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Gaza

The appalling death and misery in Gaza in mid 2014 appears to be a genocide rather than a typical armed conflict between opposing armies. What is also appalling is the inaction by the world to stop the bloodshed.

News reports in America attempt to portray the disaster as being rooted in two opposing forces both terrorizing the other, even though the Palestinian deaths are essentially all civilians while the Israeli deaths are essentially all soldiers during the invasion and occupation. Hawks put the blame on Hamas and suggest Israel is acting only out of self defense. This description belies the history of Gaza.

Israel has enforced an embargo on the borders of Gaza since 2007. The Palestinians are being starved by Israel, as Ariel Sharon's advisor said:  "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." The current assault results in immediate misery and death.

When several ships from Turkey attempted to deliver medical supplies to Gaza in 2010, it was attacked by Israeli military forces with several activists executed, to prevent the delivery. The Palestinians inevitably constructed a number of tunnels to get around their borders restricted by Israel, to obtain food and supplies, and the minimal weapons for defense. There is no other alternative. During this most recent assault on Gaza Israel called them terror tunnels. Ironically, many Israelis overcome their supposed fear of terror from these tunnels to cheer the bombing from the nearby hillsides. The destruction of the tunnels tightens the embargo, will just make the Palestinians suffer further, and has nothing to do with fear in Israel.

There is no military force in Gaza. Any futile missile launches out of Gaza are just a token gesture of rebellion. Very little damage and very few civilians are ever harmed, though certainly if they posed a threat there is some 'terror' associated with them. However Israel now claims their Iron Dome intercepts most of these - so their potential threat has already been deflated.

Wherever these missiles are launched from, they will never come from a military facility because there are none in Gaza. It is inevitable there must be some civilian structure nearby simply because of the environment in Gaza. The claim of human shields in Gaza is ludicrous and has been addressed by many journalists.

This attack on Gaza is just the continuation of the genocide conducted by the Israel government on the Palestinians. I did not write this essay until after a month (Operation Protective Edge began on July 8) to see whether the world would stop the atrocity. It did not. Israel has continued its bloody escalation of its genocide of Palestinians for more than a month without any attempt from the world to stop it. This is an indictment of the 'new world order.'

A majority of the world's countries has expressed their support for a state of Palestine, but clearly some countries are willing to let Israel do whatever it wants to. The second stated purpose of the United Nation is "To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace." Clearly the UN has failed to attain that stated goal with the Palestinians. I suspect this is due to the very structure of the UN Security Council, where 5 permanent members have veto power.

These 5 countries have absolute, unaccountable power relative to the rest of the world - they cannot be severely challenged within the UN structure. The United States is at the head of the Western financial empire and the map of nations supporting a Palestinian state clearly shows those countries most closely linked to this empire because those oppose that state of Palestine: the countries within NATO which also serves as the military arm for this empire to support the substantial armed forces of the USA, offering NATO troops to such distant places (from the North Atlantic) as Afghanistan and Somalia.

Many years ago, in 1967, Israel could claim it was under the military threat of attack from the adjacent countries: Egypt, Jordan and Syria. When Egypt attempted an embargo on Israel in 1967 by closing the Straits of Tiran, Israel claimed that was an act of war and launched its preemptive military attack on its neighbors. Egypt is now run by a Western friendly government (after the Egyptian overthrew Mubarak in 2011, the last friendly ruler) and cooperates with Israel on the brutal enforcement of the embargo on its border with Gaza. Since the 1994 treaty, Jordan has become an important ally with Israel. Syria remains an opponent of Israel and even offered military support when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. Perhaps not coincidentally, the government of Syria is currently under siege by rebels who have been clearly supported by America. America has provided weapons to these rebels (initially in a clandestine manner through Jordan) and then after a chemical weapon attack in Syria American military forces were nearly ready to attack Syria to overthrow that regime of al-Assad but international pressure succeeded to prevent it, as there was no clear evidence for the American claims of justification for an attack and much of the world did not believe those claims (unlike with Iraq in 2003). In 2014 Syria is too weak to offer any military help to Palestinians while it is being attacked. Iraq had offered military support to the Israeli opposition during the 1967 war but after the American military invasion of Iraq in 2003 Iraq is now a failed state. There is no practical nearby military threat to Israel in 2014.

Each successive American President claims unwavering American support of Israel, so the government of Israel knows its actions, no matter how deadly or criminal, will not be opposed by America. This unlimited support gives Israel a practical immunity. During the Gaza violence, Israel was provided more munitions and even further financial aid so clearly American political leadership approves of Israel's genocide of Palestinians. The United States sits atop its world empire and enjoys nearly absolute power, as any opponents risk a military or financial backlash.

The state of Israel will continue its genocide of Palestinians, whether the current escalation of violence (if there is an eventual ceasefire) or the sustained creep of dispossession via new Israeli settlements and destruction of Palestinian homes, until the world can find a way to stop Israel. Various people of power and influence in Israel have clearly stated their intent to get rid of the Palestinians - and the current attacks of Gaza illustrate the execution of a plan toward that goal. In this new world order, those at the top rarely suffer consequences for their actions. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The carnage in Gaza is a clear demonstration of that.
created - August 2014
last change - 08/09/2014
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