Israel ground war in Egypt?

[Peter Lemkin]

AMY GOODMAN: For more on the attack on Gaza, we're joined by Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories. He's a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author of more than 50 books on war, human rights, international law. He now teaches at University of California at Santa Barbara. We're also joined by Raji Sourani, joining us from Gaza City, the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
I wanted to go to Richard Falk right now. Can you talk about international law in relation to what has happened so far? The latest numbers we have, at least 95 Palestinians have been killed, at least half of them believed to be civilians, since the Israeli assault began last week. The number of Palestinians wounded, over 600. At the same time, Palestinian rocket firings were about 75 on Sunday after a two-day average of 230 rockets. According to Israeli government statistics, Israel has carried out over 1,350 attacks since launching the offensive last week. The number of Israelis that have been killed is three. Your response to what is taking place?
RICHARD FALK: I share very much the legal assessment that Raji Sourani has been offering a few minutes ago. There is no question in my mind that to launch this kind of all-out attack on a defenseless civilian society is something that must be viewed with the greatest alarm by those that take international law and international humanitarian law seriously as a way of governing the behavior of sovereign states.
And in this setting, it's particularly shocking because there existed a diplomatic alternative. It was clear that Hamas had agreed to an informal truce and had proposed, through its Israeli interlocutor, a long-term truce, and there's no question that this was a choice made by Israel to assassinate a Hamas leaderin fact, the person that had endorsed the trucea few days after it had been established. So one has to question any kind of recourse to this kind of violence in a setting where a peaceful alternative seems to have existed and was rebuffed. And that'sthat's a very serious element that's been almost totally ignored in the media reaction in the West, particularly the United States, and certainly in the Obama misleading presentation of the issue as the right of a country to defend itself. There'sno one questions that right. The question is: When and how is it appropriate?
And here, as before in 2008, when Israel launched a similar devastating attack on the population and people of Gaza, there were alternatives, and this kind of approach to security ends up with a new cycle of violence at higher levels of intensity. So it's time, it seems to me, for the international community to take some responsibility for protecting the people of Gaza. The responsibility to protect norm was very self-righteously invoked in relation to Gaddafi's Libya, but there's utter silence when it comes to the people of Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Gilad Sharon, the son of the former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who remains in a coma, wrote in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post over the weekend, quote, "We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn't stop with Hiroshima the Japanese weren't surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.
"There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing."
Richard Falk, that'sthose are the words of the son of Ariel Sharon.
RICHARD FALK: And those words have also been repeated in more or less those same terms by the deputy prime minister of Israel, and it is a shocking embrace of criminality, of crimes against humanity of the most severe kind. Indeed it has a genocidal edge to it, when you talk about depriving a population of its entire infrastructure, as if that's the way to produce security. It's a very perverse notion, and, as I say, in a setting where it is clear that if Israel were prepared to lift the blockade and towhich is unlawful form of collective punishment that is prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Conventionand was willing to deal with the governing authorities in Gaza as if they're a political actor, this would produce real security, at least as a foundation for the relations between this portion of the Palestinian people and the state of Israel.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Raji Sourani back into the conversation to respond to Israeli President Shimon Peres saying that the country is being pushed to fight against its will, talking about Israel.

PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES: This strange war, we don't have any ambitions or any claims of this war. We don't want to get rid ofby war with Hamas, we don't want to change the state of Gaza. We don't want to fire at all. But we were left without a choice.

AMY GOODMAN: That is the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, saying "We [were] left without a choice." Raji Sourani, three Israelis have been killed by the rocket fire, about 80 wounded. Your response?
RAJI SOURANI: Well, I mean, it's very interesting what Mr. Peres is saying. Even he blames the victim. I mean, we are criminals because we push them to kill us, to bomb us, to destroy us, to launch a war against us. That's obscene. That's the absurd. I mean, it's too much.
Regarding Gilad Sharon, a Dahiya doctrine, it's not a theory; it's a practice. And this practice had happened during the Lebanon war. And I'm sure, with all the introductions we have for Gaza for the last six days, that the worst is yet to come. In the last five days, things were going reallyI mean, every day worse than the other. But in the last 24 hours, things are escalating in a very drastic way. Just half an hour ago, ambulance with a doctor and nurse has been targeted and killed. These are the last victims, I mean, we are having in Gaza. And all over Gaza, there is no safe haven.
What triggered this war really? What triggered it? The assassination of one of Hamas leaders who was negotiating with the Egyptian and the Israelis the truce. And that's what triggered, Amy, everything. Mr. Peres is forgetting that Gaza, for the last seven years, suffer a criminal siege, suffocating socially and economically 1.7 million people, unable to move in or out, and no movement for goods whatsoever. And they shifted Gaza to be a first-class, human-disaster-made, de-developed place. And, you know, they are practicing all kinds of suffocation on it through that criminal siege, which all international human rights organizations said this is illegal, inhumane, as Mr. Falk rightly said.
AMY GOODMAN: Raji Sourani, President Obama, the Israeli government, the U.S. media, overall, says what's triggered this Israeli military assault on Gaza are the missiles, the rocket attacks that are coming from Gaza.
RAJI SOURANI: It's not true at all. It's not true at all. There was assassination, and there was bombing immediately after assassination all over Gaza Strip. And this you canbeing asked by any local observer, whether local, international, neutral orI mean, these are given facts. But obviously, U.S. and Mr. Obama try to provide Israel with full excuse, with full legal, political immunity to do whatever they want to do against Gazans. This isthis is unjust. This is unfair. This makes U.S. on the same foot, I mean, equal to Israel and real partner of what they are doing, of war crimes or crimes against humanity, against Gazan civilians.
AMY GOODMAN: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced plans to travel to Egypt to seek a ceasefire, but many residents of Gaza say they're skeptical of Ban's trip to the Middle East. This is one resident of Gaza named Yousif.

YOUSIF: [translated] I do not welcome him, because he came here during the last war, 2008-2009, and did nothing for us. He will come again for the second war but will never do anything for us. He will speak about taking action but will not do anything.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you share that view, Raji Sourani?
RAJI SOURANI: I want him to come, and I want him to be the real international conscience of the most important system on earth, the U.N., in order to bring rule of law, not the rule of jungle, to this part of the world. Gaza is not part of his visit. He's going to Israel, and he's going to the West Bank. But those who need his visit, Gazans, he's not going to visit them. And he, in advance, once and again, blamed the victim. He says, you know, Gaza deserve what had happened, for simple reason: They are bombarding Israel. Once again, Amy, it's Kafka. It's absurd. How can occupied people, those who are entitled by law, by international humanitarian law, to protection, can be victimizers for belligerent, criminal occupation practicing war crime, not this time, but just in Cast Lead operation, as well, and wasn't held accountable?
AMY GOODMAN: The latest news around the attack on the media center: On Sunday, six Palestinian journalists wounded when Israeli missiles slammed into the offices of the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, and the Lebanon-based Al Quds TV, a number of international media outlets, including Fox, CBS, Sky, have used the studios in targeted buildings. One of the victims lost his leg. And I'm looking at a tweet from the Netanyahu spokesperson, Ofir Gendelman, who said, "No Western journalists were hurt during the IAF operation aimed to destroy Hamas' military comm. situated on the roof of a media building." And I'd like to get the U.N. rapporteur Richard Falk's response.
RICHARD FALK: It is clear that any kind of deliberate attack on journalists is itself a deliberate, intentional war crime. The U.N. has clearly declared that journalists are civilians. And this isn't as if there is an attack on a communications system that manipulates the weapons that Hamas has been using. It is an attack on journalists that are doing their professional job, and it represents an attempt by Israel, I suppose, to avoid any kind of effort to tell the story of what is really happening. And we're thankful to media personalities such as yourself that are at least trying to get at the truth of what is going on and the terrible ordeal that the people of Gaza are once again subjected to without the kind of protection that international law and international morality should be according them.
AMY GOODMAN: Raji Sourani, what is life like on the ground right now? You are in your office. How are Gazans dealing with the attacks right now?
RAJI SOURANI: Well, I mean, if you are sitting in my office, I mean, you will hear the bombs, I mean, all over the place. Every minute or two passes, I mean, you will hear, you know, one bomb from Apache or a drone or F-16 hitting, bombing. And just half an hour ago, the Shoroq Tower, where these journalists were targeted at dawn yesterday, have been bombed again, under fire right now at this tower. For the second consecutive time in less than 30 hours, this tower has been targeted. And this tower, I mean, full of media peopleyesterday, six has been injured, one have leg amputated. And again, I mean, they are doing this once and again. And yesterday, another building full of journalists were actually threatened to evacuate. And they sent message to international journalistsnot Gazan journalists, internationalto evacuate and leave the place. And we went there, all the human rights organization leaders, in solidarity, I mean, with them, and we held a press conference at that building, in front of that building, and in solidarity with them.
Once and again, Israel feel immune: they are not going to be held accountable. They count too much in U.S., and they count too much in Europe, and they know that, you know, they are not going to be criticized or blamed, as far, I mean, all these superpowers giving them that protection. And that's why they feel almost having a free hand to do whatever they want to do.
And by the way, yesterday, when they bombarded al-Dalo three-stories house, and they killed these 12 people, 10 from one family, they said, "Well, we committed minor mistake. We just didn't pick the right house. We think the house which was supposed to be targeted, the one next to it." So they mean, I mean, even choosing houses, choosing inhabited houses, choosing houses full of civilians, it's very legitimate target for one reason, because the owner of that house is in Hamas or Fatah or belong to this or that group. This is a clear policy, again Israel putting in the eye of the storm civilians, and they are doing a Dahiya doctrine. And I believe all introductions, especially in the last 24 hours, indicates in a very clear way that the worst is yet to come. And I'm anticipating and expecting soon, I mean, drastic change and much more killings and injuries and destruction going to happen in this part of the world, as if what had happened so far is not enough.
AMY GOODMAN: As you were saying, Raji Sourani, this is a tweet from the BBC: "Tower block gaza housing offices Arab tv channels & Al Aqsa tv of Hamas hit 3 times. Reports 7 injured." And we are showing live on Democracy Now! right now the tower where thewhere the Palestinian media is. And for our radio listeners, you can go to our website at democracynow.org to see those images. As we wrap up, what you feel needs to be done now? Raji Sourani, you wrote a piece called "History is Repeated as the International Community Turns Its Back on Gaza," referring to what happened four years ago soon after President Obama was elected the first time in that interim before he was inaugurated, similar to what we're seeing now, with Operation Cast Lead. What about the world community? What about Egypt now with a president from the Muslim Brotherhood? Who are you looking to to help? And I want to put that question also to Richard Falk after.
RAJI SOURANI: I want a free, committed people across the globe break this conspiratorial silence and to ask for rule of law and justice for this part of the world. All what we want, rule of law, not the rule of jungle. And Israel is effectively doing the rule of jungle in this part of the world. I think and I'm sure if Israel were held accountable in Cast Lead operation, wouldn't dare to do this. As a citizen of the world who believes in the world of law, asking individuals, groups, states, to do something effective to have an end for this criminal offensive by Israel. Egypt and other states, they are good, but I don't believe, I mean, they are in capacity to stop that. I think what we need, something very simple: very strong intervention to have an end for this crime and to bring peace to this part of the world, which only can it be brought by one thing: have an end for this Israeli belligerent occupation.
AMY GOODMAN: Raji Sourani, do you also call on Hamas to stop hitting Israel with their missiles?
RAJI SOURANI: Well, right of self-determination and right of self-defense, it's a very basic fundamental right for any occupied people, but that should be abide with the rule of law, as well. And I think, you know, we should be on higher moral ground than this Israeli belligerent occupation.

[Lauren Johnson]

The timing of this attack shortly after the US elections coupled with BHO's ignoring of the Israeli provocations are the tells. This is the deal: Obama says hold off until after the elections, and I will be your butt boy. Just how far this is supposed to go is anyone's guess. If Israel is attacked from the North, then my guess is that it means the IDF goes into the Golan. Easy pickings. Of course, Israel could always be "attacked" from the North. My guess is that this will not be Cast Lead II -- it will be more.

[Magda Hassan]

They've already been lobbing the occasional rocket into Syria and vis-a-versa The photograph of the soldiers and the unexploded 'Syrian' rocket looked unconvincing to me at least. And Syria is preoccupied with their own problems for the moment and unlikely to launch any thing against Israel unless Israel attacks frontally. Israel has called up and has on stand by 70,000 reserve troops. They only had 10,000 for Op Cast Lead so clearly they are getting ready for some thing big. But this is also a distraction for the internal domestic problems they have there and is theatre for the upcoming elections. But with in Israel and more importantly in the Diaspora the Jewish community which does not support the mad Zionist world view is growing bigger every day.

[Magda Hassan]

Dream on....

Obama Threatens Israel

By Matt Carr

November 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Clearly emboldened by his recent electoral victory, Barack Obama has embarked on a radical and historic change of direction regarding America's relationship with Israel. During a state visit to Thailand this weekend, the president called on Israel to halt what he called a gratuitous and murderous assault' on the Gaza Strip.

Obama dismissed Israel's claims that it was acting in self-defence, and accused Israel of having deliberately provoked the latest confrontation, and engaging in the collective punishment' of a defenceless' civilian population.

He rejected claims by the Israeli government that Palestinian civilian deaths were due to the use of human shields' by Hamas fighters. Though Obama condemned Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups for firing missiles at Israeli civilian targets, he placed primary responsibility for the conflict on Israel itself. Given Israel's continued domination of the Gaza Strip even after its 2005 disengagement, the idea it is acting out of self-defence is meaningless,' the president declared.

Obama insisted that the Palestinians of Gaza also had a right to security, hope and human dignity' and demanded that Israel immediately halt all military activities, end its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, and enter into direct negotiations with Hamas under international supervision in order to bring about a a lasting cessation of hostilities' as a precursor to a more permanent peace.

For the first time in American history, Obama warned the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would halt all military and economic aid to Israel if it did not stop what he called its unconscionable and gratuitous assault' in Gaza. The president also announced that he would be convening an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to consider a coordinated international response to the Gaza crisis.

Though Obama did not explicitly call for military action in Gaza, he warned that all options were on the table' if Israel did not conform to the will of the international community. Asked what these options might be, Obama suggested that they could include the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force between Gaza and Israel, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor' at the Gaza-Egypt border and the transformation of the Gaza Strip into a no fly zone under UN jurisdiction.

Clearly determined to continue the same moral foreign policy agenda that characterized his first term in office, Obama warned that America cannot stand idly by' in the face of a massacre' that stains the world's conscience'.

Except readers, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you, none of this actually took place. Though Obama was indeed in Thailand, this is what he actually said:

Let's understand that the precipitating event here … was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.'

In consequence Obama was fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself'. The Peace Laureate nevertheless insisted that he would prefer' not to see a ramping up of military activity in Gaza.'

And who did the president blame for this ramping up'? Not Israel, but Turkey and Egypt, whose governments have both condemned the Israeli assault. Wise and statesmanlike as always, Obama warned that

those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognise that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza then the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future.'

So there you have it; Israel must keep bombing Gaza in order to bring the Palestinians back on a peace track.' Countries that criticise the bombing and call for it to stop are responsible for bringing about a further escalation' of the situation' in Gaza.

Which only goes to prove that the president is either a fool, a liar or a coward, or perhaps a combination of all three. And whichever it is, such statements are a grim reminder of why Israel continues to believe with good reason that it can do whatever it likes.

[Mark Stapleton]

Obama's current support for Israel's attack on Gaza surprises me a bit, but it's still early days in his second term.

I still have the feeling he might pull Israel into line. Maybe he's waiting until after the Israeli elections in January to see who he'll be dealing with, although Netanyahu is apparently a near certainty to win.

[Peter Lemkin]

Palestinian Resistance  The Political, Social and Human Right of Self-​Defense
http://criticallegalthinking.com/2012/11...f-defense/
19 November 2012
By Lynda Brayer

Once again the bombs are fall*ing on the Gaza Strip, a stretch of ter*rit*ory excised from Palestine proper as a res*ult of con*tinu*ing illegal and ille*git*im*ate actions by Israel. In fact, Gaza has become a closed ghetto, first cut off from Palestine in viol*a*tion of the par*ti*tion plans and polit*ical pro*grams and then turned into a sealed ghetto, fol*low*ing the demo*cratic elec*tions which brought the Islamic Res*ist*ance Party ** Hamas  into power. Cat*egor*ized as a ter*ror*ist organ*iz*a*tion in the United States, with some of its lead*ing sup*port*ers there imprisoned for over twenty years for send*ing human*it*arian aid to Palestini*ans in Gaza, it can come as no sur*prise that the Israeli and West*ern media accuse Hamas for attack*ing Israel with rock*ets, rather than report*ing that Hamas sent off the rock*ets as a response to an Israeli attack!
This method of report*ing is part of con*tin*ued efforts of de-​legitimization of the Palestinian struggle for free*dom from the yoke of Zion*ist gen*o*cidal oppres*sion and viol*ence. Fur*ther*more, the con*dem*na*tions have not been accom*pan*ied by ref*er*ence to the his*tor*ical record: that the Zion*ist war, both cold and hot, against the Palestini*ans has not stopped for even one day since 1948, and that it went into relent*less high gear since 1967 and con*tin*ues unabated. This con*tinu*ous aggres*sion  admin*is*trat*ive and mil*it*ary  is never brought into the West*ern vis*ion or under*stand*ing, although a quick per*usal of the web*sites of the Palestine Cen*ter for Human Rights loc*ated in Gaza City, Mah*som Watch and Betselem provide chilling and detailed inform*a*tion of this con*tinu*ing quo*tidian warfare.
For any*one who has not suc*cumbed to Zion*ist pro*pa*ganda, it is a known fact that when rock*ets are fired from Gaza it is always in response to an Israeli attack, espe*cially when this attack is a blatant and poin*ted act of viol*ence given high vis*ib*il*ity by the Israelis. Although Israel had begun pound*ing Gaza on 13 Novem*ber 2012, which appar*ently led to a truce agree*ment being for*mu*lated, the assas*sin*a*tion of Ahmed Jabari on 14 Novem*ber 2012, the head of the Palestinian res*ist*ance forces, was executed in order to jus*tify full-​scale Israeli war*fare. High vis*ib*il*ity in this case was the cre*ation of a video of the event uploaded on the web*sites of the Israeli news out*lets so that the view*ers could enjoy a repeat per*form*ance! The reason for this latest attack is given on the Israel Defense Forces [sic] web blog:

On Novem*ber 14, the IDF embarked on Oper*a*tion Pil*lar of Defense[sic], meant to defend Israel's civil*ians from the incess*ant rocket fire they've suffered dur*ing the past 12 years, and cripple the ter*ror organ*iz*a*tions in the Gaza Strip.

Their Eng*lish trans*la*tion of the name of the mil*it*ary oper*a*tion is inac*cur*ate, and I sus*pect that this is delib*er*ate. The name in Hebrew is Amud Ashan  Pil*lar of Smoke a meta*phor cre*ated to eli*cit delib*er*ate com*par*ison in the Israeli mind with the pil*lar of fire and the pil*lar of clouds from the bib*lical story of the Exodus accord*ing to which God led the Chil*dren of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt on their jour*ney to free*dom in the Prom*ised Land! Of neces*sity, this name and this image brings about an inver*sion of the roles of the Israelis and the Palestini*ans: the Israeli aggressor once again becomes the per*se*cuted vic*tim, as per the Exodus story, while the Palestini*ans, immob*il*ized and strangled in the ghetto-​prison of Gaza, enclosed within elec*tri*fied walls and fences, are trans*mog*ri*fied into the pharaonic ter*ror*ists relent*lessly and heart*lessly per*se*cut*ing the inno*cent Israeli vic*tims. This inver*sion involves more than labels: besides invert*ing the moral order and the facts of real*ity, it serves, once again, to rein*force the image of the Palestinian as enemy, as demon, as sub-​human, an entity not entitled to any respect or con*sid*er*a*tion! It is a tried and tested for*mula for dis*tract*ing atten*tion and blame from the real per*pet*rat*ors of death and destruc*tion on to the vic*tims of those acts of aggressions.
Polit*ical assas*sin*a*tion is the spe*cialty du jour of Israel, a praxis adop*ted whole*heartedly by Pres*id*ent Obama and his own per*sonal drone "kill list". Using murder to delib*er*ately under*mine the polit*ical ech*elon in the hope of weak*en*ing it with respect to the pos*sib*il*ity of polit*ical recu*per*a*tion after a war is an act which viol*ates the third prin*ciple of legit*im*acy of the laws of war  the prin*ciple of chiv*alry a prin*ciple recog*niz*ing the human*ity of the enemy. The enemy must be treated with respect in order for nor*mal social life to be com*menced or resumed at the end of hostilities.
Clause*witz' aph*or*ism  that war is a con*tinu*ation of polit*ics  is not descript*ive but pre*script*ive. Nego*ti*ations lead*ing to peace must be the pur*pose of a legit*im*ate war of defense. It is in this light that one should under*stand the inform*a*tion released by Ger*s*hon Baskin, an Israeli polit*ical act*iv*ist, that the Palestinian lead*er*ship in Gaza, includ*ing Ahmed Jabari, had received a draft for a truce agree*ment just hours before his assas*sin*a*tion. It is there*fore obvi*ous that the assas*sin*a*tion was executed for the spe*cific pur*pose of pre*vent*ing such a truce. What this indic*ates, at the very least, is flag*rant bad faith on the part of the Israelis, but more import*antly, it is another instance of pro*voc*at*ive treach*ery, a sub*ject which deserves a sep*ar*ate ana*lysis.
The right to pro*tect human life is abso*lute, even if the means used are con*di*tioned. There*fore, accord*ing to all human norms, nat*ural law, legal norms and inter*na*tional law and jur*is*pru*dence, the Palestini*ans have a legit*im*ate right of response. It must be remembered how*ever, that the Palestini*ans have been denied a state and an accom*pa*ny*ing army by Israel and the United States. There*fore the response avail*able to the Palestini*ans in Gaza is extremely lim*ited and is con*fined to rock*ets fired into Israel. These rock*ets are prim*it*ive weapons and not extremely accur*ate which is why they have been defined as fire*works. But that is all that the Palestini*ans have for their defense. This response is the only avenue open for a soci*ety under mil*it*ary attack to try and force the ces*sa*tion of such an attack when the aggressor will not nego*ti*ate with you in good faith.
The Israelis are proud of the fact that their army is the fourth largest in the world, and as far as they are con*cerned, also the best, the most effect*ive and the most moral! Because of the expo*nen*tially huge dis*pro*por*tion in power between Israel and the Palestini*ans, the Palestini*ans simply can*not afford to react to each and every attack against them. They have to care*fully and pruden*tially weigh their pos*sib*il*it*ies of response which is the reason why the Israelis never have to cease their relent*less attacks of vary*ing intens*ity. But it is also the dis*pro*por*tion*ate attacks by the Israeli army that viol*ate the prin*ciple of pro*por*tion*al*ity under*ly*ing legit*im*ate warfare.
The Right of Res*ist*ance is the Right of Self-​Defense

It can be argued cogently that since the right to self-​determination was delib*er*ately and expli*citly denied the Palestinian people fol*low*ing the col*lapse of the Otto*man Empire, with no right or jus*ti*fic*a*tion what*so*ever in the cir*cum*stances, the Palestini*ans are still entitled to demand and fight for such rights. (see endnote).
Instead of free*dom, they were faced with a real*ity of the col*on*iz*a*tion of Palestine by for*eign*ers against the wishes of the local pop*u*la*tion, a col*on*iz*a*tion which ulti*mately led to an expul*sion of nearly 90% of the indi*gen*ous Palestinian pop*u*la*tion cre*at*ing a long-​festering and long-​suffering Palestinian refugee prob*lem. A struggle for self-​determination is legit*im*ate in inter*na*tional law, as it expresses a struggle for free*dom, the basic qual*ity of life neces*sary in order for human beings to be able to ful*fill their poten*tial as indi*vidual per*sons and as social beings. Those who deny such self-​determination are guilty of viol*at*ing that same inter*na*tional law. That this denial of such a right is the case with respect to Palestini*ans can be found in sev*eral let*ters of cor*res*pond*ence of Brit*ish min*is*ters. In a let*ter to the Prime Min*is*ter by Lord Arthur Balfour dated 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Feb*ru*ary [1919 LB] he states:

… The weak point of our pos*i*tion of course is that in the case of Palestine we delib*er*ately and rightly [sic LB] decline to accept the prin*ciple of self-​determination. If the present inhab*it*ants were con*sul*ted they would unques*tion*ably give an anti-​Jewish ver*dict. Our jus*ti*fic*a*tion for our policy is that we regard Palestine as being abso*lutely excep*tional; that we con*sider the ques*tion of the Jews out*side Palestine as one of world import*ance and that we con*ceive the Jews to have an his*toric claim to a home in their ancient land; provided that home can be given them without either dis*pos*sess*ing or oppress*ing the present inhabitants…

In a later memor*andum addressed to Lord Curzon by Lord Balfour on 11 August 1919 a sim*ilar notion is repeated:

… The con*tra*dic*tion between the let*ters of the Cov*en*ant [League of Nations Cov*en*ant LB] and the Policy of the Allies is even more flag*rant in the case of the inde*pend*ent nation' of Palestine than in that of the inde*pend*ent nation' of Syria. For in Palestine we do not pro*pose even to go through the form of con*sult*ing the wishes of the present inhab*it*ants of the coun*try, though the Amer*ican Com*mis*sion has been going through the form of ask*ing what they are.
The Four Great Powers are com*mit*ted to Zion*ism. And Zion*ism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-​long tra*di*tions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far pro*founder import than the desires and pre*ju*dices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.
In my opin*ion that is right. What I have never been able to under*stand is how it can be har*mon*ized with the declar*a*tion [Anglo-​French of Novem*ber 1918], the Cov*en*ant or the instruc*tions to the Com*mis*sion of Enquiry.
I do not think that Zion*ism will hurt the Arabs, but they will never say they want it. Whatever be the future of Palestine it is not now an inde*pend*ent nation,' nor is it yet on the way to become one. Whatever defer*ence should be paid to the views of those liv*ing there, the Powers in their selec*tion of a man*dat*ory do not pro*pose, as I under*stand the mat*ter, to con*sult them. In short, so far as Palestine is con*cerned, the Powers have made no declar*a*tion of policy which, at least in the let*ter, they have not always inten*ded to violate…
(Doreen Ingrams, Palestine Papers 1917  1922 Seeds of Con*flict [Lon*don 1972] pp. 61 and 73).

Des*pite the Great Powers flag*rant denial of Palestinian rights at the time, such denial did not and does not give rise to either their loss or their fall*ing into desu*et*ude. As long as a people wish to real*ize such rights, they have the right to demand their real*iz*a*tion. The Palestini*ans never relin*quished these rights, although they have made innu*mer*able attempts to reach a modus vivendi with the Zion*ist state. Their accom*mod*a*tion has been rejec*ted for the very reason that a com*prom*ise and shared con*domin*ium in Palestine is not part of the Zion*ist pro*gram and never was.
We could there*fore come to the fol*low*ing con*clu*sion at this point. The Palestini*ans have the right to res*ist Palestinian attacks on sev*eral grounds. Firstly in response to the Israeli pro*voca*tion in the form of the assas*sin*a*tion of Ahmed Jabari . (We can ima*gine an Israeli response to an assas*sin*a*tion of Ehud Barak or any other min*is*ter). Secondly they have the right of res*ist*ance to the actual dec*ades long Israeli gen*o*cidal con*trol over Gaza which is bring*ing about the actual phys*ical demise of the pop*u*la*tion which exhib*its a gen*eral level of ill-​health attrib*ut*able dir*ectly to the Israeli strangle*hold over the ter*rit*ory. Thirdly, they have the right of res*ist*ance against the con*tinu*ing incur*sions, raids, arrests, impris*on*ments, and sup*pres*sion of eco*nomic activ*ity in the West Bank/​East Jer*u*s*alem. And fourthly, the actual fact of their being for*cibly denied their polit*ical rights jus*ti*fies resistance.
So why are the Palestini*ans in gen*eral, and Hamas in par*tic*u*lar, depic*ted as Terrorists?

The term ter*ror*ist' is not a legal term and has no legal ref*er*ence. It has been man*u*fac*tured in order to bypass the lim*it*a*tions that inter*na*tional law imposes with respect to the man*ner of deal*ing with an adversary. It is used to demon*ize those people who do not agree with the US/​Israel/​European hege*monic demand and rule of the world and it is espe*cially used in order to deny such people the right of res*ist*ance, the right to struggle as free*dom fight*ers. It is this ter*min*o*logy which has cre*ated such con*fu*sion and dis*crep*ancy in the gen*eral public's under*stand*ing with respect to the real*ity in Palestine and the actual state of affairs that pre*vails there. But we may ask the fur*ther ques*tion as to why Palestini*ans are seen in the West as "ter*ror*ists" and intransigent mur*der*ers, a people who under*stand only viol*ence and not peace.
In order to under*stand this conun*drum, it is neces*sary to under*stand the nature of Amer*ican soci*ety in par*tic*u*lar, and its mech*an*isms of con*trol. The United States is a cap*it*al*ist soci*ety in which power is exer*cised by the financial-​media-​military-​industrial com*plex. A main source of cap*it*al*ist exploit*a*tion is the oil depos*its in the Middle East, its refine*ment and dis*tri*bu*tion to the rest of the world. It is a sine qua non for the con*trolling cap*it*al*ist elite that it con*trols these resources and their dis*pos*i*tion. Such con*trol is not in the interests of the local pop*u*la*tions of the ter*rit*or*ies in which the oil is depos*ited, who are nearly all Muslims.
In order to min*im*ize, if not elim*in*ate, the crit*ics and cri*tiques of cap*it*al*ist exploit*a*tion, the United States uses the media to manip*u*late the minds of its pop*u*la*tion, as Pro*fess*ors Noam Chom*sky and Edward Her*man explained in their book Man*u*fac*tur*ing Con*sent. How*ever, since the second Bush admin*is*tra*tion, the Depart*ment of Home*land Secur*ity (DHS)  a title straight out of George Orwell's 1984 was formed to exer*cise fur*ther con*trol over the pop*u*la*tion through the use of poli*cing power. The events of 9/​11 have been exploited expo*nen*tially by both the media and the DHS towards the demon*iz*a*tion of Islam and Muslims, and Palestini*ans auto*mat*ic*ally fall into this cat*egory. All are deemed to be ter*ror*ists or poten*tial ter*ror*ists, and there*fore they are, by defin*i*tion, the enemy. The level of pro*pa*ganda gen*er*ated by the media branch of this com*plex, to which the pop*u*la*tions in the West are sub*ject, in par*tic*u*lar in the United States and Israel, has brain*washed the pop*u*la*tion into an auto*matic neg*at*ive response to all Muslims, Palestini*ans included.
The Muslims as ter*ror*ist, Islam as a reli*gion of viol*ence and hatred, the Jew as eternal vic*tim, the Holo*caust as a unique his*tor*ical event, the unique*ness of which is echoed in the polit*ical mani*festo of mani*fest des*tiny' and excep*tion*al*ism' of the United States of Amer*ica, the good guys" of World Wars I and II, con*sti*tutes the cur*rent pro*pa*ganda pas*tiche determ*in*ing the lim*its of polit*ic*ally cor*rect dis*course. Any cri*ti*cism against Israel is auto*mat*ic*ally trans*lated into anti-​Semitism and cri*ti*cism of the United States is unpat*ri*otic or even treason.
The Palestinian polit*ical party of Hamas is on the ter*ror*ist list in the US and sev*eral Muslims have been con*victed and imprisoned for exten*ded peri*ods, in one case for more than twenty years, for the crime of aid*ing and abet*ting ter*ror*ists by send*ing human*it*arian aid to Palestine. Israel has never ceased to refer to Palestini*ans as ter*ror*ists and treats them as such accord*ingly. As men*tioned earlier, it has broken and/​or under*mined all its agree*ments with the Palestini*ans, the most egre*gious viol*a*tion being the con*tinu*ation of the build*ing of Jew*ish set*tle*ments in the West Bank conquered in 1967, becom*ing a col*on*iz*ing power, which is in dir*ect viol*a*tion of inter*na*tional law. In addi*tion, Israel has viol*ated all United Nations Res*ol*u*tions but is pro*tec*ted by the US veto, thus provid*ing it with a long leash to do what it wants in Palestine. The real*ity of Israeli force, the real*ity of its illeg*al*it*ies con*sti*tutes a viol*a*tion of both the moral and the legal order. It is known by both Israel and the US and there*fore there is such vicious con*tinu*ing pro*pa*ganda against Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians.
There can be little doubt that there is no easy solu*tion for the Palestini*ans. Des*pite their rights de iure as well as de facto and their legit*im*ate res*ist*ance and struggle and the use of weapons that do not come up to the min*imum stand*ards of a mod*ern army, it is only the vic*tim*ized people of the world who under*stand their plight together with those com*ing from the West who are termed rad*ic*als. At this junc*ture in his*tory the people have no power, but it behooves us to con*tinue the struggle for free*dom and justice in any way we can, without des*troy*ing the planet, as our friends the cap*it*al*ists are doing. If, how*ever, there is one iron law of life and exist*ence, which must sus*tain our hope and energy, it is that all insti*tu*tions, all powers, ulti*mately col*lapse because everything is chan*ging and tem*por*ary in our con*tin*gent world. Situ*ations can*not help but change. When such a change comes in the dis*tri*bu*tion of power, we should be ready to insti*tute a reign of justice and peace for the well-​being of all of mankind.
End note

The entire enter*prise of a Jew*ish state in Palestine is built upon an express rejec*tion of inter*na*tional law. The only legit*im*ate grounds for polit*ical sov*er*eignty of an indi*gent people are the laws of ius soli or ius san*guine as recog*nized in inter*na*tional law, which trans*lates into a right of sov*er*eignty based upon hab*it*a*tion in a par*tic*u*lar ter*rit*ory or being a des*cend*ent of someone in a par*tic*u*lar ter*rit*ory. The third option grant*ing a right to sov*er*eignty would be the dis*cov*ery of a terra nul*lius that is an unin*hab*ited ter*rit*ory. Palestine was never a terra nul*lius, and its inhab*it*ants were entitled to a sov*er*eign state in Palestine as part of Greater Syria, if they so chose, accord*ing to the ius soli fol*low*ing the demise of the Otto*man Empire at the end of World War I in 1917 and 1918. If their chil*dren were out of the coun*try at the time of its estab*lish*ment at a par*tic*u*lar time, then they would be gran*ted cit*izen*ship on the grounds of the ius san*guine if they had not been born in Palestine or Greater Syria.
European Jewry did not ful*fill either of these qual*i*fic*a*tions in 1917, when the Balfour Declar*a*tion, a doc*u*ment pre*pared by inter*na*tional Jew*ish lead*er*ship, and addressed by Lord Arthur Balfour, the United Kingdom's For*eign sec*ret*ary at the time, to Lord Wal*ter Roth*schild, a scion of the lead*ing Jew*ish bank*ing fam*ily in the world, res*id*ent in Eng*land, was writ*ten sup*port*ing a Jew*ish home*land [sic] in Palestine.
The carving up of his*tor*ical Palestine to excise the bulk of its ter*rit*ory for an impor*ted unequi*voc*ally for*eign pop*u*la*tion at the expense of the indi*gen*ous soci*ety was recog*nized not to be a polit*ic*ally legit*im*ate action. Its destruct*ive con*sequences should have been obvi*ous a pri*ori, and his*tory has proved such expect*a*tion accur*ate. Such an excision has harmed the indi*gen*ous pop*u*la*tion in every and all aspects of its life: polit*ical, eco*nomic, social, edu*ca*tional, cul*tural, reli*gious, his*tor*ical and geo*graph*ical. The destruc*tion of Palestine, the expul*sion of the over*whelm*ing major*ity of its pop*u*la*tion and the delib*er*ate and con*tinu*ing gen*o*cidal attacks on the remain*ing pop*u*la*tion liv*ing under Jew*ish con*quest, only high*lights the ille*git*im*acy of the Jew*ish pres*ence and its con*tinu*ing aggres*sion against the Palestinians.
Lynda Burstein Brayer, a gradu*ate of the Hebrew Uni*ver*sity of Jer*u*s*alem Fac*ulty of Law, is a rad*ical polit*ical and legal com*ment*ator who prac*ticed human rights law in Palestine/​Israel rep*res*ent*ing Palestini*ans in their struggles against house demoli*tions, land theft, and fam*ily destruc*tion and in their efforts to obtain travel per*mits for health, study and fam*ily reas*ons. She lives in Haifa and can be reached at lyndabrayer@​ymail.​com

[Keith Millea]

OH MY...:pinkelephant:

[Jan Klimkowski]

Keith - great video.

The reporter expresses a righteous anger, justified by the fact that Israeli missiles struck the building housing Russia TV as well as Sky News and other international broadcasters.

Of course, Israel claims its attack on two journalist centres was legitimate, not a war crime. Indeed, Israel claims it was a surgical strike, which is one way of describing bombs which cause a journalist to have his leg amputated.

[Magda Hassan]

Israel's war for Gaza's gas

by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Le Monde Diplomatique
28 November 2012

It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement.

Moshe Ya'alon, 
Israeli deputy prime minister 
and minister of strategic affairs, 2007.

Over the last decade, Israel has experienced a growing energy crisis.
Between 2000 and 2010, Israel's power consumption has risen by 3.5 per centannually. With over 40 percent of Israel's electricity dependent on natural gas, the country has struggled to keep up with rising demand as a stable source of gas is in short supply. As of April, electricity prices rose by 9 percent, as the state-owned Israeli Electricity Company (IEC) warned that "Israelis may soon face blackouts during this summer's heat" which is exactly what happened.
The two major causes of the natural gas shortage were Egypt's repeated suspension of gas supplies to Israel due to attacks on the Sinai pipeline, and the near-depletion of Israel's offshore Tethys Sea gas fields. By late April, a trade deal that would have continued natural gas imports from Egypt into Israelcollapsed, sending the Israeli government scrambling to find alternate energy sources to meet peak electricity demands.
Without a significant boost in gas production, Israel faced the prospect of debilitating fuel price hikes which would undermine the economy.
By late June, Israel was tapping into the little known Noa gas reserve in the Mediterranean off the coast of Gaza. Previously, Israel had "refrained from ordering development of the Noa field, fearing that this would lead to diplomatic problems vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority", according to the Israeli business daily Globes. The Noa reserve, whose yield is about 1.2 billion cubic metres, "is partly under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority in the economic zone of the Gaza Strip" but Houston-based operator Noble Energy apparently "convinced" Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructures that their drilling would "not spill over into other parts of the reserve."
But the Gaza Marine gas reserves about 32km from Gaza's coastline are unmistakeably within Gaza's territorial waters which extend to about 35km off the coast.

Israeli negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) over the gas reserves have stalled for much of the last decade since their discovery in the late 1990s by the British Gas Group (BG Group). The main reason for the failure of negotiations was Israel's demand that the gas should come ashore on its territory, and at below market price.
Estimated at a total of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, the market value of the reserves is about US$4 billion. On 8 November 1999, the late Yasser Arafat signed a 25-year deal on behalf of the PA, granting 60 percent rights to BG Group, 30 per cent to Consolidated Contractors Company a Palestinian private entity linked to Arafat's PA and finally only 10 percent to the PA's Palestine Investment Fund (PIF).
At first, BG Group signed a memorandum with Egypt to sell them Gaza's gas through an undersea pipeline in 2005. But the "man of peace", former UK prime minister Tony Blair official Middle East envoy of the Quartet intervened to pressure BG Group to instead sell the gas to Israel.
One informed British source told journalist Arthur Neslen in Tel Aviv at the time: "The UK and US, who are the major players in this deal, see it as a possible tool to improve relations between the PA and Israel. It is part of the bargaining baggage." The gas would be piped directly onshore to Ashkelon in Israel, but "up to three-quarters of the $4bn of revenue raised might not even end up in Palestinian hands at all." The "preferred option" of the US and UK is that the gas revenues would be held in "an international bank account over which Abbas would hold sway" effectively circumventing Hamas-controlled Gaza.
One of the first things Hamas did after winning elections was to reject the PA's agreement with BG Group as "an act of theft", before demanding a renegotiation of the agreed percentages to reflect its inclusion.
Operation Cast Lead launched in December 2008 was directly, though not exclusively, motivated by Israel's concerns about the Blair-brokered gas deal.
Upon assessing the prospects for accessing Gaza's gas, Israeli deputy prime minister Moshe Ya'alon also minister of strategic affairs and a former military chief of staff declared a year before Operation Cast Lead that the gas deal "threaten's Israel national security" as long as Hamas remains in power. "With Gaza currently a radical Islamic stronghold, and the West Bank in danger of becoming the next one, Israel's funneling a billion dollars into local or international bank accounts on behalf of the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel's bankrolling terror against itself", Ya'alon wrote for theJerusalem Centre for Public Affairs. "It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."
So why Operation Pillar of Defence, and why now? On 23 September 2012, Israel and the PA announced the renewal of negotiations over development of Gaza's gas fields. But Hamas, still in control of Gaza, stood in the way of these negotiations. Both the PA and Tony Blair "hope to have control of the marine area and levy its own fees and taxes" in partnership with Israel, reportedOffshore-technology.
Exactly a week before Israel's assassination of Ahmed Jabari, the head of Hamas' military wing, Israel's ongoing energy crisis was in full swing, with the "cash-strapped Israel Electric Corp" suffering from a shortfall of 1.5 billion shekels planning to sell a total of 3 billion shekels of government-backed bonds as early as December.
Then on 12 November, the PA announced that the Palestinians would formally seek admission to the UN General Assembly as a non-member observer state on the 29th. If granted, the status would add weight to the Palestinian bid for statehood encompassing the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem pre-1967 territorial lines which would formally impinge on Israel's ambitions to de facto control and unilaterally exploit Gaza's largely untapped gas resources.
Simultaneously, Israel faced another complication from Hamas. Israeli peace negotiator Gershon Bashkin reports that a proposal he drafted for a longterm ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was on the verge of being accepted by senior Hamas officials, including Ahmed Jabari. On the morning of 14 November just two days after the PA's announcement concerning its UN bid a revised version was being assessed by Jabari and was due to be sent to Israel. Hours later, Jabari was assassinated on Netanyahu's orders. "Senior officials in Israel knew about [Jabari's] contacts with Hamas and Egyptian intelligence aimed at formulating the permanent truce, but nevertheless approved the assassination", Bashkin told Ha'aretz.
With Israel facing a race for independence from the PA, and a permanent truce with Hamas, the prospects of fully exploiting Gaza's gas resources looked slim unless Israel could change the political and security facts on the ground through brute force. The strike on Jabari appears to have been designed precisely to provoke a response from Hamas that would justify such military action.
Indeed, Hamas has its uses. Ya'alon's fellow deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom once criticised Shimon Peres in a high-level cabinet meeting back in 2001 for advocating "negotiations" with Arafat. "Between Hamas and Arafat, I prefer Hamas", said Shalom, explaining that Arafat is a "terrorist in a diplomat's suit, while Hamas can be hit unmercifully … there won't be any international protests" (Ha'aretz, 4 December 2001).

By unleashing the rage of Hamas this November, Israel was able to justify an offensive designed at least in part to begin engineering conditions conducive to its control of Gaza's offshore gas reserves. But this is just the beginning many analysts note that Israel is preparing the ground for a wider military assault against Iran. The tentative ceasefire announced on 21 November is, therefore, highly tenuous. If the ceasefire is breached, a military ground operation is still on the cards.
With over 140 dead in Gaza, compared to five in Israel, Operation Pillar of Defence has vindicated those in Palestine who think violence against Israel is the only option left.
But then again, perhaps that's the idea.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/...-gazas-gas
/

[Jan Klimkowski]

At first, BG Group signed a memorandum with Egypt to sell them Gaza's gas through an undersea pipeline in 2005. But the "man of peace", former UK prime minister Tony Blair official Middle East envoy of the Quartet intervened to pressure BG Group to instead sell the gas to Israel.

Tony "I'm a pretty straight sort of guy" Blair reveals his duplicity yet again.