30.12.08

The Gaza Massacre: Updates


Cartoon by Simon Farr

Gaza and Israel: maps and numbers to understand the conflict

Juan Cole: It is a perfect time for the Israeli government to commit a war crime on the miserable civilians of the Gaza Strip.

Israel is following the same script as in its 2006 attack on Lebanon. It is a bad script.

Israel banning of journalists entering and reproting from Gaza challenged in the Supreme court. Only Burma, Zimbabwe, and north Korea have so far banned foreign journalists from their conflict zones.

Nir Rosen in The Guardian:
The international community is directly guilty for this latest massacre.

Israel attacks an aid ship in international waters.
Air strike kills five daughters from one family. Didn't the Nazi extermination technique go by families also ?
Tariq Ali on the collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza:
The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the right and the far right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon in 2006, sit back and watch.

Sarah Roy: If Gaza Falls...

Ali Abunimah:
That is an Israeli truce. Any act of resistance including the peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in the West Bank is always met by Israeli bullets and bombs. There are no rockets launched at Israel from the West Bank, and yet Israel's extrajudicial killings, land theft, settler pogroms and kidnappings never stopped for a day during the truce. The western-backed Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has acceded to all Israel's demands. Under the proud eye of United States military advisors, Abbas has assembled "security forces" to fight the resistance on Israel's behalf. None of that has spared a single Palestinian in the West Bank from Israel's relentless colonisation.

Colonial logic in Gaza.

Stars in the UK call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Obama would not be any different from Bush when it comes to Israel, stop your wishful thinking, writes Ali Abunimah.

Blogosphere round-up:
- Stef about when he was growing up as a kid under the Israeli propaganda of victimhood and heroism.
- Moussa Bashir at Global Voices writes about reactions in Lebanon.
- From TED's blog, the story of the Israeli attack on the humanitarian ship 'dignity' which had on board a former US congresswoman and a former US presidential candidate.
- Jews Sans Frontières: Ssshh! There is slaughter in Gaza...

More links from the blogosphere are to be added.

4 comments:

Gert said...

The Israelis do what they do because they can. We let them.

All western governments are now equally guilty (but things will have to get worse before they get any better).

I'm almost inclined to say: "We're all Hamas now!"

Emmanuel said...

Gert: There is a difference between "We're all Palestinians now" and "We're all Hamas now". The former is support for a people, the latter is support for terrorism (and don't give me crap about state sponsored terrorism).

Sophia:

Didn't the Nazi extermination technique go by families also ?

It would be exactly the same if it weren't totally different!The Nazis actively took whole innocent families. It is tragic that an innocent family lost its life in Gaza, but they weren't Israel's target. Neither the intent, result nor scale is anything close to the Holocaust.

Ted said...

I agree, they do what they do because the world lets them.

As we wait for our leaders to act people continue to die.

www.pafundi.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4827

Gert said...

Emm:

You can call the systematic dispossession (and much worse besides that) for 40 years (and before) of the Palestinian people by Israel what you like: euphemisms is something the powerful are very good at deploying. 'State terrorism' suits me fine.

There has been, for quite some time now, a sickness (a maladie or illness if you prefer) that pervades the heart of Israeli society (or at least that a part that continues to condone what's going on): the mantra that putting a stop to terrorism will make Israel all of a sudden amenable to a just solution. That's clearly a fallacy, as shown by the last 40 years. Israel wants nothing short of unconditional surrender by the Palestinians, then claims it will somehow take care of things.

I too have been 'Israelised' in the last 10 years or so and I'm not even Jewish! Too much time spent on trying to see Israel's viewpoint has found me listing towards justification of its policies.

No more: the blinders are starting to drop from my eyes and I'm not the only one. Continue Israel's current policies for another 10 years and no one will believe you anymore. All this is very, very bad for Israel herself but increasing hubris means the country continues on a crash course of its own volition.

All the past bad choices Palestinians have made in the past are not responsible for 40 years of occupation, only Israel is responsible for that (and perhaps the IC who let it happen).

 
Since March 29th 2006