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Media Silence Doesn't Mean All's Well in Gaza
As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
You may not have heard much lately about the disaster in the Gaza Strip. That silence is intentional: The Israeli government has barred international journalists from entering the occupied territory. Last week, executives from the Associated Press, New York Times, Reuters, CNN, BBC and other news organizations sent a letter of protest to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticizing his government's decision to bar journalists from entering Gaza.
Israel has virtually sealed off the Gaza Strip and cut off aid and fuel shipments. A spokesman for Israel's Defense Ministry said Israel was displeased with international media coverage, which he said inflated Palestinian suffering and did not make clear that Israel's measures were in response to Palestinian violence.
A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the group that won Palestinian elections nearly three years ago and controls Gaza, broke down after an Israeli raid killed six Hamas militants two weeks ago. More Israeli raids have followed, killing approximately 17 Hamas members, and Palestinian militants have fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel, injuring several people.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has criticized Israel over its blockade of the overcrowded Gaza, home to close to 1.5 million Palestinians. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is warning that Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to blockade aid from reaching the territory.
The sharply divided landscape of Israel and the occupied territories is familiar ground for South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Tutu was in New York last week to receive the Global Citizens Circle award. I sat down with him at the residence of the South African vice consul.
Tutu reflected on the Israeli occupation: "Coming from South Africa ... and looking at the checkpoints ... when you humiliate a people to the extent that they are being -- and, yes, one remembers the kind of experience we had when we were being humiliated -- when you do that, you're not contributing to your own security."
Tutu said the embargo must be lifted. "The suffering is unacceptable. It doesn't promote the security of Israel or any other part of that very volatile region," he said. "There are very, very many in Israel who are opposed to what is happening."
Tutu points to the outgoing Israeli prime minister. In September, Olmert made a stunning declaration to Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest Israeli newspaper. He said that Israel should withdraw from nearly all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace with the Palestinians and Syria: "I am saying what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: We should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights." Olmert said that traditional Israeli defense strategists had learned nothing from past experiences and that they seemed stuck in the considerations of the 1948 War of Independence. He said: "With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop. All these things are worthless."
Olmert appears to have come closer to his daughter's point of view. In 2006, Dana Olmert was among 200 people who gathered outside the home of the Israeli army chief of staff and chanted "murderer" as they protested Israeli killings of Palestinians (Archbishop Tutu was blocked from entering Gaza in his U.N.- backed attempts to investigate those killings). Ehud Olmert recently resigned over corruption allegations, but remains prime minister until a new government is approved by parliament.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al- Maliki criticized Olmert for waiting until now to call for an end to the settlements: "We wish we heard this personal opinion when Olmert was prime minister, not after he resigned. I think it is a very important commitment, but it came too late. We hope this commitment will be fulfilled by the new Israeli government."
Israel is a top recipient of U.S. military aid. Archbishop Tutu says of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, "When that is resolved, what we will find (is) that the tensions between the West and ... a large part of the Muslim world ... evaporates." He said of Obama, "I pray that this new president will have the capacity to see we've got to do something here ... for the sake of our children."
23 Comments so far
Show AllDoes anyone doubt that the Israeli leadership knew that there would be a Qassam response when it approved the incursion into Gaza and the resultant Palestinians deaths on the pretext that a disputed tunnel had to be destroyed
That being so, the obvious question is why was this step taken? While it may be attributable to the upcoming election by providing a conflict condition which enhances support for war-like policies, my view that it is part of a long-term strategy to paint the Palestinians as a permanent grave threat to Israeli security.
The problem with this strategy is that the Qassams are such a small threat as to be laughable - there have been EIGHT Israeli fatalities caused by Qassams in the past five years. Nevertheless, Israel, aided by a complicit media, both at home and internationally, continues the relentless BS Qassam propaganda campaign. Can anyone recall a SINGLE article or television report that even mentioned the ineffectiveness of Qassams and the gross disproportionalilty between the Palestinian deaths and those of Israelis caused by those glorified fireworks?
Hopefully, one day the media will regain its journalistic integrity and report the so-called grave Qassam threat for what it is - nonsense.
I've thought of the two sides analogous to a family on a road trip with the two siblings in the back seat. with the bigger one (israel) constantly poking and pestering the smaller one (Palestine). Until the smaller one has had enough and then *SMACK*! Well, guess who gets the blame? Even though the smaller on can do no real damage to the bigger one, that's who the parents bitch at.
It's kinna like that.
Israeli Government Policy: Try Intentional Genocide by Slow Starvation and Disease with as many of those pesky Palestinians dead as possible by Barack Obama's Inauguration.
abdosoliman46
If I am not mistaken the attorney for the international court of justice charge the president of Sudan of genocide against the people of Darfore by using slow starvation and disease. Please correct me If I am wrong.
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
27 November 2008
The slow death that is being visited on the Palestinians in Gaza is finding its first victims in more than 400 critically ill patients who are being prevented from leaving Gaza for urgent medical attention in Israeli or Arab hospitals. Thousands of other patients are being turned away from hospitals suffering from a severe shortage of 300 different kinds of medicines. Sonja Karkar comments. [MORE]
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9997.shtml
When it comes to the innocent Palestinians versus the real terrorists and extremists be they in Israel, Pakistan, or India, the innocent ones lose while the terrorists win. America had a chance to crush Al Quaida in Afghanistan and she blew it and went to Iraq instead ! The terrorists don't care about the innocent harmless Palestinians getting sacrificed. And we're the losers as our taxpayer money is going to both the zionists in Israel and the terrorist groups of both sides.
Hmmm...
Israel targets terrorist.
Hamas targets civilians.
Israel doesn't want to "push the palestinians into the sea".
Hamas officially wants to "push Israel into the sea".
Maybe those would be good points to start with, you know, for any upcoming negotiations.
More Palestinian Children have been killed by the IDF then the total number of Israelis by Civilians.
In Joes World these children are terrosits.
Israel REFUSES to recognize Palestinians as a people. In fact their past Prime Ministers have claimed Palestinians do not exist and that when Israleis came to the land it was empty,
Israel refuses to allow Palestinians to return to homes and territories they have seized from the Palestinians.
It is not the Isrealis being pushed into the sea.
Inventing facts, GwNorth? You should be ashamed.
I guess you have no problem with Hamas using children as human shields, right?
joe dope strikes again.
Joe... "dope".
Ha!
Get it?
Okay, I understand, it's confusing.
Take my username Joe "Hope", take away the "H" from "Hope", add a "D", and you get "dope". Now do you get it? Joe... "Dope" (HOPE - H = OPE, D + OPE = DOPE)
Admittedly, it's sophisticated humor, so once again...
dope
n.
1. Informal
a. A narcotic, especially an addictive narcotic.
b. Narcotics considered as a group.
c. An illicit drug, especially marijuana.
2. A narcotic preparation used to stimulate a racehorse.
3. Informal A stupid person; a dolt.
4. Informal Factual information, especially of a private nature.
5. Chemistry An absorbent or adsorbent material used in certain manufacturing processes, such as the nitroglycerin used in making dynamite.
6. A type of lacquer formerly used to protect, waterproof, and tauten the cloth surfaces of airplane wings.
7. Chiefly Southern U.S. See cola1.
8. Lower Northern U.S. Syrup or sweet sauce poured on ice cream.
Obviously, Barra2005 is referring to definition number 4.
I'm Joe "Dope", as in, someone who dispenses "informal factual information".
Thank you, Barra2005, I do like to think I'm giving people the straight dope.
Really, that was very cleaver.
Good job!
abdosoliman46
Jo hope I read your comments and wonder are you another plumber?
U.S. military aid to Israel must end.
Gaza is Israel's holocaust.
With the American politicians totally beholden to AIPAC and their minions, it is up to the rest of the world to push back and stop this genocide.
"Archbishop Tutu says of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, "When that is resolved, what we will find (is) that the tensions between the West and ... a large part of the Muslim world ... evaporates."
If that happens, the M/I/I complex will have to find new enemies to attack.
RamzisRizing 911 updates to me sometimes 3 X daily re; Israeli navy murdering innocent Palestinian fisherman, being closely watched by Peace Moderators of all Ethnicities, a Holocaust survivor included, she's 80 something, give her a bit of privacy, just go here Constitutionalert and learn a bit we all can use real info instead of GD HOPE!
BillofRights
Zionist militarists are imposing an inhuman and illegal crime, apartheid, on the Palestinian people by the partitioning of Gaza. This hugely ironic copy of the walling of Jewish communities before World War II became a war and before the Nazi Holocaust is an on-going and exponentially expanding war crime. Not all Islaelis support or approve it. It is time to oppose in all ways the fascist military-industrial complexes, everywhere. They are mob racketeers and criminals.
Pierre:I would only question your timing, or specifically, I am thinking of the Warsaw ghetto wall. The wall the Israeli's were building, when it began, made me think of Warsaw. I think it's a progression rather than "before World War II became a war" re Warsaw. I think of other walls: the Berlin wall, the wall the US is building on the Southern border. And the most famous:the Great Wall of China.
I applaud my sister/fellow CD comments for keeping this sad conversation on a tone of adults. I came kicking and screaming into learning about Palestine and Israel in the 1990s, mostly via WBAI, Pacifica Network's station in NYC www.wbai.org. DemocracyNow began as a WBAI based show. I have heard almost every DemocracyNow show, still running weekdays on WBAI. One of the guests over the years has been Phyllis Bennis, who is with the Institute for Policy Studies DC(and she's been on other shows on WBAI). I make a point of noting that Amy Goodman has said she is the granddaughter of a rabbi, Bennis has said she is Jewish and I am a Jew. As an American, I don't identify with Israel. As a "progressive", I am opposed to the policies of the Bush Administration. As a Jew, I am opposed to the policies of the Israeli government. Chomsky has written much on the subject (he is a Jew). www.chomsky.info I often think how painful it must be for the old people who are survivors of the Holocaust in Europe, who are in Israel, to witness what is happening to Palestinians. I read the memoir of Amos Oz,"A Tale of Love and Darkness", an Israeli for his point of view. I remember that Noam Chomsky once said that if South Africa could work out a peaceful solution, so could Israel with the Palestinians. On another occasion, he pointed out that the US uses Israel as an offshore base. I think a lot of the aid to Israel that is military aid must be used to purchase American weapons. As a progressive, I am very sad. I have written my member of Congress on many occasions, particularly around investigating the murder of Rachel Corrie on 3/16/2003, when the Israeli Defense Force driver rode an American made/paid Catepillar bulldozer into Rachel Corrie. There is a group Jews Against the Occupation of Palestine that has a website and has had demonstrations in NYC.
NYCartist: I agree completely. Also, there are many walls: of barbed wire, cement, cruelty and humiliation (at checkpoints), and mental walls of automatic prejudices, arrogance, and stupidity. May the opponents of walls and apartheid in "the Holy Land" prevail! And may the walls of modern weapons (including bulldozers) and back-shootings against un-armed humans vanish!
Pierre:thanks. I like the add-on of "back-shootings against un-armed humans vanish!" Police in the USA do an amount of shootings at civilians, and in the back. I know someone paralyzed from being shot in the back by police who didn't find a weapon, which is interesting, since they have been known to "plant" one. They claimed the person they shot in the back was shooting at them.
I have been a fan of Amy's for some time now because of her diligent quest for a balanced media and the resultant product...THE TRUTH! "Democracy Now" and Bill Moyers may be the only true jounalism left to us in prime time.
Pope Paul VI once said, "If you want Peace, work for Justice". Our country's myopic and un-reasoned billion dollar per year support of Israeli apartheid must stop. The Muslim community cries out for justice and fights back with their only weapons slingshots, suicide bombers, and un-sophisticated rockets. I wonder what we Americans would do in similar circumstances?
For the first time in years there my be some real hope for the Palestinians and for moderate Israelis as well. On January 20th, of next year, the neoconservatives and Zionists, that infest the Bush administration, will be rendered powerless. Good riddance. What has continued to puzzle me is why the moderate Jews, citizens of this country, have not spoken out against the Zionists and their influence on our governments unfair decisions regarding the Palestine/Israel conflict. Could it be that Jews, who would ordinarily speak up, are also cowed by the far-right Jewish organizations determined to silence any opposition whatsoever to the Zionists agenda. In Israel the problems of occupation and settlements are freely discussed. Say anything in opposition to the Israeli mid-east tactics in this country and you are immediately piled on by an assortment of Jewish organizations. What happened to free speech? The Jews could have used a little of that in Germany in the 1930's. I find it somewhat ironic that some of the tactics used by Hitler to persecute the Jews are now being employed by Israel in its dispute with Palestine.
Come on, you moderate Jews, speak up! In the eyes of the world you are allowing yourselves to be grouped as one entity tarnished by the actions of few extremists. Is this what the victims of the Holocaust would expect of their descendents?
Check out the group Jews Against the Occupation of Palestine and they'll link you to other groups. You assume. Why?