Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Payday men’s network is delighted to see the statement (below) from the Global Women’s Strike, calling on women everywhere to condemn the Israeli slaughter on Gaza. We hope women in your organisations/networks will want to add their names and circulate widely. Payday wants to celebrate the Druze conscientious objector Omar Saad, as well as 50 shimnistim (school leavers) and 50 reservists who have refused to serve in the Israeli army. Women of Gaza, children of Gaza, people of Gaza – we are with you!
Dear sisters, We call on women’s groups and organisations, prominent feminists, and all women everywhere, of all faiths and secular, to stand with the women and children of Gaza and demand an immediate end to this Israeli slaughter of the innocents. It is time to hear from the women outside of Gaza. Women and children are being bombed night after night, day after day, year after year, and some Israeli politicians and academics are advocating the killing of Palestinian mothers and the rape of sisters and mothers.	19 July, London: 100,000 people marched for Gaza.
Please sign the statement below. Email back to us indicating your country and your title or organisation (if you have one), and we add them to the list of signatories. Circulate it on Facebook and Twitter. Get your organisation to sign. We need as many signatures as possible for our voice as women finally to be heard. Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you. Selma James, Nina Lopez and Phoebe Jones, Global Women Strike (GWS), UK/US Sara Callaway and Margaret Prescod, Women of Colour GWS, UK/US Maggie Ronayne, GWS Ireland Didi Rossi, Queer Strike gws@globalwomenstrike.net www.globalwomenstrike.net Women of Gaza, children of Gaza, people of Gaza – we are with you! As women and women’s organisations we unequivocally condemn the Israeli military attack on Gaza by land, sea and air which continues to kill so many hundreds of people and injure thousands more. Many victims are women and children. At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 19 July 2014, Ms Hunood Abu Jarad, mother of six-year-old survivor Noor, spoke to Channel 4 TV News (UK) about losing eight family members, four of them children, the youngest seven months old: “Suddenly rockets came down with no warning. Uncle was hit first, his body parts flew across the room. As we ran another rocket hit the house next door. My children were running around in panic. Noor was completely covered in blood. Ambulances came within half an hour and started collecting the body parts. Even today they found legs, arms, hands and feet. I will never forgive those who killed our children. What have these children done to deserve this? Are they carrying guns? They are targeting children because they don’t want them to grow up to resist. Would you be OK if this happened to your children? We will continue to resist inside Palestine until the last day of the world.” Ms Abu Jarad speaks for women in Palestine and for all of us around the world. We are outraged by Israeli parliamentarians like Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Homes), a woman, who is calling for Palestinian mothers to be killed and their houses demolished so they can’t give birth to “little snakes”, and academics like Mordechai Kedar (Bar Ilan University) who talks about “the only thing that deters [terrorists] is if they know that their sister or their mother will be raped.” The mass killing of mothers and children is already happening. Should we now expect mass rape? While governments, starting in the US and Europe, continue to back Israel or keep silent, people across the world, especially women, have been protesting in support of the people in Gaza. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as well as those who are citizens of Israel held a general strike as a day of mourning, and there have been demonstrations, many of them huge, in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Chile, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Morocco, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, US, UK, Yemen . . . But the mainstream media has hardly mentioned them. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, almost all military: over $3.1 billion a year and several billion more in military assistance and contracts. This has transformed Israel’s armed forces into one of the most technologically sophisticated globally and Israel into the sixth biggest arms exporter. As we saw in the 2008-9 attack and again today, Israeli weapons are “field-tested” on the population of Gaza: 1,417 were killed then, 313 of them children; tens of thousands of people displaced and homes destroyed. This killing is happening again, now, but even more unrestrained than before. We are women across the world. We speak out in the name of mothers and children, of the civilian population, and of the right of the Palestinian people to resist an illegal military occupation of their land and a life-threatening blockade which deprives them of water and electricity. We demand an immediate end to the slaughter in Gaza and its blockade; an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine; and an end to funding of Israel’s military and its capacity for mass murder. Invest in caring, not killing. Selma James and Nina Lopez, Global Women’s Strike (GWS), UKMaggie Ronayne, GWS-Ireland Phoebe Jones and Rachel West, GWS-USA Sara Callaway, Women of Colour GWS, UK Margaret Prescod, Women of Colour GWS, USA Didi Rossi, Queer Strike, UKLori Nairne, Queer Strike, US

 

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Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

The Global Women’s Strike and Payday men’s network have been demonstrating publicly against the Israeli murderous attack on Gaza and we entirely endorse the IJAN statement (below).   JOIN US! July 24, 2014       To send money directly to Gaza for humanitarian relief: Donate at Middle East Children’s Alliance. Donate to Rasmea Odeh’s legal defense fund. Donate to IJAN. From Tel Aviv to Toronto, Los Angeles to London, Chicago to San Francisco, Jews Say No to Israeli Genocide We call on Jews all over the world to follow the call from Haider Eid, political activist and commentator, to “besiege Israeli consulates” and to protest Zionist events attempting to justify Israel’s massacre of Palestinians. Below are reports of actions Jews against genocide are taking or participating in. Please join us – organize pickets, protests, creative actions, sit-ins, demonstrations and direct action to protest – in the loudest possible way – the brutal massacre and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Please also add your name to the over 200 signers of the following statement from Jews for the Palestinian Right of Return. Please email reports of your actions to ijan@ijsn.net & jewsagainstgenocide1948@gmail.com so that we can let the world know how many of us are taking action to stop Israel’s crimes. LONDON IJAN was part of a “progressive Jewish bloc” organized by the Young Jewish Left (see pic left) for the demonstration on Saturday, July 19th in which a hundred thousand people took the streets. The on-line journal, Vice reported: “To both Jews and non-Jews the idea of an anti-Zionist Jew can sound like a contradiction in terms—an abuse of Rabbi Hillel’s most famous ethical aphorism, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me." But for Sam Weinstein, and for around 30 others, me included, tucked together in a small Jewish bloc at Saturday’s Gaza demo in London, standing against Israel is precisely what our background demands. “I come from a Jewish tradition that has always fought for the underdog,” Sam told me as he unfurled a banner of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network in the sticky heat. “One that has fought for social justice because historically we were the ones getting killed by the state.”   TORONTO In Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, IJAN members have helped organize and participate in demonstrations against Israel’s military assault on Gaza and the Palestinian people, and in response to the call from civil society in Palestine. Demands include calling for an end to Canada’s unequivocal support for Israel, “right or wrong” and recognition of the connection between Israeli policies towards Palestinians and Canada’s genocide against Indigenous peoples here on Turtle Island. On Friday 11 July in Toronto, over 3000 people protested and marched from the Israeli consulate to the main intersection of Yonge and Bloor Streets.  The following week, daily vigils were held in front of the Israeli consulate in Toronto @ the noon hour by members of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), IJAN Canada, Pax Christi, and others, culminating in another demonstration on Saturday 19 July. Also on 19 July IJAN members took part in a demonstration in Hamilton, where over 1000 people rallied against Israeli war crimes. Further actions are in the works, including a joint statement with IJV on recent attacks against Muslims and a Muslim community centre. CHICAGO On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Stand With Us, a pro-Israel right wing group in America, organized a Stand with Israel protest outside of the Israeli consulate in downtown Chicago, IL. The Coalition for Justice in Palestine, a coalition of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab community, religious and student organizations in Chicago, convened a Stand With Gaza counter protest. On a busy Tuesday afternoon in the heart of downtown Chicago, the two demonstrations faced off, with the pro-Palestinian rally clearly showing larger numbers and winning the support of pedestrians and motorists across the crowded streets. In the middle of the demonstration, Jews for Justice In Palestine (JJP), a collective of Chicago Jews in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation, dumped a pile of bloodied baby dolls in full view of the pro-Israel rally and the Israeli consulate. The dolls symbolize the innocent children that have died as a result of Israel's terrible bombardment and invasion of Gaza over the last two weeks. JJP stands with the Palestinian people in mourning the over 550 Palestinians in Gaza who have been killed, the over 3000 wounded, and the over 80,000 who have fled their homes since Israel's assault began. JJP also stands with the Palestinian community worldwide as they take to the streets and resist the occupation. As Jews, we are resolute that this bloodshed may not continue in our name, and we urge fellow Jews all over the world to continue to stand with the Palestinian people, protest outside of Israeli embassies and consulates, and amplify the movement for BDS to end the occupation and win justice for Palestine.  Occupation and Apartheid Are Not Jewish Values! Solidarity and Liberation Are! SAN FRANCISCO No Cover for Israel’s Brutality: Jews of Conscience Disrupt Israeli Consul General in San Francisco   As bombs rain down on Gaza, and Israel intensifies its latest genocidal attacks with a ground invasion, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, and the Board of Rabbis of Northern California hosted “Stop the Sirens in Israel: An Emergency Solidarity Gathering” at Temple Emanu-El. “Stop the Sirens” is a national effort sponsored by the Reform Movement and led by the Jewish Federations of North America. In San Francisco, the Israeli Consul General, Andy David, spoke—or tried to speak.   Members of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and other Jews of conscience staged seven disruptions inside the event, as members of Queers Undermining Israeli Terror, Jewish Voice for Peace, and IJAN demonstrated outside. Our message was clear: any institution that seeks to offer political cover for Israel’s brutality will face opposition and isolation. Disruptors, who included children and grandchildren of survivors of the Nazi genocide, interrupted the proceedings by shouting “stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians,” and “never again for anyone.” Our action was staged in tandem with a funeral march organized by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, attended by thousands in downtown San Francisco. The Jewish action drew away reactionary Zionist demonstrators and disrupted the media frame of “Jews versus Arabs” by asserting a Jewish voice in strong opposition to the attacks and siege on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine. The action was covered by mainstream media television sources KTVU and CBS.   Predictably, Zionist audience members and counter-demonstrators reacted with violence—pushing, hitting, and verbally attacking activists.   Critics accused us of desecrating a sacred space. But they have it backwards: by inviting an apologist for Israeli war crimes, and in offering prayers to the Israeli Defense Forces, the Zionist hosts desecrated the sacred space. We reject the conflation of Zionism and Judaism which makes a mockery of Jewish values, and manipulates and abuses Jewish histories of persecution by claiming that Israel acts to protect Jews. We call on Jews everywhere stand firmly, and to take action to demand the end of Israel’s bombing, siege, occupation, and colonization.   Stand against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, stand in support of Palestinian self-determination and resistance, stand on the side of life.   Click here for short video of protest and disruption. LOS ANGELES Join for upcoming demonstration DEMONSTRATION TO END WAR ON GAZA When:             Friday, July 25, 11:30 AM – 2 PM Where:            Israel Consulate                        11766 Wilshire (between Bundy and Barrington)   LA Jews for Peace Invites you to join us at a PEACE DEMONSTRATION in front of the Israeli Consulate email:            info@LAJewsforPeace.org web:              http://lajewsforpeace.org/ Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/groups/LAJews4Peace/   SEATTLE Anti-Genocide Noise Brigade inviting participation from Jews of Conscience.   When:           Friday, July 25, 7:30 pm Where:          Seattle Central College                      1701 Broadway, Seattle, Washington 98122   Join others who refuse to allow the atrocities against the Palestinian peoples continue without LOUD RESISTANCE. Bring pots n pans, musical instruments, yourself! every week. We will march in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples resisting occupation by Israeli colonizers. #freegaza #freepalestine   If you take action, please email us reports of your actions to ijan@ijsn.net and jewsagainstgenocide1948@gmail.com. International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Canada :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: Latin America :: Morocco :: United Kingdom :: United States ijan@ijsn.net :: www.ijsn.net © International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

 

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Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

 

 

 

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

DEFEND THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!!! 

 

COMMENTARY

END THE U.S. BLOCKADE!-U.S. OUT OF GUANTANAMO!

This year marks the 58th anniversary of the Cuban July 26th movement, the 52nd anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution and the 44th anniversary of the execution of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara by the Bolivian Army after the defeat of his guerrilla forces and his capture in godforsaken rural Bolivia. I have reviewed the life of Che elsewhere in this space (see blog, dated July 5, 2006). Thus, it is fitting to remember an event of which he was a central actor. Additionally, the Cuban Revolution stood for my generation, the Generation of '68, and, hopefully, will for later generations as a symbol of revolutionary intransigence against United States imperialism.

Let us be clear about two things. First, this writer has defended the Cuban revolution since its inception; initially under a liberal- democratic premise of the right of nations, especially applicable to small nations pressed up against military forces of the imperialist powers, to self-determination; later under the above-mentioned premise and also that it should be defended on socialist grounds, not my idea of socialism- the Bolshevik, 1917 kind- but as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist revolution nevertheless. That prospective continues to be this writer’s position today. Secondly, my conception of revolutionary strategy and thus of world politics has for a long time been far removed from Fidel Castro’s (and Che’s) strategy, which emphasized military victory by guerrilla forces in the countryside, rather than my position of mass action by the urban proletariat leading the rural masses. That said, despite those strategic political differences this militant can honor the Cuban revolution as a symbol of a fight that all anti-imperialist militants should defend.

Let me expand on these points, the first point by way of reminiscences. I am old enough to have actually seen Castro’s Rebel Army on television as it triumphantly entered Havana in 1959. Although I was only a teenager at the time and hardly politically sophisticated I, like others of my generation, saw in that ragtag, scruffy group the stuff of romantic revolutionary dreams. I was glad Batista had to flee and that ‘the people’ would rule in Cuba.

Later, in 1960 as the nationalizations occurred in response to American imperialist pressure, I defended them. In fact, as a general proposition I was, hazily and without any particular thought, in favor of nationalizations everywhere. In 1961, despite my then deeply felt affinity for the Kennedys, I was pleased that the counterrevolutionaries were routed at the Bag of Pigs. Increased Soviet aid and involvement in the economic and political infrastructure of beleaguered Cuba? No problem. The Cuban Missile Crisis, however, left me and virtually everyone in the world, shaking in our boots. Frankly, I saw this crisis (after the fact) as a typical for the time Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union with Cuba as the playground. Not as some independent Cuban ploy. In short, my experiences at that time can be summed up by the slogan- Fair Play for Cuba. So far, a conclusion that a good liberal could espouse as a manifestation of a nation’s, particularly a small nation’s, right to self-determination. It is only later, during the radicalization of the Vietnam War period that I moved beyond that position.

Now to the second point and the hard politics. If any revolution is defined by one person the Cuban revolution can stand as that example. From its inception it was Fidel’s show, for better or worse. The military command, the strategy, the political programs, and the various national and international alliances all filtered through him. On reflection, that points out the basis problem and my major difference with the Fidelistas. And it starts with question of revolutionary strategy. Taking power based on a strategy of guerrilla warfare is fundamentally difference from an urban insurrection led by a workers party (or parties) allied with, as in Cuba, landless peasants and agricultural workers responsible to workers and X (fill in the blank for whatever allies apply in the local situation) councils. And it showed those distortions then and continues to show them as the basis for decision making –top down. It is necessary to move on from there.

Believe me, this writer as well as countless others, all went through our phase of enthusing over the guerrilla road to socialism. But, as the fate of Che and others makes clear, the Cuban victory was the result of exceptional circumstances. Many revolutionaries stumbled over that hard fact and the best, including Che, paid for it with imprisonment or their lives. In short, the Bolshevik, 1917 model still stands up as a damn good model for the way to take power and to try to move on to the road to socialism. Still, although I have made plenty of political mistakes in my life I have never regretted my defense of the Cuban Revolution. And neither should militants today. As Che said- the duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution- and to defend them too. Enough said. U.S. HANDS OFF CUBA! END THE BLOCKADE! U.S. OUT OF GUANTANAMO

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

“CUTTIN THE GRASS” Again in GAZA

“CUTTING THE GRASS” is a racist term used by the Israeli security establishment as a way to “manage” Palestinian resistance by periodically launching limited attacks on Gaza to kill numbers of fighters, degrade to ability of Hamas and other armed factions to confront the occupation and to demonstrate Israeli military technology and “deterrence.”  It is a strategy for limiting, rather than ending the conflict.  Short VIDEO here

 

Standout/Flyering

SATURDAY, July 26

11:30am-1pm

Roxbury Crossing

(Near Roxbury Community College)

 

“LET GAZA LIVE”

Stop the Bombing! 

End the Blockade!

 

 

There are news reports of a possible temporary cease-fire agreement in the making; however, this standout will take place anyway, since ending the siege/blockade of Gaza remains the central political and humanitarian demand.

 

Israel has created a massive humanitarian disaster in Gaza.  At least 800 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured.  According to the UN, three-quarters of the dead are civilians, including hundreds of children and women.  Tens of thousands have been made homeless.

 

Yet our Congress has unanimously passed resolutions blaming only the victims and calling the firing of ineffective mortars and rockets from Gaza “an unprovoked attack” on Israel.  This ignores decades of Israeli Occupation and a brutal 8-year Israeli siege of Gaza that has left 1.8 million Palestinians penned up and blockaded in an area only slightly larger than the city of Boston, with no place to run, no place to hide from Israeli bombs.

 

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE - and Senators Markey and Warren - to say that this is unacceptable!  Israel must be held accountable and our government should stop supplying the $billions, the planes and the bombs it is using to destroy Gaza.

 

TELL THE US STATE DEPT to demand the bombing stop and the Israeli blockade of Gaza ended!

Congressional Switchboard:  (202) 224-3121

(Find your Member of Congress at

www.govtrack.us/congress/members)

US State Department:  (202) 647-3672

*   *   *   *

STAND WITH GAZA RALLY

FRIDAY, July 25

5:30pm, Copley Square

 

As the U.S.-made bombs fall on Gaza, indiscriminately killing Palestinians, many of them children, the death toll has reached over 800. The UN estimates the casualties to be overwhelmingly civilian, including scores of women and children, as Israel has now launched a ground attack of tanks and troops against the tiny Gaza Strip – to supplement its ongoing slaughter from the air and sea.

 

We heed the Urgent call from Gaza civil society: Act now!

“We Palestinians trapped inside the bloodied and besieged Gaza Strip call on conscientious people all over the world to act, protest and intensify the boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel until it ends this murderous attack on our people and is held to account.”

 

We call for:

An End to the Bombings and Killings

An End to U.S. aid to Israel

Support for the Palestinian call for BDS

 

LETTER FROM GAZA

“The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza’s hospitals are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment [at] all in Shifa for the last four months); they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS! Now, once more treated like animals by ‘the most moral army in the world [sic]… “And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening! And then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic ’Zennanis’, the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made and paid in and by US. “Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?   More

 

ISRAEL PROVOKED THIS WAR

Israel’s assault on Gaza, as pointed out by analyst Nathan Thrall in the New York Times, was not triggered by Hamas’ rockets directed at Israel but by Israel’s determination to bring down the Palestinian unity government that was formed in early June, even though that government was committed to honoring all of the conditions imposed by the international community for recognition of its legitimacy.   More

 

The most vile op-ed you will read about Gaza

When your op-ed’s first sentence reads “Let’s state the obvious: No one likes to see dead children,” you should step away from the keyboard, take a look in the closest mirror and think long and hard about exactly the argument you’re about to make. Otherwise, you may end up with an execrable screed like the one New York University law professor Thane Rosenbaum published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Rosenbaum argues that the adult residents of Gaza are not innocent civilians, as even Israeli leaders (sometimes begrudgingly) admit, but part of a “citizen army.”    More

 

AIPAC Is the Explanation for America's Morally Bankrupt Israel Policy

U.S. politicians and policymakers continue to back a brutal military campaign whose primary purpose is not to defend Israel but rather to protect its longstanding effort to colonize the West Bank.  America Is Complicit In Israel’s War Crimes… every member of the House and Senate--including progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren--knows that voting for those supposedly "pro-Israel" resolutions is the smart political move. They understand that even the slightest display of independent thinking on these issues could leave them vulnerable to a well-funded opponent the next time they're up for re-election. At a minimum, they'll have to answer a flood of angry phone calls and letters, and, on top of that, they are likely to be blackballed by some of their Congressional colleagues. The safer course is to mouth the same tired litanies about alleged "shared values" between Israel and the U.S. and wait till the crisis dies down. And people wonder why no one respects Congress anymore.   More

 

America Is Complicit In Israel’s War Crimes

Since 1948, when Israel was created after expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, the U.S. has given Israel $112 billion. That makes Israel the largest cumulative recipient of American aid. The vast majority of it comes in the form of military aid to beef up the Israeli army, one of the most powerful forces in the world. U.S. military aid makes up about a quarter of the Israeli military budget. And a quarter of American military aid is allowed to be spent on Israel’s own defense industry, a unique concession no other country receives. In recent years, the U.S. has given Israel $3.1 billion in military aid and weaponry in the form of F16s, Hellfire missiles, and assault rifles, now being used to kill Palestinian civilians. In addition, the U.S. funds Israeli missile defense systems like the much-praised Iron Dome, which shoots rockets fired from Gaza out of the sky. In the midst of Israel’s attack, a Senate committee passed a bill that would give Israel an additional $620 million for missile defense, including $350 million for Iron Dome.   More

 

U.S. Senate Sets $225 Million for Israel's Iron Dome in Emergency Bill

U.S. Senate Democrats included $225 million for Israel's Iron Dome rocket interception system in an emergency funding bill on Tuesday that also cut $1 billion from President Barack Obama's request for $3.7 billion to deal with thousands of undocumented child immigrants. "Israel is an essential American ally and needs these assets to defend itself," said Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement.  More

 

As Much of the World Frowns on Israel, Americans Hold Out Support

A 2013 Pew poll found vastly more unfavorable feelings toward Israel outside than within the United States, which registered a 27 percent unfavorable view of Israel and a 57 percent favorable view. In contrast, 44 percent of people in Britain had an unfavorable view of Israel. Unfavorable views of Israel were held by 62 percent in Germany, 65 percent in France, 66 percent in China and in the 80 percent to 90 percent range in Arab and Muslim countries.   More

 

But, despite this, polls indicate that a majority believes the US should take no side in this conflict; and support for Israel is becoming more partisan in the US, with Democrats much less sympathetic than Republicans.

 

Israel’s Crumbling Media War

For the first time, perhaps, Americans are witnessing the suffering of Palestinian people in the establishment press. Even while the framework of “Blame Hamas” dominates mainstream media coverage, the humanity of Palestinian people is cracking through the decades-long, well established façade of pro-Israeli propaganda.  And how can it not? When the actual experience of journalists contradicts the propaganda narrative, if they have a heart or a brain, they cannot help but see Zionist propaganda for what it is. This is possibly why Israel kept out foreign journalists during the 2008 Cast Lead operation.   More

 

Reaping What We Have Sown In Gaza
Those who rejected Fatah and Yasser Arafat’s peace proposal for two states have now been given Haniyeh, Hamas and BDS. Those who turned Gaza into an internment and punishment camp for 1.8 million human beings should not be surprised that they tunnel underneath the earth. Those who sow trangling, siege and isolation reap rocket fire. Those who have, for 47 years, indiscriminately crossed the Green Line, expropriating land and constantly harming civilians in raids, shootings and settlements – what right do they have to roll their eyes and speak of Palestinian terror against civilians?  More

 

IS HAMAS WINNING?

http://www.lobelog.com/is-hamas-winning/

Despite the pounding Gaza is getting, Hamas seems to have gotten the issue of lifting the siege on the table, as even the US keeps saying that the “underlying issues” must be dealt with, and even when the EU is scolding Hamas, they are also calling Israel’s acts “criminal.”   More

 

Some Israeli reservists refuse to serve in Gaza

To us, the current military operation and the way militarization affects Israeli society are inseparable. In Israel, war is not merely politics by other means — it replaces politics. Israel is no longer able to think about a solution to a political conflict except in terms of physical might; no wonder it is prone to never-ending cycles of mortal violence. And when the cannons fire, no criticism may be heard.  More

 

Gaza continues to be legally occupied territory:

While Israel has argued that it ceased occupying Gaza in 2005 when it unilaterally redeployed its troops outside of Gaza and withdrew its settlers from Gaza, Gaza continues to be occupied in accordance with international law and in the views of the international community, including the U.S.[i], the EU, and the U.N.[ii]. Israel’s continued responsibility as the occupying power in Gaza results from several factors.  First, Israel continues to exert effective control over Gaza including control of the borders, airspace, waterways, population registry, currency, the movement of people, trade, electrical supply, water supply, and more. Second, Israel maintains and exerts a right to conduct regular military operations in Gaza, giving it effective military control over the territory. Under international law[iii], effective control is the key measures of occupation.  More

 

Since 2005, when Israel decided to remove its settlers and troops from inside Gaza, in order to maintain its siege from outside and strengthen its colonization of the West Bank, there have been almost continuous restrictions on the entry of food and other humanitarian necessities.  Israeli politicians joked, in the infamous words of Dov Weissglass, chief aide to former Israeli President Ariel Sharon: “the idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not to make them die of hunger… It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die…"

 

Israel’s Incremental Genocide in the Gaza Ghetto 

The present genocidal wave has, like all the previous ones, also a more immediate background. It has been born out of an attempt to foil the Palestinian decision to form a unity government [4] that even the United States could not object to… Ever since June 1967, Israel searched for a way to keep the territories it occupied that year without incorporating their indigenous Palestinian population into its rights-bearing citizenry. All the while it participated in a “peace process” charade to cover up or buy time for its unilateral colonization policies on the ground.  With the decades, Israel differentiated between areas it wished to control directly and those it would manage indirectly, with the aim in the long run of downsizing the Palestinian population to a minimum with, among other means, ethnic cleansing and economic and geographic strangulation.  More

 

Israel controls two out of three sides of Gaza on the land and its naval patrols maintain a sea blockade; Israel’s (and US) ally Egypt keeps the third land side mostly closed and in any case honors the agreement with Israel to limit Rafah access to foot traffic alone.  So all goods coming in and out of Gaza are controlled by Israel.

 

Whenever a temporary truce was negotiated (and scrupulously maintained by Hamas), the pattern has been for Israel to renege on the terms and break the ceasefire with fresh attacks when it deemed them useful.  And contrary to the Israeli claims that this was “to protect its citizens,” the pattern reveals that the most dangerous time for Israeli civilians is when Israel is launching an attack on Gaza.

 

Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?

…we found that this pattern -- in which Israel is more likely than Palestine to kill first after a conflict pause -- becomes more pronounced for longer conflict pauses. Indeed, of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days… Thus, a systematic pattern does exist: it is overwhelmingly Israel, not Palestine, that kills first following a lull. Indeed, it is virtually always Israel that kills first after a lull lasting more than a week.   More