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Israel Warns Attack on Gaza Has Just Begun
Israel warned today that the aerial attack on Gaza, which has now entered its fourth brutal day, is only "the first of several" military stages intended to wipe out Hamas.
A Palestinian boy carries his belongings after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008. Israel rejected any truce with Hamas Islamists on Tuesday and said it was ready for "long weeks of action" on a fourth day of the fiercest air offensive in the Gaza Strip in decades. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)) As the army said it was ready to launch a ground incursion and tanks and infantry forces massed on the border, Israeli officials claimed the military "has made preparations for long weeks of action".
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, upped the stakes further today when he said he had informed Shimon Peres, the country's ceremonial president, that the current aerial phase of the operation was the "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet".
Hamas continued to fire rockets back at the Jewish state as Israeli forces carried out a fourth day of attacks on the Gaza Strip, broadening the offensive to include naval as well as aerial bombardments. But as Britain and other nations called for an end to the violence, there were signs that Hamas was feeling the strain with claims that its leader-in-exile was ready to renew a ceasefire that expired ten days ago.
Rhetoric from Jerusalem has hardened, however, with Meir Sheetrit, the Interior Minister, claiming "there is no room for a ceasefire" with Hamas until the threat of rocket fire had been removed.
Fires burned across Gaza City today where five government buildings were badly damaged in air attacks after Israel pledged to destroy any building with links to Hamas. The Islamists took lone control of Gaza after launching military action to force out the group's rival Fatah, with which it had formed a unity government, in a military coup in summer 2007. Hamas won elections the previous year, but has been shunned by the West for refusing to renounce terrorism or follow the peace process.
Targets hit by Israel in Gaza included a university building, the Interior Ministry and the office of Ismail Haniya, the Hamas political leader. The Palestinian death toll reached 360, with at least 1,550 wounded, in just four days.
Most of the Palestinian victims have been Hamas security forces but at least 64 of them were civilians, according to UN figures. The toll includes two sisters, aged 4 and 11, who died in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza this morning.
Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets since the Israeli attack was launched on Saturday.
"The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," Haim Ramon, the deputy to Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, said.
It was the first time since it launched its blistering offensive that Israel has openly stated that regime change is its ultimate goal. "We will stop firing immediately if someone takes the responsibility of this government, anyone but Hamas," Mr Ramon said. "We are favourable to any other government to take the place of Hamas."
It was not clear which party could take control if Israel succeeds in removing the Islamists. The only other party with experience of rule is Fatah but it is still widely seen by Gazans as corrupt and ineffective. Fatah retains control of the West Bank.
Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, said Israel was in an "all-out war against Hamas", while Brigadier-General Dan Harel, the Israeli deputy chief of staff, said that his forces would erase every trace of Hamas from Gaza's crowded cities.
"After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game," the general said.
"We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas Government and all its wings. We are hitting government buildings, production factories, security wings and more."
That broadening of the offensive was evident in the targets hit yesterday: the Islamic University in Gaza, a hotbed of support for Hamas but also a major educational establishment for students forbidden by Israel from studying outside Gaza, was crushed by bombs. Israel said that its laboratories had been used to improve the crude rockets that Hamas and other militant groups fire into Israel's southern towns.
Israeli bombers also hit the Interior Ministry, the first time in the campaign that it has struck general government buildings, and a further sign that it is determined to prise Hamas's fingers from all levers of control in Gaza. Along Gaza's borders, the Israeli military continued to muster tanks and troops in preparation for a ground offensive that many fear would plunge the strip - home to 1.5 million Palestinian refugees - into even more bloody chaos.
There were signs of cracks in the Arab unity that has been calling on Israel to halt its offensive, but which is wary of Hamas's Islamist radicalism.
Egypt, which brokered a now defunct ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, said that an Arab summit planned for Friday in Qatar was now in doubt. "Staging an Arab summit could be dangerous and subject to criticism, especially if it does not result in practical measures," Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, said.
He also launched an attack on Iran, the Shia state known to support and arm Hamas and Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon. In a message aimed at Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Egyptian television, he said: "You are a man who used to enjoy respect, but you have insulted the Egyptian people."
The Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram also hinted that Hamas was at least partly to blame for invoking the wrath of Israel with its constant rocket attacks, which appear to serve no strategic purpose. "If you can't kill the wolf, don't pull its tail," it commented.
There were also indications that, behind the public calls for suicide bombings and renewed uprisings, Hamas's own will was strained.
In Senegal, which currently presides over the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Foreign Ministry said that the Hamas leader-in-exile, Khaled Mashal, had declared that he was ready to renew the ceasefire if Israel ended its bombardment and allowed supplies into Gaza.
Hamas was quick to deny the report. It has continued to fire rockets into Israel, one of which killed an Arab Israeli construction worker in the southern city of Ashkelon. A missile hit a bus station in the town of Ashdod, killing a woman and seriously wounding two people. Another Hamas missile killed one person in the kibbutz of Nahal Oz. Israel said that Hamas's longer-range rockets now threaten half a million of its citizens.
More than 60 Israeli missiles were fired yesterday, but an Israeli army spokesman said that was less than had been expected at this stage in an operation that could last several more days or even weeks. Israeli officials warned that a bloody ground invasion was still on the cards. "The worst . . . is still ahead of us," General Harel said.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, hardened Britain's response by warning that the blitz on Gaza could encourage further extremism: "There is no point in me denying my fear that this will fuel radicalism. That is one of the dangers we face at the moment." Mr Miliband is one of several European Union foreign ministers meeting in Paris tonight for urgent talks on the crisis.
Fears of radicalism appeared to be borne out by Palestinians. "Now there is more hate and radicalism in the Gaza streets," one young Gazan told The Times by telephone from the apartment where he and his family were huddled, only venturing out to queue for hours for bread in the city's almost bare shops.
In Iran, a hardline student group started recruiting volunteers to fight Israel after the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that anyone who died in the defence of Gaza would be deemed a martyr.
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Show AllBoth anti-Semitism and Zionism are the bitter fruits of capitalism. The imperatives of that economic system forced the Jewish people to endure the pogroms and the Holocaust. Meanwhile Zionists, fueled by the same economic forces, have since executed their own crimes against humanity. 62-years-ago, an unconscionable attack on the King David Hotel killed Britons, Arabs and Jews. Later would come Sabra and Shatila and now the Zionists are engaged in a genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, a veritable concentration camp for 1.5 million Palestinians.
Capitalism created the idea of Zionism in its relentless drive to divide and more fully exploit the working people of the world. For the historic moment of capitalism’s rise to planetary dominance Zionism has effectively built a figurative and literal wall between Jewish workers and their non-Jewish brothers and sisters. In the US it has made a distant memory of Jewish leadership of immigrant workers of every stripe in pitched battles on the streets of New York to form and build the garment and furriers unions. It has squashed the great Civil Rights Era coalition consecrated by the blood of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman. It has made unity with anyone but the US ruling class all but impossible. Zionism has performed as designed and isolated Jewish workers around the world in a “new Warsaw ghetto” called Israel.
The state that Zionism created has begun sensing its mortality and is thrashing around accordingly. The recent ravings of Israeli intellectual Benny Morris published by the New York Times can now be added to mounting evidence that the guardians of the state are in the grip of panic. The recent exchange of fighters recalls the 2006 attacks on Lebanon and Gaza and the resultant killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure, the kidnapping of Hamas legislators, the targeting of a U.N. observer post, and the outrage on Qana. Each a desperate act farther outside the bounds of common sense than the one before.
During the fighting with Hizbollah, completely out of the blue on repeated occasions and in leaflets dropped on the Lebanese, Israeli leaders felt compelled to mention their power to erase Lebanon from the planet. A strong and confident force does not act so. The Israelis are blustering past the graveyard and their bully’s trepidation is now growing as the end nears.
Under normal circumstances the impending death of a form of racism like Zionism and the establishment of a secular state on the territory Israel now occupies where Palestinian Arabs of various religious persuasions and Jews could peacefully co-exist as equals would be cause for human celebration. Unfortunately, the panic that clearly grips Israel means they will likely join in U.S. attacks on Damascus and Tehran and resort to the use of their nuclear arsenal when all else fails. And that, on a larger scale, is the dilemma that the whole world faces as the capitalist system spearheaded by the United States begins experiencing it’s last gasps.
Ursa
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy
Here is where you can share your thoughts and Ideas
This is what Baracks website says
Access it and use your voice - it may be to no avail, but its worth flooding with your opinion
"The best, most comprehensive plan for change in our country will include your ideas and your feedback. America needs a president with a mandate from the people, and everyone deserves a voice in shaping our next president's agenda.
Take a moment to share your ideas. Over the coming months the best ideas will be featured and incorporated into the campaign's policy proposals. Be as broad or specific as you want."
Thanks, The more we try and educate Obama the young one, the better!
This is an interesting theory, and it would be great, if it weren't for the fact that Tehran, Hamas, Sudan, and Damascus are all guilty of some of the most henous crimes against humanity, racist statements, and massacres of their own peoples through blitzkreigs of their own. To me that means, capitalism is the lesser of two evils and western style free speech democracy is the best government we have seen thus far. I support medical socialism and believe Israel is squarely a place where anyone can get aid, as Gazans cross the border to Israeli hospitals for the last three days. Hamas has actually tried to block those casualties from recieving aid (believe me I wish it weren't true).
If you look at the failed arab state, which squanders oil money on oligarchs and leaves their people starving, (much like communism) there is certainly no model among the U.S.'s so-called enemies to try to negotiate with or emulate. With the UAW winning here in the US against the Republican assault, it is hard to make the case that workers in any of these other countries you defend have it better than the so called- capitalists. With Israel light years ahead of the world in environmentally friendly technology, and Arab states still pushing fossil fuels, it is impossible to make the case that Tehran's rule would be good for the planet. With Israel signing gay rights treaties and Arab states objecting forcefully, you cannot make the case that personal liberty is best assured by Tehran's regime. I used to be a pacifist. And then, one day, my friend was hung from a tree in Skokie Il. for being half Jewish. I stayed a pacifist, and then one day, a woman and her unborn child were mudered in Mumbai. Between those two days, I have suffered for every child, every mother. I have held my fist at thousands of dead in Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, New York. I think, against Islamofascim, it is truly time to show some defiance. I support Islam, but I do not believe sexism, racism, homophobia or terrorism are positive Islamic traits and those who support those traits deserve no religious defence. I wouldn't support them in Jewish sects either. It has come down to Tehran using Palestinians to meet their goals. My heart goes out for the innocent, but if you don't defend yourself from fascism, no one will defend you when they take over your town. Israelis are mostly semitic and mostly socialist liberals. They have already offered a cease fire, again. Let's see if Hamas really cares.
my dear mymicz1,
Excatly the same vehemance was directed against the progressive socialist, pan-Arab Baathist and Nasserist movement of the 1970's. The current kings and presidents-for-life, such as Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia (your list is terribly selective, why are these countries missing from your list?) are in power, and these countries are NOT democracies today, because of US covert action and complicity.
And pray tell, can you list some of these "henious crimes against humanity" that Syria, Iran and Hamas have comitted compared to the sordid genocidal history of White People (Europe and US) over the past 500 years and expecially over the past 100 years?
---USAn---
Greetings to CommonDreamers from xglampf and rglorpf, who watch the earth from afar. We are neither strategically nor morally concerned about the behavior of terrestrials, but we are enormously attentive to your shenanigans, which we find highly entertaining. Your brains, apparently, are programmed to create problems for yourselves and then fail to solve them. We assume the purpose of this is to alleviate the boredom of being both unimaginative and incapable of intergalactic travel. No matter. Whatever you do is okay with us. Please carry on as usual, in the tradition of your excellent Three Stooges. We will post fan mail from time to time.
The fracas in Gaza has got us on the edge of our seats. Although the outcome is unimportant to us, we have discovered that the entertainment value is enhanced by choosing sides. rglorpf favors the cause of your "Palestinians" while I am betting on the "Israelis." Luckily it is like your "football" games: victories are never decisive and there is always a new game every Sunday, with plenty of action to go with our popcorn.
rglorpf thinks that because the Israeli terrorists have killed so many Palestinian terrorist women and children that now the Palestinian terrorists will become angry and begin blowing up Israeli terrorist restaurants and school buses. I am of the personal belief that the reason earth people provide these Israelis with helicopter gunships and so forth is so they can watch a kind of snuff ritual, like your bullfights. It is important that the victims be kept relatively helpless and unable to retaliate. rglorpf believes that Gazans will gain sympathy and begin to acquire some decent explosives, whereas I am betting on sick voyeurism to maintain the status quo.
Perhaps someone on your blog can help us to understand the meaning of the word "terrorist." Everybody on your planet appears to be a terrorist, though the word is always predicated of other hominids and never yourselves. It appears to us so ubiquitous as to be confusing. Why not designate yourselves Red Team and Blue Team to avoid confusing your intergalactic fans?
Anyway thanks for last weekend. Top notch! Don't let the pacifists break your spirit.
x&r
Glad to get news from xglampf and rglorpf - I'm glad we are entertaining somebody. Drop us a line, now and then...
x&r, nice post. To clarify intergalactic confusions-a "terrorist" is someone who has something we want, or, is someone who lives in an area we wish to dominate.
We win the game by bombing them. Preferably at 'wedding parties,' although in their homes while they sleep with their children is good for points also.
But most important x&z, is when we kidnap a 'terrorist,' we get to torture* this perosn, which is a lot of fun, it's fun, we dig it.
*x&z, we're gonna skip this, so you all may stay pure.
Can I come live on your world? PLEASE?
Answering Israel’s critics
Six clichés you are likely to hear constantly in the coming days, and why they’re false
Yigal Walt Published: 12.30.08, 19:13 / Israel Opinion
1) “Israel’s response in Gaza is disproportionate”
Since when is war a mathematical equation? The basic objective of any warring party is to inflict maximal damage on the enemy while minimizing its own casualties. Was there anything proportional about the US war in Iraq? Or about Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait for that matter? Or about Russia’s recent war against Georgia? Israel is doing exactly what any other country has done in the past. This is how war works.
Would a British citizen complain that “too few” British soldiers are being killed in Iraq? Probably not.
And on a more elementary note: Palestinian military inferiority is not an indication of moral superiority. Palestinian insistence on resorting to violence despite this military weakness is an indication of poor judgment perhaps – yet it is by no means an indication of moral virtue. Being militarily weak does not make the Palestinians right.
2) “But Qassams don’t kill”
Actually, Qassams do kill. Not too often, perhaps, but dozens of Israelis were killed and wounded by rocket fire in recent years. Moreover, at this time the Palestinians are firing long-range Grad rockets with even greater explosive power. Such rockets killed 2 Israelis Monday.
Yet beyond the casualty figures, the psychological damage caused as result of living under an ongoing rocket threat is immeasurable. Would anyone in the West agree to have their family live under constant rocket attacks and be regularly woken up by sirens in the middle of the night? Would anyone living under such conditions appreciate being told that “these rockets don’t kill?” Probably not.
3) “It’s all because of Israel’s siege. Israel should allow aid into Gaza.”
Israel has allowed goods into Gaza regularly throughout the “siege”. Palestinians have been able to complement these deliveries with supplies smuggled through hundreds of tunnels (of course, they would likely be able to bring in even more food had they not used the tunnels to smuggle in missiles.).
The day before operation “Cast Lead” got underway, Israel allowed dozens of trucks carrying aid to enter the Strip. On Tuesday, another 100 trucks – double the normal number –are expected to enter Gaza after Defense Minister Barak approved the move.
In short, Israel is allowing aid into the Strip (but guess who has kept Gaza crossings mostly closed thus far? That’s right, Egypt.)
4) “Why didn’t Israel just agree to renew the Gaza truce?”
First, what truce? Terror groups continued to fire rockets throughout the lull, even if somewhat infrequently, and even if the world didn’t seem to care too much. Nonetheless, Israel clearly declared that it is interested in extending the truce. Our top officials made it clear time and again.
Yet Hamas leaders clearly declared that the truce has ended on December 19th, and proceeded to bombard southern Israeli communities with dozens of rockets daily. In short, it is no wonder that even the Egyptians are blaming Hamas this time.
5) “But Hamas was elected democratically – why can’t Israel accept it?”
Although Hamas won the Palestinian elections, it took Gaza by force, in the process hurling rival Fatah members down to their death from high-rises and shooting others in the knees with the declared aim of maiming them. Some democracy.
In any case, Israel in fact “recognizes,” de facto, Hamas’ rule in Gaza, which is precisely why it is justified in attacking the Hamas-ruled Strip, recognizing that it is indeed being governed by a terror entity. Israel did not launch the operation because Hamas is in power there – rather, it did so because Hamas is a terrorist organization that has deliberately targeted civilians with thousands of rockets over the past 8 years.
6) “Israel is targeting civilians”
You mean to say that “one of the most powerful armies in the world” has been bombing Gaza for days, deploying massive air power, dropping hundreds of bombs, and ultimately killing a grand total of 50 civilians or so in the “most crowded place on earth?”
There are two options here: A) The Israeli army is not targeting civilians, or B) Israeli pilots suck. We tend to go with option A.
Indeed, Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, by deploying precise ammunition and specialized techniques. In fact, nobody in the world does this better than the Jewish State.
Liar liar liar. How can you sleep at night.
Why is he a liar? Please explain.
Which hole were you living into not realize that it is a blatant lie?
Collective punishment is a war crime.
-TIA
Yep, the ceasefire ended and Hamas immediately stepped up rocket attacks into Israel (in adition Hamas had been violating the ceasefire on some level all along). What did they expect the Israelis to do?
Hamas did not violate the ceasefire you stupid zionist moron! Read Haaertz and you will realise that it was the Zionist govt that violated the ceasefire to provoke Hamas. You dumb idiotic fool!
So not a single rocket was fired into Israel during the period of the cease fire... and the rocket attacks did not increase when the the cease fire expired? You can insult me, or you can provide evidence to that effect.
Don't worry, you are not even interesting enough to insult.
"1) “Israel’s response in Gaza is disproportionate”
Since when is war a mathematical equation? The basic objective of any warring party is to inflict maximal damage on the enemy while minimizing its own casualties."
What you are defending is called asymmetric warfare.
According to Wikipedia (emphasis mine):
"There are two different viewpoints on the relationship between asymmetric warfare and terrorism. In the modern context, asymmetric warfare is increasingly considered a component of _fourth generation warfare_. When practiced outside the _laws of war_, it is often defined as terrorism, though rarely by its practitioners or their supporters.
"The other view is that asymmetric warfare is not synonymous with terrorism. It is typical, in an asymmetric conflict, for the stronger side to accuse the weaker side of being bandits, pillagers or _terrorists_. These accusations are usually part of propaganda campaigns, although they are sometimes true. Some argue that asymmetric warfare is called "terrorism" by those wishing to deny the political aims of their weaker opponents and to exploit the negative connotations of the word."
Fourth generation warfare as defined by Wikipedia:
"Fourth generation warfare (4GW) is combat characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, soldier and civilian, peace and conflict, battlefield and safety. The military doctrine was first defined in 1989 by a team of American analysts, including William S. Lind, used to describe warfare's return to a decentralized form. In terms of generational modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states' loss of their monopoly on combat forces, returning in a sense to the uncontrolled combat of pre-modern times. The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a _violent ideological network_."
Purposes of the laws of war as defined by Wikipedia:
"Some of the central principles underlying laws of war are:
* Wars should be limited to achieving the political goals that started the war (e.g., territorial control) and should not include unnecessary destruction;
* Wars should be brought to an end as quickly as possible;
* People and property that do not contribute to the war effort should be protected against unnecessary destruction and hardship;
To this end, laws of war are intended to mitigate the evils of war by:
* Protecting both combatants and noncombatants from unnecessary suffering;
* Safeguarding certain fundamental human rights of persons who fall into the hands of the enemy, particularly prisoners of war, the wounded and sick, and civilians;
* Facilitating the restoration of peace."
So, given that this is an asymmetrical war (as is every war that Palestinians fight against Israel), let's delve into this a little.
First, Israel is either fighting a Fourth generation war or it is a terrorist state.
If it is a terrorist state, stop here.
If it is fighting a Fourth generation war, then Israel is fighting not as a state, but as a violent ideological network.
Second, if Israel is not a terrorist organization, then it must follow the Laws of War.
But is Israel following the Laws of War? From its very definition, it appears not.
What are Israel's political goals? Territorial gain? Limiting unnecessary destruction? Protecting people and property? Are they safeguarding human rights? Are they facilitating the restoration of peace?
So, this is it in a nutshell: Either Israel is a terrorist state, or it is employing Fourth Generation War but refusing to follow the Laws of War rendering it a violent ideological network...which actually defines it as a terrorist state. (Hamas has already been defined as a terrorist organization - I am simply trying to define Israel).
This has nothing to do with religion or Jews, it has to do with a tortured ideology that is out of control all around the world, but currently employed by Israel.
I pray we get out of this before it kills us all.
Oh please, this isn't a "war." It's an illegal attack by people with vastly superior weaponry on people who have been oppressed for decades and have had their land stolen and homes destroyed. If "Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties," why are so many dying from Israel's weapons? That includes many children, by the way, which I find intolerable. All of your excuses for Israel are propaganda.
"The Islamists took lone control of Gaza after launching military action to force out the group's rival Fatah, with which it had formed a unity government, in a military coup in summer 2007. Hamas won elections the previous year, but has been shunned by the West for refusing to renounce terrorism or follow the peace process."
That is MISINFORMATION... Don't believe it.
Misinformation is an understatement!
The truth is exactly the opposite, and the official story doesn't even make sense. Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament in a free and fair election. Why would the winner stage a coup???
it was Fatah, led by Abbas, that staged the coup with US and Israeli help. Hamas managed to hold on only to Gaza.
Lies and deciet heaped upon lies and deciet - it is almost as if Isreal is trying to confirm every antisemitic stereotype out there.
---USAn---
Abbas won the presidential elections.
The Hamas won the parliamentary election.
The Hamas staged a coup in Gaza.
All of the above are facts.
It is similar perhaps to a scenario where the Republicans wins the Congress, the Democrats wins the Presidency, and Sarah Palin stage a cope in Alaska, killing all the police officers in Alaska associated with the Democratic party.
In the above scenario, will you equally say: How could the Republican stage a coup if they have won the election?
Which part of it is MISINFORMATION?
Please provide proof what the above is missinformation.
THE USA - according to a report from the US Military's "WAR COLLEGE" which is obviously the main intellectual analysis institution of US military thinking - is ALREADY pushing the consideration of Military Rule in the USA "in case of domestic unrest" -- due to "economic and other crises".
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Report_Military_may_have_to_quell_1229.html
excerpt below:
========
Report: Military may have to quell domestic violence from economic collapse
RAW STORY
Published: Monday December 29, 2008
Print This Email This
Deepening economic strife in the US could lead to civil unrest and violence that would require military intervention, warns a new report from the US Army War College.
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," writes Nathan Freier, a 20-year Army veteran and visiting professor at the college.
A copy of the 44-page report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," can be downloaded here. Freier notes that his report expresses only his own views and does not represent US policy, but it's certain that his recommendations have come before at least some Defense Department officials.
The author warns potential causes for such civil unrest could include another terrorist attack, "unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters." The situation could deteriorate to the point where military intervention was required, he argues.
"Under these conditions and at their most violent extreme," he concludes, "civilian authorities, on advice of the defense establishment, would need to rapidly determine the parameters defining the legitimate use of military force inside the United States."
========================
connect this with warnings from History:
"SHOULD TYRANNY ARRIVE IN THESE SHORES...IT WILL BE IN THE GUISE OF SECURING THE SAFETY OF THE PEOPLE" - james madison
"TYRANNY AND THE LOSS OF LIBERTIES AT HOME SHALL BE CHARGED TO THE WAGING OF FOREIGN WARS ...for they come hand in hand" - james madison
"this nation shall fall...not because of foreign enemies or threats, real or imagined, but because the people are corrupt...and Democracy eventually arrives at Tyranny" -- Benjamin Franklin
"we MUST regulate the undue accumulation of wealth and power unto the hands of a few -- for this shall surely be the death of democracy" -- Thomas Jefferson
"My fellow americans...i leave office with a warning: guard against the undue influence of the corporate/military/industrial/congressional complex....lest we lose our democracy...and we shall bankrupt ourselves in the quest for absolute security" - Dwight Eisenhower
"the Moneyed Class will Never support Wars unless a Profit is to be made...wars are always the Aristocratic mode of Pillage...they are always instigated , planned, and executed by the Moneyed Class" - Ludwig von Mises
"There is nothing Noble about War..you can huzzah it, have great parades with music bands and flags, but it is still Murder in Uniform...War is Hell...War is a Racket by the Financiers and big Businesses...and the Army is its Big Muscle and Enforcer...I was its Muscle and Chief Enforcer...all of us Serving the BIG BOSS...our supernationalistic Capitalism" -- General Smedley Butler
what were they all warning against?
Capitalism...leading to undue gaps in wealth and power...leading to crises -- leading to Tyranny.
and all were foreseen thousands of years ago by the death of the "first" known democracy , Greece:
"ALL WARS are waged for money and power" -- Socrates.
and socrates of course was forced , by "democratic consensus", to drink hemlock as his capital punishment for daring to speak out against the hypocrisies of "democratic greece". ...foreseeing the death of liberty.
today , you can see it in the encroached military/industrial/corporate/congressional complex that will NOT tolerate dissent against its prefered WAR STATE Fascism underneath its "capitalist" facade of "democracy".
This archived common dreams article is also very much to the point:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0321-05.htm
But I prefer to use Gandhi who didnt mince words, even in 46:
Gandhi: "But in my opinion, they [the Jews] have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism... Why should they depend on American money or British arms for forcing themselves on an unwelcome land? Why should they resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in Palestine?"
Website: http://www.twf.org
Mahatma Gandhi Rejected Zionism
by Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan
"But", Gandhi asserted, "My sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home."
As mentioned earlier, Gandhi refused to view the Zionist "hunger" for land in Palestine as a right.
Later, Gandhi clarified in one of his final pieces on Zionism and the Palestine question on 14 July 1946
Gandhi went back to his initial position by categorically stating that "But in my opinion, they [the Jews] have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism... Why should they depend on American money or British arms for forcing themselves on an unwelcome land? Why should they resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in Palestine?"
A few months before his assassination, Gandhi answered the question "What is the solution to the Palestine problem?" raised by Doon Campbell of Reuters:
"It has become a problem which seems almost insoluble. If I were a Jew, I would tell them: 'Do not be so silly as to resort to terrorism...' The Jews should meet the Arabs, make friends with them and not depend on British aid or American aid, save what descends from Jehovah."
[Long before his 50th birthday, he had headed the World Zionist Organization and served as speaker of the country's Parliament.
But four years ago Burg not only walked away from politics. He pretty much walked away from Zionism. In a book that came out last year, and has just been translated and released in the United States, he said Israel should not be a Jewish state, that its law of return granting citizenship to any Jew should be radically altered, that Israeli Arabs were like German Jews during the Second Reich and that, in fact, the entire society felt eerily like Germany just before the rise of Hitler.--Ethan Bronner, "How a Zionist in Israel went from leader to scourge," International Herald Tribune, December 19, 2008]
[He notes that museums devoted to the Jewish Holocaust have sprouted up across the West. And that the North American native peoples and the non-Jews who suffered under the Nazis are not deserving of the same reverence, that their suffering is somehow less tragic. We must deny the concept of the Holocaust even if the most fantastic inventions of Wiesel were abolutely true. The technical discussions of how many Jews died, and how they died, are perfectly legitimate but superfluous--Eric Walberg, "Book Review: 'Masters of Discourse' by Israel Shamir," axisoflogic.com, December 22, 2008]
Was it the same Gandhi who criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka?
Gandhi said: “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” he said. “They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told his biographer, “would have been heroism.”
We have to do everything we can do for Palestine. We have to put an end to the madness which is "Israel". I loved Gandhi's words in a great post. It's so sad that the imperialists imposed "Israel" on Palestine -
How would you propose to "put and end to Israel"?
A nucklear holocaust? Kill 6 million Jews? or "just" cleanse them by force?
Somehow, my gut feeling tells me that Gandhi might have objected to these methods of activly "put an end to someone".
Ending the Zionist State is not the same as liquidating its people. The Zionist state is a terrorist state dating from its inception and has no "right" to exist. The only viable option is a unitary Palestinian State. Unfortunately, the Zionists don't want this so they continue to instill hatred between the jewish and arab peoples. To maintian their hold on power, the Zionists must perpetuate the war and occupation that generates the hatred.
Let Europe give them the homeland in say Germany or Austria since they were the ones that persecuted the Jews.
Now is the time for US to support the UN and withdraw support for Israel/Palestine.
Agreed, ezeflyer.
There is one reason why the US supports Israel with more money than any other nation: Undue influence on US national and international policy by Israel proxies within the US.
First thing we need to do is stop dual citizenships. One is either a US citizen or one is an Israeli citizen. Not both.
Second, we suspend all aid other than humanitarian to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Third, we try Israeli operatives within the US as spies, and US citizens who are spying for Israel as traitors. Also, we issue green cards to Israelis just like everyone else (don't know if we do this now) and make them go home after some time. Also, we don't allow them within shouting distance of US policy, foreign or domestic.
Fourth, it they choose to continue fighting, we let them. If the Arab world decides to jump in, we let them. If they all decide to make nice, we let them. (This probably shouldn't happen, but it really is the fairest).
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Israeli Jews will never be welcome in the Middle East. Their brutality over 60 years will never be forgotten and the retribution against them will continue forever.
Why don't they get the message and move to another location? The U.S. and Britain are their strongest supporters so surely they'd make a chunk of their land available so that an elitist, racist, militaristic, religiously-deranged state could be created right next to them, wouldn't they?
Yeah, pull the other leg. It whistles!
P.S. My blog continues its unceasing assault on Israel. And I haven't killed one person!
www.dangerouscreation.com
Yet your call to ethnically cleanse million of people against their wishes, only because they belong to a specific ethnic group, could be considered by some as racism.
Too bad there is so much hatred in the world.
Not all Arabs or all Muslims appose Israel.
Don't you dear sweet little Israel me! This monster regime has supported death squad activity in El Salavador and Guatemala. It was allied with the apartheid regime in South Africa. And need I mention the genocide they are inflicting on the Palestinians? Your holier than thou attitude about Israel won't wash with me. I see Israel for the true monster that it is.
Where does he say to "ethnically cleanse millions of people against their wishes?" LOL He says nothing about that.
Or, an alternative plan as humane and sane as yours they could just drop nerve agent on the territories and kill all the palestinians.
Only one problem with your "plan": The West Bank "territories" are densely honeycombed by illegal Zionist settlements.
to Letto, mymicz1, et alia - Israeli Zionist shills par excellence.
This is NOT about the Holocaust and your false claims of anti - semitism.
By any measure what Israel is doing is committing atrocities against a population that has refused to be starved into submission.
The issue is NOT religion!!! It is entirely about the Israeli theft of Palestinian lands and water. Just look at the ongoing Israeli support of illegal settlements in the West Bank and the refusal to recognize Palestinian rights in Gaza (such as right to freely elect Hamas as the guv). The Israeli right wing is p***ed they were made to leave the lucrative Jewish owned factories illegally placed there.
Israel's fear is that they will be made to give back their illegal, illgotten gains taken from the indigenous Palestinian population of all faiths. Apparently they feel that they can kill all who oppose their thefts of land and water.
They even tried to kill a US Congresswoman - McKinney, in preventing aid to Gaza by deliberately ramming the boat she was on. I'm not surprised - remember the USS Liberty!!!!! - another sneak attack by the IDF.
No amount of B***S** from the Israeli shills should distract anybody's attention from the grim reality of US supported IDF continuing atrocities in Gaza.But I could be wrong !
nomoreexceptionalism called to "put and end to Israel"
Is that not a call for Genocide? (Or at least for ethnic cleansing?)
If it's not anti-semitism, please explain what it is.
If someone would have say: Any country who did XYZ should not exist - and than that person gives a list of all the countries commited XYZ, - than he is not anti-Semite.
If however, someone say: The Jewish state should not exist because it did XYZ, while ignoring everyone else who commit XYZ. - Than that person is an anti-Semite.
I'll be waiting for these double face bigots to provide us with the list of all the UN members that should be "put to an end" base on a criterion of their choice. Than I'll tell you what these peopel are.
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Israel didn't tried to "kill" US Congresswoman - McKinney. Israel tried to stop her from entering Gaza. If Israel would have wanted to kill McKinney, do you think she would still be alive?
Israel didn't refuse to recognize Palestinian rights in Gaza (such as right to freely elect Hamas as the guv) - They can vote whomever they want.
What not recognized by Israel is the Hamas natural right to indiscriminately kill Jews.
If your house will be bomb daily for 8 years with rockets and mortar bombs and you do nothing about it - than you will be in a position to say: I'm better than Israel.
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A War crime is a war crime is a war crime. Even if the victims are Israelis.
If someone says all nations and all people should be judged by the same set of rules, you call that someone an Israeli Shill. Than how would you call people who say that Jewish state should be judged by a set of rules different than all other nations?
Good day.
Ramming a boat is an Act of War, and the only reason to ram another boat is to sink it.
Too bad McKinney didn't drown or get eaten by a shark.
Bad Karma for you!
The criticism of Israeli atrocities is NOT about the holocaust.
If I was deprived of food, gas, medical supplies, pencils, pens, ink, etc. - I may consider replying with rockets - especially if neighbors were killed just because the GOP was in power, I may be tempted to do homemade rockets s well.
But to call the response to such actions 'retaliation' is hogwash. The response to any non-military strangulation such as is described above is 'Retaliation'. Any overwhelming armed response to that is MURDER!
But I could be wrong !
It's nice to live in civilization where one reads of these attrocities and does not have to fear them happening to them. It's very much like republicans who live behind gated communites. They don't care because the bloodshed is not going to affect them personally.
As long as the USA keeps ignoring Jewish aggression in the middle east and permitts Jewish monopolization of finance markets on wall street (e.g. Maddoff and many others), the world will base itself on violence and greed.
We in the USA need to abolish the Federal Reserve Bank which has drained us down to nothing, and just print our own money and not give interest on every dollar to a bunch of private parasites. We need to get fanatical religious christian dogma out of our goverment and keep it out.
I worry for the world.
Human life has become extordinarily cheap this decade. Human life is valueless to the dogs of war and for good reason: there's way to much human life on this planet to stay sustainable. As the poles melt and the temp climbs outside the range of historical norm, Homo Sapiens is very likely to go extinct in the next century or two.
I don't think the surviving Geckos or cockroaches will miss us one little bit.
Financially, the day may come when our military collapses from the shear size of it's operations (The way Rome, Brittain and Spain did.) Let's withdraw all support for Israel now, and if she can't get along with her relatives, if she can't act civilized to her captive pow's; I say just let her fall into the sea. She'll just have to take her chances with her Arab neighbors. The way she treats her neighbors, I won't miss her one little bit.
Israel responding to missile attacks, suicide bombings and other hostile actions by the Palestinians against Israeli civilians is not aggression - it is self defense!
malcolm martin,
Excellent analysis of the brutal forces of capitalism. May its end come sooner than later and let rise a "socialist" model that seriously acts for the long term well-being of humanity and retroactively enforces justice against war criminals - irregardless of who commits them.
nwfisher and mymicz1,
You are truly sick "individuals" and in dire need of a reality check! So war is the highest form of bullying, right? I hope that you both meet your fate soon...
...What Goes Around Comes Around
WGACA, I like your name and the Bush and Olmert crime families should give it serious thought. Things can change so fast. Just ask the people who ran Lehman Brothers or Bernie Madoff's clients. If only you could, ask Benito Mussolini. That damn meat hook!
One minute you're "the decider" calling all the shots, can't think of any mistakes you've made. You kill from long range, never have to look in the children's eyes before they explode. The next minute you're at the mercy of the people. Small cell, the smell of your urine in the air, staring into bright lights and cameras, listening to the voice of your interrogators, thinking "what goes around really does come around."
What Israel is doing now is sheer barbarism, and the world knows it.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope