Peut-être, mais on est trop lents et les urgences s’accumulent…
… la Grèce,
… la Palestine… à croire que Moustapha Bargouti veut nous dire que NOS ÉLITES EUROPÉENNES LAISSENT FAIRE parce-que c’est une stratégie électorale que de nous maintenir dans la peur en nous disant que si nous ne disons pas OUI… on n’a qu’a attendre ce qui arrive déjà ailleurs… (et les médias se font bien sur une joie de relayer ce message, leurs propriétaires sont des marchands d’armes qui se font de la pub).
Je vous souhaite la bonne année à tous avec une lecture éclaicissante (encore une).
Palestine’s Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood
An Opinion Editorial by Mustafa Barghouthi
Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative
The Israeli campaign of ‘death from above’ began around 11 am, on
Saturday morning and stretched straight through the night into this
morning. The massacre continues as I write these words.
The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far
from over following on Israel’s promised that this is ‘only the
beginning’ of their campaign of state terror. At least 290 people have
been murdered thus far, but the body count continues to rise at a
dramatic pace as more mutilated bodies are pulled from the rubble,
previous victims succumb to their wounds and new casualties are
created by the minute.
What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the
Israeli public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies
by the minute.
Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.
- Israelis have claimed to have ended the occupation of the Gaza
Strip in 2005.
While Israel has indeed removed the settlements from the tiny coastal
Strip, they have in no way ended the occupation. They remained in
control of the borders, the airspace and the waterways of Gaza, and
have carried out frequent raids and targeted assassinations since the
disengagement.
Furthermore, since 2006 Israel has imposed a comprehensive siege on
the Strip. For over two years, Gazans have lived on the edge of
starvation and without the most basic necessities of human life, such
as cooking or heating oil and basic medications. This siege has
already caused a humanitarian catastrophe which has only been
exacerbated by the dramatic increase in Israeli military aggression.
- Israel claims that Hamas violated the cease-fire and pulled out
of it unilaterally.
Hamas indeed respected their side of the ceasefire, except on those
occasions early on when Israel carried out major offensives in the
West Bank. In the last two months, the ceasefire broke down with
Israelis killing several Palestinians and resulting in the response of
Hamas. In other words, Hamas has not carried out an unprovoked act
throughout the period of the cease-fire.
Israel, however, did not live up to any of its obligations of ending
the siege and allowing vital humanitarian aid to resume in Gaza.
Rather than the average of 450 trucks per day being allowed across the
border, on the best days only eighty have been allowed in – with the
border remaining hermetically sealed 70% of the time. Throughout the
supposed ‘cease-fire’ Gazans have been forced to live like animals,
with a total of 262 dying due to the inaccessibility of proper medical
care.
Now after hundreds dead and counting, it is Israel who refuses to re-
enter talks over a cease-fire. They are not intent on securing peace
as they claim; it is more and more clear that they are seeking regime
change – whatever the cost.
- Israel claims to be pursuing peace with ‘peaceful Palestinians’.
Before the on-going massacre in the Gaza Strip, and throughout the
entirety of the Annapolis Peace Process, Israel has continued and even
intensified its occupation of the West Bank. In 2008, settlement
expansion increased by a factor of 38, a further 4,950 Palestinians
were arrested – mostly from the West Bank, and checkpoints rose from
521 to 699.
Furthermore, since the onset of the peace talks, Israel has killed 546
Palestinians, among them 76 children. These gruesome statistics are
set to rise dramatically now, but previous Israeli transgressions
should not be forgotten amidst this most recent horror.
Only this morning, Israel shot and killed a young peaceful protester
in the West Bank village of Nihlin, and has injured dozens more over
the last few hours. It is certain that they will continue to employ
deadly force at non-violent demonstrations and we expect a sizable
body count in the West Bank as a result. If Israel is in fact pursuing
peace with ‘good Palestinians’, who are they talking about
- Israel is acting in self-defense.
It is difficult to claim self defense in a confrontation which they
themselves have sparked, but they are doing it anyway. Self-defense is
reactionary, while the actions of Israel over the last two days have
been clearly premeditated. Not only did the Israeli press widely
report the ongoing public relations campaign being undertaken by
Israel to prepare Israeli and international public opinion for the
attack, but Israel has also reportedly tried to convince the
Palestinians that an attack was not coming by briefly opening
crossings and reporting future meetings on the topic. They did so to
ensure that casualties would be maximized and that the citizens of
Gaza would be unprepared for their impending slaughter.
It is also misleading to claim self-defense in a conflict with such an
overwhelming asymmetry of power. Israel is the largest military force
in the region, and the fifth largest in the world. Furthermore, they
are the fourth largest exporter of arms and have a military industrial
complex rivaling that of the United States. In other words, Israel has
always had a comprehensive monopoly over the use of force, and much
like its super power ally, Israel uses war as an advertising showcase
of its many instruments of death.
- Israel claims to have struck military targets only.
Even while image after image of dead and mutilated women and children
flash across our televisions, Israel brazenly claims that their
munitions expertly struck only military installations. We know this to
be false as many other civilian sites have been hit by airstrikes
including a hospital and mosque.
In the most densely populated area on the planet, tons upon tons of
explosives have been dropped. The first estimates of injured are in
the thousands. Israel will claim that these are merely ‘collateral
damage’ or accidental deaths. The sheer ridiculousness and inhumanity
of such a claim should sicken the world community.
- Israel claims that it is attacking Hamas and not the Palestinian
people.
First and foremost, missiles do not differentiate people by their
political affiliation; they simply kill everyone in their path. Israel
knows this, and so do Palestinians. What Israel also knows, but is not
saying publicly, is how much their recent actions will actually
strengthen Hamas – whose message of resistance and revenge is being
echoed by the angry and grieving.
The targets of the strike, police and not Hamas militants, give us
some clue as to Israel’s mistaken intention. They are hoping to create
anarchy in the Strip by removing the pillar of law and order.
- Israel claims that Palestinians are the source of violence.
Let us be clear and unequivocal. The occupation of Palestine since the
War of 1967 has been and remains the root of violence between Israelis
and Palestinians. Violence can be ended with the occupation and the
granting of Palestine’s national and human rights. Hamas does not
control the West Bank and yet we remain occupied, our rights violated
and our children killed.
With these myths understood, let us ponder the real reasons behind
these airstrikes; what we find may be even more disgusting than the
act itself.
The leaders of Israel are holding press conferences, dressed in black,
with sleeves rolled up. ‘It’s time to fight’, they say, ‘but it won’t
be easy.’
To prove just how hard it is, Livni, Olmert and Barak did not even
wear make-up to the press conference, and Barak has ended his election
campaign to focus on the Gaza campaign. What heroes…what leaders…
We all know the truth: the suspension of the electioneering is exactly
that – electioneering. Like John McCain’s suspension of his
presidential campaign to return to Washington to ‘deal with’ the
financial crisis, this act is little more than a publicity stunt.
The candidates have to appear ‘tough enough to lead’, and there is
seemingly no better way of doing that than bathing in Palestinian blood.
‘Look at me,’ Livni says in her black suit and unkempt hair, ‘I am a
warrior. I am strong enough to pull the trigger. Don’t you feel more
confident about voting for me, now that you know I am as ruthless as
Bibi Netanyahu?’
I do not know which is more disturbing, her and Barak, or the
constituency they are trying to please.
In the end, this will in no way improve the security of the average
Israeli; in fact it can be expected to get much worse in the coming
days as the massacre could presumably provoke a new generation of
suicide bombers.
It will not undermine Hamas either, and it will not result in the
three fools, Barak, Livni and Olmert, looking ‘tough’. Their misguided
political venture will likely blow up in their faces as did the
brutally similar 2006 invasion of Lebanon.
In closing, there is another reason - beyond the internal politics of
Israel - why this attack has been allowed to occur: the complicity and
silence of the international community.
Israel cannot and would not act against the will of its economic
allies in Europe or its military allies in the US. Israel may be
pulling the trigger ending hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives
this week, but it is the apathy of the world and the inhumane
tolerance of Palestinian suffering which allows this to occur.
‘The evil only exists because the good remain silent’
From Occupied Palestine,
Dr. Mustafa Baghouthi
), et de ceux qui ne voterent pas en croyant que leur vote -pour les raisons qu’ils croyaient justifiées- ne valait rien et qui ont ouvert grands les yeux depuis en regardant comme quand-même le vote des irlandais arrive à nous sauver du désastre programmé et théoriquement inévitable « in extremis ».