There are a few countries that were created on the basis of religion, Israel, Ireland, Pakistan, and Lebanon are a few of them that admit to their religious background. Others hide the religious basis of their identity. Bharat (aka India), Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fall into that category. In many states “secularism” is a euphemism for Christianity Light or Hinduism Light. Even the most liberal European states define their Christian status on their flags, their currency, their government symbols and their celebrations. For example most of the secular countries of Europe and North America celebrate only Christan holidays. No Buddhist, Taoist, Confucius, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish holiday is celebrated in any secular European country. Even when the Muslim population in a European country exceeds 10% like in France, Muslim holidays are not sanctified by the state. In North America when Mexicans exceeded the 3% barrier, there was a huge transformation in the national culture. France, Germany or Britain with large Muslim majority populations do not accept Islam as part of the mosaic. 

Israel of course does not hide its Jewish status and strives to become more and more Jewish. Ashkanzi Jews were secular, but they insisted on a Jewish state for the Jews in the heart of the Muslim Middle East. Sephardic Jews were referred to as “Arab Jews” by their Arab neighbors. SephadicJews lived in a more of less harmony withtheir Arab neighbors. However all that changed in the forties. Many think that Zionist nationalism created Palestinian nationalism. Religious parties on the extreme used to be on the fringe within the Israeli spectrum. More and more so the religious parties have become influential in Israeli politics. The West celebrates Israel Jewishness, and insists that it remain a Jewish state. The tango of Palestinian nationalism versus Jewish Zionism is intense, self destructive and self defeating as it keeps both the Arabs and the Jews into perpetual mimetic warfare. Israeli Zionism is powerful and does not recognize Palestinian nationalism which it considers as non-existent. Palestinian nationalism is willing to accept Israeli nationalism, however religious extremism within the Palestinians will not.There is a chasm of mutual suspicions to bring peace to the region.

This map of 1853 "India" does not show half of Pakistan.

South Asia also suffers from a similar dilemma. Hindu nationalism is poised against Muslim survival. Like the Middle East where the Muslims ruled over the Jews for hundreds of years, the Muslims rules South Asia. Everything changed in the forties. Muslims faced the prospect of living under Hindu rule which was increasingly strident, xenophobic and inward looking. The extreme right of the Hinduvata looked at Muslims are aliens and intruders who wanted to emulate the Spanish Inquisition in South Asia. The Muslims like the Arabs of Pre-Israel Middle East enjoyed the perks of being rulers in much of South Asia.

Today Bharat and the West is aligned against any Islamic country which it sees as a force to reckon with. The West which for decades had supported Muslim militancy in Egypt (Syed Qutub against Nasser), Pakistan, Jamat e Islami against Soviet Russian, Afghanistan (Mujahideen against the USSR) etc now fear the Muslims more then they fear fear itself. The 80s saw a transformation of Western thought and ideas. While the West will tolerate a Jewish state in Israel, it is using all its might to fight the established Muslim state in South Asia. Bharatostensibly secular has all the trappings of a Hindu state, and is stridently more and more Hindu in character, however its fascist tendencies are latent and not under the scrutiny of the West–at least for now. The life or death, zero sum Muslim Pakistani nationalism is arrayed against Bharati Hindu nationalism and these two opposing forces do not allow peace in South Asia.

Bharat is a bit constrained in achieving all the objectives that it wants to achieve. Pakistani nationalism is a huge impediment in its way. Bharat cannot achive its hopes of becoming a regional power without tramping over Pakistan. After the 90s, nuclear deterrence brings in the threat of mutually assured destruction for both the atomic powers. This pous water on Delhi’s ambitions of dictating its wish lists to Islamabad, Colombo and Dhaka.

Eretz Israel: Many want Israel to extend beyond its current and occupied territories

Dan Lieberman brilliantly describes the mechanisms with which Israel is puring acid into the foundations of Palestinian nationalism. Reading the article inevitably leads us to describe the ways in which Delhi is trying to undermine Pakistani Muslim identity.  The tactics are similar. By pouring millions into provincial leaders, Bharat is trying to achieve what it cannot do by crossing the borders with huge armies. Much can be said about Delhi’s current support to the BLA, and the Bait Mehsud army in Swat. Much can be left to the imagination of unsaid words of the Vice President of the US, when he refused to discuss the details of covert US operations in Pakistan. It is pedagogical to read the Lieberman article to understand how Israel with all its might has only been partially successful in achieving its cultural genocide in the Middle East. Gaza-Egypt solution for Palestinians. ONT vs TNT discussion in the Subcontinent

The Palestinians need a state not just to live within borders. They need a state that all peoples claim, especially those who are dispossessed, to assure ontological security and live healthy lives.

Academic symposiums usually clarify history and knowledge to a select group who absorb the history and knowledge in order to impart the history and knowledge to others. The 2009 Annual Symposium of Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies accomplished more than being a routine academic program. Its April 2-3 symposium on Palestine & the Palestinians Today , at the Washington DC Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, alerted an attentive audience to situations that many didn’t realize and to realities that all should know. A series of conferences revealed a nature and debate of the Middle East conflict that is not apparent in daily media reports.

As one example, a panel on Changing Conceptions of Palestinian Nationalism provided new meanings to the Palestinian struggle and revealed Israel ‘s strategy for containing those meanings – a strategy whose result could vanquish the Palestinian people.  Palestinian Nationalism By Dan Lieberman, 09 April, 2009, Countercurrents.org. Dan Lieberman is editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter. Dan’s many articles on the Middle East conflicts have circulated on websites and media throughout the world. He can be reached at: alternativeinsight@earthlink.net

The One Nation Theory vs. The Two Nation Theory in the subcontinent is similar to the discussion in the Middle East. Ironically Pakistan (a Muslim country) was struggling for nationhood in the same manner Israel (a Jewish state), both wanting a two state solution after the departure of the British.

This is the division of the Subcontinent that the Muslims wanted. 

The irony continues. In the South Asian Subcontinent the Muslims had ruled for a thousand years and the British had ruled the hundreds of states for about a 100 years (plus one hundred ruled by the East India company). In the Middle East, the Turks and Arabs had ruled the area for a thousand years, and the British departure created a land for the Jews.

Note: The article details the writer’s interpretation of the panel proceedings.

The Palestinians face a dilemma .

A consensus, which notes Israel ‘s continuous settlement expansion and failures to negotiate sincerely, considers a viable two-state solution is not attainable. A one-state solution, in which power is democratically shared, has gained adherents, but lacks practical implementation. However, a state is not only a matter of borders; it is a matter of survival. The Palestinians want to gain what all peoples need for survival – a self- identity that derives from being part of a state that protects its citizens. Loss of safety results in loss of trust and loss of self-identity.

Nationality and religion enhance identity and are an answer to ontological security. The latter two words are more than an esoteric expression. They define what the Palestinians lack and most need. The absence of ontological security has accelerated deterioration of the Palestinian community, a process caused by the severe Israeli repression.

Ontological security “is a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity in regard to the events in one’slife…. Meaning is found in experiencing positive and stable emotions, and by avoiding chaos and anxiety. If an event occurs that is not consistent with the meaning of an individual’s life, this will threaten that individual’s ontological security. Ontological security also involves having a positive view of self, the world and the future.”

The need for ontological security forces communities to grasp at what is available to enhance their security. The Palestinians still contained in refugee camps have accepted a patriarch organization. Those in the cities seek connections and networks to provideemployment and social arrangements essential for everyday living. Hamashasprovided a greater feeling of trust and security than Fatah, and for good reason – when Fatah ruled Gaza , the leaders lived in sheltered villas, complete with Sri Lanka maids.

The dispossessed Palestinians survive as a common people by continuing to map the geographic past and communicating the past to future generations.

Many of the 418 villages destroyed by Israel after then 1948 war and most other Palestinian villages remain known from extensive village genealogy. Ancestral conversations recall village history and geography. History books, plays, songs, television and radio echo the repetition and awareness of the past. In Jordan refugee camps, shops and streets have been named after destroyed villages. After 1948, the names of fighters killed in the conflict have been suffixed with their ancestral locations. To emphasize a common identity, peasant attire have become national symbols. Many Palestinians, during a period when they were able to enter Israel , returned to their villages to retrieve artifacts and record the visits on video tape. And not to be undone, the youth find ways of keeping village memories alive. These memories connect the dispossessed Palestinians across their separated borders.

Another dilemma allows no chance for a Palestinian national movement to address both its own and Israeli national aspirations.

The purpose of returning the refugee to their homes motivated the Palestinian national movement. Unfortunately, when the PLO under Fatah leadership first proposed the two-state solution, it failed to understand the implications concerning the refugee crisis. What remains today in the area is one repressive state in which the military controls everything.

Sensing that a two-state solution is deteriorating into extreme visions of states with no secular paradigm, idealistic recommendations consider other proposals for a state. The two parties of the conflict should define forms of living together – a ‘we,’ from which will emerge a collective right; a multi-form of ethnic democracy.

A one-state option is doomed if Israeli Jews are not recognized with a national identity. This comes about by recognizing a distinction between Zionism and the establishment of a state for Jews. A revised Palestinian outlook should oppose present Zionist values. It should be inclusive, present a sense of equality and security for all, be multi-ethnic and welcoming and include power sharing. The Palestinians should find other means of resistance.

Israel ‘s grinding operations against and squeezing out of Palestinian will be worse.

More than 100,000 Palestinians will be forced to leave their homes. However, the combination of Israel and United States power is no longer paying dividends and has reached its limits of force.

These remarks succeed a historical brief that urges recognition of a cold fact: There is an Israeli nation. This phenomenon occurred because Europeans demanded the Ottoman Empire have a separate administration for the ” Holy Land .” British craft denied the Palestinian community an identity and territory. Now, a temporal lag always leaves the Palestinians steps behind in activities and prevents them from framing the conflict rules. Entering the discourse is futile because it is a discourse they cannot win. Remaining aside earns them the reputation of being considered obstructionist. Nevertheless, Hamas’ Pyrrhic victory in Gaza and Israel ‘s failure to win in Lebanon have reinvigorated the Palestinian movement. This is happening despite the fact that successive Palestinian leaderships have committed grave errors and the Palestinians now have three separate communities, each of which has different concerns.

So what do these informative narratives tell us?

They relate to the world that Israel will not concede to any viable two-state solution. Instead the Israeli government’s strategy is to deny the Palestinians any national identity (which they helped create), and this calculated denial will bring about the complete destruction of the Palestinian people.

The obvious objectives of the Israeli government’s policies towards the Palestinians are: separation and isolation into small enclaves, divisions of communities and families, prevention of viable economics, hindrance of interchanges withthe outside world and denial of identity and ontological security necessary to sustain community life. Policies of constant terror, unauthorized entry into homes and villages, road barricades, checkpoints, harassments, breaking of bones and imprisonment of wage earners, and humiliations, all of which make life unbearable for the Palestinians, support the objectives. Generations of Palestinians grow up with a loss of safety and loss of trust. The loss of trust provokes infighting, quarreling among families and between communities. Imposed oppressive policies from without generates destruction from within. Psychological and physical damages take their toll and reduce the mental and physical health of the Palestinian population to precarious levels – to levels of doom.

The Israeli animated film ” Waltzing with Bashir ,” showed that the1982 Israeli incursion into Lebanon targeted and destroyed the Palestinian Research Center in West Beirut , which contained records of Palestinian historical life. The International Responsibilities Task Force notes: “Clearly these assaults on the educational and research institutions of the Palestinian people long preceded the end of the truce in Gaza or even the election of Hamas. They have been going on for decades and constitute an attack directed at both the history and the future of the Palestinians.”

Erasing the villages and destroying the archived and documented history of the Palestinian people prefaced the continuous and forced reduction of Palestinian presence in the ” Holy Land .” The Palestinians need a state not just to live within borders. They need a state that all peoples claim, especially those who are dispossessed, to assure ontological security and live healthy lives. Does the international community need more evidence to act swiftly and prevent a major tragedy? It’s never considered a genocide until it’s all over. Palestinian Nationalism By Dan Lieberman, 09 April, 2009, Countercurrents.org. Dan Lieberman is editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter. Dan’s many articles on the Middle East conflicts have circulated on websites and media throughout the world. He can be reached at: alternativeinsight@earthlink.net

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.” – Samuel P. Huntington (author The Clash Of Civilisations)

Wishing for the one state solution on both sides of the Palestine-Israeli equation has been called blasphemy on both sides of the conflict. Hamas pushes to have a “democratic” state in all of Israel, West bank and Gaza. A “one person one vote” would destroy the Jewish character of the state. The Ertz Israel solution which includes Sumeria and Judea is a demographic bomb which would also destroy the Jewish character of Israel. For these reasons, the “one state solution” is not acceptable to the right wing Israelis. 

The two state solution has not materializing despite Mr. Bush’s lip service that wanted to consecrate his legacy for having brought peace to the Middle East.

The suffering of the Palestinians is horrible. We have written about this many times over. The short term solution to the plight of the Palestinians is to declare the independent Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza, and then confederate itself with Egypt in Gaza and with Jordan in the West Bank.

The Gaza-Egypt solution would solve the electricity and water problems for the Gazans and enable the Gazans to escape from their current incarceration.

The Israelis if they ever sign a peace deal will be happy to turn over Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.

The final solution of the borders and Jerusalem has already been decided upon at Taba and also at other places. That has to be inked and signed, sealed and delivered.

Why we created Pakistan? The Pakistan Ideology. ONT vs TNT. The two nation theory enunciates that the subcontinent is made of several nationalities, the Hindus and the Muslims being the largest of the two. India is as big as Western Europe and contains many many racial, religious, linguistic, and ethnic groups. The Hindus and the Muslims are two separate nations, in terms of diet, attitude, social behavior, economic tendencies, social interaction, behaviors, and attitude.

According to many Pakistanis “The two nation theory did not solve all the problems of the subcontinent. However it did save 200 million Muslims (those emancipated in Pakistan and Bangladesh) from social economic and political servitude. The servitude is proven by the decadent condition of Indian Muslims in a “secular” Indian state. Perhaps it sacrifices 150 million Indian Muslims. But the alternative was 450 million Muslims in servitude.” “Secularism” in “India” means “Hinduism Light.“

Nationhood is defined as the tendency of a nation to exist. No two nations have the same reason to exist. USA and Canada exist separately, though you may think that both nations have English speaking population, with similar accents, similar religions, similar culture, similar economic structures, and similar racial and ethnic backgrounds. Do you hear America question the validity of Canada to exist. I believe that the USA has the power to take over Canada, if it really wanted to. BUT the USA recognizes the right of the Canadians to exist separately

Temporary tiff or major rift?  The squabble between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan may have been the tip of the iceberg in Turkish Israeli relations. Obviously there is some reconstructive surgery to be done.

Erdogan’s 56 words reverberate worldwide: Can the New Ottomans reverse history & lead?

There are deep and profound issues that are surfacing. Israel does not like the present government in Ankara and has tried to destabilize it. Also there are some issues on pipelines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gchf_4VgtK4

For many years, Turkey has suffered from terrorism from a group called Ergenekon. Ergenekon has been linked to Mossad, the CIA, NATO and elements of the Turkish military.
“In early January 2009, the Turkish daily Milliyet stated that a report had found that “Mossad has been behind the Ergenekon plot to topple the Turkish government.” 

Oil wars: Georgia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine 

Gaza in pictures: This is why they hate us!

Pipelines from Caspian to Medeterranean

The incident was not an isolated encounter. It takes a lot for a Turkish Prime Minister to challenge the Israeli President and make a statement that is forceful and radical. Is USA aiding Israeli bombing in Gaza?

• You are killing people,”
• I remember two former prime ministers in your country who said they felt very happy when they were able to enter Palestine on tanks,”
• “I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian.” Erdogan told Peres
• “Please let me finish,” Erdogan urged, but Ignatius responded, “we really do need to get people to dinner.”
• The Turkish premier then said, “Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don’t think I will come back to Davos after this” – and left the podium.
• Dark Waves of Israelis attacking Gaza civilians: Why is Barack Obama silent?The packed audience at the Erdogan-Peres session appeared stunned.  Haaretz

“I have known Shimon Peres for many years and I also know Erdogan,” said former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. “I have never seen Shimon Peres so passionate as he was today. I think he felt Israel was being attacked by so many in the international community. He felt isolated.”“I was very sad that Erdogan left,” he added. “This was an expression of how difficult this situation is.”

Turkey’s prime minister has stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated debate on Gaza with Israel’s president.Recep Tayyip Erdoganclashed with Shimon Peres, whose voice had risen as he made an impassioned defence of Israel’s actions, jabbing his finger.Mr Erdogan said Mr Peres had spoken so loudly to conceal his “guilt”.

He accused the moderator of not allowing him to speak and said he did not think he would return to Davos.

The Turkish PM stressed later that he had left the debate not because of his disagreements with Mr Peres but because he had been given much less time to speak than the Israeli leader.

Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have dealings with Israel, but relations have been under strain since the Islamist-rooted AK Party was elected to power in 2002.

Late on Thursday, a WEF official said that Mr Peres and Mr Erdogan had spoken by mobile telephone, and both men now considered the matter closed.

Dinner time

In the debate, Mr Erdogan was cut off as he attempted to reply to Mr Peres.
Many of the casualties in Gaza have been children, doctors say

Earlier the Turkish Prime Minister had made an address himself, describing Gaza as an “open-air prison”.

When the audience applauded Mr Peres, he said: “I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong.”

The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner.

“I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak,” Mr Erdogan shouted before marching off the stage in front of Mr Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and an elite audience of ministers and international officials.

Mr Peres had told the audience Israel was forced on to the offensive against Hamas by thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel.

“The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas,” the Israeli leader said.

“Why did they fire rockets? There was no siege against Gaza. Why did they fight us, what did they want? There was never a day of starvation in Gaza.”

He argued that Mr Erdogan would have reacted in the same way if rockets had hit Istanbul.

More than 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed during the three-week conflict which began on 27 December.

At news conference later on Thursday, Mr Erdogan complained that he had been allowed to speak just 12 minutes to 25 for Mr Peres.

“I did not target at all in any way the Israeli people, President Peres or the Jewish people,” he said.

“I am a prime minister, a leader who has specifically expressly stated that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity.”

The relations between the two countries have cooled considerably.

Despite the cool relations since the accession of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey,[11] the Israeli Foreign Ministry characterized its relations with Turkey as “perfect” in the beginning of 2006. However, in February 2006, a visit paid by Khaled Meshal, a leader of the newly elected Hamas, changed this status. Israeli diplomats went so far as to compare this visit to a possible official visit of Abdullah Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) to Israel, but Turkish authorities immediately denounced this comparison as “irresponsible and erroneous”. After Khaled Meshalpaid an official visit to Turkey, Turkish-Israeli relations entered a “cooling down” process. Some have suggested that this was only a public relations stunt to show the Islamic world that Turkey was on their side because Turkey had been silent in major issues important to Arabs and the Islamic community like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Lebanon crisis.[12]

Talks regarding the sale of Israeli Ofeq satellites and Arrow missile air-defence systems to Turkey have taken place, pending United States approval. The systems would be a generational leap for the Turkish military and intelligence capabilities

This high profile exchange of insults helped the Turkish Prime Minister at home. Thousands came to greet him at the Istanbul airport. Obviouslyhis move was popular in Turkey. However there is something deeper to this. It is rumored that the Turkish generals are very unhappy with Israel, its tactics and its aggressive posture in recent years.

There have been reports of deep rooted issues between Israel and Turkey.

This map shows the major pipelines in the world. Notice the pipeline that passes through Turkey

There have been reports that Israel has demanded that Turkey extend the pipeline to Israel.

Like all conflicts this conflict may have to do with Oil and Water. Many have claimed that the real reason for the war in Iraq was the oil and more importantly the water pipeline from Iraq to Israel. This map shows the proposed pipeline as well as the US bases protecting the pipeline.

Mossadfalls out with certain generals in Turkey?

Why has Ergenekon been outed?Report: Mossad behind Ergenekon plots)Report: Mossad behind Ergenekon plots)Nationalist Prof. Ozdag: The US is Behind the Ergenekon Operation)Ergenekon’s Foreign Policy Guide). According to a writer in Turkish Weekly: “Most of the Ergenekon members are anti-Semitic. “They claim that the MOSSAD has played a very dirty role in Turkish politics and aimed to divide the country into poles.”Israel may have to find a new set of people to carry out its acts of terrorism. aangirfan

1. For many years, Turkey has suffered from terrorism from a group called Ergenekon. Ergenekon has been linked to Mossad, the CIA, NATO and elements of the Turkish military. Reportedly, the aim of Ergenekon has been to allow fascist forces to control Turkey. These fascists may not all agree about policy towards Israel, Russia, Iran and the USA. Ergenekon is a Gladio-style operation.

2. Mysteriously, there have recently been many arrests of Turks who are alleged to be Ergenekon operatives. This may signal that Mossadand its friends have fallen out with certain Ergenekongenerals. It may signal that the Turkish government is fed up with Mossad and the CIA using Ergenekon to carry out acts of terrorism. There may be a split within Ergenekon.  

3. In early January 2009, the Turkish daily Milliyet stated that a report had found that “Mossad has been behind the Ergenekon plot to topple the Turkish government.” Fars news reported that Investigators uncovered evidence that a Jewish rabbi named Tuncay Guney, who worked for Mossad and fled to Canada in 2004, was a key figure behind attempts to overthrow the Turkish government. Sabah daily reported that Guney infiltrated Ergenekon and another organization known as JITEM, an illegal intelligence unit linked with the police and suspected of hundreds of murders and kidnappings.

Turkish daily Yeni Safakhas claimed that Turkish security forces have discovered documents in Guney’s Istanbul house that disclose information concerning suspicious investment and economic activities by certain Jewish businessmen in Turkey. The businessmen allegedly have significant relations with individuals, political groups and cultural organizations affiliated with the Ergenekon group.

Turkish security forces have detained many members of the Ergenekon group, including retired army generals, politicians, popular lawyers and famous journalists. The individuals currently face trail on charges of plotting to overthrow Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

4. On 22 January 2009, Prof. Dr. Umit Ozdag stated that the United States is the real power behind the Ergenekon Operation in Turkey. Mr. Ozdag said “The US aims to establish a federal Turkey instead of unitary Turkish state”. Prof. Ozdag claimed that the European Union (EU) too makes efforts to shift Turkey’s unitary state into an ethnic based federal Turkey state.

5. A report in Turkish Weekly, 23 January 2009, suggests that some Ergenekon people may have turned against the USA and Israel.

4. So, it would seem that Ergenekon’s problems may be caused by a split within Ergenekon. Israel may be outing anti-Israel members of Ergenekon; and anti-Israel members of Ergenekon may be outing pro-Israel members of Ergenekon.

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1000 Palestinians massacred!

If you an iota of hmanity–call your Congressman and Senator to stop this.

The 1.5 million Gazans are refugees–thrown out of their homes in 1947 by the Israelis.

17 deaths in the past seven years from Gazan “crackers” does not justify this.

More Israelis die in automibile accidents. This is just to get the Palestinians to leave Palestine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gchf_4VgtK4

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gchf_4VgtK4]

Robert Fisk is one the few remaining good journalists who is untainted by the increasingly Murdockized media that is now controlled by as few at six media corporations.  Robert Fist writes for the Independent and is truly a great writer who does not make any bones about what he wants to say. Here is his latest piece on Palestine.

Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask. Wednesday, 7 January 2009

AP:A child injured in the Israeli bombardment of a UN school yesterday is taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City

• More pictures

So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night’s work in Gaza by the army that believes in “purity of arms”. But why should we be surprised?

Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead – almost all civilians, most of them children and women – in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians?

What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. “Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties,” yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night’s butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.

What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I’m afraid, it was. After covering so many mass murders by the armies of the Middle East – by Syrian troops, by Iraqi troops, by Iranian troops, by Israeli troops – I suppose cynicism should be my reaction. But Israel claims it is fighting our war against “international terror”. The Israelis claim they are fighting in Gaza for us, for our Western ideals, for our security, for our safety, by our standards. And so we are also complicit in the savagery now being visited upon Gaza.

I’ve reported the excuses the Israeli army has served up in the past for these outrages. Since they may well be reheated in the coming hours, here are some of them: that the Palestinians killed their own refugees, that the Palestinians dug up bodies from cemeteries and planted them in the ruins, that ultimately the Palestinians are to blame because they supported an armed faction, or because armed Palestinians deliberately used the innocent refugees as cover.

The Sabra and Chatila massacre was committed by Israel’s right-wing Lebanese Phalangist allies while Israeli troops, as Israel’s own commission of inquiry revealed, watched for 48 hours and did nothing. When Israel was blamed, Menachem Begin’s government accused the world of a blood libel. After Israeli artillery had fired shells into the UN base at Qana in 1996, the Israelis claimed that Hizbollah gunmen were also sheltering in the base. It was a lie. The more than 1,000 dead of 2006 – a war started when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border – were simply dismissed as the responsibility of the Hizbollah. Israel claimed the bodies of children killed in a second Qana massacre may have been taken from a graveyard. It was another lie. The Marwahin massacre was never excused. The people of the village were ordered to flee, obeyed Israeli orders and were then attacked by an Israeli gunship. The refugees took their children and stood them around the truck in which they were travelling so that Israeli pilots would see they were innocents. Then the Israeli helicopter mowed them down at close range. Only two survived, by playing dead. Israel didn’t even apologise.

Twelve years earlier, another Israeli helicopter attacked an ambulance carrying civilians from a neighbouring village – again after they were ordered to leave by Israel – and killed three children and two women. The Israelis claimed that a Hizbollah fighter was in the ambulance. It was untrue. I covered all these atrocities, I investigated them all, talked to the survivors. So did a number of my colleagues. Our fate, of course, was that most slanderous of libels: we were accused of being anti-Semitic.

And I write the following without the slightest doubt: we’ll hear all these scandalous fabrications again. We’ll have the Hamas-to-blame lie – heaven knows, there is enough to blame them for without adding this crime – and we may well have the bodies-from-the-cemetery lie and we’ll almost certainly have the Hamas-was-in-the-UN-school lie and we will very definitely have the anti-Semitism lie. And our leaders will huff and puff and remind the world that Hamas originally broke the ceasefire. It didn’t. Israel broke it, first on 4 November when its bombardment killed six Palestinians in Gaza and again on 17 November when another bombardment killed four more Palestinians.

Yes, Israelis deserve security. Twenty Israelis dead in 10 years around Gaza is a grim figure indeed. But 600 Palestinians dead in just over a week, thousands over the years since 1948 – when the Israeli massacre at Deir Yassin helped to kick-start the flight of Palestinians from that part of Palestine that was to become Israel – is on a quite different scale. This recalls not a normal Middle East bloodletting but an atrocity on the level of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. And of course, when an Arab bestirs himself with unrestrained fury and takes out his incendiary, blind anger on the West, we will say it has nothing to do with us. Why do they hate us, we will ask? But let us not say we do not know the answer.

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Michael Chossudovsky is a prolific writer and analyst. He writes often about the Greater Middle East. He desribes the Dagan plan which is the basis of the Gaza operation. There are several reasons for the Gaza onslought. In pure military terms it does not make much sense.

The death of 17 Israelis over the past seven years is the justification for massacring thousands of Palestinians and destorying the entire infrastucture of the occupied land which Israel re-occupies ever few weeks. Even when Israel is not occupying Gaza, it is bombing it, straffing it, blockading it, sanctioning it, withholding its taxes, not pyaing the salaries, stoping its electricity water, and medical supplies. Chossudovsky makes a powerful case about the reality in Palestine describing in detials the assassination of Arafat as well as the pre-palnned attacks on other Palestinian leaders. He makes a cogent argument describing the ongoing operation as a continuation of General Shaorn’s iron fisted policies.

After the assassination of the last liberal Prime Minister of Isreal there are no doves in Israel today. Shimon Peres has sold out for a presidency and Uri Avnery and Rabbi Michael Lerner’s Tikkun movement is marginalized to the hilt. His thesis about the long term Israeli strategy can be described in one sentence:

The longer term objective of this plan, as formulated by Israeli policy makers, is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestinian lands. Michel Chossudovsky

The plan worked well for Israel in the early days of its establishment and it worked well in Iraq where millions left the country. However this plan did not work in Afghanistan where the USSR tried it. Even though about 50% of the population was made refugees, the USSR was unable to pacify the country.

The Invasion of Gaza: “Operation Cast Lead“, Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda by Michel Chossudovsky

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation “Cast Lead” is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

“Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip.  Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel.  During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis.  Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN.” (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

Planned Humanitarian Disaster

On December 8, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was in Tel Aviv for discussions with his Israeli counterparts including the director of Mossad, Meir Dagan.

“Operation Cast Lead” was initiated two days day after Christmas. It was coupled with a carefully designed international Public Relations campaign under the auspices of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Hamas’ military targets are not the main objective. Operation “Cast Lead” is intended, quite deliberately, to trigger civilian casualities.

What we are dealing with is a “planned humanitarian disaster” in Gaza in a densly populated urban area. (See map below)

The longer term objective of this plan, as formulated by Israeli policy makers, is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestinian lands:

“Terrorize the civilian population, assuring maximal destruction of property and cultural resources… The daily life of the Palestinians must be rendered unbearable: They should be locked up in cities and towns, prevented from exercising normal economic life, cut off from workplaces, schools and hospitals, This will encourage emigration and weaken the resistance to future expulsions” Ur Shlonsky, quoted by Ghali Hassan, Gaza: The World’s Largest Prison, Global Research, 2005)

“Operation Justified Vengeance”

A turning point has been reached. Operation “Cast Lead” is part of the broader military-intelligence operation initiated at the outset of the Ariel Sharon government in 2001. It was under Sharon’s “Operation Justified Vengeance” that  F-16 fighter planes were initially used to bomb Palestinian cities.

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, under the title “The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”.

“A contingency plan, codenamed Operation Justified Vengeance, was drawn up last June [2001] to reoccupy all of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip at a likely cost of “hundreds” of Israeli casualties.” (Washington Times, 19 March 2002).

According to Jane’s ‘Foreign Report’ (July 12, 2001) the Israeli army under Sharon had updated its plans for an “all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army”.

“Bloodshed Justification”

The “Bloodshed Justification” was an essential component of the military-intelligence agenda. The killing of Palestinian civilians was justified on “humanitarian grounds.” Israeli military operations were carefully timed to coincide with the suicide attacks:

The assault would be launched, at the government’s discretion, after a big suicide bomb attack in Israel, causing widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001, emphasis added)

The Dagan Plan

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was also referred to as the “Dagan Plan”, named after General (ret.) Meir Dagan, who currently heads Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.

Reserve General Meir Dagan was Sharon’s national security adviser during the 2000 election campaign. The plan was apparently drawn up prior to Sharon’s election as Prime Minister in February 2001. “According to Alex Fishman writing in Yediot Aharonot, the Dagan Plan consisted in destroying the Palestinian authority and putting Yasser Arafat ‘out of the game’.” (Ellis Shulman, “Operation Justified Vengeance”: a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, March 2001):

“As reported in the Foreign Report [Jane] and disclosed locally by Maariv, Israel’s invasion plan — reportedly dubbed Justified Vengeance — would be launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians. (Ibid, emphasis added)

The “Dagan Plan” envisaged the so-called “cantonization” of the Palestinian territories whereby the West Bank and Gaza would be totally cut off from one other, with separate “governments” in each of the territories. Under this scenario, already envisaged in 2001, Israel would:

“negotiate separately with Palestinian forces that are dominant in each territory-Palestinian forces responsible for security, intelligence, and even for the Tanzim (Fatah).” The plan thus closely resembles the idea of “cantonization” of Palestinian territories, put forth by a number of ministers.” Sylvain Cypel, The infamous ‘Dagan Plan’ Sharon’s plan for getting rid of Arafat, Le Monde, December 17, 2001)

From Left to Right: Dagan, Sharon, Halevy

The Dagan Plan has established continuity in the military-intelligence agenda. In the wake of the 2000 elections, Meir Dagan was assigned a key role. “He became Sharon’s “go-between” in security issues with President’s Bush’s special envoys Zinni and Mitchell.”  He was subsequently appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002. In the post-Sharon period, he remained head of Mossad. He was reconfirmed in his position as Director of Israeli Intelligence by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June 2008.

Meir Dagan, in coordination with his US counterparts, has been in charge of various military-intelligence operations. It is worth noting that Meir Dagan as a young Colonel had worked closely with defense minister Ariel Sharon in the raids on Palestinian settlements in Beirut in 1982. The 2009 ground invasion of Gaza, in many regards, bear a canny resemblance to the 1982 military operation led by Sharon and Dagan.

Continuity: From Sharon  to Olmert

Olmert and Sharon

It is important to focus on a number of key events which have led up to the killings in Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead”:

1. The assassination in November 2004 of Yaser Arafat. This assassination had been on the drawing board since 1996 under “Operation Fields of Thorns”. According to an October 2000 document “prepared by the security services, at the request of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, stated that ‘Arafat, the person, is a severe threat to the security of the state [of Israel] and the damage which will result from his disappearance is less than the damage caused by his existence’”. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001. Details of the document were published in Ma’ariv, July 6, 2001.).

Arafat’s assassination was ordered in 2003 by the Israeli cabinet. It was approved by the US which vetoed a United Nations Security Resolution condemning the 2003 Israeli Cabinet decision. Reacting to increased Palestinian attacks, in August 2003, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared “all out war” on the militants whom he vowed “marked for death.”

“In mid September, Israel’s government passed a law to get rid of Arafat. Israel’s cabinet for political security affairs declared it “a decision to remove Arafat as an obstacle to peace.” Mofaz threatened; “we will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat.” Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat told CNN he thought Arafat was the next target. CNN asked Sharon spokesman Ra’anan Gissan if the vote meant expulsion of Arafat. Gissan clarified; “It doesn’t mean that. The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle. The time, the method, the ways by which this will take place will be decided separately, and the security services will monitor the situation and make the recommendation about proper action.” (See Trish Shuh, Road Map for a Decease Plan,  www.mehrnews.com November 9 2005

The assassination of Arafat was part of the 2001 Dagan Plan. In all likelihood, it was carried out by Israeli Intelligence. It was intended to destroy the Palestinian Authority, foment divisions within Fatah as well as between Fatah and Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas is a Palestinian quisling. He was installed as leader of Fatah, with the approval of Israel and the US, which finance the Palestinian Authority’s paramilitary and security forces.

2. The removal, under the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, of all Jewish settlements in Gaza. A Jewish population of over 7,000 was relocated.

“It is my intention [Sharon] to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements…. I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza,” Sharon said.” (CBC, March 2004)

The issue of the settlements in Gaza was presented as part of Washington’s “road map to peace”. Celebrated by the Palestinians as a “victory”, this measure was not directed against the Jewish settlers. Quite the opposite: It was part of  the overall covert operation, which consisted  in transforming Gaza into a concentration camp. As long as Jewish settlers were living inside Gaza, the objective of sustaining a large barricaded prison territory could not be achieved. The Implementation of “Operation Cast Lead” required “no Jews in Gaza”.

3. The building of the infamous Apartheid Wall was decided upon at the beginning of the Sharon government. (See Map below).

4. The next phase was the Hamas election victory in January 2006. Without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections. This was part of the scenario, which had been envisaged and analyzed well in advance.

With Hamas in charge of the Palestinian authority, using the pretext that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel would carry out the process of “cantonization” as formulated under the Dagan plan. Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would remain formally in charge of the West Bank. The duly elected Hamas government would be confined to the Gaza strip.

Ground Attack

On January 3, Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza in an all out ground offensive:

“The ground operation was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting targets in flames that burst into the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire. (AP, January 3, 2009)

Israeli sources have pointed to a lengthy drawn out military operation. It “won’t be easy and it won’t be short,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a TV address.

Israel is not seeking to oblige Hamas “to cooperate”. What we are dealing with is the implementation of the “Dagan Plan” as initially formulated in 2001, which called for:

“an invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory by some 30,000 Israeli soldiers, with the clearly defined mission of destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian leadership and collecting weaponry currently possessed by the various Palestinian forces, and expelling or killing its military leadership. (Ellis Shulman, op cit, emphasis added)

The broader question is whether Israel in consultation with Washington is intent upon triggering a wider war.

Mass expulsion could occur at some later stage of the ground invasion, were the Israelis to open up Gaza’s borders to allow for an exodus of population. Expulsion was referred to by Ariel Sharon as the “a 1948 style solution”. For Sharon “it is only necessary to find another state for the Palestinians. -’Jordan is Palestine’ – was the phrase that Sharon coined.” (Tanya Reinhart, op cit)

AMERICA’S “WAR ON TERRORISM”

by Michel Chossudovsky

CLICK TO ORDER

America’s “War on Terrorism”

In this new and expanded edition of Michel Chossudovsky’s 2002 best seller, the author blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on America by “Islamic terrorists”.  Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration.

The expanded edition, which includes twelve new chapters focuses on the use of 9/11 as a pretext for the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, the militarisation of justice and law enforcement and the repeal of democracy.

According to Chossudovsky, the  “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington’s agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.

Chossudovsky peels back layers of rhetoric to reveal a complex web of deceit aimed at luring the American people and the rest of the world into accepting a military solution which threatens the future of humanity.

The last chapter includes an analysis of the London  7/7 Bomb Attacks.

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Strains of Conflict

Israeli forces have widened their attacks in the Gaza Strip and expanded their targets. As its terrorism spell continues unabated, Israel ignored mounting international calls for a cease-fire and said it won’t stop its crippling 11-day assault until “peace and tranquility” are “achieved” in southern Israeli towns. Israeli forces seized control of high-rise buildings and attacked several mosques in a relentless campaign against Hamas militants that took an increasing toll on civilians. Hundreds of dead bodies and wounded ones are on Palestinian streets. The UN says at least 25% of those are civilians. The Jewish smear campaign has several reasons and targets. Tel Aviv talks about fresh attacks. The ugly faces of anti-Islamic world are seen in global media.

The heaviest fighting in the Gaza Strip since the 1967 Six Day War is taking an enormous toll on the territory’s civilians. The territory’s fragile medical system was already facing key shortages of equipment, spare parts, specialists and some medicine due to the international sanctions against Hamas-ruled Gaza. The problem has only gotten worse during the war. The crowded, chaotic and bloodstained hallways of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City are now makeshift operating areas. The hospital was overwhelmed with civilians. Bodies were two to a morgue drawer, and the wounded were being treated in hallways because beds were full. The medical system is particularly strained. Doctors, nurses, field medics and ambulances drivers are struggling under increasingly dangerous conditions to care for the wounded. The innocently looking UN says at least one-quarter of the more than 600 people officially killed in Gaza so far have been civilians. At least 20 Palestinian children were killed during the day Monday, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a health official. Most confirmed deaths have been civilians.

Israel invaded Palestine and killed innocent Palestinians, but the USA just as usual blames Hamas, the so-called “Islamist terrorists” for Israeli terrorism. Israel also says Hamas is responsible for the current terrorism on innocent Gazans. India, a former Non-aligned leader keeps sits mouth and other parts shut.

Israel has allowed several tons of medical aid to enter Gaza since the fighting began, and for now, the U.N. says, there are enough of most medicines. But getting the supplies safely distributed from the warehouses to the hospitals and clinics, aid groups say, has been nearly impossible. Ground fighting is raging across the territory. Gaza has been cut in two by Israeli infantry and tanks.

A European Union delegation met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. “The EU insists on a cease-fire at the earliest possible moment,” said Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which took over the EU’s presidency last week from France. Rocket attacks on Israel also must stop, Schwarzenberg told a news conference with Livni. The EU brought no truce proposals of its own because the cease-fire “must be concluded by the involved parties,” he added.

Israel’s operation has sparked anger across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been intimately involved in Mideast peacemaking. In Beirut, Lebanon, protesters tried to pull away barbed wire blocking their path to the U.S. Embassy. They were driven back with heavy blasts of water. Some Egyptian ambulances have been allowed into the embattled Gaza Strip, presumably to pick up badly wounded civilians for treatment in Egyptian hospitals. Israeli warplanes and drones remain active along the frontier, drawing fire from Hamas militants.

Arab delegates met with the U.N. Security Council in New York, urging members to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate end to the attacks and a permanent cease-fire. At the same time, diplomats and European leaders traveled the region in an effort to stop Israel’s expanding ground and air offensive. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to attend a UN Security Council meeting, along with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France and Britain, in an attempt to put pressure on the Security Council to act decisively.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who unsuccessfully proposed a two-day truce last week, met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June 2007. Europe “wants a cease-fire as quickly as possible,” Sarkozy said after meeting Abbas, urging Israel to halt the offensive, while blaming Hamas for acting “irresponsibly and unpardonably.” Sarkozy is in the Middle East trying to gather support for a ceasefire and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the EU presidency, is also in the region.

It seems Israel tries to cover up its terrorism and says it has three main demands: an end to Palestinian attacks, international supervision of any truce, and a halt to Hamas rearming. Hamas demands an end to Israeli attacks and the opening of border crossings to vital cargo. The State Department said the U.S. was pressing for a cease-fire that would include a halt to rocket attacks and an arrangement for reopening crossing points on the border with Israel, said spokesman Sean McCormack. A third element would address the tunnels into Gaza from Egypt through which Hamas has smuggled materials and arms. President George W. Bush emphasized “Israel’s desire to protect itself.” The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas,” he said.

Children are at risk from hypothermia, they are malnourished, there is not enough food, and the situation is getting desperate. Thousands of Gazans are reported to have fled their homes, despite the dangers of moving around outdoors in the territory. Living conditions in Gaza are reported to be deteriorating sharply, with supplies of fuel and food not getting to where they are needed. Many in Gaza are also without running water or electricity.

UN and other bodies just keep talking while innocent Palestinians get killed by the Jewish terror state. India used to condemn such terror attacks of Israel before, but now, realizing that world has comprehended Indian’s own terrorism in Kashmir, does not criticize a fellow terrorism any more. However, no Islamic nation or any other nation caring for universal humanism or stands for humanitarianism has come forward so far to stop the Israeli terrorism by forces. The deputy head of Hamas’ politburo in Syria, Moussa Abu Marzouk, rejected the U..S. proposal, telling the AP the U.S. plan seeks to impose “a de facto situation” and encourages Israel to continue its attacks on Gaza. But world has made Israel a powerful country now and pleads Israel to end hostilities.

That is tragedy of humanity, not just of the Palestinians. Gaza will free Palestine..

DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal

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The Day That Changed The Middle East Dr Salim Nazzal

Slaughter in Gaza continues with neither the US nor the UK willing to pass a UNSC Resolution to stop it. Two things have become obvious: 1) the UNSC is used only for post-aggression legitimacy of occupation by the USA and its strategic partners (like in Afghanistan and Iraq) it does not even appear to uphold the UN charter or the International Law; 2) murderous air raids on Gaza are a part of the plan by the fading ‘neocons’ to create neo- realities (together with the one created by the Mumbai attacks of 26/11) to preclude any change in US policy by President Obama in the Middle East or South Asia. Israel learnt the lesson from its 42-day fight with Hizbullah in Lebanon and has not set foot on Gaza. The timing of the air raids was chosen by Israel and the Hamas was caught half prepared. However, the suffering and slaughter of Palestinians has focused the world’s attention on getting the sea blockade lifted and open the border with Egypt. Hizbullah secured victory in Lebanon by concentrating on destroying Israeli tanks. Hamas can replicate that success by concentrating on the Israeli Navy. + Usman Khalid+

The tragic events which took place in Gaza during the festive seasons have entered Palestinian history as a period of infamy when Israel committed the mass murder of hundreds of Palestinians, injuring thousands more, with no international power ready to defend Palestinians, who face the most sophisticated, hi-tech American-made planes, attack helicopters, warships and tanks armed with only homemade weapons.

It is very difficult for ordinary Palestinians to see the holocaust of their nation on TV and not to point the finger at the United States and Europe for their responsibility, morally and practically, for the mass murder of Gaza. Only recently, amid the brutal Israeli siege of Gaza, Palestinians were shocked at the EU’s decision to increase the level of cooperation with the state of Israel despite this policy contradicting the EU’s own charter which set certain conditions for cooperation with states. Even more shocking was hearing an American spokesman using Hamas’s “terror” to justify the Israeli policy of mass murder. When the spokesman was asked to comment on the thousands of Palestinians killed and injured he did not comment, which offered evidence, in Arabs eyes, of the United States’ role as a major sponsor of Israeli state terrorism.

The Israeli terror campaign, it must be remembered, is aimed not only at murdering Palestinians; in the long term its prime victim is the possibility of achieving peace in the region, a fact that will doubtless encourage a culture of revenge in the future.

After 60 years of suffering the pain of living as refugees and of the brutal occupation, more and more Palestinians are losing faith in the international community which has done a great deal to protect other peoples, but stands by hopeless and inert watching Palestine and doing nothing. Palestinians have learn through their history that American financial support and the American veto were always there to defend the state of Israel, while Europe which regards itself as somehow different to the United States has practiced a policy of hypocrisy and double standards by equalizing between the victim and the occupier, despite its historical responsibility for creating the Palestinian tragedy.

Those with a short memory must be reminded that the siege of Gaza did not start last week, but after the democratic election which took place in Palestine three years ago that resulted in the formation of a Palestinian national unity government. The Israeli assertions and accusations aimed at Hamas are groundless and lack even the most minimal credibility. The quality of the targets which the Israeli planes destroyed proves that Israel’s real aim is to prevent Palestinians from being an independent nation. Israel and its sponsors in the White House need to explain why Israel bombed the Palestinian parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Health Ministry, mosques, schools and residential areas. Israel’s claims that these targets are used as places to hide weapons are among the most offensively ludicrous that it has used during its bloody history in the region; if true, this would mean that every Palestinian house is a potential target and the Israeli justification for this massacre – that every building is a hiding place for weapons – can be used at any opportunity.

During recent months, Hamas committed itself to a one-sided truce in the hope that Israel would respect this. The outcome, as ever, was that Israel never honoured the truce and continued its policy of besieging Gaza, causing a shortage of fuel, medicine and food, which paralysed Gaza, affecting the weakest – the children, the ill and the elderly – the most, while the Western world, as ever, stood by and looked on, not lifting a finger to help.

It must be remembered that Gaza is an area with a population of 1.5 million people, who work, attend school and get on with their lives like any other people in the world. Zionist propaganda, of course aims to justify Israel’s murderous policy of presenting Gaza as being populated solely by armed men.

The voices that put the blame on Hamas have produced no solid evidence to back this claim. Hamas accepted the truce, which gave no benefit to the Palestinian in Gaza who continued to live under an oppressive siege; this raises serious questions about the reason for maintaining a fragile truce that gave Palestinians nothing.

In this situation Gaza has become the biggest prison in the world, but with the difference that the innocent prisoners here are denied access to the essentials of life accorded to the actual criminals held in other prisons. There is no leadership in the world that would accept their people living under the situation Palestinians live with, where an Israeli officer decides whether Palestinian kids can have a glass of milk today or not. There is no responsible leadership which would accept the situation of an Israeli officer deciding whether or not to allow a desperately ill Palestinian to leave Gaza for treatment or, as sometimes happens, attempting to blackmail the Palestinian into working as a spy for Israel in exchange for allowing them to be allowed out for medical treatment. Above all, there is no state in the world outside Israel, which has so flagrantly violated all international laws and conventions without anybody even seriously questioning their genocidal acts.

It is very obvious that the Zionist state has learnt nothing from the lessons of history: in 1948 after the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), the Fedayeen resistance movement appeared in Gaza in reaction to it; following the defeat of the Arab armies in 1967 the Palestinian resistance movement was born and, following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, came the first Intifada. The continuing oppression of Palestinians brought the second Intifada and now the war in Gaza looks likely to create an even tougher generation than previous ones.

For a new generation of Palestinians who see their homes destroyed and their parents murdered in front of them, Israel must expect to face in the coming wars a tougher Palestinian generation whose ability to compromise with the Jewish racist state is minimal. This generation may well conclude that their parent’s generation reduced the Palestinians’ legal rights to their lowest ever level in the hope of winning concessions from their oppressors, yet still this failed to elicit any positive results.

Regardless of the outcome of the mass murder continuing in Gaza, the region won’t be the same as it was prior to December 27. Israel and the United States have presented Palestinians and Arabs with more evidence that the language of power is the only language which the US and Israel understand; this will, no doubt, move the region towards more militarization and revenge. If Western powers, especially the USA, are unwilling to review their policies towards the region and unwilling to stop the Israeli mass murder, unwilling to support an independent Palestinian state, Palestinians are concluding that the international community is unable to protect them; for this reason, Palestinians have concluded, they need to review their policy towards finding new strategies to protect themselves.

Dr. Salim Nazzal, a Palestinian-Norwegian historian on the Middle East.

Israel has once again unleased terror on the Gazan ostensibly because of the ineffectual and usually non-lethal Qassam rockets that are notoriously unreliable. So what is the real reason for the assault on Gaza.

… “at 11:30 a.m., more than 50 fighter jets and attack helicopters swept into Gazan airspace anddropped more than 100 bombs on 50 targets. . . . Thirty minutes later, a second wave of 60 jets and helicopters struck at 60 targets . . . More than 170 targets were hit by IAF aircraft throughout the day. At least 230 Gazans were killed and over 780 were wounded . . .” Jerusalem Post ( December 26),

The issueis the same cycle of violence that has kept the world hostage. Israel periodically drums up war hysteria to prevent any semblance of civility in the West Bank and Gaza. The aim is to disrupt daily life anddemoralize the denizens into giving up their dream of an independent homeland called Palestine. For about half a century each successive Israeli government has a laundry list of excuses not to give up occupation. First it blamed all Palestinians as terrorists, then it blamed various factions of the PLO, then it blamed Yasser Arafat as a bad partner for peace, then it balmed the civil strife between the PLA and the Hamas. Now of course it blames the Qassam rockets from Hamas.

Ehud Barak, who is overseeing the latest act of Israeli aggression, said in interviews addressed to the British and American publics that asking Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas would be like asking the US to agree to a ceasefire with al Qaeda. The terrorism that Israel inflicts on Palestinians goes unremarked.

According to the London Times (December 28), “Britain and the United States were on a collision course with their European allies last night after refusing to call for an end to Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza. The wave of attacks marked a violent end to President George W. Bush’s sporadic Middle East peace efforts. The White House put the blame squarely on Hamas.” The British government also blamed Hamas.

For the US and UK governments, Israel can do no wrong. Israel doesn’t have to stop withholding food, medicine, water, and energy, but Hamas must stop protesting by firing off rockets. In violation of international law, Israel can drive West Bank Palestinians off their lands and out of their villages and give the stolen properties to “settlers.” Israel can delay Palestinians in need of emergency medical care at checkpoints until their lives ebb away. Israeli snipers can get their jollies murdering Palestinian children. Counterpunch. America’s Crimes “Never Happened”: May We No Longer Be Silent By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

There are no rockets in West Bank. The Israelis are not vacating that despite hollow promises by President Bush that there would be a Palestinian state by 2009. 2nd term presidents free of the lobbyist’s pressures can and have put pressure on Tel Aviv to make concessions to the Palestinians. However President George W. Bush and Ms. Condaleeza  Rice squandered the last four years not even moving the Middle East Peace process a millimeter.

There is no audacity of hope in the new government and the new presidency. The president who did find the time to talk about the college bowl had only a curt “no comment” about the plight of the Gazans who are without food and medicine and face the lethal bombings from the most sophisticated planes on the planet.

What is worse is the disgusting coverage of the carnage on Fox and CNN. It was truly horrible to see the anchors who always take an extra Prozac pill when talking to Arabs. Each time the rudeness is raised to higher level and the charm reserved for the Israeli diplomats. All this is making netwrok news irrelevant.

The assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. 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 a few years, sit back and watch. Washington, as is its wont, blames the pro-Hamas Palestinians, with Obama and Bush singing from the same AIPAC hymn sheet.

The EU politicians, having observed the build-up, the siege, the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza, the targeting of civilians, etc [See Harvard scholar Sara Roy's chilling essay in the latest LRB] were convinced that it was the rocket attacks that had ‘provoked’ Israel but called on both sides to end the violence, with nil effect. The moth-eaten Mubarik dictatorship in Egypt and NATO’s favourite Islamists in Ankara, failed to even register a symbolic protest by recalling their Ambassadors from Israel. China and Russia did not convene a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the crisis.

As result of official apathy, one outcome of this latest attack will be to inflame Muslim communities throughout the world and swell the ranks of those very organisations that the West claims it is combating in the ‘war against terror’. Official Apathy: The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant
By TARIQ ALI

The issues in Gaza are not therockets or the militants of Hamas. It is the Occupation of Palestinain lands by Israel.

 Gandhi’s racism: Crititicsm of Mohandas Gandhi by his grandsons and other Indians

Why is Urine drinking popular in India? From Mohandas Gandhi to PM Desai to common man.

How Buddhism was exterminated from South Asia? 600BC-400AD Reviving Hindusism in Budhdist lands: The Hindu extremists use the Safron Swastika flag instead of the tri-colored flag of India. (see Hindu unity dot org)

Indian penury: The reality vs. the Bollywood marketing gloss:

India as World Power 1 Extremist Hindus show power using the Swastika in triple entendre–as an ancient Hindu symbol, reverence for Hitler and sign of Anti-Western Indian power

Superpower India Pt 2

 Extremist Hindus revere Hitler and use the Swastika as the Indian flag

How long to extripate penury from india? 300 years! India’s budget– fit for a superpower Murder of 10 million Indian girl babies:Before or right after birth. The media is silent.
————————————–
Sino-Indian relationship

India Balkanizing? Naxalite insurrection widening cracks in deep cavaties
The 2nd world revolution (after Buddhism) from Nepal: Another threat to India

  Red Nepal: Clear and present danger to India

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Israeli Terrorism in Palestine

Colonialism and imperialism employ military genocides to terrorize the nations now under their yoke and Israel, USA and India top the list of aggressors. Fascist Israel, like India, pursues a anti-Islamic terrorist policy and keeps killing the innocent Palestinians with a view to silencing them in their efforts to get back their lost nation now under Israeli custody with support from US-led western powers. Over 300 Palestinians have been killed in two days of Israeli terror attacks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Yes, Israel plays tricks with the UN and UNSC and fools the USA and Arab world that are seen busy finding a lasting solution for Palestine with the re-
creation of their own state. Israeli state warlords are killing the innocent
Palestinians. After letting the truce collapsing, Israel began official blockage
of Gaza and on 27 Dec killed Palestinians almost en-masse. At least 227 people were killed during coordinated Israeli attacks on Hamas police compounds in the Gaza Strip on the same day. More than 700 people were injured, including children, as Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters fired at least 30 missiles on the security installations which were reduced to rubble.

A Palestinian man cries over the body of his son following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. December 27, 2008After announcements that a decision whether to increase the military attack on the Gaza Strip would be made tomorrow, Sunday, Israeli forces instead launched a major operation today.The Israelis killed 150 Palestinians with more expected to die. The Israeli government says it is just the beginning. Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008 Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike In this image taken from APTN video, Palestinian men carry two injured children into hospital after Israeli aircraft struck. Palestinians lift a wounded woman to a vehicle after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008. Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008. Palestinians transport the body of a Palestinian after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008. A Palestinian is rushed to hospital after he was wounded in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City. A wounded Palestinian woman is rushed into hospital in Gaza City December 27, 2008. Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008 Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008. An explosion from an Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip Smoke and fire are seen after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip December 27, 2008 Palestinians inspects a destroyed Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in Rafah, a town in the southern Gaza Strip. The leg of a Hamas policeman is seen between the rubbles following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008 Smoke rises after an Israeli bomb exploded in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip December 27, 2008. A Palestinian rescue worker inspects damage on a Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27 Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in the southern town of Rafah. A Palestinian man cries over the body of his son following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. Palestinian medics recover the body of a dead woman from the rubble of a destroyed Hamas police compound following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008 A Hamas policeman asks for help as others try to recover a body from a destroyed Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008 A Palestinian Hamas policeman inspects the destroyed former office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008 Palestinians run for cover following an Israeli missile strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.(AP) A wounded Hamas policeman lies on the ground following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. The body of a Hamas police officer is transported to hospital in Gaza City December 27, 2008. Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008 A Palestinian woman wounded in Israeli missile strikes is helped into the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. (AP) Palestinians gather at the site of a security compound used by the Islamic group Hamas following an Israeli missile strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike

With a view to cushion the international outcry over Israeli terrorism in Palestine, Tel Aviv insists F-16 bombers struck since a truce with Hamas militants expired. Emboldened by support form US-led Western terror powers, Israel believes in direct killing of Palestinians. The Israeli terror attacks followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet to widen reprisals for “cross-border” Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. He had warned Hamas to stop firing rockets or pay a heavy price. Israel eased a blockade of the Strip bowing to international pressure to reopen border crossings. Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005 and Olmert has said he does not wish to re-occupy the coastal strip. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni discussed the crisis last week with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, which borders Gaza to the west and which brokered the truce in June. Mubarak urged restraint on both sides.
Emboldened by the continued support from global state terrorists like the USA, the Israeli military confirmed they had conducted strikes, saying they targeted “terrorist infrastructure”. An Israeli military spokeswoman said Hamas leaders could be attacked as part of the offensive. Major Avital Leibovitch, said: “Anything belonging to Hamas could be a target. You can interpret that as you like.” The attacks took place as youngsters left school for the day and television pictures from one compound showed uniformed bodies lying in a pile as those wounded writhed in pain. Rescuers carried bodies showing signs of life to cars and ambulances, while others tried to revive the unconscious. One of the police stations had been hosting a graduation ceremony at the time of the attacks. Gaza police Chief Tawfiq Jabber is among those killed in the raids which took just minutes and left columns of thick black smoke billowing across the area. There were more casualties in Khan Younis, a refugee camp in the south. At one
site, a huge crater was left in the ground. Nearby medics carried people into an ambulance. Later, a retaliatory strike by Palestinian militants from Gaza killed an Israeli woman. Another two people in the Israeli town of Netivot were
wounded, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

Usual Condemnations

Perhaps as a courtesy or a mere formality, the UK & US have urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties and said Hamas must stop rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to cease. However, the White House did not call for an end to the air strikes. That is US-Israel strategy in Palestine.

UK premier Gordon Brown has pleaded with Israel to show “restraint” after a
devastating wave of air-strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza. Hundreds
more have been injured as the territory suffered its bloodiest day for decades -
raising fears that tit-for-tat clashes are spiraling out of control. Downing Street said the Prime Minister had called his counterpart Ehud Olmert asking him to “show restraint” and seek a peaceful settlement with Hamas – which has been running Gaza since last year. But, in a statement, Brown pointedly did not call for Tel Aviv to stop the assault.

As the Quartet stated on December 15, peaceful means are the only way of reaching a lasting solution to the situation in Gaza. I call on Gazan militants to cease all rocket attacks on Israel immediately. “These attacks are designed to cause random destruction and to undermine the prospects of peace talks led by president Abbas. “I understand the Israeli government’s sense of obligation to its population.
Israel needs to meet its humanitarian obligations, act in a way to further the
long-term vision of a two-state solution, and do everything in its power to
avoid civilian casualties.” Former PM Tony Blair, who represents the Quartet powers in the region, said: “The terrible events and tragic loss of life in Gaza require, in the immediate term, the introduction of a genuine calm in which the rocket attacks aimed at killing Israeli civilians and the Israeli attacks on Gaza cease so that the suffering of the people, which is severe, can be lifted.”

Arab Anger & Economics

As it was only expected, the U.S. administration has said Palestinian militant group Hamas was responsible for the renewal of violence in Gaza. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said the ministers discussed the Israeli raids at a meeting ahead of the summit. “We hope there will be reasonable voices from the international community to pressure Israel to stop its brutal aggression,” said UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan. Gulf Arab rulers gathering on 29 Dec in Muscat are still expected to approve a long-planned pact to take them closer to issuing a single currency. “I don’t think the agenda will be derailed,” Abdulmalik al-Hinai, undersecretary at Oman’s Economy Ministry, told Reuters.

The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Washington’s regional allies, described the Israeli attacks as “barbaric,” and Saudi Arabia urged the United States to intervene to end the strikes. The GCC is a loose political and economic alliance of six oil-producing countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Israel’s air strikes on Gaza will not derail Gulf Arab leaders’ plans to sign monetary union pacts at a summit but the issue will share the spotlight at their discussions, Omani hosts said on 28 December. “The issue (Gaza) will impose itself on the agenda. The events of yesterday will have their deserved place in the discussions,” Information Minister Hamad al-Rashdi told Reuters.

Oman’s foreign affairs minister said the Gulf summit and an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on 31 Dec would discuss holding an emergency Arab summit on the Gaza raids. “We are supporting this (summit),” Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah said, adding Qatar may host the summit. But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the Saudi Press Agency the Gulf ministers made no decision about the proposed Arab summit, and that it would be up to Wednesday’s meeting to decide about it.

Gulf States have been discussing monetary union for decades but only set the 2010 deadline for a single currency in 2001. Gulf States have yet to reach a deal on how to distribute customs revenues, an issue that should be resolved by the end of next year following a consultancy study. Gulf States had yet to agree on where the joint central bank would be located, which could be decided soon, Hinai said. “At least three of them want it,” he said. “They will discuss the monetary union and issue the agreement of the monetary union and the basic law of the monetary council.” Mohamed al-Mazrooei, a top GCC economic official, said the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain have submitted proposals to host the bank, while Saudi Arabia has expressed its interest. Deciding on the location is one of the political obstacles that have derailed the single currency plan for years.

Global economic concerns are also expected to weigh on the meeting. Oil prices have collapsed to about a quarter of their peak in July, putting an end to the Gulf region’s economic boom. The credit crunch is derailing expansion projects and Gulf Arab bourses have tumbled sharply. Rulers would also discuss a proposal to extend by a year the time period to implement a regional customs union. Also on the agenda are talks over the progress of their common market, global free trade agreements, a proposed regional water grid, how to further economic cooperation with Yemen and a regional economic and social development plan.

Post-Script

Israeli terrorism in Palestine has to end and Palestine state has to come into being. But the PLO suspremo and Fatah leader Abbas does not seem to be in a hurry to take steps to bring Hamas and Fatah together and put in place a unity government possibly because he has no permission from US-Israel combine for that. There is hardly any doubt that the economic interests of Arab nations are harming the genuine interests of the Palestinians and Abbas is happy visiting Washington as often as possible meeting several world leaders, including Arabs. The net result is mass murders of the Palestinians by fascist Israelis. If the trend continues like this a Palestine state would remian a mirage.
DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India
South Asia.

Mystery of Mumbai militancy: The real scoop

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