Israel once again pushes against peace

Not long ago, some commenter clucked and wrung his or her hands at the use of terms like "The Reich of Zion" to describe the State of Israel. Such needlessly unfounded, inflammatory, and pejorative terms are part of the problem, not part of the solution! Or so my critic asserted, in so many words.

However, the Thousand-Year Reich that fathered the State of Israel before its well-deserved annihilation earned the infamous reputation of illegally, aggressively, relentlessly, and ruthlessly invading its neighbors with a litany of self-righteous, self-confirming, and self-sealing rationalizations.

The Reich was no aggressor! On the contrary, it was merely responding to the just wishes of its people to acquire the lebensraum granted by Divine Providence, which had been reprehensibly encroached upon and stolen due to the unscrupulous machinations of its neighbor nations in collusion with the Great Powers! Besides, the peoples of the neighboring nations actually begged the Reich to liberate it from corrupt and oppressive government! And those hostile governments are the true belligerents-- the Reich is only exercising its unequivocal right of self-defense! In fact, the Reich is a peace-loving state which perenially deplores and regrets the necessity of being forced to response to endless unwarranted provocations and wanton, sadistic violent attacks!

The Reich and its (legitimate) citizens occupy a special place in the Heart of the Creator of the Universe, after all!

If it quacks like a duck...

there are Jewish people that disagree with Zionist Israel.

to learn more, read:
Gush Shalom
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html

and, of course, Tikkun

http://www.tikkun.org/

just because the Amerikkan government and it's propaganda arm-corporate media-defends the slaughter of Palestinians, doesn't mean that good Jewish people do!!! The revolution will not be televised!

Here in the usa there are many jews and for some reason when you have a random discussion about Israel they think you hate jews when you say you detest israel WHY??? Why wouldn't anyone hate what they are doing to destroy Palestinians and they always side with the Israel's right to kill Palestinians based on the fact they will never experience this tragic catastrophe in their cozy fancy lives as most jews have here in the usa and did anyone see the ongoing commercial of rabbi ekerstein of Chicago asking everyone to send the poor jews thousands of dollars so they can build their lives in israel??? this guy is a criminal!

It is amazing!!! How is it that American Jews cannot see how genocidal Israeli Jews are behaving toward the Palestinians in Gaza (and/or the surrounding areas)? I no longer have the tolerance to spend one minute of brain-power feeling remorse over what happened to the Jews under Hitler. To be so callous to see what you want to see and ignore the brutality being waged against Palestinians today is unreal !!!

To be able to seek sympathy for past aggressions when the current situation in Israel/Palestine is barbaric…with MODERN AND PLENTIFUL WEAPONS and ENDLESS STREAMS OF MONEY FROM ME AND OTHER AMERICAN TAXPAYERS is disgraceful!!!

I am not an anti-Semite. I have Jewish blood running thru my veins and my biggest shero is Emma Goldman. But I will not keep my mouth shut when it comes to speaking for oppressed peoples everywhere. We are all one!!!!

When Israel really and truly wants an end to violence, it will withdraw its army, ALL the settlements, and its Wall to within the 1967 borders, and leave East Jerusalem to the Palestinians for their capital.

The illegal settlements, illegally expanding incooupied territory are the cause of the violence!

And since when did building a settlement on land that doesn't belong to you make it yours?

If Israel were to build a settlement block in Nebraska, would that settlement block still be on American soil or would that plot of land become Israeli territory? Would Americans tolerte that?

It's bad enough that the US enables Israel's despicable policies, but I am sad to say that it will not get any better even with Obama or Hillary (or even McClown). America and her scurrilous politicians needs to come off it's "Israel can do no wrong" foolishness! Israel, your shit stinks!

Ragdoll You reminded me when you mentioned: "And since when did building a settlement on land that doesn't belong to you make it yours?"

There is a long twisted legal basis for "possession being 99% of the law", which is where uncontested squatters rights, can actually replace legal ownership of land.

There's going to be a big debate how much the land was "uncontested", of course.

The Zionists are much like the power elite here in the USA, as they appear to plan on moving elsewhere once they've burned out the hulk of their current nest.

They do NOT deserve "the promised land", and from what I've read, it is actually against rabbinical law to go there prior to the 2nd coming of you know who. I guess they're just a new bunch of Oki-like "sooners" that have to be locked up, and disenfranchised from their illegal acquisitions. Peacefully of course.

Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK

simo--- You are absolutely correct. In fact, in Israel there is a strong left/peace movement. Unfortunately, w/in the Jewish communities nationally, here in the United States, you are villified if you even raise the question of peace. Just as we, the American people, have a personal responsibility to raise the issue of peace, the need to end this war that our nation pushed onto the entire world, the Israeli people, (as well as American Jews) who have long supported Israeli expansionism, have a real responsibility to speak out against it.

Not only is that voice generally mute, but our national soverienty is put at risk by the trachery of AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. These stinking bastards have targeted a number of US congressional races, including Cynthia McKinnney's, to unseat voices for peace. Dennis Kucinich is a recent target.

I recently worked, as part of a big Union mobilization, to help reelect Dennis. We knew, and said, that AIPAC was targeting Dennis. This was denied, of course,and we were, of course, called anti-semites for stating the facts. But we now have the smoking gun!

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) which is used internationally by Israeli press services, displayed an unusally high interest in the 10th District of Ohio. In a major article published by JTA, it was stated that;
"Congressman Dennis Kucinich beat back a challange from a challenger 'FINANCED, IN PART, BY PRO-ISRAEL DONORS.'" Later in the article that challenger is identified as; "City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who 'RAISED $500,000, MUCH FROM PRO-ISRAELI DONORS, FURIOUS OVER KUCINICH'S HARSH CRITICISM OF ISRAEL."

For the record, what these low life racists describe as "harsh Criticism" of Israel, is actually dennis' merely calling for a more even-handed approach, leading to peace in the Middle East.

I believe that the time is well past when we must begin to question why American people must go without health care, pensions, education and housing so that our government can fund the racist Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and the murder of Arab peoples.

Let's see, what else can we do to add to the sickness of the world ... What a sad, godforsaken place Israel has become!

There are A LOT of Jewish people-and others- who disagree with the Israeli Government and USA blind allegience to its APARTHEID regime.

During one of my five trips to Israel Palestine [since June 2005] I met with-and stood up to- the IOF with nothing more than my body along with Anarchists Against the Wall/AAtW in Bil'in.

AAtW are secular Israeli Jews, internationals and NON VIOLENT Palestinians who engage in acts of NONVIOLENT resistance against The Occupation and The Wall:

And The Wall has been deemed ILLEGAL by the International Court of Justice and is: "Financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for generations." [Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 43, Jan/Feb. 2007]

Jeff Halper, American Israeli, a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Founder and Coordinator of ICAHD/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions told me:

"It has been said the Israelis do not love this land. They just want to possess it."

ICAHD is another NONVIOLENT civil disobedience group of Israelis, Palestinians and internationals who oppose the Miliary Ocupation of Palestine by working to rebuild the over 18,000 Palestinian homes demolished by Israel- and which the Palestinians are never compensated for.

While Israel claims 'security' for every injustice they inflict upon Palestinians, these home demolitions are all about grabbing land and punishing the indigenous people with hope to get them to leave.

According to international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids home demolitions in occupied territories and demands that the occupiers maintain the status quo and not pilfer the resources of the indigenous population.

Indigenous Palestinians are denied building permits to build on their legally owned property in the Orwellian 'democracy' of Israel -which in reality is an ETHNOCRACY; full rights to Jews BUT NO HUMAN RIGHTS at all if you are Palestinian.

"From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught...that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, 'vomit you out' if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]: "When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' but also 'you shall love the other.'-Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007

e
reporter and editor:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

author, "MEMOIRS of a Nice Irish-American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"

Israel's goal:"The creeping erasure of the Palestinians."

Israel talks peace and two state settlement but everyday it grows larger.

This is their game and everyone knows it.

Like all of the components of the conspiracy to loot the American People of the wealth of the nation, not one piece of this information is carried in the MSM--- owned by the conspirators. I would give worlds to know what someone had on Ted Turner to force him to sell CNN to Time Warner--- but that sale was the death knell for journalism in this country except for "underground" souces, and gives a hint as to who is behind it all.
Isn't it odd that we are in financial free-fall with the highest mortgage delinquency rate in history (since such statistics have been kept)
I wonder if there is any connection between this and the fact that so many of the reliable middle class jobs have been outsourced and offshored?

simo; thank you for the links. I know America has been hijacked.
It has been my personal opinion for decades that Israel's best interests have been as well.

I am not very educated, but I think a viable, vibrant two state solution could work.

thanksagain simo

More demonstration of the "cynical" point of view---That Israel is simply trading citizens' lives (victims of "terror") for land. Just as we're trading them for a "standard of living"/lifestyle based in oil...

What does the Talmud say about this behavior?

The US has helped embolden Israel in its unfair dealing with the Palestinians.

We should discontinue aid to Israel based on their continued oppression and agression.

The crushing of the Palestinians over the past three quarters of a century is just one leg of the "origins of terrorism."

And it won't stop until we have nuclear holocaust, probably originating in the ME.

Bad news for the Palestinians, not really news for the rest of the world though is it? Same old same old.

Scroller, you have got to be a keyboarder is you want to post here.

Unless that was a very shrewd dig at the amount of active discussion on the Israeli occupation within the mainstream media - then touché.

I have a question for anyone out there who feels like trying to answer it:

Was Israel created because the Allies wanted to recreate the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people out of sympathy for them, or was Israel created because the Allies knew there was a lot of oil in the region and also knew that if they recreated the Biblical homeland for the Jewish people they'd have a good excuse to maintain a presence in the region so they could control the oil?

I always wondered about this. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Was Israel created out of good intentions, even though things went wrong later, or was it created with bad intentions in the first place?

Anybody know?

I am Jewish by birth, but do not observe Judaism. I grew up hearing about the Holocaust and watching horrific films about it and being told, "Never forget." "Never again." I do not understand how Israel can justify (and stomach) building a wall around a people -- the Palestinians -- and starving those people and depriving them of medical care and supplies, etc., when the Jews themselves were walled in to a city -- the Warsau ghetto -- and treated the same way.

The oppressed have become the oppressors.

It is true that there are Israeli Jews who are horrified by what their country is doing, and they speak openly about it. Read some of the commentary and articles on www.haaretz.com. Here, in the U.S., however, there is a fear about speaking out against Israel's treatment of Palestinians, lest you being branded an anti-Semite. Even Jews can be accused of being anti-semitic. I know, because I have been so accused.

Like one of the posters above said, I align myself with those who are oppressed, no matter their race, creed or color.

Good question, Ticonderoga. Sorry, I don't know the answer.

I'd much rather be label as an "anti-Semite" by right wing militant Jews and Christians for NOT supporting their war like policies than to be labeled by the rest of the whole world as a fascist neo-con for supporting Israel !

How can someone call themselves a child of God and support what Israel is doing?

Any Jew or Christian that does support Israel's death dealing policies toward their neighbors has a sick joke for a religion!

Marci said: "How can someone call themselves a child of God and support what Israel is doing?"

I completely agree.

Down with the racist and colonial Israel. Israel is the evil state.

"There are also more than 100 wildcat outposts — those unauthorised by the Israeli government — scattered throughout the West Bank."

Where are the bulldozers?

This is singularly amazing and to say the least despicable. Its land grab plain and simple. Israel has got to be the most hated nation in the world closely following their fuckbuddies the Americans. It pays to be an American client state. White people will say anything to justify their sins.

Nothing can be imposed upon those who live in the Middle East. Hatred and blood thirst are their methods. Until the hearts of the people change there will be no change, only more hatred.

I do not like the interference of Israel in United States domestic and foreign policy. I will strongly oppose Zionist Jews in America. What they do in their own country is their business. Moderate Jews are good people.

Kind of proves that there are stupid Jews and plenty of others willing to support stupidity of all races, colors, and creeds. Kind of makes you feel warm all over, this oneness of humanity.

I'lll tune back in to Clinton/Obama when either one has something to say about AIPAC.

So Israel illegally approves more housing units to be built illegally on Palestinian land which it is illegally occupying.

Is anyone a lawyer? How can these religious fruitcakes continuously flout every international law in the world and get away with it?

Those who continue to look the other way are equally guilty!

www.dangerouscreation.com

David Grayling:"Is anyone a lawyer? How can these religious fruitcakes continuously flout every international law in the world and get away with it?"
Well David, I have to agree with everything you have said, and to answer your question above, I would say this - how many top law firms in the World are run by Jewish lawyers? I know that in the city of London, most of the top legal and financial institutions have Jewish people at the helm, and have strong ties with Jewish lobby groups. Many people who contribute to New Labour and the Conservatives are Jewish.
This kind of reiterates my view, that the US and UK should not have the power of veto in the UN, because they cannot be trusted to act in accordance with the law.
Israel, by it's actions is not just ignoring the UN, but sending out a clear message to the rest of the World, that it does not have to abide by any law. It should therefore have sanctions and trade restrictions placed upon it, and a UN peacekeeping force sent there immediately (without US and UK troops).

EileenFleming - could you please tell me where in the Torah that is says that? ("From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught…that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, 'vomit you out' if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]: "When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' but also 'you shall love the other.'-Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007)

Thanks.

Denials of antisemitism - are they valid?

For some years now, members of the predominantly camel-herding Arab Baggara nomadic tribes of the northern Rizeigat have been recruited into a militia called the Janjaweed. The Sudanese government is said to back the Janjaweed.

There may be no Baggara people in your neighbourhood. You've probably never met one. You probably are not aware of them contributing in any substantial way to your literature, jurisprudence, nor economy... you don't perceive them to be a wealthy group of influential people. In fact, if you happen to know they exist, you probably just don't even give them any thought. Why should you? They don't to your mind compete for your dreams and opportunities, the things you might have wanted but you believe they may possess instead.

Nevertheless, they are responsible in the past two decades for atrocities committed against the land-tilling non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups:
* 80,000 to 250,000 killed
* 1.6 million or more driven from their homes
* thousands of mass murders and rapes
* The Sudanese government has suppressed information by jailing and killing witnesses since 2004 and tampered with evidence such as mass graves to eliminate their forensic values.

For Ticonderoga,
In regard to your question re: the founding of the State of Israel

During the First World War the Balfour Declaration was presented as a way of eliciting support among the Jews of Europe and England especially for the prosecution of that war. As you can see from the cover letter written by Balfour the intent did not follow the execution......More can be learned with any reputable search engine:

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/balfour.htm

November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour

Postscript:
After world opinion forced the British to honor said document ( in the aftermath of WW2 and the Holocaust) they incited an uprising of the indigenous Arab population by turning over all the fortified police stations and weaponry to them. The thought was that, if the "poor jews" were slaughtered by these well armed Arabs, public opinion would demand that the British resume occupation of their former colony to stop the slaughter.

They failed to take into account the craftiness and resilousness of the 'Stern Gang' and bin Gurion who had been planning for this restoration since the thirties.....An excellent book on the subject is 'The Red House' which details how David ben Gurion and eleven other leaders planned for the ousting of one million arabs in order to ensure a jewish majority in the new state. They actually succeeded in removing 3/4 of a million of them.

The world would've been a better place if Israel had never come to exist.

The slow but steady genocide of an entire people. Shame on israel; shame on the world, for sitting back, while Israel wipes the Palestinians off the face of the earth.
Aushwitz, Dachau-Gaza. There is no difference. It is a disgrace to humanity, itself.

AIPAC and Likudniks are only part of the problem. Bill Moyers Journal re-broadcast the segment on the CUFI nutcases (Christians United for Israel), an organization headed up by nutcase-in-chief, John Hagee, who recently endorsed John McCain.

Here's the transcript. www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03072008/transcript1.html

It all comes down to Human Rights for the whole planet.

We don't enforce the law, in face we set the standard for breaking it.

eileenfleming says it best:
""From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught…that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, 'vomit you out' if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]: "When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' but also 'you shall love the other.'-Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007
e
reporter and editor:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
---------
That is why I say as an american Jew

eileenfleming says it best:
""From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught…that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, 'vomit you out' if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]: "When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' but also 'you shall love the other.'-Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007
e
reporter and editor:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/ "
---------
That is why I say as an American Jew, ISRAEL HAS LOST IT'S RIGHT TO EXIST!

Now Israel needs to try and get the right to exist back before it is too late!

ticonderoga, and others unfamiliar with the founding of Israel:

I've learned Israeli history from a number of sources, I do not have one good balanced one with which to start; read a lot from both sides. I got a much better handle on the issue when I considered the idea of fairness: the same rules for both sides. To put it mildly, Zionists are outraged at any concept of fairness between Arab Palestinians and the ethnic Jewish Israelis (including those who live as privileged aliens in the West Bank).

The Zionist movement is a coalition of people with a variety of motives. I personally believe oil had little impact relative to the founding of modern Israel. (It now plays a larger role in terms of outside support, although I feel this is a coalition of greed, rather than need.) Some are religious fanatics, many of whom have a distorted view of their history; some are simply greedy people, who don't mind killing people for the sake of stealing land; some are essentially peaceful people, who are willing to pay their way and get along along with their neighbors. Only the latter are willing to comply with the very generous (to the Jews) outline of the Balfour Declaration.

Pre-WW2, the Zionist movement was mostly idealistic, although for many ethnic cleansing was a necessary part of their ideals.

Post-WW2, there was a desperation component, as the European Jews (not primarily descendants of the original Jewish Israel, but of the Khazar kingdom centered around the mouth of the Volga) were often not welcome in large numbers in Western Europe and the US.* This aversion to the religiously Semitic (and minority ethnically Semitic) Jews was mirrored by a similar bias toward the native Palestians, who were religiously and ethnically Semitic.

Unfortunately, by the time WW2 ended, the Jews had largely given up on the 20th century Jewish state that already existed, Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast, established 1934 inside Siberia. While not completely autonomous, it was a long way from Moscow and most likely had more freedom than say, California now does from Washington DC. (Farley Mowat's "The Siberians " has some interesting observations on Siberian autonomy in general, and their ability to counter big business interests supported by the administration; this was back in the days of the USSR.)

To sum up, Israel was created with both good and bad intentions. It is my belief that the bad intentions predominated, since those with bad intentions have prevailed by a large margin.

*Truman famously made the point that the Jews had become an abused people, and were likely to respond by abusing someone else, so he did not want large scale Jewish immigration into the US (although desirable individuals were more than welcome and invited). This is analogous to the abused child who grows up to be a child abuser. Truman's point has certainly turned out to be the case with Israel.

I am for cutting all finacial aid to Isreal and for pulling our ambassadors. They are truly a rouge terrorist nation.

Willo: If that were any other nation, then it would probably happen (coupled with UN sanctions and then possible invasion - hahahahaha, I almost got serious there), but this is Israel. They control your politicians (and ours in the UK), so nothing is going to be done.

I watched a CBC piece last night on the Israeli expansion. As I was driving back into the U.S., I listened to an NPR piece on the new "intifada." Not a word of the expansion.

We don't even know what we don't know. America the ignorant.

RAGDOLL: .."Since when did building a settlement on land that does not belong to you make it yours?" (GOOD QUESTION!)

Decent, morally committed, law-abiding citizens and civilized states all over the world agree that Israel has been VIOLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR DECADES YET THESE CRIMES GO UNPUNISHED.... (here are some examples..)

UNSC-Resolution 252 (1968)
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures that change the legal status of Jerusalem, including the expropriation of land and properties thereon.

UNSC-Resolution 262 (1968)
Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to Lebanon for destruction of airliners at Beirut International Airport.

UNSC-Resolution 267 (1969)
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem.

UNSC-Resolution 271 (1969)
Reiterates calls to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem and calls on Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying powers.

UNSC-Resolution 298 (1971)
Reiterates demand that Israel rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem.

UNSC-Resolution 446 (1979)
Calls upon Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying powers, to rescind previous measures that violate these relevant provisions, and "in particular, not to transport parts of its civilian population into the occupied Arab territories."

UNSC-Resolution 452 (1979)
Calls on the government of Israel to CEASE ON AN URGENT BASIS, the establishment, construction, and planning of SETTLEMENTS IN THE ARAB TERRITORIES, occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

UNSC-Resolution 465 (1980)
Reiterates previous resolutions on Israel's settlements policy.

UNSC-Resolution 471 (1980)
Demands prosecution of those involved in assassination attempts of West Bank leaders and compensation for damages; reiterates demands to abide by Fourth Geneva Convention.

484 (1980)
Reiterates request that Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

487 (1981)
Calls upon Israel to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

497 (1981)
Demands that Israel rescind its decision to impose its domestic laws in the occupied Syrian Golan region.

573 (1985)
Calls on Israel to pay compensation for human and material losses from its attack against Tunisia and to refrain from all such attacks or threats of attacks against other nations.

592 (1986)
Insists Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva Conventions in East Jerusalem and other occupied territories.

605 (1987)
"Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide immediately and scrupulously by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, and to desist forthwith from its policies and practices that are in violations of the provisions of the Convention."

607 (1986)
Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its practice of deportations from occupied Arab territories.

608 (1988) 636 (1989) and 641 (1989)
Reiterates call for Israel to cease its deportations.

672 and 673 (1990)
Reiterates calls for Israel to abide by provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Arab territories.

681 (1990) and 726 (1992)
Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its practice of deportations from occupied Arab territories.

799 (1992)
"Reaffirms applicability of Fourth Geneva Convention…to all Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and affirms that deportation of civilians constitutes a contravention of its obligations under the Convention."

904 (1994)
Calls upon Israel, as the occupying power, "to take and implement measures, inter alia, confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by settlers."

1322 (2000)
Calls upon Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying power.

1402 (2002)
Calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities.

1403 (2002)
Demands that Israel go through with "the implementation of its resolution 1402, without delay."

1405 (2002)
Calls for UN inspectors to investigate civilian deaths during an Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp.

1435 (2002)
Calls on Israel to withdraw to positions of September 2000 and end its military activities in and around Ramallah, including the destruction of security and civilian infrastructure.

How is it possible that a state that keeps breaking international and humanitarian law (for 40 years!) can get away with it? Whereas other criminal countries have to face international sanctions (from economic embargoes to military invasion)for much smaller violations, Israel obviously stands outside ANY moral or legal obligations. WHY??????

Because it is backed by the last "remaining superpower", the US, who happens to decide whose criminal behaviour is a crime and whose is not.

The only decision criterion being, of course, whether the perpetrator is "our" ally or our foe. In other words "if it is in our interest" to protect a rogue state, we will ensure that, no matter how many international laws they have broken, how many innocent lives this has cost, THEY REMAIN UNTOUCHED, because we (the greatest military machine in the world) stand behind them. (read: rule of force overrides rule of law and you pay for this "force" with your taxes...)

If, on the other hand, the violation of a law, a UN resolution, etc. can be instrumentalized to get rid of an unwanted leader/ government, then we will ensure that the severest punishment will be inflicted on this country (see Iraq and Iran....)

The US is a state, that, in the name of freedom and democracy, has installed or protected the worst governments in history, which resulted in the misery and death of millions of people, yet it still poses as a sort of eternal moral crusader, who only kills accidently or for a "good" purpose, a higher cause whereas "the enemy" kills because they are insane and immoral.... The Israeli government shares this convenient, self-rightoues attitude...

By the way, did the European settlers ask when they built their settlements on the land of the American Indians? No, of course not.

The US and Israel have so much in common: the absurd and dangerous notion, that that are the "chosen people", or "god´s own country", who are comfortable in their (delusional)position of the moral highground while the rest of the world is stunned by so much arrogance and double standards.....

How can anyone condemn the Paletinian freedom fighters for turning to violence and terror after 60 yrs of betrayal and double standards???

If you are truly interested in learning about the sordid history of the Middle East try these books:

THE GREAT WAR FOR CIVILIZATION by Robert Fisk
SOWING THE WIND by John Keay
ALL BOOKS by Noam Chomsky...

or - for a short overview - watch this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1259454859593416473

If you want to help the Palestinian people out of their misery and get Israel to respect their rights YOU MUST PRESSURE your presidential candidates to stop ALL MILITARY AID to Israel and enforce an economic embargo against Jerusalem in order to stop the cruel apartheid policy the Palestinians have had to endure for 40 years.....

We must stop being mere spectators (as the power elite wants us to be...) and become active citizens again.... Stop this organized "engineering of consent" (e.g. by using the phrase "Israel has a right to defend itself...W over and over again...

The Israeli Human Rights organization B`tselem has the following information on its website:
http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=21

"PALESTINIANS WHO DIED AFTER MEDICAL TREATMENT WAS DELAYED DUE TO RESTRICTIONS OF MOVEMENT"- just a few examples of shocking inhumanity:

Amir Shaher 'Abdallah al-Yazji
8 YEAR OLD resident of Gaza city, died on 19.11.2007 in Gaza city, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: suffered from meningitis, and died after being refused, for more than a week, entry into Israel."

Mahmoud Kamal Kamel Abu Taha
23 YEAR OLD resident of Rafah, died on 28.10.2007 in Erez (Industrial Zone), North Gaza district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: Cancer patient dies after being delayed entry into Israel for 10 days even though he had a permit to pass.
Adel Rashid 'Abdallah 'Omar

20 YEAR OLD resident of 'Azzun, Qalqiliya district, died on 17.02.2007 near the Separation Barrier in the area of 'Azzun, Qalqiliya district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: Was severely injured when a tractor he and some friends were on turned over. He was taken by car to a gate of the separation barrier, where soldiers delayed them from crossing for more than an hour. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Ahmad Ramadan Muhammad Wakhman
Under 1 YEAR OLD resident of Nablus, died on 12.11.2006 , Nablus district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: WEEK-OLD INFANT on his way to hospital in Nablus for treatment. The driver of the car was beaten by soldiers at the checkpoint when he went over to them to explain the infant's grave medical condition.

Unnamed NEWBORN SON of Fadiyeh Kamel
Under 1 year-old resident of Nahhalin, Bethlehem district, died on 25.05.2002 , following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: Physical roadblocks on the way from the village to Bethlehem PREVENTED HIS MOTHER, who WAS IN LABOUR with him, from REACHING THE HOSPITAL. She was forced to give birth in a car with help from a member of the ambulance team summoned to meet her. The newborn infant died on the way to the hospital.

Think about it. You a indirectly (with your taxes and by remaining silent) supporting a government that has created an atmosphere of "anything goes" (regarding the ill-treatment of Palestinians), who have been dehumanized, stripped of their rights and left to wither and die in the huge open air prison of Gaza and the walled-in West Bank where ever more Israeli "settlers" are encroaching upon them...

THANK YOU, Minitru, for your post. Too bad it's at the end of a stale thread; I hope people read it.

Mini TRU -- You're __ MINI-__M_A_X___T_R_U_T_H__ for me !

Well stated and clearly documented, the history is indubitably true and clear in its vector.

Thank you.

Namaste
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