CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr can be seen here saying this morning on the cable network that the use of American-made hardware to destroy that Hamas leader's house with 18 people inside is "very problematic" because "these weapons are supposed to be used for self defense…" And this bold insight:
"The world community only is going to stand for this for so long,"
continued Starr. "It's this reason that you're seeing people look for a
political settlement." She added that Israel now intends to launch a
ground campaign in Gaza to "get rid of Hamas once and for all," but –
as the US has learned in Iraq and Afghanistan — it is impossible to
wipe out an insurgency by military force along without first getting
the civilian population on your side
continued Starr. "It's this reason that you're seeing people look for a
political settlement." She added that Israel now intends to launch a
ground campaign in Gaza to "get rid of Hamas once and for all," but –
as the US has learned in Iraq and Afghanistan — it is impossible to
wipe out an insurgency by military force along without first getting
the civilian population on your side
Starr is great. "You can't kill them all," she says. And we've learned this over years. Yes and Israel has failed to learn it for 60 years. But the realist lessons from Iraq are coming into the American mainstream. You can't win an occupation. You can't smear as "terrorists" people who have been denied political rights and any access to resources. Next maybe we can start instructing Israel in minority rights…
Israelis who blame Israel are not helping the Palestinians
By Ari Shavit
Operation Cast Lead is a just campaign. Just, because in the summer of 2005 Israel destroyed all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew unilaterally to the international border. Just, because from 2006 to 2008 the Palestinian entity in the Strip did not take advantage of the occupation's end to build itself and its future and instead repeatedly attacked Israel within the Green Line.
Just, because for three solid years the State of Israel bit its lips and acted with restraint. Just, because no country in the world can accept for an extended period of time a situation in which its citizens are forsaken and its sovereignty violated. Just, because there is no chance for peace in the Middle East if the Jewish state is viewed as easy prey bleeding in the water and attracting sharks.
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Operation Cast Lead is a tragic campaign. Tragic, because it is causing the deaths of hundreds and injuring thousands. Tragic, because it is causing physical and emotional injury to innocent Palestinians, including women and children. Tragic, because like every war it creates intolerable human hardship and heartbreaking suffering.
But the tragedy of Operation Cast Lead is unavoidable. It derives directly from the fact that the Palestinians did not take proper advantage of the historic opportunity given to them in 2005. It derives from the fact that when the Palestinians achieved self-government for the first time in their history they misused it. It derives from the fact that the Palestinian need to destroy Israel is still stronger than their need to build Palestine.
Israel-hating Israelis call Operation Cast Lead a war crime. They record the names of each and every Palestinian killed, denounce each and every Israeli action and portray their state as a bully. While the Egyptians are saying that Hamas is largely responsible for the tragedy of Gaza, Israel-hating Israelis place the whole responsibility on their government and military. While the international community silently understands that a sovereign state is duty-bound to protect its citizens' lives, Israel-hating Israelis believe that Israeli lives can be forfeited.
While the simple facts indicate that the violence in the south derives from the despicable actions of an extremist organization that turned the Strip into a district of terror, Israel-hating Israelis persist in their hatred of their people and homeland and defend the morality of Hamas' destructive aggression.
There is no call for hating the Israel-hating Israelis. At the end of the day, their position is a pathetic one. Their self-righteousness is not at all righteous, and their moralizing has no morality. Their inability to show compassion for the Israelis of Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot shows that they possess a degree of callousness. Their inability to view the Arabs firing the Grad rockets as being responsible for their actions shows that they are not free of paternalism.
The real motivation of Israel-hating Israelis is not genuine concern for the Palestinians, but rather a form of reverse racism. By showing forgiveness toward Palestinian fascism they turn their backs not only on Israelis but also on moderate, freedom-loving Palestinians. Those who blame Israel for everything and exonerate the Palestinians of everything are neither serving the cause of peace nor helping to end the violence and occupation. All they are doing is proving the extent to which they are blinded by their burning self-hatred.
Operation Cast Lead is an intelligent, impressive operation. The element of surprise was total, the intelligence was precise and the timing was brilliant. The fact that the operation was launched after a six-month cease-fire violated by Hamas gives it political legitimacy and moral justification. The fact that it was carefully planned and carefully executed has restored a degree of trust in Israeli capabilities.
It is possible that after the initial air campaign and the destruction of the tunnels, the operation should have been suspended. It is possible that the French truce proposal should now be adopted and a final chance given for Palestinian clearheadedness. But those who reject the operation in its entirety are blind to reality and the moral failure.
The coming days will be difficult. There may be errors, perhaps complications, perhaps even victims. But for this very reason now is not the time for a campaign of hate against Israel's leaders, commanders, soldiers and pilots. Just the opposite. This is the time to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is proving himself to be a respected national leader.
This is the time to stand behind the commanders, soldiers and pilots working day and night to conduct a difficult, complex and entirely just war. This is the time for Israel to finally behave as a mature nation protecting itself with wisdom and restraint.
My God–You know the mass media's REALLY got its head up its ass when somebody from the PENTAGON has to express concern over civilian casualties.
I don't know why people like George Nagel paste in whole articles from the mainstream press here. Links or personal points would be more appropriate.
Nizzar Rayyan, the Hamas leader who was killed, along with two of his wives and several of his children, in an Israeli bombing raid earlier this week, was one of the more bellicose Hamas leaders I have known. I saw him last in Gaza two years ago, at a mosque in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, where I spent quite a lot of time (my book Prisoners explains why).
He was one of the more Islamically-learned Hamas leaders I've met (Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was learned as well, I think, but he was very hard to understand; Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was the least pleasant of all the Hamas leaders I've known, was not very learned at all). In particular, Rayyan was interested in the hadith, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, with a special interest in hadith that painted Jews in a negative light. Rayyan and I discussed the writing of Ibn Taymiyya, the Muslim scholar who lived seven hundred years ago, and who is the intellectual forefather of Sunni radicalism today (it was Ibn Taymiyya who elevated jihad to a kind-of sixth pillar of Islam). Like Ibn Taymiyya, Rayyan was preoccupied with Muslim apostasy. He never quite said so, but I could sense that he thought of Abu Mazen and the other leaders of the Palestinian Authority as traitors not only to the cause of Palestine, but to Islam itself. "You cannot be loyal to Allah and to the CIA at the same time," he said of his P.A. enemies.
There are things I didn't know about Rayyan, such as that he had four wives – a fact that tells you something about the culture of Hamas – but I knew that he was sincere in his devotion to the cause of Israel's annhilation. The question I wrestle with constantly is whether Hamas is truly, theologically implacable. That is to say, whether the organization can remain true to its understanding of Islamic law and God's word and yet enter into a long-term non-aggression treaty with Israel. I tend to think not, though I've noticed over the years a certain plasticity of belief among some Hamas ideologues. Also, this is the Middle East, so anything is possible.
There was no flexibility with Rayyan. This is what he said when I asked him if he could envision a 50-year hudna (or cease-fire) with Israel: "The only reason to have a hudna is to prepare yourself for the final battle. We don't need 50 years to prepare ourselves for the final battle with Israel." There is no chance, he said, that true Islam would ever allow a Jewish state to survive in the Muslim Middle East. "Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God."
I asked him if he believed, as some Hamas theologians do (and certainly as many Hezbollah leaders do) that Jews are the "sons of pigs and apes." He gave me an interesting answer that reflects a myopic reading of the Koran. "Allah changed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs, it is true, but he specifically said these apes and pigs did not have the ability to reproduce. So it is not literally true that Jews today are descended from pigs and apes, but it is true that some of the ancestors of Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and it is true that Allah continually makes the Jews pay for their crimes in many different ways. They are a cursed people."
What are our crimes? I asked Rayyan. "You are murderers of the prophets and you have closed your ears to the Messenger of Allah," he said. "Jews tried to kill the Prophet, peace be unto him. All throughout history, you have stood in opposition to the word of God."
The US Arms Export Control Act allows US arms to be used for defensive purposes only. This regulation, as with most laws and regulations that the US has passed, apparently does not apply to Israel, if we remember the hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs that were shipped to Israel in the closing days of their failed Lebanon campaign.
I just looked at Barbara Starr. She is mistaken when she says that Israel "purchases" the weapons from the US. Israel get those weapons as "aid".
In August 2007, the US and Israel signed a new defense aid agreement. Under this new aid agreement, the US will transfer USD30 billion to Israel over ten years, a 25% rise in US military aid.
Israel was slated to receive the first payout in October 2008, amounting to USD2.55 billion. (Just in time to purchase brand new bombs for Gaza.) Again, as a special deal for Israel, they can convert 26% of the aid money into shekels and spend it on procurements from Israeli defense contractors. Every other country that receives any kind of aid from the US has to spend the money in the US.
link to haaretz.com
Shavit is rather good in detecting "just wars" provided they are fought by Israel. About the Lebanon war he wrote:
"Israel is currently waging the most just war in its history. [...] Therefore, anyone who yearns for Israel to withdraw in future from occupied territories to recognized permanent borders must stand by Israel in this war. Anyone who wants peace, stability, and an end to the occupation must back up Israel in its just war." (Ha'aretz, July 18, 2006)
As Ran Hacohen commented:
"To put it briefly, then, War is Peace and Peace is War; and Israel is devastating Lebanon just in order to give the Palestinians their freedom."
We keep hearing this "you can't win an occupation" but that is not really true. We defeated the Phillipean insurgents 100 years ago. We ended up killing 10% of the population, but in the end the Phillipeans were ours, at least for another few generations. There does come a point when a people's will to resist is broken. The question here is will the rest of the world allow Israel to reach that point?
You seem to be spamming every thread wiyth full length stories by mainstream whore journalists, Mr Nadel: in this case you have posted the same full length exercise in war pig whore lying on two threads.
Bye bye, Barbara Starr. They'll never let her in front of a camera again.
The only question is if AIPAC can get her fired altogether.
The comparison with the Philippines is entirely mistaken. The US was an occupying power there but it was not after the land of individual Filipinos. On the contrary. By putting a lot of church land on the market the Americans allowed the 'principales' to increase their landholdings.This was an important step in winning over the Filipino elite.
Also, the American administration was, once the fighting was over, infinitely more benign to its Filipino underlings than the Israel occupation of Palestinian territory has ever been.
Among other things it founded universities rather than sabotaging or smashing them.
This is exactly what many who opposed the withdrawal of the colonies from Gaza feared.They knew that, in the long run, without boots on the ground and a network of colonies to provide organization and rationale for population control, they would either have to resort to internationally unpopular measures such as those we are seeing, with the high probability of consequent weakening of 'message discipline', e.g., Barbara Starr, or sidle up to the dreaded negotiating table. Obviously they are trying option 1 now, but they will inevitably come around to option 2.
Arie
What you say is true, but before we could implement our enlightened policies it was necessary to crush the insurrection. That resulted in killing 300,000 of the 3 million natives.
Syvanen, I think the difference between Israel in the Occupied Territories and the United States in the Philippines is that back then most Americans had no idea what was really going on, and few ways to find out. And make no mistake, there were Americans opposed to the occupation of the Philippines. We Americans have grown up a little bit since then. Israel needs us to continue funding its campaign of ethnic cleansing, and the very simple reality is that, once they learn the truth about its nature, most Americans are not on board with the occupation. If the trickle of truth reaching the American public grows to a stream, it's curtains for the Lobby. An increasing number of American Jews and friends of Israel are parting ways with it. Its Likudnik faction may fight a deft rearguard action and delay the inevitable for many years, but only at cost to their own post-conflict status in American society.
I find it ironic that this whole mess leads me to find some truth in the properly derided neoconservative term 'creative destruction'. This time, they have shot themselves in the foot. Make sure they can prove they have health insurance before calling a doctor.
Shavit wrote recently in his defence of yet another "just" Israeli war:
"-Operation Cast Lead is a just campaign. Just, because in the summer of 2005 Israel destroyed all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew unilaterally to the international border. Just, because from 2006 to 2008 the Palestinian entity in the Strip did not take advantage of the occupation's end to build itself and its future and instead repeatedly attacked Israel within the Green Line."
Oh, "the occupation's end"? That open air prison, Gaza, was no longer occupied? Except for the Israelis closing the borders, and sabotaging food, medicine, water and electricity supplies. And why did these wrong headed Palestinians keep on resisting after they had been so generously treated? Could it be because they saw through the "maneuver" as Shavit himself called it in his now notorious interview With Sharon's adviser Dov Weisglass?
Here is the relevant text (from Haaretz Oct.6 2004):
"You gave up the Gaza Strip in order to save the West Bank? Is the Gaza disengagement meant to allow Israel to continue controlling the majority of the West Bank?
â¦
If what you are saying is correct, the settlers themselves should organize demonstrations of support for Sharon, because he did a tremendous service to the settlement enterprise.
"They should have danced around and around the Prime Minister's Office."
â¦
So you have carried out the maneuver of the century? And all of it with authority and permission?
"When you say `maneuver,' it doesn't sound nice. It sounds like you said one thing and something else came out. But that's the whole point. After all, what have I been shouting for the past year? That I found a device, in cooperation with the management of the world, to ensure that there will be no stopwatch here. That there will be no timetable to implement the settlers' nightmare. I have postponed that nightmare indefinitely. Because what I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns. That is the significance of what we did. The significance is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion about the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed from our agenda indefinitely. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress. What more could have been anticipated? What more could have been given to the settlers?" "
Thanks for posting this Arie, Rowan be damned.
On C-SPAN now (6:50 PM EST), Q & A on the P-I conflict, with
the American consulate in Israel (Robert Serry) being questioned:
UN figures are "astounding, far more than 300 killed, including a very significant number of civilians, that is women and children"–UN is counting all male Pal deaths as demise of combatants–for the first time ever.
ON ground attack: "We are greatly concerned about that as it will just
bring another cycle of deaths."
"We need a crisis management model. So we don't just return to the status quo–we are looking for such mechanisms."
"If HAMAS has the well-being of its people in mind" this would be a start. A responsible HAMAS will listen to a UN plan."
"I have sent a protest letter to the chief minister of Israel" on
two bombing incidents, including my own office building."
… including my own office building."
LOL, NOW it's personal.
So even if this Hamas leader believes that Jews ought to be exterminated, and that they are pigs, or green Martians… Even if he has four wives and seventeen children; even if he were guilty of many horrible crimes; it is still illegal under the laws of war to kill his wives and children and other relatives.
And not only is it illegal to kill his wives and children, it is not helpful. It does not create safety or security for Israel to kill the wives and children of an enemy.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
The USA & Israel maintain their surgical assassination tactic. The beat goes on.
Maybe this statement will give you an idea why they act the way they do!
"Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves."
–Menachem Begin – Israeli Prime Minister 1977-1983