JVP: Obama, McCain; Don't Pander to AIPAC at the Expense of Peace + UPDATES 2008-06-10 | We are deeply concerned by statements that both Senator McCain and Senator Obama made at the AIPAC Conference. Please sign our petition calling on Senators Obama and McCain to moderate their stances in the interests of a peaceful future.
In particular:
(1) Senator Obama declared that Jerusalem "must remain undivided."
We believe the future status of Jerusalem must be negotiated.
Since declaring on Wednesday at the AIPAC conference that Jerusalem "must remain undivided," Senator Obama has backtracked and indicated he is open to a shared Jerusalem. We welcome his new statement, because the first one undermines the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that Obama promises to promote. Indeed, declaring Jerusalem as Israeli-ruled-only violates U.S. policy and international standards, ignores Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem and the more than 240,000 Palestinian residents there, while implicitly supporting Israel's continued land expropriation, demolition of Palestinian homes, and expansion of settlement building, such as the 900 tenders issued to new housing for Jewish Israelis in East Jerusalem this week.
(2) Both Senators McCain and Obama promised enormous sums of unconditional military aid to Israel.
We believe the U.S. must hold Israel accountable for using U.S. weapons against civilians.
Numerous human rights organizations have documented Israel's use of U.S. weapons against civilian populations - from the basic maintenance of the Occupation of Palestinian Territories to the bombing of civilian areas in Gaza to the use of cluster bombs against Lebanese civilians in 2006. The use of weapons against civilians is in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act; even the U.S. State Department itself believed it likely that Israel's cluster bombs in Lebanon violated U.S. law. We implore the Senators to hold Israel accountable to U.S. law and prevent the use of our weapons against civilians.
(3) Both Senators McCain and Obama continued to demand the exclusion of Hamas from the negotiating table.
We believe peace agreement cannot be achieved without Hamas at the table.
While we, too, deplore any and all violence against civilians, we stand behind former President Jimmy Carter when he claims that Hamas must be included in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. 64% of Israeli citizens want their government to speak to Hamas, the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinian people. Peace agreements are negotiated with enemies, not friends. For the sake of achieving a just peace, we ask the Senators to support the inclusion of Hamas in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
This is, of course, a menu of dreams in a world where Obama seemed to be compelled to make, in Uri Avnery's words, "a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning."
In first post-primary stop, presumptive Democratic nominee again declares fealty to Israel at AIPAC conference
Senator Barack Obama spoke from his heart as a true friend of Israel: "The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable forever."
There was no "denouncement" of former president and independent diplomat Jimmy Carter this time (as there was in Boca Raton, FL two weeks ago), but the message was clear. The U.S. under an Obama administration will have an incontrovertible, unshakable, unbreakable, permanent commitment to Israel, no matter what. The image of Israel as a helpless island for the world's best people surrounded by a sea of the worst of the worst radiated from the podium again and again to the sound of thunderous applause. The gathered partisans need not fear the real Obama for he is not the soft-on-the-terrorists Obama of alarming emails that evidently have been circulating.
Skipping about 2/3 of the way into the 35-minute address, we come to the usual line in the sand drawn against the worst of the worst of the worst, Iran, perhaps with a little more staccato relish than is typical:
Obama: I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon -- everything."
One thing that could be done--in my opinion the only key thing that has to be done to prevent any Iranian bomb of the future--would be to put Israel's advanced full-blown nuclear triad of land-, sea-, and air-launched nuclear weapons out in the open and on the negotiating table.
It seems that President Carter recently has been trying to do just that--
Hey, "American Senator" Barack HUSSEIN Obama! Suck. On. This.
Bush in Jerusalem (CNN)
PRESIDENT BUSH: We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
So what's next, let loose the nukes? There evidently isn't any reason to do anything else but make war on those who would resist Israel, starting with Hezbolla next door in Lebanon. Chris Floyd has more, including a good discussion of this recent Democracy Now! interview with As'ad AbuKhalil.
22 killed on day of bloodshed in Gaza By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:11am BST 17/04/2008
At least 19 Palestinians died in military operations in Gaza on Wednesday in a day of bloodshed sparked when militants ambushed and killed three Israeli soldiers. The pre-arranged ambush raised fears that the militants had received training from one of Israel's most successful military opponents, the Lebanese group Hizbollah.
It prompted a series of air raids on Gaza by Israeli forces attacking what they claimed were legitimate military targets. In the biggest single loss of life, a missile strike killed at least 11 Palestinians. Local medics said that two of the dead were children.
My thought is to look at who has the biggest American-made missile, and who apparently is allowed to attack civilian areas with hardly a shake of the international finger.
July 28, 2006 in Rome: Not enough Lebanese were dead; Killing & Rice come together in Gaza this year too while she can't say "ceasefire"
Vanity Fair has really stung 'em. The U.S. policy of propping up Fatah thugs against an enemy, yet democratically-elected Hamas government in Palestine has been exposed in a way it hasn't been until now. I like the way Angry Arab has been posting lines from the piece as he reads them. (Scroll through March 4 and March 3 from HERE.)
Daily Press Briefing Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman - Washington, DC -March 4, 2008
The story alleges that there was some kind of secret plot on the part of the U.S. Government to create a internal conflict within the Palestinians, specifically an armed conflict. That’s absurd. That’s ridiculous. I said this morning that I think Vanity Fair should stick to arty photos of celebrities since clearly, at least in this instance, their efforts at serious journalism leave something lacking.
The official reaction is that something is "absurd," "ridiculous," or, as Secretary Rice herself put it (below the fold), "ludicrous." No, it wasn't exactly "secret," or even a "plot." The Contra-style armament plan was done. It was a straightforward policy to arm favored thugs and run a divide-and-conquer playbook. And sure, we can accept it was ludicrous.
It's hard to even imagine that Condoleezza Rice can wield any credibility. Her biggest stock in trade is to go around pointing at the terrorists Israeli hardliners want her to name. It's all one-way. Just as in July 2006, while she is "pressing for an end to the violence" she simply cannot utter the words that instantly would stop the most powerful purveyor of violence, which is Israel, and the very-much-less-destructive rocket attacks as well: "The United States declares that there must be a CEASEFIRE on BOTH sides." But while she "presses," the violence continues so Israel can accomplish its threats to "wipe out" Gaza neighborhoods, because, you know, Hamas are just dirt without the Israeli "right to self-defense."
Over 100 Gaza residents reported dead in days of Israeli aerial bombardment
The NY Timesplays it like it's some kind of battlefield face-off, Israeli "defenses" versus Palestinian "positions" where "advanced Iranian rockets" are being fired. But if you read far enough, even the Times reports the civilian carnage, "as 19 Palestinian civilians also died in the heavily populated area, including 4 children."
Following threats last month to "wipe out Gaza neighborhoods," the Israelis have made good on that and are, according to the Times, taking the "Gaza fight to a new level." The latest news just in is that Israel has "attacked Palestinian positions in northern Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest day of fighting in more than a year."
Some Israeli officials are showing little restraint in describing what their program is about. Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifadaposted Friday that "Israeli minister threatens "holocaust" as public demand ceasefire talks."
On Israeli army radio deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai said, "The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."
That's pretty amazing language being applied to the Palestinians given the place of the word shoah in Jewish historical consciousness.
Press Availability in Tokyo Secretary Condoleezza Rice - February 28, 2008
QUESTION: (Inaudible). There’s been collateral damage in Gaza, including the death of the six-month-old baby, according to our reports and five other civilians. Did you raise any concerns about that?
SECRETARY RICE: As I said, I’m concerned about the humanitarian condition there and innocent people in the Gaza who are being hurt. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza, the illegal coup that they led against the Palestinian Authority institutions, the legitimate institutions of the Palestinian Authority. And so it’s very clear where this started. But of course, we are concerned about the innocent people and we are concerned about the humanitarian situation.
She seems to have forgotten that Hamas won a parliamentary majority in free and fair elections two years ago and has been under attack from nearly every Western government since. So what she's really saying is the attack is justified because the Palestinian people chose the wrong representatives. And for all her concern about "the humanitarian condition," she can't bring herself to call for a ceasefire.
It would be and WAS a huge headline if an Iranian president were to have talked like this
Maybe I'm just naive. This Article from the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) seems to me to be black-letter international law:
Article 33
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.
So then, here is the kind of thinkingthat is prevalent in Israel's government and military, with respect to a feeling that Isreal "is not taking strong enough action to stop the Kassams" [rocket firings from Gaza]:
Sheetrit: Wipe Out a Neighborhood [interview, Feb. 10, 2008]
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) was explicit about what should be done: The heads of Hamas must pay the price. Hamas doesn't understand any other language; the problem is we are talking to them in English instead of in Arabic. They only understand [the language of force]. The situation at present doesn't make sense; every other country faced with rockets on its citizens would go in and destroy the area. We should warn the [Arabs in Gaza] in advance, give them a day's notice, and then wipe out a neighborhood. We should also hit their leaders, regardless of who or what they are.
The fact is that this is about a lot more than frayed nerves and occasional injuries in Sderot, a community within Israel that does suffer from the ongoing conflict. The proportions are just staggering to me when I look at real information rather than the pro-Israel propaganda bath we usually get.
Gaza has been declared an "enemy entity" (with the blessing of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) and subjected to denial of the importing of basic needs including medicine, severely limiting of exports, cutting of fuel and electric supplies , and closing of borders preventing the movement of people to and from Gaza, including those in need of urgent medical care.
Maybe the parties now involved, Israel and Hamas could talk about a cease fire? No way, according to Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal, "I would kidnap [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniye, I would kidnap or kill the other leaders, I would bomb neighborhoods, etc... We did it in Lebanon in 2006; we wiped out a whole neighborhood, the Dachya, including tall buildings, sometimes with people in it, and - what can you do? It worked! We have had nearly two years of quiet from Lebanon since then."
Normally, we take these kind of genocidal threats seriously, except where Israel is concerned. As long as Israelis look upon the Palestinians as some sort of dog race requiring wiping out, no mutual human understanding from either side will be possible.
Hillary was biggest U.S. cheerleader for bombardment, Summer 2006
I just want to give an equal platform here for Hillary Clinton to display her core militarism. This is a clip from Democracy Now!, July 18, 2006, during the thick of the Israeli destruction of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure:
See here for Democracy Now! page and links to media for full program)
Senator Clinton's website contains this statement of July 13, 2006, which does not even pretend to rationalize a general attack on infrastructure in Lebanon. But, by July 17, 2006, she is seen at a big pro-Israel rally in New York City demonstrating "solidarity and support" for Israel and evidently her core belief in death and domination by bombardment as a "necessary" step in sending a "message" "to all who seek death and domination." She said,
We will support her efforts to send a message to Hamas, Hezbollah, to the Syrians, to the Iraniains, to all who seek death and domination instead of life and freedom that we will not permit this to happen and we will take whatever steps are necessary.
In the 2-minute video above, trimmed out of the longer report on Democracy Now!, you just see what was happening to people in Lebanon two summers ago: civilians bombed by the dozens at a time, city blocks taken out, bridges and roadways destroyed--then Hillary Clinton giving this message. Judge her level of hawkishness for yourself.
I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.
I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condenm the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel...
All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this... Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.
The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks... If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
The post includes a lot of good analysis and concludes that being servile to the Israel lobby will not work for him: "Obama's effort to get into this game is futile. Perhaps it would be more beneficial for him to speak as a pro-civil and pro-human rights liberal Democrat."
U.S. and Israel boycotting U.N. 6th Special session of the Human Rights Council on human rights violations emanating from Israeli military incursions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the recent ones in occupied Gaza and West Bank town of Nablus, Geneva, 23-24 January 2008
Under a devastating blockade by Israel, the people of Gaza managed to break through the barrier that had prevented entry into Egypt. Of course, it's hard to find a major U.S. source where the news is told in anything but a grudging manner. That San Francisco Chronicle blog has a little digest from sources like Agence France Presse and The Toronto Star.
This has just posted to the New York Times. It's basically just factual with good photos. It concludes with a good quote characterizing Gaza and its future relationship with Egypt: "Mubarak can’t put Gazans back into the same prison. The situation has changed. The pressure on Gaza from Israel has to be lifted."
Meanwhile, a resolution from the Human Rights Council citing "grave violations of the human and humanitarian rights of the Palestinian civilians therein, exacerbat[ing] the severe humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" has been presented to the U.N. General Assembly.
Additionally, the resolution states bluntly how Israel's behavior undercuts recent diplomatic attempts by President Bush: Israel's violations, "undermine international efforts, including the Annapolis Conference and the Paris Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State, aimed at invigorating the peace process and establishing a viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent Palestinian State by the end of 2008."
Sounds about right. But the U.S. and Israel, of course, will hear none of this. They have boycotted the session and the Human Rights Council in general, and they therefore have boycotted the entire sentiment of this resolution out of history. Itzhak Levanon, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. office in Geneva, called the session a "circus."
The Flashpoints program on Pacifica's KPFA last night had an excellent full-hour program on the Gaza situation. It featured Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, Mohammed Omer, Special correspondent in Rafah and human rights activist Mark Turner.
Ali Abunimah:What we saw today deserves to be noted as a tremendous display of people power.
But it will not in the United States. There is no sensibility in the U.S. recognizing Gaza as a prison for a million and half people who must suffer any insult Israel chooses to issue. These are just terrorists firing makeshift rockets for no particular reason. Therefore, no "Berlin Wall" moment possibly could be involved.
The text of the Human Rights Council resolution is below the fold...
It's possible to learn truth from managed news, but only if you can analyze the frame
Have you heard what has been happening in Gaza and the West Bank all this week? Didn't think so. Little has shown up in the regular media since President Bush left a trail of violence in the wake of his visit. Finally, today, there is a specific story in the Bangor Daily News, though suggestions about what has been going on previously have appeared, usually buried deep inside stories about Bush's magnificence as a peacemaker.
The online version of this AP release, partially published by the BDN, contains some horrifying photos the BDN did not use (see above left). The text describes an absolutely desperate scene--one killed, 46 civilians wounded in a Friday attack on a the skeleton of a civic building previously bombed, the border sealed, food and fuel cut off.
Okay. Let's presume a reader is just finding out about all this. There ought to be some explanation about why Israel is taking such devastating measures against all of the population of Gaza, right? Well, that's easy--these week-long pitched attacks and killings to go along with months of punishing blockade are a "response" to rockets. Here's how the BDN ran it:
Israel shuts Gaza crossings, bombs Hamas By IBRAHIM BARZAK
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel sought to put an end to a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza, sending its air force Friday against a symbol of Hamas power in the heart of Gaza City and simultaneously choking off shipments of fuel and food across its border with the strip.
An Israeli warplane attacked the downtown offices of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, flattening one wing of the empty building, killing a woman at a wedding party next door and wounding at least 46 other civilians, some of them children playing soccer in the street, hospital staff and witnesses said.
"It was more like an earthquake ... smoke covered the area for a few minutes, we didn't know what was hit at first," said resident Yehia Rabbah.
The attack was the first on a ministry building since Hamas seized control of Gaza last June. An Israeli military commentator said it was meant to send a message to the violent Islamic group that further rocket attacks could cause the conflict to spiral.
The building, in a residential neighborhood flanked by the apartments of well-to-do residents, had been empty since it was severely damaged in a July 2006 airstrike. But even though it was unoccupied, it was seen as a symbol of Hamas authority.
In a parallel move, Israel sealed all border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, cutting the flow of vital supplies in an attempt to pressure Hamas to halt the rocket fire. But the attacks continued, with 16 rockets falling in southern Israel, including one that damaged a day care center in the town of Sderot. Children were inside the building at the time, but no one was hurt, the prime minister's office said.
Violence has grown since Tuesday, when an Israeli ground and air offensive against rocket squads claimed the lives of 19 Palestinians, including the militant son of a prominent Hamas leader. By Friday night, the Gaza death toll stood at 34, including at least 10 civilians.
Right there is the end of what the BDN published. The story goes on:
Maine Owl is a comment & nature photography blog. It is written by The Owl, a long-time peace & justice activist now residing in the Bangor, Maine area...
