SLAUGHTER IN GAZA
Israel has unleashed hell on Gaza. At time of writing 200 men, women, and children are known to have been slaughtered in airstrikes using US supplied fighter aircraft. Over 300 are known to be injured, many of whom will undoubtedly die as a direct consequence of Israel’s ongoing siege, responsible for creating a dire shortage of basic medicines and leaving medical facilities in Gaza degraded and overwhelmed.
In the immediate aftermath of its latest attack on Gaza, the Israeli military issued a statement warning that this is only the beginning, that operations against Gaza will deepen, in a haunting reminder of the threat made earlier in the year by Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai, who promised the Palestinians of Gaza a ‘shoah’ - or holocaust.
Surely now it is time to stop equivocating when it comes to this issue? Surely now the world must stand up and take action in response to what is the most sustained, barbaric, and brutal occupation in modern history, in a part of the world where crimes against humanity have been allowed to exist for too long under the guise of exceptionalism, victimhood, and democracy?
In response to Israel’s latest outrage, the usual round of supine statements calling for Hamas to stop rocket attacks against Israeli towns in resistance to the occupation of Palestinian land have been released from capitals throughout the West. And, yes, yet again the world is being regaled by claims from Israeli spokespeople and their supporters that an existential threat to Israel from Hamas and Palestinian terrorists lies at the root of the current crisis. It is a claim to the status of victim that has been repeated so often through the years of this perennial struggle it has assumed the status of received truth. It is a received truth which flies in the face of a history of ethnic cleansing and occupation.
As such, one of the most disgraceful aspects of this ongoing conflict is the way in which our mainstream media continues to present it as a struggle between two equal sides. In fact, on the contrary, wherever and whenever possible the media acquiesces in Israel’s role of victim, as a courageous little outpost of western civilisation in the midst of Arab hordes committed to its destruction.
Alarm bells should be set ringing when we hear such easy assertions being made by mainstream commentators and journalists. For we’ve been here before, haven’t we? In fact, the entire history of empire, colonialism, and imperialism is replete with oppressors attempting to portray themselves as victims and their victims as terrorists and savages that need to be either tamed, cleansed or subjugated; and, of course, always in the interests of security and stability.
Think British Empire, think Nazi occupation of Europe, think French and US occupation of Vietnam, think French occupation of Algeria, think British occupation of Ireland, think Israel’s occupation of Palestine - the same pattern emerges.
Among the aforementioned examples, the state of Israel has enjoyed something of an Indian summer in terms of its ability to continue to deny the Palestinians their national, civil, and human rights. This is largely due to the guilt which still pervades the upper reaches of European and US society over a European Holocaust in which the Palestinians played no part. This guilt has combined with strategic objectives – namely oil – to provide Israel with the economic aid which has enabled it to amass the fourth largest military in the world, a nuclear arsenal, and with it legitimacy for a state policy of ethnic cleansing.
That the Palestinians have managed to survive 60 years of occupation, expropriation, economic embargo, and state terror is testament to their courage and indomitability. But even a courageous people can only survive such brutality for so long without succumbing and being sent into the night, which is why now more than ever the campaign to boycott Israel must be stepped up in line with the call from Palestinian civil society.
A sobering thought to consider that 60 years ago 530 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated and destroyed, and that 750,000 men, women, and children were forcibly expelled by Zionist terrorist organisations like the Stern Gang and Irgun in the process of 78 percent of historic Palestine being expropriated. The extent of this crime against an entire people reflected the horror of the crime committed by the Nazis which preceded it. Those who sought sanctuary in another’s land did so in the name of the victims of that holocaust. But perpetrators of crimes against humanity can never claim to act on behalf of victims of crimes against humanity. It is indeed a cruel irony of history that the victims of the genocide carried out by the Nazis are wedded to the victims of Israel’s barbarism which followed through a bond of human suffering that transcends ties of religion, race, or ethnicity.
The continued siege of 1.5 million human being in Gaza is biblical both in its scale and cruelty. Aided and abetted in the carrying out of this crime against civilians by the Egyptian government and the EU, Israel’s excuse for continuing the siege is continuing rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli towns adjacent, in particular the Israeli town of Sderot.
But here again we see the work of a generation of scholars in service to Israel and its interests in the rewriting of history. In the case of Sderot, a determined attempt has been made to suppress the fact that this is a town established on land where the Palestinian village of Najd once stood.
Najd’s inhabitants were forcibly expelled from their village on 13 May 1948 by the Negev Brigade of the then nascent Israeli army, before Israel was declared a state and before any Arab armies entered Palestine. Therefore, in accordance with UN Resolution 194, and also with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, Section 2, the villagers of Najd have a right of return to their homes.
The village of Najd was destroyed and settled by Zionists in 1951. It has been known ever since as the Israeli town of Sderot.
The history of the origins of Sderot is one repeated hundreds of times all over what is now the state of Israel. Therefore, the question a world interested in justice should be asking the Israeli government is a simple one:
Do the Palestinians have the right to exist?
As we await the answer to this question from the Israeli government and its supporters, all people of conscience and consciousness must answer the plea for solidarity from the long suffering Palestinians of Gaza.
Their cause is the cause of humanity in our time.
End.
Terrible, but no surprise.
If it isn’t Israel directly murdering people somewhere in the middle-east, its their US surrogates doing it.
The only real question is will it be an open Israeli attack on Iran in the near future or will the US puppet state be doing it?
Comment by nino — 27 December, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
Emergency Protests
Sunday 28 December 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm and Monday 29 December 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Both protests opposite Israeli Embassy - Kensington High Street
Nearest tube: High Street Kensington
Protests organised by PSC, Palestine Return Centre (PRC), Palestinian Forum of Britain (PFB), British Muslim Initiative (BMI), Stop the War, Friends of al Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Respect, Islamic Human Rights Commission.
Monitor news channels and call BBC and ITV every day to ask for accurate figures of numbers killed and injured. We will not accept Israeli spokespersons – we want Palestinian commentators.
Comment by Derek Wall — 27 December, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
If I remember rightly the bulk of refugee’s from Palestine were created by the IDF not the Stern gang or the Irgun. Could be wrong but it seems important to get this right. I have in mind an IDF document quoted in Benny Morris in ‘Origins’ which presents estimates on the subject.
Comment by johng — 27 December, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
Terrible, but no surprise.
- I know what you mean nino,
but these crimes should always shock, I’m sure you’ll agree.
I am not surprised myself, but I am still shocked and appalled.
The minute you stop being appalled nino mate, you’re in trouble.
I’m away to fire off an email to my New Labour MP. It is the British Government’s support of the current racist Israeli regime which allows these racist crimes of collective punishment to happen.
These crimes are as much British as they are Israeli.
all the best!
Comment by joe90 kane — 27 December, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
JohnG
The IDF was formed out of Zionist armed militias, including the Haganah and Irgun, in 1948. The campaign of terror against Palestinian civilians was well underway by then.
Comment by John Wight — 27 December, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
yes i know. it wasn’t a critical or polemical comment. It was just in the current circumstances its worth reminding people that the IDF have a tradition of this kind of thing going back to the inception of the Israeli state. Surreally I’ve just heard an Israeli spokesperson speaking about Hamas spreading hatred in the Middle East. Of course the killing of 200 civilians followed up by weasel words about this being the responsibility of terrorists living in civilian population centres doesn’t spread hatred in the middle east. Of course not
The response of the British government is simply incredible.
Comment by johng — 27 December, 2008 @ 6:11 pm
Johng:
I’ve just lodged an official complaint with the BBC over the outrageous statements and questions of their anchor, Peter Sissons. You’d think he was an official spokesperson of the Israeli govt, so biased and misleading has his reporting been.
At one point a Palestinian commentator on the line from Gaza had to correct his assertion that the Israelis had targeted Hamas compounds. The poor man, exasperated when he heard this, pointed out that the Israelis had in fact targeted police stations, killing the very same people who’d effected the release of BBC journalist, Alan Johnston, from his captivity last year.
Then Sissions attempted to apportion blame to Iran for arming and funding Hamas in an interview with Israeli govt offical, Mark Regev. Regev’s face positively lit up at the opportunity to engage in anti-Iranian polemic courtesy of the BBC. Of course, Sissons failed to mention the billions in aid given to Israel by the US.
It really has been outrageously biased coverage.
Comment by John Wight — 27 December, 2008 @ 6:21 pm
Top man John Wright!
I saw the ITN bulletin - I don’t think I need to elaborate as it would be an insult to your intelligence.
Channel 4 did have on a Hamas spokesman and did actually refer to Hamas as being democratically elected.
No mention of Israel state racism or the illegal occupation though, on either channels.
Comment by joe90 kane — 27 December, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Hamas asked for it.Rockets every day into Israel.
They were warned. They made their bed now they have to lie in it.
Israel should seal the border, cut the electricity and other utilities and leave Hamas to rot.
Let see how long a totalitarian islamic regime can survive.
Let Egypt open their border.
Let the oil rich muslims give them aid.
They want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, sooner or later, Israel will fight back.
The mohammedan bully has to be stood up to.
Comment by zoltix — 27 December, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Zoltix seems to be going for the kill them all let god sort them out approach so beloved by the IDF.
Comment by Derek Wall — 27 December, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
zoltix
here’s the Saudi-sponsored Peace Plan from 2002 which guarantees Israel safe and secure borders and normalised relations with all its neighbours.
In other words, Israel rejects peace with all its neighbours in favour of state sponsored racist violence, occupation and ethnic cleansing -
Text: Arab peace plan of 2002
BBC
22 March 2005
Tony Greenstein is calling on folks to contact David Milliband -
Genocide in Gaza - Gaza is burning as the Warsaw Ghetto is replayed in miniature
Tony Greenstein’s Blog
27 Dec 2008
Comment by joe90 kane — 27 December, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
“Israel should seal the border, cut the electricity and other utilities and leave Hamas to rot.”
I’m guessing that you meant to say “the entire population”, but couldn’t quite work out how to. “Hamas” is a good cypher, I guess.
Comment by external bulletin — 27 December, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
Stop Israeli Massacres of Palestinians
Stop Israeli Genocide
Stop British Government Support for Israeli crimes
Demonstrate, Sunday 28th 4.30pm
- Glasgow: George Square
- Edinburgh: Foot of the Mound, Princes Street
Supported by MSPs Pauline McNeill & Sandra White, Scottish PSC, Scottish Friends of Palestine, Scotland Stop the War, Glasgow Central Mosque
Protest & Boycott!
Scottish PSC supports the call from Palestinian civil society for a world-wide campaign of boycott against apartheid Israel. The call is also supported by the highest-ranking United Nations official, President of the General Assembly, Fr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann.
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)*
Press Release
“Stop the Massacre in Gaza – Boycott Israel Now!”
Occupied Ramallah, Palestine - 27 December 2008: Today, the Israeli occupation army committed a new massacre in Gaza, causing the death and injury of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including a yet unknown number of school children who were headed home from school when the first Israeli military strikes started. This latest bloodbath, although far more ruthless than all its predecessors, is not Israel’s first. It culminates months of an Israeli siege of Gaza that should be widely condemned and prosecuted as an act of genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied coastal strip.
Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself – perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 1948, the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homes and land, partly through massacres like Deir Yassin; today, the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees, do not even have the choice to seek refuge elsewhere. Incarcerated behind ghetto walls and brought to the brink of starvation by the siege, they are easy targets for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing.
Prof. Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law expert at Princeton University, described Israel’s siege of Gaza last year, when it was still not comparable in its severity to the current situation, as follows:
“Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty. The suggestion that this pattern of conduct is a holocaust-in-the-making represents a rather desperate appeal to the governments of the world and to international public opinion to act urgently to prevent these current genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy.”
The most brutal episode of this “collective tragedy” is what we have seen today.
Israel’s war crimes and other grave violations of international law in Gaza as well as in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, could not have been perpetrated without the direct or indirect complicity of world governments, particularly the United States, the European Union, Egypt, and other Arab regimes.
While the US government has consistently sponsored, bankrolled and protected from international censure Israel’s apartheid and colonial policies against the indigenous people of Palestine, the EU was able in the past to advocate a semblance of respect for international law and universal human rights. That distinction effectively ended on December 9th, when the EU Council decided unanimously to reward Israel’s criminal disregard of international law by upgrading the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Israel clearly understood from this decision that the EU condones its actions against the Palestinians under its occupation. Palestinian civil society also got the message: the EU governments have become no less complicit in Israel’s war crimes than their US counterpart.
The large majority of world governments, particularly in the global south, share part of the blame, as well. By continuing business as usual with Israel, in trade agreements, arms deals, academic and cultural ties, diplomatic openings, they have provided the necessary background for the complicity of world powers and, consequentially, for Israel’s impunity. Furthermore, their inaction within the United Nations is inexcusable.
Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, President of the UN General Assembly prescribed in a recent address before the Assembly the only moral way forward for the world’s nations in dealing with Israel:
“More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations.”
Now, more than ever, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, calls upon international civil society not just to protest and condemn in diverse forms Israel’s massacre in Gaza, but also to join and intensify the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violation of international law and Palestinian rights. Without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem.
* The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) includes: Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine; General Union of Palestinian Workers; Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations’ Network (PNGO); Federation of Independent Trade Unions; Union of Palestinian Charitable Organizations; Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition; Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI); General Union of Palestinian Women; Palestinian Farmers Union (PFU); Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (STW); Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI); National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba; Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ); Coalition for Jerusalem; and Palestinian Economic Monitor.
Comment by smacleod — 27 December, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
//They want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, sooner or later, Israel will fight back.//
Reason and knowledge say that not one of Israel’s neighbours have such a capacity. Conversely, Israel does have the capacity to wipe any one of its neighbours off the face of the earth. And unless they are harnessed, then that occurance might well yet be incurred - which would be a disaster for all humanity.
Comment by Alf G — 27 December, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Israel does have the capacity to wipe any one of its neighbours
Yes but Alh G,
Israel’s neighbours are also its allies as they are all mostly US-gangster puppet-regimes.
They are as enthusiastic as Israel about getting rid of Palestinians whose plight causes no end of problems for them and little tin-pot regimes.
Comment by joe90 kane — 27 December, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
I am have just come from a Palestinian event in Birmingham, attended by 3-400 people, and one of the organisers announced the following:
Protest at the slaughter in Gaza. Monday 29th December, 5pm, outside Waterstones, Bullring. Organiser: Stitan Abbas 07783 777 912. Supported by Birmingham RESPECT.
Comment by Ger Francis — 27 December, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
For the North Americans reading this, a series of demonstrations announced for Tuesday (with one or two, including NYC, before then). See the schedule here.
Comment by Eli Stephens — 28 December, 2008 @ 12:54 am
Another thread that explains why the left are so out of touch with the white working class.
Let’s totally forget to mention the reasons Israel dropped the bombs or better still, how “socialist” the “victims” are in their outlook, particualrly towards gays and women.
I’d rather protest over X Factor.
Comment by Red Bob — 28 December, 2008 @ 1:29 am
The ‘Red’ in you Bob is the blood of murdered Palestinians (and no doubt of dead Iraqis and Afghans too)
Comment by anticapitalista — 28 December, 2008 @ 1:57 am
Thanks for the link, Eli.
Comment by christian h. — 28 December, 2008 @ 2:10 am
//Let’s totally forget to mention the reasons Israel dropped the bombs…//
Apart from to murder - it’s probably got a lot to do with the” I’m more callous than you” posturing for the forthcoming elections next February.
Comment by Alf G — 28 December, 2008 @ 7:32 am
Red Bob, here’s a good way to defend gays and women: bomb them! The best defenders of tolerance are genocidal settlers, naturally.
If the ‘white working class’ really wanted to defend human rights, it would start by standing in solidarity with the oppressed worldwide when they’re attacked. They’d discover that there are plenty of secular and progressive, Muslim Palestinians whose cause isn’t helped by mass murder.
I know I shouldn’t respond to wind-up artists, but with 230 dead & counting it’s a particularly callous time to trot out the old liberal-imperialist excuses for racist slaughter.
Comment by Victor — 28 December, 2008 @ 7:50 am
I see Nino (post 1) reckons that the USA is a puppet state of Israel. What a nut Nino is.
Comment by BarryB — 28 December, 2008 @ 9:47 am
It is a crime, an unspeakable crime.
No double standards. They, the Israelis, have murdered and that’s it.
I hope that you lot are going to protest against the unspeakable crimes of the Sudanese Islamicist militias in Darfur who today killed around the same number.
Or maybe not, coz they is black.
Comment by Andrew Coates — 28 December, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Well the difference is Andrew, that since the democratic election of Hamas the “European community”, our own government, and of course the US have supported both the systematic undermining of this election result and the blockade of an entire civilian population designed to effect this, with the “peace process” being war by other means to achieve this. This has culminated in the present slaughter. In other words, whatever weaselly protestations which now abound, what is happening to Palestinians is the direct result of sins of commission rather then ommission by the international community including our own government. The case of Sudan is somewhat different I’m sure you would agree. Why you refer to the race of Sudanese people is unclear to me.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 10:48 am
I don’t have the blood of murdered Palestinians on my hands anticapitalista #19.
But thanks for ignoring the facts. You drop bombs-you get them back. Simple as that.
While you’re at it, perhaps you could ask why the Palestinian authorities are refusing to allow medical supplies in trough Rafa. Is it because a little bit of suffering of their people for the benefit of television propoganda is more important than the welfqre of their people?
Comment by Red Bob — 28 December, 2008 @ 10:59 am
I don’t have the blood of murdered Palestinians on my hands anticapitalista #19.
But thanks for ignoring the facts. You drop bombs-you get them back. Simple as that.
While you’re at it, perhaps you could ask why the Palestinian authorities are refusing to allow medical supplies in trough Rafa. Is it because a little bit of suffering of their people for the benefit of television propoganda is more important than the welfare of their people?
Comment by Red Bob — 28 December, 2008 @ 10:59 am
So presumably Red Bob you supported Hezbollah during the conflict in Lebanon?
What is remarkable about the narrative we are once again hearing from Israeli officials is the way in which an attempt is made to argue that the missile attacks from Northern Gaza followed the ending of the occupation and Israeli disengagement. In actual fact following the democratic election of Hamas both Israel and the Whitehouse faced a choice. Either they could engage with the new regime or they could declare war on it to alter the result. They chose war. Which is why the kind of guff coming from both red bob, and very regrettably, Andrew Coates, is so ridiculous.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 11:10 am
How could Israel engage with an organisation that does not recognise it, or drops bombs on Israeli civillians?
Still, they’re only Jews I suppose so that means they’re not worth worrying about.
Comment by Red Bob — 28 December, 2008 @ 11:14 am
Well by attending negotiations. Thats how its done everywhere else.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 11:27 am
Johng, is the the stand of the PLO who were democratically elected (as in President) to be forgotten? Or haven’t you forgotten that Hamas is a gang of fascists who murder our comrades on the streets of Gaza?
Comment by Andrew Coates — 28 December, 2008 @ 12:18 pm
Some good points Red Bob. Hamas are not short of Palestinian blood on there hands. Or does being thrown off the tops of buildings and the murder of sinning girls and gays not count.
Well, the days of Jews queuing up to be killed are over. You dish it out and you get it back.
Comment by Fred — 28 December, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Andrew, there was an election. It was a democratic election. Apparently you support both the state of Israel, the US and the European community in having created civil war inside an occupied, blockaded and oppressed population in order to overturn their democratic aspirations. Shame on you. And keep your crocodile tears to yourself. Its an insult.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
28.Redbob.
Here we go.
Everyone who opposes Israel is anti-semetic.
F*ck me, how progressive.
Comment by Ian — 28 December, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
which side are you on boys?
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)- “Stop the Massacre in Gaza – Boycott Israel Now!”: http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=100001
Palestinian leadership in Israel calls for boycott to stop Israel’s “acts of genocide”: http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2785:palestinian-leadership-in-israel-calls-for-boycott-to-stop-israels-qacts-of-genocideq&catid=290:articles&Itemid=200113
Comment by smacleod — 28 December, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
The statement issued is by the unified leadership of all Palestinian political parties and civil society inside Israel - It is an important precedent.
Comment by smacleod — 28 December, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
Exactly.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Fred #31: You dish it out and you get it back.
Who, exactly, is “dishing it out”? Civilians? Any civilian as long as it’s Palestinian?
Hmm, if I was a Palestinian schoolgirl, would I rather be killed by religious fanatics or mashed by an Israeli missile? Thanks for the choice.
Collective punishment. Now where have we seen that before?
Comment by Madam Miaow — 28 December, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
Madam Miaow,
your right, not a great choice. The difference is Israel isn’t going out to kill school girls, Hamas is.Hamas choose to target civilians in Israel and hide behind civilians in Gaza.
Also hearing apologists for an ideology that gave us show trials, the Hitler Stalin pact, pol pot etc etc crying croodile tears …chutz pah!
Comment by Fred — 28 December, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
Yes its all a tragic neccessity. No human responsibility involved at all. “There is no Moral equivilance”. What a cheap little phrase that is.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
#22
“I see Nino (post 1) reckons that the USA is a puppet state of Israel. What a nut Nino is.”
I think it must be you who is detached from reality my friend.
The Bush government was absolutely saturated with Zionists working exclusively for Israeli interests; they occupied the most senior posts and filtered on down from there.
Here are just four of the men who were executively responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq, and are shouting for an attack on Iran, with a brief of their highest position and background.
Richard Perle (Foreign policy advisors and the chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. Perle was expelled from Senator Henry Jackson’s office in the 1970’s after the National Security Agency (NSA) caught him passing Highly-Classified (National Security) documents to the Israeli Embassy. He later worked for the Israeli weapons firm, Soltam. Perle came from pro-Israel thinktanks, the AEI)
Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Defense Secretary. Wolfowitz came from Jewish organiztion JINSA - Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs)
John Bolton (Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Bolton is also a Senior Advisor to President Bush. Prior to this position, Bolton was Senior Vice President of pro-Israel thinktank, AEI.)
Douglas Feith (Under Secretary of Defense and Policy Advisor at the Pentagon. Feith also came from the Jewish thinktank JINSA. Feith frequently speaks at ZOA conferences ( Zionist Organization of America ) Feith runs a small law firm, Feith and Zell, which only has one International office, in Israel. The majority of their legal work is representing Israeli interests. His firm’s own website stated, prior to his appointment, that Feith “represents Israeli Armaments Manufacturer.”)
I could name dozens more like this and believe me, Obama is no different - he has chosen to surround himself with “Neocons” (for “neocons” read Zionists) with the headline act going to Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff - with dozens more old and emerging “neocons” being placed into the machinery of government.
It is no secret really and as obvious as day that the “neocon” take-over is openly discussed in the US, albeit with obfuscating terms like “neocon” rather then what it really is.
Comment by nino — 28 December, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
You think George Bush is not a Zionist?
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
How long would your government wait once a neighboring country start to send missiles against it? One day, one week, one month? Israel waited for 4 years and thousands of missiles. How many innocent women and children were killed in Afghanistan after “freedom fighters” crashed into the Twin Towers?
Israel pulled out all their settlements in the Gaza strip to enable the inhabitants to build autonomy. Money was poured into Gaza. Instead of industry - tunnels. Weapons instead of Hospitals, terrorists training instead of universities. Rockets are fired on Israeli towns any hour of day or night.
Comment by ZorbaDGeek — 28 December, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
Afterwards Mr Galloway said: “The support at today’s demonstration has been overwhelming. There are even Jews who have joined us here.” (According to the BBC Website)
Even Jews, eh? Crazy.
Comment by Jonah — 28 December, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
Around 3-400 Palestinians and their supporters demonstrated today outside the BBC offices in Manchester.
Pictures can be found at http://www.gmrespect.org.uk/articles2008/GAZA-281208.htm
Comment by Clive Searle — 28 December, 2008 @ 4:48 pm
They’re union-busting fascist theocrats who want to forbid women from getting any education, but let those evil, evil, evil Zionists strike, and some will blurble all the praise their mealy mouths will hold. What next, “we are all Hamas”?
Comment by goodwin sands — 28 December, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Goodwin Sands, you’re a turd
Comment by JFk — 28 December, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
“How long would your government wait once a neighboring country start to send missiles against it? One day, one week, one month?”
Nicely missing here is the fact that the Israeli government (and the ‘European community’ and Britain and the US) decided to thwart the democratic decision of the Palestinian people by blockading, besieging, and creating civil war on the territories, and refused to enter into any meaningful negotiations, using spurious comparisons with Al Qaida to justify this. In other words the home made rockets landing in Israel are the product of a decision to wage war on the democratic rights of the Palestinian people. Hamas are not involved in the rocket attacks incidently. The Israeli bombings in any case are not aimed at stopping them. They’re aimed at winning an election in Febuary.
Comment by johng — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
Today’s demonstration in London was very militant, large and effective, blocking Kensington High Street for over 4 hours. The Israeli embassy was blockaded.
A police inspector acknowledged that there were over 3,000 people there. A lot of anger was directed at the British government, the media and the Arab regimes, which is encouraging.
Comment by Kevin Ovenden — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:28 pm
In other words the home made rockets landing in Israel are the product of a decision to wage war on the democratic rights of the Palestinian people. Hamas are not involved in the rocket attacks incidently.
Could you expand on this, please? Thanks.
Comment by Madam Miaow — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
Afterwards Mr Galloway said: “The support at today’s demonstration has been overwhelming. There are even Jews who have joined us here.
Idiot Comment.
Comment by Jack Warren — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
Fred 38.
‘The difference is Israel isn’t going out to kill school girls, Hamas is.Hamas choose to target civilians in Israel and hide behind civilians in Gaza.’
The difference is at this very moment the Israelis want to kill everyone not just School girls.
According to the BBC , preceeding their attack the Israelis had been hit by about 40/50 rocket attacks with no casualties. Shit Hamas rocket shoters if the truth be told. In response the might of the Israeli war machine attack with all guns blazing killing over 250+.
Im no lover of Hamas or terrorism but supporting the Israeli reprisals isnt ‘progressive’ or ‘humanitarian’ or anything else you want to call it. Its f*cking over the top and will aggrevate every single neighbouring nation in the middle east. Brilliant foreign policy eh?
Meanwhile I thought Blair was meant to be bringing ‘peace’ the the middle east now he has retired?
Where is he in this hour of need?
Comment by Ian — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
Just as well he didn’t say any such thing.
Anyway, let’s not be diverted.
Comment by Kevin Ovenden — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Just watched Channel 4 news where interviewer questioned Israeli minister asking her how was it possible to compare 8 Israeli civilian deaths in 10 years by missile attack with 230 Palestinian deaths in 24 hours? The minister spluttered and then tried to justify it claiming that Hamas are illegal terrorists even though they have been elected democratically. It just shows how disingenuous the Israelis and their apologists really are.
The great thing is that the protests show that people are willing to get involved in standing up to oppression. I think this may translate to other political issues in the future.
Comment by Ray — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:53 pm
38 Fred continued
‘Also hearing apologists for an ideology that gave us show trials, the Hitler Stalin pact, pol pot etc etc crying croodile tears …chutz pah!’
And you an apologist to an ideology that is giving us the credit crunch, unregulated markets, unemployment, world wars, south american dictators and extreme third world poverty?
Move over Joe, ‘Liberal’ Capitalism is joining you.
Comment by Ian — 28 December, 2008 @ 6:58 pm
Before anyone gets carried away with the attempt to divert discussion by reference to the BBC’s misquoting George Galloway, here’s the true picture:
George said, “There are even Jewish rabbis with us today”, in reponse to claims it was a narrow demonstration. The BBC, which didn’t itself interview George, is correcting its story.
The worst that could be said about George’s actual quote is that it’s a tad periphra tic, not a political sin in my experience.
In fact, it makes a very useful point.
Comment by Kevin Ovenden — 28 December, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=5900385001
The Channel4 news take on things.
Comment by Ian — 28 December, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
56 - Neturei Karta I presume?
Comment by Jack Warren — 28 December, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
Goodwin Sands
“They’re union-busting fascist theocrats who want to forbid women from getting any education, but let those evil, evil, evil Zionists strike, and some will blurble all the praise their mealy mouths will hold. What next, “we are all Hamas”?”
‘Goodwin Sands’ shows his true colours as an apologist for Israeli’s genocidal slaughter. Remember this when he next comes on here to denounce bona-fide leftists for ‘anti-semitism’. Remember this, those who welcomed him here in the past and made unprincipled alliances with this pig against genuine socialists and anti-imperialists.
Harry’s Place is now supporting Israel’s Gaza slaughter, as the prepondrance of postings and comments shows.
Comment by ID — 29 December, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
YOU ASSHOLE!! It is you ‘liberals’ that the Muslims hate more than anyone! But you are useful idiots to them - for the meantime!!
Comment by Haya — 29 December, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
YES..YOU ASSHOLE!! It is you ‘liberals’ that the Muslims hate more than anyone! But you are useful idiots to them - for the meantime!!
Comment by jona — 30 December, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
Jona,
Have you considered the fact, that we neither care, or are concerned about what you think.
You quite clearly have ‘anger management issues’
Comment by Richard Searle — 31 December, 2008 @ 12:07 am
“But you are useful idiots to them”
Where as you’re just an idiot without any use.
Comment by Ray — 31 December, 2008 @ 12:39 am