Doves of prey

Israel's belligerent doves should pause to ponder one small question: If they - famous
peace lovers - have turned into doves of prey after deaths of 100 Israelis, then what do they suppose is going through the minds of doves, hawks alike who have suffered 1,000 casualties, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and scores of pounded villages?

By B. Michael
YNET
August 12, 2006



One hundred dead Israelis - undoubtedly a horrendous figure - and a flock of local and
noisy doves have turned into a flock of angry battle doves.

Almost overnight, the calls for peace and moderation have been abandoned, replaced by
loud and angry preaching calling for the pounding, crippling and destruction of the
enemy.

One hundred dead, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, dozens of shelled homes
- and the doves have become falcons.

What about them?

It`s interesting, because the Palestinians have been suffering similar measures of
death and
destruction almost every month. And they, as they have been told over and over again,
should learn from all this death and suffering and turn into doves. They are being
told to
abandon their anger and hatred, and instead nurture love of mankind and pacifism.

And the Lebanese? They too have had a fair share of death and destruction, several
times
greater than the suffering Israel has had to endure. And they too are being asked to
reach
the ultimate conclusion from the horror they have endured, namely that the time has
come to
turn into doves. They have even been told repeatedly that we shall not cease to
strike at
them, until they make an about-face, until they become doves, until they love us.

Strange. The Palestinian and Lebanese people are being asked to surmise that it is
worthwhile becoming a dove after experiencing death and suffering. However, Israeli
doves
allow themselves to surmise the complete opposite from death and suffering: that
they ought
to become birds of prey.

Strange, but perhaps this conduct can be attributed to the difference in mentality,
and may
just be another sign of the dove`s soft flesh and feeble spine.

The lesson of the death

Owls on the other hand, as well as all other intelligent creatures, learn from all
the above
(and from the lessons learned in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ireland, Spain, Algeria and
Palestine
etc.) that bombs and tanks are not necessarily the best teachers of politeness,
courtesy and
love of mankind. Death and suffering only brings more death and suffering. Relentless
brutality only brings more relentless brutality.

Aggressive recklessness only brings more aggressive recklessness. That`s how it is
here,
that`s how it is there and that`s how it is everywhere.

Israel`s belligerent doves should pause to ponder one small question: if they - the
famous
peace lovers - have become doves of prey after the death of 100 Israelis, then what
do they
suppose is going through the minds of those doves and hawks alike who have suffered
1,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and scores of villages almost
wiped off the face of the earth.

But how dare I compare? We are the chosen people, and they are just Arabs.

Food for thought

Who are those people fighting us in Lebanon ? Who are those determined youngsters, the
fanatics impassioned by their faith and hatred?

They are eighteen-year-olds, twenty-year-olds, and twenty-five-year-olds or perhaps
even
thirty-year-olds. They were born in the last century, towards the end of the 70`s
and the end
of the 80`s. They are the sons of the previous war. They are the offspring of occupied
Lebanon in 1982, children of the trampled south during the first war in Lebanon,
frightened
children of humiliated parents who grew into bitter men, full of burning hatred.

We also tried knocking some sense into their parents by bombing them. Their families
were
also driven out of their homes, hoping they would wander to the capital and pressure
the
government to disarm the militia of the time (Palestinian). Their villages were also
pounded,
flattened and cleansed.

The generation that grew out of that era is the same generation fighting us now. And
twenty
years from now - if we allow the Olmerts , the Peretzes, the Halutzes and the Ramons to
continue ruling us - we shall find ourselves fighting the generation that is growing
up now.

A somewhat hollow argument

We say they `hide among civilians,` that they `use them as human shields, those lowly
cowards.` We say, `Those who allow them to do so should pay the price.`

This is a somewhat hollow argument coming from the mouths of officers and leaders whose
headquarters are located in the heart of Tel Aviv. And not far from there in the
midst of a
prestigious neighborhood, there`s a type of military airport. And in a handsome
building in
the capital, in the heart of the city, there`s a large military base, where cannons are
reportedly, often positioned so close to the settlements that schoolchildren wander
over
there during their breaks.

But these arguments sound all the more hollow coming from a country that invented the
`settlement undertaking.` An undertaking whose sole purpose was to send civilians,
including women and children, to perform a military assignment par excellence: gaining
control over territory, the expulsion of the residents and annexation of the spoils
to the
mother country. A classical assignment by a conquering power.

This is all being carried out under a contrite and sanctimonious civilian pretext. I
would,
therefore, like to make myself heard loud and clear: No one asked for my permission
before
building the Kiriya (Tel Aviv military headquarters), I didn`t give my consent for
building the
Schneller Camp, and as far as I am concerned, let all the settlements be abandoned
as of
now.

And even though I am being used as a human shield, many leaders and sacred weapons
are hiding behind me, and I am paying the taxes for the curse of the settlements and
the evil
of the occupation, I insist: my blood is no different from the blood of Lebanese
citizens, and
cannot be shed. And hopefully, all those who dare harm us, will find themselves
paying the
cost. Either before a local adjudicator or an international one, whatever comes first.

The Thirty Three Day War

August 17, 2006

From Mania to Depression

By URI AVNERY

Tel Aviv.

Thirty three days of war. The longest of our wars since 1949.

On the Israeli side: 154 dead--117 of them soldiers. 3970 rockets launched against us, 37 civilians dead, more than 422 civilians wounded.

On the Lebanese side: about a thousand dead civilians, thousands wounded. An unknown number of Hizbullah fighters dead and wounded.

More than a million refugees on both sides.

So what has been achieved for this terrible price?

"GLOOMY, HUMBLE, despondent," was how the journalist Yossef Werter described Ehud Olmert, a few hours after the cease-fire had come into effect.

Olmert? Humble? Is this the same Olmert we know? The same Olmert who thumped the table and shouted: "No more!" Who said: "After the war, the situation will be completely different than before!" Who promised a "New Middle East" as a result of the war?

* * *

THE RESULTS of the war are obvious:

* The prisoners, who served as casus belli (or pretext) for the war, have not been released. They will come back only as a result of an exchange of prisoners, exactly as Hassan Nasrallah proposed before the war.

* Hizbullah has remained as it was. It has not been destroyed, nor disarmed, nor even removed from where it was. Its fighters have proved themselves in battle and have even garnered compliments from Israeli soldiers. Its command and communication stucture has continued to function to the end. Its TV station is still broadcasting.

* Hassan Nasrallah is alive and kicking. Persistent attempts to kill him failed. His prestige is sky-high. Everywhere in the Arab world, from Morocco to Iraq, songs are being composed in his honor and his picture adorns the walls.

* The Lebanese army will be deployed along the border, side by side with a large international force. That is the only material change that has been achieved.

This will not replace Hizbullah. Hizbullah will remain in the area, in every village and town. The Israeli army has not succeeded in removing it from one single village. That was simply impossible without permanently removing the population to which it belongs.

The Lebanese army and the international force cannot and will not confront Hizbullah. Their very presence there depends on Hizbullah's consent. In practice, a kind of co-existence of the three forces will come into being, each one knowing that it has to come to terms with the other two.

Perhaps the international force will be able to prevent incursions by Hizbullah, such as the one that preceded this war. But it will also have to prevent Israeli actions, such as the reconnaissance flights of our Air Force over Lebanon. That's why the Israeli army objected, at the beginning, so strenuously to the introduction of this force.

* * *

IN ISRAEL, there is now a general atmosphere of disappointment and despondency. From mania to depression. It's not only that the politicians and the generals are firing accusations at each other, as we foresaw, but the general public is also voicing criticism from every possible angle. The soldiers criticize the conduct of the war, the reserve soldiers gripe about the chaos and the failure of supplies.

In all parties, there are new opposition groupings and threats of splits. In Kadima. In Labor. It seems that in Meretz, too, there is a lot of ferment, because most of its leaders supported the war dragon almost until the last moment, when they caught its tail and pierced it with their little lance.

At the head of the critics are marching--surprise, surprise--the media. The entire horde of interviewers and commentators, correspondents and presstitutes, who (with very few exceptions) enthused about the war, who deceived, misled, falsified, ignored, duped and lied for the fatherland, who stifled all criticism and branded as traitors all who opposed the war--they are now running ahead of the lynch mob. How predictable, how ugly. Suddenly they remember what we have been saying right from the beginning of the war.

This phase is symbolized by Dan Halutz, the Chief-of-Staff. Only yesterday he was the hero of the masses, it was forbidden to utter a word against him. Now he is being described as a war profiteer. A moment before sending his soldiers into battle, he found the time to sell his shares, in expectation of a decline of the stock market. (Let us hope that a moment before the end he found the time to buy them back again.)

Victory, as is well known, has many fathers, and failure in war is an orphan.

* * *

FROM THE deluge of accusations and gripes, one slogan stands out , a slogan that must send a cold shiver down the spine of anyone with a good memory: "the politicians did not let the army win."

Exactly as I wrote two weeks ago, we see before our very eyes the resurrection of the old cry "they stabbed the army in the back!"

This is how it goes: At long last, two days before the end, the land offensive started to roll. Thanks to our heroic soldiers, the men of the reserves, it was a dazzling success. And then, when we were on the verge of a great victory, the cease-fire came into effect.

There is not a single word of truth in this. This operation, which was planned and which the army spent years training for, was not carried out earlier, because it was clear that it would not bring any meaningful gains but would be costly in lives. The army would, indeed, have occupied wide areas, but without being able to dislodge the Hizbullah fighters from them.

The town of Bint Jbeil, for example, right next to the border, was taken by the army three times, and the Hizbullah fighters remained there to the end. If we had occupied 20 towns and villages like this one, the soldiers and the tanks would have been exposed in twenty places to the mortal attacks of the guerillas with their highly effective anti-tank weapons.

If so, why was it decided, at the last moment, to carry out this operation after all--well after the UN had already called for an end to hostilities? The horrific answer: it was a cynical--not to say vile--exercise of the failed trio. Olmert, Peretz and Halutz wanted to create "a picture of victory", as was openly stated in the media. On this altar the lives of 33 soldiers (including a young woman) were sacrificed.

The aim was to photograph the victorious soldiers on the bank of the Litani. The operation could only last 48 hours, when the cease-fire would come into force. In spite of the fact that the army used helicopters to land the troops, the aim was not attained. At no point did the army reach the Litani.

For comparison: in the first Lebanon war, that of Sharon in 1982, the army crossed the Litani in the first few hours. (The Litani, by the way, is not a real river anymore, but just a shallow creek. Most of its waters are drawn off far from there, in the north. Its last stretch is about 25 km distant from the border, near Metulla the distance is only 4 km.)

This time, when the cease-fire took effect, all the units taking part had reached villages on the way to the river. There they became sitting ducks, surrounded by Hizbullah fighters, without secure supply lines. From that moment on, the army had only one aim: to get them out of there as quickly as possible, regardless of who might take their place.

If a commission of inquiry is set up--as it must be--and investigates all the moves of this war, starting from the way the decision to start it was made, it will also have to investigate the decision to start this last operation. The death of 33 soldiers (including the son of the writer David Grossman, who had supported the war) and the pain this caused their families demand that!

* * *

BUT THESE facts are not yet clear to the general public. The brain-washing by the military commentators and the ex-generals, who dominated the media at the time, has turned the foolish--I would almost say "criminal"--operation into a rousing victory parade. The decision of the political leadership to stop it is now being seen by many as an act of defeatist, spineless, corrupt and even treasonous politicians.

And that is exactly the new slogan of the fascist Right that is now raising its ugly head.

After World War I, in similar circumstances, the legend of the "knife in the back of the victorious army" grew up. Adolf Hitler used it to carry him to power--and on to World War II.

Now, even before the last fallen soldier has been buried, the incompetent generals are starting to talk shamelessly about "another round", the next war that will surely come "in a month or in a year", God willing. After all, we cannot end the matter like this, in failure. Where is our pride?

* * *

THE ISRAELI public is now in a state of shock and disorientation. Accusations--justified and unjustified--are flung around in all directions, and it cannot be foreseen how things will develop.

Perhaps, in the end, it is logic that will win. Logic says: what has thoroughly been demonstrated is that there is no military solution. That is true in the North. That is also true in the South, where we are confronting a whole people that has nothing to lose anymore. The success of the Lebanese guerilla will encourage the Palestinian guerilla.

For logic to win, we must be honest with ourselves: pinpoint the failures, investigate their deeper causes, draw the proper conclusions.

Some people want to prevent that at any price. President Bush declares vociferously that we have won the war. A glorious victory over the Evil Ones. Like his own victory in Iraq.

When a football team is able to choose the referee, it is no surprise if it is declared the winner.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is one of the writers featured in The Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's hot new book The Politics of Anti-Semitism. He can be reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.

Birth Pangs of a new Christian Zionism? Sounds more like a miscarriage

Bellow is a link to an article on Christian Zionism. At present this is the new lobby arm that is throwing it's whole heart into glorifying Israel and demonizing Arabs. Of course, it would be nice to find out what they're views are on the sufferring of Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian Christians.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/new_christian_zionism

"Look What You've Done!"

August 16, 2006

AIPAC Congratulates Itself on the Slaughter in Lebanon

By JOHN WALSH

"My fellow American," Howard Friedman, President of AIPAC, begins his letter of July 30 to friends and supporters of AIPAC, "Look what you've done"! After warning that "Israel is fighting a pivotal war for its life," by which he means Israel's wanton slaughter and all-out destruction in Lebanon, Freiedman condemns "the expected chorus of international condemnation of Israel's actions" and Europe's call for "a cease-fire immediately." Then he exults: "only ONE nation in the world came out and flatly declared: Let Israel finish the job. . That nation is the United States of America--and the reason it had such a clear, unambiguous view of the situation is YOU and the rest of America Jewry." (All emphases in the original here and below.) Here I must take issue with President Friedman since I bet that most Jewish Americans, in contrast to the AIPAC crowd, were horrified by the slaughter in Lebanon. In fact if anyone other than President Friedman wrote this, he would be accused of fabricating a Jewish plot and labeled a nutty conspiracy theorist and scurrilous anti-semite.)

"How do we do it"? President Friedman asks a little further on. The answer is "decades of long hard work which never ends." Not only is it hard work--but it's eternal. However, President Friedman is not content with generalities and gives us some of AIPAC's trade secrets. Here are two notables:

"AIPAC meets with every candidate running for Congress. These candidates receive in-depth briefings to help them completely understand the complexities of Israel's predicament and that of the Middle East as a whole. We even ask each candidate to author a 'position paper' on their views of the U.S.-Israel relationship--so it's clear where they stand on the subject." (Would it not be great to see these "position papers"? I wonder how many candidates would release them? And what do the candidates get for all this effort? A pat on the back?)

"Members of Congress, staffers and administration officials have come to rely on AIPACs memos. They are VERY busy people and they know that they can count on AIPAC for clear-eyed analysis.. We present this information in concise form to elected officials. The information and analyses are impeccable--after all our reputation is at stake. This results in policy and legislation that make up Israel's lifeline." (Another way to read this is that the pea-brained hillbillies who make up most of the Congress can be led by the nose if the memos are simple enough. Testimony to this fact enters my mailbox, as I write, in the form of a must-read interview with Noam Chomsky, which details just how distorted the discussion of Israel and the war on Lebanon has become in the U.S.)

President Friedman's letter continues with more headliners: "Unfortunately, our work has just begun"! "Hizballah must be defeated." And finally, "The war is a diversion"!!!! This last section argues that the war in Lebanon is a "distraction," to "divert attention away from Iran's nuclear weapons program"! (In case you haven't noticed President Friedman loves exclamation points, which leads one to wonder whether a good dose of lithium might not be in order.) But this "analysis' is hopelessly confused since Israel started the war on Lebanon using a minor border skirmish as an excuse - as Chomsky points out in the interview alluded to above. It leaves one wondering about AIPAC's analyses. Are they "clear-eyed" as Friedman claims, or wild-eyed?

President Friedman closes with the exhortation: "Now is the time for us, American Jews, to stand up and tell our elected officials that they must demand Iran halt its pursuit of atomic arms." In other words, next stop Iran if AIPAC can swing it. And in that lies a great danger. The Bush administration is losing ever more of its base and only the neocon establishment and AIPAC remain securely in its camp. (Even some of the born-agains are deserting.) With the November elections coming, Rove and Bush desperately need AIPAC support, and so they may be even more susceptible than usual to its demands for going after Iran. Indeed this is a dangerous time.

John Walsh can be reached at john.endwar@gmail.com.

He thanks President Friedman for much of the material in this article, which is taken directly from his latest fundraising letter to AIPAC supporters and members.

Gaza Watch #12: Elderly Palestinian and His Son Killed when IOF Bombard their House

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
16 August 2006

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed an elderly Palestinian and
his son in Khan Yunis in the early morning hours of Wednesday, 16
August 2006, when an IOF plane leveled their house with a bomb. IOF
did not give them sufficient time to evacuate the house; and they
were killed during the evacuation. In addition, a second son and two
neighbors were moderately injured by shrapnel.

PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately
01:00 on Wednesday, an Israeli security officer called Abdel Hadi
Hasan Radwan Sha'ath (31), who is an activist in Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, on his mobile telephone. The Israeli officer told him to
evacuate his house as it will be bombarded in a few minutes. Sha'ath
was not in the house at the time of the call; and he called his
family to inform them of the warning.

The house consisted of 3 stories and was built on an area of 180
square meters. It was located in the densely-populated Sheikh Naser
area in the eastern part of Khan Yunis. The household started to
evacuate the house at night and in the dark as electricity was cut
off the area at the time.

During the evacuation, Israeli security called Mustafa Sha'ath (36),
a brother of Abdel Hadi, who is also an activist in Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades. They informed him that the house will be bombarded in a
few minutes.

Fifteen minutes after the first call and as the household were
evacuating, an IOF plane dropped a bomb on the house, destroying it
completely. Hasan Radwan Shahin Sha'ath, the 69-year old owner of
the house, and his son Ibrahim (45) were killed. Their bodies were
found 10 meters away from the house. They were killed by cement
blocks shattered by the bombardment. In addition, three civilians
were injured. One of the injured is a second son of the dead house
owner. The injured were taken to Naser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where
their injuries were listed as light to moderate. The injured are:
Abdel Rahman Hasan Sha'ath (35), Abdallah Nizar Abu Taha (29), and
Mohammad Suliman Mustafa Sha'ath (35). In addition, five nearby
houses sheltering 10 families of 75 members sustained damage by the
bombardment.

PCHR strongly condemns the IOF killing of Palestinian civilians in
the Gaza Strip, and the destruction of their property. IOF
disproportionate use of force places the lives of civilians at
additional risk during these operations, which are a form of
reprisal and collective punishment against Palestinians, a violation
of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Centre

confirms that indiscriminate aggression will inflict additional
damages on civilians and civilian property. The prior knowledge that
these attacks will cause civilian casualties and destruction of
their property is a violation of the convention, and a war crime in
the first protocol additional to the convention. The Centre reminds
the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention of: -
  Their obligations under article 1 of the convention to ensure
respect of the convention under all circumstances;

-       Their obligations in article 146 of the convention to pursue
suspects of committing serious violations of the convention, noting
that these violations are war crimes according to article 147, as
specified in the first protocol additional to the convention

Three Worst Men

There were three men competing to see who the worst one in the world is.

The first one attacked a woman and raped her so savagely that she fainted. He turned
to the others and said, "I am the worst one of all."

The second man stepped up and beat her until her teeth fell out and she bled from
her nose and ears until she was almost dead.  He turned to the others and said, "No
one can be worse than me."

The third one stepped up, smiled coldly, and said, "No, I am the worst one even
though I just stood by and watched, because this woman is my sister.

The woman here represents Lebanon and Palestine.
The first man is Israel.
The second is America & the West.
The third is the Arab world that stood by and did nothing.

To failure's credit

By Gideon Levy
Haaretz
13 August 2006


The bad (and predictable) news: Israel is going to comeout of this war with the lower hand. The good (and surprising) news: This ringing failure could spell good tidings. If Israel had won the battles in an easy, sweeping victory of the kind Israelis prayed so much for, it would have caused enormous damage to Israel's security policies. Another slam-bam win would have brought disaster upon us. Drugged with power, drunk with victory, we would have been tempted to implement our success in other arenas. Dangerous fire would have threatened the entire region and nobody knows what might have resulted.

On the other hand, the failure in this little war might teach us an important lesson for the future, and maybe influence us to change our ways and language, the language we speak to our neighbors with violence and force. The axiom that "Israel cannot allow itself a defeat on the battlefield" has already been exposed as a nonsensical cliche: Failure might not only help Israel greatly but, as a bonus, it might teach the Americans the important lesson that there is no point in pushing Israel into military adventures.

Since 1948's war, Israel has only achieved one sweeping military victory on its own, in the Six-Day War. There is no way of imagining an easier and sweeter victory. Israel's "deterrent capability" was restored - and in a big way - in a manner that was supposed to guarantee its security for many years. And what happened? Only six years went by and the most difficult war in Israeli history, theYom Kippur War, took place. Hardly deterrence. On the contrary, the defeat in 1967 only pushed the Arab armies to try to restore their lost honor and they managed to do so in a very short time. Against an arrogant, complacent Israel enjoying the rotten fruits of that dizzying victory, the Syrian and Egyptian armies chalked up considerable achievements, and Israel understood the limits of its power. Maybe now, this war will also bring us back down to reality, where military force is only military force, and cannot guarantee everything. Afterall, we are constantly scoring "victories" and "achievements" against the Palestinians. And what comes of them? Deterrence? Have the Palestinians given up their dreams to be free people in their own country?

The IDF's failure against Hezbollah is not a fateful defeat. Israel killed and absorbed casualties, but its existence or any part of its territory were not endangered for a moment. Our favorite phrase, "an existential war" is nothing more than another expression of the ridiculous pathos of this war, which from the start was a cursed war of choice.

Hezbollah did not capture territory from Israel and its defeat is tolerable even though it could have easily been avoided if we had not undertaken our foolish Lebanese adventure. It is not difficult to imagine what would have happened if Hezbollah had been defeated within a few days from the air, as promised from the start by the bragging of the heads of the IDF. The success would have made us insane. The U.S. would have pushed us into a military clash with Syria and, drunk with victory, we might have been tempted. Iran might have been next. At the same time we would have dealt with the Palestinians: What went so easily in Lebanon, we would have been convinced, would be easily implemented from Jenin to Rafah. The result would have been an attempt to solve the Palestinian problem at its root by pounding, erasing, bombing and shelling.

Maybe all that won't happen now because we have discovered first-hand that the IDF's power is much more limited than we thought and were told. Our deterrent capacity might now work in the opposite direction. Israel, hopefully, will think twice before going into another dangerous military adventure. That is comforting news. On the other hand, it is true that there is the danger the IDF will want to restore its lost honor on the backs of the helpless Palestinians. It didn't work in Bint Jbail, so we'll show them in Nablus.

However, if we internalize the concept whereby what does not work by force will not work with more force, this war could bring us to the negotiating table. Seared by failure, maybe the IDF will be less enthusiastic to rush into battle. It is possible the political echelon will now understand that the response to the dangers facing Israelis not to be found in using more and more force; that the real response to the legitimate and just demands of the Palestinians is not another dozen Operation Defensive Shields, but in respecting their rights; that the real response to the Syrian threat is returning the Golan to its rightful owners, without delay; and that the response to the Iranian danger is dulling the hatred toward us in the Arab and Muslim world.

If indeed the war ends as it is ending, maybe more Israelis will ask themselves what we are killing and being killed for, what did we pound and get pounded for, and maybe they will understand that it was once again all for naught. Maybe the achievement of this war will be that the failure will be seared deeply into the consciousness, and Israel will take a new route, less violent and less bullying, because of the failure. In 1967, Ephraim Kishon wrote, "sorry we won." This time it is almost possible to say, it's good we did not win.

Gaza Watch #11: Israel's Gaza count...so far

Xinhua
13 August 2006


Israel had carried out 190 airstrikes and fired 3,500 artillery shells on the Gaza Strip within the last 44 days, according to a Palestinian official report published on Saturday.

The report, issued by Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) department of Statistical Quality Control, detailed all Israeli army attacks on the Gaza Strip over the last 44 days.

"Israel carried out 768 different kinds of attacks on theGaza Strip during the period between June 28 and August10," said the PLO report.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip on June 28, three days after one Israeli soldier were abducted by Palestinian militant groups during across-border attack.

According to medics in Gaza hospitals, 200 Palestinians, including 40 children, were killed and 600 others were injured during the Israeli offensives dubbed "SummerRains".

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned of political and human disasters as a result of the ongoing military air and ground operations against the Gaza Strip.

Israel said that the operations were aimed to free the captive soldier Gilad Shalit and halt Palestinian militant groups' rocket attacks against Israel.

Gaza Watch #10: Palestinian deaths rise amid fear of worse to come

By Nidal al-Mughrabi/Reuters
The Guardian
11 August 2006

Last month was the deadliest in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years, a Palestinian research group said yesterday, as Israel's six-week offensive against militants in the territory led to a surge in killings. The Palestinian Monitoring Group said 151 people were killed in the strip in July, the highest total since October 2004, when 166 people died. The majority of those killed were civilians.

"The spiralling civilian casualties caused by Israeli actions throughout the region serve to strengthen extremists, weaken peace advocates and exacerbate the conflict," said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, commenting on the findings.

From late June, when Israel launched its offensive, until August 8, at least 170 Palestinians were killed, of whom 138 were civilians and a quarter children, the monitoring group said. Other reports have put the death toll at 200.

When the offensive was launched, Israeli warplanes bombed and partly destroyed Gaza's only power plant and also hit several bridges. The flow of fuel, food and other essential supplies was also repeatedly interrupted. The United Nations says the densely populated territory is now facing some of the worst humanitarian conditions in years.

In a report this week the UN said more than 70% of the 1.4 million population was reliant on emergency assistance to meet food needs and the price of essential goods, such as flour and sugar, had risen by between 15% and 33% this year. Waste treatment in the northern strip has reached a "critical point", threatening to flood populated areas with sewage and spread infection.

Another Letter

Dear President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert,

As we continue with the drumbeat coverage of the Israeli Occupation Forces ongoing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, the World's eyes are transfixed on the escalation of violence In Lebanon.

Along with others I have sat and watched the coverage of suffering that Lebanese people and Israelis have endured.

I have wondered when all of this will be resolved? Why not have an immediate cease fire now President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert? Why not stop the killing now rather than keeping it going? Why drive deeper into Lebanon and cause more death and destruction not only for the Lebanese, but also for the Israelis as well?

Do you honestly think that by destroying the entire infrastructure of Lebanon as well as Gaza and The West Bank that people will throw up their hands and say: "Oh all right you win, I know when I am beat!" is this what you think might happen?

It's wishful thinking if you ask me. Destroying a grassroots movement like Hezbollah or Hamas has never been successful in the past and there is no need to think that it will be now. What you may very well be doing is to ferment the seeds of anger not only of the Shia and Sunni in the region but the Christians and Druze as well.

It concerns me when I hear statements from Israeli Generals that they have much work to do in order to stop Hezbollah and Hamas. What of the innocents? What of the three-month old baby who was wounded yesterday by Israeli tank shells? What about the almost 100 Israelis that have died? There are hospitals in Gaza that are completely overwhelmed with injured men, women and children. What is the point of bombing any car in Tyre if you see one on the roads, you do realize that there are many in that city who did not have the means to leave after you kindly dropped leaflets warning them to go? And if this were not enough, the media due to the ongoing battle ragging in the North of Israel and Lebanon, the media have turned a blind eye to what is happening in Gaza.

I've heard the same tired expressions for the last several weeks. We are fighting against terrorists, we want Syria and Iran to stop funding weapons to Hezbollah. well, why not start Mr. Bush by stopping military aid to Israel? And please don't bring up the whole anti-Semitism thing because it's really not anti-Semitic to call out a government on indiscriminate bombing of innocents.

Oh and before I finish, I know Hezbollah might hide amongst civilian populations, but even Amnesty Intl and Human Rights Watch say that is no reason to still drop the bomb in the region of where the civilians are.

So, I'll leave you two now to mull this over for the maximum allowed five seconds and then I'm sure your the lovely Zionists and Christian Zionists will begin their rants, but it doesn't bother me.

I am reminded of what the singer Michael Franti once sung about:

"You can bomb the World to pieces
but you can't bomb the World into Peace."

Sincerely,
Christopher Brown

"I Know it is a Terrible Solution"

Encounter at an Israeli Checkpoint

By MAGAN WILES

Hawara Checkpoint, Palestine.

Underneath his green helmet, his eyes are clear and large and blue and when he tells me about seeing his little brother blown up by a suicide bomber, he does not look at me. "I'm so sorry," I say, and I mean it.

"Oh yeah, I bet you are."

We have been at his checkpoint all morning, negotiating and pleading with him and his fellow soldiers to allow sick people, pregnant women and young children to pass through the long line of Palestinians waiting to leave Nablus, a wait that is averaging two hours today. We are annoying to him. He knows why we are here, what we stand for.

"No, I mean it, I'm so sorry, my heart is broken for you." I say it and I mean it and my eyes are filling with tears thinking about my little sisters, how much I love them, what it would be like to see someone kill them. My eyes fill with tears as I think about what I would (want to) do to someone who blew up my little sister.

He is surprised a little, to see me cry for him and he says, "I know this is a terrible solution"--he gestures toward the checkpoint where a hundred Palestinians are packed like so much cattle into narrow gangways, waiting their turn to have their IDs checked, their bags searched, their shirts lifted, their pockets patted. Some of them do this every day. They have been waiting two hours today. It is very hot. There is another checkpoint 2 miles down the road.

"I know this is not the solution," he says again.

"This is not making you safer," I say. "99% of the people that come through here are not interested in hurting you, but when you treat them like this everyday, you make them want to hurt you."

"I know. I know the conditions are terrible. I know they are frustrated. I know people should not live like this. But what else can we do? Last month we caught 5 people with bomb packs."

I am doubtful of this--it seems highly unlikely that a self-martyr would try to just walk through Hawara checkpoint, notorious for its thorough and extravagant security procedures, its unbending and merciless soldiers. There are many other checkpoints out of the city that are easier to pass through, not to mention the path over the mountains. But it doesn't matter--he is expressing to me that although he realizes that innocent people are suffering, he doesn't care because he believes this checkpoint keeps him and his people from suffering.

It is hard to argue with this. It is hard to argue about suffering with a Jewish person. I cannot reason with his heart, so I try to reason with his head.

I tell him that the bombings are reactionary, not an offensive. The profile of a self-martyr is very similar to a grassroots activist in the USA--college educated, middle class upbringing, promising future, interest in social justice and politics. I tell him about a girl whose family I met, a college girl who was engaged to be married in a couple months, a girl who went into a supermarket in Tel Aviv and blew herself up. Her family had no idea she was going to do this. Why would she want to do this? I think about it all the time. What would make me do that?

The longer I live in Palestine, and get a taste of what it's like to be Palestinian, the more I understand. When you are Palestinian, you know no one has respect for your life, and you start to lose it yourself. You see soldiers kill people and imprison people without any explanation given, without any repercussions.

You know they could do this to you and your family at any moment.
You know they could come destroy your house at any time, because you know a lot of innocent people this has happened to.

You see them building a wall in your country, and you see them illegally confiscating land from your friends and neighbors in order to do it.

You see them putting up checkpoints inside your country, not on their borders but inside your country, and they tell you when you can and can't leave.

You see that the world is OK with this, because no one seems to be stopping it, and it has been happening for 50 years.

You see that all people from Israel are obligated to serve as soldiers, and you see a chance to not only take out a few of these potential or past soldiers who are committing these crimes against you and your people, you also think that if you do this, maybe the world will pay attention to what's happening to your home.

You see that there is not much of a life for you or your children anyway.

You think that maybe this is the best thing you can do for your people. Maybe you are wrong, but you cannot keep living like this.

You cannot bear the thought of always living like this. The soldier is quiet. I have been talking a long time. He is listening to me. He is uncomfortable. I keep talking.

I tell him I don't condone suicide bombings. I think it's horrible. But I understand it. I don't think it's any less horrible than shooting missiles at people, blowing up hospitals, or forcing almost a million civilians to flee their homes. I think suicide bombings happen because of the Occupation. I don't think the Occupation is happening because of suicide bombings. I think if the Occupation ended, the bombings would stop, because Palestinians would have hope. They would have something to live for. I think if the Palestinians were given the right to a peaceful and just existence by Israel, Israel would be rewarded with peace by Palestine. You cannot oppress people and expect them not to resist. If you use violence to oppress people, they will use violence to resist it.

My president told me that attacking and occupying Iraq would keep me safer. He was wrong. It made people hate me more, it made more people want to hurt me, because I have killed thousands of innocent people in the name of my personal safety. I don't know what should've been done after September 11th. I don't know what should've been done after the Holocaust, after any of the tragedies of our time. I do know that what we do, what the United States and Israel has done, just perpetuates the evil that causes these tragedies to happen.

I don't think that my president is occupying Iraq because he is concerned for my safety; I don't think Olmert is occupying Palestine because he is concerned for the Israelis' safety. I think there are larger things at work, men fighting over money and power and land, and we are all victims of it. We are told that we need to be afraid of each other. We are told that people are trying to kill us--our whole lives we are told this. The Arabs, the Russians, the Japanese, the Native Americans--who is trying to kill us, who the enemy is--it changes every few years. People wanting to kill you is scary, so when someone tells us they can keep us safe, we believe it, and we do whatever they ask us. I tell this soldier that he is a victim of it, too, that he is being used, that his real enemy is not the Palestinians, but rather the men at the top who wage war for profit. I ask him what would happen if we all stopped being afraid of each other. If we all saw each other as brothers instead of distant strangers (thank you, Tupac).

He looks at me a long long time. I am starting to cry again, because I've just told him everything inside my heart and his face is still as hard as stone. I'm embarrassed and I leave. I look back and he is still looking at me.


Magan Wiles is an actress who teaches Theater of the Oppressed to young people through the Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Gaza Watch #9: Almost half the fatalities in Gaza in July were civilians

B'Tselem
5 August 2006

In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women. In the West Bank, 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in July. The number of Palestinian fatalities in July was the highest in any month since April 2002.

Of the incidents B'Tselem investigated in Gaza over the past month, the organization has identified four cases in which Israel may have committed grave breaches of the laws of war. A total of 15 Palestinian civilians were killed in these incidents, including 7 minors, the details of which are as follows:

Air Force missile hits group of youths, killing six On 12 July 2006, a group of youths sought shelter from IDF bombing. Ten of the youths went and hid in a big pit. A missile fired from by an Air Force plane hit the pit, killing six of the youths, five of them minors: Mahmmuadal-'Asar, Ibrahim a-Nabahin and Ibrahim Qatush, age 15, Ahmad Abu hajaj, age 16. Salah Abu Maktomah, age 17 and Hassan 'Abeid, age 18.

IDF fires two shells at residence and kills four members of the family On 21 July 2006, a few members of the Hararah family went onto the roof of their house in the a-Sheja'iyeh neighborhood in Gaza City to watch tanks advancing toward the neighborhood. One of the tanks fired a shell at the house. It hit the staircase and killed Muhammad Hararah, 45, the brother of the owner of the house. Almost immediately afterwards, another shell was fired at the same spot, killing the mother of the family, Sabah, 45, and two of her sons, Muamen, 16, and 'Amer, 23.

Air Force missile hits horse-drawn cart killing a woman and her grandchild On 24 July 2006, two youngsters left their family's farm in the Beit Lahiya area after shells had fallen on the farm's land. They went by horse-drawn wagon and on the way picked up two of their family. A missile, fired by an Air Force plane, made a direct hit on the wagon, killing Khairieh al-'Attar, 58 and her grandchild Nadi al-'Attar, 11. Another member of the family, Shadi, 14 was injured.

IDF tank shell lands next to housing project, killing three civilians. On 24 July 2006, an IDF fired a shell that fell next to the a-Nada Towers, a housing project located in the northern Gaza Strip. The shelling killed three civilians, one of them a minor: Saleh Naser, 14, Sadeq Naser, 33, and S'adi Na'im, 29.

The IDF did not issue a statement regarding any of these cases, nor acknowledge that these civilians had been killed. It is unclear why, in these four cases, the Israeli military fired at unarmed civilians and at residential apartments. According to B'Tselem's investigation, there were no armed Palestinians or weapons stored in any of these locations.

Even if the armed forces did not intend to strike civilians, as senior IDF and government officials state repeatedly, B'Tselem's investigations raise a grave concern that these attacks were launched without taking due caution and without verifying that the targets were not civilian structures, as required by the laws of war.

Furthermore, according to the principle of proportionality, it is forbidden to carry out an attack, even against a military object, with the knowledge that it is liable to cause injury to civilians that is excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated from the attack. Thus, even if the killing of the 15 civilians in these four incidents resulted from their proximity to armed Palestinians or to weapons, the magnitude of the"collateral" harm to civilians raises the grave concern that the attacks were disproportionate.

B'Tselem has requested the Judge Advocate General to ordera Military Police investigation into the circumstances of these cases, and if the suspicions are validated, to prosecute the persons responsible.

Gaza Watch #8: Woman and Child Killed by IOF Bombardment in Beit Hanoun

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

1 August 2006

PCHR is concerned over the around-the-clock artillery bombardment by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against the north of the Gaza Strip. This bombardment has cost the lives of tens of Palestinian civilians, and forced hundreds of others to leave their homes.

The latest victims of IOF bombardment were a Palestinian woman and child, who were killed in the afternoon hours of 1 August 2006 in the Nada Buildings area, west of Beit Hanoun. PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 13:40 on Tuesday, 1 August 2006, IOF stationed to the east of the northern district of the Gaza Strip fired several artillery shells at the Nada Buildings area, west of Beit Hanoun. One of the shells fell near building #8. Shrapnel from the shell killed the child Aref Ahmad Abu Qeida (14). The child was in his grandfather's house near building #8.

Three other civilians were injured, including a woman from Rafah who was visiting relatives in the area. This woman, Mervat Fayez Abu Sharikh (24), was pronounced dead one hour after reachinga hospital. The two others who were injured are Sami Abbas Darabeih (43), who sustained shrapnel wounds in the chest, and Eyad Sabri Jendeyya (30), who sustained shrapnel wound in the right hip. It is noted that the Nada Buildings area has become a daily target of IOF artillery shelling.

IOF announced last week that it will directly target the area. As a result, most of the area residents left their homes. Palestinian casualties fall on a daily basis in the area. For more information regarding the events in the Nada Buildings area, refer to PCHR's weekly report for last week. PCHR strongly condemns the IOF killing of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the destruction of their property. IOF disproportionate use of force places the lives of civilians at additional risk during these operations, which are a form of reprisal and collective punishment against Palestinians, a violation of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Centre confirms that indiscriminate aggression will inflict additional damages on civilians and civilian property. The prior knowledge that these attacks will cause civilian casualties and destruction of their property is a violation of the convention, and a war crime in the first protocol additional to the convention. In the Center's view, the complacency of the international community and the High Contracting Parties of the 4th Geneva Convention and their failure to take effective steps to stop Israeli war crimes has been a supporting and encouraging element for Israel to continue perpetrating additional war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

The legal cover provided to Israel by the US, which purposely hinders International Humanitarian Law, and the conspiracy of silence by Europe encourage Israeli to continue to perpetrate war crimes unchecked, placing it above international law. The Centre reminds the High Contracting Parties of:- Their obligations under article 1 of the convention to ensure respect of the convention under all circumstances;- Their obligations in article 146 of the convention to pursue suspects of committing serious violations of the convention, noting that these violations are war crimes according to article 147, as specified in the first protocol additional to the convention

Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?

By
Oren Ben-Dor

What exactly is being defended? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state?

Published: 26 July 2006

As its citizens are being killed, Israel is, yet again, inflicting death and destruction on Lebanon. It tries to portray this horror as necessary for itsself-defence. Indeed, the casual observer might regard the rocket attacks on Israeli cities such as Haifa and my own home town, Nahariya, as justifying this claim.While states should defend their citizens, states which fail this duty should be questioned and, if necessary, reconfigured. Israel is a state which, instead of defending its citizens, puts all of them, Jews as well as non-Jews, in danger.

What exactly is being defended by the violence in Gaza and Lebanon? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state? I suggest the latter. Israel's statehood is based on an unjust ideology which causes indignity and suffering for those who are classified as non-Jewish by either a religious or ethnic test. To hide this primordial immorality, Israel fosters an image of victimhood. Provoking violence, consciously or unconsciously, against which one must defend oneself is a key feature of the victim-mentality. By perpetuating such a tragic cycle, Israel is a terrorist state like no other.

Many who wish to hide the immorality of the Israeli state do so by restricting attention to the horrors of the post-1967 occupation and talking about a two-state solution, since endorsing a Palestinian state implicitly endorses the ideology behind a Jewish one. The very creation of Israel required an act of terror. In 1948, most of the non-Jewish indigenous people were ethnically cleansed from the part of Palestine which became Israel. This action was carefully planned. Without it, no state with a Jewish majority and character would have been possible. Since 1948, the "Israeli Arabs", those Palestinians who avoided expulsion, have suffered continuous discrimination.

Indeed, many have been internally displaced, ostensibly for "security reasons", but really to acquire their lands for Jews. Surely Holocaust memory and Jewish longing for Eretz Israel would not be sufficient to justify ethnic cleansing and ethnocracy? To avoid the destabilisation that would result from ethical inquiry, the Israeli state must hide the core problem, by nourishing a victim mentality among Israeli Jews.

To sustain that mentality and to preserve an impression of victimhood among outsiders, Israel must breed conditions for violence. Whenever prospects of violence against it subside, Israel must do its utmost to regenerate them: the myth that it is a peace-seeking victim which has "no partner for peace" is a key panel in the screen with which Israel hides its primordial and continuing immorality.

Israel's successful campaign to silence criticism of its initial and continuing dispossession of the indigenous Palestinians leaves the latter no option but to resort to violent resistance. In the wake of electing Hamas - the only party which, in the eyes of Palestinians, has not yet given up their cause - the Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank were subjected to an Israeli campaign of starvation, humiliation and violence. The insincere "withdrawal" from Gaza, and the subsequent blockade, ensured a chronicle of violence which, so far, includes Palestinian firing of Kasem rockets, the capture of an Israeli soldier and the Israeli near re-occupation of Gaza.

What we witness is more hatred, more violence from Palestinians, more humiliation and collective punishments from Israelis - all useful reinforcement for the Israeli victim mentality and for the sacred cow status of Israeli statehood. The truth is that there never could have been a partition of Palestine by ethically acceptable means. Israel was created through terror and it needs terror to cover-up its core immorality.

Whenever there is a glimmer of stability, the state orders a targeted assassination, such as that in Sidon which preceded the current Lebanon crisis, knowing well that this brings not security but more violence. Israel's unilateralism and the cycle of violence nourish one another. Amidst the violence and despite the conventional discourse which hides the root of this violence, actuality calls upon us to think. The more we silence its voice, the more violently actuality is sure to speak.

In Hebrew, the word elem (a stunned silence resulting from oppression or shock) is etymologically linked to the word almut (violence). Silence about the immoral core of Israeli statehood makes us all complicit in breeding the terrorism that threatens a catastrophe which could tear the world apart.

okbendor@ yahoo.com

The writer teaches the philosophy of law and political philosophy at University of Southampton

Gaza Watch #7: Israel's secret war: the humanitarian disaster unfoldingin Palestine

By Anne Penketh in Gaza City

A 12-year-old boy dead on a stretcher. A mother in shock and disbelief after her son was shot dead for standing on their roof. A phone rings and a voice in broken Arabic orders residents to abandon their home on pain of death. Those are snapshots of a day in Gaza where Israel is waging a hidden war, as the world looks the other way, focusing on Lebanon.

It is a war of containment and control that has turned the besieged Strip into a prison with no way in or out, and no protection from an fearsome battery of drones, precision missiles, tank shells and artillery rounds. As of last night, 29 people had been killed in the most concentrated 48 hours of violence since an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants just more than a month ago. The operation is codenamed "Samson's Pillars", a collective punishment of the 1.4 million Gazans, subjecting them to a Lebanese-style offensive that has targeted the civilian infrastructure by destroying water mains, the main power station and bridges.

The similarities with Israel's blitz on Lebanon are striking, raising suspicions that the Gaza offensive has been the testing ground for the military strategy now unfolding on the second front in the north. In Gaza, following the victory of the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas in January, Israel, with the help ofthe US, initiated an immediate boycott and ensured the rest of the world fell into line after months of hand-wringing.

Israel has secured the same flashing greenlight from the Bush administration over Lebanon, while the rest of the world appeals in vain for an immediate ceasefire. The Israelis, who launched their Lebanon offensive on 12 July after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah fighters, intend to create a "sterile" zone devoid of militants in a mile-wide stretch inside Lebanon.

In Gaza, Palestinian land has already been bulldozed to form a 300-metre open area along the border with Israel proper. And in both cases, the crisis will doubtless end up being defused by a prisoner exchange. With Lebanon dominating the headlines, Israel has "rearranged the occupation" in Gaza, in the words of the Palestinian academic and MP, Hanan Ashrawi. But unlike the Lebanese, the desperate Gazans have nowhere to flee from their humanitarian crisis.

Before Israeli tanks moved into northern Gaza, yesterday, 12-year-old Anas Zumlut joined the ranks of dead Palestinians, numbering more than 100. His body was wrapped in a funeral shroud, just like those of the two sisters, a three-year-old and an eight-month-old baby, who were killed three days ago in the same area of Jablaya. In the past three weeks, the foreign ministry and the interior ministry in Gaza city have been smashed, prompting speculation that Israel's offensive is not only aimed at securing the release of Cpl Gilad Shalit, or bringing an end to the Qassam rocket attacks that have wounded one person in the past month and jarred the nerves of the residents of the nearest Israeli town of Sderot."At first we thought they were bombing the Hamas leaders by targeting Haniyeh and Zahar," a Palestinian officialsaid, referring to the Palestinian Prime Minister and theForeign Minister. "But when they targeted the economy ministry we decided they wanted to completely destroy the entire government."The only functioning crossing, Erez, is closed to Palestinians who are almost hermetically sealed inside the Strip.

As the local economy has been strangled by donor countries, Gaza City's 1,800 municipal employees have not been paid since the beginning of April. Families are borrowing to the hilt, selling their jewellery, ignoring electricity bills and tax demands and throwing themselves on the mercy of shopkeepers. Western officials say they hope the pressure will coerce Hamas into recognising Israel but the Palestinians believe the real goal is the collapse of the Hamas government -six of whose cabinet members have been arrested, the rest are in hiding.

The signs on the ground are that Israel's military pressure is proving counter-productive. There is the risk of a total breakdown of the fabric of society at a time when the main political parties, Fatah and Hamas, are at each other's throats. "The popularity of Hamas is increasing," says the Palestinian deputy foreign minister, Ahmed Soboh, from the comparative safety of his West Bank office in Ramallah.

The situation has become unbearable for Gazans, says Nabil Shaath, a veteran Fatah official who is a former foreign and planning minister. Through the window, small fishing boats are anchored uselessly in the harbour, penned in byIsraeli sea patrols. All mechanisms for coping are being exhausted. Mr Shaath, who had a daughter, Mimi, late in life, says that he tried "laughter therapy" with his five-year-old at home in northern Gaza. "Every time there was a shell, I would burst out laughing and she would laugh with me. But then the Israelis occupied everything around us, and there were tanks, and shrapnel in the garden, and she saw where the shells were coming from, and she was terrified. So Mimi now gets angry when I laugh."

Only a few miles away, on the other side of the border, the Israeli army says it is taking pains to minimise civilian casualties. Hila, a 21-year old paratrooper who is not allowed to give her last name, says the Hamas fighters in Gaza - like Hizbollah in Lebanon -deliberately mingle with the civilian population as a tactic. Weapons are stored in the upper storeys of houses where families live downstairs, she says. "The terrorists deliberately choose places where we can't retaliate." But these places are being hit. And Mr Shaath is scornful of the disproportionate Israeli reaction to the Palestinian rockets. Five Israelis have been killed by the 10km range Qassams since 2000.

Mrs Ashrawi believes Samson's Pillars are no closer to falling. "Israelis think they are searing the consciousness of the Palestinians and the Lebanese with abranding iron. But if people have a cause they will never be defeated."

"If You Haven't Left, You're Hezbollah"

By Dahr Jamail

SIDON, Lebanon, Jul 30th

The Israeli attack on Qana has taken the biggest toll of the war, but it is only one of countless lethal attacks on civilians in Lebanon. Large numbers fled the south after Israelis dropped leaflets warning of attacks. Others have been unable to leave, often because they have not found the means.

The Israelis have taken that to mean that they are therefore Hezbollah. Israeli justice minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radioThursday that "all those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah." Justifying the collective punishment of people in southern Lebanon,Ramon added, "In order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should beflattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in."

This policy explains the large number of wounded in the hospitals of Sidon in the south. Wounded people from southern Lebanon narrate countless instances of indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli military.

Thirty-six-year-old Khuder Gazali, an ambulance driver whose arm was blown off by an Israeli rocket, told IPS that his ambulance was hit while trying to rescue civilians whose home had just been bombed. "Last Sunday people came to us and asked us to go help some people after their home was bombed by the Israelis," he said from his bed in Hamoudi Hospital in Sidon, the largest in southern Lebanon. "We found one of them, without his legs, lying in a garden, so we tried to take him to the nearest hospital."

On way to the hospital an Israeli Apache helicopter hit his ambulance with a rocket, severely injuring him and the four people in the back ofthe vehicle, he said."So then another ambulance tried to reach us to rescue us, but it too was bombed by an Apache, killing everyone inside it," he said. "Then it was a third ambulance which finally managed to rescue us."Khuder, who had shrapnel wounds all over his body, said "this is a crime, and I want people in the west to know the Israelis do not differentiate between innocent people and fighters. They are committing acts of evil.. They are attacking civilians, and they are criminals."

At Labib Medical Centre in Sidon, countless survivors of Israeli bombardment had similar stories to tell. Sixteen-year-old Ibrahim al-Hama told IPS that he and his friends were hit by an Israeli bomb while they were swimming in a river near avillage north of Tyre. "Two of my friends were killed, along with a woman," said al-Hama. "Why did they bomb us?"

In an adjacent room, a man whose wife and two small children were recovering from wounds suffered in Israeli bombing told IPS that they had left their village near the border because the bombings had become fierce, and the Israeli military had dropped leaflets ordering them tol eave. "We ran out of food, and the children were hungry, so they left with my wife and her sister in a car which followed a Red Crescent ambulance,while another car took the two other sisters of my wife," he said. "They reached Kafra village, and an F-16 bombed the car with my wife's two sisters. They are dead."

Such killings have been common throughout the south. On July 23, a family left their village after Israelis dropped leaflets ordering them out. Their car carried a white flag, but was still bombed by an Israeli plane. Three in the car were killed. The same day, three of 19 passengers in a van heading away from the southern village Tiri were killed when it was bombed by an Israeli plane. A 43-year-old man from Durish Zhair village south of Tyre lay at the Labib Medical Centre with multiple shrapnel wounds and half his body blackened by fire."Please tell them to stop using white phosphorous," he said. "The Israelis must stop these attacks. Do not allow the Israelis to continue murdering us." He and his family were bombed in their home.

Zhair said his family were scattered in hospitals and refugee centres in Sidon and Beirut. But in the hospital hallway outside his room, head nurse of the hospital Gemma Sayer said "all of his family is dead. We cannot tell him yet because he is so badly injured." United Nations forces have been targeted again by the Israelis.

Two soldiers with the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon were wounded after their observation post was damaged in an Israeli air strike. Last week, an Israeli missile killed four UN observers; an attack that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described as "apparently deliberate."Thousands of angry protestors stormed the UN building in Beirut Sunday after at least 34 children and 20 adults were killed inside a shelter targeted by an Israeli air strike in the southern town Qana.

As Israeli military drones buzzed over the capital city, smoke was seen rising from the building as UN troops struggled to control the crowds. Efforts to evacuate the wounded in Qana have been hindered because roads around the town have been destroyed by air strikes.

The Israeli military refused to take responsibility for the Qana deaths, because they said Hezbollah had used the village to launch rockets. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud told reporters Sunday that the Qana attack was a "disgrace" and that there was no chance for peace talks until an immediate ceasefire was called. "Israel's leaders think of nothing but destruction, they do not think of peace."Prime Minister Fuad Siniora described the bombing in Qana as a "war crime."

At least 600 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 51 Israelis havebeen killed since the conflict began.

Gaza Watch #6: Soldiers shoot dead 5 in Gaza

Jerusalem

The Jordan Times 28 July 2006

GAZA (Reuters) -- Israeli soldiers killed four civilians inGaza on Thursday, Palestinian medical workers said, while police at a checkpoint in south Jerusalem killed a Palestinian who shot at them. Israel's offensive into the Gaza Strip to recover a captured soldier and end cross-border rocket attacks has largely been overshadowed by fighting against Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon, but shows no sign of slackening.

Those who died on Thursday included a 75-year-old woman, whose house was hit by a missile or shell. Medical workers said another two civilians, aged 16 and 23, were killed in an air strike. A male civilian died from his wounds from a tank shell. The army said the air strikes targeted groups of fighters, including some who fired an anti-tank missile at troops.

A spokeswoman said the military did not fire at civilians intentionally and was constantly warning them to evacuate areas where fighters were present. Meanwhile in south Jerusalem, Israeli border police killed a Palestinian gunman who shot at them at a checkpoint. Two Israeli officers were taken to hospital.

At least 149 Palestinians, around half of them fighters, have been killed in the month long assault on Gaza. Wednesday's death toll of 24 was the highest since Israeli troops returned to the territory in late June, less than a year after they had withdrawn following a 38-year occupation. Tanks and troops pushed into northeastern Gaza, a stronghold of fighters firing rockets into Israel, early on Wednesday and have remained.

At least 12 of the 24 killed on Wednesday were fighters. Fighters have kept up attacks with homemade rockets despite the Israeli offensive. Israel has rejected demands for a prisoner exchange by the fighters who captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a border raid on June 25.

Some of the fighters came from the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group. The Hamas armed wing dismissed comments from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during a visit to Rome on Thursday, suggesting a solution could be imminent to the case of the captured soldier. "Nothing has changed in the case of the Israeli soldier," said Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz Deen Qassam Brigades."The file remains in the hands of the resistance factions and not in the hands of any politician even if that politician is Abu Mazen," Abu Ubaida said, using Abbas's nickname.

Abbas had spoken to reporters in Rome after talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi." I told the prime minister that as far as the question of the abducted Israeli soldier is concerned efforts are undergoing continuously that lead us to believe that the solution will be imminent," he said through an interpreter. "I hope the soldier is in good health and that he can soon return to his family. I would like to remind you that there are 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails and we hope that they too can return to their families," he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas' remarks had been misinterpreted. "I do not think that the president meant to say that the release was imminent," Erekat told CNN television. "Efforts are being exerted but I wouldn't jump to any premature conclusions at this stage."

The offensive has put pressure on the Hamas-led government, which was already struggling under a cripplingUS-led aid embargo, designed to force the group to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace deals.

Protectors of the City: An Interview with Rabbi Dovid Weiss

In March of this year, I went back to my second home in Palestine. While I was there the Israeli elections were taking place. On the morning of the elections I walked around Jerusalem and decided to head over to West Jerusalem to see what was going on. I didn’t plan on doing any specific article on the elections, simply because I wasn’t sure if I could find an angle that would be unique. That all changed as I walked towards Zion’s Square. I came across a small group of protestors holding signs saying things like; “This is the land of Palestine” “Resist Zionism”, “Zionism is a sin.” None of this was unusual. I know plenty of Israeli Jews and Arabs who would protest official Israeli policy. But these weren’t the usual secular Israelis that I would expect, nor were they Palestinian Israelis protesting their second class citizenship, not even reformed Jews from a group like Rabbis for Human Rights, these were Ultra-Orthodox Jews

When I saw them, I had to do a double take. What the…? I approached the group cautiously and looked on from a distance. People passed by looking on quizzically, some nodding as if to say they supported the group; others staring on perplexed (just like me), and still others who wasted no time in showing their disgust by spitting in their direction. Yet these men, young and old stood at their station protesting in the spirit of non-violence.

I walked up to an older gentleman and asked him what was going on. He explained that they were members of Neturei Karta and that they were a group that was against Zionism and the formation of the State of Israel on Palestinian land.

We talked a bit more and then I realized that I needed to get going, but I wanted to talk with someone from his group to do an interview. I asked if they had a group in the United States and he said they had and mentioned Rabbi Dovid Weiss the director of Neturei Karta in the US. The following is an interview that I conducted with Rabbi Dovid Weiss via telephone, to inquire more about this organization.


Christopher Brown: Could you speak about the organization and how it was founded?

Rabbi Dovid Weiss: Yes, before the name Neturei Karta was given, people who followed the ideology of Zionism started coming up to Palestine at the beginning of the twentieth century. And the Jewish community felt very threatened by this very new ideology that was contrary to the Torah, the Jewish belief and they started to try and build a fortification against this influx that was trying to breach the wall of Judaism. And they formed a God fearing community and they had some Rabbis who started in the 1910s and 1920s and they had different names for the organization. Then in 1930 they say it started.

They use to hang on the walls, paste on the walls of old Jerusalem signs with declarations against the movement of Zionism. And on one of those signs was a copy of the passage in the Talmud which says; That some wise men came into the city and they asked the inhabitants of the city; ‘Who are your protectors?’ And they pointed to the soldiers and to Rabbis. And the wise men said that these were the ‘The destroyers of the city.’ The protectors of the city are the wise men and the scholars; The Neturei Karta. The Protectors of the city, are the wise men and the scholars.

And this they hung up, basically referring to the Zionists who came in with their militant movement and so forth. And then afterwards the ones who were very vocal from the religious community, the ones who stood out more against Zionism were called the Neturei Karta. It is an Aramaic word and comes from the Talmud, which was written in Aramaic.

CB: Why do you feel that the Jewish community is threatened by Zionism?

RDW: Simply it really is the antithesis, the diametric opposite of what Judaism is. Judaism is a religion of thousands of years. We know the forefathers; Abraham, Issac and Jacob, and that the Jews made a bond with God on Mount Siani to watch the Torah, to uphold the Torah. And Zionism was started a mere hundred years ago in the 1890s; they came and they decided to transform the whole concept of spirituality of God; they decided to make this into a new thing into a nationality of national aspirations, of materialism, to have a piece of land, a proud nation amongst nations, and to transform spirituality into materialism into a nationalistic goal a political goal.

And this is the diametric opposite of what Judaism is. It was opposed by all the Rabbinical authorities. And who were the fathers of this ideology? Who were the ones who came up with this plan? Theodore Herzel and his friends. People who are far removed from the observance of the Torah, they detested the religion, they loathed religion and they really wanted to transform or uproot Judaism spirituality of the Jewish people. Then they decided that they have to have land to form it and they first went to Uganda and to different lands that would be practical. But then they realized that they won’t have a Jewish following, so they picked the land of Palestine to form their state. And in so doing they breached a few oaths that God put the Jewish people under because the destruction of the temple we were expressly commanded by God, we are forbidden, to make any attempt to return to a sovereignty to have our own kingdom our own entity because we are in exile by God. What we are suppose to do as a Jewish people is wait patiently until God sees fit, and then there will be a metaphysical change in the World and all humanity together will go up and serve one God. So we yearn to eventually return to the land of Palestine but not as us ourselves, without human intervention, without fighting the World.

Taking over a whole land, fighting other people, militants going in there against the will of the Palestinians and taking over their land; this is totally forbidden according to the Torah and we were warned that there will be catastrophic results.

Taking over a whole land, fighting other people, militants going in there against the will of the Palestinians and taking over their land; this is totally forbidden according to the Torah and we were warned that there will be catastrophic results.

In the Torah we are forbidden to have a State even if it were to be uninhabited and desolate it would be forbidden because of the banishment by God. We are forbidden to have our own entity. And this compounds the problem and the transgression of the Torah because it was an inhabited land and the Palestinian people living there, we as a Jewish people are suppose to emulate God. Just as God is compassionate we should be compassionate. That’s what Judaism is all about, being a nation of priests and a Godly nation. And here Zionism is doing the opposite of thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill. Zionism is oppressing a people, subjugating them expelling them, banishing them from their land of their parents. You see, this is all contrary to the Torah, all forbidden and Judaism is in opposition.

When Zionism started it started in Europe. Vienna was where Theodore Herzel came from. Basil, Switzerland was where they made the first Zionist congress in 1890s. And so they came up and they picked Palestine. And all of a sudden they started moving into Palestine with the idea to take over the land and create a state.

And the Jewish community in Palestine at the time was a God-fearing community, living door by door with the Muslim and Arab neighbors. And all of a sudden they realized here are a bunch on non-religious Jews coming in here, with a terrible plan of nationality. So they started speaking up, and they formed the groups against the Zionists. And till this day we have hundreds of thousands of Jews still loyal to the Torah who will never accept Zionism and the cause of over fifty years of bloodshed and killing of Jews, and Arabs and what is going on today in Lebanon, and claiming the Torah and using it to establish a Jewish state and using that to legitimize their terrible, evil, misguided, political movement.

CB: Your organization has members who live in Palestine/Israel, how are you viewed by those in the State of Israel as well as in Palestine?

RDW: Many of the people today just want to live their lives in peace and unfortunately the majority of Jews are non-religious, and live to have peace, and want to have peace, their not that much into Zionism. How they look at religious Jews is the question in a certain manner, you know they just threw away the yoke of the Torah and as long as they are not disturbed in their lifestyle they don’t care neither here nor there.

Some of them look at this as a very good issue because it speaks up to the rights of Palestinians and many of them are human rights supporters, which shows that there are many Jewish supporters who share that view, on the other hand there are Jews who are opposed to the hundreds of thousands of us, and we are viewed as the traitors to the Jewish people.

Unfortunately they have been conned into believing that Zionism is part of Judaism, which is exactly what the forefathers of Zionism wanted. That they supposedly went to Palestine, representing God’s will in Judaism and so forth and they conned the Jews; and unfortunately Evangelical Christians throughout the World are saying; “This is God’s wish that the children of Israel should have a land.” And unfortunately many Jewish people bought into that and they’ve been fooled by the ignorance of the teachings of the Torah. Unfortunately many Jews are unlearned in the teachings of the Torah and they have not learned the teachings of the Torah properly and they look at these Jews (Neturei Karta) as traitors in a manner.

But its so varied because many Jews who really are in opposition to whole ideology of Zionism and yet they joined the government because it is the defacto ruling power in the Holy Land. And they feel that they have to have representation, just like the Palestinians need representations. Right now the religious community is very split. There is a very large anti-Zionist feeling. Our colleagues in Palestine won’t participate in any way, they don’t recognize the legitimacy of the State. And then there are others who many years ago made the decision to have representation in the State, because they were dying from hunger and thirst, because the Israelis were controlling all the money and so forth, so they have to have representation. At the same time, that group, groups like the Shas Party and large vocal groups who are part of the government, they don’t send their children to the army. And they don’t have Israeli flags on their school buildings and so forth because in essence, they are also in opposition to Zionism. They're Rabbis, from the inception of Zionism, were our Rabbis. We shared the same Rabbis we were all in opposition to the State of Israel, to the concept of Zionism before it was created they were in opposition. Unfortunately, these guys made a compromise and joined. But they won’t send their children to the army, and won’t have Israeli flags.

CB: What eventually happened to those Rabbis who joined?

RDW: Now unfortunately today, they have fallen prey to Zionist propaganda as our Rabbis foresaw. That’s why they warned them not to take, money not to the join the government, because they’ve bought into different issues by the Zionist governments. And so they bought into the ‘fear factor’ where the Zionists tell the World that; The Arabs want to kill every Jew. And that they hate everybody who’s not Muslim. So the Jews are mortified. Their fear is total that the Arabs are going to come in and murder every Jew and throw them into the sea as the Zionist keep on saying.

So that fear brought into position that they don’t want to return the land, not because they appreciate the State of Israel. In fact, if the State of Israel were to be abolished this moment and Jews weren’t to be killed they wouldn’t shed a tear, they would celebrate together with us. Because this is the teachings of the Torah. The Torah is clearly in total contradiction to the concept of Zionism.

CB: Since the second Intifada there have been members of the Knesset who have called for the heads of Israelis who would speak out in support of equal rights for Palestinians. With the views that your organization espouses, I would imagine that these threats are magnified within the whole of the Zionist community could talk about this?

RDW: It’s a sad history. As soon as the Zionist movement came into power, our Rabbis rose up in opposition. And we might say that the first well known Jewish martyr was well connected with western governments and the western world. He was a diplomat from, I believe Denmark. His name was Israel de Hahn and he moved up to Palestine at first he chose to be a Zionist but then became a repentant Jew, and then he realized that the religious leaders were in opposition, and he said to the religious leaders: “Look your voice is not getting heard” and he’s a diplomat a distinguished scholar from Europe, he’ll get them connected with the European leaders. And that is what he set forth to do.

And the first thing he did was to arrange a meeting with the King of Trans Jordan, King Abdullah with the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. So when the Zionists realized what he was up to the Haganah, their terrorist group, they murdered him in cold-blood, and it’s in their documentation the Zionist court documentation.

Now since then and up until today, the Jewish people who have stood up in opposition you can go to our website at www.nkusa.org and see pictures of Jewish people being constantly beaten because we make demonstrations. We are non-violent, we don’t carry arms, and still our people are beaten and put into prison because we stand up in opposition to Zionism. And it is ongoing up until today, you can see pictures of this, and the World doesn’t know.

CB: Why is that?

RDW: Why? Just as they have beaten us we have, hundreds, thousand, some times hundreds of thousands of Jews who stand up in opposition. And many many more would be demonstrating if it wouldn’t be for this intimidation of Zionism.

In the same way when we speak up, many people are fearful of speaking up. The same way the press is intimidated not to report the fact there are Jews who are anti-Zionists. Case in point; I was just in Toronto this past week and there were a lot of demonstrations of thousands of people against the Israeli consulate and marching in other areas of Canada. And in the papers in Canada there was not one word mentioned of this even though it should be something of an interest to have a group of Orthodox Rabbis standing together with the Lebanese and Palestinian people and the Muslim people on the platform, we couldn’t be missed, and most of the papers didn’t even mention the fact that there was this demonstration, which was unbelievable.

And this is the sad history of over fifty years of what’s going on. The Zionists are very efficient. They have something called AIPAC which is involved in the intimidation of politicians. So the politicians are fearful to speak up against Zionism. And the greatest crime is, if you were to speak up and say that there are Orthodox Jews who are opposed to the Jewish State this would undermine their legitimacy.

They are very careful not to let these things get reported. If it does, they immediately attack the newspapers and reporters. When we want to speak at universities, the heads of universities are called and the board is called not to allow us to speak, and it goes on and it’s a very sad fact of what the Zionist do. They intimidate. They intimidate people to be fearful of speaking up.

So people think that they are the legitimate voice of the Jewish community and the Jewish State. And they think that it is a religious conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. And this is a tragedy because it is not a religious conflict. We as Jews, as practicing Jews, have been living side by side in all the Muslim countries amongst the Arab peoples. We have no problem. The problem is purely political since the creation of this movement, Zionism, which became ultimately the State of Israel.

With the creation of Israel this is where the impediment to peace is, because it is a political thing which is falsely using the Torah to legitimize what they are doing. And they are constantly on-guard to make certain that they should be referred to as ‘The Jewish State.’ And anyone in opposition would be considered and labeled an anti-Semite. And therefore cowering and intimidating people into not speaking up against them, and literally beating and intimidating the Jews who try to speak up against them, their voices are not heard, and this is what is going on today.

The fact in Lebanon they are, supposedly, fighting terrorism, and terrorists who simply don’t want people to live in peace. When in truth, they are the root cause of the suffering and the endless river of bloodshed that has happened for the Jews, The Palestinians, and the Lebanese for well over fifty years now. And tragedy upon tragedy has occurred because they are using the name of God, and causing so much harm uprooting religion from the Jewish people, their spirituality, and the lives of so many different human beings. This is against God and we must stand up and be vocal and let the World know the truth. That the World would not be afraid to stand up and call it what it is; an illegitimate, evil movement, it’s purely a racist movement against people and it should be stopped in its tracks.

And that would bring peace and that would bring true harmony that we had before Zionism. Contrary to what Zionism wants to portray we weren’t living in constant conflict with the Muslims and Arabs this is totally false. You can ask any old Arabs and Jews and they can talk about the best of times when they had strong relations with each other.

Once Zionism has been put on the side, you will see that we can once again live in harmony.