On Tuesday we asked if Israel provoked rockets from Gaza to pressure Palestinians to back off UN bid, the next day all hell broke loose. Thursday we reported the Palestinian UN envoy claimed Israel’s attack on Gaza was ‘deliberately timed to torpedo the UN vote.’ Yesterday Abbas accused Israel of instigating a “blood bath.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of launching an assault on the Gaza Strip to undermine his efforts to secure a diplomatic upgrade at the United Nations.
Israel began its air offensive on Wednesday with the declared aim of stemming surges of rocket strikes by Islamist militants that have disrupted life in southern Israeli towns.
Abbas, whose forces were chased out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, accused Israel of instigating a “blood bath”, telling reporters he thought the escalating military campaign was aimed at sinking his own diplomatic maneuverings.
……
“Everything that is happening is in order to block our endeavors to reach the United Nations,” Abbas told journalists.
….
“Undoubtedly we consider that this aggression is against us, the Palestinian people,” he said.
Despite the violence, he said he would push ahead with plans for a vote at the U.N. General Assembly before the end of the month to give the Palestinians the rank of an “observer state” within the world body rather than the present “observer entity”.
The upgrade would enhance Palestinians’ legal rights at a time when peace negotiations with Israel have hit a wall over Israel’s refusal to halt settlement building in territory where the Palestinians want their state.
“We are going to the United Nations to vote on the resolution of our becoming an observer state on the 29th of this month. Nothing will deter us,” Abbas said.
Some realpolitik from the FT
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c7917fc8-3004-11e2-891b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2CSwJSQAL
“What is unclear, however, is what concrete help Cairo, Tunis and Ankara can offer to Hamas – aside from solidarity visits and rhetorical condemnation. Military assistance seems out of the question, and Arab diplomatic pressure is likely to be outweighed, at least for the moment, by the strong support for Israel coming from the US and Europe. Indeed, Prof Milton-Edwards believes that the escalation could even end up hurting relations between Hamas and Egypt, as Cairo tries to juggle competing pressures from Hamas, Israel, the US and its own people. “If things go wrong for Egypt, Hamas could become the whipping boy for Cairo,” she says.”
It’s all about power. Either European public opinion changes, some Israeli movement arises to challenge the dominant nihilism or US Judaism moves away from Israel. Otherwise the nihilism will intensify, Israel will strangle its own democracy, the Arabs will get more frustrated, antisemitism will flourish in their newspapers and it will be even harder to avoid a conflagration.
Gaza Israeli violence resulting from illegal land grabs condemned by the UN, EU, Britain & the world
Israeli settlements, intended to abort the establishment of a Palestinian state, have been condemned by the UN, the EU, Britain, Russia and the US as illegal and a deliberate obstruction to peace. As a direct result, the Palestinians in Gaza have been bombarding southern Israel with home-made rockets, for years, as their only method of resistance to the right-wing, occupying Likud government under Binyam Netanyahu whose policy is to ethnically cleanse the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem.
This week, ahead of the coming Israeli elections, Netanyahu ordered the brutal assassination of a Palestinian leader in Gaza. It was carried out in the usual method of such state sponsored assassinations against a people with no aircraft and no tanks with which to defend itself.
So far, Saturday November 17th has seen 38 Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes, the vast majority being civilians including children. The Israelis have lost 3 civilians to rockets fired from Gaza.
Israel is now massing tens of thousands of its troops and armour against the virtually defenceless 1.7 million people of Gaza in much the same way as in Operation Cast Lead in which they killed 310 children under the age of sixteen together with over 100 of their mothers. Another massacre is expected as the world looks on.
Now, not only is Gaza at great risk but also Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Netanyahu in his quest for re-election has started a war that can have enormous and terrible consequences for the Middle East and for global peace.
Thanks for this Annie. As you have so clearly pointed out would be so wonderful if this date could be moved up.
194… ICC and ICJ here we come!
It’s obvious that the timing of the massive attack is to avert attention from the UN bid.