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The Gaza War is Completely Stoppable
We have seen this movie before. In the summer of 2006, Israel invaded Lebanon. Replace "Hizbullah" with "Hamas" and "Lebanon" with "Gaza," and much we have seen in the last few days is depressingly familiar. Once again, the Israeli military assault is justified on the basis of the need to stop rocket attacks on Israel, even though it is widely conceded that this will not be the result. Once again, establishment voices in Washington give carte blanche to the military action, even though few believe it will accomplish its stated objectives, and everyone understands that it will impose a huge political cost for the United States around the world, especially in the Arab and Muslim world.
But, although one can only be sick at the repeated, completely unnecessary loss of life, there is a silver lining to the Lebanon precedent: international outrage in 2006 effectively forced the United States government into a corner, in which it finally could no longer resist a ceasefire. And there is no reason to believe that what happened in 2006 can not and will not happen again now.
The question is then how long it will take international outrage to build to the level necessary to force the US government to stop backing the Israeli military action, and therefore how many Palestinians and Israelis will needlessly die in the meantime.
In some ways we have a head start over 2006. No-one can now plausibly claim that there is something intrinsically wrong with a ceasefire, or that there is something intrinsically wrong with negotiating with Hamas to achieve a new ceasefire. After all, just over six months ago, Israel and Hamas negotiated a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, with the active encouragement of the United States. There was never any daylight between Israel and Hamas on whether a ceasefire was desirable; what was in dispute, and remained in dispute, was what the parameters of the ceasefire would be. Israel wanted the ceasefire limited to military calm-for-calm across the Israel-Gaza border. Hamas wanted the ceasefire to include significant easing of the economic blockade on Gaza and also to extend to the West Bank. These differences were finessed in the ceasefire agreement at the time, leading many to conclude that the disagreements would eventually explode the ceasefire agreement, as they now have.
But if you know this history, then you know that the statement "Israel had to act to protect its citizens from rocket attacks" is sorely lacking. Of course Hamas rocket attacks generated political pressure in Israel for a response. But was this the only possible response? If it was not the only possible response, was it the most effective response towards the stated goal? Among possible responses, was it moral and just?
After all, there is every reason to believe that the ceasefire could have continued and even been strengthened if Israel - and the United States - had been willing to ease the economic blockade of Gaza and extend the ceasefire to the West Bank. Since it was at least as likely - probably much more likely - that this would have done more to reduce and perhaps eliminate rocket attacks, it is reasonable to suggest that a key goal of the military assault is to maintain the economic blockade and maintain the status quo in the West Bank.
And, when you consider that former President Carter and other luminaries have denounced the economic blockade as an "abomination," and that even Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has conceded that Israel must give up almost all of the West Bank in any political settlement, then it is extremely hard to justify the military campaign on the basis that it is necessary to defend the economic blockade, or the status quo in the West Bank.
And therefore it is likely that pressure can build more quickly now than it did in 2006, and fewer people will have to die. Already, "mainstream pro-Israel peace groups" in the US have spoken out in favor of an immediate ceasefire. Notably, J Street called not only for a ceasefire, but for lifting the blockade.
There are many ways to take action; you can write to President-elect Obama here and to President Bush and Congress here.
- Posted in
51 Comments so far
Show AllObama's lack of comment smacks of cowardice (a la Bush) while Cynthia McKinney has placed her life on the line supporting a common sense of humanity.
But I could be wrong !
For those willing to see, it was clear Obama would be no more than another "plantation house black," while McKinney had already proven herself to be strongly committed like MLK to the cause of peace, justice and making the USA a civil country instead of Barbarous Empire. Like Rice and Powell, Obama is just a stooge.
you could be wrong too
The only reason the Lebanese war ended was because Hizbullah hand the IDF their collective arses. The international community were not able to do anything as the US of A (I mean the US of I) was tacitly supporting it. And the US of I was busy vetoing any resolution that was remotely critical of the racist apartheid nation of israel.
This is what happens when a good chunk of the governing representative in the country are jews.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.)
Carl Levin (D-Mich.)
Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.)
Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
House of Representatives
Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
Susan Davis (D-Calif.)
Bob Filner (D-Calif.)
Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
Tom Lantos (D-Calif.)
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)
Howard Waxman (D-Calif.)
Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.)
Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)
Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
Sander Levin (D-Mich.)
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)
Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.)
Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)
Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)
Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)
Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)
Martin Frost (D-Texas)
Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Bernard Sanders (Ind-Vt.)
Pretty disengenuous!!!
Your comments paint all with the same brush. You are using the tactics of the enemy - making all responsible when there is a wide range of belifs in this group about Israel.
It's like saying all people who voted for Hamas represent the entire spectrum of Islamic diversity.
Wrong way to go about it.
But I could be wrong !
Everyone Horrified listed is a Zionist.
Horrified missed the junior senator from New York.
"It's like saying all people who voted for Hamas represent the entire spectrum of Islamic diversity.
Wrong way to go about it.
But I could be wrong !"
You're not wrong. Painting all Jews the same is racist, just like painting all Muslims the same is racist. While there is a strong and influential Israeli contingent in the US, branding all Jewish members of any organization proves nothing other than the poster's ignorance.
This Iraeli/Palestinian issue always brings the racists out of their holes whenever it flares up.
You're right, of course, Ted. But the real isssue is worse than that. In truth the majority of American Jews do not agree with the AIPAC line. Neither does the majority of Israeli Jews. Worse is that not only have American politicians have been scared to criticize any policies of Israel("AntiSemite" is still a good tool to bring critics to the AIPAC heel, as is "Self-hating Jew")but also that the US press is muzzled by the same fear. You get far more free and critical opposition in Israel, both on the street and in the press, than you get in the USA.
There was an article, I believe in The Nation, about a year ago written by Tony Judt, the British historian. He told how, in the process of writing an article for an American newspaper (if I remember rightly it was the NY Times), an article highly critical of Israel, he was flabbergasted to be told that he must identify himself as a Jew at the beginning. The editors felt that without that identification all the hounds of hell would descend to bark "anti-Semitism!" at the newspaper. Of course he'd never have been ordered to do that by a UK or other foreign newspaper.
And yet, as I said earlier, in terms of Jewish support for AIPAC-LIKUD, this name-calling should be phantom menace.
Rainborowe
Horrified: First of all, that isn't even a high percentage of people in congress - 5%, IF they are even ALL Jewish.
Secondly, they don't all vote together on these issues.
Thirdly, i think you are probably well aware that the Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals and christian zionists are the largest percentage of people who support israel in the US (and globally), in a knee jerk fashion, waiting for the second coming as per their biblical prophesy. Even if you just count people, there are far more of them than there are Jewish people.
Fourthly, Israel is a satellite base for the u.s. military as far as i can tell. It is a front at this point. That is what i believe and i was born Jewish. I think the Bush administration gave this the green light. They couldn't survive without the u.s. And I am so very happy that Obama is having to see protestors at his Hawaian vacation compound. Maybe the honeymoon will be over sooner than later!
Remember that the jewish population worldwide is .02% - it's insane. They concentrate on education, which gives them power - but poor people are denied the ability to do the same. This is shameful.
I hope i am incorrect, but are you bashing education as a universal value here? This isn't a response to the article or even a political commentary--i just was taken aback when i read this...
I think you are incorrect in thinking that he/she is bashing education here. I read it totally differently--the poster is saying that Israel denies education to the poor, the same thing which empowers it(Israel), its emphasis on education. One example would be Israel's recent refusal to allow Palestinian scholarship students to leave the Territories for study abroad.
That's how I read too was an overall critique of the USE of differences in education to maintain oppressive power. If all people had a crack at free education like they do in Sweden we wouldn't have these problems.
"This is what happens when a good chunk of the governing" is done by Bush, Inc.
Do you think for one second that this is not blessed by Bush, Inc. - If you do you might as well go back to FOX News!!
The elite in general you mean? If you think the Obama is going to do any better surrounded by neo-con hawks you are kidding yourself. I wonder if Maddow, Olberman, KOS, Air America and all the other other captive to the me too Dimocrapic party "liberals" will suddenly start towing the pro Israel pro war in Iraq line Jan 21st? Although I consider myself a hard left Green activist I have to give even the Libertarian antiwar.com and Pat Buchanan's "American Conservative" more credit than liberal Dims for being consistently anti empire abroad, and police state at home, too bad paleo-con and Libertarian economic policies are cancerously capitalistic. :(
And as long as the Far Right and the Far Left continue to allow corrupt EU leaders and the US to make secret "deals" to protect the zionists and "protect" dictatorships such as those of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc ..., all of which are enabling and empowering the nazi zionists ruining it for Israel, the Gaza war will remain unstoppable and we the sheeple will continue to be bombarded with more tragic stories. Enough already. Either hold them all accountable and stop lying about one being more guilty than the other or get ready for more tragedies ahead !
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
I agree that all of what you say are serious problems that need to be addressed: but the immediate concern is to stop the bombings (and any possible escalation) to stop.
The only way bombings and escalation are going to stop is to hold all culprits accountable. Forget short term quickies. They haven't worked for the past 60 years and never will.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Barack is sensible, practical, and careful. He will want to use his people and
all opinions to be able to access the realities of this situation. This is much more complex than the Mumbai attack which was straight forward. I appreciate his
no knee-jerk reaction and expect he will deal as well as possible in what is--- a ?43 year catastrophie!
Based on the people around him, and if i am to believe his campaign rhetoric, i expect Obama to support israel whole heartedly. Unless he becomes transfigured within the next three weeks, what logical reality and facts on the ground reason would one have to expect otherwise? We know who he has chosen and what he is on record as stating...
That I can be so fundamentally disappointed in Obama after so much hope in "change", to me, is tragic.
Ditto.
Methinks McKinney has more 'balls' on this issue than Obama.
But I could be wrong !
Methinks McKinney isn't the president elect...which carries sightly more gravity than an ex-pol. I like Cynthia McKinney and think she definitely has "balls," but let's not lose ourselves here.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Ted Markow: all "balls" comments in re McKinney or any other woman gets an "OINK". We don't need them. It's so funny to be defining our courage in terms of your genitals. It's 2009. Need a way to describe it? Work on it.Hmmmmm Start with labor contractions and giving birth. Or see the obit of Helen Suzman for courage. Or women surviving wars....
Good point NYCartist Amy Goodman who was injured documenting war crimes in Indonesia is one the corages PEOPLE alive right now on planet earth. Less racism and sexism please, and more focus on government crimes and what their motivations are.
He APPEARS to be sensible, rational and careful. But that's just the outside veneer. Inside, he's a pro-corporatist, pro-Israeli, pro-U.S. and Israeli terrorism, pro-militarist corrupt politician.
The Mumbai attacks arose out of the continuing partition and occupation of Kashmir. That has already caused, if I remember aright, two wars between India and Pakistan--before they had nuclear weapons. And nobody seems interested in asking the Kashmiris whether they'd rather be rid of both occupiers. (They would.) It's hard to see all that mess as "straightforward," even without the complication of nukes.
Rainborowe
You take my Human Rights away, I will do anything in my power to regain them, Palestinians are no different than me.
There are not two sides to the massacre in the Gaza Ghetto, no more than there are two sides in a rape.
zionists are the scourge of the Jews, zionists create antisemitism.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
Robert Fisk: The self delusion that plagues both sides in this bloody conflict
Israel has never won a war in a built-up city, that's why threats of 'war to the bitter end' are nonsense
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-self-delusion-that-plagues-both-sides-in-this-bloody-conflict-1218224.html
During the second Palestinian "intifada", I was sitting in the offices of Hizbollah's Al-Manar television station in Beirut, watching news footage of a militiaman's funeral in Gaza. The television showed hordes of Hamas and PLO gunmen firing thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air to honour their latest "martyr"; and I noticed, just next to me, a Lebanese Hizbollah member – who had taken part in many attacks against the Israelis in what had been Israel's occupation zone in southern Lebanon – shaking his head.
What was he thinking, I asked? "Hamas try to stand up to the Israelis," he replied. "But..." And here he cast his eyes to the ceiling. "They waste bullets. They fire all these bullets into the sky. They should use them to shoot at Israelis."
His point, of course, was that Hamas lacked discipline, the kind of iron, ruthless discipline and security that Hizbollah forged in Lebanon and which the Israeli army was at last forced to acknowledge in southern Lebanon in 2006. Guns are weapons, not playthings for funerals. And Gaza is not southern Lebanon. It would be as well for both sides in this latest bloodbath in Gaza to remember this. Hamas is not Hizbollah. Jerusalem is not Beirut. And Israeli soldiers cannot take revenge for their 2006 defeat in Lebanon by attacking Hamas in Gaza – not even to help Ms Livni in the Israeli elections.
[more]
Obama justified Israel's action on the basis of its need to protect itself from Hamas's rockets, but he needs to trace the cause of the problem a little further than the rockets: Israel still occupies the West Bank and imposes hardships on the Palestinians there. In addition, although it withdraw from Gaza two years ago, it still imposes economic blockade and controls the Gaza air and territorial waters and other restrictions.
To the Palestinians, and particularly Hamas, Gaza is an example of what a Palestinian state would be like if they accepted a two-state solution: a state with no sovreignity; a state which Isreal controls as it does Gaza now. This is one of the biggest barriers to a solution.
Obama needs to take a bird's eyeview of the problem!
"and everyone understands that it will impose a huge political cost for the United States around the world, especially in the Arab and Muslim world. "
This doesnt even make sense. How big should the 'political cost' be to make a difference ? I dont think our 'standing' in the world can be any lower than it is currently.
bligh4
Hamas will not stop until Israel is obliterated. They say this continuely, It is in their Charter, it is central to their movement and party. Why doesn't anyone believe them?
Why would we not believe them? A growing number of people have begun to think this is a reasonable agenda. Certainly Israel intends to obliterate Hamas. Need an update? http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topics/the-other-side-of-the-story
You got to be proud of allowing your tax dollars go towards funding both camps with plenty of WMDs. But hey, pay no attention to those poor civilians hating America for being an A-M-O-R-A-L nation. Enjoy all your oil based products at the expense of those "pesky" civilians. Just allow those corrupt EU/US misleaders along with those corrupt puppet dictators in the Arab world "cooperate" with the zionists running Israel continue to delude you. It's fun isn't it?
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Robert Naiman wrote:"The Gaza War is Completely Stoppable"
You do not call what is happening a war!! It is a massacre of the Palestinian
people. Almost 400 Palestinian is dead and more than 2000 severly wounded for 2 Israelis dead and 5 wonded Israelis. Add to that the devastation that happened to Gaza.
It is like you are describing a brutal rape as a conflict.
In spite of biased coverage, truth is that Hamas rockets have killed and terrified.
As usual the Arabs started it...That's been the story of the violence since the 1920s.
What do you expect us to do when you shoot rockets at us? Say "Thank you"?
Sam Abrams
mas.smarba@gmail.com
And where does Hammas and the Israeli zionists get all those weapons and money from sir? The US, EU, and the DICTATORS of the neighboring Arab nations. Hammas and Israel wouldn't be knocking each other out otherwise. Get your facts straight and quit sucking up to the zionist propaganda.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
What do you expect when you steal land from people Zionist apologist, flowers?
Did you get the call on MEGAPHONE too? Do you have your copy of the Hasbara guide bookmarked? More scripted Zionist talking points in 4,3,2,1... Go!
"What do you expect us to do when you shoot rockets at us? Say "Thank you"?"
Sam Abrams
My answer would be yes.
Israel's creation was unjust. And in the decades since nothing has changed. Israel has done everything to make things worse, while pretending that it wants peace. If it actually wants peace, then its mentally ill and self destructive.
The attack on Lebanon proved this. They claimed it was to get back two soldiers(captured because Israel has 10 000 ever since it invaded Lebanon in 82). Then after it started pounding Hezbollah, they responded by firing rockets(how dare they defend themselves!). The Israel said it was about the rockets, and they went so far as to poison the ocean and prevent cleanup. Then they dropped tons of land mines.
Israel doesnt want peace.
Its view is simple: Jews are better than non jews according to the One True God, who gave us this land(even though others lived there first according to the Bible).
Only jews have a right to defend themselves.
Only jewish suffering matters(this is why they see nothing wrong with imprisoning arabs behind blockades--arabs ar enot equals).
If you disagree with us you hate jews or are a self hating jew.
1 jew is worth 300 non jews.
This is proven time and time again.
The fact that they had Israeli students write messages on bombs to drop on lebanon proves that Israel fosters a country of hate(and Bush is their favorite US president).
You hardly ever see what Gandhi said on it, but his comments really cut to the source of the conflict:
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?"
He thus questioned the very foundational logic of political Zionism. Gandhi rejected the idea of a Jewish State in the Promised Land by pointing out that the "Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract." The Zionists, after embarking upon a policy of colonization of Palestine and after getting British recognition through the Balfour Declaration of 1917 for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews," tried to elicit maximum international support. The Jewish leaders were keen to get an approval for Zionism from Gandhi as his international fame as the leader of a non-violent national struggle against imperialism would provide great impetus for the Jewish cause. But his position was one of total disapproval of the Zionist project both for political and religious reasons.
**
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?"
**all the irrational comments from Zionists cant counter the logic of his position.
Has Israel made peace?
Did it make peace in 71 when Sadat offered it?
Or in 81?
Or in 2002 when Saudi Arabia proposed another deal which israel once again rejected?
If Israel wants peace-why does it build settlements?
Anyway--as weapon technology improves, Israel will be hurt by it.
They are too trusting in the Chosen people myth.
...and I thought Israel's "lease agreement" with God, as set forth in Deutoronomy chapter 28, was "terminated" by God, in 70 AD for failure to live up to the terms of that agreement. God then sent the "local sheriff", Rome to evict them, from Palastine.
The UN was playing "God" in reversing HIS desicion and letting them "back in."
The best way for those who call themselves Jews to stop the incursions of Israel on Gaza, is to resign from the Jewish religion as a protest to the behavior of the Jewish state, Israel 2009. I would appreciate it! Check out www.jewishcrimenetwork.com. Happy 2009, to all non-Satanists.
Wave a magic wand, and israel is no longer.
Problem solved? Hardly.
As i see it, this only the beginning.
This is a religious conflict, and the agenda of islam is the fuel.
They will not stop, until they have forced islam on everyone, turned every country into an islamic state, and have instilled sharia law throughout the world.
Until the muslims internally change this part of their dogma, (and we all know that will not happen), then we will never see peace.
So.............. fill in the blank.
MEGAPHONE alert leftists dare question Israel's crimes against humanity... Scripted Hasbara talking points in 4,3,2,1.. Go!
sierra7
Your "diatribe" has the odor of old moth balls!
"The best way for those who call themselves Jews to stop the incursions of Israel on Gaza, is to resign from the Jewish religion as a protest to the behavior of the Jewish state, Israel 2009. I would appreciate it! Check out www.jewishcrimenetwork.com. Happy 2009, to all non-Satanists."
Hallelujah to that, and while were at it, we can call on muslims to do the same, until terrorism against innocent children in the name of islam stops.
Happy 2009 to you as well.
terryb:you should have added the name to the quote, so it doesn't look like it's yours. It's too silly to reply to directly. I am a Jew. I don't take advice on what to do. I don't tell my Muslim friends, Christian friends and Buddhists friends what to do either in re their religious or non. Imagine telling .....eh.
This website used to have intelligent and insightful commentary, but it sure has changed. What is up with commondreams lately? People who have a chance to curse and spew hate speech on any side of a topic are so eager to post here.
Well, i am going to blame it on CD's shameless promotion of conservative democrat and neoliberal Barack Obama. It's karma. You guys sold out.