To save the Israeli prime minsiter's tour in Europe where he is looking for support for his convergence plan (to be understood as the asphyxiation of any viable future Palestinian state), Israel declared that the Palestinian family killed on the beach was killed by a landmine Planted by Hamas. This lie is not only a cover up but the expression of Israel's disdain for Palestinians and its refusal to consider them as human beings. Why would Hamas plant mines on the beach in Gaza ? To counter an Israeli invasion from the sea or to kill its own people ? Both possibilities are absurd.
At the same time Israel continued its killing of Palestinians, to 'prevent them from launching small rockets into Israel'. Nine Palestinians were killed in a Israeli air strike today. Don't you know that small rockets are actually a big threat to Israel in the sense that they were upgraded recently as WMD. So 'Israel has the right to defend itself' including killing civilians and targeted assassinations of terrorists, Olmert declared today in UK.
Targeted assassinations of Palestinian terrorrists have always puzzled me as an intentional conceptual confusion created by Israel. It is this conceptual confusion that Israel has been practising for a long time now that was inflated to its actual international proportion: 'The War on Terror'.
Either you are assassinating a terrorist and this is unlawful because a terrorist is someone who defies the law and should be charged and tried and eventually condemned on the basis of evidence, or you are fighting a war and in this case your adversary is an organised state and not an individual. Havn't the US diverted its war effort on organised states in order to justify its war on terror ? You cannot just fight a terrorist with an army. sinse terrorists are by definition civilians and not army personnel, the war on terrorism serves also to help kill civilians and terrorise those who aren't killed by serving them the 'good example'.
All these conceptual confusions are created to muzzle public debate and criticism of highly unconventional methods for war. By the term unconventional I mean warfare that is not defined by international conventions. For this and for all the crimes committed through this method, Israel should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
''My people decide the truth in sixty countries every morning. And in every one it's different.''
Since March 29th 2006
4 comments:
The Palestinians need to be proactive.
They need to set up a democratic state in Gaza, dissolve the PA, ask for an international protection force, enforce a truce and ask for serious negotiations for a settlement. They have a strong case under international law.
They need to rely on other methods and to avoid Israel's strengths.
They cannot face Israel militarily and should avoid any provocations.
In time, the Israeli peace camp will come out of its hibernation and hopefully we can move towards peace for both peoples.
Ordinary Palestinians cannot endure this terror and deprivation for much longer.
Issam
The traditional Israeli peace camp does not exist anymore. I didn't hear from Amos Oz during all the years of the second intifada. He was busy showering praise on Sharon. However, there are groups in Israel who speak against Israel's nonsense: Gush Shalom, B'teselem, the refusniks and others...
As for Plaestinians, they have to stop thinking tribally and emancipate from their old ways of protesting and fighting...
Sophia , here is an interesting article by Prof. Robert Brym in the Toronto Star see
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150192149593&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
Issam
Thanks Issam. A very good article. I ahve linked to it in my new post under 'targeted assassinations' and will post more extensively on it soon.
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