Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
|
"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
|
| 
|
|
|
Attacking Gaza -- any excuse will do by Marie K., Unknown News Dec. 28, 2008 It’s now Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, the day after the start of the latest assaults on the Gaza Strip with the death toll rising -- 300 deaths (1000 injured) so far or as the Egyptians have said 300 MURDERED so far -- this represents a ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed of 300:1, much worse than last year’s ratio of 40:1 and 30:1 in 2006 (based on this article) which were bad enough. As far as I understood it, most of the Palestinian deaths have been caused by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Meanwhile here, there have been some interesting TV specials along with protests around the country despite very cold rainy/snowy winter weather. Live broadcasts from Gaza, with the body parts strewn around censored, have been shown. Besides pleas for food and medical supplies, those spoken to from Gaza have asked people to please END THE SILENCE. Well, I didn’t go out in the nasty weather, but I do have my computer. How about that title -- any excuse will do? That was a major point made by a 2-hour TV program I watched. Since 1948 when Palestine was split, the Israelis have been killing off the Palestinians -- even before, in fact, which is another story. When the bogeymen were "communists," the Palestinian resistance leaders were "communists/socialists." Now the bogeymen are "Islamists," so Hamas leaders, who became the leaders through elections declared free and fair, have become "Islamists" or "Islamic terrorists." In fact, some Palestinians are Christian as were some of the former leaders. The point is that no matter what happens, the propaganda machine finds some way to turn the victims into the aggressors at just the right moment. It is important to remember who controls that propaganda machine and that it includes total control of Hollywood, too, as this recent article points out. To keep this brief as possible, as Michael Rivero at WRH points outs -- all you have to do is look at the maps to see who the aggressor really is. SO, here’s a link to some maps and some pretty MUST READ comments, too. He notes elsewhere that Israel broke the cease-fire on Nov. 5, 2008 with a raid that killed 6 Palestinians while the US was focused on the Nov. 4 election results. There are other maps, too, such as the ones related to “Greater Israel.” This Wikipedia article carefully discusses what Jews consider the "Promised Land" to be. It stretches from the Nile to the Euphrates and comprises all of modern-day Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Lebanon, as well as large parts of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Parts of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey could be interpreted as also being included. What today’s Israeli leaders are currently hoping for is indicated by this sentence: "Annexation of the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip) is part of the platform of the Israeli Likud party, and of other Israeli political parties." But how do you "annex" lands that don’t belong to you but to others who want to keep them? David Ben Gurion says, according to the Wikipedia article on the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine, that "our right to the entire land exists and stands for ever." In other words, you just declare it yours and “organize a first-class army and then use coercion or force to settle in the rest of the country” -- a Ben Gurion plan expressed in a letter dated Oct. 5, 1937. From 1946 - 1956 David Ben Gurion was the acting president of the World Zionist Organization which was founded in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland and in the US the same year. Another point made by the TV program was that the "cease-fire" that was supposedly broken by Palestinian rocket fire, even though no or perhaps one Israeli was killed during the whole period, is actually a term incorrectly used. The word "cease-fire" is used between two warring countries. Thus, the agreement was actually one of "lessening tensions." Clearly, the Palestinian Territories are not a country since their sovereignty has never been respected. Many Israeli incursions/operations have occurred with arrests made, too. Imagine Canadian or Mexican military personnel coming into the US and shooting up/blowing up streets and homes and then beating up and arresting 100’s of people in parts of the US they might like to "annex." Imagine them blockading all food and medical supplies along with shutting down electricity and water supplies -- a medieval siege, in other words. Add in attacks by fanatic Canadian and Mexican citizens (like those Israeli settlers) who vandalize, destroy, or steal your property while the two governments to the north and south build walls to further secure the lands stolen from you. What sort of sovereignty is that? Some would call it an "occupation" much like the US occupation of Iraq. The program I watched also came up with a timeframe for this series of attacks-it will end on Feb. 9, 2009, the day before the Israeli legislative election scheduled for Feb. 10, 2009 and discussed in this Wikipedia article. Unfortunately, the program indicated that those running in the election seem to be trying to prove that they can be the “meanest” one -- as this article on the Israeli elections seems to verify. It also brings up the fact that what Israel is demanding is that the Palestinians still in the territories "occupied in 1967" leave. Related to the Palestinian refugees who have left, they expect them to accept the loss of their right to return -- in brief, just leave and get nothing. Finally, the program ended by noting that efforts to obtain liberty from oppressors or occupiers tend to be successful in the long run even though there always are some who are traitors to the cause. As for me, I’m wondering whether any countries will break off particular agreements with Israel as protestors have called for.
| Big howdy | Disclaimer for dummies | Our privacy policies |
|
|
