Gaza: The Breakthrough That Did Not Happen
For an entire day, the Israel Defense Forces raised the level of hysteria in Israel by announcing they were preparing for the possibility that thousands of Gazans would try to break through the checkpoints. It is easy now for the army to say that the breakthrough did not occur only because of the warnings that Hamas would be held responsible for the blood that would be shed. But anyone who is attentive to the Palestinians as an occupied people rather than as “an intelligence objective” (which openly provided the information that women and children would demonstrate against the siege on Monday), was aware they did not have a plan to topple the barriers at the Erez and Karni crossing points.
The well-publicized army preparations had a racist subtext: Look how Hamas is prepared to send children and women to absorb the bullets. In other words, Hamas is indifferent to people’s lives and can also set them in motion like pawns. But even the youngsters who two days ago threw stones at the Erez checkpoint walls, thus putting themselves in danger of being shot at and hit by the IDF, and who were arrested, did not do so because someone had “sent” them. In contrast to Israel, the Palestinians do not have compulsory military service. Everyone who puts himself in danger of dying in what appears to him and his society as the national struggle against the occupation, does so not because “the state” obliges him to do so and sends him but rather because that is what he chooses to do.
A young man from Beit Hanoun told me on the eve of the “breakthrough” that wasn’t: “We know the army will shoot to kill, and that is why no one will take the risk.” Only on Saturday, his relative, Mohammed Za’anin, aged 22, and two of his friends had been killed by an IDF missile. The IDF, of course, claimed they had been armed. An independent examination revealed that the three friends from their high school days - one a student, another a policeman and the third a bank employee - had gone out to smoke a narghile together and to prepare a late lunch for themselves and some friends in a hut in the shade of a field, about 1.2 km from the border.
It is not only the events of Monday that prove the hysteria was premature. Day after day, the checkpoints in the heart of the occupied West Bank prove that the Palestinians are forgoing, meanwhile, the option of a popular unarmed struggle against the siege. They wait in their masses for their turn to cross over, obediently - but with controlled and growing anger. They do not remove the hundreds of roadblocks that the IDF has set up between the villages and at the exits to the roads. That is because they are not suicidal. The Palestinians do not need warnings or reports to know the Israeli soldiers shoot the unarmed as well, and they also kill women and children.
The correct question is not whether and how the Palestinians are prepared to be killed but rather to what extent we Israelis are prepared to kill. The question is, if and when the Palestinians decide to claim their right to freedom of movement and to break through checkpoints en masse, will the order be to shoot at them with guns? First at their legs and then at their heads? Women, elderly people and babies? Or perhaps with cannons? And how many soldiers will not obey the order? Two, three or hundreds? Is there a quorum for the number of people who can be killed in one go, at the road blocks, that will extricate Israeli society from its indifference and its denial? Five or six? Hundreds of dead?
– Amira Hass
© Copyright 2008 Haaretz
It’s all part of the grand peace strategy for the Mideast - the “roadmap” - that Bush and the neocons have beem implementing all along. Don’t talk to the “bad guys,” destroy the bad governments, punish a whole people for election results you don’t like… I guess you could call it “speak badly and smash stuff with a big stick.”
I guess they figure that at some point all the pieces are bound to fall into place because God is on their side.
I guess that really I have trouble understanding the exact strategy. At least it’s a comfort to know that we have fine minds in high places to grapple with these complex problems.
Paul - originalfaith.com
“I have some of the strongest support from the Jewish community in my hometown of Chicago and in this presidential campaign. And the reason is because I have been a stalwart friend of Israel’s. I think they are one of our most important allies in the region, and I think that their security is sacrosanct and that the United States is in a special relationship with them, as is true with my relationship with the Jewish community.”
- Obama, in yestedays Ohio debate
“The correct question is not whether and how the Palestinians are prepared to be killed but rather to what extent we Israelis are prepared to kill.”
Another story in today’s CDreams talks about killer robots. Israel is already perfecting this technology as many of the missiles fired daily into Gaza come from unmanned drones.
So there is another stage of removal so the killers don’t see the blood or shoot the gun.
For those who are not familiar with her already, the author of this article (Amira Hass) lived in Gaza for many years and wrote a very prescient blockbuster book about it.
In a way it is remarkable how stupid people can be. Did the Israelis really believe the Gazans were going to flood into Sderot and buy up the foods there like they did in Egypt?
Regarding Obama hopefully he is not just listening to the pro Israeli apartheid Jews …. hopefully he is listening to progressive Jews like Jewish Voice for Peace and Israelis like Amira Hass.
Fanatics do not care how many people they kill or whether they are men, women or children. That is why the Israelis are so feared by the Palestinians.
Fanatics have no conception of justice either. All they can see are their own narrow, selfish objectives, ie the creation of Greater Israel.
Fanatics cannot reason. Their minds are deranged by religious fantasies, ones like believing they are The Children Of God.
Fanatics with nuclear weapons endanger the whole world. That’s why Israel must be forced to give up its atomic arsenal.
Israel is a dangerous creation!
www.dangerouscreation.com
Here’s what Obama said to the jewish leaders on Sunday in Cleveland:
“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel. If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress.”
I agree, israel is a dangerous creation. The world was warned by Lawrence of Arabia in 1919 and warning signs are still present.
“Circumcise your hearts,” The Old Testament admonishes. Do not make treaties, or agreements, or marriages, with outsiders whose lands are before us. Follow God, or He’ll get you for learning to love your neighbor.
Mr. Grayling: I went to your web-site. After reading your article on Olmert, I was not overly impressed. Your version of Jewish history is, to say the least, simplistic. And that’s saying the least. Let’s take a closer look:
“Now I don’t want to go into the pros and cons of the past because Olmert is in Japan as we speak but suffice to say that the Jews, like many groups during the last several thousand years, fell upon hard times. They did, however manage to spread all over the world and seemed to be very good at making money. But, unfortunately, for reasons unknown to me, they weren’t that popular. In WW2 Jews and several other groups incurred the wrath of Hitler, one of the world’s madmen. Millions of men, women and children were killed in gas chambers. It was a dark period in the world’s history.”
The jews weren’t that popular “for reasons unknown” to you?
You don’t seem to know why they happened to have spread all over the world but you know that they were pretty good at making money?
Are you kidding me?
And the reason we die in Iraq:
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/157739
dude3; Hitler grew up in post WW1 Germany, an economy not unlike the US after the Civil War; ravaged and broken and broke (no money).
Jews from around the world, with money, descended on Germany, Carpetbaggers, and bought German property for pennies on the dollar, and turned former owners into renters. This engendered hatred as these new Jewish ‘landlords’ from abroad turned the screws to a starving people.
Just like Gentile Carpetbaggers did to the American south after our Civil War. Only difference is the American experience is mentioned in History books. Where some things are not said.
ToTruth.
Why does the gorilla beat it’s chest?
The gorilla beats it’s chest because it is afraid. It’s mind is unable to deal with the frustration of the situation. The gorilla, unable to reason, beats his chest to show his aggressiveness. It’s only attribute being brute strength, it must rely solely on this to overcome obstacles.
America and Israel are terrified nations. They have gained enormous amounts of brute strength at the expense of intelligence and rationale. Every situation that arises now - Gaza, Iran, Syria, Somalia, North korea, etc. - is met with a reliance on brute strength to overcome. The gorilla beats it’s chest. It is truly unfortunate that our great nation is nothing but a stupid, angry ape pounding his chest in the eyes of the rest of the world.
If I were Obama I would be doing and saying exactly the same thing to get elected. They are testing him. There is no way to get elected with their disapproval. Believe me, he is our best hope. Hillary is too personally entwined.
Amazing what anti-Semitism can fester among otherwise “progressive” people: mikepeters,David Grayling - I challenge them to have discussions with progressive Israelis or read Haaretz regularly to understand the complexities. I doubt they would.
Yes, lots of work ahead for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Look for peaceful means to achieve durable peace, it is not an easy road but Gandhi took it. There are already non-violent fighters on both sides…
if you ever get a chance to check out the “combatants for peace” then do so. they are amazing, former israeli and palestinian combatants who have come together in the common struggle against the israeli occupation (which they see as the real enemy), the enemy of peace. they offer the most hope i have seen in a while. they have changed the terms of the struggle in a way that is impressive and in no way easy. incredible paradigm shift. powerful people.