Gaza Holocaust Denial a Complicit Silence

Why have shocking pictures of devastation, suffering and the killing of more than three hundred and fity children in Gaza, caused such little outrage among the mainstream media and conscience of the United States?  In the international media, stories abound of children being massacred, as part of the military strategy of Israeli state terrorism, supported by weapons from the United States, to stop Hamas firing rockets into Israel,  that has resulted in four deaths. Hamas's launching of rockets from Gaza is an act of terrorism. But terrorism is most destructive when it disguises itself as a legitimate act of violence, with chemical warfare such as white phosporous, fixed wing F-16 American aircraft, Appache helicopter gunships and drones with rockets firing on a civilian population besieged with no possible escape.
The Israeli government,  portrays itself as a victim and refuses to end the slaughter of civilians and children on the basis, that its military operations have not yet been successful enough. In our modern world children no longer serve as an ethical deterrent, against acts of barbarism, they are simply regarded as collateral damage, while these inhumane acts are justified under the pretense of necessity and "surgical strikes"a language that reveals more about Israel, that uses such language than their war crimes which  it describes.
Is a military offensive on a besieged city justified, when it is killing over 350 defenseless children or one third of the total victimes, with precision strikes ?  What does it mean when military disproportionality is treated by the corporate media, as a fact and not understood as part of the equation, used to define state terrorism, particularly when the sophisticated military weapons are used unchallenged, against a densely crowded, mostly defeceless civilian population?
 
 Why are the shocking images of a two year-old child hit by an Israeli shell, while running for safety treated with heartless disdain, by the mainstream media.? It was described by an aid worker as folows: "It was like charcoal. ...without any limbs, because some of the animals ate some of his limbs."   Is it conceivable that Palestinians are now viewed as a disposable population, without any redeeming value, that even images of Palestinian children being blown apart by the Israeli army, no longer elicits moral outrage or rigorous political criticism?
 
 David Goldberg points out in his recent book, The Threat of Race, populations such as the Palestinians, marked as targets to be dispensed with, "heel on face eating dust when they have anything to eat at all ... deserted, reduced to philistinism, untrusted because untrustworthy. And once deserted, having nowhere to turn, no one to appeal to but a few folks of conscience, they are fair game."  
All of this embodies the ideology of a racist state, in which it is assumed that in the absence of Palestinians, including children, there would be no police violence, threats, insecurity, checkpoints, blockades, economic problems, immigrants, just a racially cleansed chosen society, no longer at war with itself and others. The shame of racist stae violence, combined with the practices of state terrorism, are hardly a legitimizing foundation, normative or political, for the repulsive images and deadly actions of the type we see in Gaza, promoted by Israel in the name of a civilized democracy.
 A thorough analysis of the systematic killing of children in Gaza is important, because it measures the relationship between military power and aggression and the realities of massive suffering and death shaped by the expansionist Israeli state. The plight of the children of Gaza must play a central role in reclaiming democratic values, practices, and relations that would make such war crimes against children indefensible, regardless of the claims to justice, defense, and civilzed democracy, made by Israel, for whom a child's death can be legitimate, as an unfortunate element in waging a successful military war or liquidating a civilian population of resistance.
 
There is much more at work In Gaza, than the horror of children being killed senselessly, there is a suppressed history, dangerous memories of entire populations being displaced from their original homes in Israel to the Gaza refugee camp and how the unchecked state power of Israel, commits the most ruthless deeds of a holocaust, in the name of fighting terrorism and spreading civilized democracy. But there is more, it is also the issue of what Israel has become when it has lost its ability to question power, views military values, as the highest ideals, ignores international law and becomes indifferent to the suffering of the most innocent and defenseless children. 
Surely, we are witnessing a crime against humanity for which indifference and silence makes everyone silent, deeply complicit with the killing and disappearance of young children. Gaza reminds us that the "dark times" that haunted the concentration camps of the second world war, can now be seen in the images of wounded and dead children and should serve as a desperate reminder of what it means when  politics,  social responsibility, and justice, as the lifeblood of democracy, become cold, indifferent, de-humanized values of holocaust denial, in the face of death.

NowPublic

Tags: Middle East | Israel | Gaza | holocaust | World | Palestine | Gaza Strip | denial | US Politics | middle+east | War+Crimes

Gaza Holocaust Denial a Complicit Silence

Why have shocking pictures of devastation, suffering and the killing of more than three hundred and fity children in Gaza, caused such little outrage among the mainstream media and conscience of the United States?  In the international media, stories abound of children being massacred, as part of the military strategy of Israeli state terrorism, supported by weapons from the United States, to stop Hamas firing rockets into Israel,  that has resulted in four deaths. Hamas's launching of rockets from Gaza is an act of terrorism. But terrorism is most destructive when it disguises itself as a legitimate act of violence, with chemical warfare such as white phosporous, fixed wing F-16 American aircraft, Appache helicopter gunships and drones with rockets firing on a civilian population besieged with no possible escape.
The Israeli government,  portrays itself as a victim and refuses to end the slaughter of civilians and children on the basis, that its military operations have not yet been successful enough. In our modern world children no longer serve as an ethical deterrent, against acts of barbarism, they are simply regarded as collateral damage, while these inhumane acts are justified under the pretense of necessity and "surgical strikes"a language that reveals more about Israel, that uses such language than their war crimes which  it describes.
Is a military offensive on a besieged city justified, when it is killing over 350 defenseless children or one third of the total victimes, with precision strikes ?  What does it mean when military disproportionality is treated by the corporate media, as a fact and not understood as part of the equation, used to define state terrorism, particularly when the sophisticated military weapons are used unchallenged, against a densely crowded, mostly defeceless civilian population?
 
 Why are the shocking images of a two year-old child hit by an Israeli shell, while running for safety treated with heartless disdain, by the mainstream media.? It was described by an aid worker as folows: "It was like charcoal. ...without any limbs, because some of the animals ate some of his limbs."   Is it conceivable that Palestinians are now viewed as a disposable population, without any redeeming value, that even images of Palestinian children being blown apart by the Israeli army, no longer elicits moral outrage or rigorous political criticism?
 
 David Goldberg points out in his recent book, The Threat of Race, populations such as the Palestinians, marked as targets to be dispensed with, "heel on face eating dust when they have anything to eat at all ... deserted, reduced to philistinism, untrusted because untrustworthy. And once deserted, having nowhere to turn, no one to appeal to but a few folks of conscience, they are fair game."  
All of this embodies the ideology of a racist state, in which it is assumed that in the absence of Palestinians, including children, there would be no police violence, threats, insecurity, checkpoints, blockades, economic problems, immigrants, just a racially cleansed chosen society, no longer at war with itself and others. The shame of racist stae violence, combined with the practices of state terrorism, are hardly a legitimizing foundation, normative or political, for the repulsive images and deadly actions of the type we see in Gaza, promoted by Israel in the name of a civilized democracy.
 A thorough analysis of the systematic killing of children in Gaza is important, because it measures the relationship between military power and aggression and the realities of massive suffering and death shaped by the expansionist Israeli state. The plight of the children of Gaza must play a central role in reclaiming democratic values, practices, and relations that would make such war crimes against children indefensible, regardless of the claims to justice, defense, and civilzed democracy, made by Israel, for whom a child's death can be legitimate, as an unfortunate element in waging a successful military war or liquidating a civilian population of resistance.
 
There is much more at work In Gaza, than the horror of children being killed senselessly, there is a suppressed history, dangerous memories of entire populations being displaced from their original homes in Israel to the Gaza refugee camp and how the unchecked state power of Israel, commits the most ruthless deeds of a holocaust, in the name of fighting terrorism and spreading civilized democracy. But there is more, it is also the issue of what Israel has become when it has lost its ability to question power, views military values, as the highest ideals, ignores international law and becomes indifferent to the suffering of the most innocent and defenseless children. 
Surely, we are witnessing a crime against humanity for which indifference and silence makes everyone silent, deeply complicit with the killing and disappearance of young children. Gaza reminds us that the "dark times" that haunted the concentration camps of the second world war, can now be seen in the images of wounded and dead children and should serve as a desperate reminder of what it means when  politics,  social responsibility, and justice, as the lifeblood of democracy, become cold, indifferent, de-humanized values of holocaust denial, in the face of death.

NowPublic

Tags: Middle East | Israel | Gaza | holocaust | World | Palestine | Gaza Strip | denial | US Politics | middle+east | War+Crimes

Gaza Holocaust Choice for Obama

With more than a thousand murdered victims, including more than 300 children, already slaughtered, by the precision guided carpet bombing of the Gaza Ghetto, the crime is so monstrous, that being re-active holds only a future of a third generation holocaust for the children of the middle-east.
 
MAHATMA GHANDI once stated that;
"Palestine
belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any code of conduct. The Mandates have no sanction but that of the last War. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. I am not defending the Arab
excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarranted encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong,
nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds."

Perhaps one of the most appropriate, for remembering this great soul of Ghandi, is the tribute from one of Israel's most intelligent sons,Albert Einstein; "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a
one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood." It is however certain that these generations to come will have lessons to learn from the extraordinary life of Mohandas Gandhi"
.
 
 
 It is a difficult time to be pro-active or empower a permanent change, to break the vicious cycle of savage butchery, inherited from the Warsaw ghetto and subsequent death in concenration camps of that time. The disease fostered in the ghetto of Warsaw has come to Gaza , this disease will eventually come to every ghetto worldwide if it succeeds here.
 
 
 
 It is so difficult forgive especially without a spirituality of forgiveness, in our post-modern world but we must forgive, it is the only solution for the soul sickness, that was brought in this instance from Europe to Palestine after the second world war and has now infected all of the middle-east. We forgive, we do not forget but we must move on, for the future and for our children.
 
 
 
Tony Benn a pro-active English statesman once broke down in tears, as he recalled the late Bobby Sands, the republican MP and Officer Commanding IRA political prisoners H-Blocks,  who died while on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison, Belfast, in 1981. "Our revenge, Bobby Sands said, will be the laughter of our children," he said, as tears began to stream down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, but it moves me greatly."
 
The reason I mention Irish people is that our experience of 30 years of a neo-colonial war, was that ultimately pro-active politics, forgiveness and a committment to help the enemy come to the peace table, was the only alternative, to endless injustice and butchery. It is a hard thing to ask off a people who have suffered so much but we found it to be the only choice for the future of the children. I write this as an Irish person who found it particularly difficuilt to forgive.

 
I have found that the proposal below, to be what I believe reasonable, from a progressive Jewish politician. For once, just for once, can an American administration, be pro-active too and if it is going to carry out exclusively Israeli policy in the middle-east, at least let it be from a politically progressive Jewish quarter.
 
 
 Hilary Clinton needs to pay attention to what her husband participated in, when he negotiated successfully with the elected represenatives of Irish Republicans. Like it or not, Hamas is the elected representative of the Palestinian people, elected in a free, fair and democratic election, as Jimmy Carter has testified. Democrats cannot pick or choose, which free and fair elections they respect and still have credibilty on the street. You are either a genuine Democrat or a bully and a thug.
 
Please support and campaign for this proposal;
- Show quoted text -

 
MEMO FOR OBAMA

06/12/08

 

For: the President-Elect, Mr. Barack Obama.
From: Uri Avnery, Israel.
The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years of experience as an underground fighter, special forces soldier in the 1948 war, editor-in-chief of a newsmagazine, member of the Knesset and founding member of a peace movement:
-1- As far as Israeli-Arab peace is concerned, you should act from Day One.
-2- Israeli elections are due to take place in February 2009. You can have an indirect but important and constructive impact on the outcome, by announcing your unequivocal determination to achieve Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-all-Arab peace in 2009.
-3- Unfortunately, all your predecessors since 1967 have played a double game. While paying lip service to peace, and sometimes going through the motions of making some effort for peace, they have in practice supported our governments in moving in the very opposite direction. In particular, they have given tacit approval to the building and enlargement of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, each of which is a land mine on the road to peace.
-4- All the settlements are illegal in international law. The distinction sometimes made between "illegal" outposts and the other settlements is a propaganda ploy designed to obscure this simple truth.
-5- All the settlements since 1967 have been built with the express purpose of making a Palestinian state – and hence peace - impossible, by cutting the territory of the prospective State of Palestine into ribbons. Practically all our government departments and the army have openly or secretly helped to build, consolidate and enlarge the settlements – as confirmed by the 2005 report prepared for the government (!) by Lawyer Talia Sasson.
-6- By now, the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached some 250,000 (apart from the 200,000 settlers in the Greater Jerusalem area, whose status is somewhat different.) They are politically isolated, and sometimes detested by the majority of the Israel public, but enjoy significant support in the army and government ministries.
-7- No Israeli government would dare to confront the concentrated political and material might of the settlers. Such a confrontation would need very strong leadership and the unstinting support of the President of the United States to have any chance of success.
-8- Lacking these, all "peace negotiations" are a sham. The Israeli government and its US backers have done everything possible to prevent the negotiations with both the Palestinians and the Syrians from reaching any conclusion, for fear of provoking a confrontation with the settlers and their supporters. The present "Annapolis" negotiations are as hollow as all the preceding ones, each side keeping up the pretense for its own political interests.
-9- The Clinton administration, and even more so the Bush administration, allowed the Israeli government to keep up this pretense. It is therefore imperative to prevent members of these administrations from diverting your Middle Eastern policy into the old channels.
-10- It is important for you to make a complete new start, and to state this publicly. Discredited ideas and failed initiatives – such as the Bush "vision", the Road Map, Annapolis and the like – should by thrown into the junkyard of history.
-11- To make a new start, the aim of American policy should be stated clearly and succinctly. This should be: to achieve a peace based on the Two-State Solution within a defined time-span (say by the end of 2009).
-12- It should be pointed out that this aim is based on a reassessment of the American national interest, in order to extract the poison from American-Arab and American-Muslim relations, strengthen peace-oriented regimes, defeat al-Qaeda-type terrorism, end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and achieve a viable accommodation with Iran.
-13- The terms of Israeli-Palestinian peace are clear. They have been crystallized in thousands of hours of negotiations, conferences, meetings and conversations. They are:
13.1 A sovereign and viable State of Palestine will be established side by side with the State of Israel.
13.2 The border between the two states will be based on the pre-1967 Armistice Line (the "Green Line"). Insubstantial alterations can be arrived at by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
13.3 East Jerusalem, including the Haram-al-Sharif ("Temple Mount") and all Arab neighborhoods will serve as the capital of Palestine. West Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and all Jewish neighborhoods, will serve as the capital of Israel. A joint municipal authority, based on equality, may be established by mutual consent to administer the city as one territorial unit.
13.4 All Israeli settlements – except any which might be joined to Israel in the framework of a mutually agreed exchange of territories - will be evacuated (see 15 below).
13.5 Israel will recognize in principle the right of the refugees to return. A Joint Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, composed of Palestinian, Israeli and international historians, will examine the events of 1948 and 1967 and determine who was responsible for what. Each individual refugee will be given the choice between (1) repatriation to the State of Palestine, (2) remaining where he/she is living now and receiving generous compensation, (3) returning to Israel and being resettled, (4) emigrating to any other country, with generous compensation. The number of refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population. The large funds needed for the implementation of this solution must be provided by the international community in the interest of world peace. This will save much of the money spent today on military expenditure and direct grants from the US.
13.6 The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
13.7 Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted directly or by proxy. The two parties will establish normal relations between them.
13.8 In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states of the Arab League will recognize Israel and establish normal relations with it. Talks about a future Middle Eastern Union, on the model of the EU, possibly to include Turkey and Iran, may be considered.
-14- Palestinian unity is essential for peace. Peace made with only one section of the people is worthless. The US will facilitate Palestinian reconciliation and the unification of Palestinian structures. To this end, the US will end its boycott of Hamas, which won the last elections, start a political dialogue with the movement and encourage Israel to do the same. The US will respect any result of democratic Palestinian elections.
-15- The US will aid the government of Israel in confronting the settlement problem. As from now, settlers will be given one year to leave the occupied territories voluntarily in return for compensation that will allow them to build their homes in Israel proper. After that, all settlements – except those within any areas to be joined to Israel under the peace agreement - will be evacuated.
 
Uri Avnery's CV
Former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, "Ha'olam Haze" newsmagazine.

3 Terms as member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
 Founding member, Israeli council for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
 Founding member, "Gush Shalom" (Peace Bloc), Independent Peace Mevement.
Columnist, Ma'ariv Daily.
Underground:
- Hide quoted text -

Member of the Irgun, 1938-1942.
- Hide quoted text -
Army service:
Member of Samson's Foxes, commando unit, 1948
twice wounded in action.

Erich-Maria-Remarque peace prize (Germany) for the year 1995,
awarded 21/6/95.
Honorary citizenship of Abu-Ghosh near Jerusalem, for his part in preventing
the eviction of the village, awarded 12.12.53
Honorary citizenship of Kfar Kassem, Israel,
awarded 31.11.96, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the war crime, for his principal role in exposing it.
Aachen peace prize for "Gush Shalom with Uri Avnery",
awarded 1/9/97.
Kreisky prize for human rights, Vienna, autumn 1997.
Lower Saxony prize for human rights, awarded 11.2.98
Palestinian award for human rights, awarded by "LAW", Palestinian Society for Human Rights
Jerusalem 7.6.98
(Avnery has never received any prize from any official Israeli body.)

 

Since 1948 has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with PLO leadership.
In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yassir Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut.
 

NowPublic

Tags: Israel | Gaza | Palestinian | holocaust | World | Palestine | jews | Obama | Jewish | denial | Middle-East | middle+east | War+Crimes

Gaza Holocaust Choice for Obama

With more than a thousand murdered victims, including more than 300 children, already slaughtered, by the precision guided carpet bombing of the Gaza Ghetto, the crime is so monstrous, that being re-active holds only a future of a third generation holocaust for the children of the middle-east.
 
MAHATMA GHANDI once stated that;
"Palestine
belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any code of conduct. The Mandates have no sanction but that of the last War. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. I am not defending the Arab
excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarranted encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong,
nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds."

Perhaps one of the most appropriate, for remembering this great soul of Ghandi, is the tribute from one of Israel's most intelligent sons,Albert Einstein; "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a
one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood." It is however certain that these generations to come will have lessons to learn from the extraordinary life of Mohandas Gandhi"
.
 
 
 It is a difficult time to be pro-active or empower a permanent change, to break the vicious cycle of savage butchery, inherited from the Warsaw ghetto and subsequent death in concenration camps of that time. The disease fostered in the ghetto of Warsaw has come to Gaza , this disease will eventually come to every ghetto worldwide if it succeeds here.
 
 
 
 It is so difficult forgive especially without a spirituality of forgiveness, in our post-modern world but we must forgive, it is the only solution for the soul sickness, that was brought in this instance from Europe to Palestine after the second world war and has now infected all of the middle-east. We forgive, we do not forget but we must move on, for the future and for our children.
 
 
 
Tony Benn a pro-active English statesman once broke down in tears, as he recalled the late Bobby Sands, the republican MP and Officer Commanding IRA political prisoners H-Blocks,  who died while on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison, Belfast, in 1981. "Our revenge, Bobby Sands said, will be the laughter of our children," he said, as tears began to stream down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, but it moves me greatly."
 
The reason I mention Irish people is that our experience of 30 years of a neo-colonial war, was that ultimately pro-active politics, forgiveness and a committment to help the enemy come to the peace table, was the only alternative, to endless injustice and butchery. It is a hard thing to ask off a people who have suffered so much but we found it to be the only choice for the future of the children. I write this as an Irish person who found it particularly difficuilt to forgive.

 
I have found that the proposal below, to be what I believe reasonable, from a progressive Jewish politician. For once, just for once, can an American administration, be pro-active too and if it is going to carry out exclusively Israeli policy in the middle-east, at least let it be from a politically progressive Jewish quarter.
 
 
 Hilary Clinton needs to pay attention to what her husband participated in, when he negotiated successfully with the elected represenatives of Irish Republicans. Like it or not, Hamas is the elected representative of the Palestinian people, elected in a free, fair and democratic election, as Jimmy Carter has testified. Democrats cannot pick or choose, which free and fair elections they respect and still have credibilty on the street. You are either a genuine Democrat or a bully and a thug.
 
Please support and campaign for this proposal;
- Show quoted text -

 
MEMO FOR OBAMA

06/12/08

 

For: the President-Elect, Mr. Barack Obama.
From: Uri Avnery, Israel.
The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years of experience as an underground fighter, special forces soldier in the 1948 war, editor-in-chief of a newsmagazine, member of the Knesset and founding member of a peace movement:
-1- As far as Israeli-Arab peace is concerned, you should act from Day One.
-2- Israeli elections are due to take place in February 2009. You can have an indirect but important and constructive impact on the outcome, by announcing your unequivocal determination to achieve Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-all-Arab peace in 2009.
-3- Unfortunately, all your predecessors since 1967 have played a double game. While paying lip service to peace, and sometimes going through the motions of making some effort for peace, they have in practice supported our governments in moving in the very opposite direction. In particular, they have given tacit approval to the building and enlargement of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, each of which is a land mine on the road to peace.
-4- All the settlements are illegal in international law. The distinction sometimes made between "illegal" outposts and the other settlements is a propaganda ploy designed to obscure this simple truth.
-5- All the settlements since 1967 have been built with the express purpose of making a Palestinian state – and hence peace - impossible, by cutting the territory of the prospective State of Palestine into ribbons. Practically all our government departments and the army have openly or secretly helped to build, consolidate and enlarge the settlements – as confirmed by the 2005 report prepared for the government (!) by Lawyer Talia Sasson.
-6- By now, the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached some 250,000 (apart from the 200,000 settlers in the Greater Jerusalem area, whose status is somewhat different.) They are politically isolated, and sometimes detested by the majority of the Israel public, but enjoy significant support in the army and government ministries.
-7- No Israeli government would dare to confront the concentrated political and material might of the settlers. Such a confrontation would need very strong leadership and the unstinting support of the President of the United States to have any chance of success.
-8- Lacking these, all "peace negotiations" are a sham. The Israeli government and its US backers have done everything possible to prevent the negotiations with both the Palestinians and the Syrians from reaching any conclusion, for fear of provoking a confrontation with the settlers and their supporters. The present "Annapolis" negotiations are as hollow as all the preceding ones, each side keeping up the pretense for its own political interests.
-9- The Clinton administration, and even more so the Bush administration, allowed the Israeli government to keep up this pretense. It is therefore imperative to prevent members of these administrations from diverting your Middle Eastern policy into the old channels.
-10- It is important for you to make a complete new start, and to state this publicly. Discredited ideas and failed initiatives – such as the Bush "vision", the Road Map, Annapolis and the like – should by thrown into the junkyard of history.
-11- To make a new start, the aim of American policy should be stated clearly and succinctly. This should be: to achieve a peace based on the Two-State Solution within a defined time-span (say by the end of 2009).
-12- It should be pointed out that this aim is based on a reassessment of the American national interest, in order to extract the poison from American-Arab and American-Muslim relations, strengthen peace-oriented regimes, defeat al-Qaeda-type terrorism, end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and achieve a viable accommodation with Iran.
-13- The terms of Israeli-Palestinian peace are clear. They have been crystallized in thousands of hours of negotiations, conferences, meetings and conversations. They are:
13.1 A sovereign and viable State of Palestine will be established side by side with the State of Israel.
13.2 The border between the two states will be based on the pre-1967 Armistice Line (the "Green Line"). Insubstantial alterations can be arrived at by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
13.3 East Jerusalem, including the Haram-al-Sharif ("Temple Mount") and all Arab neighborhoods will serve as the capital of Palestine. West Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and all Jewish neighborhoods, will serve as the capital of Israel. A joint municipal authority, based on equality, may be established by mutual consent to administer the city as one territorial unit.
13.4 All Israeli settlements – except any which might be joined to Israel in the framework of a mutually agreed exchange of territories - will be evacuated (see 15 below).
13.5 Israel will recognize in principle the right of the refugees to return. A Joint Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, composed of Palestinian, Israeli and international historians, will examine the events of 1948 and 1967 and determine who was responsible for what. Each individual refugee will be given the choice between (1) repatriation to the State of Palestine, (2) remaining where he/she is living now and receiving generous compensation, (3) returning to Israel and being resettled, (4) emigrating to any other country, with generous compensation. The number of refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population. The large funds needed for the implementation of this solution must be provided by the international community in the interest of world peace. This will save much of the money spent today on military expenditure and direct grants from the US.
13.6 The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
13.7 Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted directly or by proxy. The two parties will establish normal relations between them.
13.8 In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states of the Arab League will recognize Israel and establish normal relations with it. Talks about a future Middle Eastern Union, on the model of the EU, possibly to include Turkey and Iran, may be considered.
-14- Palestinian unity is essential for peace. Peace made with only one section of the people is worthless. The US will facilitate Palestinian reconciliation and the unification of Palestinian structures. To this end, the US will end its boycott of Hamas, which won the last elections, start a political dialogue with the movement and encourage Israel to do the same. The US will respect any result of democratic Palestinian elections.
-15- The US will aid the government of Israel in confronting the settlement problem. As from now, settlers will be given one year to leave the occupied territories voluntarily in return for compensation that will allow them to build their homes in Israel proper. After that, all settlements – except those within any areas to be joined to Israel under the peace agreement - will be evacuated.
 
Uri Avnery's CV
Former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, "Ha'olam Haze" newsmagazine.

3 Terms as member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
 Founding member, Israeli council for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
 Founding member, "Gush Shalom" (Peace Bloc), Independent Peace Mevement.
Columnist, Ma'ariv Daily.
Underground:
- Hide quoted text -

Member of the Irgun, 1938-1942.
- Hide quoted text -
Army service:
Member of Samson's Foxes, commando unit, 1948
twice wounded in action.

Erich-Maria-Remarque peace prize (Germany) for the year 1995,
awarded 21/6/95.
Honorary citizenship of Abu-Ghosh near Jerusalem, for his part in preventing
the eviction of the village, awarded 12.12.53
Honorary citizenship of Kfar Kassem, Israel,
awarded 31.11.96, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the war crime, for his principal role in exposing it.
Aachen peace prize for "Gush Shalom with Uri Avnery",
awarded 1/9/97.
Kreisky prize for human rights, Vienna, autumn 1997.
Lower Saxony prize for human rights, awarded 11.2.98
Palestinian award for human rights, awarded by "LAW", Palestinian Society for Human Rights
Jerusalem 7.6.98
(Avnery has never received any prize from any official Israeli body.)

 

Since 1948 has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with PLO leadership.
In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yassir Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut.
 

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Killing the Children of Gaza

Videos

No footage found.

Reporters and journalists are forbidden by Israel from reporting the facts and truth of the Holocaust details from within Gaza right now.

One of the reasons it is called a Holocaust, is that Israel mantains it has the highest-tech American precision weaponry, to kill precisely who it wants to, when it wants to. In the case of Gaza under siege it is like shooting fish in a barrel.

 
Of the more than 1,000 massacred victims in Gaza, one third of them are children. The highest percentage of children murdered in any recorded war ever, on the face of this earth, according to my records.

So instead of the censored details of this war crime, I present the following quotes and material which I believe to be relevant.
 

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
- Abraham Lincoln
 
 
" Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."
" I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."
Thomas Paine
 
 
... Thus any form of sympathy , any form of compassion; was a a demonstration of weakness . If an SS man felt these emotions come to him; it was a sign that the enemy had succeeded in deceiving him . " ( Auschwitz , Rees p. 8 )
 
 
 
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King
 
 
 
And they are killing children
 
 I dreamt
That I was a princess
In the Holy Land
A little young princess
Playing with little angels
Today
I saw her on TV
4 years old palesteenian girl
Drowned in blood
I stopped to dream
My lovely dream
Because
In the'' Holy Land''
They are killing dreams
And they are killing children....
 
 
Eman Elbadawi

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Tags: Middle East | Israel | Gaza | children | Palestinian | holocaust | World | Palestine | jews | Jewish | denial | middle+east | War+Crimes

Killing the Children of Gaza

Videos

No footage found.

Reporters and journalists are forbidden by Israel from reporting the facts and truth of the Holocaust details from within Gaza right now.

One of the reasons it is called a Holocaust, is that Israel mantains it has the highest-tech American precision weaponry, to kill precisely who it wants to, when it wants to. In the case of Gaza under siege it is like shooting fish in a barrel.

 
Of the more than 1,000 massacred victims in Gaza, one third of them are children. The highest percentage of children murdered in any recorded war ever, on the face of this earth, according to my records.

So instead of the censored details of this war crime, I present the following quotes and material which I believe to be relevant.
 

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
- Abraham Lincoln
 
 
" Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."
" I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."
Thomas Paine
 
 
... Thus any form of sympathy , any form of compassion; was a a demonstration of weakness . If an SS man felt these emotions come to him; it was a sign that the enemy had succeeded in deceiving him . " ( Auschwitz , Rees p. 8 )
 
 
 
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King
 
 
 
And they are killing children
 
 I dreamt
That I was a princess
In the Holy Land
A little young princess
Playing with little angels
Today
I saw her on TV
4 years old palesteenian girl
Drowned in blood
I stopped to dream
My lovely dream
Because
In the'' Holy Land''
They are killing dreams
And they are killing children....
 
 
Eman Elbadawi

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Tags: Middle East | Israel | Gaza | children | Palestinian | holocaust | World | Palestine | jews | Jewish | denial | middle+east | War+Crimes

Gaza Holocaust is becoming a River of Blood

A Message from a Gazan to the World

 I want to write about the suffering of my people and my family in these days of siege against the people of Gaza. 888 people have been killed and more than 3700 injured. The Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to allow ambulances to go to Zeitoun area, so those who are injured become those who die; a premeditated and purposeful violation of human rights.

In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.

There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals.

Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs, At night our camp, Jabalya Refugee Camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft.

There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially in the lives of children. For example, there were five sisters in one family killed from the Israeli occupation while they stayed in their home. But there are 800,000 other children in Gaza, all afraid, all waiting for someone or something to help them. They are caught in a prison that is becoming a concentration camp. Every day we sleep and open our eyes to the Israeli crimes of killing children and women and destroying civilians' homes. My words are unable to convey my feelings about this life in Gaza.

I have two messages to the world, to those who claim they love peace and seek freedom.

Imagine your life consisting of no electricity, destroyed homes, the sounds and strikes of missiles, day and night, and the only hunger as great as that for food is the hunger for an end to this occupation and siege. Imagine it is not just you but your children and your family who tell you through their eyes and cries: "We are afraid of the missiles." "We cannot sleep." "We may never sleep again." Imagine you are the dam and the river of blood has turned into a flash flood. How long could you stand it?

We wouldn't have to stand it any longer if the world stood with us. If they demanded an end to the siege and the killings and demolition of houses for our children. If they demanded assistance reach the people through rallies and sit-ins.

Finally, I invite you to come to Gaza and see the Holocaust. Because despite the siege, the barriers, the killing of my people and homes, and the total destruction of our lives by the Israeli occupation, they can not and will not kill the will of our people for equality and justice.

Mohammed Al Majdawali is a university student, member of Al-Assria Children's Library, and volunteer with Middle East Children's Alliance. He lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp with his family.

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