Gaza: The War Is On Again
The talks in Cairo during the agreed 72 hour cease-fire failed. Israel and Egypt would not commit to the Palestinian demand to lift the siege on Gaza and to open the border crossings. The Israeli delegation left the talks even before the truce period ended at 8 am local time today (Notice how the Washington Post is lying about this fact.)
As soon as the 72 hour period ended the Islamic Jihad military wing in Gaza started to launch rockets at Israeli targets near the Gaza border. Hamas did not join in - a signal that there was still a chance for further negotiations. But about an hour later Israel launched new air strikes at northern Gaza. Palestinians near the border areas flee towards Gaza city.
The Israeli prime minister Netanyahoo had claimed that his recent war on Gaza had "restored Israel's deterrence". That was obviously an illusion.
Hamas had announced that it would next target Israel's only international airport near Tel Aviv. Stopping international air traffic brings serious damage to Israel's economy. Hamas will also try to bait the Israeli army into re-invading the Gaza strip. Its calculation is that more Israeli casualties, as would be certain in close-in fighting, might push the Israeli government to finally lift the seven year old siege.
There may be chance for that as the UN as well as the U.S. have lately spoken out against the continued blockade. But Israel's hardliners will disagree. They still believe in "deterrence" even though such never works when there is no alternative left for the other side but to slowly die. When and how this war on Gaza may now end is not obvious while the nightmare in Gaza continues.
Posted by b on August 8, 2014 at 10:32 UTC | Permalink
Israel seems to think they can do this genocide when they want and demand that palestinians agree to their own ceasefire.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 8 2014 11:09 utc | 2
The Palestinans of Gaza have published an Open Letter to UNSG Ban Ki-moon on Gaza which Richard Falk has published on his blog.
I sent a copy to Ban Ki-moon myself, adding that I agree whole heartedly with the Palestinians' points.
I told him that the peoples of this world need an organization of united nations, and that if he prefers to work for the United States and Israel than the peoples' of the united nations of this world then he ought to follow the Palestinians advice : Un Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, stand for law and Justice or resign!
He has been a disgrace thus far. The UN has been a disgrace. The individual national governments of this world - with notable exceptions in South America - have been a disgrace.
We can all afford the postage on an email to point out to these stooges at the UN that can see through them.
Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 8 2014 11:47 utc | 3
Those govts. who don't condemn the seige, demolition and death rained on the Palestinians in gaza are silently displaying an egregious moral banckruptcy and disregard for life.
Posted by: really | Aug 8 2014 11:59 utc | 4
Wasn't it great that el Sisi conducted his coup?
Just in time to assist Israel.And divide Egypt's population that much more
Late last night the US is going to bomb Iraq- strategically of course, for humanitarian reasons- of course ;)
And of course the US has been so busy expanding air/drone bases
good thing turkey had already built a 'refugee camp' in Sinjar
It's been busy times in the ME
It looks as if this war is set to go into a much wider theatre
Israel will be land grabbing
Hamas had announced that it would next target Israel's only international airport near Tel Aviv. Stopping international air traffic brings serious damage to Israel's economy. Hamas will also try to bait the Israeli army into re-invading the Gaza strip. Its calculation is that more Israeli casualties, as would be certain in close-in fighting, might push the Israeli government to finally lift the seven year old siege.
How do you know that's its calculation? My calculation is that it will bring even more suffering and death to the non-militant Palestinians who want no part in this eternal conflict. Maybe Hamas can hire Strelkov (aka Igor Girkin or The Pickle) since he's out of a job (thanks to my and Christo Grozev's efforts in exposing the bastard) in Eastern Ukraine and is looking for a new conflict to add to his war crimes record. No one can argue that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't a pickle. A pickle calls for The Pickle.
Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 8 2014 12:40 utc | 6
Penny
Yes and you even find Sisi supporters here on MoA.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 8 2014 12:41 utc | 7
Anonymous @ 7- Yes, I am aware of that
JSorrentine @ 8- Interesting. But then there are so many interconnections between the two nations. So, just one more.
Has anyone considered what would happen the day after a rocket explodes into Israels only International airport? 1/ Massive chaos. 2/Stock market collapse.3/Business bankruptcy.4/Tourism decimated. 5/High tech failure. 6/ Israel could lose everything.
All I can say is it could not happen to a nicer place. The problem for the Palestinian resistance is when they have a missile [most are relatively short range Qassam rockets] which can only fly 12 kilometers, they are surprised when they land in the desert, a quarter of the way to their target, Ben Gurion Airport. Its not rocket science. Of the over 3000 rockets fired, most have blown up the desert,[only one came within a mile of the airport and managed to freak out the FAA the International community and their airlines]one lucky near miss is not good military tactics, it is an operational failure of the first magnitude, especially when the Israelis have a deliberate policy of reprisals against the civilian population.
Posted by: harry law | Aug 8 2014 13:15 utc | 10
@ Penny
Yup, if you type in "good night left side tel aviv" into google image search there are some more images from this display at the beginning of the Gaza atrocities.
And for all of those who harp on my seemingly incessant diatribes concerning Zionism and its many crimes including 9/11, here's David Lindorff - who I am not always a fan of - speaking to the insanity of Israel and the US:
And if the Israeli government is criminally insane, so is the US government for uncritically and unthinkingly backing it.
We knew the US government and its military were criminally insane back in the Vietnam War, when we were told that peasant villages were being burned to the ground by US troops on the theory that “we have to destroy the village in order to save it.” Now we’ve moved a step further towards the depths of insanity in backing an Israeli policy of “slaughtering a village in order to kill one of our own soldiers.” Even in the moral cesspool that was America’s war on the Vietnamese people, the US military didn’t sink to that — they stopped at just slaughtering villlages.
See, if you know about serial killers running around murdering people and never do anything about it, the murders obviously continue but many times the killers becomes more "creative" and blatant in their slaughters.
In the US - due to the Zionist PTB and their MSM - the common peon not only has been shielded/inoculated from the crimes of their serial killer masters but they DON'T EVEN SUSPECT THEM!
THAT is why I continue to harp on those "tired" old tropes/crimes because hopefully people will begin to NEVER give the murderous war criminal elite the merest smidgeon of a doubt concerning their culpability vis a vis any and all of these fucking war crimes.
There is nothing to debate about the war criminality of the US and the apartheid genocidal state of Israel. They are unhinged murderous psychopathic societies that need be reflexively recognized by such and shunned by the rest of the world.
Don't fucking debate them. Don't fucking reason with them. Don't look for a some "goodness" in the US and Israel.
Just treat us like fucking pariahs.
TPTB running the show in these murderous shitholes have been manipulating the innate good will/rationality of the general populace of the world for too long and playing the planet for a bunch of fucking fools.
Quit be fucking fools.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 8 2014 13:35 utc | 11
Adding:
The greatest weapon a psycho/sociopath has is not their loss of conscience or their heightened stimulus threshold.
Nope.
It's their charm.
Because that is what keeps regular non-sociopathic people from - for example - recognizing that they are talking to a remorseless, amoral murderous fiend and DOING SOMETHING about it.
Unfortunately, the citizens of the US and Israel have been so long inundated with a propaganda battery which places the worst of the sociopathic lot upon the highest pedestals that they can no longer be reasoned/dealt with as they - as a populace - if not openly aspiring/striving to attain the sociopathic heights of their betters have succumbed - in varying degrees - to the other parts of the "charm offensive" that allow those people who still have some conscience to retain some succor in believing that they are the "good" but quiet outlying exemplars of the sick societies they inhabit.
Don't worry about the "good" Israelis and Americans, world.
Sure there may be some here and there but Western propaganda highlights the existence of those oddities in order to prevent/delay you all from dealing with our nations as the out of control, still-bloodthirsty, murderers that they are.
The really good ones should know they have nothing to expect from the rest of the planet's denizens except scorn, disgust and hatred. Maybe later somewhere down the line there can be some sort of reconciliation but until all this murderous insanity stops, there should be no reason for anyone living in these two states to expect anything less.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 8 2014 14:08 utc | 12
@3 John Francis Lee
FWIW: Ban Ki-Moon is a yes man to Jeffrey Feltman - USG for Political Affairs.
There is a reason he was posted there after groans were made when he was the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the first term of Obama's administration.
After all, the UN Security Council’s Secretariat is handled by the Department of Political Affairs, which would be able to have some sway on its agenda. The post is central to the UN bureaucracy.
Posted by: Yul | Aug 8 2014 14:30 utc | 13
From RT, on the ground report:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12201
Posted by: ben | Aug 8 2014 15:14 utc | 14
JSorrentine @11 &12
Thanks for these great posts. I could't agree more with your sentiments. Your choice of words sometimes detracts from your message but not this time. And to be fair, it is hard always to use polite expressions when referring to the fucking sociopaths who are running the fucking sheeple of my (former) land of the (ha, ha) free and home of the (supposedly) brave. As for the Israeli terrorists, I cannot adequately express in words my feelings for these hateful and disgusting slugs.
Posted by: TicoTiger | Aug 8 2014 15:26 utc | 16
JSorrentine @ #11 K& #12,
Yes, I get it. Some little while back, I suggested that you might be turning people off by the vehemence of your POV. But now, as events have unfolded in every place touched by the diseased hands of the US government and the GoI, I completely get your Old Testament Prophet wrath against their behaviors and the mute complicity of the citizenry. You were correct, I was not. Unfortunately, like Cassandra, you may be cursed by the gods to not be believed. We all know how that turned out for the Trojans.
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian | Aug 8 2014 15:29 utc | 17
All,
I sent an email to the few who will listen to my cries against injustice this morning. If follows:
Fish in a barrel, killed to the cheers of Israelis sitting in lawn chairs overlooking the scene. The waste. The horror.
Click on the picture of the al-Kitani kids, all five of them. German citizens of Palestinian descent, they had originally lived in northern Gaza, but had moved three times in response to Israeli orders to relocate. Guess their luck just finally ran out. Here is the final paragraph from an article in the German news site, Die Zeit, concerning their deaths:
Das Auswärtige Amt versucht, deutsche Staatsbürger aus dem Gazastreifen zu evakuieren. Derzeit sind jedoch die Grenzen sowohl nach Israel als auch nach Ägypten geschlossen.
Loosely translated, off of the top of my head: German citizens had been encouraged to evacuate the Gaza Strip. However, the borders of Israel and of Egypt were both closed.
Too bad for the fish in the barrel.
Too bad for Yara al-Fara; guess she doesn't get to be a princess any more, at least not in this hellhole of a world.
Read the stories. Hold them in your mind for a few moments. Human faces, little lives, all gone. We supplied the weaponry and the munitions that did this. Your tax dollars at work. Through our reflexive vetoes in the UN Security Council, we give cover to this. Is this in our national interest to be linked to this?
I wrote this in a follow-up exchange with one of those aforementioned, long-suffering friends:
I wonder...how does this play in Germany, whose citizens have been browbeaten for 70 years by Jews for enactment of similar scenes of violence and ethnic hatred against their ancestors? Now the murderous violence and ethnic cleansing are being perpetrated by Israel, and AIPAC has their back. So much for "Never Again", eh?
And so it goes...
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian | Aug 8 2014 15:34 utc | 18
@4 really.. that is very true and generally overshadowed by anyone paying attention to the media in all of this. the inequality stands out with the seige of gaza being only one part of it. the life these people in gaza live, not to mention the greater palestinians is being repressed or worse by israel with much of the rest of the world gov't leaders condoning it.. it is frankly sickening.
Posted by: james | Aug 8 2014 15:48 utc | 19
J Sorrentine @ 12
"The greatest weapon a psycho/sociopath has is not their loss of conscience or their heightened stimulus threshold.
Nope.
It's their charm. "
Indeed and very well said.
Invariably in life, when someone is laying on the charm, I run the other way
JS @12
I have no quarrel with your denunciations of Israel. I often find that they encapsulate my own views, which are shared by 95% of those posting here.
I do object, though, to the sectarian anger you often direct at those who do not agree with your other sentiments. You cheapen your anger by denouncing Chomsky, Snowden and Netanyahu in the same terms.
Worse though is your insistence that those who do not agree with your theories, which suggest that everything happening in the world is part of a master plan devised in Langley Va., are fake lefts, traitors, accomplices with imperialism or even agents of the US government.
Finally I object strongly to your thoughtless projection of the worst language of the "culture of cruelty" which is such an important part of the ruling class ideology.Which currently being exhibited by the Israelis, is constantly featured in our policing, legal and penal systems where the "Old Testament" wrath, to which JerseyJeffersonian aludes, is in copious supply as children are sentenced to life, convicts strapped onto gurneys and poisoned slowly and sections of the public call for the castration and torture of those convicted of sexual offences.
The fact that society yawns and looks away from the horrors of Gaza and cheerfully enables their perpetrators is not unconnected with the same society's acceptance of the cruelties and injustices known to be occurring at Guantanamo Bay-'in their name'- and the irrational lynch mob rage with which accused persons, or those convicted by a notoriously crude and unfair legal system, are treated as slaves without rights, who are fair game for all kinds of ill treatment.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 8 2014 15:59 utc | 21
"When and how this war on Gaza may now end is not obvious while the nightmare in Gaza continues."
Both Israel and its allies have painted themselves into a corner. And the martyrs in Gaza- surely the bravest population in modern memory- refuse to allow them a way out by agreeing to the status quo ante, which they saw as leading inevitably to further massacres.
The point that needs to be understood is that 1900 dead by shelling and bombing is not much by Gaza's standards, where the daily wasting away of human life by deprivation of medical supplies, malnutrition, lack of potable water, power cuts and diseases caused by deliberate Israeli-Egyptian policies has been taken for granted for the better part of a decade.
Many people say "better to die on our feet than to live on our knees." Words are cheap. In Gaza they actually do it: they refuse to live on their knees, they refuse to accept the injustice of occupation and the permanent siege. And they refuse to allow the "world community" to pretend that it is only killing Palestinians when the bombs are falling, because it is killing Arab children every day, killing patients by refusing to allow them treatment and killing old people by depriving them of energy and shelter.
The truth, though, is that Israel is not even offering the status quo as an option: it insists on rolling back the strip's narrow borders by imposing a three kilometre no mans land within the borders. This represents a significant loss of agricultural and pastoral land, a loss of employment and a lowering of living standards.
In the meantime, and on the credit side, the Arab world from Saudi Arabia to Egypt is boiling with anger at the uniformly treacherous rulers of the region. More nails are being driven into the coffins of tyranny and, when the next revolts come, they will not be allowed to fall into the hands of pacifists and compromisers. "Thorough" will be the watchword of the coming revolutions.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 8 2014 16:21 utc | 22
A JSorrentine, #11
re Dave Lindorff The IDF’s ‘Hannibal Protocol’ and Two Criminally Insane Governments
Now recall that President Obama was quick to label the Hamas capture of Goldin “barbaric.”The trouble is, having rather absurdly deployed that term to characterize the capture by Hamas fighters of an Israeli soldier who was at the time reportedly exploring a tunnel and trying to capture or kill enemy fighters, though, what then does Obama -- what indeed does any person -- call the indiscriminate slaughter of 150 civilians in the interest of eliminating one of one’s own captured soldier?
This massive war crime is thus as much a US atrocity as it is an Israeli one.
And living in New Mexico, here is a partial list of New Mexico's complicity;
New Mexico & The Israeli Military
@22 bevin.. that is an encouraging post in spite of the situation at present. "better to die on our feet than to live on our knees." is an apt quote.
Posted by: james | Aug 8 2014 16:40 utc | 24
Sorry, the words:
This massive war crime is thus as much a US atrocity as it is an Israeli one.were indeed a quote by Dave L, but "out of order"
That quote referred to the US aid, written about in
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel
Jeremy M. Sharp
Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs
April 11, 2014
A better historical timeline and narrative is
here
The Hannibal project?I'd heard of this before,but today I saw it involved killing their own soldier so he couldn't be used as a hostage.(Surely they mean that fictional Lecter idiot,not Hannibal,who faced the juggernaut of Rome,and finally committed suicide when they cornered him.)
What a bunch of wackos.
The murder of the 3 settler youths occurred in the WB;How can the MSM not say that the WB is Fatah controlled and Hamas had limited influence and very little control?More disinfo.
And the Guardian(I go there for comments)has Anti semitism on the rise!They gotta be kidding right?The whole Israeli nation and many other Jews are totally OK with murder and pornographic violence and the rest of us can't call them for what they are.
Posted by: dahoit | Aug 8 2014 16:48 utc | 26
@21
I do object, though, to the sectarian anger you often direct at those who do not agree with your other sentiments. You cheapen your anger by denouncing Chomsky, Snowden and Netanyahu in the same terms.
Netanyahu is a murderous war criminal.
Chomksy is a fucking Establishment gatekeeper who has and continues to deflect attention away from Israeli crimes and involvement in sundry other Zionist war crimes. Thus, he assists the above.
Snowden is a fucking CIA - witting or unwitting, jury's still out - stooge. Thus, he also assists the above.
End of story.
Worse though is your insistence that those who do not agree with your theories, which suggest that everything happening in the world is part of a master plan devised in Langley Va., are fake lefts, traitors, accomplices with imperialism or even agents of the US government.
Bevin, you are the perfect example of completely propagandized bourgeois fake Western left because of your adherence to the very "polite" and "rational" prison our betters have designed for us. Just like how Uncle Tom taught/admonished the other slaves on the plantation to not be uppity niggers, you and your ilk consistently caution us from speaking out of turn/getting angry/calling out phonies/shills/gatekeepers etc because....because why exactly? Because if we do maybe Massa will reward us with ANOTHER Obama?!! Maybe he'll legalize marijuana and gay marriage across the land?!!! Yippee!!
But will Massa stop his global murdering and theft? Shhhh, says Uncle Bevin, dem's not da words to speak 'roun Massa, boy!
Finally I object strongly to your thoughtless projection of the worst language of the "culture of cruelty" which is such an important part of the ruling class ideology.
Give us all a big fucking break, Uncle Bevin. You've so internalized the wishes of your betters - shhhh, let's use our inside voices, okay? - that you've even gotten to the point of not being able to distinguish between the violence perpetrated by the oppressor AGAINST the oppressed with the righteous violence - almost NON-EXISTENT nowadays or haven't you fucking noticed? - of the oppressed against the oppressor.
If that's not sticking up for the OPPRESSOR, what is it, Uncle Bevin?
Gee, one could almost analogize the American war criminals' use of fig leaf international bodies and laws - NATO, the UN, the IMF, etc etc - to lend veneers of respectability to their murderous crimes to YOUR attempts to use politically correct rhetorical nonsense to lend a veneer of respectability to society's facing up to same-said murderous war crimes with empty debate/passionless tripe and meaningless intra-systemic actions, huh?
Oh, I see, since Massa actually does the whipping, your telling the rest of the slaves not to call him a murderous fuck that deserves to die a painful death is just trying to keep the peace AND NOT allowing Massa the chance to whip one of us again, huh?
Why, golly, Uncle Bevin, it sure seems like you and the Massa are telling us the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING: behave.
Ok, Uncle Bevin, we'll all take it like good fucking slaves just cause you say so!
Again, you tell us all to not be mad about the continued murder of innocent people, don't say bad things because because....you'll be the next Lynndie England some day or something when like the people have finally like overthrown the reign of the current war criminal elite and placed them in concentration camps or some such stupid fucking idiocy. Would Pol Pot or Stalin have been a better choice in this imaginative fugue?
Yup, Uncle Bevin, you are so afraid - or paid? that is the question - that the pendulum which hasn't swung the people's way in decades? centuries? MIGHT microscopically move in their direction that you have to come here and lecture us in the face of atrocity upon atrocity.
The above sentiments are EXACTLY why I figuratively told the world earlier: HATE/DESPISE/SPURN ALL Americans - and Canadians but I repeat myself - because the Uncle Bevins are ALL our society really has to offer you in the "good" and "moral" department. That's it. We're such beaten-down slaves that all we have left are the house servants to shush the rest of us back to sleep.
Hey world, sorry our leaders are fucking killing/raping/displacing you but like we're trying to have a debate over here could you keep it down, mkay? Thanks.
Holy fuck.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 8 2014 16:55 utc | 27
I am sure Bevin @ 22 recalls this excellent Finkelstein interview after the 2006 Israel/Lebanon war when he uses that phrase "Better to die on our feet, than to die on our knees" link to Hezbollah, the honour of Lebanon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDe65-nF3FQ
Posted by: harry law | Aug 8 2014 17:01 utc | 28
Posted by: harry law | Aug 8, 2014 1:01:39 PM | 28
Apologies in advance ... but the expression is:
"Better to die on our feet, than to live on our knees."
And because it is central to the meaning of freedom from oppression, it should never be misquoted.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 8 2014 19:21 utc | 29
J Sorrentine @ 27
"Gee, one could almost analogize the American war criminals' use of fig leaf international bodies and laws - NATO, the UN, the IMF, etc etc - to lend veneers of respectability to their murderous crimes to YOUR attempts to use politically correct rhetorical nonsense to lend a veneer of respectability to society's facing up to same-said murderous war crimes with empty debate/passionless tripe and meaningless intra-systemic actions, huh?"
Isn't that exactly the job of the servant class?
To serve the elites and to keep the masses in their place. Disempowered.
As opposed to the tact you espouse, which is to say to the masses, 'you have the power'! Take it. It's yours!
I get it! But then I am a big proponent of natural law?
FYI: I like to call the UN in particular the shiny happy face of the global tyranny. It should be smashed to smithereens. It is simply a bureaucracy that serves no purpose other then to put up another road block between the people and their right to take their personal power.
The IMF- An international mode of plunder. Dressed up in a veneer of civility- but truly nothing more then- robber barons
Thanks for that Hoarsewhisperer @29. You are so right, hope you agree the Finkelstein interview was excellent.
Posted by: harry law | Aug 8 2014 20:01 utc | 31
@31
I agree, "the Finkelstein interview was excellent." - if that counts ;-)
Posted by: crone | Aug 8 2014 20:21 utc | 32
from today’s Guardian:
The Times refuses to carry ad accusing Hamas of 'child sacrifice'
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/aug/08/hamas-thetimes
The Times is under attack for refusing to run an advert about the conflict in Gaza. The paper is accused of being part of a British media "infamously skewed against Israel."
The ad is a statement, written jointly by Elie Wiesel, the Nobel prize-winning author, and Shmuley Boteach, an outspoken American-born Orthodox rabbi.
It calls on President Obama and other political leaders across the world "to condemn Hamas's use of children as human shields", which amounts to "child sacrifice".
The advert has been carried in five US newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, which is published by News Corporation, the owner of The Times. The Guardian has agreed to run the advert on Monday.
Hasbara overdrive.
Israel must be getting desperate to flood the newspapers with such blatant propaganda. Its even bringing out the heavy guns - Elie Wiesel. Who’s next - Bernard-Henri Lévy - for all the so-called leftist liberals.
One can only imagine the uproar in the Zionist community if it was Hamas running the same type of ad, calling on Obama and the leaders of the world to condemn Israel’s slaughter of innocent children. Not one of these newspapers would even entertain the possibility of running such an ad.
Posted by: pantaraxia | Aug 8 2014 20:38 utc | 33
Since Israel is obviously morally wrong in their long war with the Palestinians, people tend to confuse morality with Geo Political and military reality.
This last cease fire was forced on Israel by The US because this war is NOT in Washington's best interests, which has much bigger fish to fry in the Ukraine, in East Asia and even in taking control back over its ISIS Frankenstein monster, presently going berserk.
From the view in Tel Aviv the 60 something dead servicemen is simply a testament that they don't ever want to do anything like this ever again.
No that doesn't mean that they are going to let the people of Gaza out of their open air prison. What it means, is that in the minds of the Israelis, they are now going to have to finish Hamas off, as a political and military institution in Gaza.
It also sadly means, that as much as Tel Aviv can get away with it, it is going to have to do whatever it believes necessary, (IE kill the children of Gaza) in order to break the will of the Palestinians to armed resistance forever.
The only limits to this would be if there is so much international outcry that the Obamantion will be forced to try and pull Netanyahu off. Still it remains to be seen whether Obama has the political power and capital within Empire to do this.
Even if I were a Brit in WW 2, it would not be enough to constantly be calling Hitler names and recounting his war crimes. One has to understand the war as it is, in its Geo Politial and military realities.
If you would like to learn more about them, here is a good place to start on Red Pill Views.It was written during a by now OLD cease fire in Gaza.
http://www.redpillviews.com/cease-fire-in-gaza-time-to-talk-war/
Posted by: Robert Gorden | Aug 8 2014 22:12 utc | 34
Netanyahu may just be (dimly) realizing what he has grabbed by the tail.
Hamas has had enough of this siege, and so have the people of Gaza.
They are not willing to put up with it, and so they are quite prepared to keep fighting until it is lifted.
So what can Netanyahu do now?
He's bombed them to satisfy his blood-lust, and then demanded that they submit to the status quo.
They've refused.
So does Netanyahu bomb them AGAIN, and the demand AGAIN that they agree to the siege?
They'll refuse. Agreeing to an endless siege is not an option for them.
So what OTHER tactic does Bibi have if NO amount of bombing will make them agree to accept a perpetual siege?
His entire strategy is predicated on the idea that he can bomb them into submission, and he must be sweating now that he has made a terrible blunder: they don't agree, and so he has to either Kill Them All or he has to..... lift the siege.
There is, apparently, no middle ground between those two extremes.
Posted by: Johnboy | Aug 9 2014 0:31 utc | 35
Now its Isis overdrive on the msm.I am sure netanyahu is thankful for the distraction. The idf can bomb the stink out of gaza in peace.
Posted by: really | Aug 9 2014 0:33 utc | 36
Sorrrentine directly implies the masses of the anti-imperialist world must believe in his narrow and crankish conspiracy theories to fight American and Israeli imperialism effectively.
It's not enough to believe the Zionists dominate Congress and effectualize anti-Islamic anti Palestinian anti Arab policies
which cause revenge attacks.
No, the masses must beleive the Mossad planned 9-11-2001 from the get-go or they won't muster the anger and finesse to fight Empire.
The views of a crank.
Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 9 2014 0:54 utc | 37
@ 37
JSore is not a crank... many here share his views. I do.
The Zionists do dominate Congress - and the western media, see 33 above.
And I suspect Mossad did do 911...
Posted by: crone | Aug 9 2014 1:24 utc | 38
@29 Hoarsewhisperer.. thanks for specifying the quote more properly... " it is better to die on your feet, then to walk crawling on your knees" is the direct quote from finkelstein at about 4:25 into the video that harry law shared @31, and which i will share again here.. thanks harry..
Posted by: james | Aug 9 2014 1:46 utc | 39
When you consider that Gaza is 1,800,000 Semites packed into a concentration camp and being live-fired on by 'white' Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not Semites, but Turkics, yet are pretending they are Semites so they can liquidate the 'Cockroaches™', well, Anti-Semitism is pretty bad, when America sides with the Zionists, and liquidates the only other religion on Earth that believes Jesus was a prophet: Islam.
"Don't ever second-guess me again, b*tch!"
Posted by: ChipNikh | Aug 9 2014 2:27 utc | 41
Posted by: crone | Aug 8, 2014 9:24:27 PM | 38
I feel the same about jsore, he is not a crank imo. He is just informed, passionate and pissed.
Now you wanna hear an informed, passionate and at times pissed individual? I am sure some of you know him already.
Go here:
www.mikemalloy.com
Posted by: really | Aug 9 2014 15:04 utc | 42
Meanwhile a zionist woman in uk whine about antisemitism
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2720381/Why-British-Jew-I-m-terrified-anti-Semitism-suddenly-sweeping-country.html
She have of course no problem with supporting a regime murdering 2'000 people. Vile people!
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 9 2014 17:22 utc | 43
"It's better to die on our feet, than to live on our knees"
-- Mau Mau freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi Waciuri
Quoted by James Brown, in "I'm Black, and I'm Proud", 1968.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Aug 9 2014 17:37 utc | 44
President Obama Talks to Thomas L. Friedman About Iraq, Putin and Israel
"It is amazing to see what Israel has become over the last several decades," he answered. "To have scratched out of rock this incredibly vibrant, incredibly successful, wealthy and powerful country is a testament to the ingenuity, energy and vision of the Jewish people. [Wow! Do I hear Republican runner-up Mitt Romney talking?] And because Israel is so capable militarily, I don't worry about Israel's survival. ... I think the question really is how does Israel survive. And how can you create a State of Israel that maintains its democratic and civic traditions. How can you preserve a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who founded Israel."
Added my comments to the interview …
○ NYT Interview On Foreign Policy Arguments: Hogwash Mr. President!
Obama in an interview with Tom Friedman:
How can you preserve a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who founded Israel. And, in order to do that, it has consistently been my belief that you have to find a way to live side by side in peace with Palestinians. ... You have to recognize that they have legitimate claims, and this is their land and neighborhood as well.
Obama doesnt seem to grasp that Palestinian political rights cant be achieved in a Jewish state. Only a pluralistic state can achieve justice.
Posted by: ess emm | Aug 9 2014 18:02 utc | 46
Imagine that somehow all those living in Gaza just vanish, or even are murdered and dispersed by Israel. All their poor houses rubble, the whole a dusty desolate Apocalypse scene. (- Which it is close to.)
Then what?
Well, according to one vision, Israel would enter, take the shore line, fishing and ‘presumed’ gas deposits.
Settlers, funded by others abroad, would arrive en masse, as would some rich Israelis, or their proxies from abroad, entrepreneurs, MegaCos - construction, water, other infrastructure, including re-greening, new holiday resorts, new clinics, and so on. McDonald’s who left Crimea would jump at the opportunity!
No doubt huge tax / trade breaks would be awarded to all and sundry by absolutely everyone. (US, WTO, etc. precision not needed here.) Some olive groves might be re-created (the oil would sell at premium price), with olive trees imported from Spain and France. A lovely international port for yachts, with their cheerful flags, might complete the postcard picture.
Some ‘light’ industry / manufacture / other to provide jobs, beyond the 80% in low service jobs to the rich and tourists, would be essential for image - IT, L’oréal, a Google main outpost (tax free), some new fashion scene, some food, growing saffron would be a great idea.
Boom times! Mostly thru foreign investement and endless support - heh, always dicey that.
Is this what Israel wants?
I don’t think so.
Israel’s support rests on its belligerence, its blatant apartheid state, it’s endless old-style murderous sadistic colonialism, accepted or championed in the ‘modern’ age. Its pride at defeating ‘terrorists’ and uppping the arms industry. That is it’s brand! Its life-blood … Should that change, all cards are off the table, in the long run.
So, the ppl of Gaza have to be corraled in something like a pig-pen, hemmed in forever providing human bodies as victims, those who subsist and resist, marginally, and can always be exploited for attack, every few years, regularly, for endless decades… The more ppl get upset and fund ‘aid’ for the Palestinians, the better for Israel, as that maintains the agression. Without the aid all the Palestianians would have already died, say, except that Isr. would have funded or eased blockades, sanctions.
The point (mostly for the US) is also to erode international law (such as it is), the Geneva conventions, and so on, by eternally claiming special status for Isr. and then using that to undermine any extra-territorial stirctures or control.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 9 2014 18:22 utc | 47
crone
I said the Zionists dominate Congress. Read more carefully. That's why the blowback occured.
Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 9 2014 20:13 utc | 48
In fact, Gaza provides the anti-imperialist world the opportunity to understand why the previous blowback against Israel's subsidizer occurred.
Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 9 2014 20:40 utc | 49
I mistakenly posted this at 'what obama told the caliph' but it actually belongs here ...
I saw, via counterpunch, Marjorie Cohn's excellent article on US/Israeli culpability for War Crimes in pursuit of their genocide of the Palestinian people. I'll dig deep for email postage and send a copy of her conclusions, as a follow up to the Palestinian Open Letter to UNSG Ban Ki-moon on Gaza.
These people must be reminded that more and more of the world's population are aware that there is an alternative to the rule of the raw and ruthless, that it is the world's 'leaders' who are opposed to the rule of law and justice, and not any of the world's peoples.
US Leaders Aid and Abet Israeli War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity
Both Israel and the US have refused to ratify the Rome Statute. But if Palestine were a party to the statute, the ICC could exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed by Israelis and Americans in Palestinian territory.The ICC could also take jurisdiction
if the UN Security Council refers the matter to the ICC, or
if the ICC prosecutor initiates an investigation of the crime.
The US would veto any Security Council referral to the ICC.
And the ICC prosecutor has not initiated an investigation.So the question is whether Palestine can ratify the statute, thereby becoming a party to the ICC.
In 2009, the Palestinian National Authority filed a declaration [1] with the ICC accepting the court’s jurisdiction.
In 2012, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state.
During the present war, the Palestinian minister of justice and the deputy minister of justice both submitted documents to the ICC indicating that the 2009 declaration is still valid.
On August 5, 2014, the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs met with officials from the ICC and inquired about the procedures for Palestine to become a party to the statute.
Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas’ terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability.
Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes.
[1] http://iccforum.com/media/background/gaza/2009-01-21_Palestinian_National_Authority_Declaration.pdf
I did send my email and copy to Moon, and one to the ICC as well ... asking if the Prosecutor was incompetent or complicit in the crime him/herself.
I think it would be good if both Moon and the ICC were deluged with such questions/observations.
I also have a question about the posture taken by political parties in Germany. I do read the wsws.org and find their analysis sound, on the whole. They consistently complain of the German Green Party's support for the remilitarization of Germany and now that Germany’s Left Party suppresses opposition to militarism. I wonder if others who know more than I about Germany agree or disagree. I know little to nothing about German politics ... except the alarming things I read occasionally in Der Spiegel's English version.
Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 9 2014 20:53 utc | 50
We should overlook Lindorff's romance with "ineptness?"
"And let us hope that Americans finally demand an honest accounting of what happened on 9/11/2001 and that those who are guilty of allowing it to happen ... are exposed and forced to pay for their ineptness and their crimes."
Chomsky re Gaza
"In contrast, Israel is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, apart from some occasional meaningless words, and is implementing that commitment."
Well, Chomsky has erred in not seeing or in not admitting that Israel has some complicity in
attempting to overthrow Assad, so I suppose we shouldn't give him credit for detailing this
and possibly motivating to anger and effective anti-imperialist action somewhere in the world. Don't trust him, hate him and....Richard Gage and Fetzer. etc etc lol.
Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 9 2014 21:15 utc | 51
truthbetold at 49.
Chomsky re Gaza:
In contrast, Israel is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, apart from some occasional meaningless words, and is implementing that commitment.
Well yes or maybe or that is one way of putting it. Let me expand a little on my post above.
It has been said that Israel tries both to annex territory, as much as possible in fact, and tries to exclude territories where the Arab population is the huge majority. (Open-air prison Gaza.) I forget where I read that. These two policies are contradictory on their face, but make sense if a) the core is seen as ethnic hatred and support for it all over the ‘land’; and b) as a supreme strategy of control.
Acccording to the Oslo accords, Israel does not have the full responsibility - financial amongst others - which usually devolves to the occupier of an occupied territory. Chomsky knows this far better than I do. Shedding responsibility, it gained control (see point b above.)
For these reasons, the corralling and control of Gaza must continue, at least in the near future. The aim is not to take over Gaza (this might even have been accomplished long before) but to maintain it, through measured and sporadic, well calculated, violence at every level - bombs and shooting, which make headlines, but also control of water, food, building, local production, medical care, and so on.
Gaza is a laboratory for the management of stigmatised, useless, populations. Territorial and financial considerations mingle. Israel makes a packet of money from its military-arms-security- industry, as well as its status of ‘expert’ in these matters. (Which accounts in part for the beyond-stellar US financial support.) That is its biz card, adulated by many, which is covered up by the ‘war’ discourse.
What we see is marriage between rapacious ‘free market - liberal’ economic policy and murderous violence. Those two are not supposed to meet in the public mind, and Israel provides a good oppo for cover up, as the hypocritical sludge of clash of civilizations (Jews-Arabs) serves as a distraction and obfuscation.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 10 2014 12:15 utc | 52
palestinians keep gettin fooled by israel
http://rt.com/news/179320-israel-palestinians-truce-cairo/
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 10 2014 18:23 utc | 53
Richard Falk, Strange Regional Alignments in the Gaza Massacre
Of all the complexities surrounding the reaction of the world to the horrifying spectacle of Israel’s severe criminality in Gaza none is more perplexing than the complicity of most governments throughout the Arab world.
and Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Tragedy of Great Power: The Massacre of Gaza and the Inevitable Failure of the Arab Spring, shed some light on those complexities.
Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 12 2014 12:51 utc | 54
BREAKING NEWS....
The IDF claims the "gaza terrorists" have broken the cease fire. There was supposedly one bottle rocket fired.
The same old blame claim. This time I think israel will try to muster some brownie points by not delivering the usual smackdown response.
Posted by: really | Aug 13 2014 20:24 utc | 55
for those who favor the russian military coming to the aid of the Novorossiyans, why not suggests some state send its military to aid the palsetinians? and why has noone made this suggestion?
Posted by: brian | Aug 14 2014 2:21 utc | 56
Posted by: really | Aug 13, 2014 4:24:09 PM | 55
gaza terrorist! another parallel with Ukranie where novorossiya rebels and civilians are called terrorists and get FUKUS backing
Posted by: brian | Aug 14 2014 2:25 utc | 57
Venezuela Sends 12 Tons of Solidarity Aid to Palestine
The Venezuelan people will send tons of humanitarian aid to Palestine today part of a five day visit. The Venezuelan aircraft will leave Caracas carrying 12 tons of humanitarian aid.Foreign Minister Elias Jaua confirms that details regarding the safe arrival and transfer of humanitarian aid were discussed last week in Egypt. Jaua detailed that the Venezuelan people collected 25,622 containers of medicine, 27,173 kilograms of nonperishable food, 412 bulks of clothes, 8,123 personal care products, 22 wheelchairs, eight clinical beds among other aid.
Earlier this week in Los Caobos Park in Caracas, hundreds of artisans came together from across the country to build toys for Palestinian children. The event "Thousands of Toys for Thousands of Palestinian Boys and Girls" was inspired by the late Venezuelan musician Ali Primera. Primera held similar events in solidarity with children across the world.
Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 15 2014 4:59 utc | 58
brian
What state(s) would that be? West wont do it, not to mention the blockade, israel is not letting aid in.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 15 2014 8:27 utc | 59
lets hope more do the same:
'On Sunday, July 20, an Israeli fighter jet dropped a bomb on the Ziadah family’s home in al-Bureij. The bomb killed the family matriarch, Muftiyah, 70; three of her sons, Jamil, Omar and Youssef; Jamil’s wife, Bayan; and their 12-year-old son, Shaaban. The bombing thus orphaned Jamal and Bayan’s other five children, four daughters and a son, while bereaving Omar’s two sons and Youssef’s three sons and a daughter of their fathers. The bombing also killed Mohammed Maqadmeh, who happened to be visiting the family that day.
Zanoli, an attorney by profession, heard about the killing of the Ziadah family from his niece. As a way of expressing his shock and pain, he decided to return the medal and certificate that were awarded to him and his mother (posthumously) as Righteous Among the Nations. Because of his age and poor health, he did not do so in person, but sent them by messenger to the Israeli Embassy in The Hague – the same place where he received them in an official ceremony three years ago.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.610682
Posted by: brian | Aug 15 2014 8:49 utc | 60
61
No one in the west and the rest dont dare (besides Iran, Syria that send stuff on occasion).
Who are you thinking of?
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 15 2014 8:59 utc | 62
brian
You mean the western governments that supports israel would send military aid to palestinians?
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 15 2014 10:09 utc | 64
"ISTANBUL – Before the temporary fiveday truce expired on Monday night, Israeli Defense Forces(IDF) destroyed the homes of three Palestinians accused of involvement in the killings of three Israeli teenagers in the southern West Bank in June. According to IDF reports, the homes of Hussam Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha were demolished while the property of a third Palestinian suspect, Marwan Kawasme, was sealed off. The Israeli military stated that Israel's Supreme Court has also approved the demolition of West Bank homes despite three appeals made by the families of the suspects'..."
http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2014/08/19/israel-destroys-west-bank-homes-amid-ongoing-peace-talks
WTF? You know your a vindictive and heartless being when you pull some sh*t like this. I mean these family members of "suspects" had their homes destroyed.......@#$!#%$#!.....I am at a loss for words.
"As the current cease-fire in the Israeli massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip draws to a close, reports indicate that the two parties are not close to an agreement to extend it. However, it is difficult to know what is actually happening, if one bases their knowledge solely on the mainstream media.
An article in the August 18 edition of CNN indicates clearly the kind of misinformation the news media is presenting about the situation, with much of it including half-truths, omissions and distortions that may be more damaging that outright lies. The following are some examples, with commentary..."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/19/palestine-israel-and-cnn/
Good breakdown. Btw, last I heard Israel is recalling their Cairo delegation and they "claim" yet again that rockets were fired at Israel. So I guess the cease fire is over.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0GM11320140825?irpc=932
"Israeli air strikes launched before dawn on Tuesday killed two Palestinians and destroyed much of one of Gaza's tallest apartment and office buildings, setting off huge explosions and wounding 20 people.
Palestinian health officials said Israel had no immediate comment on the attacks that took place as Egyptian mediators stepped up efforts to achieve an elusive ceasefire to end seven weeks of fighting.
Palestinian health officials say 2,125 people, most of them civilians, including more than 490 children, have been killed in Gaza since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive with the declared aim of ending rocket fire into its territory..."
--------------------------------------------------------
Bibi and the idf are all out bezerk on gaza. Out of control. Blowing up 13 story apartment buildings...this is looking like calculated demolition of gaza to me. Destroy everything so the palestinians get off the land. Sad...
I read the news today, oh boy ... I sent 'my' president an email...
Dear Barack Obama,So where's the no-fly zone over Gaza? You and your crew of 'progressives' are big on no-fly zones. In Libya for instance. The US had a no-fly zone in Iraq for years while you were still a fledgling CIA agent.
Protect the people. We have a responsibility to protect the people. People, though ... not Palestinians.
Obama, your utter hypocrisy stinks to high-heaven.
You wanted the job, you Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, you ... it's time to man-up and do the job!
Send in our 6th Fleet to break the illegal Israeli blockade, to establish a no-fly zone over the heads of the Gazans', and to put ashore American seabees to succor and secure the poor people, the poor Palestinian people we have been dispossessing and killing for so, so long.
Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 26 2014 10:22 utc | 68
This is why there is a ceasefire...I just hope the gazan people will benefit significantly from whatever deal that has been brokered. The gazans have shed a lot of blood over this...
http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/141892/turkey-pulls-out-of-joint-energy-policy-with-israel
http://www.worldbulletin.net/economy/143004/jordan-to-import-natural-gas-from-gaza-field
really
Theres no "deal" just a stupid "ceasefire" that israel soon will reject, israel is like a tiger playing with a mouse.
Posted by: Anoynmous | Aug 26 2014 18:54 utc | 70
The comments to this entry are closed.
we need to get the message out to even more people that Israel is the aggressor and that lifting the siege on Gaza is something that must be done. Please check out my latest video and share with others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TaAqI1sdk&list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dRiTjSF3iInomsr34bYREQ6
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Aug 8 2014 10:51 utc | 1