Israel’s Next War: Today the Gaza Strip, Tomorrow Lebanon?

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

The March to War: Today the Gaza Strip, Tomorrow Lebanon…

In the Middle East, it is widely believed that the war against Gaza is an extension of the 2006 war against Lebanon. Without question, the war in the Gaza Strip is a part of the same conflict.

Moreover, since the Israeli defeat in 2006, Tel Aviv and Washington have not abandoned their design to turn Lebanon into a client state.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, in so many words, during his visit to Tel Aviv in early January that today Israel was attacking Hamas in the Gaza Strip and that tomorrow it would be fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.[1]

Ehud Olmert and Nicolas Sarkozy

Lebanon is still in the cross-hairs. Israel is searching for a justification or a pretext to launch another war against Lebanon.

Washington and Tel Aviv had initially hoped to control Beirut through client political forces in the March 14 Alliance. When it became apparent that these political forces could not dominate Lebanon politically the Israeli military was unleashed on Lebanon with a goal of bringing about the ultimate downfall of Hezbollah and its political allies. [2] Areas where support for Hezbollah and its political allies were strongest saw the harshest Israeli attacks in 2006 as part of an attempt to reduce, if not remove, popular support for them.

After the 2006 war, the second Israeli defeat in Lebanon, Washington and Tel Aviv with the help of Jordan, the U.A.E., Egypt, and Saudi Arabia started arming their clients in Lebanon to wield an internal armed option against Hezbollah and its allies. In the wake of both the short-lived internal violence between the Lebanese National Opposition and the March 14 Alliance and the Doha Accord, which was reached in Qatar on May 21, 2008 as a result of the failure of this internal armed option against Hezbollah and its allies, the Israeli-U.S. objective to subdue Lebanon has been dramatically impaired.

A “national unity government” was formed in which the Lebanese National Opposition — not just Hezbollah — hold veto power through one-third of the cabinet chairs, including that of the post of deputy-prime minister.

The objective in Lebanon is “regime change” and to repress all forms of political opposition. But how to bring it about? The forecast of the 2009 general-elections in Lebanon does not look favourable for the March 14 Alliance. Without an internal political or armed option in Lebanon, which could result in the installation of a U.S.-sponsored “democracy,” Washington and its indefictible Israeli ally have chosen the only avenue available: a military solution, another war on Lebanon. [3]

Crossing Arms III: Israel Simulates a Two-Front War against Lebanon and Syria

This war is already in the advanced planning stage. In November 2008, barely a month before Tel Aviv started its massacre in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military held drills for a two-front war against Lebanon and Syria called Shiluv Zro’ot III (Crossing Arms III).[4]

The military exercise included a massive simulated invasion of both Syria and Lebanon. Several months before the Israeli invasion drills, Tel Aviv had also warned Beirut that it would declare war on the whole of Lebanon and not just Hezbollah.[5]

Israel’s justification for these war preparations was that Hezbollah has grown stronger and become a partner in the Lebanese government since the Doha Accord. The latter was signed in Qatar between the March 14 Alliance and the Lebanese National Opposition. It is worth noting that Hezbollah was a member of the Lebanese coaltion government prior to the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon.

No doubt, Tel Aviv will also point to Hezbollah’s support of Hamas in Gaza as another pretext to wage under the banner of combating Islamic terrorism a pre-emptive war on Lebanon. In this context, Dell Lee Dailey the head of the counter-terrorism section of the U.S. State Department, had told Al-Hayat in an interview that an Israeli attack on Lebanon was “imminent” as part of the fight against terrorism. [6]

Blitzkrieg in the Making

Tel Aviv has been mapping a large-scale blitzkrieg against Lebanon as a whole, which includes an immediate land invasion. [7] Just before the Israeli massacre in the Gaza Strip started, Israeli officials and generals had promised that no Lebanese village would be immune from the wrath of Israeli aerial bombardments, regardless of religion, sect, and/or political orientation. [8]

In substance, Tel Aviv has promised to totally destroy Lebanon. Israel has also confirmed that in any future war against Lebanon, the entire country rather than Hezbollah will be the target. In practice, this was already the case in 2006’s Israeli aerial attacks on Lebanon. [9]

The Jerusalem Post quotes Brigadier-General Michael Ben-Baruch, one of the individuals who oversaw the invasion drills, as saying, “In the last war, we fired to disrupt Hezbollah activity,” and, “The next time we will fire to destroy.” [10]

In the wake of Israel’s 2006 defeat, the Israeli government admitted that its “big mistake” was it exercised restraint rather than attacking Lebanon with the full strength of its military. Israeli officials have intimated that in the case of a future war against the Lebanese that all civilian and state infrastructure will be targeted.

Beirut’s New Defence Doctrine: A Threat to Israeli Interests and Objectives to Control Lebanon

Why is Lebanon in the cross-hairs again?

The answer is geo-political and strategic. It is also related to the political consensus process and the upcoming 2009 general-elections in Lebanon. Following the formation of a unity government in Beirut under a new president, Michel Suleiman (Sleiman), a new proactive defence doctrine for the country was contemplated. The objective of this defence doctrine is to keep Israel at bay and bring political stability and security to the country.

President Michel Suleiman

At the “National Defence Strategy” dialogue, held by the 14 Lebanese signatories of the Doha Accord, all sides have agreed that Israel is a threat to Lebanon.

In the months prior to the Israeli military campaign against Gaza, important diplomatic and political steps were taken by Beirut. President Michel Suleiman accompanied by several cabinet ministers visited Damascus (his first bilateral state visit; August 13-14, 2008) and Tehran (November 24-25, 2008).

President Suleiman and Syrian President Al Assad

In turn, General Jean Qahwaji (Kahwaji) the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces was also in Damascus (November 29, 2008) for consultations with his Syrian counterpart General Al-Habib. While in Damascus, General Qahwaji also met with General Hassan Tourkmani, the defence minister of Syria, and the Syrian President. [11] His trip followed the visit of Lebanon’s interior minister, Ziad Baroud, to Syria and was within the same framework. [12] Meanwhile, Lebanon’s defence minister, Elias Murr, went on an official visit to Moscow (December 16, 2008).

What started to emerge from these talks was that both Moscow and Tehran would provide weaponry to the Lebanese Armed Forces, which previously had been the recipients of lower-end U.S. made ordinance. The U.S. has always forbidden the Lebanese military from purchasing any heavy weapons that could challenge Israel’s military strength.

It was also revealed that Russia would donate 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Beirut in line with Lebanon’s new defence strategy. [13] The use of the Russian MiG-29s would also entail the required installation of early warning and radar systems. Russian tanks, anti-tank rockets, armoured vehicles, and military helicopters are also being sought by Lebanon. [14]

Mig29

Iran has offered to supply the Lebanese military with medium-range missiles as part of a five-year Iranian-Lebanese defence agreement. [15] While in Iran, Michel Suleiman held talks with Iranian defence officials and went to an Iranian defence industry exposition.

While the talks with Moscow and Tehran aimed at arming the Lebanese Armed Forces, the talks with the Syrians were geared towards establishing and strengthening a joint security and defence framework directed against Israeli aggression. [16]

Integrating Hezbollah into the Lebanese Armed Forces

Moreover, Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement and the Reform and Change Bloc in the Lebanese Parliament also visited Tehran (October 12-16, 2008; ahead of Michel Suleiman’s official visit), and later Damascus (December 3-7, 2008). [17] Michel Aoun who is a central figure in the “political consensus” has endorsed and reaffirmed his political alliance with Hezbollah.

Michel Aoun

While calling for the peaceful disarmament of Hezbollah within a Lebanese defence strategy, he has accepted that Hezbollah fighters  will eventally integrate into Lebanon’s army. This disarmement process would only occur when the time is right and Israel no longer poses a threat to Lebanon. Hezbollah has broadly agreed to this, if and when there no longer exists an Israeli threat to the country’s security. This position on Hezbollah’s arms is spelled out in clause 10 (The Protection of Lebanon) of the February 6, 2006 memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hezbollah that Michel Aoun signed on behalf of his political party, the Free Patriotic Movement.

Following his return from Tehran, Aoun also presented his case for the formation of a new Lebanese defence strategy and promised that the outcome of his visit to Iran would materialize in about six months. Aoun has also said that Iran, as the “major regional power between Lebanon and China” is of strategic importance to Lebanese interests. [18]

Hezbollah Paramilitary Forces

Washington’s political cohorts in Lebanon are alarmed at the direction Lebanon is taking under its new defence strategy. They have criticized weapons purchases from Iran and defensive cooperation with Syria. This includes attacks on General Jean Qahwaji’s visit to Syria, which was mandated by the entire Lebanese cabinet. [19] Additionally, within these pro-U.S. forces in Lebanon there has been a push for a “Swiss-like” “neutral defence policy” for Lebanon within the Middle East. Such a “neutral” position would benefit the U.S. and Israel geo-politically and strategically. Needless to say, with the threat of Israeli military aggression looming, this position is proving to be rather unpopular within Lebanon.

Ending Israeli-American pressure on Beirut to Naturalize Palestinian Refugees

The formation of a new proactive defence doctrine implies that Hezbollah fighters would be incorporated in the Lebanese Armed Forces and that the existing paramilitary forces of Hezbollah would be disbanded once certain conditions are met.

Therefore, one of Lebanon’s key political questions would be resolved. With the integration of Hezbollah fighters into the country’s army together with military aid from Russia and Iran, Lebanon would acquire defensive capabilities, which would enable it to confront the threat of Israeli military aggression. These developments, which go against the prevailing pattern of U.S. client regimes in the Middle East modelled on Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have sounded an alarm bell in Tel Aviv, Washington, and London.

In response to Lebanon’s rapprochement with Russia and Iran, two senior US State Department officials were rushed to Beirut in December.[20] During this mission, Dell Lee Dailey and David Hale, respectively Coordinator of the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism and Deputy-assistant Secretary responsible for Middle Eastern affairs, renewed the veiled threats of an Israeli attack against Lebanon, while casually placing the blame on Hezbollah.[21] These threats are aimed at Lebanon as a whole. They are intended  to disrupt the creation of Lebanon’s new defence doctrine.

The clock is ticking for Israel, the U.S., and NATO to obstruct the implementation of Beirut’s new national defence doctrine.

Israel would no longer have any justifications for carrying out military incursions into Lebanon if Hezbollah were to become a full political party under a new Lebanese defence strategy. Moreover, if Beirut were able, under a new defence arrangement, to protect its borders against Israeli military threats it would not only end Tel Aviv’s ambitions to politically and economically dominate Lebanon, but it would also end Israeli pressure on Lebanon to naturalize the Palestinian war refugees waiting to return to their ancestoral lands that are occupied by Israel.

Clearly the issue of Palestinian naturalization in Lebanon is also tied to Lebanon’s political consensus process and new defence strategy and was discussed by Michel Suleiman with Iranian officials in Tehran. [22]

The Middle Eastern Powder Keg: A World War III Scenario?

In 2006, when Israel attacked Lebanon, the war was presented to international public opinion as a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In essence the 2006 war was an Israeli attack on all of Lebanon. The Beirut government failed to take a stance, declared its “neutrality” and Lebanon’s military forces were instructed not to intervene against the Israeli invaders. The reason for this was that the political parties of the Hariri-led March 14 Alliance that dominated the Lebanese government were expecting the war to end quickly and for Hezbollah (their political rival) to be defeated, and eventually excluded from playing a meaningful role on the Lebanese domestic political scene. Exactly the opposite has occurred since 2006.

Moreover, had the Lebanese government declared war on Israel, in response to Israeli aggression, Syria would have been obligated through a Lebanese-Syrian bilateral treaty, signed in 1991, to intervene in support of Lebanon.

In the case of a future Israeli war against Lebanon, the structure of military alliances is crucial. Syria could indeed intervene on the side of Lebanon. If Syria enters into the conflict, Damascus could seek the support of Tehran in the context of a bilateral military cooperation agreement with Iran.

A scenario of escalation is, therefore, possible, which could potentially spin out of control.

If Iran were to enter on the side of Lebanon and Syria in a defensive war against Israel, the U.S. and NATO would also intervene leading us into a broader war.

Both Iran and Syria have military cooperation agreements with Russia. Iran also has bilateral military cooperation agreements with China. Iran is also an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Iran’s allies including Russia, China, the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could all be drawn into the broader conflict.

NOTES

[1] ‘We’re fed up with empty gestures’, The Jerusalem Post, January 6, 2009.

[2] The militarization of Lebanon, extinguishing any credible armed resistance in Lebanon to Israel, and targeting Syria were also all factors for the Israeli attacks in 2006.

[3] It should be noted that the fighting between Hamas and Fatah and the Israeli campaign against the Gaza Strip that started on December 27, 2008 has obstructed the Palestinian electoral process.

[4] Amos Harel, IDF concludes large drill simulating double-front war in North, Haaretz, November 6, 2008.

[5] Barak Ravid, Israel: Lebanon is responsable for Hezbollah’s actions, Haaretz, August 8, 2008.

[6] “Hezbollah Terrorist Group; War with Israel Imminent”, Al-Manar, December 17, 2008

[7] Yakkov Katz, Preparing for a possible confrontation with Hizbullah, The Jerusalem Post, December 11, 2008.

[8] Andrew Wander, Top Israeli officer says Hizbullah will be destroyed in five days ‘next time’, The Daily Star (Lebanon), December 17, 2008.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Yakkov Katz, Preparing for a possible, Op. cit.

[11] Ahmed Fathi Zahar et al., President al-Assad Receives General Qahwaji, Underlines Role of Lebanese Army in Defending Lebanon’s Security and Stability, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), November 29, 2008.

[12] Lebanese army commander pays visit to Syria, Xinhua News Agency, November 30, 2008.

[13] Wang Yan, Russian donation of 10 Mig-29 fighters to Lebanon raises suspicions, Xinhua News Agency, December, 17, 2008; Yoav Stern, Russia to supply Lebanon with 10 MiG-29 fighter jets, Haaretz, December 17, 208; Russia ‘to give’ Lebanon war jets, British Broadcasting Corporation News (BBC News), December 17, 2008.

[14] Lebanon defense minister to talk arms in Moscow, Russian News and Information Agency (RIA Novosti), December 15, 2008.

[15] Zheng E, Lebanese president requests medium weapons from Iran, Xinhua News Agency, November 26, 2008; Kahwaji stresses LAF role, while politicians bicker some more, The Daily Star (Lebanon), November 27, 2008; Russian donation, Op. cit.

[16] Sun, Lebanese army commander returns from Syria, Xinhua News Agency, November 30, 2008.

[17] Sami Moubayed, Former foe a celebrity in Damascus, Gulf News, December 4, 2008.

[18] Aoun: Iran, most powerful country, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), October 21, 2008.

[19] Lebanese ctiticizes army commander’s visit to Syria [sic.], Xinhua News Agency, December 1, 2008.

[20] More praise for Russia’s promise of ‘free’ MiGs, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and The Daily Star (Lebanon), December 18, 2008.

[21] War with Israel Imminent, Op. cit.; US envoy warns against rearming Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/German Press Agency (DPA), December 17, 2008.

[22] Kahwaji stresses LAF role, Op. cit.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is in an independent writer based in Ottawa specializing in Middle Eastern and Central Asian affairs. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Everything you wanted to know about how Zionists control US policy

by Malooga

I was recently asked to answer the following question: In the original post there is mention of Israel controlling US policy. How exactly does that work?

“A small, wealthy, highly organized, and unprecedentedly powerful group of people are leading the world – largely against their will – down a very destructive and risky path. Only by understanding the ways and means by which this is being accomplished can we hope to staunch their power and stop their plans.”  (read here)

Israel admits: “No Hamas rockets were fired during ceasefire”

Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for ‘Wiping Out’ Palestinians

By Max Blumenthal, AlterNet. Posted January 13, 2009.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time…“, posted with vodpod

Attendants of a rally joined by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. David Paterson in support of Israel’s attacks on Gaza went far beyond the pale.

Watch Max Blumenthal’s exlusive video of the rally on the right-hand side of the screen.

On January 11, an estimated 10,000 people rallied in front of the Israeli consulate in midtown New York in support of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. The rally, which was organized by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, featured speeches by New York’s most senior lawmakers. While the crowd was riled to righteous anger by speeches about Hamas evildoers, the event was a festive affair that began and ended with singing and joyous dancing.

Sen. Chuck Schumer highlighted Israel’s supposed humanitarian methods of warfare by pointing to its text messaging of certain Gaza Strip residents urging them to vacate their homes before Israeli forces bombed them. “What other country would do that?” Schumer shouted from the podium. Gov. David Paterson appeared on stage wearing one of the red hats distributed to demonstrators as symbols of the red alerts some residents of Israel endure when Palestinian groups fire rockets their way. Paterson cited the many Qasam rockets that have fallen on Israel as a justification for the country’s operations in Gaza, a military assault that has resulted in over 800 casualties and thousands of injuries.

Then Paterson highlighted the anti-Semitism that has followed in the wake of Israel’s attack on Gaza, highlighting the beating of a teen-age girl in France.  “This kind of anger and hatred spreads like a disease,” Paterson said, “and one thing I’ve always pointed out is there’s no place for hate in the Empire State.”

But hatred was plentiful at the rally Paterson addressed. Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.” Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,” called for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.” “They are not distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?” said a member of the group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch group that flocked to the rally.

No one I spoke to could seem to find any circumstance in which they would begin to question Israel’s war. No number of civilian deaths, no displays of extreme suffering — nothing could deter their enthusiasm for attacking one of the most vulnerable populations in the world with the world’s most advanced weaponry. There are no limits, no matter what Israel does, no matter how it does it.

The rally made me think of a passage in “The Holocaust Is Over, We Must Rise From Its Ashes,” a powerful new book by former Israeli Knesset speaker and Jewish National Fund chairman Avraham Burg:

“If you are a bad person, a whining enemy or a strong-arm occupier, you are not my brother, even if you are circumcised, observe the Sabbath, and do mitzvahs. If your scarf covers every hair on your head for modest, you give alms and do charity, but what is under your scarf is dedicated to the sanctity of Jewish land, taking precedence over the sanctity of human life, whosever life that is, then your are not my sister. You might be my enemy. A good Arab or a righteous gentile will be a brother or sister to me. A wicked man, even of Jewish descent, is my adversary, and I would stand on the other side of the barricade and fight him to the end.”

Who writes the rules of reality?

In order to tell this story properly, we will first zoom in for a couple of close-ups. Then we will pull out for the larger picture.

ZOOM IN:

The Israelis lobbed phosphorous at a UN food storage facility. Obviously, this was done in order to starve the Palestinians — just as the entire Gaza operation was ginned up in order to make life there unendurable.

Yet the Israelis try to convince us otherwise. That UN facility wasn’t targeted. The IDF was simply returning fire:

Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said the military fired artillery shells at the UN compound after Hamas militants opened fire from the location, a version of events John Ging, director of Unwra in Gaza, rejected as “nonsense”

Mr Ging said Israeli shells first hit a courtyard filled with refugees, then struck garages and the UN’s main warehouse, sending thousands of tons of food aid up in flames. Later, fuel supplies ignited, sending a thick plume of smoke into the air.

“It’s a total disaster for us,” said Mr Ging, adding that the UN had warned the Israeli its shelling put the compound in danger.

It all comes down to a game of “Who do you trust?” It’s the word of Olmert versus the word of the UN officials on the ground.

ZOOM IN:

The megaphonies (discussed in earlier posts) have invaded No Quarter in a big way. (I hate to admit it, but Johnson’s coverage of the Gaza atrocities has been quite good.) The plants are so obvious that the reader may think that he has entered an arboretum. Example

:

The residents of Gaza are not starving – the Israeli government has consistently allowed food aid. Has the food been getting to the people? That’s another story, because Hamas or whatever Palestinian leadership has been on the ground cuts off food, water and electricity to their own people and blames it on the Israelis, and then distributes it through black market networks and favouritism.

Israel consistently warned civilians well in advance of any bombing near them. They did this by dropping leaflets and making phone calls…

And so forth. Pure crap, all of it. Fortunately, other NQ readers did much to set the record straight.

ZOOM OUT — WIDE SHOT:

I’ve noticed one telling fact about all of the pro-Israel commentary peppering the blogs. No independent evidence is ever cited.

Pro-Israel writers get their “facts” from sources which trace back, ultimately, to the government of Israel itself. None of their facts ever come from the United Nations, from the Red Cross, from Oxfam, from Amnesty, from independent journalists.

Why is that? Why are virtually all reports from independent sources consistently at odds with the “reality” that the Israelis want us to accept?

Anti-Semitism. It’s just that simple.

At least, so the Israelis and their Jewish supporters in America would have us believe.

Any person or organization which tells the world uncomfortable facts about the treatment of the Palestinians (or the Lebanese) stands accused of bigotry. In order to take the Israeli apologists at their word, you have to accept the ultra-paranoid view that every gentile is a Nazi at heart.

For example, when Amnesty published a damning report on the scurrilous invasion of Lebanon, Amnesty was accused of being anti-Jewish:

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director called the Amnesty International report, “bigoted, biased, and borderline anti-Semitic.”

He added that, “Amnesty International has a longstanding pattern of rushing to judgment to stigmatize Israel…”

Let us now turn to the Red Cross, which reports that the IDF has prevented the rescue of starving Palestinian children. How do Israelis and American Zionists (Jewish and Christian) manage to block out this unwelcome information? Simple. They presume that the Red Cross is a steaming nest of Hitler-adoring anti-Semites.

The afore-linked discussion also categorizes Doctors Without Borders as “Jew-Hating.”

Israeli apologists have actually gone so far as to accuse all — I’m not kidding: all — non-governmental humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam and Christian Aid, of being party to the Great Anti-Semitic Conspiracy.

The network of non-governmental organizations that claim to promote human rights and humanitarian agendas, and are centrally involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often use antisemitic themes and images in their campaigns. Some of these reflect classical antisemitism, while other cases involve the singling out of Israel, double standards, obsessive condemnations of responses to terror, campaigns for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions…

We are told that journalist Robert Fisk is an anti-Semite. AP is an anti-Semitic news agency. Former president Jimmy Carter is an anti-Semite. Daniel Seaman, the director of the Israeli Government Press Office, believes that every single member of the foreign press is an anti-Semitic liar; in particular, he accuses the BBC of being anti-Semitic.

Norman Finkelstein is an anti-Semitic Jew. So is Mossad tattle-tale Victor Ostrovsky. So is Heinz Galinski. So is any Jew who criticizes Israel. Secular Israelis who annoy the Orthodox are anti-Semitic. Most Israeli journalists are “self-hating anti-Semites.” Pretty much every journalist or writer who says something that the Israeli government does not want you to believe is an anti-Semite.

In other words, in order to avoid the accusation of anti-Semitism, you have to accept the ultra-paranoid worldview that all goys — and no small number of Jews! — are part of a conspiracy.

Suppose Ehud Olmert were to enter your house and shoot a member of your family point blank, in the head, in full view of a security camera and a dozen witnesses. If he then denies the deed, you must believe him and not the masses of counter-evidence. If you insist on acknowledging reality, you are part of the Great Anti-Semitic Conspiracy. Even if the eyewitnesses who say “Olmert pulled the trigger” are Jewish, you must presume that they are anti-Semitic Jews. If you do otherwise, you might as well grow a mustache and call yourself Adolf.

Here’s the problem: The loopy theory that all gentiles are part of an anti-Semitic conspiracy may convince a few Jews, though the majority of them probably don’t buy that shit. But how long can Israeli apologists expect the gentiles themselves to buy that shit?

And yet that conspiracy theory is pretty much the width and breadth of their argument. They have nothing else. # posted by Joseph

Blow-back Strikes England

Military components factory ransacked in Gaza protest

Nine people held after break-in at plant near Brighton allegedly making parts for Isareli missiles

• Mark Townsend

Nine people are being questioned by police following extensive damage at an arms factory where protesters claim military components are being made for Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza.

The group, which calls itself Smash EDO, entered the EDO MBM Technology plant in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, in the early hours of this morning. During the incident computers and furniture were hurled from the windows of the Sussex factory. Police described the damaged as “substantial”.

Demonstrators said they were “decommissioning” the site in protest against the killings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military. They said equipment made at the plant was being used in Gaza by the Israeli air force.

DCI Graham Pratt of Sussex police said: “Windows had been smashed and offices turned over in what I would describe as wanton vandalism, but with machinery and equipment so targeted that it could have been done with a view of bringing business to a standstill. The damage is significant and the value substantial.”

EDO MBM is the sole British subsidiary of US weapons company EDO Corp. From its Moulescoomb base it manufactures laser-guided missiles that have been used extensively in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Somalia.

The weapons were reportedly used by Israel against Lebanon in 2005, and have also been allegedly used in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Thousands of people gathered this afternoon for demonstrations across the country in a third weekend of protests against the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Organisers of a rally in Birmingham said more than 5,000 people had turned up in the city centre. In London, the former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn was among the speakers due to address crowds in Trafalgar Square.

He said: “It is a moral responsibility for all of us. People are being killed not so far away from here, women and children.”

California Test Drives Hearse Bearing Dead Welfare State

Schwarzenegger set to finish job Reagan started.  Hidden purpose of Reagan Revolution has always been to bankrupt the welfare state with war paranoia and military spending.

California controller to suspend tax refunds,

welfare checks, student grants

John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, because with no budget in place the state lacks sufficient cash to pay its bills.

More Images From Hell On Earth

Devils Praying To Their God To Bless the Hunt.

The Massacre of Muslim Civilians is always:‘Self-Defence’ but never Terrorism

By Yamin Zakaria Jan 17, 2009, 19:56

The Anglo-US-Israeli axis continues to market the murdering of Muslims civilians as the result of self-defence, through its media outlets. Any impartial observer seeing the carnage in Iraq, Lebanon and now in Gaza would conclude differently, because it is obvious who is being terrorised and slaughtered. Naturally, the gruesome images from Gaza have caused the ordinary masses in all parts of the world to take to the streets and protest; this is unprecedented in our recent history.

It is disgusting to see the pro-Israeli commentators having the ‘chutzpah’ to claim that Israel has the higher moral grounds, whilst committing mass murder in the concentration camp of Gaza. The sheer barbarism shown by Israel has full endorsement from the US and British governments. Most Israelis do not feel remorse for the killing of gentiles. In the US, you see the pro-Israeli Jews ^[1] are celebrating the bloodletting. I will elaborate later on the Israeli barbarism. There is also tacit approval of this carnage from the Arab regimes, deduced from their silence and inaction.

As a mark of true democracy, Israel and the US are ignoring the mass protests, and the resolution 1860 issued by the UN General Assembly that reflects the opinion of the vast majority of the world’s population. The vote was unanimous, 142 in favour, 4 against and 8 abstentions. This is why the democracies have setup the Security Council, so that UN can reflect the interests of the tiny minority!

The assembly president, Nicaragua’s Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said ^[2] “The violations of international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented: collective punishment; disproportionate military force; attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.” He also pointed out the ungrateful nature of the Jewish State and said “It seems to me ironic that Israel, a state that more than any other owes its very existence to a (1948) General Assembly resolution, should be so disdainful of United Nations resolutions,”

There was also consensus that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza and there were calls for further investigation. Had a fraction of this being done by a Muslim country, the US troops, not the UN troops wit

The blue helmet would have already been sent on bombing missions. Israel knows the world is becoming desensitised to shedding of Muslim blood, because it is easy to justify killing on a mass scale once you have demonised the population. Sounds familiar, yes the tactics used by the Nazis. The victims have learnt well from their Holocaust experience it seems! The business of marketing and exploiting holocaust continues to this day.

There is no oil in Palestine except the olive oil, which explains why the US-run organisation, the UN is paralysed.  Now remember, the so-called world community of US-led coalition moved to save the ‘poor’ Kuwaitis from Saddam Hussein, back in 1991, as if there was moral crusade to restore justice, international law and nothing to do with oil.

The Zionists have excelled not just in killing defenceless women and children but the propaganda campaign that goes with it. They have abundant money, influence and resource at their disposal, with the added advantage of knowing the Arabs will use their oil money only to build more shopping malls to make way for Zionist companies like Starbucks and Marks and Spencer. Frequently repeating a point, regardless of is merit is effective when the quality of the audience is so poor, like the docile and illiterate masses in the US. Therefore, the Zionists are constantly propagating the following points, which the media amplifies:

1. They repeat constantly, Hamas is a terrorist organisation and not the democratically elected body. This terrorist label is given irrespective of who is actually being terrorised and slaughtered. The underlying ‘logic’ is Hamas made weapons delivers terror but the US-Israeli weapons do not! However, in reality it is Hamas and the Palestinians who are being terrorised and slaughtered since 1948.  Hamas are terrorists in their lands but the imported Jews coming to occupy lands are innocent victims, what an irony.

2. In contrast, Israel is not a state terrorist or terrorist of any sort no matter how much terror and carnage it delivers. No matter how many women and children they kill. Rather, Israel is often glorified in the West as the only democracy in the Middle East despite having clear characteristics of an apartheid state. Concurrently it implies the Arabs are too uncivilised to be democratic.

3. Hamas is portrayed as the belligerent aggressor, because they launched thousands of ‘deadly’ missiles. Israelis have suffered negligible casualty from those homemade missiles in comparison to what is happening in Gaza. Therefore, it is far easier to repeat that thousand of missiles launched from Gaza, as it is too embarrassing to justify the killing of 1000 Palestinians for a handful of Jews. Especially from a nation, that upholds the ethos of – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

4. As usual, the ‘weak’ and ‘vulnerable’ Israel is defending itself, as the US defended itself against the mighty Saddam Hussein armed with WMD!  There is no mention of the continuation of the siege imposed over Gaza and breaking of the cease-fire back in November by Israel. History conveniently begins where Israel can be made to look like the innocent victim acting in self-defence. Common sense dictates that the act of self-defence is repelling an advancing enemy, meaning the threat is real and active. The Hamas rockets came in retaliation to the continuation of the subjugation of the Palestinians

5. The most recent fantastic claim is Hamas is out there to kill every Jew. Here comes the business of marketing holocaust again. Israeli Jews once again faces total annihilation. Even if the Hamas statements are true, but can you blame them for saying that. Is this not the result of Israeli barbarism?  Israelis should remember that the victims of Gaza would one day seek vengeance and dispense collective punishment.

The Zionist entity has shown barbarism before like in Sabra and ShatiIa, Qana and Jenin. In Gaza, they went a step further, and it is not just the killing of innocent civilians. In the Channel 4 interview ^[3], Mark Regev, the Israeli Prime Ministers spokesperson was asked why the Israeli Defence Force was preventing the Red Cross from reaching the dead and wounded civilians for three days. He was specifically asked why the starving children waiting for food by the corpses of their mothers were denied aid from Red Cross – which is not in the business of propaganda.  Red Cross were eventually made to walk for one mile to get to the victims. Such behaviour is disgusting from a people who constantly wave the holocaust flag and howl of being victimised – if they have really suffered so much, they ought to behave at least like human beings and not beasts.

www.radicalviews.org (yamin@radicalviews.org)

[1] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FABqq_jjRRo
[2] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3657034,00.html
[3] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wB689pXh-Bw

yaminz@yahoo.co.uk

Qassams Are Road Flares

Qassams Are Road Flares

By: Peter Chamberlin

The Zionist (American and Israeli) governments are no longer afraid for the world to see their true natures, that of heartless inhuman beasts, who treat Gaza not only as a prison-state, but also as the world’s largest closed laboratory. It is here that America’s newest technological toys can be tested on real human flesh. Maintaining Israel’s image no longer seems to matter to the world masters, as they test their new product lines on infants and children, right there for all the world to see.

Only governments that are totally indifferent to human suffering could carry-out the Israeli operation in Palestine. Only a government with the ability to move world opinion by bribe and extortion the way that the Jewish/Israel lobby does could stay the hand of justice, while they openly carried-on their butchery in an efficient Nazi-like manner, despite prevailing world opinion. The truth is, the world stands still in horror at the sight of the cruel tiny little state that has created for itself the ability to manipulate countless world governments.

The free citizens of this planet reel in horror at the escaping images of stacks of mutilated little corpses wrapped in green blankets.The political powerhouse of Jewish money that enables Israel to freely carry-out this public massacre is the same powerhouse that gives life to the myths that the Western media has created about the ominous Qassam rockets.Thanks to media pretensions to “fair play” principles, the glorified road flares wrapped in lightweight metal, built by brigades of Palestinian boys, are equated with the real weapons used by Israel.

I challenge the Western press to produce one picture of a Qassam “crater” that is bigger than a pothole.

Compare this to an Israeli missile strike; the first crater is from one of the new bunker-busters we gave them:

This next photo is from a conventional Israeli/American aerial bomb:

I also extend the challenge to the “legitimate press” to produce one photo of a dead Israeli child from this most recent Israeli blitzkrieg, in comparison to the hundreds of murdered Palestinian children.

There is absolutely no legitimate comparison to be made between the weapons Hamas uses in self-defense and the offensive weaponry being used against this civilian population.

peter.chamberlin@hotmail.com

Dozens of bodies found in Gaza rubble as truce punctured

Dozens of bodies found in Gaza rubble as truce

punctured

GAZA CITY – Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters exchanged their first shots on Sunday in Gaza, where dozens of bodies were pulled from the rubble after Israel ended a deadly war on Hamas.

As Israeli air strikes and militant rocket fire punctured the tenuous truce in the territory, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned the unilateral ceasefire Israel had begun hours earlier was fragile and was being constantly reassessed.

“The government’s decision allows Israel to respond and renew the fire if our enemy in the Gaza Strip continues its strikes,” he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“This morning they again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute by minute basis,” he said. “We hope that the fire ends. If it continues, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will respond. It is prepared and deployed to do so.”

Palestinian medics took advantage of the halt in Israel’s deadliest offensive on Gaza to rush to areas which had been inaccessible due to furious fighting.

At least 95 bodies, including those of several children, were pulled from the rubble, mostly in the northern towns of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya, they said.

In south Gaza, a 20-year-old man became the first Palestinian killed since the truce went into effect when Israeli troops shot him in the chest while he travelled in a vehicle near the southern town of Khan Yunis, medics said.

The incidents come amid a major diplomatic push by Egypt to turn Israel’s unilateral ceasefire into a lasting truce, with President Hosni Mubarak hosting leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain and Turkey.

But officials said that the clashes did not necessarily mean a return to all-out fighting.

“There will no doubt be isolated incidents,” Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said. “It will take two to three days for everything to end completely, for Hamas to understand that we are now in a new scenario.”

Gaza’s Hamas rulers warned that they would not accept the presence of a single Israeli soldier in Gaza.

“We have clearly said: if Israeli troops remain in Gaza, this will be a wide window for the resistance against the occupation,” Osama Hamdan, the group’s representative in Lebanon, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas repeated his call for a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and the re-opening of the enclave’s border crossings, saying Israel’s truce was “important and necessary but insufficient”.

On the ground, as Hamas congratulated the Palestinians on “victory” from mosque loudspeakers, Gaza residents cautiously ventured out into the streets to inspect the rubble that was once their homes.

“We congratulate all the Palestinian people after the victory in the fight with the enemy,” bellowed a voice from a Hamas mosque in central Gaza City.

Meanwhile Yahia Karin, 54, surveyed the damage in Zeitun, his neighbourhood in southern Gaza that was the scene of some of the most furious battles between Israeli ground troops and Hamas militants.

“I came to see my home, but as you can see, there is no home here anymore,” he told AFP looking at the charred pile of rubble on the spot where he once lived. “Everything has been completely destroyed.”

On the diplomatic front, Egypt is to host an international summit on Sunday afternoon attended by several European leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, said on Saturday his country “will continue its efforts as soon as there is a ceasefire to restore the truce and lift the blockade” imposed by Israel on crossing points into Gaza after Hamas seized power in the territory in June 2007.

Olmert announced late on Saturday that Israel was unilaterally silencing its guns after an unprecedented 22-day-long campaign in Gaza, which killed at least 1,300 people, including more than 400 children, wounded another 5,300, and left large swathes of the territory in ruins.

On the Israeli side three civilians and 10 soldiers were killed in combat and rocket attacks.

During the course of the war, schools, hospitals, UN compounds and thousands of homes all came under attack with the Palestinian Authority putting the cost of damage to infrastructure alone at 476 million dollars.

The halt to the violence came after the Jewish state won pledges from Washington and Cairo to help prevent arms smuggling into Gaza, a key demand to halt the fighting.

The ceasefire comes less than a month before Israel holds elections when Olmert, who formally resigned last autumn, is due to stand down.

The premier, whose reputation was badly damaged by a 2006 war in Lebanon seen by many Israelis as a disaster, said the Gaza war had “strengthened the deterrence of the state of Israel in the face of all those who threaten us.”

“Hamas received a hard blow. Its leaders are hiding. Many of its men have been killed. Dozens of tunnels have been bombarded. The ability to launch rockets into Israel has been reduced.”

Photo of Israel’s use of White Phosphorous chemical weapons

Photo of Israel’s use of White Phosphorous in Gaza in the January 2009 attack. Note that there is little smoke cover generated, and LOTS of fires. This is White Phosphorous, a chemical weapon, being used in a clearly residential area, to wound, main, kill and set fire to the place, in other words, to ethnically cleanse it and, and in the process commit genocide.

All war crimes.

Inhuman Beasts Bomb Another UN School/Santuary

At 6:30am, also Saturday, IOF fired a shell – believed to be white phosphorus – which landed in the UNRWA Beit Lahia Boys School, which shelters civilians. As the refugees tried to evacuate the school, an artillery shell struck a classroom, where civilians are sheltered. The shell broke through the roof and exploded on the ground, spreading its shrapnel into classrooms. Two children were killed and their mother; Nujoud Sha’ban Al-Ashqar, was injured. The children were identified as:

– Bilal Mohammed Al-Ashqar, 5; and

– Mohammed Mohammed Al-Ashqar, 4.

IOF then fired another shell that hit the school and injured 14 refugees; including 6 children. The refugees escaped from the school and went to the Kamal Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahia seeking safe refuge. Al Mezan’s field worker reported that UNRWA responded quickly and opened another school for them in the An-Nazla area in Jabalia. Some refugees; however, returned to the same school, which sheltered 320 families (1,853 people).

IOF targets a 3rd UNRWA shelter and continues

its massacres in the Gaza Strip

Source: Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

Date: 17 Jan 2009

The Int’l Community Must End Slaughtering Civilians Immediately

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has further escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip at the start of the fourth week of its war on the Strip. According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring, the IOF has continued to destroy homes on their residents. For the third time, the IOF attacked an UNRWA shelter, killing two displaced children and injuring at least 15 people.

Al Mezan Center’s monitoring also indicates that the IOF has continued to restrict ambulances’ access to injured people, despite the intervention of the ICRC, causing them to bleed to death. Field information shows that the IOF has killed at least 1,191 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. This includes at least 272 children and 85 women. The number of casualties is expected to be higher, since Al Mezan only reports on the cases which it has been able to verify. Moreover, 3,953 people have been injured; including at least 849 children and 481 women.

Since 1pm yesterday, the IOF has launched hundreds of attacks across the Gaza Strip. The following section provides some of the most deadly attacks, which resulted with death and destruction in all of Gaza’s five districts.

North Gaza District:

At approximately 1:50pm on Friday, 16 January 2009, the IOF fired with artillery the vicinity of civilian houses inhabited by Bedouins in Al-Mghayir area, southeast Beit Hanoun town. The shelling injured Hmeed As-Sawarka, 30, who died of his serious wounds a few hours later.

At app. 2:30pm on the same day, the IOF fired artillery shells at civilian houses in eastern Jabalia and western Beit Lahia. The shelling lased for half an hour and resulted in the injury of one person who was reported to have sustained serious injuries.

At app. 3pm also Friday, IOF tanks, which entered eastern Beit Hanoun town, advanced amid intensive fire into Al-Moghayir and Al-Kobtania area, southeast Beit Hanoun.

At app. 6:25pm on the same day, the IOF troops who had penetrated southwestern Beit Lahia town opened fire intensively at civilian houses at the end of Al-Hataba street in the town, injuring one person seriously.

Earlier, at app. 5pm on Friday, the IOF opened fire from eastern Gaza City at houses in Zemmo area in eastern Jabalia town; however, no injuries were reported.

At the same time, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at Mahmoud Khader Bahr, 25, while he was returning to his house in Al-Karama neighborhood. Bahr was reported to have sustained critical injuries. At the same time, the IOF fired artillery shells that hit the house of Dr. Ezadin Abu Al-Eish, which is located on Salah Ad-Din Street in Jabalia refugee camp. The shelling killed three of Abu Al-Eish’s daughters and their cousin, and injured three others, including two children, from the same family. Those who were killed were identified as:

– Bisan Ezadin Abu Al-Eish, 21;

– Mayar Ezadin Abu Al-Eish, 15;

– Aya Ezadin Abu Al-Eish, 14; and their cousin

– Nour Shihab Abu Al-Eish, 17.

At app. 5.35pm on Friday, the IOF, who were stationed in eastern Gaza City, fired artillery shells at civilian houses in Al-Jurun neighborhood in Jabalia town, injuring many people.

At app. 3pm, also on Friday, an Israeli aircraft shelled a group of people whilst close to their house in western Jabalia refugee camp, killing three; a woman and two children, and injuring six others. Those who were killed were identified as:

– Zakyia abdul-Hai Eita, 60;

– Anwar Salman Rushdi Abu Eita, 6; and

– Malak Abdul-Hai Abu Eita, 2.5.

At app. 7.20pm on the same day, the IOF troops, who were stationed on Al-Kashef Hill, fired intensively at civilian houses in the areas of the former civil administration, As-Sikka, and Izbet Al-Kahlout east of Tel Az-Za’tar neighborhood in Jabalia refugee camp. Several houses were damaged as a result.

At app. 7:17pm on Friday 16 January 2009, Israeli helicopter gunships fired four missiles at the house of Mohammed Ali Jum’a, which is located near Taha Mosaque in At-Twam neighborhood in the southwest of Jabalia. The house was destroyed and 10 people who live in nearby houses were injured, including 2 children and a woman.

At 6pm on Friday, medical teams found the corpses of two men: Mazin Al-Shorbasi, 23, and Mohammed I’kilan, 25. Both of them were killed by IOF in the Al-Karama neighborhood. They are believed to be resistance members.

At 9pm on Friday, medical sources announced the death of a child who had sustained injuries in an IOF attack in At-Twam neighborhood on 14 January. He was identified as Omar Mohammed Al-Mrannah, 17.

At app. 8:30pm, also Friday, Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire at the Mashrou’ neighborhood in Beit Lahia, hitting houses and the yard of UNRWA’s Beit Lahia Boys School, which shelters civilians. As a result, a girl child, 13-year-old Falastin Tanboura, was severely injured. Her leg was amputated at hospital later.

At app. 1:40am today, Saturday 17 January 2009, Israeli aircrafts raided the Taha Mosauqe in At-Twam neighborhood, destroying it completely and severely damaging 5 neighboring houses. One woman was injured in this attack.

At 3am on Saturday, IOF tanks and armored vehicles advanced into the eastern parts of Al-Atatra neighborhood. Eyewitnesses reported that the neighborhoods of Ghabon, Al-Amal and Tel Al-Thahab were shelled.

IOF troops also opened fire at the center of Beit Lahia, injuring many people and causing fires in seven houses.

At 6:30am, also Saturday, IOF fired a shell – believed to be white phosphorus – which landed in the UNRWA Beit Lahia Boys School, which shelters civilians. As the refugees tried to evacuate the school, an artillery shell struck a classroom, where civilians are sheltered. The shell broke through the roof and exploded on the ground, spreading its shrapnel into classrooms. Two children were killed and their mother; Nujoud Sha’ban Al-Ashqar, was injured. The children were identified as:

– Bilal Mohammed Al-Ashqar, 5; and

– Mohammed Mohammed Al-Ashqar, 4.

IOF then fired another shell that hit the school and injured 14 refugees; including 6 children. The refugees escaped from the school and went to the Kamal Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahia seeking safe refuge. Al Mezan’s field worker reported that UNRWA responded quickly and opened another school for them in the An-Nazla area in Jabalia. Some refugees; however, returned to the same school, which sheltered 320 families (1,853 people).

At app. 7am on Friday, 16 January 2009, medical sources announced the death of Rajab Mahmoud Ulwan, 25, who was injured in an IOF attack on the An-Na’ouq family in the Al-Jurun Jabalia town earlier.

At 5:30am on Saturday, 17 January 2009, IOF troops fired artillery shells that hit houses in Boret Abu Ghazaleh area in the east of Beit Hanoun. A shell hit a water-well, near which a family house was damaged. As a result, a handicapped toddler, Aseel Al-Kafarneh, 1.5, died from a heart attack, according to medical sources.

Gaza City District:

At approximately 3pm, on Friday, 16 January 2009, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a group of civilians who were close to their houses on Al Mahata Street in At-Tuffah neighborhood, in eastern Gaza City. The shelling killed two of them who were identified as:

– Kamal Al Barawi, 15; and

– Ahmed Mansour Hassoun, 21.

At approximately 6:30pm on the same day, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at Bilal Taiseer Mousa, 31, on An-Nafaq Street in Gaza City killing him immediately.

At approximately 7pm also on Friday, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a wake-tent on Al-Montar Street in the Al-Sheja’yia neighborhood in Gaza City. The attack killed ten mourners and injured seven others, including a child. Those killed were identified as:

– Mohammed Yaser Al-Qerim, 22;

– Shadi Al-Abed Bannar, 24;

– Ahmed Al-Abed Bannar, 18;

– Abed Ali Al-Abed Bannar, 48;

– Fayiz Ali Al-Abed Bannar, 35;

– Ashraf Rebhi Bannar, 35;

– Alaa Said Mudad, 37;

– Sobhi Mohammed Mudad, 38;

– Mos’ab Mohammed Mudad, 16; and

– Fayiz Said Shamali, 50.

At approximately 8:20am on 17 January 2009, an IOF aircraft shelled a group of people on An-Nafaq Street in the Ad-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, killing 24-year-old Ahmed Abdul-Hai As-Safadi.

Middle Gaza District:

At app. 1:05pm on Friday 16 January 2009, IOF tanks and armored bulldozers rounded the house of Awwad Al-Whidi, which is located in the Al-Mughraqa village. After destroying its fence, soldiers broke into the house under heavy firing. The inhabitants shouted to the soldiers, informing them that all those inside the house were unarmed civilians; however, the shooting continued after the soldiers broke the house’s door, killing 80-year-old Nassar Abdul-Hadi Mtawi’ and injuring 60-year-old Msallam Mohammed Mtawi’.

At app. 5pm on Friday, Israeli aircraft raided the house of Issa Al-Batran. The missile hit the second floor of the house, killing a mother and her five children. They were identified as:

– Manal Al-Sha’rawi (Al-Batran), 30,

– Ezadin Issa Al-Batran, 3;

– Bilal Issa Al-Batran, 7; and the twins

– Iman Issa Al-Batran, 10; and

– Ihsan Issa Al-Batran, 10.

The house, which is located in Block 4 in Al-Bureij refugee camp, had its second floor destroyed. Several neighboring houses were also damaged.

At app. 5:20pm, also Friday, IOF troops fired shells – believed to be white phosphorus bombs, at houses in Block 7 of Al-Bureij refugee camp. The shelling killed a child; Muhannad Amer Al-Jadili, 8; and injured his two brothers; Khalil, 16, and Abdul-Hadi, 14. Their grandmother, Mdallaleh Al-Jadili, 85, was also injured. Another 15 civilians were also injured in this attack, including 3 children and a woman.

Ten minutes later, Israeli aircrafts raided the house of Iyad At-Tayib, 31, destroying it completely and causing damages to several neighboring houses. At 5pm, Israeli troops, who are stationed at the Shuhada (Nitzarim) junction, opened fire at a civilian car driving from Gaza City towards Middle Gaza district. An Italian journalist was in the car, which stopped and had to return to Gaza City after two-hour contacts to ensure safe passage for it failed. No casualties or injuries were reported; however, the car was damaged.

At app. 5:30pm on Friday, IOF troops fired artillery shells towards the Al-Berkeh neighborhood, south of Deir Al-Balah town. Six people were injured,, including two children, and several houses were damaged.

IOF troops, who are stationed around the Az-Zahra town, fired several artillery shells towards the nearby An-Nuseirat refugee camp at 2am today, Saturday 17 January 2009, killing a child, Mohammed Abdullah Abu I’tiwi, 16, and injuring a woman. Two mosques in the camp were danaged: Mu’ath Ibn Jabal Mosque and Hassan Al-Banna Mosque.

IOF also opened fire at an ambulance as it tried to reach an area near the Az-Zahra town. Shooting started as the ambulance was on the bridge in the area, damaging the ambulance’s engine. No casualties of injuries were reported, however.

Khan Younis District:

At app. 4:10pm on Friday, 16 January 2009, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a motorcycle as it drove in Al-Fukhari neighborhood, southeastern Khan Younis. Its rider, Hussam Mohammed Abu Dakka, 26, was killed and 3 passersby were injured.

At app. 5:10pm on Friday, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a motorcycle in Bani Suhaila town, east to Khan Younis, killing Ra’fat Khalil Abu Al-Ola, 47.

In Al-Fukhari neighborhood, southeastern Khan Younis, where the IOF troops had carried out an invasion, troops opened machinegun and artillery fire. Many civilians were injured and transferred to Nasser Hospital in the town.

Al Mezan Center’s field workers reported that IOF troops in the same Al-Fukhari neighborhood broke into houses and took positions on their roofs. Snipers fired at any people who moved in the area. Israeli troops also opened machinegun fire at a civilian car in the area, killing two and injuring one. Al Mezan Center’s field worker reported that the car carried a father and his two sons from a family called Shurrab, who were trying to reach their house in the area, believing that it was safe to move after 1pm, the period announced by the IOF for daily ceasefire. They were shot just after the ceasefire started. The father, who survived the attack, reported to the Center that one of his sons died immediately after he was shot. The other son was injured and continued to bleed until 1am the next day. His contacts with hospitals, the ICRC and the PRCS failed to bring help, which reached them at 11:30am today, Saturday 17 January 2009. Al Mezan’s field worker also reported that he made contacts with the ICRC in Khan Younis, which tried to ensure safe passage for ambulances without success, as IOF refused to allow for ambulances to rescue them. The two brothers who were killed in this attack were:

– Ibrahim Mohammed Shurrab, 18; and

– Kassab Mohammed Shurrab, 28.

Their father, Mohammed Shurrab, 60, was injured.

At app. 10:05pm on Friday, Israeli aircrafts raided, for the second time, the Asdaa’ media production town, west of Khan Younis. The town sustained severe damage, as a result.

Rafah District:

At app. 12:5am on Saturday, 17 January 2009, Israeli aircrafts launched fierce raids on areas along the southern borderline between Egypt and Rafah.

At app. 12:50am on the same day, an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at the two-story house of Ahmed Ali Abu Al-Ineen, which is located in Al-Falouja Street in Al-Jneina neighborhood east of Rafah town. The shelling destroyed the ground floor and a supermarket, and injured two children.

IOF has also continued to restrict medical teams and ambulances form accessing the victims, despite frequent interventions by the ICRC. In this context, at approximately 4pm, on 16 January 2009, the IOF shelled with artillery the house of Atiya Talb Abu Al-Hseen, 40, which is located on Salah Ad-Din Street in An-Nasser village. Abu Al-Hseen and Anwar Saleh Abu Telekh, 20, were killed in the attack. According to Al Mezan’s field worker, the two men were left to bleed to death despite that the family calls to the ICRC and PRSC asking for help. The IOF did not respond to requests of the ICRC to ensure safe passage for ambulances.

At app. 1:5pm also on Saturday, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at Hamouda Zayid Thabet, 21, killing him immediately.

Al Mezan Center, and based on its monitoring, strongly condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians inside their homes, and as they tried to flee from IOF bombardment. The Center asserts that the IOF’s acts represent scandalous war crimes that must be investigated and punished. It is urgent that the international community intervenes immediately to prevent the perpetration of more crimes; especially as the IOF’s incursions and indiscriminate attacks continue at this moment.

Al Mezan Center therefore renews its strong condemnation of the IOF’s aggression on the Gaza Strip, and its flagrant disregard of the applicable rules of international law. This behavior has so far cost the lives of hundreds of civilians and the suffering of hundreds of thousands.

Al Mezan renews its outrage by the, partly complicit, failure of the international community to prevent such violations of international law. While civilians are being murdered, the UN Security Council continues to fail to take meaningful, effective action; thus trading off non-derogable human rights and peremptory rules of international law for political considerations. War must not be allowed to be conducted in the way it is happening in Gaza, where civilians are willfully targeted, killed, maimed and strangulated to near death.

Hence, Al Mezan Center calls upon the UN Secretary General, as a matter of utmost urgency, to focus on the protection of civilians who are the main victims of the violation of international law by Israel. Political debates can wait; however, civilian life cannot be compensated. The United Nations is called on to ensure the compliance with international law and the protection of civilians, including its own staff. Every hour of aggression on Gaza in the way we have witnessed during the past 16 days means the loss of more civilian life, destruction of property and extending the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people who should be protected, not neglected.

Al Mezan Center also calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 1949, to live up to their legal and moral responsibilities upholding their own obligations under Common Article 1, by respecting, and ensuring respect of, the Convection.

The Center, while commending the worldwide action against these violations, calls on civil societies around the world to exert more pressure on their governments so that they act in conformity with the relevant human rights and humanitarian obligations as prescribed in relevant international law.

Zionists Begin Propaganda Offensive to Include Hezbollah in MOU War Resolution

Hezbollah behind Lebanon rocket strikes in north

By Yossi Melman, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

Hezbollah is behind the two Katyusha rocket attacks that struck northern Israel in the last two weeks. In both cases, the organization used proxy Palestinian militant groups to launch the rockets from southern Lebanon.

Security forces in the north are in a state of heightened alert, for fear that Hezbollah will fire more rockets into Israel or try to avenge the February 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the organization’s No. 2, in Damascus. Hezbollah has since tried to carry out at least five attacks against Israeli or Jewish targets in various countries.

The second Katyusha attack, which occurred last week, was aimed at the northern Galilee. The rockets landed in open territory, resulting in neither casualties nor property damage.

The organization that physically fired the rockets was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, founded by Ahmed Jibril, a former military officer in the Syrian Army and one of the PFLP’s early leaders. Over the past few years, PFLP has become a close Hezbollah ally.

In coordinating the rocket strikes, Hezbollah went against several ministers in the Lebanese government who specifically asked the organization to refrain from perpetrating attacks on Israel, which risked igniting a conflagration of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah plot to bomb Israeli mission reportedly foiled

The London Times revealed Friday that a Hezbollah plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan was foiled last year, after Azeri Intelligence discovered the plot.

Azeri intelligence authorities reportedly first caught wind of the plot weeks after Mughniyeh, Deputy Secretary General of the Lebanon-based guerilla group was killed by a car bomb in Damascus last February.

As the date of Mughniyah’s assassination draws near there is growing concern that Hezbollah is planning further attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets abroad to retaliate his killing, the Times indicates. Hezbollah’s 1800 Unit is said to be working on possible attacks inside Israel.

Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said: “The Zionists will discover that the war they had in July was a walk in the park if we compare it to what we’ve prepared for every new aggression,” says the Times.

The report also stated that the Egyptian intelligence broke up a Sinai-based Hezbollah cell headed by Sami Shehab, a Lebanese citizen. The cell, which also included Palestinians members had allegedly planned to attack Israeli targets.

Devastation has always been a goal for Israel

Jonathan Cook

A man walks down a destroyed street in the Salahaddin street area of Rafah, in the southern Gaza strip. Ben Curtis / AP

JERUSALEM // While Hamas and Israel were edging tentatively towards acceptance of a ceasefire late last week, Israel upped its assault on Gaza, driving its troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment and creating thousands more displaced people.

Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, even in what is likely to be the “final act” as officials are calling it, is following a blueprint laid down during the Lebanon war more than two years ago.

Then, Israel destroyed much of Lebanon’s infrastructure in a month of intensive air strikes. Even in the war’s last few hours, as a ceasefire was being finalised, Israel fired more than a million cluster bombs over south Lebanon, apparently in the hope that the area could be made as uninhabitable as possible.

Similarly, Israel’s destruction of Gaza has been continuing with unrelenting vigour, even though according to reports in the Israeli media the air force exhausted what it calls its “bank of Hamas targets” in the first few days of fighting.

The military sidestepped the problem by widening its definition of Hamas-affiliated buildings. Or as one senior official explained: “There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel.”

That includes mosques, universities, government buildings, the courts, at least 18 schools, ambulances and several hospitals, as well as bridges, roads, and power and sewage plants. At the end of last week it also appeared to include a media centre and the UN headquarters in Gaza.

Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah, far from the wreckage, estimate the damage so far at more than US$1.4 billion (Dh5bn), pointing out that at least 24,000 residential apartment buildings need repairing or rebuilding.

Yesterday, Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, called for an international meeting to work on Gaza’s postwar reconstruction. Everyone is agreed it will be a mammoth task that will take many years.

None of this will be regretted by Israel. In fact the general devastation, far from being unfortunate collateral damage, has been the offensive’s unstated goal. Israel has sought the political, as well as military, emasculation of Hamas through the widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and economy.

This is known as the “Dahiya Doctrine”, named after a suburb of Beirut that was almost levelled during Israel’s attack on Lebanon in summer 2006. The doctrine was encapsulated in a phrase used by Dan Halutz, Israel’s chief of staff, at the time. He said Lebanon’s bombardment would “turn back the clock 20 years”.

The commanding officer in Israel’s south, Yoav Galant, echoed those sentiments on the Gaza offensive’s first day: the aim, he said, was to “send Gaza decades into the past”.

Beyond these soundbites, Gadi Eisenkot, the head of Israel’s northern command, clarified in October the practical aspects of the strategy: “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan.”

In the interview, Gen Eisenkot was discussing the next round of hostilities with Hizbollah. However, the doctrine was intended for use in Gaza, too.
Gabriel Siboni, a colonel in the reserves, set out the new “security concept” in an article published by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies two months before the assault on Gaza. Conventional military strategies for waging war against states and armies, he wrote, could not defeat sub-national resistance movements, such as Hizbollah and Hamas, that have deep roots in the local population.

The goal instead was to use “disproportionate force”, thereby “inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes”.

Col Siboni identified the chief target of Israel’s rampages as “decision makers and the power elite”, including “economic interests and the centres of civilian power that support the [enemy] organisation”.

The best Israel could hope for against Hamas and Hizbollah, Col Siboni conceded, was a ceasefire on improved terms for Israel and delaying the next confrontation by leaving “the enemy floundering in expensive, long-term processes of reconstruction”.
In the case of Gaza’s lengthy reconstruction, however, Israel says it hopes not to repeat the mistakes of Lebanon. Then, Hizbollah, aided by Iranian funds, further bolstered its reputation among the local population by quickly moving to finance the rebuilding of Lebanese homes destroyed by Israel.

According to the Israeli media, the foreign ministry has already assembled a task force for “the day after” to ensure neither Hamas nor Iran take the credit for Gaza’s reconstruction.

Israel wants all aid to be be channelled either through the Palestinian Authority or international bodies. Sealing off Gaza, by preventing smuggling through tunnels under the border with Egypt, is an integral part of this strategy.

Much to Israel’s satisfaction, the rebuilding of Gaza is likely to be even slower than might have been expected.

Diplomats point out that, even if western aid flows to the Palestinian Authority, it will make little effect if Israel maintains the blockade, curbing imports of steel, cement and money.

And international donors are already reported to be tired of funding building projects in Gaza only to see them destroyed by Israel a short time later.

With more than a hint of exasperation, Norway’s foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, summed up the general view of donors last week: “Shall we give once more for the construction of something which is being destroyed, re-constructed and destroyed?”

jcook@thenational.ae

Israel’s Hands Around Our Throat Are Showing

Israel’s Hands Around Our Throat Are Showing

By: Peter Chamberlin

In the closing days of the Bush disaster Israel is moving to consolidate gains it has made over the past eight years toward its ultimate goals of “Greater Israel” and the Zionist-dominated new world order. The urgency of the hour for Israel can be seen in the open display of Jewish/Israeli political muscle-flexing in Washington. The normally invisible Israeli hand around America’s throat has been clearly visible lately, as America moved to take four specific actions on Israel’s behalf which will probably prove to be harmful to America’s interests, forcing a major expansion of the war on terror.

Beginning with House and Senate actions, quickly followed by Olmert’s restraint of Condoleeza Rice at the UN, then the hurried signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), our government has been very busy lately representing the state of Israel, in direct opposition to the will of the American people (judging by anti-Israel –vs- pro-Israel protests).

The two Congressional resolutions (H. Res. 34 and S. RES. 10) were watered-down versions of the prior chicken-hearted attempt, intended to show support for the coming MOU. Their main purpose was to put both houses on record in unanimous support of Israel’s butchery of Gaza, endorsing the lie that this conflict was started by Hamas rockets breaking a working truce and that Iran was responsible for those rockets.

“Whereas Hamas has increased the range and payload of its rockets, reportedly with support from Iran.”

The MOU is a eleventh hour end run, stealthily enacting enforcement measures upon Iran that were in the original “Iran War Resolution” but the cowardly Democrat sponsors were afraid to challenge the people with.

Secretary Rice signed the articles of surrender yesterday and the Israeli security cabinet intends to ratify the agreement today. When Bush signs the MOU, its weight, added to that of two very similar Congressional resolutions will allegedly bind Obama’s hands to continuing the failed policies of Bush and Olmert, including supporting the anticipated strike against Iran. The Israeli lobby and its Jewish-American supporters have really done their homework on this one.

The principle planners of the terror war have really done their homework as well, negotiating preparatory arms agreements and military alliances, but, more importantly, the requisite preparatory brainwashing (thanks to the Western media).They have studied the Goyim mind very well, testing our reactions periodically with their previous accidentally-planned wars. They really believed that this time, they could roll over us, forcing us to contribute the weapons and the manpower to enforce Israeli mandates upon the region.

Our only hope is that public anger over the rising situation multiplies faster than the unfolding military/diplomatic scenario, allowing democratic forces to corral the forces of global dictatorship. This means that if there is ever to be a public uprising, it will have to be now. But we all know that nothing like that will occur, at least not until Americans start to suffer from our government’s misdeeds.

We will see the scenario unfold slowly in some areas and more rapidly in others.The Israeli war on the human race will continue to snowball until it overtakes the real targets, Hezbollah and Iran.Israel couldn’t defeat Hezbollah without the American Air Force, which Bush denied them until now.Israel cannot hope to take-on Iran without both our Air Force and our Navy.

The Navy is key to this new plot to force Iran into taking steps which the US/British media can portray as aggression or acts of terrorism.The Navy will create the embargoes and blockades to target Iran as the supplier of Hamas arms and technical know-how (clear acts of war), intended to cause confrontations at sea, which Iran’s small navy will surely lose.Using the same old tired but trustworthy formula for starting wars perfected by Obama’s guru Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national bureau of war-starting (CIA) is trying to bait Iran, just like they baited the Russian bear.

The Israel-US Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Commander-In-Chief’s hit-woman (like the resolutions produced by AIPAC’s henchmen in the Congress) makes its case based on the outright distortion of truth that the conflict was precipitated by homemade Qassam rocket fire breaking the truce and not by the Nov. 4 IDF invasion of the Gaza Strip which left six Palestinians dead. The MOU tries to portray the rape of Gaza as an act of “self-defense,” in order to justify what comes next, the creation of an international force to eradicate terrorist smuggling, or more precisely, the alliance to start a war with Iran and to reinforce Israeli positions.

“to prevent the supply of arms and related materiel to terrorist organizations that threaten either party, with a particular focus on the supply of arms, related materiel and explosives into Gaza to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”

[The document mentions unspecified actions to limit this arms traffic, specifically naming]

the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and eastern Africa, [under command of] relevant components of the U.S. Government, such as U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Special Operations Command.

international and coalition naval forces and other appropriate entities to address weapons supply to Gaza

through an international response to those states, such as Iran, who are determined to be sources of weapons and explosives supply to Gaza.

[and to] recommend additional measures to advance the goals of this Memorandum of Understanding.”

Obama’s statements in support of Israeli “self-defense” and his coterie of Zionist advisors and cabinet picks clearly indicate which direction he will go in the next few days.It looks as though Israel is choosing to play the “reasonable” card, based on an Israeli unilateral “ceasefire,” implementing the MOU recommendations.If this cessation of hostilities is real then it indicates that Israel is getting everything it wants in the still secret provisions of the memorandum.This must mean the full approval on all the next generation fighters and the requested bunker-busters that Israel wanted, along with international peacekeeping forces to police Gaza and then the West Bank, as well as a contract hit on Iran.

Here we have a new president coming into office in the middle of an ongoing CIA/Mossad psyop, which is targeted on him, while he is surrounded by a sea of Israel-serving advisors, immersed in a building world war, which is itself, the biggest CIA op of all time…

The man is screwed before he even starts; kinda sounds like JFK and the Bay of Pigs, doesn’t it?

Obama and his handlers are setting the stage to continue the “Bush doctrine” and to escalate the violence, especially the war on Pakistan. The lure of this appeal is that the reasoning of the Bush doctrine does accurately describe our enemies in this war, the terrorist aggressors who are bombing and murdering their way towards a corrupt world government, but it lies about who that enemy really is. The gang of international killers whom we refer to as “al Qaida” is the biggest threat to security and dreams of world peace, but the address of that adversary is not some cave in the Hindu Kush; it is at Langley and Tel Aviv.

If, from day one, Obama is intent on maintaining the charade of the Bush/Cheney “war on terror” scam (the neocon plan to restructure the Middle East in Israel’s favor through war) which has brought about its own defeat, then he is stepping into the role of primary enemy of the human race and must be opposed accordingly.

If the US can’t remove the deadly Israeli parasite from its government then it will die. If Obama cannot separate us from the Bushwar then he enters office doomed to failure. He must carry-out a clean break with the policies of Bush.

Israel is no doubt encouraged by Obama’s recent naïve remarks about bin Laden remaining the “number one threat” to US security.

Obama:

“I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function. My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him. But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives, then we will meet our goal of protecting America.”

If our new president doesn’t realize that bin Laden is dead and that al Qaida is the CIA, then he will be no better than Bush.

peter.chamberlin@hotmail.com