Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Israeli Assault on Gaza



Since the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, Israelis have killed nearly 5000 Palestinians, nearly a thousand of them minors. Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another. Wreaking collective punishment on civilian populations such as hospital patients denied needed electricity is a crime of war.--Professor Juan Cole, Middle East Analyst

With over 200 280 dead and over a thousand wounded, the Israeli airstrikes in Hamas controlled Gaza have been horrific and unprecedented in recent Mid East history. Reacting to a continued barrage of rocket attacks, Israel has claimed that "now is a time to fight." Hamas has gone underground, and has vowed more rocket attacks and a wave of suicide bombings. The Israeli army is massing troops for a possible ground offensive as the entire region threatens to enter a new cycle of violence.

Or at least that's the narrative you'll hear spun out of the mainstream US media.

What you won't hear is that Israel has had an enforced blockade on Gaza, cutting off food, water, medicines and more that has left the region poverty-stricken and at times near starvation. All of this occurred since Hamas, a group once funded by Israel to thwart the more nationalist PLO, fairly won democratic elections, and became pariahs in the West for their refusal to abandon armed struggle. There have been stories of Gazans eating everything from grass to animal feed. The humanitarian disaster there has been long in the making, and too often ignored. What you won't hear is that those barrage of rocket attacks on Israel don't always come from Hamas, certainly not the police stations struck, or the civilians caught in the middle, but from numerous other factions over which Hamas has limited control. Furthermore, the rocket attacks are often in retaliation for Israeli incursions (assassinations, raids, missile strikes) that repeatedly break the fragile cease-fire but go unreported and ignored in popular media. Even more sobering, is that while the Palestinian rocket attacks certainly create a sense of psychological terror, they are often so inaccurate and imprecise, they rarely kill any Israelis. The ratio of death isn't close to equal: somewhere slightly over 20 Israelis have been killed by rocket attacks since 2000; this latest offensive in Israel alone has killed 200 280 Palestinians. While we can certainly go into a long list of "who did what first" in this ongoing cyclical conflict, the idea that Israel has previously been showing "restraint" is a Likudnik propaganda myth parroted by popular U.S. media.

So far, world reaction has been typical from the usual list of players. The Bush administration, while cautioning against civilan casualties, has made Hamas the boogey-man and co-signed on Israel's assault--going as far as to call the hundreds of dead Palestinian policemen "thugs." The incoming Obama administration has mostly been quiet. The international community has at least shown some variance--from calls for immediate restraint to condemnation. The UN, as usual, is scrambling to come up with a coherent position, with the U.S. certain to veto any statement that holds Israel responsible or demands a cessation of hostilities. Meanwhile, as images of dead Palestinians are broadcast throughout the world, there is shock and outrage in the Muslim world, and a the entire region threatens to enter a new era of violence, vengeance and reprisals.

Below, as updates arrive, are news accounts of this recent crisis outside of the popular U.S. media, and from the side of the Palestinians, to give a more nuanced perspective.


The Electronic Intifada

The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at electronicIntifada.net, publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. EI is the leading Palestinian portal for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media.

The recent Gaza-Israeli truce and ceasefire breaches. A brief timeline.

While there is an effort to place the onus on Hamas or Israel on the breakdown of the recent Egypt brokered ceasefire, history seems to portray a more complicated picture that ties in the West Bank, Disengagement, and other groups besides Hamas. Of course, any effort to place the onus here on one side or another really ignores the decades old historical context of this conflict into a facile moral comparison. However, it seems that there is a lack of proper retrospective into this ceasefire in the contemporary media.

Informed Comment- Juan Cole

Since the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, Israelis have killed nearly 5000 Palestinians, nearly a thousand of them minors. Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another. Wreaking collective punishment on civilian populations such as hospital patients denied needed electricity is a crime of war.

1 comment:

Steven Lance said...

Greetings

I think you would be quite interested in an article I wrote detailing the Zionist taking of Palestine:
http://vulgariangoulasharticles.blogspot.com/2009/01/israeli-palestinian-conflict-historical.html

I would very much like to hear your comments. And, if you feel it's worthy, pass along to any/all.

I also have a blog re current events; the lastest post is titled: Gazatrocity

http://vulgariangoulash.blogspot.com/