The terrorists were confronted by Palestinian fighters showing the same resolve as Soviet troops did in June 1941 when Nazi Germany crossed the Polish border at the start of Operation Barbarrossa. Bania Roval, Bar Rahav and Benayahu Rubel, all in their twenties, had no rightful place in Palestinian territory. They paid the ultimate price for visiting military aggression. In all, five Israeli terrorists have died since the launch of the ground offensive. They are unlikely to be the last to lose their lives to legitimate Palestinian force used in the course of resisting illegitimate Israeli violence. Sympathy is a finite resource. Waste it not on Bania Royal or his comrades. Save it for their victims.
Even before Bania Royal and his fellow storm troopers launched their terrorist assault on Gaza, the territory resembled descriptions that flowed from the pages of Mila 18, the great Warsaw Ghetto novel by Leon Uris. Jonathan Whittall, described by Bob Fisk as head of humanitarian analysis at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has hit out trenchantly at conditions on the ground in Gaza:
An entire population is trapped in what is essentially an open-air prison … They can’t leave and only the most limited supplies – essential for basic survival – are allowed to enter. The population of the prison have elected representatives and organised social services. Some of the prisoners have organised into armed groups and resist their indefinite detention by firing rockets over the prison wall. However, the prison guards are the ones who have the capacity to launch large-scale and highly destructive attacks on the open-air prison.And that was before the ground invasion. How much more serious the situation must be now.
In today’s Independent Joan Smith argued that ‘it shouldn't take mass murder in the sky over Ukraine to persuade our leaders that they need to identify and prosecute those who commit war crimes, no matter how important they are.’
It shouldn’t but what will it take to get some opinion formers to descale their eyes and state bluntly that it is frequently “our leaders” who are committing the war crimes? Mass murder has rained down from the skies over Gaza. It has been showered on civilians by Israeli war criminals but no calls from “our leaders” for the prosecution of Bibi the Butcher. It is well known who the war criminals are, who they have always been. The US shields the man who is arguably the world’s greatest war criminal since Heinrich Himmler, a man notorious for his crimes against humanity - Dr Henry Kissinger.
Last Sunday, five days before the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, but when the Palestinian death toll had already reached 160, Barack Obama and David Cameron spoke. The subsequent communiqué said the two leaders discussed Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and the nuclear talks with Iran. There was no mention of Gaza.
Says it all really. They determinedly told us after Rwanda "never again": they bombed the Serbs to demonstrate their resolve. Their resolve is to wring their hands, utter platitudes, feign moral rectitude and do worse than nothing by allowing it all to happen.
They bombed Serbia to demonstrate their resolve? Great article but we shouldn't peddle that type of myth. As in Syria the humanitarian catastrophe in the Balkans was induced by the West for its own geo-strategic purposes
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteyou need to learn to do irony! The point being made is that their resolve is as empty as their "never again" rhetoric.
The Israeli problem is perhaps the strongest argument for reforming the United Nations.
ReplyDeleteHamas are vilified for stating that they wanted to wipe Israel off the map yet the Israeli government is lauded by some on the Security Council for literally and actually wiping Palestine off the map. 1948 aside, there are maps showing the ever decreasing size of Palestine since then.
War crimes and crimes against humanity are rife by the Israeli government. Remember the use of white phosphorous during the last invasion? The focus on attacking a civilian population is indeed terrorism. It is the perhaps the most telling example of state terrorism today.
The planet as a whole is as powerless as those sizeable numbers of progressive Israelis who recognise inhumanity when they see it.
The vetos on the UN Security Council make a mockery of International Law. The people who bear the brunt of this problem are innocent, defenceless civilians.
Individual countries and the UN should be allowed to intervene diplomatically and otherwise.
Of course I knew it was irony but the way it reads is that they said they'd never permit such aggression again, demonstrated their resolve in Serbia and so where now then is that same resolve? The crucial point for me is there never existed any such resolve to begin with and that shouldn't get lost in translation. The bombing of Serbia was lifted straight out of the imperialist manuscript that gave us Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador and in later times Libya and Syria
ReplyDeleteThe problem to my mind Simon is that the UN is an instrument of the imperialist construct and thus the concentration of power in the Security Council. It needs more than reform as does the entire international system, it needs a radical new beginning based on an ethos of social justice rather than providing cover and legitimacy for modern imperialism
ReplyDeleteSean Bres, I wouldn't care if it was replaced completely or reformed as long as equality; fairness; human, social and economic rights; civil liberties; peace etc was its focus rather than protecting selfish, imperialist political interests.
ReplyDeleteMany UN agencies like UNESCO and UNICEF do excellent work. Better to build on some foundation and renegotiate rather than negotiate anew. There are too many unscrupulous powers to leave the world without a UN and the future unknown.
However, reform of the UN looks more likely in achieving its original laudable tenets than scrapping it and starting from scratch in the current situation.
I don't want to be seen as disagreeing unnecessarily as we have the same outcome at the heart of our arguments.
Sean,
ReplyDeleteyou draw out a meaning not there. They promised never again, demonstrated their resolve - which was a demonstration of anything but a resolve to defend people against genocide - and for that reason they are where they always were: spouting discourses about human rights but showing no resolve to do anything about it or worse holding the edifice of abuse together.
The Serbs committed atrocities for sure but it is impossible to believe that they were bombed because they committed atrocities. Israel commits atrocities and has not been bombed by the West.
No problem, it's just how it came across to me so I thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in
ReplyDeleteI see the Israeli ambassador to the US said that Israeli soldiers should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for "restraint".
ReplyDeleteI kid you not.
Usual arrogance Simon from that quarter. When Henry Kissinger can get the Nobel Peace Prize why not some Israeli genocidist?
ReplyDeleteIf the worst offender in Israel secured a just and lasting peace for the Palestinians, although I would be critical if he or she won a Nobel Peace Prize, I could live with anything as long as the Palestinians, those victims of the past and the present, can be allowed the future they deserve.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I doubt they will achieve a homeland, peace, justice & security and the compensation they deserve any time soon.
As for Kissinger I would like to assume that today pure peacemakers are given preference over those who have a history of being war-mongers.
It is easier to turn off a tap if you, yourself was the one who turned it on.