Israel is again on a murderous rampage in Gaza. In December 2008, Israeli forces attacked the besieged Palestinian territory and killed over 1400 civilians mostly women and children. In May 2010, the Israeli navy attacked a Turkish flotilla with peaceful multinational people on board, bound for Gaza to offer help to its long suffering people; 9 people died in the assault. Why is Israel attacking Gaza again?
Before I go any further let me clarify one point. Israeli occupation forces evacuated Gaza in August 2005 but laid siege to it by land, air and sea to starve its population and violate their basic human rights. The UK prime minister, David Cameron once spoke of Gaza as a “prison camp, some sort of open-air prison”.
The claim today that Palestinians are violating the cease-fire with Israel is a deceitful argument. Certainly, Israel has the right to defend its citizens from any attacks. But maintaining a whole population (over 1.7 million) under siege, in squalid conditions of poverty, hopeless and jobless, and with the threat of collective punishment constantly hanging over them and then expecting them not to react and defend themselves is preposterous.
But why now? Arguments abound. The elections PM Netanyahu has called for in January 2013; his alliance with his foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing, racist party Yisrael Beiteinu; the bid for Palestinian statehood at the UN by the Palestinian Authority; and the discovery of a new class of missiles introduced into Gaza which allegedly threaten Israel’s security.
Let me start from the end. The few missiles the Palestinians have succeeded in lobbing into Israeli territory from Gaza are certainly of a category hitherto unknown in the hands of Hamas. But how did those missiles get there? The frontier between Gaza and Israel and Gaza and Egypt is one of the most controlled on the planet. Israel claims that those relatively sophisticated arms were smuggled through tunnels dug under the 7 miles (11 kilometres) frontier separating the territory and Egypt. Isn’t it amazing that Israel’s forces, considered to be amongst the most sophisticated in the world and reinforced by US surveillance satellites, have not managed to monitor this tiny strip more closely?
The bid for Palestinian statehood by the Palestinian Authority might also be an argument to explain this ferocious onslaught on Gaza. Israel claims that President Abbas, by proceeding directly to the UN, is violating the peace agreements signed between Israel and the PLO on the lawn of the White House back in 1993 between Itzhaq Rabin and Yasser Arafat which called for direct negotiations to achieve a permanent solution between the parties. But Israel has constantly violated those agreements since the assassination of Rabin at the hands of Israeli extremists in 1995. Not only has settlement building has gone on unhindered in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, but successive Israeli governments have refused to allow the Palestinian Authority a minimum of leeway to come to terms with the pressing demands of a Palestinian population living since 1967 under occupation and under constant duress.
Israel is in dire straits. Israel’s upcoming election is definitely a reason for the onslaught on Gaza. The alliance of the most extreme right-wing political forces for the upcoming elections bodes no good tidings for peace in the region and for the future of Israel. Where is Netanyahu steering Israel? Towards a future of a permanent state of war with its neighbours; an occupying power holding sway over a people, the Palestinians, determined to exercise their right to self-determination on their land conquered by Israel in 1967? Israeli public opinion can be tricked today into considering that the assault on Gaza is justified because the country is in a state of self-defence. But the region’s configuration has changed. The visit of the PM of Egypt Hisham Qandil to Gaza (while Israel was conducting air raids) is a clear example. Last month, the Emir of Qatar also visited the distressed strip. Turkey, Tunisia and other countries are following suit. Israel is isolated. The strategy of permanent warfare cannot come to the rescue of its rightist government.
At the end of the day, Israelis cannot turn a blind eye to tactics that sooner or later will lead the country to the edge of a cliff. It is imperative to stop the brinkmanship policies and steer the country in the right direction: end occupation; normalize relations with the Palestinians and other Arab peoples; stop bullying the region. Be part of it.
About the Author
This is a difficult issue for me to voice my opinion on effectively, but I feel I must try. We must acknowledge that violence does come from both sides. On an almost weekly bases rockets from Gaza were fired into civilian populations in the south of Israel. This may be seen as an eye for an policy for both perspective. Simply put I don’t think there should be finger pointing if there is ever going to be an end to the violence which effects the civilian populations of both sides. The hardline conservative of Netanyahu and the extremism of with in the independent government in Gaza needs to leave. Is Israel to blame is Gaza to blame, I propose that it should matter it when blame begets blame begets blame and death continues to ensue.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-natural-gas-the-israeli-invasion-and-gaza-s-offshore-gas-fields/11680
I find this article utterly one sided and partly uninformed about the current situation (which has obviously changed over the past few days). So a few points…
Obviously you state the death toll for the Palestinians in 2008, however since Wednesday over 700 rockets have fallen in Israel, do you really think that those who fired them don’t intend to kill? The proportionality argument doesn’t really work when you look at more than just the numbers killed.
The siege, as you suggest, does not negate Hamas’s responsibility for ending the ceasefire. I wouldn’t be writing this if there hadn’t been continued rocket fire over the past few months from Gaza, I believe Israel would not have begun targeted airstrikes had the ceasefire been adhered to.
Secondly you need to separate the jobless poverty of Gaza’s Palestinians from those living the West Bank, whose economic sphere has grown rapidly, and many businesses and individuals in the West Bank work with Israelis.
You totally override the deaths and continued rocket fire into southern Israel with a few missiles being “lobbed” across. This totally undermines their impact on the daily lives of Israelis. Not just for a few days but for months and years. This homemade missiles, the Qassams, as well as the more advanced missiles that can reach further more targeted points, have caused a high rate of PTSD in residents of Southern Israel, and often they are “lobbed” at the times school is starting/ ending, if this isn’t proof that Hamas and other factions are specifically targeting children, which I don’t believe Israel is intentionally doing at all, I don’t know what is.
Additionally you claim that Israel is isolated on the world stage due to Turkish, Qatari and Tunisian diplomats visiting the region. I think this is a gross misrepresentation, only this morning William Hague the British Foreign Minister reaffirmed standing by Israel in pursuit of a two state solution with Palestinian aspirations in mind.
Thank you for that illuminating article. The Canadian Jewish Tribune wrote of this website GlobalResearch.ca as “rife with anti-Jewish conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial.” Mmmm.
And how about this from Terry O’Neill in the conservative Canadian news magazine, Western Standard, Chossudovsky was included on the list of “Canada’s nuttiest professors, those whose absurdity stands head and shoulders above their colleagues.”
What a CV!
I wouldn’t take too much notice of this idiot Salman