Isreal shells another school

[emptycloud]

It wouldn't be a prison if Hamas and their extremist/fanatical allies didn't make it so. The borders could be open for free movement and trade, influxes of assistance, and goodwill from Israel, but terrorist factions have made it into a locked down prison.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/gaza-the ... travelled/

I thought Israel attacked Palestine by stealing land off them.

Some of the young hot headed Palestinian youth were born into the prison. I don't think goodwill is an experience they can associate with Israel...?

Imagine a 10 year old Gaza boy, 10 years from now. Still in the prison.

it sure is complex..

[Dajenarit]

Lets not lie like Israel isn't in control of the Gazan border and therefore the food, water, basic medical supplies and infrastructure material or that they don't limit the movement of all Palestinians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip

"The blockades of the Gaza Strip refers to a land, air, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip by Egypt and Israel from 2007 to present. After the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip by Israel, in 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election, triggering the 2006–07 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority by Israel and the Quartet on the Middle East. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a Palestinian authority national unity government headed by Ismail Haniya. Shortly after, in June, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the course of the Battle of Gaza, seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah and other government officials with its own. Following the takeover, Egypt and Israel largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza, on the grounds that Fatah had fled and was no longer providing security on the Palestinian side.

Israel maintains that the blockade is necessary to limit Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on its cities and to prevent Hamas from obtaining other weapons. Prior to its 2011 opening of the Rafah crossing, Egypt maintained that it could not fully open its side of the border since completely opening the border would represent Egyptian recognition of the Hamas control of Gaza, undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian National Authority and consecrate the split between Gaza and the West Bank.

Facing mounting international calls to ease or lift their blockade in response to the Gaza flotilla raid, Egypt and Israel lessened the restrictions starting in June 2010. Israel announced that it will allow all strictly civilian goods into Gaza while preventing certain weapons and what it designates as "dual-use" items from entering Gaza. Egypt partly opened the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to Gaza, primarily for people, but not for supplies, to go through. The Israeli NGO Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement asserted in a July 2010 report that Israel continues to prevent normal functioning of the Gazan economy. Israel continues to severely restrict and/or prevent people from entering or exiting Gaza according to Gisha. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) conducted an assessment of the humanitarian impact of the easing of the blockage in January and February 2011 and concluded that they did not result in a significant improvement in people’s livelihoods.

Egypt for some time opened the Rafah border crossing permanently as of 28 May 2011. A limited number of women of all ages and men aged below 18 and above 40 were able to enter Egypt without a visa, although there are still severe restrictions on the movement of personnel and goods to and from Gaza. Following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, Egypt's military has destroyed most of the 1,200 tunnels which are used for smuggling food, weapons and other goods to Gaza. After the August 14th clashes in Egypt, the border crossing was closed 'indefinitely'.

The blockade has been criticized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations, a criticism that has been officially supported by United States administrations. In June 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the humanitarian needs in the Hamas-controlled area must be met along with legitimate Israeli security concerns.

Most of the international institutions consider the blockade illegal. In September 2011, the Chair and Vice-Chair of a UN Panel of Inquiry concluded in the Palmer Report that the naval blockade is legal and had to be judged isolated from the restrictions on goods reaching Gaza via the land crossings. Concerning the restrictions on goods reaching Gaza via the land crossings the Palmer report stated that they were the main reason for an unsustainable and unacceptable humanitarian situation in Gaza. However a Fact-Finding Mission for the UN Human Rights Council chaired by a former judge of the International Criminal Court, as well as a panel of five independent U.N. rights experts concluded that the blockade constituted collective punishment of the population of Gaza and was therefore unlawful. UN envoy Desmond Tutu, United Nations Human Rights Council head Navi Pillay, the International Committee of the Red Cross and some experts on international law consider the blockade illegal."" ~end quote~

Lets not pretend thats moves weren't being made to discredit and destabilize a Hamas controlled government as soon as they legitimately took power. "We don't recognize Hamas' authority" says the U.S, Israel and Egypt.. What hypocrites. The U.S. which gets caught all the time rigging elections on top of the legal bribery system we adore so much. Israel on its neo-colonial 'adventure', and do we even need to go into the violent quagmire that is Egyptian puppet politics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid.

Why would people be fighting and dying to bring supplies to Gaza if there was truly a free flow of people and resources?

[Dajenarit]

So the Palestinians have no freedom of movement and have to resort to rationing food? Totally level playing field...

From the same wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip

""Since June 1989, Israel has formally restricted the movement of Palestinians, imposing a magnetic-card system whereby only those with such a card were allowed to leave the Strip: Israeli authorities did not issue magnetic cards to released prisoners, former administrative detainees, or people who had been detained and released without charges being filed against them. January 1991 marked the beginning of the permanent closure policy, whereby each resident of Gaza who desired to travel within Israel or the West Bank was required to have a personal exit permit. In March 1993, Israel imposed an overall closure on Gaza with newly built checkpoints; and, from October 2000, Israel imposed a comprehensive closure on the Gaza Strip.

When the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in September 2000 Israel put trade restrictions on the Gaza Strip and closed the Gaza International Airport. The economic effects worsened after the creation of a ‘buffer zone’ in September 2001, that would seal all entry and exit points in the Palestinian Territories for "security reasons." After 9 October 2001, movement of people and goods across the ‘Green Line’ dividing the West Bank from Israel, and between the Gaza Strip and Israel, was halted, and a complete internal closure was effected on 14 November 2001. The worsening economic and humanitarian situation raised great concern abroad. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in January 2003, the Israeli blockade and closures had pushed the Palestinian economy into a stage of de-development and drained as much as US $2.4 billion out of the economy of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2005 Agreement on Movement and Access:
The Israel Defense Forces left the Gaza Strip on 1 September 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. An "Agreement on Movement and Access" (AMA) between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was concluded in November 2005 to improve Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was to be reopened, with transits monitored by the Palestinian National Authority and the European Union. Only people with Palestinian ID, or foreign nationals, by exception, in certain categories, subject to Israeli oversight, were permitted to cross in and out.

2006–2007 economic sanctions:
Main article: 2006–2007 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority
The 2006–2007 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority were economic sanctions imposed by Israel and the Quartet on the Middle East against the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian territories following the January 2006 legislative elections that brought Hamas to power. In March 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a national unity government, with 83 representatives voting in favor and three against. Government ministers were sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman on the Palestinian Authority, in a ceremony held simultaneously in Gaza and Ramallah.

Throughout 2006, the Karni crossing remained only partially operational, costing Palestinians losses of $500,000 a day, as less than 10% of the Gaza Strip's minimal daily export targets were achieved. Basic food commodities were severely depleted, bakeries closed and food rationing was introduced."" ~end quote~

[Interloper]

Hama's strategy... an analysis:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Artic ... -gHh_ldVu4

[Ian]

Disclaimer: I must be a Jew-hating, Hamas-lobbying, peacenik liberal who wants to dismantle Israel. What follows is my AGENDA

Doc, you're a military man, so here's some perspective:

An account of Operation Cast Lead (08-09):



An Israeli human rights group talking about the same operation:

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20090909

Today (Wed. Sept 9th) Israeli human rights group B'Tselem published its findings on the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. According to B'Tselem's research, Israeli security forces killed 1,387* Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. For 36 people, B'Tselem could not determine whether they participated in the hostilities or not.

Palestinians killed 9 Israelis during the operation: 3 civilians and one member of the security forces by rockets fired into southern Israel, and 5 soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 soldiers were killed by friendly fire.

A comparison of Israel and Palestine:




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


Re: terrorism, kidnapping, human shields, the children

It's impossible to discuss current events in a historical vacuum. So here's some context:

* "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.

* " (The Palestinians are) beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

 * "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." " Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988.

 * "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983. 

* "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969.

 * "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours." Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983. 

* "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978. 

* "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum." 

* "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist... There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969. 

* "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998. 

* "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin,

David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.

"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

Exactly the same kind of language that was used to describe the European Jews, the Tutsi, the Bosniaks and Croats.

[Interloper]

Gazans fear Hamas far more than they do the IDF:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/fear-fatal ... nst-hamas/

[leifeng]

Disclaimer: I must be a Jew-hating, Hamas-lobbying, peacenik liberal who wants to dismantle Israel. What follows is my AGENDA

Doc, you're a military man, so here's some perspective:

An account of Operation Cast Lead (08-09):



An Israeli human rights group talking about the same operation:

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20090909

Today (Wed. Sept 9th) Israeli human rights group B'Tselem published its findings on the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. According to B'Tselem's research, Israeli security forces killed 1,387* Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. For 36 people, B'Tselem could not determine whether they participated in the hostilities or not.

Palestinians killed 9 Israelis during the operation: 3 civilians and one member of the security forces by rockets fired into southern Israel, and 5 soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 soldiers were killed by friendly fire.

A comparison of Israel and Palestine:




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


Re: terrorism, kidnapping, human shields, the children

It's impossible to discuss current events in a historical vacuum. So here's some context:

* "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.

* " (The Palestinians are) beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

 * "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." " Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988.

 * "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983. 

* "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969.

 * "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours." Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983. 

* "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978. 

* "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum." 

* "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist... There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969. 

* "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998. 

* "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin,

David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.

"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

Exactly the same kind of language that was used to describe the European Jews, the Tutsi, the Bosniaks and Croats.

LOL! It's truly the planet of the apes.

[Interloper]

How the IDF tries to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, despite Hamas's use of civilian locales to fire rockets and store ammunition and armaments

[Dajenarit]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/08/ ... ate-peace/

WEEKEND EDITION AUGUST 8-10, 2014

Ignore Them at Your Peril

Does Hamas Hate Peace?

by RON SMITH

Certainly, the consistent message of Western Media seems to suggest that this is the case. HAMAS represents the most popular wing of that Western bogeyman, Political Islam, in Palestine. It has been labeled by Western governments as a terrorist group, and is seen as an organization bent on the destruction of Israel. It is also a pragmatic organization that has captured a small majority of Palestinian support for its public refusal to accept the most heinous proposals offered by the Israeli occupation in the interminable peace process. There are no small numbers of Palestinians who bitterly oppose HAMAS’s policy domestically, but in this bloody summer of 2014, proffer their full support for HAMAS’s acts of resistance against the occupation and the siege in Gaza. Here, I hope to provide a critical analysis of the false pretense reproduced as Western media repeats phrases such as “HAMAS rejects Egypt’s cease fire proposal” and HAMAS “opposes terms for ceasefire”, and to explore the importance of HAMAS in the current political landscape.

I have made the siege of Gaza the focus of my research for the last 5 years, and have had the privilege of entering Gaza multiple times to see, first-hand, the effects of Israeli policy on the civilian population. What I have encountered could be considered nothing other than collective punishment, itself a crime against humanity. The strength of the resolve of HAMAS is that it draws upon the deep frustration Gazans have with Western-oriented FATAH leaders who excuse and accept the continued human rights catastrophe that is the Israeli siege.

It is easy to forget that HAMAS won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, largely the result of a protest vote against FATAH leadership who seemed disposed to negotiate Palestine into oblivion. FATAH insisted on using the terms of the 1993 Oslo interim agreement as a starting point with any negotiation with Israel, while Israel regularly violates the terms of these accords. The FATAH Palestinian Authority leadership is ossified, seen by many Gazans as trading the crumbs of VIP checkpoint passes for the politicians in the West Bank and access to international donors’ funds for any possible future peace with justice for the wrongs of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. The terms of Oslo were themselves an absurd step backwards for Palestinian liberation, splitting the West Bank into 3 zones (Areas A, B, and C) and fragmenting potential areas of a future Palestinian state into isolated Bantustans. Gaza itself was completely isolated by Israel, and though the Oslo accords treat Gaza and the West Bank as inseparable, Israel has done all in its power to subvert this collective identity. In effect, the very notion of “facts on the ground” was reified by the FATAH leadership, further empowering Israeli intransigence and an unwillingness to negotiate in good faith. The extent of this enabling was documented in the Palestine Papers, published by Al Jazeera, wherein PA negotiators allegedly went so far as to ask Israel to reoccupy the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s southern border in order to help topple HAMAS.

In contrast, HAMAS, once it came into power in the Gaza Strip followed another tack: HAMAS insisted that Israel honor UN resolution 242 that demands Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 boundaries, Israel must follow the norms of international law, and in return HAMAS would enforce a 99-year truce with Israel. The idea of this proposal is that while the parties to any current agreement are themselves the victims of countless atrocities, if a 99 year truce can be maintained, the progeny of the signatories would have no personal grudges, no personal experience of the pain of occupation, and would be willing to create a permanent solution. HAMAS has made this proposal numerous times, though these proposals are unsurprisingly missing from US media portrayals of the Islamist group.

To begin with the Oslo accords, and to accept further expansion of settlements and the ever greater limitation of Palestinian political aspirations was more than most Palestinians could accept. In the intervening years, Gazans suffered under the brutal regime of the Israeli siege, and many suffered from problematic policies put into place by the HAMAS government itself, which become more professionalized, bureaucratized, and seemed to be unable to settle on a coherent policy of resistance, the very reason they were voted into power in the first place. When I was most recently in Gaza, earlier this summer, I saw a population that was growing tired of HAMAS refusing to support popular positions, and one that spent the majority of its time quashing resistance and democratic movements among the youth and non-affiliated sectors of the population. This was a HAMAS that prevented groups from firing rockets into Israel and enforced the terms of ceasefire agreements with Israel, a far cry from the bastions of armed resistance that had made HAMAS a popular option in the elections. The HAMAS that signed on to the unity government was not in a position of strength, and as the West Bank PA leadership played games with the terms of the agreement, HAMAS struck back by closing the banks across Gaza, a move sure to further alienate it from a people already suffering from the artificial humanitarian crisis of the siege.

Once the Israeli attacks on Gaza began, it became clear that HAMAS was now in a struggle for its own existence, in addition to being the voice of the armed resistance in Gaza. Their popularity has skyrocketed since the invasion began, and they are seen once again as an alternative to the avarice and cowardice of Mahmoud Abbas’s leadership in the West Bank. All of this is in the context of the failure of Arab leaders across the Middle East to take meaningful stands against the occupation. Egypt, after the fall of Morsi, continues to actively aid the Israeli and international community’s enforcement of the siege, and to spread propaganda about the threat Gaza poses to the Egyptian homeland.

Israel has emphatically denied the targeting of civilians, and insists on the humanitarian nature of its operation. This claim, however, comes from the same military and civil organizations that for 2 years denied Gazans access to chickpeas for hummus, bath sponges, and unfertilized chicken eggs (GISHA). Instead, Israel has repeatedly targeted civilians and fundamental civilian infrastructure. This same infrastructure has been made all the more vulnerable by repeated Israeli invasions since 2000 and punitive siege measures that prevent the entry of materials that would allow vital repairs to keep the water flowing and the electricity running.

Many observers fail to understand the importance of this infrastructure. Gaza, as many have pointed out, includes refugee camps which are the most densely populated areas on earth. A lack of electricity is not an inconvenience, it is a calamity. All aspects of clean water provision require uninterrupted electric service, throughout the water chain. This includes the pumps at the wells, the reverse osmosis filters in the desalination plants, the distribution pumps, and even the small electrical pumps in the multistory apartment buildings in the camps, where water and electricity must be present at the same time in order to fill the rooftop tanks. The electricity supplies the refrigerators and the fans in the overcrowded rooms in the camps, often housing 15 people in two 3 by 3 meter rooms, in an area of high humidity and summer temperatures of up to 100 degrees. This same electric supply is all that keeps the lights and incubators on at the hospitals.

This is to say nothing of the sewage systems, again repeatedly targeted in this and all other Israeli bombing campaigns, which create sewage tsunamis, floods, and destruction of the marine ecosystem. This ecosystem sustains the few brave fishermen that return to the seas to face the violence of .50 caliber guns on the Israeli navy ships that patrol the ever decreasing fishing boundaries to augment the protein intake of Gazans and to promote the rich fish-based culinary culture.

Gazans are a resourceful group, by necessity. In the face of the international siege, Gazans moved underground, and created a tunnel economy that by some accounts included as many as 3000 tunnels. These tunnels were regulated by HAMAS, and the goods from the tunnels populated the markets, the convenience stores, and the home goods stores for the entire strip. These tunnels were dug by hand in the sandy soil along the Southern border, using hand-drawn maps. They represented a challenge to the international boundary, and were built in open defiance of the siege. Along with the products smuggled through the tunnels came the expected distortions of Gazan and Egyptian economies. Tunnel owners became relatively wealthy, while the workers were paid less and less as the tunnels became more common. Soon electrical goods flooded the market, from televisions to refrigerators to air conditioners, but what good were these items with no electricity to run them? In the end, this warren of tunnels under the border were ended by the US-supported Sisi regime, and flooded with sewage. The tunnels, for the most part, came to an end, and the largest source of employment disappeared. The economic impacts of the destruction of the tunnels were significant, as more and more Gazans became dependent on international food aid, reaching 80 percent of the population. Population densities in the camps actually increased, as young Gazan families were unable to afford rents on apartments, and moved back in with their extended families. This contributed to an increase in diseases such as scabies and lice, and a resurgence of mumps in the confined spaces of the camps.

Why is HAMAS so reluctant to accept a ceasefire? Because life before the invasion was intolerable. With the ascendence of Sisi to power in Egypt, Gazans are completely dependent on Israel, a hostile occupier, for all goods entering the strip, for electricity, for water, for safe passage. All the while, Israel denies its responsibilities under international law to maintain the wellbeing of the occupied population, and engages in wholesale transfer of populations, another violation of human rights. All the while, the world turns a blind eye to these violations, and Israel becomes ever more blatant in its disregard for common human decency. This is a scenario no country would accept.

It is important to ask at this time, why would HAMAS increase in popularity so dramatically, if, as Israeli and numerous US media pundits would have us believe, that they themselves are to blame for the massive civilian deaths throughout the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Operation “Protective Edge”? Herein lies the contradiction of collective punishment. Gaza’s siege has created unbearable hardship for Gazans throughout the strip, and across class, politics and geography. Gazans that I have met have been harsh critics of the HAMAS regime. Those critiques, by and large, have largely been focused on domestic policy, perceived local mismanagement and the lack of progress in bringing the siege to an end and softening the occupation. HAMAS’s support before the current invasion was far greater in the West Bank, where Palestinians suffer under Israeli colonialism and FATAH collaboration with the Israelis. In the end, this is the explanation for the significant expansion of public support for HAMAS in Gaza. They have come to represent resistance. Resistance in the context of the siege, of periodic invasions, the day to day humiliations and injustices, the lack of clean water, electricity, housing, and medical care, the constant firing on fishermen, farmers and rubble gatherers, is the embodiment for many of sumoud, the spirit of steadfastness that permeates popular Palestinian society. As one Gazan blogger recently posted, “People find it hard to understand, the youth, we hate Gaza, we only want to leave, but we love it and will fight for it. We will not be refugees again, it is our home.”

It is Israel that drops 1-ton bombs into overcrowded housing. It is Israel that attacks UN schools that it acknowledges are shelters. It is Israel that shuts off power and water supplies, and limits the entry of food through the Karm Abu Salem terminal. It is Israel that has killed 1900 Gazans, the overwhelming majority civilians. To blame Gazans or even HAMAS for this is unconscionable, and nonsensical. This was a war of choice, based on false premises. Ostensibly the original justification was the abduction of three teenagers on the West Bank, which all, even Israel, now acknowledges, was not the act of HAMAS. Israel has created and taken advantage of an opportunity to attempt to destroy HAMAS and to try to crush Palestinian resistance through bombs, bullets, and missiles. It will fail, but at an unacceptable human cost. With each Gazan child killed, the pain of international culpability in the siege and the invasion is further exacerbated.

HAMAS’s rocket fire and tunnel strategy, as impotent as it may very well appear, may be the only thing preventing a shift to genuine terrorism. The repeated calls in the US congress to denounce HAMAS activities as human rights violations are intolerable hypocrisy in the face of one of the most advanced militaries on the planet deliberately targeting civilians, their homes, and their infrastructure. Israel does this knowing that unless its siege is lifted, it will be almost impossible to rebuild. HAMAS is not the ideal, neither for Gazans, the West or for Israel. They are, however, a group which carries the support of large sectors of the population, and the democratically-elected leaders of Palestine. This is something Israelis, and the West need to fully comprehend: HAMAS is your partner for peace and for negotiations. Ignore them, or attempt to destroy them at your own peril. It is the very violations of international humanitarian law, the wanton destruction of civilians and UN hospitals, clinics, and schools, and the unwillingness of the world powers to condemn these actions, that makes violent armed resistance, including that aimed at civilian targets, an attractive option to a population that has been deserted by the world. Peace is not a ceasefire. For these reasons, alternatives to violence must be pursued. The most promising of these non-violent forms of resistance is the global grassroots solidarity movement encapsulated in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS is not only practicable, it is also gaining more and more traction in light of the intransigence and complicity of the West in the violations of decency, humanity, and human rights law.

Ron Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bucknell University.
This article originally appeared in Logos.

[Interloper]

https://www.facebook.com/idfonline/phot ... =1&theater

It's interesting that Israel openly warns Gaza civilians of impending IDF rockets, using leaflets, phone calls and other approaches. Hamas stores its munitions and fires rockets from civilian neighborhoods and next to UN hospitals and other public buildings, while encouraging civilians to be human shields.

[Steve James]

While I agree that the IDF warns the people in the areas where they will shell, does everything it can to be as accurate as possible with their strikes, and never intentionally shells non-combatant civilians, I still think there is a moral problem. I think that it's reasonable and expected that people should respond and retaliate to rocket attacks. Let's say that the location of the rocket launch can be pinpointed so that there is absolutely no chance of a miss. In practical terms, if leaflets were sent to the place that would be bombed, neither the rocket launchers nor the people who launched them would be there when the bombs fell. Then there are two rubs: one, what about the people who can't move, or can't move quickly? and, does anyone have a safe place to go?

But, if Hamas dropped leaflets or announced rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, would that make them any less heinous? If Hamas had all the capabilities of the IDF and could cause equal damage and casualties, would that make them better or worse? If the IDF had to resort to guerrilla tactics and bombings, would that make them any better or worse? If the situations were reversed, would peoples' perspectives on the moral issues change?

Granted, if I were an Israeli or a Palestinian, I would probably feel the way the majority of them do and might do exactly the same.

[Interloper]

Meanwhile, ISIS commits genocide and unspeakable atrocities, with no regard for humanity:

[Dajenarit]

So at what point do the Palestinians get to say we've had enough of Israel shooting us down in the streets with no provocation and denying us basic food, water, medicine and home building materials? When do people get to say "I'm tired of my children and I being treated lower than animals and killed indiscriminately while the world makes excuses for it"? At what point do the Palestinians get to pick up arms and defend themselves after decades of being turned into refugees in their own country? After burying thousands of children, family members and friends, while the world literally turns its back and largely blames them for it?

They elected Hamas in support of armed resistance. I applaud to Palestinians for their restraint all these years against all the indignities.

[Interloper]

Why bother delving into history?
FANIA OZ-SALZBERGER August 12, 2014, 3:14 pm 74

BLOGGERFania Oz-Salzberger
Fania Oz-Salzberger
Fania Oz-Salzberger is an Israeli historian and essayist. She is Professor at the University of Haifa's Faculty of Law. Her … [More]
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It is extremely difficult, these days, to be a politically moderate Israeli. As I publish and post my views on the Gaza war in newspapers and social networks, the amount of hate messages I receive, from both right and left, pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians, is astounding.

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For more than ten years I have been writing and speaking on European-Israeli dialogue, often in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I am by now experienced in distinguishing between criticism of Israeli policies (which I often accept), sympathy for innocent victims of the conflict (which I strongly share), and stark, ignorant, generalizing “Anti-Israelismus” which easily lapses into full-fledged anti-Semitism.


The current war in Gaza has let all the demons out of their bottles once again. Peace-loving Israelis – and there are many of us – are caught between scylla and charybdis. Let me show you how this is acting out online, in my Twitter and Facebook accounts, and in comments to my articles.

As hostilities broke out I wrote that I grieve for all innocent Gazan victims of this conflict, especially the children, without any excuses, “buts”, or symmetries. Many people took my point at face value. Others, Arabs and Europeans, told me that my tears are crocodile tears and that Jews are performing genocide against Palestinians.

Jews. Not Israelis. The millions of Jews living outside Israel are as “uninvolved” as Gazan civilians, but they are currently accused, threatened and physically attacked for being Jews, hence guilty by association. An American or a Syrian can walk safely in the streets of Paris, Rome, and Berlin despite the killing of many civilians by the US army in Iraq or by Assad’s troops in Syria. A Jew wearing a kippa can no longer do that. If this is not anti-Semitism, what is?

Genocide. Not a bad, dirty war. Not a standoff between a regular army defending its civil population and a terrorist militia shooting from amidst a massive, poor and unprotected urban hub.

Make no mistake: the Israeli army certainly used excessive force and killed hundreds of innocents while trying to target militants and missiles, but Hamas made sure that its militants and missiles are placed right in the midst of its civilians. Those hapless civilians have no bomb shelters (the Gaza aid money went elsewhere, and construction materials were used to build attack tunnels), and they are often forced by Hamas to stay put when pre-warned by the Israeli army to move out.

These are the facts. Dirty war indeed. Even just wars – and I strongly believe that Israel had a casus belli for responding to the barrage of Hamas rockets launched on Israel in the last month – can become dirty wars. Jus ad bellum does not ensure jus in bello. But Genocide – no.

This couplet, “Jews” and “Genocide,” is becoming ever more popular these days in the hate-speech of certain Arabs and certain Europeans, who are eager to undo the Holocaust memory (mistaken by many of them for an invented Israeli alibi for aggression), and turn the Jews into mass killers. I would like to think that no German accepts this excuse for dimming and eradicating the real Holocaust, but I know that some Germans do.

Did anyone in Gaza, I wonder, ever get away with opposing assaults on innocent Israelis? Go unpunished for expressing sorrow for the dozens of Israeli children slaughtered by Palestinian suicide bombers in the last ten years? No need to wonder: the answer is no. Any Gazan opposing the Hamas war against Israelis, or merely questioning the wisdom of this war in view of the unfolding Gaza calamity, is punished as a traitor. Hamas silences its own people by execution.

Being moderate, as Aristotle already noted, does not mean being in the exact middle. Reality is never symmetrical.

For one thing, Hamas is far worse, as a government, than any Israeli government has ever been. The militants of Hamas and Islamic jihad in Gaza are far more brutal, on the ground, than the Israeli army. They surround their fighters with children, store their arsenal in schools and hospitals, including UNRWA institutions, and threaten or kick out any journalists who dare report it. They deliberately aim their rockets at Israeli kindergartens and clinics. If they had Israel’s air force and artillery power, the ensuing massacre of Israelis would dwarf anything we see in Gaza today. When I write these truths, some commentators brand it as Israeli propaganda. But I’d make a lousy propagandist. As a critical member of civil society, I never accept the official reports of my government and army wholesale, but truths are truths whatever their source.

Since Hamas is, fortunately, too weak, civilian suffering is asymmetrical too. Gaza is a disaster area. Israel is partially responsible. Saying this, with the crucial addition that Hamas is far more blameworthy, will remain true regardless of denials on either side. If Hamas and Hezbollah had the firepower and knowhow that Israel today has, I would not be writing these words. I’d be dead. Some “pro-Palestinians” would not mind that, for sure.

Let me be crystal-clear: I am pro-Gaza, wishing it peace, freedom and prosperity. I am anti-Hamas, wishing it to go to hell.

Both Israel and Hamas have failed miserably, so far, in two of their declared missions: Hamas failed in its attempt to kill Israeli children, while Israel failed in its attempt not to kill Gazan children. This, too, is part of the asymmetry of our present situation.

But what about the imprisonment of Gazans in their sad, crowded, battered strip of land? Years ago, I published an article in a German newspaper using the metaphor of the neighbor who sits on his balcony, his baby on his lap, shooting into your children’s bedroom. Would you shoot back at him? Yes, you would. My father, Amos Oz, has recently borrowed my metaphor (our family allows such borrowings) to describe the current round of violence.

My own article was intercepted, misquoted and attacked by Israel-bashers. How can I relate to the Gazans as “neighbors” when they are in fact Israel’s prisoners? Typically, the hate-responses ignored the rest of my article, which clearly said that this “neighborhood” situation is far from equal. Misreadings and misquotations are an integral part of anti-Israeliness and anti-Semitism these days. Historical facts are conveniently forgotten. Nuances are not part of the game.

Let me insist: History and nuances are crucial. Gaza’s 1,800,000 residents include many refugees of the 1948 war and their descendants. That war was started by Arabs, who rejected the UN resolution to divide the land into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. Israel won. Palestinians fled, and some were driven out. For many years, Egypt ruled Gaza and did not allow its refugees to leave or to rebuild their lives. Since 1967 Israel and Egypt share the responsibility for this bad situation. But Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, only to see Hamas taking power and putting southern Israel under a barrage of rockets. Why not negotiate peace? Because Hamas wants Israel demolished and all Jews killed; its Charter says so explicitly. Also, to be fair, because Israeli governments and the Israeli public have grown more hawkish, abandoning hope to reach an agreement even with the relatively moderate Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

But why bother delving into history? Today’s anti-Semites who masquerade as “anti-Israel” are not interested in history. They want the Holocaust to disappear, and the Jews to be guilty and remain guilty. This is a “new anti-Semitism” indeed, for it targets Israel as its big, bad, mega-Jew. But it is also a timeless, ageless anti-Semitism, because it is meta-historical, powered by psychology rather than facts.

Religion, I’m afraid, often plays an irrational role in this story. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never been about Judaism and Islam, but about territory and sovereignty. Today, fanatic Islamists have highjacked the Palestinian cause, while extremist orthodox Jews insist on settling every part of the biblical Israel at the expense of compromise. Some radical Christians are entering the fray too, unhelpfully theologizing their unconditional support for one side or the other.

Which is why moderate atheists like myself needs all the support we can get from moderate Muslims, Christians, and observant Jews. The dividing line in the current battle is not between the three religions, nor is it between the religious and the irreligious. It runs – this time it’s my turn to borrow a phrase from my father – between all fanatics and all moderates.

So why bother to raise a moderate voice, look closely at the tragedy of both sides (including the incomparable tragedy in Gaza’s ruined streets), and invoke historical facts, relevant truths, complexities and nuances?

Because I do not believe that most Europeans, or even most Arabs, are willing to be fed by lies and watered by hatred. Because as a scholar of the Enlightenment and a political liberal I believe that rational dialog, twinned with human compassion, is bound to win. Because as a humanist Israeli Jew, and a Zionist believer in the two-state solution, I expect that hope will win.

But only if we help hope win.

–

This essay was originally published on Christ & Welt and is republished here with permission. A German translation is online in Die Zeit.

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[Steve James]

the neighbor who sits on his balcony, his baby on his lap, shooting into your children’s bedroom. Would you shoot back at him? Yes, you would.

Well, put it like this; is it always ok to kill a hostage? Or, is it acceptable "if" it's one's neighbor and not one's own loved one, friend or relative?

Anyway, I think the writer's point about anti-Semitism is well taken. It's sad that Jews are being beaten in parts of France. The anti-Jewish sentiment is not new there, though.. And there's been cases of anti-Muslim violence there, too. So, I agree with the fact that anti-Semites are using current events as an opportunity to advance their agendas and spew their message.

I don't agree that people who weren't anti-Semitic (or anti-Jewish) are swayed by any rhetoric. If they are swayed, it's because they were already leaning in that direction.

Yep, the writer is caught between Scylla and Charybdis, just like the Israelis and the people in Palestine, and the rest of us.