Hypocrisy of slaughter: Israel’s Orwellian account of Gaza campaign

Family members shout in grief as they carry the body of two-year-old Palestinian Walid Abadleh, killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes, during his funeral in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)

Israel’s assault on Gaza raises doubts that it has any interest in finding the lasting peace settlement it proclaims to want. Does the campaign have an alternative objective as part of a strategy to engineer a strike on Iran?

It’s probably the world’s most tragic never-ending story.For almost 65 years now, Israel has been bombing, maiming and humiliating the Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and placing Gaza in lock-down mode turning it into the world’s largest concentration camp.

In the latest outbreak of violence this week both sides are accusing the other, “You started it!”Who knows? At this stage, does it really matter anymore who started the violence?

On Wednesday 14th, an Israeli helicopter attack killed Hamas military wing leader Ahmed Jabari, triggering a violent reaction from Hamas which rained little rockets over southern Israeli towns, which in turn brought in more Israeli air attacks killing 19, injuring 100 and leaving six children dead.

Dejá-vù: it’s January 2009’s “Operation Cast Lead” revisited; this time they’re dubbing it “Operation Pillar of Defense.”

Clearly, Israel’s right-wing leaders do not want a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians.That’s why they’ve systematically sabotaged all possibility of reaching a two-state solution.

The last honest Israeli who tried to bring peace was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, until he was gunned down in the streets of Tel-Aviv in November 1995; not by an Islamic fanatic, not by some mad Neo-Nazi, but by one Ygal Amir: an ultra-right-wing Zionist fanatic linked to both the fundamentalist Settlers’ Movement and Israel’s security agency Shin-Beth.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin speaking before a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on October 24, 1995 (AFP Photo / Bob Strong)

Since then, Israel’s extreme right-wing Apartheidists have called the shots and will continue doing so even more now that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has merged with Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu.Maybe this latest bout of Palestine-bashing is their way of celebrating their new Gross Partei…

‘Don’t worry about America…’

Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is infamously quoted as yelling to his colleagues during a heated debate in Israel’s Knesset in October 2001, that they need not worry about American reaction to Israel’s Palestine-bashing because “we the Jewish people control America!"

Watching how US politicians file through powerful Pro-Israel lobbies, think tanks and organizations like AIPAC – American Israeli Public Affairs Committee -, the ADL and others, competing to give their most impassioned and dramatic pro-Israel speeches, one is tempted to believe Mr. Sharon’s candid words.

During the recent US presidential campaign both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each tried to give their most convincing Joe Biden-like “I-am-a-Zionist” speeches, to win over not just the Jewish vote and money in America, but also the Zionist vote which is represented by many non-Jewish born-again Christians.

So, when earlier this week US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice openly supported Israel and condemned Hamas’ retaliatory attacks describing them as “violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel", one can hardly be surprised.

It doesn’t really matter who sits in the Oval office; whether Democrat or Republican, the US will always unthinkingly and unreservedly support Israel every time it decides to play a new round of Palestine-bashing.

A smoke trail of a Palestinian rocket launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel is seen on December 29, 2008 from the Israeli-Gaza border (AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana)

Naturally, US and global mainstream media willingly oblige, having succeeded in drilling deep into the collective psyche the conclusion that “Terrorism” is always linked to “Islamic Fundamentalists”.

So, Hamas is made illegitimate before we even start discussions about a two-state solution.No matter that Hamas won the democratically held 2006 elections in Palestine; no matter that Israel itself was founded by violent terrorist groups like Irgun Zvai Leumi, Stern and Hagganah which later merged to become Israel’s – oh, so democratic! – Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Those Zionist terror groups were led by Israeli founding fathers later to become prime ministers (and even a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate!) like Menahem Beguin and Isaac Shamir, who in their “freedom-fighter” days blew up hotels with dozens of people inside them, assassinated UN envoys, carried out hundreds of targeted assassinations, and imposed policies of genocide by killing and maiming hundreds of thousands, and then driving off millions of Palestinian men, women and children from their homes and land using the most barbarous terror tactics.

Israel’s logic in Palestine seems to run like this: if Israel steals lands and homes and livelihoods from the Palestinians, they have no right whatsoever to complain; and if they dare fight back, then they automatically become “terrorists”.America, the UK and most of the EU seem to agree…

Palestinian firemen extinguish fire from a building following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on December 29, 2008 (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

Good if I do it; bad if you do…

That’s why those countries have branded Hamas and Hezbollah “terrorist organizations”.

Basic political common sense, however, tells us that a nation’s armed forces – whether in the US, Russia, China, Brazil or Israel – must report to the civilian leaders of its Nation-State.But what happens if, like the Palestinians, you are not allowed to have a Nation-State?How can Palestinians defend themselves against Israel’s systematic terrorist tactics if they can’t have their own Nation-State and therefore no armed forces?That’s why Hamas and Hezbollah came into the picture to offer the prospect of some self-defense.

Sure, it’s easy to disqualify them as “terrorist organizations” but – using that same criteria – would the Western Powers today reclassify the French Resistance during world war two, for example, as a “terror organization”, simply because they refused to passively accept the German military invasion of their country?Should the Resistance have given up so as to avoid the Oberkommando in Berlin branding them as “terrorists”?

And what about the terror groups that assassinated Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year or the ones wreaking havoc in Syria right now?“Freedom fighters”, I presume, because they violently oppose non-US friendly regimes?

The West must understand that you can’t have it both ways: either the French Resistance, and Irgun and Stern, and Hamas and Hezbollah, the Syrian and Libyan uprisings are all “freedom fighters” or, they should all be branded “terrorist organizations”.You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Syrian opposition fighters celebrating on the strategic Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain, on November 15, 2012 (AFP Photo / Bulent Kilic)

All options on the table…

Going into full Baby-Bush-warmonger-mode, recently an IDF spokesman threatened not just the Palestinians but the entire world saying that for Israel, “all options are on the table…”

Powerful words coming from the only nation in the Middle East that has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and the behavioral track record that gives credibility to their willingness to use them.

So, Palestinians must brace themselves for ever increasing levels of violence in the days and weeks to come.Will this latest flare-up be used by Israel as an excuse to attack southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has its strong hold (and where Israel was routed when they last invaded Lebanon for the nth time in mid-2006)?

Are we seeing a crescendo of violence leading to armed attack on Syria in conjunction with Turkey/NATO and with the “Syrian Free Army” (aka, Al-Qaeda, CIA, Mossad, MI6)?

Is this all part of an Israeli strategy to “Secure the Realm” that has a unilateral military attack against Iran as Israel’s real and final goal?

More generalized violence in the Middle East will help to convince Obama (and the US military) to stop dragging their feet on Iran and to come on strong again in the region.

Israel is calling this latest shock and awe attack “Operation Pillar of Defense.” A Good Orwellian euphemism for Palestine-Bashing.

If Israel has decided to let all hell lose in the Middle East to set the stage for an attack against Iran, then it becomes clear that the violence should start (yet again!!) in martyred Palestine.

OK, so Israel starts a new Middle Eastern war in Palestine but… where does it end?

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Back in the United States from the Front lines Palestine

From: Mazin Qumsiyeh

Back safely after over three weeks of bittersweet experiences in Palestine,
it is only proper to start by telling you about how I felt on touchdown at
JFK Airport in New York.  My mind was swimming in a set of emotions ranging
from positive anticipation of being back to our house in CT (harvesting our
tomatoes, checking on our cat etc) to thinking about accumulated work that
has to be cleared (both professionally for my job to all the needed stack of
work for human rights issues that went unanswered as we were away).   My
thoughts were interrupted as the Royal Jordanian airline captain announced
that passengers must prepare passports for inspection at the airplane door's
exit.  We recalled the unforgettable experience of three years ago when I
was unfairly detained after precisely such an announcement (details of that
incident are posted at http://www.qumsiyeh.org/caseclosed/).  My wife and I
quickly consulted on how to respond if I was the target in this case.  We
decided that I was to again (and even more forcefully) insist on my rights
as a US citizen and she was to try to document (including photograph if
possible) the event. My wife was questioned on why she had a video camera on
but then let go to proceed with detention of the wanted man. At first I felt
a relief that it was not me they wanted but then I felt bad for that
Palestinian man who they might try to intimidate like they did me three
years ago and who may not pursue his rights as vigorously as I did then. It
would be good for ADC, CAIR, ACLU and other groups to gather stats on this
kind of questioning.  It is also important for all US citizens to get
involved and informed about the increasing attempts at what can only be
described as the Zionization of the USA (slowly turning it into a police
state while draining its resources; see action alert below).

On the drive back to CT from NY, there was lots of time to think of all the
brave and honest people we met along the way.  Here is just a sampling of
those:

* The great folks at Romana Charitable Association (in a village in the
northern tip of the West Bank) who gave us a tour of villages impacted by
the wall and who delivered services that focused on education to their
community.
* The Tayba village folks who get "visited" (i.e. harassed) after we left by
the Israeli army for letting us tour their land which comes close to the
apartheid wall.  (An Israeli army jeep stopped and asked us forcefully to
leave at the time of our visit).
* The doctors at Jenin hospital who work tirelessly under unimaginable
conditions.
* The few remaining shopkeepers in Hebron who try against all odds to resist
the Israeli ethnic cleansing of their neighborhoods.  A recent story on this
appeared in LA Times, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg -resist1aug01,0,4948926.story?page=2&coll=la-home-world
* Marwa AlSharif's wonderful family in Dura, Hebron area who were so
hospitable to us.  Marwa was a girl who came to CT in 2001 to remove a
bullet from her head (see
http://findarticles.com/p /articles/mi_m1141/is_38_37/ai_78728672 )
* George Nimr Rishmawi of the Rapprochement Center and George Saliba
Rishmawi and Michel Awad of Siraj Center for their selfless dedication to
giving internationals a good program on Palestine
* A 9 or 10-year-old girl at the bridge from hell (Allenby Bridge which is
the only border crossing open to Palestinians from the Southern part of the
West Bank). She wore a map of Palestine as a necklace and patiently helped
and consoled her younger siblings through the ordeal that lasted several
hours.
* David, a US citizen who painted murals for a school, designed a logo for
Siraj center and did countless other tasks of kindness to local Palestinians
in the Bethlehem district.  And to countless other internationals like him
who selflessly bore witness (even occasionally taking risks at certain
cites) and volunteered their efforts in countless ways (especially working
with young people).
* Hanna and Dunya and the team of Birthright unplugged who bring Jews to
visit the occupied areas and the ethically cleansed villages and learn first
hand what Zionism is all about and also take young Palestinians (in the
re-plugged programs) to visit their ancestral depopulated villages
* Dr. Walid Albasha in Jenin and Dr. Bashar Karmi in Ramallah who managed
despite all odds and restrictions by the occupation authorities to set up
excellent private scientific laboratories.
* Hundreds of individuals (relatives, friends, and new acquaintances) who
kindly hosted us, fed us, and/or attended one of the 12 lectures I gave.

I could go on and on about all the positive and energetic people we met
(literally hundreds over a very short period of time).  Naturally, there are
those fewer individuals (Israelis, Palestinians, Internationals) who are
despondent or have even given up.  But even among those, we find so many who
continue to do their work for peace or at least "do no harm" (and that must
always be the golden rule for all of us).  And naturally, there are yet
smaller numbers who indeed do harm: they include not only the Israeli
Zionist elites but also their Palestinian collaborators who profit from the
system and from endless conflicts. All of that still confirms what should be
obvious by now: the struggles are not between Israelis and Palestinians or
Shi'a and Sunni etc. but has always been between those with greed for power
and control (a mean "do-harm" minority) and the rest of humanity (the
have-nots, the oppressed majority etc). It is the latter who pay the price.

It was nice to have a chance on our way back to spend a day in Jordan
visiting the ancient city of Rekem/Petra, carved of solid rock by  our
ancestors the Nabatean canaanites (see "Who made the Desert Bloom"
http://www.mediamonitors.net/mazin16.html ).  It was almost a magical time
riding a donkey in the valley that used to be a busy marketplace in a
thriving city dotted on the side by what were homes, tombs, courts, palaces,
an amphitheater, water canals, and triumphal arches.  All carved in
sandstone with brilliant colors.  No wonder this cite was voted recently as
one of the Seven Wonders of the World ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
and http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos /wonders/Forgotten/petra.html ).

In a few days and as I manage to find time, I will post some pictures of all
the above on my website.  In the meantime, please also read Stanley Heller's
report from the Land of Apartheid published in Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/heller08022007.html

But more importantly, please let us together redouble our efforts for
justice which is the only route to peace.

+ Joint Call by Israeli, Palestinian and European Human Rights
Organizations: The Rafah Border Crossing Must be Opened. Gaza Residents Are
Not Pawns in the Struggle for Control of the Strip
http://www.btselem.org/english/press_releases/20070730.asp

+ Methodists concerned with Israeli occupation: N.E. Conference pushes to
divest. "Ratcheting up the simmering debate over how Protestant
denominations should express their concern about Israel, the New England
Conference of the United Methodist Church is advising congregations and
individuals to divest their holdings from a wide variety of American
corporations that the United Methodists believe support the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles /2007/07/31/methodists_concerned_with_israeli_occupation/

+ Dry twigs by Smadar Lavie
A speech delivered at a rally against the demolition of 30 families' homes
in Kfar Shalem, Israel, 7 July 2007
"We must demand a true partnership and equality in one state for all of us,
Mizrahim and Palestinian alike, a state that will be our permanent home. "
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7132.shtml

+ ACTION ALERT: Oppose $30 Billion in Military Aid Package to Israel
The United States plans to increase military aid to Israel by 25
percent—from $2.4 billion to $3 billion per year, guaranteed for the next 10
years. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters in Jerusalem on
July 29 that President George W. Bush agreed to this new $30 billion
military aid package when they met at the White House on June 19. This
agreement is appalling for many reasons:

U.S. taxpayers are being asked to donate $30 billion to help Israel buy
weapons at a time when our own nation's financial resources are stretched
thin. According to a June 28, 2007 Congressional Research Service report,
the U.S. has spent $611 billion on the "war on terror" since the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks, including $567 billion in Iraq alone. Our own economy,
schools, and health care are in shambles thanks to this war that many,
including President Bush, believe is being fought to protect Israel.
Israel routinely violates the U.S. Arms Export Control Act and Foreign
Assistance Act by using U.S. weapons to commit human rights violations
against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Israel uses U.S. military aid to
continue its illegal 40-year military occupation of the Palestinian West
Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Israel illegally used U.S. weapons,
including cluster bombs, when it carried out attacks on civilians in the
Gaza Strip and Lebanon last summer.
To add insult to injury, Israeli and U.S. mainstream media are trying to
confuse Americans by describing a proposed $20 billion U.S. military sales
package to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries as "aid." The distinction
between possible arms deals with the Gulf and military aid to Israel has
been deliberately blurred.
The United States is financially rewarding Israel at a time when the Jewish
state is ignoring Arab peace overtures and intentionally starving Gazans.
Israel is preventing humanitarian aid, salaries, food, water and electricity
from reaching Palestinians imprisoned behind Gaza's Israeli-controlled
borders.
Write or telephone those working for you in Washington, DC demanding that
the U.S. withhold all military aid to Israel until that country agrees to
makes peace with its neighbors.

For more information on U.S. policy in the Middle East, subscribe to the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs < www.wrmea.com/subscribe>.

Write or Telephone Those Working for you in Washington.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414

White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
Fax: (202) 456-2461

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
State Department Public Information Line:
(202) 647-6575

Any Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3121

Any Representative
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3121

E-Mail Congress and the White House
E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <www.congress.org> for contact
information.
E-mail President Bush: <president@whitehouse.gov >
E-mail Vice President Cheney: <vice.president@whitehouse.gov>
=========================
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://justicewheels.org

   

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Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations

After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing

By John Solomon


As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.

The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March.

Justice officials said they could not immediately determine whether Gonzales read any of the FBI reports in 2005 and 2006 because the officials who processed them were not available yesterday. But department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that when Gonzales testified, he was speaking "in the context" of reports by the department's inspector general before this year that found no misconduct or specific civil liberties abuses related to the Patriot Act.

"The statements from the attorney general are consistent with statements from other officials at the FBI and the department," Roehrkasse said. He added that many of the violations the FBI disclosed were not legal violations and instead involved procedural safeguards or even typographical errors.

Each of the violations cited in the reports copied to Gonzales was serious enough to require notification of the President's Intelligence Oversight Board, which helps police the government's surveillance activities. The format of each memo was similar, and none minced words.

"This enclosure sets forth details of investigative activity which the FBI has determined was conducted contrary to the attorney general's guidelines for FBI National Security Investigations and Foreign Intelligence Collection and/or laws, executive orders and presidential directives," said the April 21, 2005, letter to the Intelligence Oversight Board.

The oversight board, staffed with intelligence experts from inside and outside government, was established to report to the attorney general and president about civil liberties abuses or intelligence lapses. But Roehrkasse said the fact that a violation is reported to the board "does not mean that a USA Patriot violation exists or that an individual's civil liberties have been abused."

Two of the earliest reports sent to Gonzales, during his first month on the job, in February 2005, involved the FBI's surveillance and search powers. In one case, the bureau reported a violation involving an "unconsented physical search" in a counterintelligence case. The details were redacted in the released memo, but it cited violations of safeguards "that shall protect constitutional and other legal rights." The second violation involved electronic surveillance on phone lines that was reinitiated after the expiration deadline set by a court in a counterterrorism case.

The report sent to Gonzales on April 21, 2005, concerned a violation of the rules governing NSLs, which allow agents in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations to secretly gather Americans' phone, bank and Internet records without a court order or a grand jury subpoena. In the report -- also heavily redacted before being released -- the FBI said its agents had received a compact disc containing information they did not request. It was viewed before being sealed in an envelope.

Gonzales received another report of an NSL-related violation a few weeks later. "A national security letter . . . contained an incorrect phone number" that resulted in agents collecting phone information that "belonged to a different U.S. person" than the suspect under investigation, stated a letter copied to the attorney general on May 6, 2005.

At least two other reports of NSL-related violations were sent to Gonzales, according to the new documents. In letters copied to him on Dec. 11, 2006, and Feb. 26, 2007, the FBI reported to the oversight board that agents had requested and obtained phone data on the wrong people.

Nonetheless, Gonzales reacted with surprise when the Justice Department inspector general reported this March that there were pervasive problems with the FBI's handling of NSLs and another investigative tool known as an exigent circumstances letter.

I was upset when I learned this, as was Director Mueller. To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report would be an enormous understatement," Gonzales said in a speech March 9, referring to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. The attorney general added that he believed back in 2005, before the Patriot Act was renewed, that there were no problems with NSLs. "I've come to learn that I was wrong," he said, making no mention of the FBI reports sent to him.

Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer for the nonpartisan Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "I think these documents raise some very serious questions about how much the attorney general knew about the FBI's misuse of surveillance powers and when he knew it." A lawsuit by Hofmann's group seeking internal FBI documents about NSLs prompted the release of the reports.

Caroline Fredrickson, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new documents raise questions about whether Gonzales misled Congress at a moment when lawmakers were poised to renew the Patriot Act and keenly sought assurances that there were no abuses. "It was extremely important," she said of Gonzales's 2005 testimony. "The attorney general said there are no problems with the Patriot Act, and there was no counterevidence at the time."

Some of the reports describe rules violations that the FBI decided not to report to the intelligence board. In February 2006, for example, FBI officials wrote that agents sent a person's phone records, which they had obtained from a provider under a national security letter, to an outside party. The mistake was blamed on "an error in the mail handling." When the third party sent the material back, the bureau decided not to report the mistake as a violation.

The memos also detail instances in which the FBI wrote out new NSLs to cover evidence that had been mistakenly collected. In a June 30, 2006, e-mail, for instance, an FBI supervisor asked an agent who had "overcollected" evidence under a national security letter to forward his original request to lawyers. "We would like to check the specific language to see if there is anything in the body that would cover the extra material they gave," the supervisor wrote.

Sometimes the FBI reached seemingly contradictory conclusions about the gravity of its errors. On May 6, 2005, the bureau decided that it needed to report a violation when agents made an "inadvertent" request for data for the wrong phone number. But on June 1, 2006, in a similar wrong-number case, the bureau concluded that a violation did not need to be reported because the agent acted "in good faith."

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