Even the former heads of Shin Bet and Mossad say there should be negotiations with Hamas without pre-conditions

Tony Blair has finally said something I can support him on, however much I revile his past actions. He’s called for and end to the Israeli and ‘Quartet’( formally the EU, US, Russia, UN) blockade of Gaza (1). (To be more accurate the Quartet should be defined as the EU, US, Russia and Israel, since the UN has condemned the blockade and called for it to be lifted.)

Unfortunately Blair still holds to the other ‘Quartet’ position – that talks with Hamas can’t begin until it formally recognizes Israel, signs up to the 1993 Oslo peace agreement between Israel and the PLO; and renounces violence.

These three conditions though are some of the biggest barriers to a negotiated peace – and that’s not just my opinion. Many Israelis, including former government ministers, advisers, academics, historians and the former heads of Shin Bet and Mossad say the pre-conditions being placed on talks with Hamas are ludicrous and amount to setting impossible preconditions to avoid talking at all – combined with a war on all Gazans intended to replace the elected Hamas government by force.

Professor Yossi Alpher, director of the Jaffa Institute for Strategic studies and a former adviser to Ehud Barak, wrote in the Jewish ‘Forward’ newspaper in October 2006 that “Israel never demanded recognition from Egypt or Jordan as a precondition for negotiating with them; recognition is a logical way to conclude successful peace talks, not to begin them.”.(2).

Alpher also points out that Israeli governments have failed to abide by the Oslo agreements by continuing to expand settlements by force in the West Bank, yet demand Hamas abide by these agreements before talks begin.

Former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami signed an open letter saying “Hamas must recognise Israel as part of a permanent solution, but it is a diplomatic process and not ostracisation that will lead them there. The Quartet conditions…set an unworkable threshold from which to commence negotiations.” (3)

Shlomo Gazit, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence, called the three pre-conditions laid down by Israel “ridiculous, or an excuse not to negotiate.” (4)

Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad, also says Israel should negotiate with Hamas, noting that the group has maintained ceasefires and enforced them on other groups in the past.(5).

A poll in March 2008 showed 72% of Israelis wanted negotiations with Hamas (6).

Some may object that Hamas has failed to prevent attacks by other groups, but the Israeli government’s war and blockade on Gaza is the main reason for that. During the last offensive Israel’s deputy PM told interviewers “What I think we need to do is to reach a situation in which we do not allow Hamas to govern.” (7). On 6th January Yuval Diskin, the head of Shin Bet, told the cabinet that Israeli attacks have made it increasingly difficult for Hamas to govern (8). Attacks on Hamas’ police force and stations have continued since (9).

While claiming they’ve destroyed Hamas’ ability to govern Israeli government ministers have also said they hold Hamas responsible for attacks on Israelis from Gaza – even though they admit those attacks aren’t being carried out by Hamas (and that includes the much publicized roadside bombing which came just after the new ceasefire). (see this post and the sources listed in it)

This is what makes the ‘renounce violence’ pre-condition an impossible one for Hamas to meet. Israeli forces demand they end attacks on Israel by other Palestinian groups while simultaneously denying them the means to do so (including the very direct method of assassinating Hamas members). Once again it’s also fairly hypocritical coming from a government that reserves the right to bomb Gazans even during ceasefires.

If the campaign to destroy the Hamas government is ended then Hamas and Fatah can be reconciled, as they were in June 2007 in a coalition government, when Israel and its allies still refused to recognise Hamas as part of that government despite its election victory. Hamas can enforce a ceasefire on other groups and peace negotiations can proceed through third parties (10).

As Israeli historian and IDF veteran Avi Shlaim wrote in January “There is…no military solution...Israel's concept of security…denies …security to [Palestinians]. The only way for Israel to achieve security is…through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with [Israel] within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years.”(11)

And in case anyone thinks Shlaim is wrong to think Hamas would negotiate or concede that Israel could exist even inside it’s pre-1967 borders, he’s right, they’ve said they’d accept that if given a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

For instance in September 2005 Mohammed Gazal of Hamas told Reuters that the Hamas Charter ‘is not the Koran’ and could be amended to accept the existence of Israel within it’s pre-1967 borders – and that negotiations with Israel were entirely possible (12). In 2008 Khaled Meshal of Hamas said a Palestinian state could co-exist with Israel (13). In January this year Hamas leaders told Associated Press reporters that “"We accept a state in the '67 borders," and “We are not talking about the destruction of Israel” (14)

Hamas’ leaders are not so blind as to think they could destroy an Israeli state that has F-16 jets, helicopters, missile armed drones, tanks and heavy artillery when they only have AK-47s and rockets. They will not give up all their negotiating cards before the negotiations even begin though. Not in return for nothing, which is what Palestinians would get from the kind of ‘negotiation’ in which one side has to give in on every point before negotiations even start. Nor would the governments of Jordan or Egypt, yet negotiating with them has led to decades of peace between them and Israel.

There is no barrier to beginning peace negotiations with Hamas via third parties. The question is, does the Israeli government want peace or does it just want more land, taken by force, at any cost in Palestinian and Israeli lives?

(1) = Independent 02 Mar 2009 ‘Blair says Gaza crossings must be opened to assist rebuilding’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/blair-says-gaza-crossings-must-be-opened-to-assist-rebuilding-1635144.html

(2) = Forward 20 Oct 2006 ‘Preconditions for a Problematic Partner’,
http://www.forward.com/articles/5948/

(3) = Times 26 Feb 2009 ‘Peace will be achieved only by talking to Hamas’,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article5804266.ece

(4) = Forward 09 Feb 2007 ‘Experts Question Wisdom of Boycotting Hamas’,
http://www.forward.com/articles/10055/

(5) = Interview with Efraim Halevy in Mother Jones Magazine 10 Feb 2008 ‘Israel's Mossad, Out of the Shadows’, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/israels-mossad-out-shadows

(6) = Newsweek 07 Mar 2008 ‘‘We’ll Have to Talk’’
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/03/06/we-ll-have-to-talk.html#

(7) = New York Times 03 Jan 2009 ‘Is the Real Target Hamas Rule?’,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/world/middleeast/04assess.html

(8) = Guardian 06 Jan 2009 ‘Israel looks to drive out Hamas’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/06/gaza-israel-hamas

(9) = CNN 1 Feb 2009 ‘Airstrikes hit Gaza after rockets wound 3 Israelis’,
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/01/israel.rockets/

(10) = Guardian 07 Jan 2009 ‘How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

(11) = see (10) above

(12) = Reuters/Ynet(Israel) 21 Sep 2005 ‘Hamas: We'll rethink call to destroy Israel’,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3145475,00.html

(13) = Guardian.co.uk 21 April 2008 ‘We can accept Israel as neighbour, says Hamas’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/israel

(14) = AP/Haaretz 01 Jan 2009 ‘Hamas: We will accept long-term truce if Gaza borders opened’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059873.html

Hey Hamas : Do what we’re stopping you doing – and end all these ceasefire breaches by us and people you don’t control

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni claims “Hamas controls Gaza and is responsible for everything that happens” there (1), (2). YetYuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet, briefed Israel’s cabinet on January 6th, saying Israeli military strikes on Hamas’ leaders and infrastructure have made it increasingly difficult for it to govern (3).

There is very probably some truth in that since Israeli strikes have killed everyone from police and police cadets to ambulance crews and targeted everything from police stations to government buildings and factories including food processing plants. So how can the Israeli government demand Hamas control what’s going on in Gaza while simultaneously destroying it’s ability to do so? (4), (5), (6).

During the last ceasefire in 2008 Hamas did arrest members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Fatah’s armed wing, who it accused of firing rockets out of Gaza (7). How can the Israeli government demand Hamas do what it’s deliberately stopping them doing?

The roadside bombing attack which “broke the ceasefire” on 27th January 2009 by killing an IDF soldier was not carried out by Hamas according to the Israeli government.Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak acknowledged that it was ‘not Hamas’, but a “breakway splinter group”, Al Qa’ida Affiliated Global Jihad (perhaps an attempt to link the Israeli campaign to the US ‘war on terror’). He then said that “We will continue with our response to the attack even though it was carried out by a group that is not Hamas…We hold Hamas responsible for everything that happens in Gaza.”. So they attacked Hamas (8), (9).

More recently rockets were fired out of Gaza into Israel by members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – the armed wing of Fatah. The Israeli government again acknowledged this, but attacked Hamas in “retaliation” anyway (10).

If Israel’s aim is to prevent rocket fire why is it giving Hamas’ rivals a green light to fire at Israelis, knowing any counter-attack will hit Hamas?

Probably for the same reason that Israeli artillery repeatedly shelled the main UN aid depot in Gaza when, as UNWRA head Chris Ging said, there was no fighting in the area (11).

Claims that reducing rocket attacks is the priority are just electioneering. The aims of the blockade and attacks on Gaza are electioneering, overthrowing the elected Hamas government and dividing and conquering Palestinians to making annexing the West Bank easier.

The event that triggered the end of the previous ceasefire is also supposedly Hamas’ ‘crazy’ decision to “unilaterally” end the ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel in December 2008. It’s not so clear that that’s the case. On 5th November 2008 Israeli forces launched a raid into Gaza, killing several members of Hamas’ armed wing – the Al Qassam Brigades. They claimed this was necessary to destroy a tunnel which Hamas were digging to capture more Israeli soldiers, like Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured or kidnapped by Hamas and other groups in 2006. They didn’t explain why, if this was the case, it was necessary to attack a tunnel into Israel by attacking it on the Gaza side of the border? This was the event that triggered Hamas’ armed wing beginning rocket attacks again (12), (13).

Buying votes and a sense of perfect goodness with Palestinian and Israeli deaths

Perhaps the upcoming elections in Israel, the fact the government were trailing the opposition in the polls and the claims by the Israel opposition that the government parties were “weak” and “soft on terrorism” were a factor in the “election war”. As with so many attempts to pander to the worst beliefs in order to try to get votes it’s backfired. The right wing Likud party has increased it’s lead in the polls, though Palestinians in Gaza could be forgiven for wondering whether all this “vibrant democracy” made any difference to them when the “center” and “left” parties bomb and starve them just as much.

How can anyone seriously believe that a campaign killing 1,000 Palestinians in three weeks, including 250children, was a response to one Israeli civilian killed by rocket fire from Gaza in the previous six months (on Israeli foreign ministry figures)? – and that one death resulting from the Israeli raid on Gaza on 5th November 2008 which, along with Israel’s refusal to lift the blockade on Gaza, led to the breakdown of the ceasefire (14).

There have certainly been thousands of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza, but although rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are certainly wrong they have killed very few people, unlike the thousands of Israeli shells, bombs and missiles fired into Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak himself said in the past that “The Palestinians are the weakest of our enemies. As a military threat they are ludicrous.”(15)

If Israel’s government really wanted peace and to end the pointless cycle of deaths on both sides it didn’t need to do anything except accept offers of negotiation from the elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

The Israeli government routinely accuses Hamas of cynically risking civilians’ lives to gain support. In fact Israel’s government and main opposition parties are responsible for exactly the same on a much larger scale. Palestinians make a useful enemy and external ‘threat’ for Israeli governments to rally the public behind in nationalistic wars. Since in reality “as a military threat they are ludicrous” they can be repeatedly defeated with ease, allowing the government to point to “victories”. The opposition Likud party, whose leader Benjamin Netanyahu has called in the past for all Israeli Arabs and Palestinians to be expelled by force or ‘transfer’ can also deride the government for being weak in the face of the Arab threat. Israeli civilians and soldiers and a hundred times as many Palestinians may die each time, but that’s considered cheap in terms of votes gained.

Many Israelis have motives to buy the “Arab threat” propaganda too. Some of them are getting cheap houses and land in the West Bank from it. Others have been brought up to think of themselves as “proud Israelis” and Israel as an inherently morally good country.

For those who identify too closely with their government or don’t attempt to stay informed from multiple sources this leads them to see any criticism of their country as a personal attack on them. They can also see themselves as perfectly good and their enemies as inherently evil. This avoids having to face any uncomfortable doubts about whether they or their country are doing anything wrong. This is not unique to Israel. It’s true in every country, but also causes pointless deaths and wars in many – and Israel even more than most.

Palestinians are now seen not as people who vary and each of whom may be right or wrong in certain beliefs or actions but as inherently evil enemies who cannot be negotiated with. That was true of Arafat and Abbas of Fatah when they won Palestinian elections and its true now of Hamas and Haniyeh.

(1) = Independent 28 Jan 2009 ‘Gaza ceasefire strained as Mitchell flies in’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-ceasefire-strained-as-mitchell-flies-in-1517852.html (5th paragraph)

(2) = Jerusalem Post 27 Jan 2009 ‘Barak cancels US trip due to Gaza border attack’,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1233050191648
“"We will continue with our response to the attack even though it was carried out by a group that is not Hamas," Barak said in a speech before students at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. "We hold Hamas responsible for everything that happens in Gaza.”

(3) = Guardian 06 Jan 2009 ‘Israel looks to drive out Hamas’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/06/gaza-israel-hamas

(4) = Telegraph 27 Dec 2008 ‘Israel attack on Gaza: Fragile peace shattered again’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/3981502/Israel-attack-on-Gaza-Fragile-peace-shattered-again.html

(5) = AFP 01 Feb 2009 ‘Israel bombs Gaza after new rocket fire’,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090201/ts_afp/mideastconflictgazaolmert

(6) = Guardian 26 Jan 2009 ‘Hamas offers $52m handouts to help hardest-hit Gazans’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/hamas-payout-gaza-infrastructure

(7) = Haaretz 10 July 2008 ‘Hamas arrests Gaza rocket squad after two Qassams hit Negev’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1000881.html

(8) = Jerusalem Post 27 Jan 2009 ‘Barak cancels US trip due to Gaza border attack’,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1233050191648

(9) = Haaretz 29 Jan 2009 ‘IAF bombs Gaza weapons manufacturing site after rocket strikes Negev’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059457.html

(10) = AFP 01 Feb 2009 ‘Israel bombs Gaza after new rocket fire’,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090201/ts_afp/mideastconflictgazaolmert

(11) = CNN 15 Jan 2009 ‘Third-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza killed’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/15/gaza.aid.plea/
(13th paragraph reads ‘UNRWA Director John Ging denied there were any militants at the compound, and also said that at the time there was no fighting in the area.’)

(12) = Reuters 05 Nov 2008 ‘Israel-Hamas violence disrupts Gaza truce’,
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4A37B520081105

(13) = Guardian 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians

(14) = Israel Foreign Ministry ‘Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism since September 2000’, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Terrorism+sinc.htm

(15) = Ehud Barak in an interview published in Haaretz newspaper 18 June 1999 Cited by Avi Shlaim (2000) ‘The Iron Wall :Israel and the Arab World’ , Penguin paperback , London, 2001 , page xii

“Ignorance” and “apologising for terrorism” and war crimes

Denial, Shouting ‘Look over there’ and saying ‘Hamas made us do it’ don’t cut it – both sides target civilians, with Israel’s greater fire-power killing hundreds of times more - and the only way forward is to negotiate with Hamas

A Palestinian fireman at the UN aid depot in Gaza as food and medicines burn after Israeli artillery repeatedly shelled buildings with incendiaries

There are the usual responses by cheerleaders for Israeli actions to the widespread reports of Israeli forces targeting civilians in Gaza. The commonest has been a combination of denial and accusing Hamas of having been responsible for any incident where Palestinian civilians were killed, though there are several other tactics used.

Denial and blaming the other side

Ivor S Tiefenbrun for instance (Herald letters 26th January) says claims of Israeli forces targeting civilians and ambulances in Lebanon and Gaza and the West Bank (including Jenin) in the present and the past are “discredited…propaganda” based on the “ignorance” of “apologists” for terrorists. Like many others he also makes the false claim that every instance of Israeli forces killing civilians has been the result of their enemies “using civilians as human shields”. This is true in some cases, but in many cases it’s not – and in fact the Israeli military has often used Palestinian civilians as human shields itself.

For the truth about the Israeli offensive in Jenin and Nablus in 2002, in which at least 22 civilians were killed, many deliberately, in Jenin alone and at least 70 children killed in “Operation Defensive Shield” as a whole, as well as Palestinian civilians forced to walk ahead of Israeli troops at gunpoint, see this post and the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem reports it lists

On 14th January 2009 Amnesty International reported war crimes “include Israeli attacks that have been directed at civilians or civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip” as well as Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns (1)

After the main UN aid depot in Gaza was repeatedly shelled by Israeli artillery, burning food and medicines, the Israeli government claimed Hamas had fired from nearby. On 15th January CNN quoted Chris Ging, the head of UNRWA, saying there had been no militants and no fighting anywhere near the depot when it was shelled (2).

After the 2006 war in Lebanon and Gaza Human Rights Watch reported that “Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon …The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices.” (3) , (4). HRW also reported at least 6 confirmed attacks by Israeli forces on ambulances in Gaza, paralleled by many similar attacks in Lebanon (5,6). This month it reported at least two incidents of Israeli forces killing or injuring medics when firing on ambulances (7).

What’s more in 2005 Israeli soldiers reported following orders to shoot unarmed Palestinians even when there was no fighting taking place, including children. Palestinian and British doctors and journalists also came to the conclusion by studying injuries in dead children that they had been repeatedly shot in the head by Israeli snipers. The Israeli human rights group B’T Selem has reported similar cases (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13).

There is also no doubt any more that the Israeli government and military are doing everything they can to deny the entire population of Gaza enough food and medical supplies. This campaign to deny Gazans enough food, medicines and fuel kills just as surely in the long run – and involves a fair amount of direct killing with tanks, artillery and air-strikes too.

First they instituted a blockade which allows some truckloads of food, medicines and fuel into Gaza some days – just not nearly enough to supply the population according to the UN. By November 2008 the International Committee of the Red Cross was reporting that “chronic malnutrition is a steadily rising trend” along with “under-nutrition”. By December 2008 many Gazans were reduced to searching rubbish dumps for food. On 3rd February 2009 the UN reported that “The number of trucks allowed by Israel to enter Gaza daily to deliver much-needed relief supplies remains insufficient.” (14), (15), (16).

The Israeli military made a great show of letting the media film them letting some UN aid trucks into Gaza, before shelling many of them with tanks and killing the drivers on the other side of the border, where no foreign media were allowed (17), (18). Then they bombed hundreds of civilian targets including the UN aid depot mentioned above, burning hundreds of tones of food and medicines with white phosphorus shells. Israeli strikes also destroyed over 200 factories and food processing plants, including the largest functioning grain mill in Gaza (19). The DEC appeal, by providing some simple facts such as the lack of clean drinking water and levels of malnutrition and suffering in Gaza, was an embarrassment for Israeli government PR men, which is probably why they demanded the BBC drop it.

I’ve provided independent and reliable sources for all the above claims. So what are the sources Mr Tiefenbrun and others have for their claims that all this is ‘propaganda’ by ‘apologists’ for terrorists? ; The Israeli government and military maybe? Certainly if he was listening to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert then the Israeli military are “the most moral, the most high-minded military forces in the world” (20). Unfortunately as Professor Norman Finkelstein has pointed out, even Himmler and the SS claimed they were upholding the highest moral standards and only regretfully doing what was necessary to protect the German people (21). What the Israeli military has done in Gaza is not a Holocaust but statements about how moral you are don’t magically make every action you take right even when you’re targeting civilians either.

Mr Tiefenbrun derides “closed minds”. If he believes the Israeli government, one of the sides in the conflict, are an unbiased source, while the UN, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch aren’t, then perhaps he’s the one who has a closed mind and prefers ignorance to unpleasant facts. You might even say that “his ignorance is matched only by his colossal arrogance”. Stating the facts is “beyond the pale” to him; a telling phrase, since it was first used by colonists in Ireland to deride the native Irish who they looked down on as sub-humans who could be killed without guilt.

Like many others he acts as an apologist for Israeli forces’ targeting of civilians in fact free rants against those who deal with the reality and condemn both Palestinian terrorist groups and Israeli forces for targeting civilians.

“Look over there – they’re doing it too”

Other cheerleaders for the Israeli blockade and offensive have returned to the time honoured practice of the Israeli lobby – shouting ‘look over there, they’re doing it too, so why are you picking on me?’ ; so Sudanese war crimes in Sudan, Sri Lankan ones against Tamils and the Iraq war are raised as if these somehow make Israeli war crimes against civilians justifiable.

“They asked for it by voting Hamas”

Saying that Gazans asked for whatever they got by voting for Hamas has also become fashionable. This is idiotic in several ways. First hundreds of the dead are children too young to vote. Second half the population didn’t vote for Hamas. Third it’s hypocrisy. Israelis have repeatedly elected war criminals like Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert and even former terrorists like Begin – yet no-one suggested that because of this Israeli civilians deserved to be suicide bombed because some of them voted for war criminals.

“Evil Hamas are the problem, but we’d talk to Fatah”

Then there’s the story that Hamas are evil but Fatah are good. This is just the continuation of the divide and rule strategy whereby in the past, when the PLO and Fatah were dominant in Palestinian politics, Israel backed Hamas to divide Palestinians (21). This is also hypocrisy again. When Israelis elected people with a long record of committing and ordering war crimes, from Deir Yassin to Qibya to Sabra and Shatila, like Sharon, no-one suggested Palestinians couldn’t be expected to negotiate with them.

“We are entirely good, They are entirely Evil”

The biggest problem is the problem with any kind of nationalistic or religious jingoism – the attempt to pretend that “our side” are entirely morally good while the enemy are entirely “evil” and that any wrong done by our side either didn’t happen or else was all the fault of the “evil ones”. The reality is that there are very very few people who are entirely good or evil and pretty much no entire countries which are. Pointing out that Hamas are the democratically elected government of the Palestinian Authority and that Israeli forces also target and kill civilians is not a statement that Israel is evil and Hamas are good. It’s a simple statement of the reality – that both sides target civilians, that the stronger side (Israel’s government) has refused negotiations because it thinks it can get everything it wants by force.

“We are democrats, they are terrorists”

The Israeli government is also fond of claiming that Israel is “the only democracy in the middle east” besieged by “terrorists”. However Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East. Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority have both held plenty of democratic elections. Yet Israel prefers alliances with election rigging dictators like Mubarak of Egypt and corrupt, torturing monarchies like Saudi and Jordan, while bombing other democracies. Not only that but it routinely elects and re-elects war criminals like Sharon and Olmert and its forces target civilians as much as any terrorist group.

“We are strong, they are weak”

Another problem is the ludicrous belief that the other side will react in a way opposite to our own reaction to similar treatment. So Israelis are tough and their will is hardened by attacks that kill their soldiers civilians, but they assume that if they just kill enough Palestinians the Palestinians will surrender. You would think that six decades of Palestinians reacting to Israeli offensives that kill hundreds of them by hardening their attitudes to Israel would make Israeli politicians and generals realise the reality, but unfortunately so far only a minority do. Two, Avreh Cohen and Arieh Spitzen, were quoted by the Wall Street Journal on past Israeli backing for Hamas and on the likelihood that just as bombing Palestinians to drive Arafat and Fatah out of power led to the rise of Hamas, bombing them to drive Hamas out of power could lead to the rise of even more extreme groups like Al Qaeda (21). Perhaps, though, that’s the plan – kill enough Palestinians to make radicalize them in order to justify more bombing to “stamp out extremism”. That distracts attention to the land grab and new settlements in the West Bank. If Israel’s government really wants peace though negotiations that include Hamas are the only way forward.

(1) = Amnesty International 14th January 2009 ‘Growing calls for investigations and accountability in Gaza conflict’,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/growing-calls-investigations-and-accountability-gaza-conflict-20090114

(2) = CNN 15 Jan 2009 ‘Third-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza killed’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/15/gaza.aid.plea/
(13th paragraph reads ‘UNRWA Director John Ging denied there were any militants at the compound, and also said that at the time there was no fighting in the area.’

(3) = Human Rights Watch 2 Aug 2006 ‘Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/08/02/israellebanon-end-indiscriminate-strikes-civilians

(4) = HRW 2 Aug 2006 ‘Fatal Strikes : Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon’, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/08/02/fatal-strikes (5) = HRW 13 Sep 2006 ‘Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics - Six Attacks on Palestinian Ambulances, Paramedics’
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/09/12/israeloccupied-palestinian-territories-don-t-fire-gaza-medics

(6) = HRW Dec 2006 ‘The “Hoax” That Wasn’t:
The July 23 Qana Ambulance Attack’,
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/qana1206/index.htm

(7) = Human Rights Watch 13 Jan 2009 ‘Deprived and Endangered : Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/12/deprived-and-endangered-humanitarian-crisis-gaza-strip
(Scroll down to second third main heading ‘"OPERATION CAST LEAD" AND EXPLOSION OF THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS’ then to 4th sub-heading ‘Humanitarian Problems Due To Possible Humanitarian Law Violations’ – 2nd paragraph under it reads “Medical facilities and ambulances have also been hit by Israeli attacks, in some cases resulting in casualties among medical personnel. On January 5, Israeli forces reportedly shelled an ambulance of al-`Awda hospital in the north, seriously injuring four medical staff. On January 4, an Israeli airstrike struck an ambulance in Beit Lahiya run by the Union of Health Work Committees, funded by Oxfam, killing one paramedic, Arafa Abd al-Dayim, 33, and gravely wounding another, `Ala' Sarhan, 22. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, they were trying to evacuate a wounded person from a site attacked by an Israeli airstrike when the plane returned and struck the same site again”)

(8) = Guardian 28 Jun 2005, ‘Snipers with children in their sights’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1516362,00.html

(9) = BT’Selem eyewitness testimonies – IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Abu Muhsen -
http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Abu_Muhsen.asp

(10) = BT'Selem eyewitness testimonies - IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Daragmeh - http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Daraghmeh.asp

(11) = Summerfield, Derek ‘Palestine – The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes’,
British Medical Journal 16 October 2004 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7471/924?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Derek+Summerfield+Palestine&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

(12) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli troops say they were given shoot-to-kill order’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563476,00.html

(13) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli soldiers tell of indiscriminate killings by army and a culture of impunity’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563255,00.html

(14) = Independent 15 Nov 2008 ‘Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel-1019521.html

(15) = Observer 21 Dec 2008 ‘Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food',
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/israel-gaza-strip-middle-east

(16) = UN Department of Public Information 03 Feb 2009 ‘More supplies must be allowed to enter Gaza, says UN’, http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/47d4e277b48d9d3685256ddc00612265/eb20a38860c16537852575520070a134!OpenDocument

(17) = AP 08 Jan 2009 ‘UN curbs Gaza aid after trucks hit by Israeli fire’,
9th paragraph reads “"We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness, announcing the suspension. The U.N. is the largest aid provider in Gaza.”

(18) = Guardian 10 Jan 2009 ‘Ban on foreign journalists skews coverage of conflict’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-israel-reporters-foreign-journalists

(19) = Guardian 26 Jan 2009 ‘Hamas offers $52m handouts to help hardest-hit Gazans’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/hamas-payout-gaza-infrastructure

(20) = Norman Finkelstein (1995) ‘ Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict’, (2nd edition), Verso, London & NY, 2003, chapter 4 , pages 112-116 of paperback edition

(21) = Wall Street Journal 24 Jan 2009 ‘How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas’,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

copyright©Duncan M McFarlane 2009

There were Israeli war crimes in Jenin

One of the least unsettling photos taken of Jenin after the Israeli attack on it in April 2002 - for more see Sandiego Indymedia here

It’s become common for those people who think Israeli forces can do no wrong to claim that claims of war crimes in Jenin and Nablus in 2002 were later “discredited” or “proven untrue” – and even that this proved the UN and human rights groups were “unreliable” sources of information. This is then used as supposed evidence to claim Israeli forces have not targeted civilians more recently either.

There is a tiny grain of truth to these claims which has been exaggerated so massively that the resulting claims are completely untrue. The tiny grain is that Amnesty International initially believed hundreds of civilians had been killed in Jenin refugee camp and called this a “massacre”, but after further investigations it and other groups found the number killed in Jenin itself was not hundreds but twenty-two. In the entire ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ which covered Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere 497 Palestinians were killed (according to Amnesty and the UN), including over 70 children (according to Amnesty). Physicians for Human Rights said around 38% of the dead were children, disabled or over 50 years old (1),(2),(3),(4), (5).

If you want to play with words on the definition of “massacre” then whether hundreds or dozens of civilians were killed could make a difference, but the fact remains that Israeli forces targeted and killed dozens of civilians including ambulance crews. They had also fired on ambulances earlier in the same year (6)

During the Israeli assaults on refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin in 2002 there were initially allegations of the massacre of hundreds of civilians from some Palestinians. Amnesty international began an investigation and initially said that the forensic evidence they had so far seemed to corroborate the allegations.

In their final report however they, along with Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, found that dozens, rather than hundreds of civilians had been killed by Israeli forces, along with dozens of armed combatants.

There were also armed Palestinian combatants killed, but this does not justify what was done to civilians. Eyewitness testimony from Israeli soldiers and Palestinians confirmed that Israeli forces had bulldozed many houses without warning, killing many Palestinians. Other unarmed civilians were forced to walk ahead of Israeli forces as human shields or shot or run over by tanks in the middle of the street – including at least one disabled person in a wheel chair. Ambulances, medics and aid organizations were prevented from bringing wounded Palestinians to hospital and even fired on and killed. Journalists were also banned from the area until days after the offensive ended.

For instance B’T selem took this testimony from Israeli soldier Moshe Nissim who drove a bulldozer at Jenin.

“They called out on a bullhorn to warn the residents before I came. But I didnt give anybody a chance. I didn’t wait. I didnt strike once and wait for them to leave. I would smash the house really hard so that it would collapse as quickly as possible…Everything I did was according to orders.” (5)

These are all quite clearly war crimes – a mixture of deliberately targeting civilians, not making any attempt to avoid killing civilians and using them as human shields. The fact that dozens rather than hundreds were killed in this way does not erase these crimes from history. Nor can Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

What’s more Amnesty reported that “Throughout the period 4-15 April, the IDF denied access to Jenin refugee camp to all, including medical doctors and nurses, ambulances, humanitarian relief services, human rights organizations, and journalists.” (2). So Israeli forces had 12 days in which to move or bury bodies – and bulldozers to do it with. So the 22 civilians Human Rights Watch found solid evidence of being killed in Jenin, like the 70 children cited by Amnesty for Operation Defensive Shield as a whole, may have been far less than the real totals. Any Palestinian witnesses could be killed, or, even more easily, dismissed as lying Arabs – the usual response of the IDF to any claim by any Arab witness.

The UN report on ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ came to few conclusions of its own, preferring to merely summarise the different claims made by the Israeli military and government, the Palestinian authority and investigations by human rights groups, as if the two sides in the conflict were as unbiased as neutral third parties (4).

So those who claim that claims of Israeli war crimes against civilians in Jenin and Nablus in 2002 were ‘disproven’ or ‘discredited’ are mistaken at best. This is even more true for those who claim this ‘proves’ the UN and all human rights groups are unreliable sources.

(1) = BBC 18 Apr 2002 ‘Jenin 'massacre evidence growing'’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1937048.stm

(2) = Amnesty International 2002 ‘Israel and the Occupied Territories
Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus’,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/143/2002/en/dom-MDE151432002en.html

(3) = Human Rights Watch May 2002 ‘Jenin: IDF Military Operations’,
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/israel3/

(4) = UN 2002 ‘Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant
to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10’,
http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html ; On the 497 Palestinians killed on the Operation see Paragraph 37 Section E;
For figures from Physicians for Human Rights see Paragraph 57

(5) = B’Tselem 2002 ‘OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD
Palestinian Testimonies , Soldiers’ Testimonies’,
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:qZPp4XdKIKwJ:www.btselem.org/Download/200207_Defensive_Shield_Eng.pdf+Jenin+2002&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&lr=lang_en&inlang=en

(6) = B’Tselem Mar 2002 ‘Impeding Medical Treatment and Firing at Ambulances
by IDF Soldiers in the Occupied Territories’,
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:OmUwaNktodIJ:www.btselem.org/Download/200203_Medical_Treatment_Eng.rtf+Jenin+2002&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=32&lr=lang_en&inlang=en

Operation Kill Children to Boost Poll Ratings Achieves Partial Success

Pity it Tripled deaths from rocket attacks; but there are glimmers of hope

We can all relax now that Operation Kill Children to Boost Poll Ratings has achieved partial success. Barak and Livni now have their chances to be the next Israeli Prime minister who bombs and starves Gazans rather than Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s a triumph for humanity (1,2).

Cynics point out that the offensive actually increased rocket attacks. The Israeli Foreign Ministry website shows one Israeli civilian was killed by rocket attacks in the six months before the offensive, while three were killed in the three weeks during it (3).The cynics miss the point though. Reducing rocket attacks was never the aim.

More Palestinians have been radicalized by a thousand deaths and Israeli spokesmen have been able to claim that it’s the ‘undemocratic’ Hamas, not their own government, which has refused to negotiate. That may be the opposite of the truth and Hamas may be elected, but who cares. Israel “won”;the Labour-Kadima governing coalition matched Likud in the polls; the untermenschen Israeli Arab parties are banned from the next election (edit - a law later over-turned in Israeli courts) and the settlement of the West Bank continues. Palestinians are again relegated to their assigned roles of being ethnically cleansed and used as an enemy to rally Israeli voters against (4 – 11).

The Israeli government can also continue to propagandise about being the "only democracy in the Middle East", even while (yet again) trying to overthrow the democratically elected government of one of the other two (the Palestinian Authority) by force and repeatedly trying the same in the other (Lebanon).

There are some glimmers of hope though - Barack Obama has announced his administration will talk to Hamas, which would make it hard for the Israeli government to justify not acccepting offers of talks, especially if Obama threatens a cut in financial aid and arms shipments behind the scenes, as even George Bush Senior did when he was President (12).

Many people have also begun their own boycotts of Israeli produce and some company directors, including, I'm proud to say, one of my own relatives, have said their firms won't trade with Israel as long as the slaughter of civilians continues. So even if governments fail to put sufficient pressure on the Israeli government their citizens might yet do it.

(1) = Haaretz 31 Dec 2009 ‘Poll: Most Israelis support continuing Gaza military op’,
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051852.html

(2) = BBC News 08 Jan 2009 ‘Israelis back Gaza action - for now’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7816794.stm (see last two sections under sub-headings ‘Ratings War’ and ‘High Stakes’)

(3)= Israel Foreign Ministry ‘Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism since September 2000’, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Terrorism+sinc.htm

(4) = Telegraph 09 Feb 2006 ‘Hamas offers deal if Israel pulls out’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1510074/Hamas-offers-deal-if-Israel-pulls-out.html

(5) = Guardian 4 Mar 2006 , ‘Hamas says peace possible at Moscow talks’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1723217,00.html

(6) = Guardian 22 Jun 2006 ‘Climbdown as Hamas agrees to Israeli state’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1803184,00.html

(7) = Ynet news (Israel) 22 Dec 2007 ‘Report: Hamas weighing unconditional truce with Israel’, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3485394,00.html

(8) = IHT 23 Dec 2007 ‘Israel rejects Hamas request for cease-fire talks’,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/23/africa/hamas.php

(9) Guardian.co.uk 21 April 2008 ‘We can accept Israel as neighbour, says Hamas’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/israel

(10) = Khaled Hroub (2006) ‘Hamas : A beginner’s guide’ , Pluto Press, London, 2006

(11) = Haaretz (Israel) 13 Jan 2009 ‘Israel bans Arab parties from running in upcoming elections’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054867.html

(12) = 09 Jan 2009 'Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'',
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/barack-obama-gaza-hamas

Seven lies that kill – and the truth on Israel , Palestine, Gaza, Fatah , Hamas and the West Bank

The continuing killing in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel can only happen thanks to seven lies which prevent negotiations and allow the killing to go on as long as enough people believe them.

There's an easier to read version of this post with contents links and links to footnoted sources on my website on this link

Lie One : Hamas are merely a terrorist group that took power by force

Condoleezza Rice told the UN Security Council, Hamas is “a terrorist organization” which came to power in Gaza by force. In fact Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and they, not President Abbas of Fatah, have the power under the Palestinian constitution to form a government. The Israeli campaign aims at overthrowing the elected government, like the US campaign against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 80s (1)– (8).

Fatah forces backed by the US, Israel and Egypt, attempted a coup in late 2007, after Israel refused to lift sanctions on a Fatah-Hamas coalition government. It failed in Gaza but succeeded in the West Bank (9) (10), (11), (12).

Another part of this lie is that Hamas members are all armed terrorists who aim to kill all non-Muslims. In fact apart from their armed or terrorist wing Hamas are also a political party and run hospitals and schools for Palestinians of all religions and none (13).

Lie Two : Hamas refuse to negotiate with Israel and aims to destroy it

In fact Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshal, two of the most senior Hamas leaders, have repeatedly said they could co-exist with Israel if Israel’s government ratified a peace agreement on a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank and a majority of Palestinians voted to approve the agreement in a referendum (polls show they would).Haniyeh has also repeatedly offered negotiations with Israel throught 2006, 2007 and 2008 . Hamas leaders are well aware that their machine guns and rockets will never defeat thousands of Israeli tanks, jets, helicopters and artillery units (14) – (20) .

Prime Minister Olmert of Israel has repeatedly refused any negotiations unless Hamas first recognises Israel in its current borders (i.e including the occupied West Bank without any Israeli commitment to recognise a viable Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank in accordance with UN resolution 242 and others) , gives up violence (which Israel won’t do, even during ceasefires) and abides by the Oslo Accords (which Israel has failed to, continuing to take Palestinian land and destroy Palestinian houses at gunpoint in the West Bank). (14) – (20) .

Lie Three : Israeli forces don’t target civilians

The driver of the U.N. truck died immediately; another worker in the truck died later of his wounds. The truck…in northern Gaza, was marked with the U.N. flag and insignia….We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness...

AP 08 Jan 2009 (24).

In fact Human Rights Watch, the UN, Oxfam, Amnesty international, the ICRC and Israeli human rights group B’T Selem have reported Israeli forces killing civilians including aid workers and ambulance crews in clearly marked ambulances and UN trucks and buildings; bombing the houses of Hamas leaders, killing their families and children with them – and using Palestinian civilians as human shields, as in past wars. So deliberate targeting of civilians has been at least as big a factor as much as “collateral damage” in killing over 250 women and children in Gaza and certainly many more adult male civilians along with Hamas rocket teams and gunmen (21) – (44) .

Comparisons with Hezbollah’s use of human shields supposedly causing civilian deaths in Lebanon in2006 have been rife. The trouble with that is that Human Rights Watch investigations found that wasn’t the cause of most of the civilian deaths in Lebanon.

“Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said …The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.”(45).

Most civilian deaths in Gaza now and in past Israeli wars are similarly caused by Israeli forces targeting civilians along with combatants as sources (21) to (45) show.

Lie Four : Military action reduces deaths from terrorist attacks and can weaken or destroy extremist groups

As with every previous military strike attacks on Israeli civilians have increased since the offensive began. The Israeli foreign ministry’s website shows one Israeli was been killed by rocket attacks by Palestinian groups firing from Gaza in the six months before the offensive (partly the result of the Israeli blockade and its violation of a ceasefire agreement by bombings killing Hamas members and civilians on November 5th). It three Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian rocket fire in the 18 days since the offensive began (46) , (47), (48).

As for “destroying” or “weakening” Hamas are there really people with decades of experience in the Israeli military and government who could have failed so completely to learn from experience as to believe bombing and shelling can do this?

Hezbollah didn’t even exist before Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon in 1982. Over the subsequent two decades of occupation it grew stronger thanks to Israeli military torture, killings of civilians and backing of nationalist militias against Hezbollah (much like its current backing of Fatah’s armed wing against Hamas in a similar strategy of divide and conquer ) (49), (50), (51), (52), (53) .

Hamas itself won the 2006 elections partly thanks to Ariel Sharon’s campaign of sanctions, bombing and invasion which attempted to overthrow Arafat’s Fatah government by force, declaring that Fatah were terrorists who couldn’t be negotiated with. That, financial corruption among Fatah’s leaders and their willingness to give information on Hamas to the Israeli military all contributed to their election defeat.

Why do Israeli planners and policy makers believe that Palestinians will give in if their fighters and civilians are killed any more than Israelis would after a suicide bombing?
Did 9-11 make Americans surrender to Al Qaeda? Of course not – it made them rally behind the extreme policies of the Bush administration.

Inflicting extreme suffering on Palestinian civilians in Gaza similarly makes them more likely to join and support extremist groups like Hamas’ armed wing – and if the bombing and sanctions continue maybe Islamic Jihad and Hizb Ut Tahrir, who, unlike Hamas’ political leaders, will make no compromises on talks with or co-existence with Israel.

Lies Five and Six : Israel has abided by the Oslo Accords and There’s Peace in the West Bank

In fact negotiations with President Abbas of Fatah in the West Bank have made no progress, partly because they can’t without Hamas, who got 45% of the vote to Fatah’s 42% in the 2006 elections – and partly because there is no peace in the West Bank because Israeli settlers and the Israeli military are killing Palestinians, destroying their homes and taking their land and water. Fatah have called the continued settlement building “a slap in the face to the Peace Process”. One hundred and thirty-one Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in 2008, many as the Israeli army watched and did nothing. Palestinian homes have been bulldozed and Israeli settlements keep expanding and new ones are built. All of the settlers removed from Gaza with such televised wailing and theatrics were given $250,000 compensation each and re-settled on Palestinian land in the West Bank. The barrier wall keeps being built, annexing Palestinian farmland and leaving farmers with nothing (54) – (61).

Israeli forces have also killed unarmed Palestinians in the West Bank who were protesting against the bombing of Gaza (62) – (64).

The Gaza fighting provides a convenient distraction from Israel’s total failure to abide by the terms of the Oslo peace agreements, which called for an end to new settlements or the expansion of existing ones in the West Bank. Failure to sign up to the Oslo agreements is one of the charges levelled at Hamas by Israel and “the international community” (the EU, US, Chinese and Russian governments).

Lie Seven : The Israeli blockade of Gaza lets plenty of supplies in and causes no civilian suffering or deaths

Fifth, that the Israeli blockade of Gaza lets enough supplies in. In fact the UN reports severe shortages and many Palestinians searching rubbish dumps for food (65), (66). In 2007 five Palestinians in Gaza drowned in sewage because Israel wont allow spare parts for sewage treatment plants. The World Bank say a similar crisis now risks killing 10,000 people (67), (68).

What we can do

We simply need to challenge these lies and keep responding to them with the truth every time someone makes one of these claims. Repeating these lies or refusing to challenge them results in more civilian deaths in another war that doesn’t need fought.

(1) = US Department of State 08 Jan 2009, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ‘Remarks at the UN Security Council Session on the Situation in the Middle East’,
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009/01/113698.htm ; back

(3rd sentence of 5th paragraph reads ‘Eighteen months ago, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup’)

(2) = Associated Press 26 Jan 2006 , ‘Hamas Wins Landslide 76 Seats’, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/international/i094327S41.DTL&feed=rss.news

(3) = House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/17 ; 15 Mar 2006 , ‘The Palestinian Parliamentary Election and the rise of Hamas’, http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2006/rp06-017.pdf (see Section C, page 12 ‘Conduct of the Elections’ – also note the paper mistakenly gives the date of the elections as January 2005 – this must be a typo – the parliamentary elections were a year later)

(4) = Political Risk Monitor – Special Coverage - The January 2006 Palestinian Elections , ‘Palestinian elections: MEPs hail success of democratic process but urge Hamas to take the path of peace’, http://www.politicalriskmonitor.com/hamas/electobserv.shtml

(5) = Europa (EU) News Service 27 Jan 2006 ‘Palestinian elections: MEPs hail success of democratic process but urge Hamas to take the path of peace’, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-4661-026-01-04-903-20060124IPR04643-26-01-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm

(6) = BBC News 9 Feb 2007 , ‘Palestinian rivals in unity deal’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6344297.stm

(7) = NPR 18 Mar 2007, ‘Israel Rejects Palestinians' Unity Deal’, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8983689

(8) = FMEP/Reuters 9 July 2007, ‘Abbas Exceeded Powers in Sacking Government’,
http://www.fmep.org/analysis/analysis/abbas-exceeded-powers-in-sacking-government

(9) = Haaretz (Israel) 28 Dec 2006 , ‘Israeli defense official: Fatah arms transfer bolsters forces of peace’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/806603.html ; back

(10) = Christian Science Monitor 25 May 2007, ‘Israel, US, and Egypt back Fatah's fight against Hamas’, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0525/p07s02-wome.html

(11) = Guardian 26 Jun 2007, ‘A thankless task with four bosses and no office’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2111447,00.html

(12) = Israel Today 18 Jun 2007, ‘Bush to replace arms Fatah surrendered to Hamas’, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13150

(13) = Khaled Hroub (2006) ‘Hamas : A beginner’s guide’ , Pluto Press, London, 2006; >(13)

(14) = Telegraph 09 Feb 2006 ‘Hamas offers deal if Israel pulls out’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1510074/Hamas-offers-deal-if-Israel-pulls-out.html
; back

(15) = Guardian 4 Mar 2006 , ‘Hamas says peace possible at Moscow talks’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1723217,00.html

(16) = Guardian 22 Jun 2006 ‘Climbdown as Hamas agrees to Israeli state’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1803184,00.html

(17) = Ynet news (Israel) 22 Dec 2007 ‘Report: Hamas weighing unconditional truce with Israel’, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3485394,00.html

(18) = IHT 23 Dec 2007 ‘Israel rejects Hamas request for cease-fire talks’,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/23/africa/hamas.php

(19) Guardian.co.uk 21 April 2008 ‘We can accept Israel as neighbour, says Hamas’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/israel

(20) = Khaled Hroub (2006) ‘Hamas : A beginner’s guide’ , Pluto Press, London, 2006

(21) = Amnesty International 08 Jan 2009 ‘Gaza civilians endangered by the military tactics of both sides’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/gaza-civilians-endangered-military-tactics-both-sides-20090108 (2nd paragraph reads ‘“Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “This clearly increases the risk to the Palestinian families concerned and means they are effectively being used as human shields.”’) ; Back

(22) = UNoCHA 012 Jan 2009 ‘FIELD UPDATE ON GAZA FROM THE HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR 12 January 2009, 1700 hours’,
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_humanitarian_situation_report_2009_01_12_english.pdf

Under ‘Protection of Civilians’ on first page reads “The Palestinian Red Crescent Society suspended activities in the Al Zeitoun and Al Atatra regions as of 11 January after their ambulances were exposed to gunfire in those regions (on 9 and 10 January, respectively), injuring two ambulance personnel and damaging one ambulance. The Palestinian

Medical Relief Society reported on 11 January that their two mobile clinics, normally serving more than 42 Gaza communities, have not been operating since 28 December due to insecurity. Twelve medical personnel have been killed since 27 December.

The Palestinian civilian casualty rate continues to increase. Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) figures as of 1600 hours 12 January are 910 Palestinians dead, of whom 292 are children and 75 are women (correction: 71 as of 11 January). The number of injured stands at 4,250, of whom 1,497 are children and 626 are women.”

(23) = The Herald January 6 2009 ‘‘The killings came as a complete shock’’, http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2478359.0.The_killings_came_as_a_complete_shock.php

(24) = AP 08 Jan 2009 ‘UN curbs Gaza aid after trucks hit by Israeli fire’,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95J82Q00 ,
9th paragraph reads “"We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness, announcing the suspension. The U.N. is the largest aid provider in Gaza.” ; Back

(25) = Guardian 02 Jan 2009 ‘Israeli bomb kills Hamas leader and six of his family’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/02/hamas-leader-death-israel-bombing

(26) = IRIN 29 Dec 2008 ‘ISRAEL-OPT: Dire humanitarian situation looms in Gaza’,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82131,
(see under sub-heading ‘Air Strikes’ – ‘"Eight students from Gaza Vocational Training Centre in Gaza City were killed and 20 injured? by an air strike," said UNRWA [UN Palestinian agency for refugees] spokesperson Sami Mshasha. "Two UNRWA teachers were also killed.")

(27) = UNISPAL 06 Jan 2009 ‘DIRECT HIT ON UNRWA SCHOOL KILLS THREE IN GAZA’,
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/766674819c81f04a852575360053c075!OpenDocument

(28) = UNISPAL 06 Jan 2009 ‘Dozens killed in strikes on UN schools in Gaza’,
http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/92efe566c5e0db4c852575360065480d!OpenDocument

(29) = Haaretz 07 Jan 2009 ‘UN rejects IDF claim Gaza militants operated from bombed-out school’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053455.html(30) = Oxfam 4 Jan 2009 ‘Gaza: Oxfam supported health worker killed, ambulance destroyed’,
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=2906

(31) = BBC News Online 23 Feb 2007 , ‘UN envoy hits Israel 'apartheid'’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6390755.stm (UN special rapporteur John Dugard on Palestinian terrorist war crimes and Israeli war crimes)

(32) = UN Human Rights Council 8 Jun 2007 ; Fourth session Item 2 of the provisional agenda ; IMPLEMENTATION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 60/251 OF 15 MARCH 2006 ENTITLED “HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL” ; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard’, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=91 (ditto, Dugard reporting Israeli war crimes against civilians “on a much greater scale” than Palestinian ones)

(33) = UNRWA 10 Dec 2002 ‘Ten killed in Gaza including two UNRWA staff’,
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/3c74b0acd9085fc385256c8700539476

(34) = BBC News 06 Dec 2005 ‘British UN worker unlawfully shot’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/4534620.stm

(35) = Jessica Montell, Executive Director of B’Tselem (2004) ‘‘The search for truth: human rights documentation in the war of representation’ In
Humanitarian Exchange Magazine Issue 28 Nov 2004,
http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2667

(36) = Haaretz (Israel) 12 Oct 2004 ‘IDF admits Qassam was not transported in UN ambulance’,
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0410b&L=fofognet&P=2138

(37) = UNISPAL/Human Rights Watch 13 Sep 2006 ‘Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics ; Six Attacks on Palestinian Ambulances, Paramedics’,
http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.nsf/0145a8233e14d2b585256cbf005af141/088e7c424b63cc19852571ea00536864!OpenDocument

(38) = Observer 3 Feb 2002, ‘Hatred sown in a carer's heart' http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4348774-102275,00.html

(39) = Guardian 28 Jun 2005, ‘Snipers with children in their sights’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1516362,00.html

(40) = BT’Selem eyewitness testimonies – IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Abu Muhsen -
http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Abu_Muhsen.asp

(41) = BT'Selem eyewitness testimonies - IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Daragmeh - http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Daraghmeh.asp

(42) = Summerfield, Derek ‘Palestine – The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes’,
British Medical Journal 16 October 2004 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7471/924?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Derek+Summerfield+Palestine&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

(43) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli troops say they were given shoot-to-kill order’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563476,00.html

(44) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli soldiers tell of indiscriminate killings by army and a culture of impunity’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563255,00.html

(45) = Human Rights Watch Aug 2006 ‘Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/08/02/israellebanon-end-indiscriminate-strikes-civilians
; Back

(46) = Israel Foreign Ministry ‘Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism since September 2000’, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Terrorism+sinc.htm ; Back

(47) = NYT 19 Dec 2006 ‘Gaza Truce May Be Revived by Necessity’,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Ethan%20Bronner%20December%202008%20gaza&st=cse

(48) = Guardian 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians

(49) = BBC News 23 May 2000 ‘Q & A: Leaving Lebanon’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/636594.stm ; Back

(50) = Morris, Benny(1999) ‘Righteous Victims – A History of the Arab Israeli Conflict’ , John Murray, London , 2000 (hardback)edition, Chapter 12 especially pages 552-560

(51) = Time magazine 28 Jun 2006, 'Will Hizballah Go To War for Iran?', http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1208916,00.html

(52) = BBC News 25 Jan 2007, 'Who are Hamas?', http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1654510.stm

(53) = Robert Fisk (1990) ‘Pity the Nation : Lebanon at War’ 3rd edition, OUP, Oxford & NY, 2001

(54) = UNOCHA Dec 2008 ‘Unprotected: Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians and their property’, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settler_vilonce_special_focus_2008_12_18.pdf ; (54)

(55) = Amnesty International 11 Mar 2008 ‘Palestinian homes demolished without warning’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/palestinian-homes-demolished-without-warning-20080311

(56) = UN radio 11 Mar 2008 ‘UN envoy alarmed at Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes’, http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/35534.html

(57) = Independent 10 Mar 2008 ‘Israel defies freeze on illegal settlements’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-defies-freeze-on-illegal-settlements-793685.html

(58) = BBC News 02 Mar 2004 ‘Israeli settlement building grows’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3526791.stm

(59) = BBC News 27 Dec 2006 ‘Israel approves W Bank settlement’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6210721.stm

(60) = Guardian 06 Dec 2008 ‘Footage shows settlers shooting two Palestinians’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/06/settlers-shoot-palestinians-west-bank

(61) = Also see sources at the bottom of this page

(62) = Reuters 4 Jan 2009 ‘Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian WBank protester’,
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL4619326 ; Back

(63) = AP 03 Jan 2009 ‘Worldwide protests staged against Israel's offensive in Gaza’
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtStEng.jhtml?itemNo=1052263&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&title='Protests%20against%20Gaza%20assault%20sweep%20the%20Mideast'&dyn_server=172.20.5.5 – “Protests erupted as well in the Palestinian territories. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands demonstrated in solidarity with Gazans, calling for Palestinian unity and accusing Arab leaders of silence over Israel's bombardment”

(64) = The Herald January 6 2009 ‘‘The killings came as a complete shock’’,
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2478359.0.The_killings_came_as_a_complete_shock.php

(65) = UN 29 Dec 2008 ‘PRESS CONFERENCE on situation in gaza’,
http://un.org/News/briefings/docs/2008/081229_Gaza.doc.htm
(4th paragraph includes ‘Because of the blockade that had been in place for months and the recent tightening of that blockade, the stocks of some vital items were very low or non-existent. Today, however, around 60 truckloads of goods had been allowed in, including 4 trucks of medical supplies for UNRWA and 18 trucks of food supplies for UNRWA and the World Food Programme (WFP). UNRWA needed about 100 trucks of wheat flour a day’) ; Back

(66) = Observer 21 Dec 2008 ‘Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food'’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/israel-gaza-strip-middle-east

(67) = Times 27 Mar 2007 ‘Five dead in Gaza 'sewage tsunami'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1576633.ece
; Back

(68) = AFP 07 Jan 2008 ‘Threats to Gaza sewage put 10,000 lives at risk: World Bank’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazahumanitariansewage_newsmlmmd

copyright©Duncan McFarlane2008

Rice Lies; A hundred children and aid workers die

I suppose we should be grateful that, for once, the US government has been shamed into not vetoing a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (while continuing to arm and fund Israel's offensives).

Listening to bare-faced lies from the soon to be -ex US Secretary of State riles me though - especially when those lies have become accepted widely as truth through mere repetition and are being used to try to justify the targeting of civilians, ambulance crews and UN aid workers in a campaign to overthrow an elected

government by force.

Condoleezza Rice told the UN Security Council yesterday that Hamas is a ‘terrorist organisation’ which came to power in Gaza “in a military coup…18 months ago.” (0) That’s a lie.

Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority’s legislature in elections judged free and fair by EU observers in January(1), (2),(3),(4). That makes Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas the democratically elected Palestinian Prime Minister. Hamas are involved in terrorism but remain the elected government just as President Bush and Ehud Olmert remain the elected heads of their governments despite their involvement in war crimes killing civilians.

Sanctions imposed on the entire Palestinian authority by the US, EU, Israel, Russia, China and Arab dictatorships to force Hamas out of office led to civil war between Hamas and Fatah. These governments even vetoed a coalition government formed by Hamas and Fatah in June 2007 (5), (6).

Then the US, Israel and Egypt organised an attempted military coup against Hamas by Fatah forces armed, trained and funded by them. This coup attempt succeeded in the West Bank but was defeated in Gaza (7), (8), (9), (10).

The situation is similar to the one in Nicaragua in the 80s and 90s when the Reagan and Bush senior administrations denounced the Sandinistas, who overthrew the dictator Somoza before winning fair elections, as “terrorists” while sanctioning Nicaragua and funding a campaign of rape, murder, torture and bombings by Contra “freedom fighters”.

Fatah’s leadership are as corrupt as Somoza was.

The toll of the latest attempt to overthrow the elected Palestinian government by sanctions and force includes 101 children dead and 1,000 wounded according to UNoCHA and UN aid workers are being shot by Israeli forces along with ambulance crews, but no doubt we’ll hear that’s entirely Hamas’ fault and nothing to do with the Israeli forces that killed them (11), (12), (13).

(0) = US Department of State 08 Jan 2009, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ‘Remarks at the UN Security Council Session on the Situation in the Middle East’,
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009/01/113698.htm

(3rd sentence of 5th paragraph reads ‘Eighteen months ago, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup’)

(1) = Associated Press 26 Jan 2006 , ‘Hamas Wins Landslide 76 Seats’, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/international/i094327S41.DTL&feed=rss.news

(2) = House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/17 ; 15 Mar 2006 , ‘The Palestinian Parliamentary Election and the rise of Hamas’, http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2006/rp06-017.pdf (see Section C, page 12 ‘Conduct of the Elections’ – also note the paper mistakenly gives the date of the elections as January 2005 – this must be a typo – the parliamentary elections were a year later)

(3) = Political Risk Monitor – Special Coverage - The January 2006 Palestinian Elections , ‘Palestinian elections: MEPs hail success of democratic process but urge Hamas to take the path of peace’, http://www.politicalriskmonitor.com/hamas/electobserv.shtml

(4) = Europa (EU) News Service 27 Jan 2006 ‘Palestinian elections: MEPs hail success of democratic process but urge Hamas to take the path of peace’, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-4661-026-01-04-903-20060124IPR04643-26-01-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm

(5) = BBC News 9 Feb 2007 , ‘Palestinian rivals in unity deal’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6344297.stm

(6) = NPR 18 Mar 2007, ‘Israel Rejects Palestinians' Unity Deal’, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8983689

(7) = Haaretz (Israel) 28 Dec 2006 , ‘Israeli defense official: Fatah arms transfer bolsters forces of peace’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/806603.html

(8) = Christian Science Monitor 25 May 2007, ‘Israel, US, and Egypt back Fatah's fight against Hamas’, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0525/p07s02-wome.html

(9) = Guardian 26 Jun 2007, ‘A thankless task with four bosses and no office’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2111447,00.html

(10) = Israel Today 18 Jun 2007, ‘Bush to replace arms Fatah surrendered to Hamas’, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13150

(11) = UNoCHA 07 Jan 2009 ‘SITUATION REPORT FROM THE HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR 7 January 2009, 1700 hours’, http://www.ochaopt.org/gazacrisis/admin/output/files/ocha_opt_gaza_humanitarian_situation_report_2009_01_07_english.pdf ,
Last sentence of 3rd paragraph reads “At least 101 children have been killed, almost one thousand injured and tens of thousands traumatized.”

(12) = Oxfam 4 Jan 2009 ‘Gaza: Oxfam supported health worker killed, ambulance destroyed’,
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=2906

(13) = AP 08 Jan 2009 ‘UN curbs Gaza aid after trucks hit by Israeli fire’,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95J82Q00
9th paragraph reads “"We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness, announcing the suspension. The U.N. is the largest aid provider in Gaza.”

Churchill, ‘Moral Courage’ and Gaza

Is Israel showing moral courage against evil or trying to justifying its atrocities against civilians by pointing to Hamas’?

Dr. Denis MacEoin ( Herald letters 6th January ) in replying to my letter of 3rd January quotes Hamas’ founding charter as proof that Hamas can’t be negotiated with. The Fatah and PLO charters don’t recognise Israel’s right to exist either though, yet Israeli negotiations with them led to many partial breakthroughs, such as the Oslo Accords, in between calling them terrorists who couldn’t be negotiated with (1), (2).

Dr. MacEoin then compares Hamas to Nazi Germany and urges us to show Churchill’s ‘moral courage’ in the face of ‘Evil’.

Palestinian rocket attacks have killed several Israeli civilians and are not justified, but apart from the fact that it’s massed Israeli tanks and bombers attacking Gaza, not Palestinian ones invading Israel, this is not a conflict of good versus evil but of wrong acts by both sides, with the stronger refusing to negotiate.

Israeli forces have deliberately starved and indiscriminately bombed the whole population of Gaza, with the UN figure of 62 civilians killed given on 29th December not including any adult men according to a UN press conference on the same day. At least 101 children have been killed and 1000 wounded by the Israeli offensive in Gaza so far, as reported by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.. This is the result of the Israeli government and military’s definition of civilian echoing that of the Bosnian Serbs at Srebrenica – i.e not ‘males of military age’. As in British Boer War concentration camps and German ones in World War Two some food has been allowed into Gaza , just not enough – so many Palestinians in Gaza now have to search rubbish tips for food (3), (3a), (4).

Israeli officers continued their long running practice of ordering the targeting of civilians – like the two unarmed youths shot dead in the West Bank for demonstrating against the Gaza strikes, the entire family of Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, whose house they bombed, killing his children; and dozens of UN staff and civilians killed in at least two clearly marked UN buildings (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11). In the last case the Israeli military made up claims about rockets fired from the UN buildings – claims which they could provide no evidence for. A supposed video of the rocket fire has not materialized (11a).

These kind of propaganda claims without any evidence are a common IDF practice. In the past they’ve claimed to have videos of UNRWA ambulances carrying missiles – claims they dropped when it was obvious it was a stretcher not a missile. Then they fell back on saying that since some UNRWA employees are also Hamas members, the UN is employing terrorists. Hamas is one of the two main Palestinian political parties though – being a member of it does not make someone a member of its armed wing – the Al Qassam Brigades – or a terrorist, any more than being a Kadima member automatically makes an Israeli a war criminal because Kadima are in government and have ordered war crimes (11b), (11c).

The missiles in ambulances story was an attempt to justify Israeli forces’ targeting of Palestinian and foreign ambulances and medics – like the Oxfam paramedic killed by Israeli fire on an ambulance in Gaza on 4th January, just as many ambulances were attacked in Gaza and in Lebanon in the 2006 war (12), (13). Every week for decades Israeli forces have been firing on ambulances, paramedics and the wounded – and ordering snipers to shoot Palestinian children in the head (14), (15), (16), (17), (18), (19), (20), (21). If that sounds incredible check the sources – British and Palestinian doctors., British journalists and Israelis who’ve fought as IDF soldiers in the West Bank.

Churchill might well have approved. He was a propagandist for the Boer War, in which concentration camps were invented to deny the Boers food by starving the whole population (22).

Churchill, who also said he approved of gassing civilians – particularly uncivilised tribes, but also had plans to use poison gas on German civilians in World War Two. He only looked good next to Hitler though; and Haniyeh is not Hitler (23), (24), (25.)

It’s easy to call the other side ‘Evil’ and claim this justifies everything ‘our’ side does and makes negotiation unthinkable. It’s not true though and it leads to more deaths. ‘Moral courage’ requires condemning wrong acts whichever side commits them and rejecting the option of using a stronger military with utter ruthlessness to punish an entire population and overthrow an elected government when negotiations are on offer.

(1) = Morris, Benny (1999), ‘Righteous Victims : A History of the Arab-Zionist Conflict’ , John Murray, New York , Chapter 12 , pages 303,365,606-608

(2) = Shlaim, Avi (2000) , ‘The Iron Wall : Israel and the Arab World’, Penguin paperback, 2000, chapter 12, page 466

(3) = UN 29 Dec 2008 ‘PRESS CONFERENCE on situation in gaza’,
http://un.org/News/briefings/docs/2008/081229_Gaza.doc.htm,
(2nd sentence of 3rd paragraph reads ‘Based on UNRWA information, 62 of the casualties were civilian casualties, a count that included only women and children, and not civilian casualties who were men.’)

(3a) = UNoCHA 07 Jan 2009 ‘SITUATION REPORT FROM THE HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR 7 January 2009, 1700 hours’,
http://www.ochaopt.org/gazacrisis/admin/output/files/ocha_opt_gaza_humanitarian_situation_report_2009_01_07_english.pdf

(4) = UN 29 Dec 2008 ‘PRESS CONFERENCE on situation in gaza’,
http://un.org/News/briefings/docs/2008/081229_Gaza.doc.htm
(4th paragraph includes ‘Because of the blockade that had been in place for months and the recent tightening of that blockade, the stocks of some vital items were very low or non-existent. Today, however, around 60 truckloads of goods had been allowed in, including 4 trucks of medical supplies for UNRWA and 18 trucks of food supplies for UNRWA and the World Food Programme (WFP). UNRWA needed about 100 trucks of wheat flour a day’)

(4a) = Observer 21 Dec 2008 ‘Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food'’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/israel-gaza-strip-middle-east

(5) = The Herald January 6 2009 ‘‘The killings came as a complete shock’’,
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2478359.0.The_killings_came_as_a_complete_shock.php

(6) = Guardian 02 Jan 2009 ‘Israeli bomb kills Hamas leader and six of his family’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/02/hamas-leader-death-israel-bombing

(7) = IRIN 29 Dec 2008 ‘ISRAEL-OPT: Dire humanitarian situation looms in Gaza’,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82131,
(see under sub-heading ‘Air Strikes’ – ‘"Eight students from Gaza Vocational Training Centre in Gaza City were killed and 20 injured? by an air strike," said UNRWA [UN Palestinian agency for refugees] spokesperson Sami Mshasha. "Two UNRWA teachers were also killed.")

(8) = UNISPAL 06 Jan 2009 ‘DIRECT HIT ON UNRWA SCHOOL KILLS THREE IN GAZA’,
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/766674819c81f04a852575360053c075!OpenDocument

(9) = UNISPAL 06 Jan 2009 ‘Dozens killed in strikes on UN schools in Gaza’,
http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/92efe566c5e0db4c852575360065480d!OpenDocument

(10) = UNRWA 10 Dec 2002 ‘Ten killed in Gaza including two UNRWA staff’,
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/3c74b0acd9085fc385256c8700539476

(11) = BBC News 06 Dec 2005 ‘British UN worker unlawfully shot’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/4534620.stm

(11a) = Haaretz 07 Jan 2009 ‘UN rejects IDF claim Gaza militants operated from bombed-out school’, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053455.html

(11b) = Jessica Montell, Executive Director of B’Tselem (2004) ‘‘The search for truth: human rights documentation in the war of representation’ In
Humanitarian Exchange Magazine Issue 28 Nov 2004,
http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2667

(11c) = Haaretz (Israel) 12 Oct 2004 ‘IDF admits Qassam was not transported in UN ambulance’,
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0410b&L=fofognet&P=2138

(12) = Oxfam 4 Jan 2009 ‘Gaza: Oxfam supported health worker killed, ambulance destroyed’,
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=2906

(13) = UNISPAL/Human Rights Watch 13 Sep 2006 ‘Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics ; Six Attacks on Palestinian Ambulances, Paramedics’,
http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.nsf/0145a8233e14d2b585256cbf005af141/088e7c424b63cc19852571ea00536864!OpenDocument

(14) = Observer 3 Feb 2002, ‘Hatred sown in a carer's heart' http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4348774-102275,00.html

(15) = Guardian 28 Jun 2005, ‘Snipers with children in their sights’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1516362,00.html

(16) = BT’Selem eyewitness testimonies – IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Abu Muhsen -
http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Abu_Muhsen.asp

(17) = BT'Selem eyewitness testimonies - IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Daragmeh - http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Daraghmeh.asp

( 18) = Summerfield, Derek ‘Palestine – The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes’,
British Medical Journal 16 October 2004 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7471/924?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Derek+Summerfield+Palestine&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT cited in Pilger, John (2006) , ‘Freedom Next Time’ , Bantam, London, 2006 , page 118

(19) = Pilger, John (2006) , ‘Freedom Next Time’ , Bantam, London, 2006 , page 126

(20) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli troops say they were given shoot-to-kill order’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563476,00.html cited by Summerfield, Derek (2005) ‘British Medical Journal Debate on Palestine continues : Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes. Israeli soldiers confirm the shoot-to-kill policy I documented’In British Medical Journal , September 2005 ,
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7518/699?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Derek+Summerfield+Palestine&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

(21) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli soldiers tell of indiscriminate killings by army and a culture of impunity’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563255,00.html

(22) = Thomas Pakenham (1999) ‘ The Boer War’, The Folio Society, London, 1999,
p613-615, 626-634 (chapters 38 & 39)

(23) = Telegraph 31 Jan 2007 ‘Churchill wanted to use gas on enemies’,
http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/WSC/gaswar.html

(24) = Guardian 28 Nov 2002 ‘The Churchill you didn't know’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2002/nov/28/features11.g21

(25) = Guenther W. Gellermann, "Der Krieg, der nicht stattfand", Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1986, pp. 249-251, http://www.codoh.com/incon/incongasmemo.html