Dialogues: July 2014

Thursday, July 31, 2014

FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

“However there would have been no need

for Israel to break international laws if the

Hamas had not kept on provoking Israel in the first

instance.”

Ola

Who is ‘provoking” who? Who was the first provocateur? HAMAS critics argue that the HAMAS government in Gaza is not democratic. They say the Israeli government is. If this is so, which government should have superior values and be held to a higher standard of humanity I dare to ask?

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 6:18 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; okonkwonetworks@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

Dear All

There is no doubt that Israel is breaking international laws

and that she is getting away with it under the leadership

of Benjamin Nettanyau who is as much as war monger as any

Hamas leader could be.

However there would have been no need

for Israel to break international laws if the

Hamas had not kept on provoking Israel in the first

instance.

The state of Israel has no other choice but to protect her citizens.

If the Hamas keeps on using its civilians as sacrificial lambs to shield its troops

from Israel's superior firepower, one can hardly blame only the state of Israel

for the thousands of civilians including infants and school children

who have been either killed or wounded

during the ongoing Israeli counter-offensive.

The leadership of the Hamas are fully aware that that Israel's war doctrine

is to deploy overwhelming disproportionate

force in retaliation for any attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens,

The Hamas must learn the lesson that it is suicidal to keep

on provoking wars it knows it cannot win and that if by chance

it ever appears it might be winning, such an anticipated victory would be truncated

by the increase in supplies of ammunitions and logistics to Israel by the USA and other western countres

to bolster the Israeli efforts.

Only ruthless religious ideologues keep on year in and year out using its peoples

as guinea pigs for the testing of the

latest weaponry from Israel, the USA and other western countries,

The rest of the world must tell the Hamas and her dwindling number of Arab supporters that

it must learn to live and let live.

The only solution to the Palestinian-Isreali dispute is a two state solution!

The state of Israel is here to stay; it is not going anywhere.

Nettanyau and the rest of the Israeli leadership must also realize that her citizens

would know no lasting peace until it agrees to meet the Palestinians in the middle.

israel must stop building settlements on Palestinian lands!

Bye,

Ola--a strong supporter of Palestinian rights who is currently fed up with Hamas tactics.

---- Original Message ----
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Jul 31, 2014 6:17 pm
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

this is completely true
here is the amnesty international report that details these violations: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25

ken

On 7/31/14 4:35 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:

In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

In a flagrant violation of international law, Israel's assault on Gaza has killed hundreds of civilians and devastated civilian infrastructure.

By Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/authors/phyllis-bennis/>, July 30, 2014. Originally published in OtherWords<http://otherwords.org/israel-violates-international-law-in-gaza/>.

Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, schools, and power stations.

As Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip rages on, ceasefires come and go. Most last just long enough for Palestinians to dig out the dead from beneath their collapsed houses, get the injured to overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals, and seek enough food and water to last through the next round of airstrikes.

"There is nothing left but stones," Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer quoted an old woman saying as she searched desperately through the rubble of what had been her home.

Casualties are soaring. By late July, Israel had killed more than 1,100 Palestinians<http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/world/meast/mideast-crisis/> -- at least 73 percent of them civilians<http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/336000847/conflict-in-gaza-heres-what-you-need-to-know-today>, including hundreds of children. Fifty-six Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, have died too.

A July 28 poll<http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Poll-865-percent-of-Israelis-oppose-cease-fire-369064> shows that 86.5 percent of Israelis oppose a ceasefire. Yet we continue to hear that Israelis want peace.

It's true that at least some of them do. An Israeli protest in Tel Aviv brought 5,000 people into the street. That's good -- though a far cry from the 400,000 who poured into the streets to protest Israel's invasion of Lebanon back in 1982.

And when a young Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and tortured to death -- burned alive -- in Jerusalem after the bodies of the three kidnapped young Israeli settlers were found, many Israelis tried to distance themselves from the horrific crime. "In our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed.

But in fact, there is a place for those who call for murder -- at the highest political and military levels of Israeli society.

Meet Ayelet Shaked<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/israeli-politician-declares-war-on-the-palestinian-people.html>, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people.

"The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure."

The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there."

Her language reminds me of a chapter in our own history -- the genocidal Indian Wars. U.S. military leaders had called on their troops to wipe out all the Native American. Col. John Chivington<http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/four/whois.htm> was asked on the eve of the Sand Creek Massacre about killing Cheyenne children. "Kill and scalp all, big and little -- nits make lice," he replied.

Shaked's comments also echo the words of an Israeli colonel<http://www.hrw.org/de/news/2010/09/24/yes-war-does-have-rules> who testified under oath at the wrongful death trial of Rachel Corrie, a young U.S. peace activist killed by an Israeli soldier driving an armored bulldozer in Gaza. "In a war zone there are no civilians," said the military officer -- who was responsible for training Israeli soldiers to serve in the occupied territories.

There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza.

Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions<http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25>. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.

Israeli officials know full well that the best way to protect their citizens is to implement a real ceasefire -- a breakthrough that would require opening Gaza's borders. Some of them also know the best way to keep their citizens safe long term is by ending the occupation altogether. Problem is, not enough of them will admit it.

U.S. taxpayers also have a stake in this conflict because Washington keeps sending Israel billions of our tax dollars<http://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf> and refuses to push Tel Aviv<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/israel-us-aid-hamas-harry-reid-109452.html> to stop violating international law.

For real peace, both of those things must change.

Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies<http://www.ips-dc.org/>.

Israel Once Again Unconcerned With Prosecution for War Crimes

The United Nations Human Rights Council announced a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

By Russ Wellen<http://fpif.org/authors/russ-wellen/>, July 31, 2014., www.fpif.com

[https://webmail.ccsu.edu/owa/attachment.ashx?id=RgAAAACIR4fP8%2fDSEaNAAAD4YBApBwDd9LcDLkTSEaMkAKDJ4RrzAAAA7%2f1AAACG0aK%2bn4McSrUVwdL4l7nbAFCXmYIvAAAJ&attcnt=1&attid0=EAC%2bgFzwds%2f2SqpJErRA8bBs]

With UNRWA schools under attack by the IDF, Palestinians don't know where to hide..

On Tuesday, July 29, Ibrahim Barzou and Yousur Alhlou of the Associated Press<http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/29/4260379/israel-target-symbols-of-hamas.html> reported on that deadly day in Gaza:

Israel unleashed its heaviest air and artillery assault of the Gaza war on Tuesday, destroying key symbols of Hamas control, shutting down the territory's only power plant and leaving at least 128 Palestinians dead on the bloodiest day of the 22-day conflict.

On Tuesday, multiple members of at least five families were pulled from the rubble after airstrikes and tank shells struck their homes, including the mayor of the Bureij refugee camp, his 70-year-old father and three relatives, according to Palestinian health officials.

In all, at least 1,229 Palestinians have been killed, including 128 on Tuesday, making it the single deadliest day since the start of fighting on July 8, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra. More than 7,000 have been wounded, he said.

That sounds suspiciously like, as Rashid Khaliki writes in the New Yorker "Collective Punishment in Gaza<http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza>."

It's worth listening carefully when Netanyahu speaks to the Israeli people. What is going on in Palestine today is not really about Hamas. It is not about rockets. It is not about "human shields" or terrorism or tunnels. It is about Israel's permanent control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives.

... What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza's refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel's siege and its provocations with resistance.

Back to Barzou and Alhlou:

The Israeli military has said it is targeting Hamas command centers, along with rocket launchers and weapons arsenals, but has not provided explanations when asked about specific strikes in which many members of a single family were killed.

Perhaps because they know that no justification exists. Yesterday at Foreign Policy in Focus, Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/violating-international-law-gaza/> mirrored Khaliki.

There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza.

Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.

Operation and operation, Israel and the IDF (Israel Defense Force) act with absolute impunity. For instance, after Israeli tanks shelled the school in Jabaliya on Tuesday, BBC reported<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28558433>:

[Chris] Gunness from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told the BBC that Israel had been told 17 times that the school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was housing the displaced. ... [He] said "the world stands disgraced" by the attack, in which 15 died and dozens were hurt.

Ms. Bennis again:

Meet Ayelet Shaked, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people.

"The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure."

Ms. Shaked ventures into rabble-rousing that greases the skids to genocide, such as in Rwanda where the Tutsis were called cockroaches:

The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there."

A quick Google search reveals that Israel has only been taken to task for war crimes in an official capacity by the Goldstone Report<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf> and one occasion when they were charged with war crimes<http://www.globalresearch.ca/state-of-israel-charged-for-crime-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-kuala-lumpur-tribunal/5346375> in August 2013:

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will be hearing war crimes and genocide charges against Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general and the State of Israel from 21 to 24 August in Kuala Lumpur.

This is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the retired general and the State of Israel in compliance with due legal process. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), having received complaints from victims from Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and the Sabra - Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, in 2012, investigated these complaints resulting in the institution of formal charges on war crimes against the accused.

But, Haaretz reported (behind a paywall) on June 14,

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in its current Gaza offensive, backing Palestinian efforts to have Israel held up to international scrutiny.

Meeting in Geneva, the 46-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with supports from Arab and Muslim countries, China, Russia, Latin American and African nations.

Naturally:

The United States was the only member to vote against the resolution, while European countries abstained.

Naturally again:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office fiercely condemned the UN council's decision as a "travesty and should be rejected by decent people everywhere."

We'll give the last word to Khaliki, just because it's a trenchant quote:

... the United States puts its thumb on the scales in favor of the stronger party. In this surreal, upside-down vision of the world, it almost seems as if it is the Israelis who are occupied by the Palestinians, and not the other way around. In this skewed universe, the inmates of an open-air prison are besieging a nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world.

--

kenneth w. harrow

faculty excellence advocate

professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

harrow@msu.edu

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

the "first instance" that was the real cause of this misery and death, and willingness of palestinians to die, was the conditions of utter misery created by the israeli blockade that made life unlivable in gaza.
when the gazans voted hamas into power, and hamas chased the p.a. out of gaza, israel decided to apply pressure to unseat hamas. hamas mouthed off, but was impotent. the israeli right used palestinian resistance as an excuse, a cover, to expand the west bank settlements
try to see it from the palestinian point of view. i regard gaza as a large warsaw ghetto, a prison almost, of 1.5 million people forced to live in semi-incarceration, with no good water or food or medicine...or hope.
anyway, we all know what it is like there.
the war, the punishment of the collective people of gaza, is a war crime, and sometimes crimes are really unjust. this is such a case.
ken

On 7/31/14 7:17 PM, olakassimmd via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:

Dear All

There is no doubt that Israel is breaking international laws

and that she is getting away with it under the leadership

of Benjamin Nettanyau who is as much as war monger as any

Hamas leader could be.

However there would have been no need

for Israel to break international laws if the

Hamas had not kept on provoking Israel in the first

instance.

The state of Israel has no other choice but to protect her citizens.

If the Hamas keeps on using its civilians as sacrificial lambs to shield its troops

from Israel's superior firepower, one can hardly blame only the state of Israel

for the thousands of civilians including infants and school children

who have been either killed or wounded

during the ongoing Israeli counter-offensive.

The leadership of the Hamas are fully aware that that Israel's war doctrine

is to deploy overwhelming disproportionate

force in retaliation for any attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens,

The Hamas must learn the lesson that it is suicidal to keep

on provoking wars it knows it cannot win and that if by chance

it ever appears it might be winning, such an anticipated victory would be truncated

by the increase in supplies of ammunitions and logistics to Israel by the USA and other western countres

to bolster the Israeli efforts.

Only ruthless religious ideologues keep on year in and year out using its peoples

as guinea pigs for the testing of the

latest weaponry from Israel, the USA and other western countries,

The rest of the world must tell the Hamas and her dwindling number of Arab supporters that

it must learn to live and let live.

The only solution to the Palestinian-Isreali dispute is a two state solution!

The state of Israel is here to stay; it is not going anywhere.

Nettanyau and the rest of the Israeli leadership must also realize that her citizens

would know no lasting peace until it agrees to meet the Palestinians in the middle.

israel must stop building settlements on Palestinian lands!

Bye,

Ola--a strong supporter of Palestinian rights who is currently fed up with Hamas tactics.

this is completely true
here is the amnesty international report that details these violations: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25

ken

On 7/31/14 4:35 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:

In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames In a flagrant violation of international law, Israel's assault on Gaza has killed hundreds of civilians and devastated civilian infrastructure. By Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/authors/phyllis-bennis/>, July 30, 2014. Originally published in OtherWords<http://otherwords.org/israel-violates-international-law-in-gaza/>. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, schools, and power stations. As Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip rages on, ceasefires come and go. Most last just long enough for Palestinians to dig out the dead from beneath their collapsed houses, get the injured to overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals, and seek enough food and water to last through the next round of airstrikes. "There is nothing left but stones," Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer quoted an old woman saying as she searched desperately through the rubble of what had been her home. Casualties are soaring. By late July, Israel had killed more than 1,100 Palestinians<http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/world/meast/mideast-crisis/> -- at least 73 percent of them civilians<http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/336000847/conflict-in-gaza-heres-what-you-need-to-know-today>, including hundreds of children. Fifty-six Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, have died too. A July 28 poll<http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Poll-865-percent-of-Israelis-oppose-cease-fire-369064> shows that 86.5 percent of Israelis oppose a ceasefire. Yet we continue to hear that Israelis want peace. It's true that at least some of them do. An Israeli protest in Tel Aviv brought 5,000 people into the street. That's good -- though a far cry from the 400,000 who poured into the streets to protest Israel's invasion of Lebanon back in 1982. And when a young Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and tortured to death -- burned alive -- in Jerusalem after the bodies of the three kidnapped young Israeli settlers were found, many Israelis tried to distance themselves from the horrific crime. "In our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed. But in fact, there is a place for those who call for murder -- at the highest political and military levels of Israeli society. Meet Ayelet Shaked<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/israeli-politician-declares-war-on-the-palestinian-people.html>, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people. "The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure." The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there." Her language reminds me of a chapter in our own history -- the genocidal Indian Wars. U.S. military leaders had called on their troops to wipe out all the Native American. Col. John Chivington<http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/four/whois.htm> was asked on the eve of the Sand Creek Massacre about killing Cheyenne children. "Kill and scalp all, big and little -- nits make lice," he replied. Shaked's comments also echo the words of an Israeli colonel<http://www.hrw.org/de/news/2010/09/24/yes-war-does-have-rules> who testified under oath at the wrongful death trial of Rachel Corrie, a young U.S. peace activist killed by an Israeli soldier driving an armored bulldozer in Gaza. "In a war zone there are no civilians," said the military officer -- who was responsible for training Israeli soldiers to serve in the occupied territories. There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza. Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions<http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25>. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force. Israeli officials know full well that the best way to protect their citizens is to implement a real ceasefire -- a breakthrough that would require opening Gaza's borders. Some of them also know the best way to keep their citizens safe long term is by ending the occupation altogether. Problem is, not enough of them will admit it. U.S. taxpayers also have a stake in this conflict because Washington keeps sending Israel billions of our tax dollars<http://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf> and refuses to push Tel Aviv<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/israel-us-aid-hamas-harry-reid-109452.html> to stop violating international law. For real peace, both of those things must change. Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies<http://www.ips-dc.org/>. Israel Once Again Unconcerned With Prosecution for War Crimes The United Nations Human Rights Council announced a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza. By Russ Wellen<http://fpif.org/authors/russ-wellen/>, July 31, 2014., www.fpif.com [https://webmail.ccsu.edu/owa/attachment.ashx?id=RgAAAACIR4fP8%2fDSEaNAAAD4YBApBwDd9LcDLkTSEaMkAKDJ4RrzAAAA7%2f1AAACG0aK%2bn4McSrUVwdL4l7nbAFCXmYIvAAAJ&attcnt=1&attid0=EAC%2bgFzwds%2f2SqpJErRA8bBs] With UNRWA schools under attack by the IDF, Palestinians don't know where to hide.. On Tuesday, July 29, Ibrahim Barzou and Yousur Alhlou of the Associated Press<http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/29/4260379/israel-target-symbols-of-hamas.html> reported on that deadly day in Gaza: Israel unleashed its heaviest air and artillery assault of the Gaza war on Tuesday, destroying key symbols of Hamas control, shutting down the territory's only power plant and leaving at least 128 Palestinians dead on the bloodiest day of the 22-day conflict. On Tuesday, multiple members of at least five families were pulled from the rubble after airstrikes and tank shells struck their homes, including the mayor of the Bureij refugee camp, his 70-year-old father and three relatives, according to Palestinian health officials. In all, at least 1,229 Palestinians have been killed, including 128 on Tuesday, making it the single deadliest day since the start of fighting on July 8, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra. More than 7,000 have been wounded, he said. That sounds suspiciously like, as Rashid Khaliki writes in the New Yorker "Collective Punishment in Gaza<http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza>." It's worth listening carefully when Netanyahu speaks to the Israeli people. What is going on in Palestine today is not really about Hamas. It is not about rockets. It is not about "human shields" or terrorism or tunnels. It is about Israel's permanent control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives. ... What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza's refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel's siege and its provocations with resistance. Back to Barzou and Alhlou: The Israeli military has said it is targeting Hamas command centers, along with rocket launchers and weapons arsenals, but has not provided explanations when asked about specific strikes in which many members of a single family were killed. Perhaps because they know that no justification exists. Yesterday at Foreign Policy in Focus, Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/violating-international-law-gaza/> mirrored Khaliki. There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza. Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force. Operation and operation, Israel and the IDF (Israel Defense Force) act with absolute impunity. For instance, after Israeli tanks shelled the school in Jabaliya on Tuesday, BBC reported<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28558433>: [Chris] Gunness from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told the BBC that Israel had been told 17 times that the school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was housing the displaced. ... [He] said "the world stands disgraced" by the attack, in which 15 died and dozens were hurt. Ms. Bennis again: Meet Ayelet Shaked, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people. "The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure." Ms. Shaked ventures into rabble-rousing that greases the skids to genocide, such as in Rwanda where the Tutsis were called cockroaches: The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there." A quick Google search reveals that Israel has only been taken to task for war crimes in an official capacity by the Goldstone Report<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf> and one occasion when they were charged with war crimes<http://www.globalresearch.ca/state-of-israel-charged-for-crime-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-kuala-lumpur-tribunal/5346375> in August 2013: The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will be hearing war crimes and genocide charges against Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general and the State of Israel from 21 to 24 August in Kuala Lumpur. This is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the retired general and the State of Israel in compliance with due legal process. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), having received complaints from victims from Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and the Sabra - Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, in 2012, investigated these complaints resulting in the institution of formal charges on war crimes against the accused. But, Haaretz reported (behind a paywall) on June 14, The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in its current Gaza offensive, backing Palestinian efforts to have Israel held up to international scrutiny. Meeting in Geneva, the 46-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with supports from Arab and Muslim countries, China, Russia, Latin American and African nations. Naturally: The United States was the only member to vote against the resolution, while European countries abstained. Naturally again: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office fiercely condemned the UN council's decision as a "travesty and should be rejected by decent people everywhere." We'll give the last word to Khaliki, just because it's a trenchant quote: ... the United States puts its thumb on the scales in favor of the stronger party. In this surreal, upside-down vision of the world, it almost seems as if it is the Israelis who are occupied by the Palestinians, and not the other way around. In this skewed universe, the inmates of an open-air prison are besieging a nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world.

--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: Political Renewal: Lessons from Taiwan

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tunde Oseni <tundeoseni@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 09:13:42
To: ayo_olukotun<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
Subject: Political Renewal: Lessons from Taiwan

Political Renewal: Lessons from Taiwan
Ayo Olukotun

'The government team should start forward without being troubled by
personal matters. I feel it is appropriate for me to step down in
order to prevent unnecessary misunderstandings'- Taiwan Labour
Minister's Resignation statement, 31st July 2014

Democracy in the Island nation of Taiwan is only a few years older
than Nigeria's Fourth Republic; yet that Asian economic power house
and leading producer of electronics goods offers some valuable lessons
for Nigerian leaders should they care to learn. In the last
forthright, two cabinet ministers both university lecturers have
resigned their offices in the wake of public controversy about their
conduct.

Barely a fortnight after the resignation of the education minister
Chiang Wei-ling over an academic publishing scandal which tangentially
involved him, the country's Labour minister Pan Shihwei whose
resignation statement is quoted in the opening section of this write
up threw in the towel. This was a result of the publication by a
tabloid of an allegation that he was having an extra-marital affair
with his personal assistant.

The labour minister's posture, even as he came under pressure, over a
transgression that European politicians would have dismissed as
commonplace evokes the best traditions of public service. Indeed
Shihwei as he headed back for the Chinese Cultural University remarked
with pronounced humour that his sobering experience will make the
university course he teaches more popular. It is interesting that the
labour minister did not supplicate with Premier Jaing Yi-huag by
sending delegations of traditional rulers to beseech him; neither did
he engage in costly diatribes by berating the ethnic extraction of the
owner of the tabloid that exposed him. On the contrary and conscious
of the long term imperatives of building a responsible political
culture he bowed out of office with dignity and panache.

The case of the education minister Wei-ling connects an associate who
cited him as co-author of five out of sixty articles that were
withdrawn by an academic publisher for violating peer-review
procedures. The controversy ignited public outrage predictably fuelled
by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party which called for
Wei-ling's resignation. Rather than stay on and call his critics names
or accuse them of trying to break up the country, Wei-ling stated that
'after reflection overnight in order to safeguard my own reputation I
have decided to resign as the education minister'.

Were the minister willing to contest the issue several escape routes
were open to him including the fact for instance that the author of
the controversial publications had merely invoked his name as a status
symbol. In other words, he was not directly culpable. However, legal
niceties are one thing; public morality which is at the heart of
functioning democracies is another.

At first blush, the resignations may be seen as indictment of the
country's Premier; objectively however, the resignations of faintly
discredited public figures constitute acts of political renewal which
reinforce the legitimacy and responsiveness of the system. And this
brings us to the Nigerian circumstance in which public officials would
rather die in office or even set the country on fire than resign their
portfolios. It must be a long time, for instance, that any Nigerian
public official resigned even when confronted with serious allegations
of wrongdoing. Several cases come to mind here, one of them being that
of Interior affairs minister Aba Moro, who in spite of being
implicated in a national tragedy involving the death of several youths
clung to office tenaciously. There was also the case of former
minister of aviation, Stella Oduah, who in the heat of severe queries
on her conduct called her critics names. It took a cabinet reshuffle
to ease her out of the job.

Interestingly our political class was not always this squalid. Was it
not in this same country that Chief Obafemi Awolowo voluntarily quit
the plum position of minister for finance and vice chairman of the
federal executive council stating publicly that he no longer felt
comfortable with staying on in an un-elected government? His
resignation was considered at the time a rebuke of the political
longevity and sit-tight attitude of the military government of General
Yakubu Gowon who had reneged on the transition programme to civilian
rule. There is also the image, as this writer recalls it, of Chief
Bola Ige, assassinated minister for justice, who was eased out of the
Western Regional Government by its then military ruler, General
Adeyinka Adebayo because of a disagreement on principle between them.
A few days later, Ige, clad in his wig and gown appeared in court
for a client signaling that he had gone back to his professional
calling. The same mindset is reflected in the posture of Aminu Kano
even when he took up political office under military regimes.

The point being made here is that this earlier breed of politicians
did not consider political office as a do-or-die affair to be held on
to at all costs. They had popular followings and were conscious of the
ethical and ideological underpinnings of public service. Another way
of putting this is that they held office in order to serve the people
and did not see office as an end in itself. The moral collapse of the
political class and the conversion of political office into
commercialized fiefs to be bought or sold constitute important
dimensions of Nigeria's never ending political crisis.

If we go back to the Taiwanese examples which are replicated in best
practices across the globe we find that it was fairly easy for the
ministers to quit the offices because they had their jobs waiting for
them. The Nigerian dimension of the problem is complicated by the
emergence of politicians who lack secondary careers or callings to
which they can return should they have to resign or be eased out of
office. It is interesting too that Taiwan's education minister
accepted a forty percent drop in his salary at the National University
in order to serve as minister. In our own country, public office
remains a superlative calling which opens citizens to an unimaginable
world of luxury at public expense.

Previously, it was thought that a reformist strand within the
political class will succeed at whittling down the privileges of
office holders. Governments and national conferences have come and
gone but the problem persists. Obviously, for as long as an obscene
gap exists between professionals and holders of public offices so long
will it be extremely difficult for politicians whose integrity are
called to question to resign their offices.

The self perception of Nigerian leaders is that they are in charge of
a great country but greatness does not happen by simply imagining it.
We must be willing to put in the hard grind that it takes to achieve
greatness, and one of this is what is increasingly called 'soft
power'. Soft power refers to the ability of nations to attract others
by the force of examples or moral weight. What the resignations of the
ministers in Taiwan have shown is that the country cares for those
values that make democracies work and nations powerful.

Nigeria is still waiting for a leader or group of leaders who will
grasp the connection between civilized conduct in government and the
country's identity on the world map. For how long do we have to wait?

* Olukotun is Professor of Political Science and Dean, Faculty of the
Social Sciences, Lead City University, Ibadan

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - EXCLUSIVE: How Ebola Can Be Treated, By Dr. Simbo Davidson

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/165887-exclusive-how-ebola-can-be-treated-by-dr-simbo-davidson.html

EXCLUSIVE: How Ebola Can Be Treated, By Dr. Simbo Davidson

2014-08-01 00:47 by Premium Times

Dr. Simbo Davidson believes sufferers of Ebola can be treated with a drug available in the market and which was once used to contain a deadly virus in South Africa

=====================

On 22 July 2014, the first case of the dreaded Ebola virus arrived in Nigeria via an Asky aircraft. However, no one knew it at the time. How did this happen? How had this patient been screened at his port of departure, that is Liberia airport? We can also ask ourselves yet another question. Why is it taking so long to curtail the epidemic? For instance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently announced that as at 23 July 2014, the Ebola epidemic had claimed 672 lives. Furthermore, there are currently 1201 suspected and confirmed cases across West Africa. In terms of intervention, the current strategy appears to be related to the use of universal precautions: case isolation, hand-washing, and health worker protection and palliative treatments (such as pain management, and rehydrating fluids).

In theory, this strategy may be quite effective. This is because epidemic control strategies usually aim to reduce person-to-person transmission through avoidance related methods (WHO, 2014). In this case, persons at risk will need to avoid contact with the body fluids of infected person, including sweat, semen, vomit, faeces, urine, blood and saliva (Infection Control for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, WHO 2014).

In practice, avoidance techniques may not work, as in reality, these are the most basic of preventive measures. Firstly, a high level of hygiene is required and this may be relatively impossible in the urban slums and rural areas of many African countries. Secondly, isolation centres will need to be stationed in every single district or local government area. In many developing African countries, such centres may not be adequately manned, suitably stationed, or reasonably equipped. So, invariably, many infected persons are nursed at home or buried at home. Hence, the cycle of transmission continues. What then can be done?

From a Public Health perspective, there are several ways that epidemics may be subdued: 1). Interrupt the cycle of transmission e.g prevent cross-contamination 2). Protect the susceptible host e.g through vaccination or 3). Eliminate the reservoir of infection e.g. kill all animals that harbour the Ebola virus.

Starting from the third option, we immediately encounter the difficulty of which animals to slaughter. Unlike Avian flu, it isn't clear which animal is involved here? Bats? Rodents? Monkeys? In addition, the Ebola virus has no vaccine to date; so that leaves only one other option: interrupt the cycle of transmission. The question then is 'Has this been effectively done? How have other nations contained similar epidemics?

On 21 September 2008, a woman was admitted at a South African hospital for fever, vomiting and diarrhea, "followed by a rash," and signs of organ failure (Keeton, 2008). The woman died the next day. Three more cases were reported, in quick succession, to the National Institute for Communicable Disease in South Africa. They all died within a few days of admission. Three of the patients were medical staff. Researcher Keeton (2008) noted that all cases presented with " flu-like illness (in a similar way to Ebola) and had fever, headache and muscle pain. When the fifth patient surfaced, the institute had diagnosed an outbreak of an old world arena virus infection. While this specific virus did not cause internal bleeding, it belonged to the same class of viruses that did, e.g West African LASSA fever causes fever and bleeding (Keeton ,2008). According to Keeton (2008), the fifth patient (a nurse) was "treated with Ribavirin, which has been effective in patients with LASSA fever, and she has since made a good recovery" (Keeton, 2008).

Ribavirin then was the deciding factor in this case. All other palliative methods failed, intravenous fluids, etc. Why then should we expect such interventions to work now in 2014? Surely an antiviral, which worked in a similar situation six years ago, should also be a consideration in this case? The virus isolated in South Africa had never been subjected to Ribavirin in a research setting (Keeton 2008). In effect, there was no guarantee that it would work. But this was nevertheless the most logical approach to the impending threat.

Ribavirin is a broad-spectrum antiviral agent. It is effective against a wide range of RNA viruses including viral hemorrhagic viruses such as LASSA fever (Crotty, Cameron, & Andino, 2001). According to the trio, Ribavirin was discovered in 1972. It can therefore not be classified as an experimental drug. Ribavirin also acts independently of the viral RNA sequence. Therefore flaviruses (of which Yellow fever is a member) and arena viruses (of which Lassa fever is a member) differ somewhat in structure but are still responsive to the antiviral. The critical success factor, however, may be timely intervention. Ribavirin is contraindicated after organ (e.g. kidney or liver failure) sets in. It may therefore be imperative that treatment be commenced during the early phase of the illness. While the antiviral may not be available as an OTC, (non prescription drug) large orders (in tablet or injectable form) may be made directly from the manufacturers. Fortunately, no fewer than six global pharmaceutical giants, including Sandoz and Roche, are currently manufacturing the antiviral.

In terms of potential impact, the Ebola virus is an RNA virus, and a member of the viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as LASSA fever, Rift valley fever, Marburg virus, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic virus and Yellow fever (Crotty et al.,2001; Keeton, 2008). Most of the VHF viruses present with similar symptoms such as flu-like illness, vomiting, diarrhea, high fever, skin rashes and bleeding (Keeton, 2008). Most are invariably fatal without therapeutic intervention, or vaccination (if available). These statistics clearly indicate that the VHF viruses have similar molecular mechanisms.

Therefore, in view of the current status of the epidemic, the next logical approach should be related to therapeutic intervention. There is certainly no hard evidence that such an approach would be fruitless, while there is certainly compelling evidence that the outcome may be positive.

References

Crotty, S., Cameron, C., & Andino R.(2001).Ribavirin's antiviral mechanism of action: Lethal mutagenesis? Journal of Molecular Medicine,(2002) 80 :86-95

Infection Control for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in the African Setting.

(World Health Organisation and CDC. 2014)

Keeton, C.(2008).South African Doctors move quickly to contain a new virus. World Health Organization. Bulletin of The World Health Organisation 86.12(Dec 2008) :912-3

Simbo Davidson (MBBS, MPH, PCQI) is a Public Health specialist working in a private hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.

She wrote this article exclusively for PREMIUM TIMES.

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

Dear All

There is no doubt that Israel is breaking international laws

and that she is getting away with it under the leadership

of Benjamin Nettanyau who is as much as war monger as any

Hamas leader could be.

However there would have been no need

for Israel to break international laws if the

Hamas had not kept on provoking Israel in the first

instance.

The state of Israel has no other choice but to protect her citizens.

If the Hamas keeps on using its civilians as sacrificial lambs to shield its troops

from Israel's superior firepower, one can hardly blame only the state of Israel

for the thousands of civilians including infants and school children

who have been either killed or wounded

during the ongoing Israeli counter-offensive.

The leadership of the Hamas are fully aware that that Israel's war doctrine

is to deploy overwhelming disproportionate

force in retaliation for any attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens,

The Hamas must learn the lesson that it is suicidal to keep

on provoking wars it knows it cannot win and that if by chance

it ever appears it might be winning, such an anticipated victory would be truncated

by the increase in supplies of ammunitions and logistics to Israel by the USA and other western countres

to bolster the Israeli efforts.

Only ruthless religious ideologues keep on year in and year out using its peoples

as guinea pigs for the testing of the

latest weaponry from Israel, the USA and other western countries,

The rest of the world must tell the Hamas and her dwindling number of Arab supporters that

it must learn to live and let live.

The only solution to the Palestinian-Isreali dispute is a two state solution!

The state of Israel is here to stay; it is not going anywhere.

Nettanyau and the rest of the Israeli leadership must also realize that her citizens

would know no lasting peace until it agrees to meet the Palestinians in the middle.

israel must stop building settlements on Palestinian lands!

Bye,

Ola--a strong supporter of Palestinian rights who is currently fed up with Hamas tactics.

this is completely true
here is the amnesty international report that details these violations: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25

ken

On 7/31/14 4:35 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:

--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

Dialogues

Thursday, July 31, 2014

FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: Political Renewal: Lessons from Taiwan

USA Africa Dialogue Series - EXCLUSIVE: How Ebola Can Be Treated, By Dr. Simbo Davidson

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

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