Tag Archives: Israeli siege of Gaza 2014

Israel’s Palestinians show intifada will not be defeated

Intifada in West Bank July 22 2014

There have been some Israeli soldiers killed in the murderous assault on Gaza & at last media can show Israelis grieving & not just cheering ethnic cleansing. There are hundreds of photos of Palestinians sobbing as they collect the remains of their beloved or as they bury them. One of the more wrenching was captioned “Relatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant Abduallah El-Buhasi, who medics said was killed in an Israeli air strike, mourn during his funeral” in Gaza. The suggestion is of course, he was a terrorist & maybe he was hit by an evil fairy flying in from outer space. Today Reuters news service chose a woman grieving at the funeral of her Israeli military brother as their photo of the day. May he RIP but his funeral is being used for war propaganda.

This is our choice for photo of the day: despite the blood bath in Gaza & the terrorism of Israeli military in the West Bank, intifada will not be defeated. This young Palestinian in Nazareth, Israel–the very heart of the beast–is being arrested because he threw stones. Israel claims affinity with David in the myth of David & Goliath. In truth their affinity is with the Gestapo in the Third Reich.

Intifada will not be defeated as long as we render the most active & consistent support rallying to demand “Stop the massacre in Gaza.” Join the economic boycott of all Israeli goods (barcode beginning 729) & support the cultural boycott of Israel.

(Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Intifada is not defeated by Israeli bombs in Gaza

West Bank intifada July 22 2014 (2)

And while Gaza grieves & flees from ethnic cleansing, Palestinian intifada defies the jackboot occupation of the West Bank to rally in defense of Gaza. These young men stand with rocks & block the road with burning tires against one of the most barbaric military forces in the world. They rally outside Ofer prison near Ramallah where Israel warehouses hundreds of Palestinian activists who will not bend the knee to Israeli apartheid.

Israel cleared Zionist settlers out of Gaza in 2005 ostensibly to generate peace but it is now eminently clear it was to isolate & exterminate the Palestinians of Gaza. These young men would face the same fate as Gaza if Israel weren’t concerned about damaging Zionist settlements in the West Bank.

The international solidarity movement is now an essential part of Palestinian intifada & must carry the banner for those now fighting for their lives. For those who cannot join the hundreds of solidarity rallies around this world to demand “Stop the massacre in Gaza”, you can participate by honoring & promoting the economic boycott of all Israeli goods (barcode beginning 729) & supporting & building the cultural boycott of Israel.

(Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)

“All of Gaza bids farewell to herself every night and congratulates those who remain alive the morning of another day”

Gaza July 22 2014

Palestinian men carrying a white flag, the symbol of truce & surrender, flee Israeli bombing during the brief ceasefire requested by rescue teams to retrieve the wounded & dead in the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City (July 20).

“There are no spaces for life. No place to return. All of Gaza bids farewell to herself every night & congratulates those who remain alive the morning of another day. They inspect their bodies, then run their hands over the living. They close their eyes then open them, & once again call the members of their families one by one…so that the memory of their names does not fail & their spirits do not disappear.”

(by Gaza blogger Hedaya Shamun from “I Do Not Wish For You To See Gaza As Anything But a Rose”)

(Photo by Manmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)

Zionism and ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Sderot July 21 2014

There never was a hay day for Zionism; from it’s inception it stunk of racism & supremacy. And not just ethnic supremacy but that based on gender & class. This obscene spectacle we see today on the hills of Sderot, where Israelis sit back in easy chairs to cheer ethnic cleansing, is not a degeneration but the full flowering of Zionist theoretics–if you want to call the tripe written by its founder Theodor Herzl theory.

In his plan for establishing Israel either in Palestine or Argentina he said, “The emigrants standing lowest in the economic scale will be slowly followed by those of a higher grade. Those who at this moment are living in despair will go first. They will be led by the mediocre intellects which we produce so superabundantly & which are persecuted everywhere.” The “mediocre intellects” must have comprised the paramilitary death squads whose leaders became eventual leaders of Israel–like Shimon Peres & Ariel Sharon.

Was it Herzl or another early Zionist thinker (using the word loosely) who said ‘When I see my first Israeli prostitute, I will know that Jews are free’? Real visionaries, these guys!

Many European Jews, beleaguered by pogroms & exhausted by the holocaust, must have hoped a state of their own could give respite from persecution. They paid a high price for credulity & falling for the hucksters of Zionism.

The ethnic cleansing of Gaza reflects a crisis in Israel which they’re trying to solve on the backs of Palestinians. Meanwhile Zion crumbles & millions around the world now know the vision of a Jewish-only, hermetically isolated state was rancid coming out the gate. It must be said: in the long run the Israeli state will have to be dismantled because it is built on hatred & supremacy. Herzl once used to exhort that a Jewish-only state was not a pipe dream; he probably didn’t know it would become a nightmare generating social hatred.

Palestinian intifada has offered the only solution that is a vision & a possibility: a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians can live together as brothers & sisters.

Support that vision by boycotting all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729); supporting the cultural boycott of Israel; & joining the growing international solidarity movement demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” “No military aid to Israel!”

(Photo by Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Netan-psycho-yahu and the psychopathology of genocide

Gaza at UN refuge school (July 21 2014)

Netan-psycho-yahu belongs to that league of politicians who will forever stand in ignominy because the scale of their crimes is so immense & the very mention of their names sends shivers up our spines: Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Pol Pot, Omar Suleiman, Sisi, Kissinger. Netan-psycho thinks he’s riding high since he’s got Obama, Kerry, Harper, & Cameron in his back pocket defending Israeli genocide on the talk show rounds but one is more contemptible than the other.

Kerry expressed US commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself on Fox news &, not a bit squeamish, praised Netan-psycho for a “pinpointed” operation. Was he referring to the flechette shells employed by Israel? Flechette munitions are anti-personnel weapons fired by tanks which explode in the air & release thousands of small metal darts. Or is he referring to shrapnel coming from DIME explosives? Both weapons are flooding the hospitals, morgues, & streets of Gaza with bodies.

In a media interview, Netan-psycho once again accused Hamas, who he called “genocidal terrorists,” of using “civilians” as human shields. And in a statement that will forever shame his sorry ass, he said, “They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead, the better.” We stand mute before such sociopathic hatred–which has become the hallmark of Zionism.

So where are the Palestinian Authority & the less than redoubtable Mahmoud Abbas in all this? And where is the UN–other than in opening abandoned schoolhouses in Gaza to accept refugees? Schoolhouses, it might be added, that are not off-limits to Israeli bombers. Abbas, Ban Ki-moon, Egypt’s al-Sisi, & Kerry are flying all over the place trying to come up with a cease fire plan. It’s the busy work of diplomacy without a shred of validity because the only peace plan worth a damn is a condemnation of Israeli ethnic cleansing & massive international diplomatic pressure on Israel to cease. But they cannot bring themselves to do that since they represent neoliberal business & political interests in the region & that means they support Israel. Maybe they’re getting a little squeamish about the lengths Israel is going to, maybe they’re afraid Israeli overkill will turn world opinion off the official Zionist narrative that has served them all so well for 66 years. But they will not turn their back on Israel–even as it self-destructs.

We hope the Guardian UK loses some of it’s patina as the voice of reasoned liberalism for it’s equivocations & worse on Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing. One writer complained about the volume of gruesome photos from Gaza inundating Twitter & social media. We understand her horror but she cannot hide that her squeamishness has more to do with covering for Israel than revulsion at its crimes.

We also think a steady barrage of mangled children, though intended to inspire justice, is not the best tool. So we post this photo of a wheelchair-bound women in Gaza who fled her house during Israel’s ground offensive & sought refuge in this bereft UN-run schoolhouse in Rafah. True, she’s not dead, but is she telegenic enough for Netan-psycho to justify continued barbarism?

(Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Palestinian intifada will not be bombed into smithereens by Israeli bombers: long live intifada!

Gazan medic July 20 2014

Those who live in countries practiced in the treacheries of militarism & colonialism become tutored in the treacheries of dehumanizing propaganda. Westmoreland, one of the military generals & an insuperable ass who headed up the US war in Vietnam notoriously said, the “Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner”. It was the Civil Rights Movement of that same era that exposed that crap for the horse manure it is.

They still use it though–now againsts Arabs. They’ve been drawing on the poisoned rancid well of racism since the foundations of colonialism until now it’s become essential to manage the barbaric phase of capitalism.

Nowhere is it more rancidly employed than against Palestinians. When Israelis gather on hilltops to cheer on genocide, we see the fathoms of hatred propping up this decaying system. Colonialism isn’t riding high when it resorts to such extremes of violence; it is erupting in desperation because it’s foundation is toppling. It has not been able to break Palestinian intifada in 66 years of the most unspeakable crimes & as vulnerable as Gaza is now before the onslaught, the truth is now more widely known & more vigorously opposed.

Jodi Rudoren, The NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief, publicly commented (in 2012): ” while death & destruction is far more severe in Gaza than in Israel, it seems like Israelis are almost more traumatized. The Gazans have a deep culture of resistance & aspiration to martyrdom, they’re used to it from Cast Lead & other conflicts, & they have such limited lives that in many ways they have less to lose…. I’ve been surprised that when I talk to people who just lost a relative, or who are gathering belongings from a bombed-out house, they seem a bit ho-hum.” Did you ever read such a load of crap? That’s not the keen eye of war reportage; it’s racist tripe, colonial vision, & the foulest propaganda.

Does this man’s grief look “a bit ho-hum” to you? This Palestinian medic treats people injured by Israeli bombs at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza near the Israeli border & only a few miles from Sderot, where Israelis sit in lawn chairs to entertain themselves with ethnic cleansing. If vision is not incapacitated by vile racist hatred, who is traumatized & who is not is made evident by that contrast.

For nearly two weeks now, Palestinians weep openly over the deaths & mangled bodies of their children & beloved. Palestinian supporters witnessing this slaughter are bereft & grieving. But intifada is not destroyed. Thousands of men & women around the world who stand with justice & want to take a public stand against the unspeakable criminality must take up the banner of Palestinian intifada while our Gazan brothers & sisters fight to dodge bombs & survive.

Protests of solidarity & to oppose Israeli genocide continue around the world & must continue on a campaign footing demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” Those near Washington DC should make every attempt to join the national march today to the White House exposing US complicity & bankrolling of genocide & demanding they cease all military aid to Israel. All out!

(Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

“Whosoever buyeth Zionist propaganda has to have their head examined,” saith the Lord.

You don’t have to be a military strategist to know Israel isn’t dropping thousands of tonnage of bombs on cities, & invading with thousands of tanks & infantry just to take out a handful of Hamas rocket launchers. The Wall Street Journal, who it goes without saying, supports the genocide, said “Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza, accompanied by a heavy air bombardment, after sending out widespread warnings to Palestinian residents.” “After sending out widespread warnings to Palestinians”? By carrier pidgeon or bullhorn, since there is no functioning electricity in most of Gaza? And what were Palestinians supposed to do when they got the warnings? Hide in their homes which were being targeted as sniper nests? Or run to the streets where they would be open targets?

Media will not tell the truth because they all support this genocide. It isn’t a case of singing for their supper or sucking up to power. In many places, like the US, media is owned by those with a vested interest in Israel & Zionism. And we are not speaking of Jews but of capitalist corporations.

The only way truth can be told & heard is through massive public opposition to Israeli genocide & in support of Palestinian justice. There are hundreds of rallies scheduled all over the world demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” If you can not find a rally to join, call one. If you cannot join one, support the boycott of Israeli products (barcode beginning 729) & support the cultural boycott of Israel.

Palestinians huddle in terror after Israeli air strikes on their houses   while Israel continues to claim it is targeting the tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle in foods & medicines banned by the Israeli blockade. Are Palestinians not only harboring rocket launchers but also tunnel entrances in their closets?

The sociopathology of Zionism

Sderot July 19 2014

And while Gazans grieve & have no place to run for cover, these Israelis continue to gather on hilltops to suck down sodas, chat with neighbors, & cheer as they watch their military carry out genocide.

This is the sociopathology of Zionism: a racist hatred so profound it can witness ethnic cleansing not just with equilibrium but elation. Those Israelis who stand against genocide are not on hilltops cheering; they are protesting & demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” Our deepest respect for those protesters.

Long live Palestinian intifada!

(Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

A moment to pay respects to those who have died in Gaza

Gazan funeral July 19 2014

We should take a moment to pay respects to those who have lost children & other beloved in the murderous siege of Gaza, which continues to target children. Here a woman holds the body of her 1-year-old daughter at her funeral in Rafah (July 18th).

“How will we return to life its splendor after the bodies of the young are stolen? He carries his body in his hands and needs no coffin. His hands have become a coffin for his child shrouded in white cloth. He walks with his head high and his tears flowing. But he is lucky that he is still alive to pay his child the last honors. Entire families were buried in their homes and no one remained to pay them these last honors. It is so simple. In this civilized world of international rights and conventions and the right to life and the right to housing and the right to education and the right of expression, these rights are not for Palestinians but for someone else.”

{By the Palestinian blogger, Hedaya Shamun, “I Do Not Wish For You To See Gaza As Anything But a Rose”}

(Photo by Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters)

Israel targets children in Gaza

Gaza beach murders July 18 2014

The Israeli bombing of four small Palestinian boys playing ball on a beach & the forced evacuation of a hospital in Gaza certainly distinguish this monstrous siege of Israeli ethnic cleansing; we can only hope they don’t continue to scale new heights of barbarism. And the only thing that can stop that inevitability is massive public opposition.

The photo of the little boys lying mangled in the sand is irrefutable indictment of Israeli war crimes & still the UN & Human Rights Watch (HRW) don’t see the problem & continue to shake the naughty finger at both sides, refusing to distinguish between ethnic cleansing & self-defense.

When asked about the bombing of the little boys, Mark Regev, the spokesman for Netan-psycho-yahu, said “War is a terrible thing.” Banalities are his stock in trade & hopefully don’t indict the entire education system of Australia, from whence he came–unlike the Palestinians they’re trying to destroy who go back generations in the region. He claimed Israel doesn’t target civilians, which is really hard to maintain with a straight face since Gaza has no military of any kind. He claimed Israel doesn’t target children, but who does he think lives in those homes they’re bombing & what about the little kids on the beach who weren’t even four feet tall or more than 60 pounds? In response to interrogation, this smug racist punk said Palestinians are using their kids as human shields. This kind of tripe & toilet-bowl mentality is where racism & Zionist ideology take you.

In his interview, Regev pointed to the endorsement of the Arab League for the cease fire scam Israel used to justify a more murderous escalation of the siege–as if that endorsement rendered it legitimate. Regev is of course not directing that to anyone who knows a damn thing about the Arab League but to those who know nothing. For heaven’s sake, Saudi Arabia has a seat in the League & they’re playing an active role in undermining all the Arab uprisings, most notably in Bahrain. Egypt is also a key member & it should not be forgotten is presently persecuting thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, with which Hamas has political affinity. That political affinity may be regrettable but one can understand why Hamas would be extremely reluctant to accept their political initiatives with trust. Such trust would be arrant stupidity.

Many look to world governments & ask “Why aren’t they doing more to stop this massacre?” The answer is simple: the neoliberal predators are up to their eyeballs supporting it with loans, military weaponry, arms deals, & political proclamations denouncing Hamas terrorism. They’re not just invested financially in Israel but politically. They are enemies of justice, not allies.

So there is no one to turn to except men & women of good will who want to know the truth. Thousands of solidarity activists around the world are hitting the streets to demand “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” Massive public opposition telling the truth is Gaza’s best defense right now. People often think protests are ineffectual, that governments will do whatever the hell they want unrestrained by our actions. Tell that to the Vietnamese who recognized the power of public protest & held the international antiwar movement in highest regard.

{This is a photo of two of the young victims of Israeli bombing on the beach. Usually I think atrocity images demoralize more than inspire political activism. However, I make an exception with this photo because it indicts Israeli war crimes more powerfully than a mountain of condemnations. It’s another picture worth a thousand lies. The photo should be sent to the UN & HRW, not to goad their consciences–because they have none–but to indict them as collusive with genocide.}

May our little brothers Mohammed, Ahed, Zakaria, & Mohammed Bakr RIP. Our deepest condolences to their family for their loss & our heartfelt regret we are not yet strong enough to stay the hand of genocide.

Long live intifada!

(Photo by Tyler Hicks, a reporter from the NY Times who witnessed the murderous assault on July 16th & when interviewed acknowledged it would have been impossible for Israeli aircraft not to see it was just four small boys playing ball.)