I doubt the Liberals would stand for rocket attacks on their families and manicured gardens.
On Jan 7, 4:15 am, "\"Lone Wolf\"" <[email protected]> wrote: > Israeli atrocities in Gaza: a political impasse and moral collapse > 7 January 2009 > > The premeditated slaughter yesterday of innocent men, women and > children sheltering in the UN-run al-Fakhora school in Gaza is a war > crime for which the Israeli government and military general staff are > directly responsible. As atrocity piles on atrocity, it is clear that > the Israeli military is using Hamas's rocket attacks as the pretext > for terrorising and subjugating the entire Palestinian population. > > At least 42 people were killed when Israeli shells struck just outside > the school in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Another 55 > were injured—at least five critically. Witnesses described a scene of > horror with victims cut down by shrapnel lying in pools of blood on > the street. Following the attack, a hospital official, Fares Ghanem, > told the Associated Press: "I saw a lot of women and children wheeled > in. A lot of wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in > pieces." > > The deliberate character of the attack was underscored by the fact > that the school was hit not by a loose bomb dropped from 10,000 feet, > but by precisely targetted shells. John Ging, operations director in > Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said that the Israeli > army had been given the precise coordinates of the school, which was > clearly marked. Noting the school was located in a built-up area, he > said: "Of course it was entirely inevitable if artillery shells landed > in that area there would be a high number of casualties." Some 350 > people were taking refuge at the time inside the school. > > The Israeli military issued a statement suggesting its forces had > responded to mortar fire coming from the school and that Hamas had > once again used civilians as "human shields"—a claim routinely made to > justify Israeli Defence Force (IDF) atrocities. UNRWA official Ging > denied that Hamas fighters were using its refuges. "There's nowhere > safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorised and traumatised," he said. > UN official Maxwell Gaylard demanded an independent investigation, > saying those responsible for any breaches of international law must be > held accountable. > > The Israeli shelling of the al-Fakhora school is no isolated incident. > Ging reported that three Palestinians were killed yesterday in a > separate Israeli air strike near another school in the area where no > fighting was taking place at the time. The UNRWA has 23 schools > sheltering around 15,000 refugees who have been driven from their > homes by the Israeli military. Yesterday morning a building next to a > UN health centre was hit by Israeli fire—injuring 10 people, including > seven staff and three patients. The International Red Cross reported > that an ambulance post was also hit, injuring a medical worker. > > According to Reuters, at least 75 Palestinian civilians were killed > yesterday—indicating a sharp jump in casualties since the Israeli army > launched ground operations four days ago. Eric Fosse, a Norwegian > doctor working at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, told CNN that he had > seen more women and children among the casualties on Monday than on > any other day since the Israeli offensive began. Most of the wounded > men were also civilians. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation > reported that the death toll in Gaza reached 660 yesterday. > > Today's Financial Times reported that at least 115 of the casualties > have been children. Thousands more have been deeply traumatised by the > terrifying experience of constant bombing as well as the lack of > electricity, running water, food and sanitation. "Even before the > Israeli attacks began," the article explained, "some 50,000 children > were suffering from malnutrition in Gaza, amid the crippling blockade > of the territory. This number ‘could be increased by thousands,' > warned Isama Damo, who works in Gaza with the human rights group, Save > the Children. Many grocery stores have shut and fresh food such as > milk, cheese and fruit is scarce." > > The targetting of the al-Fakhora school exposes the lie used by Israel > and its apologists to justify its war against the Palestinian people > as an act of "self defence". The Israeli army is engaged in a > desperate attempt to destroy the capacity of Palestinians to resist in > any way their decades-long oppression. When Israeli officials denounce > Hamas as "terrorists", their vitriol is in reality directed at the > million and a half impoverished people crushed into the narrow strip > of land known as Gaza. > > In a comment in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, former Israeli Deputy > Prime Minister Natan Sharansky denounced the UN for failing to > eliminate what he termed the "heart of the problem"—Gaza's refugee > camps of dispossessed Palestinians. Describing the camps as "the > terrorists' unique system of control" and their schools as > "indoctrination centres for martyrdom", he accused the UNRWA of being > "facilitators for the terrorists' goal of grinding an entire civilian > population under their thumb". Sharansky's ravings served to lay bare > the fascistic rationale behind Israel's deliberate targetting of the > camps, the UNRWA and the al-Fakhora school. > > Yesterday's attack conformed to a definite modus operandi on the part > of the IDF. In 2006, the army waged a similar military offensive in > southern Lebanon aimed at destroying the Shiite Hezbollah militia and > its base of support within the population. Repeated missile strikes on > the town of Qana killed at least 57 residents, including 37 children. > The Israeli military also destroyed a UN monitoring post, forcing the > pullout of UN observers who were witnesses to its crimes. > > The use of such terrorist measures goes back to the very origins of > the Zionist state, when Israeli forces and armed gangs perpetrated > atrocities against Palestinian towns and villages as the means of > expelling millions of Arabs from Israeli territory. The long history > of terrorist acts directed against Palestinians, including the 1982 > massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, flows > inescapably from the reactionary logic of Zionism: the attempt to > carve out a Jewish state inevitably involved trampling on the rights > of the Palestinian people. > > The perspective at the heart of the assault on Gaza's population was > spelled out in a letter written in 2007 by former Sephardi chief rabbi > Mordechai Eliyahu to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, calling for > the carpet bombing of the entire area. As reported in the Jerusalem > Post, Eliyahu wrote that the population as a whole was morally > responsible for failing to halt the rocket attacks on Israeli > territory. His son, also a prominent rabbi, told the newspaper that > the Israeli air force had to kill "whatever it takes to make them > stop"—a 100, a 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, even a million. > > These comments recall nothing so much as the methods of collective > punishment employed by the Nazis during World War II in an effort to > end resistance to their rule throughout Europe. They reflect the > complete perplexity in Israeli ruling circles and the political dead- > end that has been reached in the Zionist project as a whole. Israel's > desperate attempt to use overwhelming military force to suppress > Palestinian opposition in Gaza can only lead further into the morass. > One can only ask what comes next: the forcible expulsion of all Arabs > from Israeli territory? > > The US government's blocking of a ceasefire has given the green light > for the Israeli military to escalate its attacks. The reaction of the > Bush administration to the killing of civilians at the al-Fakhora > school was virtually identical to that of Israel. White House > spokeswoman Dana Perino told the media "not [to] jump to > conclusions... What we know is that Hamas often hides amongst > innocents and uses innocents, including children, as human shields." > The US military has used identical pretexts to justify its own war > crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. > > While the other imperialist powers, including Britain, France and > Germany, have been more discrete about their support for the Israeli > war, they too place the onus on Hamas for the conflict, demanding an > end to all resistance to the Israeli onslaught as the price of any > ceasefire. The Israelis have also received encouragement from the > various bourgeois regimes in the Middle East. All of them, whether > openly backing Israel—in the case of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordon—or > feigning support for the Palestinians—Iran and Syria—are seeking to > exploit the crisis to pursue their own economic and geo-political aims > at the direct expense of the Palestinian masses and the working class > of the entire region. > > Notwithstanding the universal support by the major powers and in the > international media for Israel, world opinion is rapidly turning > against the slaughter being carried out in Gaza. The one-sided war is > provoking a wave of revulsion, including among intellectuals and class > conscious workers in Israel appalled by the crimes being carried out > in their name. The real ally of the Palestinian people is the > international working class—including Arab and Jewish workers—which > must be united against the Israeli ruling elite, the bourgeois regimes > in the Middle East, and US and world imperialism on the basis of the > struggle for a socialist federation of the Middle East. > > Peter Symonds > > The author also recommends: > > Hands off Gaza! > 5 January 2009 > > The Gaza crisis and the perspective of permanent revolution --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
