The time of the righteous

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Written by Gideon Levy Gideon Levy

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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This war, perhaps more than its predecessors, is exposing the true deep veins of Israeli society. Racism and hatred are rearing their heads, as is the impulse for revenge and the thirst for blood. The "inclination of the commander" in the Israel Defense Forces is now "to kill as many as possible," as the military correspondents on television describe it. And even if the reference is to Hamas fighters, this inclination is still chilling.

The unbridled aggression and brutality are justified as "exercising caution": the frightening balance of blood - about 100 Palestinian dead for every Israeli killed, isn't raising any questions, as if we've decided that their blood is worth one hundred times less than ours, in acknowledgement of our inherent racism.

Rightists, nationalists, chauvinists and militarists are the only legitimate bon ton in town. Don't bother us about humaneness and compassion. Only at the edges of the camp can a voice of protest be heard - illegitimate, ostracized and ignored by media coverage - from a small but brave group of Jews and Arabs.

Alongside all this, rings another voice, perhaps the worst of all. This is the voice of the righteous and the hypocritical. My colleague, Ari Shavit, seems to be their eloquent spokesman. This week, Shavit wrote here ("Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza," Haaretz, January 7): "The Israeli offensive in Gaza is justified ... Only an immediate and generous humanitarian initiative will prove that even during the brutal warfare that has been forced on us, we remember that there are human beings on the other side."

To Shavit, who defended the justness of this war and insisted that it mustn't be lost, the price is immaterial, as is the fact that there are no victories in such unjust wars. And he dares, in the same breath, to preach "humaneness."

Does Shavit wish for us to kill and kill, and afterward to set up field hospitals and send medicine to care for the wounded? He knows that a war against a helpless population, perhaps the most helpless one in the world, that has nowhere to escape to, can only be cruel and despicable. But these people always want to come out of it looking good. We'll drop bombs on residential buildings, and then we'll treat the wounded at Ichilov; we'll shell meager places of refuge in United Nations schools, and then we'll rehabilitate the disabled at Beit Lewinstein. We'll shoot and then we'll cry, we'll kill and then we'll lament, we'll cut down women and children like automatic killing machines, and we'll also preserve our dignity.

The problem is - it just doesn't work that way. This is outrageous hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Those who make inflammatory calls for more and more violence without regard for the consequences are at least being more honest about it.

You can't have it both ways. The only "purity" in this war is the "purification from terrorists," which really means the sowing of horrendous tragedies. What's happening in Gaza is not a natural disaster, an earthquake or flood, for which it would be our duty and right to extend a helping hand to those affected, to send rescue squads, as we so love to do. Of all the rotten luck, all the disasters now occurring in Gaza are manmade - by us. Aid cannot be offered with bloodstained hands. Compassion cannot sprout from brutality.

Yet there are some who still want it both ways. To kill and destroy indiscriminately and also to come out looking good, with a clean conscience. To go ahead with war crimes without any sense of the heavy guilt that should accompany them. It takes some nerve. Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes. Anyone who preaches for this war and believes in the justness of the mass killing it is inflicting has no right whatsoever to speak about morality and humaneness. There is no such thing as simultaneously killing and nurturing. This attitude is a faithful representation of the basic, twofold Israeli sentiment that has been with us forever: To commit any wrong, but to feel pure in our own eyes. To kill, demolish, starve, imprison and humiliate - and be right, not to mention righteous. The righteous warmongers will not be able to allow themselves these luxuries.

Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes. Anyone who sees it as a defensive war must bear the moral responsibility for its consequences. Anyone who now encourages the politicians and the army to continue will also have to bear the mark of Cain that will be branded on his forehead after the war. All those who support the war also support the horror.

Wyden Issues Statement on Conflict in Gaza

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Written by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.,) and war advocate U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.,) and war advocate

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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Press Release of Senator Wyden Wyden Issues Statement on Conflict in Gaza Thursday, January 8, 2009   Washington, DC— U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.,) released the following statement regarding the current conflict in the Gaza strip.    “It is extremely disappointing that Hamas yesterday rejected the French-Egyptian cease-fire proposal for Gaza.   Both sides should immediately seek an end to the violence.   I urge Hamas to agree to an immediate, verifiable and enforceable end to their missile attacks on Israeli territory, and I urge Israel to follow up this cease fire by fully engaging with the Palestinian leadership in an effort to achieve a permanent end to the violence and a lasting solution to the underlying conflict between them.   In the fall of 2002 when I voted against and spoke out against America going to war in Iraq, I succeeded in declassifying a CIA document which concluded that Saddam Hussein was no real threat to U.S. security unless provoked.  During the debate over whether to authorize war with Iraq, I clearly stated that Hamas and Hezbollah were, in fact, a very real threat to the United States and to peace in the Middle East, and I argued that an American invasion and occupation of Iraq would enable these two terrorist organizations to gain strength while feeding off of the Bush administration’s neglect of the Middle East peace process. Tragically, my great fears of 2002 have become the ominous reality of 2009.   With funds and supplies from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah have rained missiles down on Israeli civilian targets again and again.  These terrorists have launched unguided warheads with no legitimate military targets.  Hamas has military control over Gaza, but has failed to exercise the most fundamental responsibilities that separate a legitimate sovereign power from a terrorist gang.  Hamas had an unambiguous responsibility to prevent rockets from being fired from lands under its control.  Instead, Hamas has aided and abetted these lethal attacks.   Moreover, Hamas has intentionally endangered innocent Gazans by sanctioning the location of military options close to heavily populated areas in Gaza so as to ensure civilian casualties when Israel had no choice but self-defense.   I am pro-Israel. I am pro-Palestinian. I am pro-peace. I am anti-terrorist, and Hamas is a terrorist organization. Israel has a right to defend itself from missiles fired by any terrorist organization at its civilians.  Peace negotiations, now being led by the French and Egyptians, must be accelerated to create an enduring framework for peace that first, requires Hamas to implement an immediate, enforceable end to their missile attacks on Israeli soil, and second, requires Israel to implement a response that is truly reciprocal.   My visits to the Middle East always leave me profoundly believing that the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians desire and deserve peace and a better life.  America, and the new Obama administration, must use all their influence to bring that about.”   ###

The Demolition of Rafah

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Written by ISM ISM

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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The Demolition of Rafah

(Gaza, 7th January 2009) Jenny Linnel a British ISM volunteer in
Rafah said following escalated Israeli attacks in Rafah, "Shortly
before midnight on the 6th of January, missiles began raining down on
Rafah in one of the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the current
atrocities began. Continuous sorties pounded the southern Gaza city
for over 12 hours. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged,
especially in the neighbourhoods along the border with Egypt."

According to Fida Qishta Rafah resident and ISM activist, "Papers
dropped from planes in Rafah neighborhood ordered people to leave
their homes in the areas stretching from the borderline all the way
back to Sea Street, the main street running through the heart of
Rafah, parallel to the border. This area is hundreds of metres deep
and the site of thousands of homes. Most of these areas are refugee
camps, where residents are being made refugees yet again, some for the
third or fourth time following the mass home demolitions of 2003 and
2004 by Israeli military D-9 bulldozers.
People are told to leave their homes but even if they leave they are
attacked. Nowhere is safe in the Gaza strip. Where will these families
go? They are afraid to seek sanctuary in local UNRWA schools following
yesterday's massacres in Jabaliya. They are afraid to drive somewhere
and be shot down on the road like the Sinwar family was. They are
being temporarily absorbed by the rest of Rafah's population
friends, neighbours, relatives."
Jenny added, "We have a friend in Yibna, directly on the border, who
refuses to leave his home. We spoke to one woman in Al Barazil who has
a family of 12 and simply doesn't know where to go and another woman
in Block J who is literally in the street tonight. Her father is in
his nineties. The family home where ISM volunteers are staying is on
the other side of the city centre and has become a refuge for three
other families tonight. The house is filled with excited chatter and
lots of children. Palestinians have a long-learned talent of making-
do, but there is no escaping the deep sense of uncertainty.."
Referring to hundreds of homes that were demolished in Rafah along the
Egyptian border in 2002 former Israeli OC Southern Command, Yom Tov
Samiah, contended in an interview to the "Voice of Israel" on the 16
January 2002.January 2002 that, "These houses should have been
demolished and evacuated a long time ago, because the Rafah border is
not a natural border, it cannot be defended. Three hundred meters of
the Strip along the two sides of the border must be evacuated. Three
hundred meters, no matter how many houses, period."
The six hundred meter buffer zone that the former OC Southern Command
of the Israeli Occupation Forces referred to seven years ago seems to
be Israel's goal in the latest wave of demolitions.
ISM media coordinator Adam Taylor stated, "Israel wants a buffer zone
in Rafah in order to besiege Gaza more effectively. The tunnels that
ran under the border with Egypt have become Gaza's life line during
the prolonged Israeli siege and served as the only source for basic
necessities such as fuel and medicine that Israel did not allow into
the Gaza strip. This recent wide scale destruction of private property
of the occupied people of Rafah is not a military necessity. One war
crime is being committed in order to reinforce another - that of
collective punishment." Adam Taylor - International Solidarity
Movement

Photos: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/the-demolition-of-rafah

US Marine find IDF warfare "brutal and dishonorable"

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Written by JDS, Retired Marine JDS, Retired Marine

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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I recently retired from the US Marine Corps, but I saw service in Iraq. I do know something of military matters that are relevant to the situation now in Gaza.

I am dismayed by the rhetoric from US politicians and pundits to the effect that "if the US were under rocket attack from Mexico or Canada, we would respond like the Israelis". This a gross insult to US servicemen; I can assure you that we would NOT respond like the Israelis. In fact, US armed forces and adjunct civilians are under attack constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan by people who are much better armed, much better trained and far deadlier than Hamas (I'll ignore for now that the politicians seem to be oblivious to this fact). Israel has indeed taken a small number of casualties from Hamas rocket fire (about 20 killed since 2001), but we have taken thousands of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, including many civilian personnel. Hundreds of American casualties have occurred due to indirect fire, often from mortars. This is particularly true in or near the Green Zone in Baghdad. This fire often originates from densely populated urban areas.

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