israel supported the creation of hamas to split palestinian support away from the plo, away from arafat, whom they wanted to weaken.
then hamas grew, to israel's supprise? and anyway it became the most popular in gaza where miserable conditions fostered more radical responses. hamas got elected, and against the palestinian authority's weakness, chased the p.a. out of gaza, to the west bank ywhere the now rule, with israeli support. israel has tried desperately since then to split the palestinians between the two, and when the p.a. allied itself with hamas, israel ratcheted up the screws against gaza. in fact, the blockade against gaza, which has destroyed a livable life in gaza, was due to this political decision to try to turn the gazans against hamas. now hamas and the p.a. have come together again, whereupon the israeli participation in the peace process ended. this war seems to be the punishment of hamas for having risen in gaza and now for allying with the p.a., with the result that israel now sees itself facing not a pacified p.a., but a united, and more militantly oppositional, palestinian community.
is this correct?
ken
--Sir ,
The democratically elected Hamas are now part of a unity government endeavour. Of course, should there be elections in the West Bank tomorrow, Israel is afraid that Hamas might easily win the day at the ballot box - and not Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah which is seen as increasingly toothless in its peace talks with Israel who go on with settlement expansion like never before.
The latest announcement from Fatah's spokesman is that all the Palestinians are united with their brothers and sisters in Gaza and that Hamas is a part of the PLO.
What's happening is not pretty. Some of my personal views about what's happening have been posted here the past couple of days...
On Friday, 1 August 2014 12:48:47 UTC+2, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:..."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?
oa
From: usaafric...@
googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com ]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 6:18 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com ; okonkwo...@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 <har...@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@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 FlamesIn 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/ -- at least 73 percent of them civilians<http://www.npr.org/mideast-crisis/> blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/ , including hundreds of children. Fifty-six Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, have died too.336000847/conflict-in-gaza- heres-what-you-need-to-know- today> A July 28 poll<http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/ shows that 86.5 percent of Israelis oppose a ceasefire. Yet we continue to hear that Israelis want peace.Poll-865-percent-of-Israelis- oppose-cease-fire-369064> 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/ , a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanya hu'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.2014/07/07/israeli-politician- declares-war-on-the- palestinian-people.html> "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/ 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.four/whois.htm> Shaked's comments also echo the words of an Israeli colonel<http://www.hrw.org/de/news/2010/09/24/yes-war-does- 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 Is raeli soldiers to serve in the occupied territories.have-rules> 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/ . Israel is imposing collective punishment agains t all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.israelgaza-conflict-questions- and-answers-2014-07-25> 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- to stop violating international law.hamas-harry-reid-109452.html> 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 CrimesThe United Nations Human Rights Council announced a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.authors/russ-wellen/> , July 31, 2014., www.fpif.com[https://webmail.ccsu.edu/owa/attachment.ashx?id= ]RgAAAACIR4fP8% 2fDSEaNAAAD4YBApBwDd9LcDLkTSEa MkAKDJ4RrzAAAA7%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- reported on that deadly day in Gaza:target-symbols-of-hamas.html> 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- mirrored Khaliki.gaza/> 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/ and one occasion when they were charged with war crimes<http://www.12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf> globalresearch.ca/state-of- in August 2013:israel-charged-for-crime-of- genocide-and-war-crimes-kuala- lumpur-tribunal/5346375> 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. harrowfaculty excellence advocateprofessor of englishmichigan state universitydepartment of english619 red cedar roadroom C-614 wells halleast lansing, mi 48824ph. 517 803 8839har...@msu.edu
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