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

My Esteemed Brother Prof. Bewaji:

What do you think is the best way to resolve the Middle East crisis,
specifically the Palestinian-Israeli dispute both in the short and long terms,?

If you were sitting as a mediator in Cairo, when the peace talks finally resume
what  concessions would you demand of:

1) the Republic of Israel

2) the Palestinian leadership on behalf of their people?

What is the best road to peace in terms of its probability to succeed?

Do you accept the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad's demands or wish that the state of Israel
must be wiped off the face of the earth?

What are the chances that this wish will come true considering the following
Geo-political realities in the world?:

a) when all the chips are down and no matter which party is in power or who is serving
as the President, the USA will always support Israel. Ditto for most of the western world inclusive
of Great Britain, France, Germany etc,

b) the countries of the Middle East are unlikely to ever collectively prevail in any major war with
Israel even if they places their entire  military resourses on the side of the Palestinians?
With the exception of Egypt and Qatar which are  trying to play a mediating role, have you noticed
the deafening silence from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, UAE, Turkey and other Middle East
and Islamic countries?

c) even though she is not a friend of Israel, Russia the other major non-western Super power is unlikely
to support the Palestinians and the Arabs as it had always done in previous Middle East conflicts?

Unless the world is willing to continue  witnessing intermittent human sufferings such as the carnage that is currently
going on in the Gaza, which also has the potential of spreading to West Bank and the rest of the Middle East,
I believe it is time for the rest of the world not only
to condemn Israel's actions but also those of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations in the Middle
East.

With the exception of the unbearable human sufferings which are common to both conflicts,
the conflict over the Unilateral Declration of Biafra by Lt. Gol. Ojukwu which led to the Nigerian civil war (1967-70)
does not have any other parallels with the Middle East conflict which began in earnest following the creation of the
Republic of Israel in 1948.

Unlike the Jews of Israel who only wanted to be left alone in the chunk of land reserved for them by the United Nations
and its predecessor organization -the League of Nations, the Igbo in the former Eastern Region of Nigeria declared
and actualized their intention to secede from Nigeria, not only by taking along with the land and the resources
in the the current SE, but also those occupied by and belonging to the minority ethnic groups most of which are
 the currently SS zone in Nigeria. The secession attempt failed partly because the minority ethnic groups were unwilling
to go along but also due to the superior firepower of the federal forces which were admittedly heavily supported by the
Great Britain and other western countries.

At the end of the war,, the leadership of Biafra surrendered and the SE had been back into the fold ever since then.
With the exception of a few nuts in the MASSOB and other neo-Bifran organizations, most Nigerians including the
Igbo now consider the Biafra issue settled.

If the Palestinians and the Arabs of the Middle East had accepted the boundaries in 1948, there would have been
no need for the subsequent military conflicts that have taken place in the MIddle East in 1967, in the 70's, 80's
and in the current century. The Palestinians and the Arabs have lost sigificant portions of land to Israel with each subsequent war
including the Gaza strip--later returned to Egypt by the state of Israel, The West Bank and the Golan Heights.

The question we must ask of the Hamas and other Palestinian and Islamic organizations who are opposed to the two state solution
in the Middle East is why they keep on making the same mistakes--doing things the same way and always expecting a different result.

The state of Israel has signaled its intentions to consider a two state solution intially proposed by the Palestinian leadership
under Yasser Arafat which is currently also endorsed by Muhamed Abbas and most members of the current Unity Govt of Palestine
except the Hamas and most of the rest of the world who wish for  peace in the MIddle East. Wahy not the Hama and the Islamic Jihad.

As I wrote in an earlier piece, my sympathies remain with the Palestinian people--who  have suffered a great deal since
1948. Nonetheless, I currently find it difficult to support the strategies adopted by the Hamas in the Middle East.

Bye,

Ola

---- Original Message ----
From: Tunde Bewaji <tunde.bewaji@gmail.com>
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>; Ola Kassim <olakassimmd@aol.com>
Cc: okonkwonetworks <okonkwonetworks@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 1, 2014 4:20 am
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

Baba Kassim,

Am surprised at the above coming from you.  I wonder what you would have done if, when Biafra was coming to Lagos, Ijebu land was overrun, occupied and your ancestral land converted into a garrison or prison for you and your family?  Would you say that you will not use all means necessary to get your land back?

I have many Igbo friends, and they all fail to answer why it was necessary for Ojukwu to stretch his army so thin as to want to come to Lagos, if the object was the freedom of his people and not colonization of Yoruba land.

In the particular instance of the Israeli Occupation, Israel with the active primitive backing of USA and the Christian world are the guilty party here.  They fund Israel, give it the weapons of mass destruction it uses, and shield Israel from international law.  It is the worst form of apartheid after South Africa to be inflicted on any people in modern history.

We all need to understand what is happening.  Many morally outraged countries have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv, but the criminal Whitehouse seem to continue to cover for Israeli Holocaust on Palestinians.  A little over ten years ago, a whole city, known as Jenin was wiped off the face of the earth. All efforts to investigate what happened was scuttled by Israel and USA!

The root cause of the problem of the world is traceable to the injustice in the Arabian Desert, a patch of which Israel occupies with Western financial, military and religious backing.

This is a disgrace to all of us who call ourselves human beings.  Much as we all condemned Hitler, we should all be horrified by what is happening in the Middle East.  This is the genesis of the problem in the whole world.  It is why we have to have Obama kill Muarmar Gadaffi in the streets like a dog, why Bush had to kill Hussein, why Morsi cannot be President of Egypt, and why in spite of South Sudan, there is no peace there.  It is why in Nigeria we are not just humans, but Muslims and Christians.  I prefer any day Traditional Religion, which is more civilized, humane and moral than the two alien criminal religions of the demented desert that only pretends peace but wars daily and for thousands of years without ceasing and without respect for the weak, the vulnerable and the disabled.

So, skip the propaganda of human shield and get real.  We condemned Boer occupation of South Africa, Zimbabwe has not gone away because of land, and Palestine will be on our conscience if we are just, fair and human.

Ire o.

Tunde

On 31 July 2014 18:17, olakassimmd via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> 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.

---- 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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