The usual historical reference to what is happening in Gaza is the Holocaust. Most Jews resent Israel being compared to Nazis, but there are other historical parallels that are more difficult to dismiss.
Twelve hundred years before Christ, The Israelites were warring with the Philistines. At one point during a deadlock, a giant Philistine named Goliath called for one Israelite to face him. No soldier volunteered but David, a shepherd boy, felled Goliath with a stone from his slingshot and cut off his head.
It turns out that the land occupied by the Philistines was the modern Gaza strip, north to beyond Ashdod in Israel. And in an ironic reversal, the Philistines' descendants now play the role of David.
Puppet Masters
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Cute, cuddly, harmless-looking, liberal Barack Obama. Now there's a guy to get the U.S. back on track! If he can just 'win' the primary (s)election process, and then the (s)election process after that, what's it called...oh yeah, the (p)residential (s)elections, he'll bring an end to the mindless massacring of innocent civilians for profit that has come to define the "war on terror", and the American people need never again be stirred out of their mind-numbing complacency by stories of small brown children being decapitated by a brave American teenager with a .50 caliber machine gun. I mean, Viet-nam and My Lai was containable, it was successfully pitched as an "American tragedy", but this Iraq business is getting out of hand! After all, the harsh realities of war 'over there' are meant to stay 'over there', not ooze out of the carefully manipulated American daily broadsheets and into the fragile mind of the average American.
So Obama's the man to fix it all, right? He'll stop the Republican rot! Or am I missing something?
A propaganda battle designed to promote the plan to spread war throughout the greater Middle East is now under way and will soon hit the airwaves in the United States. The plan will be presented as a television advertising campaign to promote Israel as the victim of terrorism backed by the government of Iran. The advertising campaign is due to air on television during the inauguration period of President-elect Barack Obama.
The organization responsible for this soon to be aired propaganda is "The Israel Project". "The Israel Project" touts themselves as an international non-profit organization that "provides journalists and leaders accurate information about the Middle East". For some reason they make a point of declaring to the public that they are "not related to any government or government agency".
© Francisco Goya
"The sleep of reason that produces monsters"
"The sleep of reason that produces monsters"
Reason has fled, all rationality is gone, we are therefore called to act in defiance of the genocidal murderers in Palestine. In just the same way as the economy is being used to control us, we can exert similar pressure on Israel by boycotting all Israeli goods, all Israeli services and any company that does business with Israel however small.
A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid into the territory.
Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.
Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation, two moderately and two lightly, the military said.
One Hamas gunman was killed and Palestinians launched a volley of mortars at the Israeli military. An Israeli air strike then killed five more Hamas fighters. In response, Hamas launched 35 rockets into southern Israel, one reaching the city of Ashkelon.
Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.
Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation, two moderately and two lightly, the military said.
One Hamas gunman was killed and Palestinians launched a volley of mortars at the Israeli military. An Israeli air strike then killed five more Hamas fighters. In response, Hamas launched 35 rockets into southern Israel, one reaching the city of Ashkelon.
How a middle-class white guy came to accept the evil embedded in American political and military might.
Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, many American voices raised the question, "Why do they hate us?" The "they," in this case, was Muslim fundamentalists, but the same question could have been asked of South American peasants, of the people of Iraq or Iran, of the poor of India or Indonesia, or, indeed, of the poor anywhere.
In fact, "they" don't only hate us; the feelings of people around the world toward the United States are a complex mixture of positive and negative. On the one hand, for instance, much of the rest of the world is excited by the election of Barack Obama. Almost six years ago, visiting Iraq just before the American invasion, I listened to Iraqis who professed their admiration for much of America and how American democracy has been a "beacon" to the rest of the world. On the other hand, those same Iraqis felt betrayed by the United States that would attack a country that did not threaten it. And by 2008, multiple polls of people around the world revealed a deep anger toward our country: Clear majorities believe us to be the "greatest danger to world peace." My own coming to understand why they hate us has been a painful process, but one I consider important to share with any American who still does not understand.
Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, many American voices raised the question, "Why do they hate us?" The "they," in this case, was Muslim fundamentalists, but the same question could have been asked of South American peasants, of the people of Iraq or Iran, of the poor of India or Indonesia, or, indeed, of the poor anywhere.
In fact, "they" don't only hate us; the feelings of people around the world toward the United States are a complex mixture of positive and negative. On the one hand, for instance, much of the rest of the world is excited by the election of Barack Obama. Almost six years ago, visiting Iraq just before the American invasion, I listened to Iraqis who professed their admiration for much of America and how American democracy has been a "beacon" to the rest of the world. On the other hand, those same Iraqis felt betrayed by the United States that would attack a country that did not threaten it. And by 2008, multiple polls of people around the world revealed a deep anger toward our country: Clear majorities believe us to be the "greatest danger to world peace." My own coming to understand why they hate us has been a painful process, but one I consider important to share with any American who still does not understand.
The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces' mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas' armed wing while advancing on the ground.
The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses.
Comment: Hmmm....Israeli troops posing as members of the "Qassam brigades", that is, the group that Israel claims are firing rockets into Israel.
The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses.
Comment: Hmmm....Israeli troops posing as members of the "Qassam brigades", that is, the group that Israel claims are firing rockets into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister's spokeperson (Australian born!) Mark Regev, confirms that Hamas did not violate the ceasefire until after Israel attacked the Gaza Strip on the 4th November!
The phrase 'burdens of the office' is overstated," President Bush said today at his 47th and final presser.
"You know, it's kind of like, 'Why me?'" he said, mimicking someone in whiney self-pity. "'Oh, the burdens,' you know. 'Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?'
"You know, it's kind of like, 'Why me?'" he said, mimicking someone in whiney self-pity. "'Oh, the burdens,' you know. 'Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?'
In a scathing article by British journalist Robert Fisk titled "The Rotten State of Egypt is too Powerless and Corrupt to Act" published in the Independent on Wednesday, the seasoned Beirut-based reporter lashed out against the Egyptian regime in light of the recent assault on Gaza.
He opens his tirade with a sarcastic reference to the times of President Hosni Mubarak - "'La Vache Qui Rit', as he is still called in Cairo" - where the world is no longer worried about the anger of the Arab masses because you can always count on their governments to shut them down brutally and inhumanely.
He opens his tirade with a sarcastic reference to the times of President Hosni Mubarak - "'La Vache Qui Rit', as he is still called in Cairo" - where the world is no longer worried about the anger of the Arab masses because you can always count on their governments to shut them down brutally and inhumanely.
Comment: This story has since been scrubbed from Haaretz's page. However, it is still available on Google cache.
Just in case it disappears forever, an archived screen shot can be seen at this link.
So let's think about this for a moment; There are groups of Israeli agents running around Gaza dressed very convincingly as members of a Palestinian militant group that is claimed to be behind the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. Add to that the fact that Hamas has on several occasions in the past claimed that they did not know who was firing the rockets into Israel, suspected that agents of the state of Israel were behind the firing of rockets at very sensitive times, and appealed to whoever was doing it to stop, and we have are led to a very interesting tentative conclusion:
Israel is now and has been for many years taking steps to ensure that peace never breaks out with the Palestinians. This is a very reasonable and logical conclusion because it is clear to all with eyes to see that without an enemy against which to fight, the illegality of the present state of Israel would be clearly exposed for all to see.