{mosimage} Israel's
bombardment of the Gaza Strip was predictable, if not preventable.
Israel's crimes against the Palestinians simply could not take place on
such a massive scale were it not for U.S. support. The American people,
therefore, have a responsibility to act and pressure their government
to end its financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israeli
violations of international law -- a necessary first step towards any
viable and sustainable peace.
Dec. 30, 2008 (World News Trust) -- Israel’s
bombardment of Gaza has long been in the planning, and the purpose is
to terrorize the Arab population in the hopes that they will revolt
against the Hamas leadership and to punish them further for electing
them. The siege Gaza has remained under since Israel withdrew its
military from the Strip in 2006 has had the same intended purpose.
A
comparable policy was implemented by the US against Iraq. The sanctions
were intended to further the goal of regime change. The means by which
this goal was pursued was to punish the Iraqi people, to deny them food
and medical supplies. By United Nations estimates, more than a million
Iraqis died as a result. More than half a million of those victims were
children.
In
the end, although then U.S. ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright
publicly said that the “price” of half a million dead children was
“worth it,” the sanctions served only to strengthen the control of
Saddam Hussein’s regime over the people by making them totally
dependent upon the regime for their very survival.
When
it became clear that the genocidal sanctions were not sustainable due
to overwhelming global opposition, the military option came to be seen
as the only option for implementing regime change.
The
chokehold Israel has maintained upon the population of Gaza has not had
its desired effect. And Israel has realized that its siege of Gaza
might also not be sustainable, given the ever-increasing global
outrage. Israel’s use of force against Gaza was only a matter of time,
and the cease-fire was understood from the beginning not to be an
effort at a sustained, long-term peace, but to provide political cover
for the planned military operation.
Prior
to the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, Israel had announced its intention
to wage full-scale military operations against Gaza. The cease-fire did
not end those plans, but were a means to that end. It was clear from
the beginning that Israel intended to do everything in its power to
ensure that the cease-fire was unsustainable in order to provoke Hamas
into acting in a way that would provide Israel with a perceived casus belli to punish Gaza violently for continuing to have the leadership of elected Hamas officials.
Israel
violated the cease-fire from the start. According to the UN, Israeli
soldiers on numerous occasions fired upon Gaza farmers trying to work
their land near the border. An 82 year-old-man was injured in one such
incident on June 27. In another shooting incident, a Palestinian woman
was wounded.
The
Israeli Defense Force openly announced that it would fire upon any
Palestinian entering into what it declared was a “special security
zone” within Gaza; essentially a declaration of the intention to
continually violate the cease-fire with impunity by firing at farmers
and other Palestinians attempting to reach their own land.
Israel also threatened a full-scale invasion if the cease-fire was violated by the Palestinians.
At
the same time, Israel stepped up its operations against in the West
Bank. On June 24, for example, Israel killed a member of Islamic Jihad,
an act for which the group retaliated by launching several rocket
attacks against Israel from Gaza.
Hamas
in fact responded by appealing to Islamic Jihad and other groups to
desist and to observe the cease-fire. “We expect everyone to respect
the agreement so that the Palestinian people achieve what they look
for, an end to this suffering and breaking the siege,” Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh told reporters.
Although
the Israeli leadership knew these attacks were carried out by other
groups, who were not a party to the cease-fire, it declared that it
would hold Hamas responsible for all such attacks.
At
the same time, Israel closed off the border, allowing only minimal
humanitarian supplies through. Hamas has declared since the beginning
that this was itself a violation of the cease-fire.
As I wrote in June, Israel’s actions seemed “designed to bring about a hostile response which would give Israel a casus belli to invade Gaza.
“In
the event of any such invasion, Israel will claim that it had exhausted
diplomacy. Israel has made sure that the cease-fire is unsustainable.
But it is beneficial as it would be used as political cover for future
military action.
“Coupled with Israel’s agreement to a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, the New York Times calls
this ‘Israel’s Diplomatic Offensive’. The exchange is Israel’s effort
to wrap-up its 2006 war with Hezbollah before engaging in another war.
The ‘Diplomatic Offensive’ will more likely than not be followed in
coming months by a military offensive.”
The
only thing that surprised me about Israel’s bombardment of Gaza was how
long it took, on account of Hamas abiding by the cease-fire and not
giving Israel the excuse it was looking for to terrorize Gaza residents
in an extreme form of collective punishment.
None
of this violence could occur without the massive support Israel
receives from the United States. And the U.S. propaganda machine has been in high
gear since the bombs started falling attempting to portray Israel as
the victim. Although sporadic rocket attacks had occurred during the
cease-fire, no Israelis were killed. Two Israelis have been killed
since the end of the cease-fire in rocket attacks launched in
retaliation for the Israeli bombardment.
The Palestinian death toll, on the other hand, is rapidly climbing towards 400.
Yet the New York Times and
other major corporate news outlets have virtually wiped the Israeli
violation of the cease-fire last month from history. On Nov. 4, an
Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians and
wounded several others. The thinly veiled pretext for the attack was
that Hamas was digging a tunnel which would be used to cross the border
and capture Israeli soldiers.
But
whether this tunnel actually existed or not hasn’t been made clear. And
even if it was, such tunnels are used by the people of Gaza to smuggle
in much needed supplies, like food, fuel, medicine, and other
essentials Israel has denied them. In the end, this pretext bears a
striking resemblance to the Bush doctrine of loosely-defined prevention
(not preemption), a doctrine that has no legitimacy under international
law.
But
this Israeli violation of the cease-fire is being wiped from memory.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that Hamas was solely
responsible for violating the cease-fire and bringing about its end.
The New York Times in current reports either finds that
violation unfit for print or references it in couched language, such as
by saying simply that the truce “began to unravel in early November,”
as though this unraveling were some strange phenomenon with no known
causal factors.
One
must wonder whether the language in such reports would be so vague had
Hamas been the party to initiate hostilities in violation of the truce
agreement.
U.S.-made
bombs are being used by Israel to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The American people have a responsibility, therefore, in stepping up
and taking action to help ensure an end to the current violence. U.S.
financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel’s violations of
international law and terrorizing of the Palestinian people will
continue unless there is massive public pressure brought to bear upon
both the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama
administration.
Bringing
an end to U.S. support for criminal violence in the region would be an
important first step towards a viable and sustainable peace.
To
send a message to your representatives in Congress and the Bush White
House to take action to end the violence against the people of Gaza,
you may use this convenient form at Just Foreign Policy. From there, you may also click a link to send your message to President-elect Obama.
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal,
a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion
commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard
framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate
media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in
the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online
publications. You can contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..