Did Israel Overstep This Time? – by Stephen Lendman

Source: SteveLendmanBlog

Rogue states get away with murder only so long. Eventually their crimes catch up with them. Israeli policies are self-defeating. How long can killing civilian men, women, children, infants, and the elderly be called self-defense?

Palestinians and eyewitnesses explain best. Mondoweiss contributor Adie Mormech saw smoke rise after Israeli bombs exploded.

“Words fail me,” he said. Bombing feels almost constant.

“I can barely write a sentence with more news.”

Six injuries from one bombing.

A four-year old child struck playing in the street.

An elderly Zaytoun neighborhood man killed. Four others injured.

The same scenario plays out across Gaza. Trapped civilians have nowhere to hide. Israel terrorizes them. World leaders blame Palestinian victims. They’re complicit in Israeli crimes.

Adie teaches 12-year old Abdullah Samouni. “We’re really scared,” he said. He lost his father. During Cast Lead, his four-year old brother was shot. “In three days, Abdullah was injured and lost 29 members of his extended family.”

How much more can he and others take? Al Shifa Hospital admits patients constantly….”an elderly man, a young man, a child, two more children.”

A 10-month old child with brain damage and a fractured skull. Her tiny body wasn’t strong enough to survive.

Who knows what’s next. “The complete madness of this violence makes me wonder what we have done to ourselves. How do we allow humanity to manifest itself in this way.”

On November 14, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Cloud. Sunday is day five. Over 1,000 sorties were flown.

Ground and offshore shelling supplements them. Mostly civilians and non-military targets are attacked. Israel prioritizes noncombatant killing and destruction. Civilians comprised over 80% of Cast Lead casualties. Media scoundrels pretend otherwise.

Reality in Gaza is as follows. Around 1.7 million people are trapped under siege. Humanitarian crisis conditions are longstanding.

Prior to Operation Pillar of Cloud, Israel launched intermittent air, ground, and offshore attacks. Wives lose husbands. Husbands lose wives. Parents lose children. They lose siblings. Extended family members perish. So do good friends.

No one’s safe anywhere anytime. No one’s sure who’ll live or die. When Palestinians respond defensively, they’re called terrorists. Israeli aggression is called justifiable self-defense.

How many Palestinian deaths and injuries will prove otherwise? How much wanton destruction is needed to expose Israeli state terror? [Just as I believe Obama brought in Geithner, Clinton, Bernanke and made them visible to let them hang themselves, do you suppose he is now letting the entire United States, so much of which is still in a fog, see the depravity of Netanyahu? If he puts a stop to this right now, as so many are asking, so that Americans, most of whom are still asleep, don't see what is really happening, are our politicians likely ever to reach a real resolution to this problem? Or, will they continue on under the power and control of AIPAC? When enough of the American people decide they want it to stop, I believe - it will stop - and not before. Obama needs to know that as a nation we are behind him—and not just the few of us who are enlightened. ~J]

How much human suffering will be permitted before leaders able to stop it say ‘no more’? How long will Israel be allowed to get away with murder?

Israel’s partnership with America threatens world peace. One day expect a tipping point to be reached. When public rage crosses a threshold of no return, all bets are off.

World outrage about Israeli crimes grows. Did Israel overstep this time? Millions of ordinary people say so. They support Palestine. They’re outraged about daily bombing, shelling, slaughter, and destruction.

Civilians are willfully targeted. Innocent men, women, children, infants and the elderly are dying. Many others are injured. Many are in serious condition. Some won’t survive. Others will be maimed for life.

Illegal terror weapons are used. Injuries sustained are horrific. Doctors see charred, scorched, ripped apart patients.

Some show up with horrible burns, lost limbs, brain damage, or other major injuries. Others arrive dead.

Every day is Kristallnacht in Palestine. Besieged Gaza replicates Warsaw ghetto conditions. Under attack, it resembles early days of its uprising. For European Jews, it was a seminal historic moment.

They were sealed off behind high walls 10 feet high and 11 miles long. Peak population exceeded 400,000. Overcrowding crammed residents into an area about two and a half miles long by a mile wide.

Conditions were horrific. Food was scarce. Little was available. Hunger and malnutrition were extreme. Starvation was common. Sanitation collapsed. Disease was rampant. Medical treatment was nonexistent.

Thousands died monthly. Corpses lay in streets. By early 1943, only 60,000 remained. Others starved to death, perished from disease, or died in concentration camps.

In mid-February, final “resettlement” was ordered. Residents knew it meant gas chamber death. Many decided to resist at all costs. Positions were fortified in sewers, cellars, vaults, and other areas.

Residents had some small arms and homemade grenades. Mostly, they were determined to resist. In April, emptying the ghetto was ordered. Its size was reduced to about 1,000 by 300 yards.

On April 19, 5,000 SS and regular army troops stormed the ghetto. They were heavily armed with tanks, artillery, flame throwers and dynamite squads.

Against great odds, Jews stood their ground heroically. They resisted involuntary resettlement. Men and women fought together. Nazi ferocity increased.

Germans were vicious. Captives were tortured. Mother had babies torn from their arms. They watched helplessly as solders smashed their heads against walls to save bullets.

By May 16, resistance collapsed. Most held firm to the end. Captured survivors were murdered in Treblinka and other camps. Final resolution was never in doubt. Symbolically the Jews won. They fought Nazi viciousness because it mattered.

One observer said they “knew that they might not overcome their enemies but refused to suppress their recognition of what they were undergoing or deny their lack of hope while they resisted being overcome by despair and anguish.”

News of their struggle spread across Europe. Other ghetto residents, labor camp inmates, Eastern front partisans, and death camp victims were inspired by their example.

Courageous Gazans won’t surrender to Israeli viciousness. What’s ahead remains to play out. Unfolding events may have a long way to go.

If Israel invades, will ordinary Gazans resist the way Warsaw ghetto Jews did from April 19 to May 16 1943 against long odds? Perhaps now is their moment of truth.

Occupied Warsaw Jews were isolated on their own. Gazans have millions of worldwide supporters. Resistance will make alternative media headlines. Heroism will be too evident to hide.

Media scoundrels will try. Others will expose their lies, duplicity, and support for Israeli terror. Now’s the time to resist. Ordinary Gazans have a chance to make history.

What they do may hasten Palestinian liberation. Future generations will thank them. So will many others who believe might never makes right, and equity and justice matter most.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

posted by Steve Lendman @ 11:51 PM

Hamas Sacrifices Civilians as a Military Tactic

Israeli aircraft hit Hamas bank HQ in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli aircraft have battered the headquarters of the Gaza Strip bank the territory's Hamas rulers set up to sidestep international sanctions.

Tuesday's strike on the Islamic National Bank in Gaza City is part of a widening Israeli onslaught against the militants and their rocket squads targeting Israel. The offensive is now in its seventh day.

The inside of the bank was destroyed, and a building supply business in the basement was damaged.

The bank's 31-year-old owner, Suleiman Tawil, denounced the strike, saying he is not "involved in politics."

Hamas set up the bank after foreign lenders, afraid of running afoul of international terror financing laws, stopped doing business with the militant-led Gaza government.

Backing tough talk, Israeli premier wages 1st war

JERUSALEM (AP) — Throughout his long political career, Israel's prime minister has earned a reputation as a tough talker. An ardent hawk who wrote a book about how to defeat terrorism,Benjamin Netanyahu has previously threatened to attack Iran, topple Gaza's Hamas leaders and strike hard at Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

But only now, after seven years in power, he has finally pulled the trigger, unleashing an offensive to stop Gaza rocket salvos. The public and even his political opponents have all lined up behind him.

Barring a fiasco involving heavy Israeli casualties, the operation should help Netanyahu coast to victory in the upcoming Israeli elections.

While his more dovish predecessors have carried out daring military operations in the West Bank,Gaza, Lebanon and reportedly beyond, Netanyahu's reign has surprisingly been categorized by restraint. Just a month ago, in a speech before parliament, he boasted that as prime minister, he "didn't wage any unnecessary wars or any wars at all."

The comments appeared to be a swipe at his predecessor, centrist Ehud Olmert, who launched two wars in his three years as prime minister between 2006 and 2009.

Despite his bellicose language, Netanyahu has proven to be a careful commander in chief, said political analyst Hanan Kristal.

"Olmert had a short fuse. He was a diplomatic dove and a military hawk, while Bibi is a diplomatic hawk, but he's not a military hawk," he said, using Netanyahu's nickname. "In the opposition, he's a populist. There's no war he doesn't support or encourage. But once he gets to power, he's cautious, he consults, he doesn't shoot from the hip."

For months, Netanyahu refrained from major retaliation against rocket attacks from Gaza against southern Israel. Kristal said he ultimately gave the order only after a public outcry and after making sure the top military brass supported the move.

Netanyahu claims he has never before had to act militarily, since his tough stance has deterred Israel's enemies from testing him. Moshe Arens, Netanyahu's onetime political mentor, said this time Hamas aggression toward Israel forced his hand.

"This wasn't his decision alone to make. It wasn't a matter of initiative, it was forced by reality," said Arens, a former defense minister and foreign minister. "He's a smart guy with lots of knowledge. He's seasoned and prepared to handle the situation."

Netanyahu has been burned by missions in the past.

In his first term in office, from 1996 to 1999, his most brazen operation backfired when two Mossad agents posing as Canadian tourists were captured in Jordan after trying to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal by injecting him with poison.

Under international pressure, Israel was forced to send an antidote that saved Mashaal's life. Mashaal is still the leader of Hamas, meeting in Cairo Monday with Egyptian officials about the Gaza conflict.

Netanyahu's decision to open a tunnel beneath the Old City of Jerusalem sparked riots in which dozens of Israelis and Palestinians were killed. Opponents criticized him for not foreseeing the consequences of such an action in the region's most sensitive spot.

Since returning to power in 2009, a more sober Netanyahu has sought a consensus for every major decision.

Lacking the military pedigree of former prime ministers like ex-generals Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, Netanyahu tends to seek military approval when using force.

For example, Netanyahu reportedly ordered the military to go on high alert for a looming attack on Iran's nuclear program two years ago, but he backed off following strong objections from senior security officials, according to a recent expose by a respected Israeli investigative news program.

This time the military is on his side. So is Barak, a former military chief who now serves as Netanyahu's defense minister.

So far, the public has been overwhelmingly behind them. A Dialog poll published Monday in the Haaretz daily said 84 percent of Israelis supported the offensive, and 55 percent approved of Netanyahu's performance, a big boost from his previous numbers. The poll surveyed 520 Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

With Israeli elections just two months away, Netanyahu was already far ahead in the polls. The Gaza offensive has boosted his numbers further. According to Monday's Haaretz poll, Netanyahu's Likud Party would be the largest party in parliament and would have no trouble putting together another ruling coalition.

Netanyahu's political prospects are also improved because his main opponents have even less military background than he does and they have been running a campaign that focused primarily on economic and social issues, and now the focus has been shifted back to security.

Netanyahu's position could still be precarious.

His popularity could take a beating if a ground operation goes awry or, alternatively, if he is perceived to have halted the campaign before reaching its goal — the end of rocket fire toward southern Israel.

Olmert's approval numbers plummeted during the Lebanon war in 2006, when a ground operation produced large Israeli casualties and failed to stop Hezbollah guerrillas from firing rockets into Israel.

"You'd have to be a saint for these thoughts not to pass in the mind of a politician, and we are not dealing with saints here," wrote Sima Kadmon, the Yediot Ahronot daily's political columnist.

The Haaretz poll showed that 63 percent of Israelis rejected the notion that Netanyahu's main motive for the attack was political, which may help explain why Israel's notoriously rancorous political system has been largely supportive of the offensive.

"We are not criticizing him now because we are in a state of war and we want to win and restore quiet to southern Israel," said Yoel Hasson, an opposition lawmaker from the centrist Kadima Party and a frequent Netanyahu critic. "When it comes to Hamas, there is no right and no left in Israel, no coalition and no opposition."

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