They lost a war long ago. On Jan 8, 7:20�pm, Mary <[email protected]> wrote: > Try: Holocaust Denied- By John Pilger: > They know that the horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with > Hamas or, absurdly, "Israel's right to exist." They know the opposite > to be true: that Palestine's right to exist was canceled 61 years ago > and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous > people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. They know, > for example, that the infamous "Plan D" resulted in the murderous > depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah > (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians > in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and > Lydda are referred to in official records as "ethnic cleansing." > Arriving at a scene of this carnage, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first > prime minister, was asked by a general, Yigal Allon, "What shall we do > with the Arabs?" Ben-Gurion, reported the Israeli historian Benny > Morris, "made a dismissive, energetic gesture with his hand and said, > 'Expel them'. The order to expel an entire population "without > attention to age" was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister > promoted by the world's most efficient propaganda as a peacemaker. The > terrible irony of this was addressed only in passing, such as when the > Mapan Party co-leader Meir Ya'ari noted "how easily" Israel's leaders > spoke of how it was "possible and permissible to take women, children > and old men and to fill the roads with them because such is the > imperative of strategy ... who remembers who used this means against > our people during the [Second World] war ... we are appalled." > > Every subsequent "war" Israel has waged has had the same objective: > the expulsion of the native people and the theft of more and more > land. The lie of David and Goliath, of perennial victim, reached its > apogee in 1967 when the propaganda became a righteous fury that > claimed the Arab states had struck first. Since then, mostly Jewish > truth-tellers such as Avi Schlaim, Noam Chomsky, the late Tanya > Reinhart, Neve Gordon, Tom Segev, Yuri Avnery, Ilan Pappe and Norman > Finklestein have dispatched this and other myths and revealed a state > shorn of the humane traditions of Judaism, whose unrelenting > militarism is the sum of an expansionist, lawless and racist ideology > called zionism. "It seems," wrote the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe on > 2 January, "that even the most horrendous crimes, such as the genocide > in Gaza, are treated as desperate events, unconnected to anything that > happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or > system ... Very much as the apartheid ideology explained the > oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology - > in its most consensual and simplistic variety - has allowed all the > Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanize the > Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them. The means > altered from period to period, from location to location, as did the > narrative covering up these atrocities. But there is a clear pattern > [of genocide]." > > In Gaza, the enforced starvation and denial of humanitarian aid, the > piracy of life-giving resources such as fuel and water, the denial of > medicines and treatment, the systematic destruction of infrastructure > and the killing and maiming of the civilian population, 50 per cent of > whom are children, meet the international standard of the Genocide > Convention. "Is it an irresponsible overstatement," asked Richard > Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the > Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law authority at > Princeton University, "to associate the treatment of Palestinians with > this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not." > > In describing a "holocaust-in-the making," Falk was alluding to the > Nazis' establishment of Jewish ghettos in Poland. For one month in > 1943, the captive Polish Jews led by Mordechaj Anielewiz fought off > the German army and the SS, but their resistance was finally crushed > and the Nazis exacted their final revenge. Falk is also a Jew. Today's > holocaust-in-the-making, which began with Ben-Gurion's Plan D, is in > its final stages. The difference today is that it is a joint US- > Israeli project. The F-16 jet fighters, the 250-pound "smart" GBU-39 > bombs supplied on the eve of the attack on Gaza, having been approved > by a Congress dominated by the Democratic Party, plus the annual $2.4 > billion in war-making "aid," give Washington de facto control. It > beggars belief that President-elect Obama was not informed. Outspoken > on Russia's war in Georgia and the terrorism in Mumbai, Obama's > silence on Palestine marks his approval, which is to be expected, > given his obsequiousness to the Tel Aviv regime and its lobbyists > during the presidential campaign and his appointment of Zionists as > his secretary of state, chief of staff and principal Middle East > advisers. When Aretha Franklin sings "Think," her wonderful 1960s > anthem to freedom, at Obama's inauguration on 21 January, I trust > someone with the brave heart of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoe-thrower, > will shout: "Gaza!" > > The asymmetry of conquest and terror is clear. Plan D is now > "Operation Cast Lead," which is the unfinished "Operation Justified > Vengeance." The latter was launched by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in > 2001 when, with Bush's approval, he used F-16s against Palestinian > towns and villages for the first time. In the same year, the > authoritative Jane's Foreign Report disclosed that the Blair > government had given Israel the "green light" to attack the West Bank > after it was shown Israel's secret designs for a bloodbath. It was > typical of New Labor Party's enduring, cringing complicity in > Palestine's agony. However, the 2001 Israeli plan, reported Jane's, > needed the "trigger" of a suicide bombing which would cause "numerous > deaths and injuries [because] the 'revenge' factor is crucial." This > would "motivate Israeli soldiers to demolish the Palestinians." What > alarmed Sharon and the author of the plan, General Shaul Mofaz, the > Israeli Chief of Staff, was a secret agreement between Yasser Arafat > and Hamas to ban suicide attacks. On 23 November, 2001, Israeli agents > assassinated the Hamas leader, Mahmud Abu Hunud, and got their > "trigger"; the suicide attacks resumed in response to his killing. > > Something uncannily similar happened on 5 November last, when Israeli > special forces attacked Gaza, killing six people. Once again, they got > their propaganda "trigger." A ceasefire initiated and sustained by the > Hamas government - which had imprisoned its violators - was shattered > by the Israeli attack and homemade rockets were fired into what used > to be Palestine before its Arab occupants were "cleansed." Then on 23 > December, Hamas offered to renew the ceasefire, but Israel's charade > was such that its all-out assault on Gaza had been planned six months > earlier, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. > > Behind this sordid game is the "Dagan Plan," named after General Meir > Dagan, who served with Sharon in his bloody invasion of Lebanon in > 1982. Now head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organization, Dagan > is the author of a "solution" that has seen the imprisonment of > Palestinians behind a ghetto wall snaking across the West Bank and in > Gaza, effectively a concentration camp. The establishment of a > quisling government in Ramallah under Mohammed Abbas is Dagan's > achievement, together with a hasbara (propaganda) campaign relayed > through a mostly supine, if intimidated western media, notably in > America, that says Hamas is a terrorist organization devoted to > Israel's destruction and to "blame" for the massacres and siege of its > own people over two generations, long before its creation. "We have > never had it so good," said the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman > Gideon Meir in 2006. "The hasbara effort is a well-oiled machine." In > fact, Hamas's real threat is its example as the Arab world's only > democratically elected government, drawing its popularity from its > resistance to the Palestinians' oppressor and tormentor. > This was demonstrated when Hamas foiled a CIA coup in 2007, an event > ordained in the western media as "Hamas's seizure of power." Likewise, > Hamas is never described as a government, let alone democratic. > Neither is its proposal of a ten-year truce as a historic recognition > of the "reality" of Israel and support for a two-state solution with > just one condition: that the Israelis obey international law and end > their illegal occupation beyond the 1967 borders. As every annual vote > in the UN General Assembly demonstrates, 99 per cent of humanity > concurs. On 4 January, the president of the General Assembly, Miguel > d'Escoto, described the Israeli attack on Gaza as a "monstrosity." > > When the monstrosity is done and the people of Gaza are even more > stricken, the Dagan Plan foresees what Sharon called a "1948-style > solution" - the destruction of all Palestinian leadership and > authority followed by mass expulsions into smaller and smaller > "cantonments" and perhaps finally into Jordan. This demolition of > institutional and educational life in Gaza is designed to produce, > wrote Karma Nabulsi, a Palestinian exile in Britain, "a Hobbesian > vision of an anarchic society: truncated, violent, powerless, > destroyed, cowed ... Look to the Iraq of today: that is what [Sharon] > had in store for us, and he has nearly achieved it." > > Dr. Dahlia Wasfi is an American writer on Palestine. She has a Jewish > mother and an Iraqi Muslim father. "Holocaust denial is anti-Semitic," > she wrote on 31 December. "But I'm not talking about World War Two, > Mahmoud Ahmedinijad (the president of Iran) or Ashkenazi Jews. What > I'm referring to is the holocaust we are all witnessing and > responsible for in Gaza today and in Palestine over the past 60 > years ... Since Arabs are Semites, US-Israeli policy doesn't get more ... > > read more � --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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