how they knifed them to death one after the other... When I arrived in Tel Aviv an officer... came to tell me that the whole revenge operation was organized with the active help of Arik Sharon, the commander of the paratroopers battalion."
The Story of the Lavon Affair
The diary records the Lavon affair, in which Israeli provocateurs exploded bombs in U.S. cultural centers and diplomatic establishments in Cairo and Alexandria in 1954 after being told "to break the West's confidence in the existing (Nasser) regime... The actions should cause arrests, demonstrations and expressions of revenge. The Israeli origins should be totally covered."
When the provocateurs—young Egyptian-born Jews trained in Israel and returned to their homeland—were caught and tried, Sharett publicly denied Israeli complicity and accused the Egyptians of "vicious hostility to... the Jewish people."
In private, however, Sharett deplored "the unleashing of the basest instincts of hate and revenge... I walk around ... horror-stricken and lost, completely helpless... What should I do?"
What Sharett should have done is now tragically clear. As Israeli Prime Minister, had he stood up in the Knesset and denounced Israel's actions aimed at provoking another Arab-Israeli war, the bloodshed of 1956, 1967, 1970, 1973 and 1982 might have been averted, and the greatest bloodletting of all—the Lebanese civil war—almost certainly would not have occurred.
He did not, and today we see an Israel where Ariel Sharon impatiently awaits his call to direct the next chapter in a tragic history—perhaps a Masada for the Jews, or an Armageddon for us all.
Masters In Distortion Of The Truth...
The media coverage of the war in Gaza by Western television
The media coverage of the war in Gaza by Western television
companies is largely unfair and biased because of a refusal to
show viewers the real images of the victims.
One of the reasons for this is Israel’s decision not to allow the
Western media in to Gaza.
In addition to this outrageous censorship by a so-called democracy, we
get the usual arguments that most of the images shown by the Arab media
are too shocking to show the viewing public in the West.
Admittedly, the horrific clip sent to me of a child’s head lying
detached, among debris in Gaza did make me gasp.
But this is war and this is real and if the Western media did show these
sort of images may be the general public would wake up to the full
horrors of what happens when bombs are dropped on civilian populat ions.
The re is no such reticence in the Arab media which is why more people
with satellites are switching on to television from the Middle East to
watch the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
And one rising media star is the fledgling Press TV, broadcast from
Iran, and recently introduced to the Sky platform 515. It is fast
becoming the first station of choice for the viewing public - especially
the english-speaking across Europe - who simply want the truth, no
matter who shocking or unpalatable it may be.
There are around half a dozen Palestinian journalists on the ground with
Press TV crews revealing the full horrors of the war as it unfolds. I am
amazed by their dedication and courage and I salute each and every one
of them ... some are my personal friends.
Yes, I do present a show for the station, but I have also worked as a
journalist for more than three decades covering conflicts and their
aftermaths from The Falklands, first and second Gulf wars, the Irish
Troubles, as well as Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq for a variety of
print and electronic media.
And one thing common in each conflict is the constant battle by
journalists and war correspondents to get to the truth of the matter,
but the battle to tell the truth is becoming more and more difficult
despite the amazing technology now available.
People in powerful places who do terrible things do not want the truth
to get out, which is why journalists are finding themselves banned20or
censored more and more.
You see the truth is a very strong and influential weapon which can be
used against those people.
Sadly when it is twisted and manipulated it can wreak even more havoc.
The Israeli war machine is masterful in its complete distortion of the
truth which is why the state continues to go unpunished for its failure
to adhere to the Geneva convention concerning the collective punishment
of the citizens of Gaza.
Israeli tacti cs are cruel, malicious and demonstrate that its leaders
are not interested in the peace process or a Palestinian State.
They are creating the ideal breeding ground for extremism, sabotaging
peace efforts and squandering the good will they have been given.
Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass
destruction ... it was a lie eagerly repeated by former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to fool the media into supporting an illegal,
immoral invasion of Iraq.
And it worked.
To their eternal shame, most of the western media fell in line and
swallowed the lie - with the exception of a few journalists most have
kept quiet about this collective cock up. The New York Times did issue a
front page apology later, but the damage had been done and public
perception was difficult to change.
Sadly, many of the same news organisations and the same journalists have
learned nothing from that shameful period. At the beginning of this war,
Israel trotted out only the flimsy excuse of the Hamas rockets as
justification for unleashing its brand of Shock and Awe in Gaza.
Hamas rockets have killed just over 20 Israelis since 2001 whereas
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 700 including more than 200
children in the last 13 days. The seriously maimed and injured is
running in to thousands as I write.
But the ‘Hamas rocket’ excuse went unchallenged in the West, although to
its full credit the Israeli media revealed days later that Operation
Cast Lead wa s a long-planned campaign six months in the making aimed at
crushing democratically elected Hamas.
Yes, I admit the rockets do exist but they are nothing more than metal
barrels of junk fuelled by fertiliser. As one colleague remarked they’re
mere slingshots compared to the shells, million dollar missiles and
bunker-busting bombs used by Israel.
Some argue the Qassam rockets are used out of desperation, I personally
think they’re more of a two-fingered gesture from a people who have
suffered a brutal, medieval siege at the hands of Israel for years.
Despite its amazing war machine, and its state-of-the-art-technology
these little rockets rarely show up on any military radars. The Israelis
don’t know about them until they9 9ve landed and that’s what hacks them off.
Yet Israeli leaders and their supporters continue to present absurd
propaganda about Hamas rockets which are far less sophisticated than
anything the IRA ever used in mainland Britain during the height of The
Troubles. Mind you, the IRA was funded and backed by US dollars whereas
the Hamas military wing has no such generous donors.
I don’t recall the British Government ordering cruise missiles to be
launched on Belfast in retaliation for the misery and suffering of IRA
bombing campaigns in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other places. I
can’t ever recall Apache Attack Helicopters hover ing outside the Sinn
Fein offices in the Falls Road or targetted assassinations of IRA leaders.
Most journalists with an ounce of investigation skills would realise
that the Hamas Rocket excuse is a sham.
But it continues to be used as an excuse for unleashing what has been
described by various people, including Jewish peace activists, as a
holocaust and genocide.
Millions across the world have demonstrated - anger and anarchy on the
streets has been witness across all continents but the only ones who
look away are the Western leaders and the servile media.
The gaggle of belly-dancing Middle Eastern leaders are largely a
disgrace and are about as much use as the increasingly toothless United
Nations, but there is a backlash coming and it’s coming from ordinary
citizens across the world.
People power, the sort of power which inspired the Iranian and Cuban
revolutions, the toppling of brutal dictators like Romania’s Nicolae
Ceausescu and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, is emerging.
The Western media can either catch up with the agenda instead of trying
to follow the Zionist agenda by continuing to peddle big lies. The
viewing piblic have largely lost trust in the mainstream media,
especially in the wake of Iraq.
Quite simply, the public has become cynical and jaded and can not be
lied to any more. if the mainstream media is to regain any credibility
journalists need to challenge israeli and Western leaders.
The truth is a powerful weapon and it is true that...
ISRAEL targets civilians - more than two thirds of the dead are women
and children. So why allow Tzipi Livni to say: “Gaza Strip being
controlled by Hamas, and the price is being paid by Israeli children and
Palestinian children, but the blame is and the address is Hamas.” This
is a clear lie. What Israeli children have been killed? The only dead
children are in Gaza.
HAMAS is a political organisation which has a military wing and not the
other way around. It was democratically elected by the people who were
sick of the previous corrupt politicians who let them down.
ISRAEL broke the ceasefire on November 4 2008 - a fact finally
acknowledged on CNN nearly two months later in a discussion show
although the BBC, Fox and other western media have yet to mention this.
HAMAS does not use civilians as human shields - again, where is the
evidence? Israel needs to put up or shut up, but the media never demands
to see the evidence.
ISRAEL says it cares about civilians and warns them in advance of the
bombing raids in their area - well so did the IRA but I don’t remember
anyone congratulating them on their humanitarian actions.
And beware of the latest lie about to hit the media about Hamas
commander Mahmoud Zahar who, according to the Zionist propaganda said
Jewish children across the world are targets. A guest columnist in The
Guardian quoted Zahar as saying: “The Zionists have legitimised the
killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimised
the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."
This is not what he said. Unfortunately the Arabic translation was
incorrect and those who should know better have failed to check the
original speech against the transcript.
The damage has now been done and it remains to see if an apology or
correction will follow.
As Sir Winston Churchill said: “A lie is halfway round the world before
the truth has a chance to get its boots on.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
One of the reasons for this is Israel’s decision not to allow the
Western media in to Gaza.
In addition to this outrageous censorship by a so-called democracy, we
get the usual arguments that most of the images shown by the Arab media
are too shocking to show the viewing public in the West.
Admittedly, the horrific clip sent to me of a child’s head lying
detached, among debris in Gaza did make me gasp.
But this is war and this is real and if the Western media did show these
sort of images may be the general public would wake up to the full
horrors of what happens when bombs are dropped on civilian populat ions.
The re is no such reticence in the Arab media which is why more people
with satellites are switching on to television from the Middle East to
watch the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
And one rising media star is the fledgling Press TV, broadcast from
Iran, and recently introduced to the Sky platform 515. It is fast
becoming the first station of choice for the viewing public - especially
the english-speaking across Europe - who simply want the truth, no
matter who shocking or unpalatable it may be.
There are around half a dozen Palestinian journalists on the ground with
Press TV crews revealing the full horrors of the war as it unfolds. I am
amazed by their dedication and courage and I salute each and every one
of them ... some are my personal friends.
Yes, I do present a show for the station, but I have also worked as a
journalist for more than three decades covering conflicts and their
aftermaths from The Falklands, first and second Gulf wars, the Irish
Troubles, as well as Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq for a variety of
print and electronic media.
And one thing common in each conflict is the constant battle by
journalists and war correspondents to get to the truth of the matter,
but the battle to tell the truth is becoming more and more difficult
despite the amazing technology now available.
People in powerful places who do terrible things do not want the truth
to get out, which is why journalists are finding themselves banned20or
censored more and more.
You see the truth is a very strong and influential weapon which can be
used against those people.
Sadly when it is twisted and manipulated it can wreak even more havoc.
The Israeli war machine is masterful in its complete distortion of the
truth which is why the state continues to go unpunished for its failure
to adhere to the Geneva convention concerning the collective punishment
of the citizens of Gaza.
Israeli tacti cs are cruel, malicious and demonstrate that its leaders
are not interested in the peace process or a Palestinian State.
They are creating the ideal breeding ground for extremism, sabotaging
peace efforts and squandering the good will they have been given.
Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass
destruction ... it was a lie eagerly repeated by former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to fool the media into supporting an illegal,
immoral invasion of Iraq.
And it worked.
To their eternal shame, most of the western media fell in line and
swallowed the lie - with the exception of a few journalists most have
kept quiet about this collective cock up. The New York Times did issue a
front page apology later, but the damage had been done and public
perception was difficult to change.
Sadly, many of the same news organisations and the same journalists have
learned nothing from that shameful period. At the beginning of this war,
Israel trotted out only the flimsy excuse of the Hamas rockets as
justification for unleashing its brand of Shock and Awe in Gaza.
Hamas rockets have killed just over 20 Israelis since 2001 whereas
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 700 including more than 200
children in the last 13 days. The seriously maimed and injured is
running in to thousands as I write.
But the ‘Hamas rocket’ excuse went unchallenged in the West, although to
its full credit the Israeli media revealed days later that Operation
Cast Lead wa s a long-planned campaign six months in the making aimed at
crushing democratically elected Hamas.
Yes, I admit the rockets do exist but they are nothing more than metal
barrels of junk fuelled by fertiliser. As one colleague remarked they’re
mere slingshots compared to the shells, million dollar missiles and
bunker-busting bombs used by Israel.
Some argue the Qassam rockets are used out of desperation, I personally
think they’re more of a two-fingered gesture from a people who have
suffered a brutal, medieval siege at the hands of Israel for years.
Despite its amazing war machine, and its state-of-the-art-technology
these little rockets rarely show up on any military radars. The Israelis
don’t know about them until they9 9ve landed and that’s what hacks them off.
Yet Israeli leaders and their supporters continue to present absurd
propaganda about Hamas rockets which are far less sophisticated than
anything the IRA ever used in mainland Britain during the height of The
Troubles. Mind you, the IRA was funded and backed by US dollars whereas
the Hamas military wing has no such generous donors.
I don’t recall the British Government ordering cruise missiles to be
launched on Belfast in retaliation for the misery and suffering of IRA
bombing campaigns in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other places. I
can’t ever recall Apache Attack Helicopters hover ing outside the Sinn
Fein offices in the Falls Road or targetted assassinations of IRA leaders.
Most journalists with an ounce of investigation skills would realise
that the Hamas Rocket excuse is a sham.
But it continues to be used as an excuse for unleashing what has been
described by various people, including Jewish peace activists, as a
holocaust and genocide.
Millions across the world have demonstrated - anger and anarchy on the
streets has been witness across all continents but the only ones who
look away are the Western leaders and the servile media.
The gaggle of belly-dancing Middle Eastern leaders are largely a
disgrace and are about as much use as the increasingly toothless United
Nations, but there is a backlash coming and it’s coming from ordinary
citizens across the world.
People power, the sort of power which inspired the Iranian and Cuban
revolutions, the toppling of brutal dictators like Romania’s Nicolae
Ceausescu and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, is emerging.
The Western media can either catch up with the agenda instead of trying
to follow the Zionist agenda by continuing to peddle big lies. The
viewing piblic have largely lost trust in the mainstream media,
especially in the wake of Iraq.
Quite simply, the public has become cynical and jaded and can not be
lied to any more. if the mainstream media is to regain any credibility
journalists need to challenge israeli and Western leaders.
The truth is a powerful weapon and it is true that...
ISRAEL targets civilians - more than two thirds of the dead are women
and children. So why allow Tzipi Livni to say: “Gaza Strip being
controlled by Hamas, and the price is being paid by Israeli children and
Palestinian children, but the blame is and the address is Hamas.” This
is a clear lie. What Israeli children have been killed? The only dead
children are in Gaza.
HAMAS is a political organisation which has a military wing and not the
other way around. It was democratically elected by the people who were
sick of the previous corrupt politicians who let them down.
ISRAEL broke the ceasefire on November 4 2008 - a fact finally
acknowledged on CNN nearly two months later in a discussion show
although the BBC, Fox and other western media have yet to mention this.
HAMAS does not use civilians as human shields - again, where is the
evidence? Israel needs to put up or shut up, but the media never demands
to see the evidence.
ISRAEL says it cares about civilians and warns them in advance of the
bombing raids in their area - well so did the IRA but I don’t remember
anyone congratulating them on their humanitarian actions.
And beware of the latest lie about to hit the media about Hamas
commander Mahmoud Zahar who, according to the Zionist propaganda said
Jewish children across the world are targets. A guest columnist in The
Guardian quoted Zahar as saying: “The Zionists have legitimised the
killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimised
the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."
This is not what he said. Unfortunately the Arabic translation was
incorrect and those who should know better have failed to check the
original speech against the transcript.
The damage has now been done and it remains to see if an apology or
correction will follow.
As Sir Winston Churchill said: “A lie is halfway round the world before
the truth has a chance to get its boots on.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
General James David (who is mentioned on the cover of the third
edition of Congressman Paul Findley's 'They Dare to Speak Out' book
about the power/influence of AIPAC and similar on the US political
system and media) wrote:
http://www.amconmag.com/print.html?Id=AmConservative-2009jan26-00006
Another War, Another Defeat
The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not
in making Israel more secure.
John J. Mearsheimer
January 26, 2009 Issue
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/jan/26/00006/
Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its
lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a
winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a
ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Dont believe it. Israel
has foolishly started another war it cannot win.
The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end
to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into
southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to
restore Israels deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the
Lebanon fiasco, by Israels withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability
to halt Irans nuclear program.
But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual
purpose is connected to Israels long-term vision of how it intends to
live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a
broader strategic goal: the creation of a Greater Israel.
Specifically, Israels leaders remain determined to control all of what
used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the
West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful
of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is
Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between
them, the air above and the water below them.
The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the
Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a
defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for
controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated
by Zeev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli
policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the Iron Wall.
What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this
strategy.
Lets begin with Israels decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. The
conventional wisdom is that Israel was serious about making peace with
the Palestinians and that its leaders hoped the exit from Gaza would
be a major step toward creating a viable Palestinian state. According
to the New York Times Thomas L. Friedman, Israel was giving the
Palestinians an opportunity to build a decent mini-state there a Dubai
on the Mediterranean, and if they did so, it would fundamentally
reshape the Israeli debate about whether the Palestinians can be
handed most of the West Bank.
This is pure fiction. Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis
intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and
inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israels wishes.
Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharons closest adviser at the time, candidly
stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace
process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as
formaldehyde thats necessary so that there will not be a political
process with the Palestinians. Moreover, he emphasized that the
withdrawal places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It
forces them into a corner where they hate to be.
Arnon Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon,
elaborated on what that pressure would look like. When 2.5 million
people live in a closed-off Gaza, its going to be a human catastrophe.
Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with
the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border
will be awful. Its going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to
remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every
day.In January 2006, five months after the Israelis pulled their
settlers out of Gaza, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the
Palestinian legislative elections. This meant trouble for Israels
strategy because Hamas was democratically elected, well organized, not
corrupt like Fatah, and unwilling to accept Israels existence. Israel
responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but
it did not work. In fact, the situation took another turn for the
worse in March 2007, when Fatah and Hamas came together to form a
national unity government. Hamass stature and political power were
growing, and Israels divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling.
To make matters worse, the national unity government began pushing for
a long-term ceasefire. The Palestinians would end all missile attacks
on Israel if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating
Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold, opening the border
crossings into Gaza.
Israel rejected that offer and with American backing set out to foment
a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that would wreck the national
unity government and put Fatah in charge. The plan backfired when
Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge there and the
more pliant Fatah in control of the West Bank. Israel then tightened
the screws on the blockade around Gaza, causing even greater hardship
and suffering among the Palestinians living there.
Hamas responded by continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel,
while emphasizing that they still sought a long-term ceasefire,
perhaps lasting ten years or more. This was not a noble gesture on
Hamass part: they sought a ceasefire because the balance of power
heavily favored Israel. The Israelis had no interest in a ceasefire
and merely intensified the economic pressure on Gaza. But in the late
spring of 2008, pressure from Israelis living under the rocket attacks
led the government to agree to a six-month ceasefire starting on June
19. That agreement, which formally ended on Dec. 19, immediately
preceded the present war, which began on Dec. 27.
The official Israeli position blames Hamas for undermining the
ceasefire. This view is widely accepted in the United States, but it
is not true. Israeli leaders disliked the ceasefire from the start,
and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing
for the present war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June
2008. Furthermore, Dan Gillerman, Israels former ambassador to the UN,
reports that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to
sell the present war months before the conflict began. For its part,
Hamas drastically reduced the number of missile attacks during the
first five months of the ceasefire. A total of two rockets were fired
into Israel during September and October, none by Hamas.
How did Israel behave during this same period? It continued arresting
and assassinating Palestinians on the West Bank, and it continued the
deadly blockade that was slowly strangling Gaza. Then on Nov. 4, as
Americans voted for a new president, Israel attacked a tunnel inside
Gaza and killed six Palestinians. It was the first major violation of
the ceasefire, and the Palestinians who had been careful to maintain
the ceasefire, according to Israels Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center responded by resuming rocket attacks. The calm that
had prevailed since June vanished as Israel ratcheted up the blockade
and its attacks into Gaza and the Palestinians hurled more rockets at
Israel. It is worth noting that not a single Israeli was killed by
Palestinian missiles between Nov. 4 and the launching of the war on
Dec. 27.
As the violence increased, Hamas made clear that it had no interest in
extending the ceasefire beyond Dec. 19, which is hardly surprising,
since it had not worked as intended. In mid-December, however, Hamas
informed Israel that it was still willing to negotiate a long-term
ceasefire if it included an end to the arrests and assassinations as
well as the lifting of the blockade. But the Israelis, having used the
ceasefire to prepare for war against Hamas, rejected this overture.
The bombing of Gaza commenced eight days after the failed ceasefire
formally ended.
If Israel wanted to stop missile attacks from Gaza, it could have done
so by arranging a long-term ceasefire with Hamas. And if Israel were
genuinely interested in creating a viable Palestinian state, it could
have worked with the national unity government to implement a
meaningful ceasefire and change Hamas thinking about a two-state
solution. But Israel has a different agenda: it is determined to
employ the Iron Wall strategy to get the Palestinians in Gaza to
accept their fate as hapless subjects of a Greater Israel.
This brutal policy is clearly reflected in Israels conduct of the Gaza
War. Israel and its supporters claim that the IDF is going to great
lengths to avoid civilian casualties, in some cases taking risks that
put Israeli soldiers in jeopardy. Hardly. One reason to doubt these
claims is that Israel refuses to allow reporters into the war zone: it
does not want the world to see what its soldiers and bombs are doing
inside Gaza. At the same time, Israel has launched a massive
propaganda campaign to put a positive spin on the horror stories that
do emerge.
The best evidence, however, that Israel is deliberately seeking to
punish the broader population in Gaza is the death and destruction the
IDF has wrought on that small piece of real estate. Israel has killed
over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,000. Over half of the
casualties are civilians, and many are children. The IDFs opening
salvo on Dec. 27 took place as children were leaving school, and one
of its primary targets that day was a large group of graduating police
cadets, who hardly qualified as terrorists. In what Ehud Barak called
an all-out war against Hamas, Israel has targeted a university,
schools, mosques, homes, apartment buildings, government offices, and
even ambulances. A senior Israeli military official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, explained the logic behind Israels expansive
target set: There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit
the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything
supports terrorism against Israel. In other words, everyone is a
terrorist and everything is a legitimate target.
Israelis tend to be blunt, and they occasionally say what they are
really doing. After the IDF killed 40 Palestinian civilians in a UN
school on Jan. 6, Haaretz reported that senior officers admit that the
IDF has been using enormous firepower. One officer explained, For us,
being cautious means being aggressive. From the minute we entered,
weve acted like were at war. That creates enormous damage on the
ground I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which
we are operating will describe the shock.
One might accept that Israel is waging a cruel, all-out war against
1.5 million Palestinian civilians, as Haaretz put it in an editorial,
but argue that it will eventually achieve its war aims and the rest of
the world will quickly forget the horrors inflicted on the people of
Gaza.
This is wishful thinking. For starters, Israel is unlikely to stop the
rocket fire for any appreciable period of time unless it agrees to
open Gazas borders and stop arresting and killing Palestinians.
Israelis talk about cutting off the supply of rockets and mortars into
Gaza, but weapons will continue to come in via secret tunnels and
ships that sneak through Israels naval blockade. It will also be
impossible to police all of the goods sent into Gaza through
legitimate channels.
Israel could try to conquer all of Gaza and lock the place down. That
would probably stop the rocket attacks if Israel deployed a large
enough force. But then the IDF would be bogged down in a costly
occupation against a deeply hostile population. They would eventually
have to leave, and the rocket fire would resume. And if Israel fails
to stop the rocket fire and keep it stopped, as seems likely, its
deterrent will be diminished, not strengthened.
More importantly, there is little reason to think that the Israelis
can beat Hamas into submission and get the Palestinians to live
quietly in a handful of Bantustans inside Greater Israel. Israel has
been humiliating, torturing, and killing Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories since 1967 and has not come close to cowing them. Indeed,
Hamas reaction to Israels brutality seems to lend credence to
Nietzsches remark that what does not kill you makes you stronger.
But even if the unexpected happens and the Palestinians cave, Israel
would still lose because it will become an apartheid state. As Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert recently said, Israel will face a South African-
style struggle if the Palestinians do not get a viable state of their
own. As soon as that happens, he argued, the state of Israel is
finished. Yet Olmert has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and
create a viable Palestinian state, relying instead on the Iron Wall
strategy to deal with the Palestinians.
There is also little chance that people around the world who follow
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will soon forget the appalling
punishment that Israel is meting out in Gaza. The destruction is just
too obvious to miss, and too many people especially in the Arab and
Islamic world care about the Palestinians fate. Moreover, discourse
about this longstanding conflict has undergone a sea change in the
West in recent years, and many of us who were once wholly sympathetic
to Israel now see that the Israelis are the victimizers and the
Palestinians are the victims. What is happening in Gaza will
accelerate that changing picture of the conflict and long be seen as a
dark stain on Israels reputation....
The bottom line is that no matter what happens on the battlefield,
Israel cannot win its war in Gaza. In fact, it is pursuing a
strategy with lots of help from its so-called friends in the
Diaspora that is placing its long-term future at risk.
U.S. Middle East policy motivated by CIA/MOSSAD:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=49800
America's War Crimes in Gaza by Congressman Paul Findley:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=102066
Former MI6 operative Alastair Crooke reveals truth on Hamas &
Hezbollah (click on 'Hour 2' link via following URL):
http://tinyurl.com/8r8d7h
Olmert's boast of shaming Rice Provokes Diplomatic Furor:
http://tinyurl.com/9pyv6w
US Support of Israel's brutal oppression of the Palestinians PRIMARY
MOTIVATION for tragic attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and on
9/11 as well:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=39590
Dr. Stephen Sniegoski discusses his 'Transparent Cabal' book:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=99445
Additional at following URL:
http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.COM
--edition of Congressman Paul Findley's 'They Dare to Speak Out' book
about the power/influence of AIPAC and similar on the US political
system and media) wrote:
http://www.amconmag.com/print.html?Id=AmConservative-2009jan26-00006
Another War, Another Defeat
The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not
in making Israel more secure.
John J. Mearsheimer
January 26, 2009 Issue
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/jan/26/00006/
Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its
lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a
winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a
ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Dont believe it. Israel
has foolishly started another war it cannot win.
The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end
to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into
southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to
restore Israels deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the
Lebanon fiasco, by Israels withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability
to halt Irans nuclear program.
But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual
purpose is connected to Israels long-term vision of how it intends to
live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a
broader strategic goal: the creation of a Greater Israel.
Specifically, Israels leaders remain determined to control all of what
used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the
West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful
of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is
Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between
them, the air above and the water below them.
The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the
Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a
defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for
controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated
by Zeev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli
policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the Iron Wall.
What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this
strategy.
Lets begin with Israels decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. The
conventional wisdom is that Israel was serious about making peace with
the Palestinians and that its leaders hoped the exit from Gaza would
be a major step toward creating a viable Palestinian state. According
to the New York Times Thomas L. Friedman, Israel was giving the
Palestinians an opportunity to build a decent mini-state there a Dubai
on the Mediterranean, and if they did so, it would fundamentally
reshape the Israeli debate about whether the Palestinians can be
handed most of the West Bank.
This is pure fiction. Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis
intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and
inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israels wishes.
Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharons closest adviser at the time, candidly
stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace
process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as
formaldehyde thats necessary so that there will not be a political
process with the Palestinians. Moreover, he emphasized that the
withdrawal places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It
forces them into a corner where they hate to be.
Arnon Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon,
elaborated on what that pressure would look like. When 2.5 million
people live in a closed-off Gaza, its going to be a human catastrophe.
Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with
the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border
will be awful. Its going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to
remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every
day.In January 2006, five months after the Israelis pulled their
settlers out of Gaza, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the
Palestinian legislative elections. This meant trouble for Israels
strategy because Hamas was democratically elected, well organized, not
corrupt like Fatah, and unwilling to accept Israels existence. Israel
responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but
it did not work. In fact, the situation took another turn for the
worse in March 2007, when Fatah and Hamas came together to form a
national unity government. Hamass stature and political power were
growing, and Israels divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling.
To make matters worse, the national unity government began pushing for
a long-term ceasefire. The Palestinians would end all missile attacks
on Israel if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating
Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold, opening the border
crossings into Gaza.
Israel rejected that offer and with American backing set out to foment
a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that would wreck the national
unity government and put Fatah in charge. The plan backfired when
Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge there and the
more pliant Fatah in control of the West Bank. Israel then tightened
the screws on the blockade around Gaza, causing even greater hardship
and suffering among the Palestinians living there.
Hamas responded by continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel,
while emphasizing that they still sought a long-term ceasefire,
perhaps lasting ten years or more. This was not a noble gesture on
Hamass part: they sought a ceasefire because the balance of power
heavily favored Israel. The Israelis had no interest in a ceasefire
and merely intensified the economic pressure on Gaza. But in the late
spring of 2008, pressure from Israelis living under the rocket attacks
led the government to agree to a six-month ceasefire starting on June
19. That agreement, which formally ended on Dec. 19, immediately
preceded the present war, which began on Dec. 27.
The official Israeli position blames Hamas for undermining the
ceasefire. This view is widely accepted in the United States, but it
is not true. Israeli leaders disliked the ceasefire from the start,
and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing
for the present war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June
2008. Furthermore, Dan Gillerman, Israels former ambassador to the UN,
reports that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to
sell the present war months before the conflict began. For its part,
Hamas drastically reduced the number of missile attacks during the
first five months of the ceasefire. A total of two rockets were fired
into Israel during September and October, none by Hamas.
How did Israel behave during this same period? It continued arresting
and assassinating Palestinians on the West Bank, and it continued the
deadly blockade that was slowly strangling Gaza. Then on Nov. 4, as
Americans voted for a new president, Israel attacked a tunnel inside
Gaza and killed six Palestinians. It was the first major violation of
the ceasefire, and the Palestinians who had been careful to maintain
the ceasefire, according to Israels Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center responded by resuming rocket attacks. The calm that
had prevailed since June vanished as Israel ratcheted up the blockade
and its attacks into Gaza and the Palestinians hurled more rockets at
Israel. It is worth noting that not a single Israeli was killed by
Palestinian missiles between Nov. 4 and the launching of the war on
Dec. 27.
As the violence increased, Hamas made clear that it had no interest in
extending the ceasefire beyond Dec. 19, which is hardly surprising,
since it had not worked as intended. In mid-December, however, Hamas
informed Israel that it was still willing to negotiate a long-term
ceasefire if it included an end to the arrests and assassinations as
well as the lifting of the blockade. But the Israelis, having used the
ceasefire to prepare for war against Hamas, rejected this overture.
The bombing of Gaza commenced eight days after the failed ceasefire
formally ended.
If Israel wanted to stop missile attacks from Gaza, it could have done
so by arranging a long-term ceasefire with Hamas. And if Israel were
genuinely interested in creating a viable Palestinian state, it could
have worked with the national unity government to implement a
meaningful ceasefire and change Hamas thinking about a two-state
solution. But Israel has a different agenda: it is determined to
employ the Iron Wall strategy to get the Palestinians in Gaza to
accept their fate as hapless subjects of a Greater Israel.
This brutal policy is clearly reflected in Israels conduct of the Gaza
War. Israel and its supporters claim that the IDF is going to great
lengths to avoid civilian casualties, in some cases taking risks that
put Israeli soldiers in jeopardy. Hardly. One reason to doubt these
claims is that Israel refuses to allow reporters into the war zone: it
does not want the world to see what its soldiers and bombs are doing
inside Gaza. At the same time, Israel has launched a massive
propaganda campaign to put a positive spin on the horror stories that
do emerge.
The best evidence, however, that Israel is deliberately seeking to
punish the broader population in Gaza is the death and destruction the
IDF has wrought on that small piece of real estate. Israel has killed
over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,000. Over half of the
casualties are civilians, and many are children. The IDFs opening
salvo on Dec. 27 took place as children were leaving school, and one
of its primary targets that day was a large group of graduating police
cadets, who hardly qualified as terrorists. In what Ehud Barak called
an all-out war against Hamas, Israel has targeted a university,
schools, mosques, homes, apartment buildings, government offices, and
even ambulances. A senior Israeli military official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, explained the logic behind Israels expansive
target set: There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit
the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything
supports terrorism against Israel. In other words, everyone is a
terrorist and everything is a legitimate target.
Israelis tend to be blunt, and they occasionally say what they are
really doing. After the IDF killed 40 Palestinian civilians in a UN
school on Jan. 6, Haaretz reported that senior officers admit that the
IDF has been using enormous firepower. One officer explained, For us,
being cautious means being aggressive. From the minute we entered,
weve acted like were at war. That creates enormous damage on the
ground I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which
we are operating will describe the shock.
One might accept that Israel is waging a cruel, all-out war against
1.5 million Palestinian civilians, as Haaretz put it in an editorial,
but argue that it will eventually achieve its war aims and the rest of
the world will quickly forget the horrors inflicted on the people of
Gaza.
This is wishful thinking. For starters, Israel is unlikely to stop the
rocket fire for any appreciable period of time unless it agrees to
open Gazas borders and stop arresting and killing Palestinians.
Israelis talk about cutting off the supply of rockets and mortars into
Gaza, but weapons will continue to come in via secret tunnels and
ships that sneak through Israels naval blockade. It will also be
impossible to police all of the goods sent into Gaza through
legitimate channels.
Israel could try to conquer all of Gaza and lock the place down. That
would probably stop the rocket attacks if Israel deployed a large
enough force. But then the IDF would be bogged down in a costly
occupation against a deeply hostile population. They would eventually
have to leave, and the rocket fire would resume. And if Israel fails
to stop the rocket fire and keep it stopped, as seems likely, its
deterrent will be diminished, not strengthened.
More importantly, there is little reason to think that the Israelis
can beat Hamas into submission and get the Palestinians to live
quietly in a handful of Bantustans inside Greater Israel. Israel has
been humiliating, torturing, and killing Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories since 1967 and has not come close to cowing them. Indeed,
Hamas reaction to Israels brutality seems to lend credence to
Nietzsches remark that what does not kill you makes you stronger.
But even if the unexpected happens and the Palestinians cave, Israel
would still lose because it will become an apartheid state. As Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert recently said, Israel will face a South African-
style struggle if the Palestinians do not get a viable state of their
own. As soon as that happens, he argued, the state of Israel is
finished. Yet Olmert has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and
create a viable Palestinian state, relying instead on the Iron Wall
strategy to deal with the Palestinians.
There is also little chance that people around the world who follow
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will soon forget the appalling
punishment that Israel is meting out in Gaza. The destruction is just
too obvious to miss, and too many people especially in the Arab and
Islamic world care about the Palestinians fate. Moreover, discourse
about this longstanding conflict has undergone a sea change in the
West in recent years, and many of us who were once wholly sympathetic
to Israel now see that the Israelis are the victimizers and the
Palestinians are the victims. What is happening in Gaza will
accelerate that changing picture of the conflict and long be seen as a
dark stain on Israels reputation....
The bottom line is that no matter what happens on the battlefield,
Israel cannot win its war in Gaza. In fact, it is pursuing a
strategy with lots of help from its so-called friends in the
Diaspora that is placing its long-term future at risk.
U.S. Middle East policy motivated by CIA/MOSSAD:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=49800
America's War Crimes in Gaza by Congressman Paul Findley:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=102066
Former MI6 operative Alastair Crooke reveals truth on Hamas &
Hezbollah (click on 'Hour 2' link via following URL):
http://tinyurl.com/8r8d7h
Olmert's boast of shaming Rice Provokes Diplomatic Furor:
http://tinyurl.com/9pyv6w
US Support of Israel's brutal oppression of the Palestinians PRIMARY
MOTIVATION for tragic attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and on
9/11 as well:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=39590
Dr. Stephen Sniegoski discusses his 'Transparent Cabal' book:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=99445
Additional at following URL:
http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.COM
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