About 4 years ago, right after an
American election and before an Israeli election, six prominent Gazans were
assassinated by Israel. This came in the midst of a long-time relative lull in
rocket attacks. It was clear at the time that the killings and subsequent
bombardment of the Gaza strip had been planned for months.
This time, after several
Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, had been killed in the previous week
or so, Ahmed Al-Jabari, head of Hamas’ military wing, was assassinated in a
trap set by Israel the day after he thought he had negotiated a cease fire with
them.
Israeli leaders need to show how
tough they are to be able to appeal to their constituents, who mostly seek
revenge and retribution against the Palestinians will never give up their quest
for freedom from occupation no matter how many die or how many suffer the
repression that comes in response to their valiant, but feeble attempts to
fight back and gain their freedom and dignity. Israel has no interest in negotiating
a real peace, one that would be fair to the Palestinians, because that would
mean giving up land they have stolen, so they need to kill and maim and destroy
on a regular basis to try to suppress the restless natives and hold onto their
dream of Greater Israel.
The majority of Israeli Jews are
completely out of touch. When the UN General Assembly votes 189 against Israel,
3 for, they don’t connect their actions, their murderous ways to the reason for
their near universal censure. The BBC radio program World Have Your Say interviewed
an Israeli living near Gaza. He was complaining about having to spend so much
of his time in his bomb shelter. He then made one of the most preposterous,
off-the-wall statements I’ve ever heard, anytime, anywhere. He said that the
Gazans don’t build bomb shelters because they know the IDF doesn’t target
civilians. This at a time when 90 Gazans had died and 700 were injured.
Is he unaware that his country
has maintained a blockade of Gaza for 5 years in which building materials are
banned from import? There is one way around the blockade, through the tunnels
between Egypt and Gaza, but everything costs twice as much when it comes in
that way. Is he aware that Gazans are very poor. That they don’t have the money
to build shelters. Does he know that 80% of Gazans are dependent on food aid. Is
he aware that 50% of children there are malnourished because Israel limits the
amount of food that’s allowed in.
The blockade has shut down 95% of
Gaza’s industry because no raw materials are allowed in and no finished
products allowed out. A substantial part of Gaza’s farmland is off limits
because it’s either near the border – any Palestinian within 300 meters, and
sometimes a lot more, of the border is liable to be shot – or was destroyed in
the last Israeli rampage. They aren’t allowed to fish more than 3 miles from
shore. They have few options and almost no hope so they don’t care how hard
they are hit, or how many of them die as long as they can pick off a few
Israelis with their rockets and occasional sneak attacks.
The next night an Israeli said
that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. The words, moral army, in
themselves are an oxymoron. Soldiers are trained to kill, and if they feel
threatened, to shoot first and ask questions later. As for the IDF, it’s noted around
the world for being ruthless, callous and brutal. Israeli Jews live on another
planet where they are always right and everybody else is wrong.
Subsequently, an Israeli on the
program said he wanted the army to go in and finally wipe out the terrorists,
like the army hasn’t been trying to do that for the last 30 years. He sounded
young, probably was not even born when the first Intifada began. They never
learn, they’re always the victim, they never connect their brutal occupation
with the attacks against them. No matter how many times their violent, bloodthirsty
ways fail to bring safety and security, they only know how to double down on
the killing.
The night before the cease fire,
an Israeli insisted that his country had totally left Gaza, as if leaving a
place still allowed you to enforce a near total and crippling blockade. In
fact, the IDF goes into Gaza anytime they want, to arrest anybody they want, to
kill anybody they want. Israelis have no clue, they only know talking points,
they’re divorced from reality, they’ve lost their capacity for fairness or
compassion or even logic. If the roles were reversed, and the Arabs were the
occupiers, the Jews would fight to the death to free themselves, and use all
means at their disposal to do it, just as they did in their fight to create the
state of Israel in 1947 when they committed devastating terrorist acts, like
the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem when more that 200 innocent
people died.
It’s clear what Israelis want. A
recent survey showed nearly 60% think they live in an apartheid state and want
to keep it that way, with their Arab citizens, who make up 20% of Israel
proper, permanently relegated to second class status. A poster of four maps showing
the loss of Arab land since the beginning of Israel has circulated on the
internet and elsewhere. The 2012 map shows the West Bank as hundreds of tiny
dots or small enclaves – urban ghettos and rural shtetls – surrounded by land
controlled by Israel. Palestinians now control about 10% of the West Bank.
When the poster was placed on the
London Underground it was called a provocation by some Jewish groups. Yes, the
truth hurts, and it is very provocative to show how Israel is seeking to
squeeze the Palestinians into ever smaller ghettos, something no other country
in the world would be allowed to do. As long as the US vetoes every attempt at
the UN to stop Israel from its illegal and immoral actions and also provides
billions of dollars in military aid - in spite of Israel being a wealthy
country - the farce will continue, nothing will change to balance the Arab-Jewish
equation or provide the Palestinians the freedom every person in the world
deserves.
The Gazans consider their efforts
to have been victorious, since in spite of being outgunned 1000 to 1 they
managed to kill six Israelis and wound many more. It doesn’t matter to them
that 162 Gazans were killed and more than a thousand injured, they’ll never
cease their fight for freedom. On the other side, Israeli Jews have to know
they will never be safe and secure until justice is done, no matter how much
destruction they wreak or how many casualties they cause. They could indulge in
mass murder or deportation to try to stop the resistance, as some Israeli
politicians have suggested, but even the US might balk at that.
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