'Unwavering Commitment' to Inequality

[subsuelo]

Death hovered over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli southern town of Sderot on February 27, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli ‘retaliation’ that has already claimed over 120 Palestinian lives.

Yechiah’s death was actually the first of its kind in nine months, and understandably so. The crude Palestinian rockets were often criticized even by Palestinians as useless in the tit-for-tat style of war underway, while easily used by Israeli officials as a casus belli, or at least as an excuse for keeping Gaza ‘contained’, besieged and on the brink of starvation.

For Israel the rockets are important as a pretext to maintain a state of siege against Hamas, and a low-intensity warfare that creates permanent distraction from the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements — and also as justification for the slow moving ‘peace process.’

However, while pro-Israeli pundits in the US and elsewhere are prepared to defend Israel’s actions, many Israelis are no longer buying into their government’s pretexts.


Speaking via Satellite, Clinton, McCain and Obama also expressed their unquestionable allegiance to Israel, as if only Israel’s dead counted, only Israel’s security mattered. Clinton — as the other presidential contenders — received another golden opportunity to express her ‘unwavering commitment’ to Israel.

When will US officials begin to acknowledge that both Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights and equal responsibilities?

When will the media begin to provide the needed context and stop manipulating terms and numbers in such a way that the Palestinians are always at fault? When will we all accept that military occupation and state-sponsored terror beget violence and breed more terror, and how this will always be the case in Palestine — as anywhere else — as long as the circumstances remain unchanged?

by Ramzy Baroud, Dissident Voice

[Looking4Light]

1. When will...

When the Palestinians accept that negotiations, and not missile attacks on civilians, are the way to solve this conflict.

[subsuelo]

2. When will...

When will the Israelis accept that negotiations, not helicopter gunship attacks on civilians, are the way to solve this conflict.

[MaryCeleste]

3. When will the citzens of Gaza realize they are the tools of others and seek peace

Look at what happened when Egypt got serious about peace with Israel. Prosperity and peace. Its a lesson many Arabs and muslims do not want repeated. For that the people of Gaza bleed daily.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Probably about the same time as the citizens of Israel realise the same thing? n/t

[MaryCeleste]

5. Its clear that the people of Gaza are the proxies for other Arabs and Muslims as they attack Israel

whose tool are the Israeli's

[Violet_Crumble]

6. No, it's not clear at all... n/t

[MaryCeleste]

7. You stated the Israelis are also tools, tools of whom?

As for the Gazans, their muslim and Arab brothers give them weapons instead of food. They rejoice in the futile attacks while their own people remain safe. Tools and proxies the Gazans surely are

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I was just repeating yr nonsense back at you...

I think there's only one tool here, and it isn't me, Israelis or Gazans....

You seem to have a bit of a thing about Arabs and Muslims. Why is it so important to you that you divide people based on whether they're Arab and Muslim or not? What if someone were to pop up in threads going on about how Israelis 'Jewish brothers' should do this or that?

They rejoice in the futile attacks while their own people remain safe.

Who's 'they'? The civilian population of Gaza? While you might believe otherwise, it seems being a civilian in Gaza right now isn't safe at all...

[MaryCeleste]

9. I use the term Arab and Muslim to be inclusive

Not all the muslims feeding weapons to Gaza (instead of food and medicine) are Arab. Iranians are Persian, not Arab. Not all the Arabs sending weapons to Gaza are doing it for religious reasons.

The Arab and muslim nations who are sending the weapons are those who rejoice in the futile attacks while their own people remain safe. I apologize for not being sufficiently clear.

Israel would stop attacking Gaza if the attacks from Gaza stop. Instead the outsiders send in longer range rockets which means more, not less IDF intervention in Gaza. How can those Arab and muslim nations claim they care for the people of Gaza when what they supply are the seminal cause of their deaths and bereavements.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. To be inclusive of what?

Wouldn't you find it offensive if someone were to start going on about how Israelis 'Jewish brothers' the way you go on about Palestinians?

No, the cause of the deaths in Gaza are due to the IDF. Just like the cause of the deaths in Israel are down to Palestinian terrorists. I get so sick of lame attempts to make it so Israel is blameless when it comes to death in this conflict...

[MaryCeleste]

11. No one is blameless, but the facts on the ground need to be dealt with

Right or wrong in Conflict Resolution 101 terms, the situation will never get better until the Gazans stop attacking. That is the bottom line. Outside interests supporting Hamas, Fatah and others do not want that to happen. They want ongoing conflict, supply the arms and let the people of Gaza bleed. They are the ones who supplied Grad rockets, which is a major escalation

There are articles now and then about how the Palestinians should follow Ghandi not Arafat, Hamas, or Fatah. I concur. It would be amazingly successful. Look at the border with Egypt for a precedent. Again, those same outside forces, both Arab and muslim do not want that to happen

Arab and muslim solidarity is the reason given for sending arms to Gaza by those sending it. If pointing that out is offensive, so be it. The concept did not start with me.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. It's no good promoting non-violence for one side only...

There are articles now and then about how the Palestinians should follow Ghandi not Arafat, Hamas, or Fatah. I concur.

The focus is always solely on the Palestinians when it comes to demands for non-violence, but rarely is it demanded of Israel. Personally I don't think the Ghandi model would be successful in Gaza and the West Bank as Israel isn't economically dependent on them, but my wish is both sides would knock off the violence...

[MaryCeleste]

13. I don't promote a one sided capitulation

Its that without provocation, the IDF will not attack. That means no rockets, kidnapings, suicide bombers etc. The key to peace is in the hands of the people of Gaza, provided they resist the external pressure to attack Israel from muslim and Arab nations.

Many here only see the IDF part of Israel. They forget or do not know that Israel is nation with active socialist and progressive movements. Those are the people who resist many of the military efforts, who lead protests that resulted in the withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza. If the attacks stop, their position of no violence, peaceful co-existince/two states will have a chance to become dominant. No one thought for many years there would be peace with Egypt, but when the attacks stopped, it happened and is strong. The same can be done with Gaza and the West Bank. But first the rockets have to stop.