Israel Blind To Its Own Isolation

I wrote less than two weeks ago that Israel was in an accelerating decline as a result of changed geopolitical realities in the Middle East, most recently and acutely the Arab Spring. That Arab Spring is now in the throes of a 2.0 reawakening and reconstitution of last year's settlements, as events in Egypt in the last two weeks have made clear, not to mention the momentum of Syrian rebels, rioting in Tunisia and renwed protests in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, etc.

But like a Saudi Emir who can't see the protests outside his window past his line of servants, the Israeli regime appears to have no idea that they are more isolated than ever. Or, perhaps they do, but are unable to change their modus operandi because it is hard-baked into how the state operates, ie. by terror, humiliation and intimidation.

In any case, there's no doubt the world is a changed place when the UK and France call in Israel's ambassador to condemn plans to build 3,000 illegal settler homes as revenge for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas seeking recognition at the UN. And the UK's mooting of the possibility that it will withdraw its own ambassador from Israel - a major diplomatic slap in the face - is a stunning development. You have to know that America's given its approval for this strong response - the UK is, after all, the tail that the American dog wags.

This is not really the result of Israel engaging in illegal or inhumane practices. Israel has been building settlements in the West Bank since it seized control of it, and Gaza, during the 1967 war. This is not a new event. What has changed isn't Israel, it's everything else.

The US and Europe all fear that Israel's uncontrollable brutality is inflaming the region, making it more unstable and more anti-American/anti-European. They are deepening the radicalization. Where once Israel's policy of armed fury towards all comers was useful to keep in line weak and despotic Arab regimes, it is now a hindrance. At a time when Mohammad Morsi, president of Egypt, is facing a revolt for being too much like Mubarak, despised in part for his refusal to confront Israel, Israel's actions could undermine Morsi's credibility further. Or it could force him to hit back at Israel to bolster his domestic position, putting the Camp David Treaty with Israel, which underpins American hegemony, at risk.

Israel really is shooting itself in the foot here. But it's not clear that they have any option. Already almost totally isolated - as the lopsided vote at the UN in support of granting statehood status to Palestine demonstrated - what is Israel to do? If it doesn't respond, coming after its perceived defeat in Gaza, it looks weak - which endangers its role as the American gendarme. And worse, it would look like it accepts the world's verdict that Palestine is a state, which would mean real negotiations towards a viable two-state solution. This it has never and will never accept. Israel has always played the long game, meaning it creates "facts on the ground" over time by stalling on negotiations as it pushes forward on settlement construction and economic strangling of the Palestinians. The end goal was always to gain control of all of Biblical Israel, in part because it provided a strong ideological underpinning justifying the right of European Jews to steal the land of the indigenous population, ie. Palestinians. But also because of the valuable natural resources - in particular water - that exists in the West Bank.

If the rest of the Middle East continues on its journey towards a deepening of democracy, Israel's bullyboy routine will put it increasingly in conflict with the policy of the Americans - and will stand out as anachronistic to the rest of the region. How this will play out in the end is unclear but if Israel closes off definitively the possibility of a two-state solution and the Americans place some distance between themselves (and their barrels of money) and Israel, they could be faced with their own Arab Spring - meaning a civil rights movement of Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs demanding full civil rights and equality.

France and Britain summon Israeli ambassadors - Middle East - Al Jazeera English:

'via Blog this'

Gaza & The Not So Slow Decline Of Israel

Not alone any more: Egyptian protestors in Tahrir last year

In some ways what just went down in Gaza was business as usual. Israel provoked a mini-war with Gaza killing a leading Hamas politician (who was, in fact, the chief negotiator for a long term ceasefire with Israel) after engaging in its "normal" policies of drone flights, missile strikes and, of course, economy-crippling embargoes. In the process they killed some Palestinians, primarily civilians, many of them children. The USA publicly backed every act of brutality and every lie of the Israeli government and military. Hamas, and other factions of the Palestinian resistance were hopelessly outgunned, while Abbas and the PLO were craven, irrelevant and despised by many Palestinians for being so. Most of the Israeli public cheered on the IDF and hoped for more Palestinian death and destruction.

And yet, things couldn't have been much different from one, let alone three decades ago. In the face of changes in the Middle East, not least the Arab Spring that kicked off last year, Israel is a European settler-colony in decline.

The changes are in many ways rooted in the economic developments of the Arab world that have pulled literally tens of millions of people into the cities - creating more workers, more literate people, more connected people. Turkey alone is industrializing with China-like speed, transforming the country and increasing its weight in the region. Alongside this has been a growing political awakening that received significant boosts from the two Iraq wars, the second Palestinian intifada and the indefatigability of Hizbullah in Lebanon. And the post-war, post-colonial set-ups, which often saw significant concessions to the masses by nationalist anti-colonial regimes – the Ba'ath party in Syria and Iraq, Nasser in Egypt, etc. – has been replaced by rapacious, go it alone neo-liberalism, creating resentment and class polarization.

Of course, this hasn't only affected Israel's standing as a few Arab dictators could woefully tell you - soon to be joined by Assad in Syria (I give him three months, tops). The accumulation of all those changes I indicated above were, at some point, bound to come together in an explosion. And what an explosion it has turned out to be. The Middle East is going through the kind of historic transformation that happens once in a century.

But neither has Israel been spared from this process. In many ways it had been spared from the more dramatic impacts of what was going on around it for the simple reason that it is the recipient of billions of economy boosting dollars in "foreign aid" from the USA (et al). It also receives the most advanced weaponry on the planet - often for free - from the USA. In fundamentals, Israel is a Sparta, an armed camp or, if you will, the USA's largest military base. Still, sooner or later, it was bound to catch up.

The first signs of how things were changing came from the invasion of Lebanon in 2006 (though I'm certain people could trace it back even further). Here was the IDF - an undefeated and feared military. It had launched wars before - pretty much every war, other than 1973 - and it had always won. In 2006, while it destroyed villages and neighbourhoods, and killed over 1000 people, it was forced to flee back to Israel. Hizbullah showed the whole of the Middle East (and the world) that Israel could be defeated and humiliated.

One year later Israel and the USA tried to depose Hamas in Gaza, though it had been chosen democratically in an election that was imposed upon Gaza - again, by the USA and Israel. And just as their forced election blew up in their faces, so did the attempt to foment a Fatah-led coup d'etat. Fatah was too corrupt and weak and Hamas simply drove them out of Gaza. In anger at their own stupidity and foreign policy failure, Israel imposed a near-total blockade of Gaza's economy. The idea was to put the Palestinians "on a diet" to cripple their ability to resist.

One year after that, in 2008, Israel invaded Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, wreaking wide destruction and killing over 1,000 Palestinians - again, mostly civilians. Israel's goal was to destroy Hamas - not stop rocket fire, which Hamas had effectively policed after agreeing a truce with Israel, which Israel repeatedly broke. Not only did Israel fail to dislodge Hamas, they generated an enormous amount of global criticism, which helped to create the movement to break the Gaza blockade. That movement spurred Turkey to break all ties with Israel, once its only Muslim ally in the region.

Now, here we are in 2012, still in the throes of the Arab Spring, which has deposed Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, once the region's greatest protector of the Israel/US hegemony in the Middle East. Israel is more isolated than it has perhaps ever been, with no regional friends whatsoever (though Morsi in Egypt is more moderate than his supporters and also more open to accepting the Camp David peace settlement as well - popularly hated in Egypt). This time Israel couldn't even invade Gaza. And, in proportion, as the popular voices in Israel became more shrill, with calls to wipe Gaza off the map and impose a Holocaust on the Palestinians, etc. Israel was more constrained from doing so.

Israel started this latest war by murdering Hamas' military leader and chief negotiator. And they have ended it by allowing Hamas to demonstrate that it is growing more powerful, more able to strike inside Israel. They have also agreed a ceasefire - that Israel will break, like all others - that includes an end to the blockade and the policy of targeted killings inside Gaza. Moreover, Egypt gave no commitment to stop the flow of arms into Gaza. It's no wonder that Netanyahu is being assailed from all sides. He presided over another humiliation that has left their comprador ally, Abbas, even more despised and discredited.

With this secular decline of Israel's role and power in the region, one wonders how long the Americans will continue to sponsor their favourite regional gendarme. What will be the next crisis for Israel and will it lead to its further isolation?

Turkey's Snub & The Decline of Israel

Israeli blunder: Turkish ship Mavi Marmara as it's being attacked by Israeli
commandos during attempt by flotilla to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.

It was just over 20 years ago that I first became politically active around the first war against Iraq by Bush Sr. It was all so new and I felt like my eyes were being opened to history and politics in so many profound ways that I have many indelible memories from this time. One of them is just how outside of the mainstream it was to criticize Israel. Of course, even by then, Israel had suffered some blows to its previously unassailable - and self-promoted - image as the plucky little democracy, the only one amongst a sea of Arab dictatorships. The war against Lebanon with its attendant brutalities, particularly the massacre at the Sabra & Shatila refugee camp by Israeli allied Christian fascists against unarmed Palestinians as Israeli troops watched on, had given the world a hint at just how brutal a regime it was. But it was still the case that even wearing a "Free Palestine" pin - as I did - was controversial. I remember being in the men's room on campus and was cornered by a Zionist who demanded to know why I wanted to drive the Jews into the sea. Later that year the York Arab Student's Federation attempted to hold a day in celebration of Palestine liberation and it almost led to a riot as Zionists showed up with massive Israeli flags that they used to try and prevent students from seeing the pro-Palestinian displays.

Those days are gone and Israel has only itself to thank for its growing isolation and the increase in awareness of Israel's viciousness. The 2006 war in Lebanon - and their effective defeat. The war against a semi-starved Gaza population in 2008. The refusal to stop the illegal settlements or end the blockade of the Gaza Strip has undermined Israel's attempts to portray itself as a bastion of moderation in a sea of extremism. None of that would have been possible, of course, without the struggles of Palestinians themselves, who have refused to lie down and die or vacate their ancestral lands no matter the punishment and humiliations meted out by Israel. And the international allies of the Palestinians have admirably carried the struggle abroad, in particular building and promoting the cause of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] against Israel. At first BDS seemed like a hopeless cause - and I admit to having been skeptical about its potential, perhaps because of my memories of toilet harassments from university. But bit by bit the idea of BDS has taken hold as has the label of Apartheid, taken from the racist system of segregation maintained formerly in South Africa.

That isn't to say that Israel doesn't still have its supporters - particularly at the level of the US government. Israel is a key strategic partner and facilitator for American imperialism in the Middle East. It isn't for nothing that the US gives the largest share of its "foreign aid" budget to Israel, along with special access and deals on the most high tech military equipment. Israel is America's watchdog in the Middle East. But even in the face of bellicose pro-Israel propaganda and intimidation of pro-Palestinian activists, the arguments have gained ground to the point that Israel's supporters are increasingly forced to fight a rearguard action. It has become less about trying to prove that the Palestinians aren't terrorists by genetic or cultural disposition, as it once was, and more about proving that Israel is, in fact, a form of Apartheid regime. Witness the battle in Toronto about the participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in the Pride Parade. Of course this campaign against Pride by Mammoliti, Ford and every other bigot on council was as much about attacking gay & lesbian rights as Palestine. But they tried - and failed - to target it on the basis of the Israeli Apartheid label, giving the argument publicity. The city's discrimination officer found that labeling a country as racist was not discriminatory towards an ethnic group.

In the Middle East itself, the solidarity campaigns to bring aid to the Gaza Strip - in part as a means to expose the brutality and illegality of the blockade have also helped to isolate Israel. Last year's flotilla to Gaza, which was attacked in international waters by Israel commandos who shot first and asked questions later, has turned out to have been a significant breaking point in terms of its isolation. The international optics of Israel killing nine unarmed human rights activists was bad enough but their repeated refusals to apologize to Turkey for killing Turkish citizens has become a foreign policy disaster.

This has only added to the ideological crisis that was created by the vicious and hypocritical invasion of Gaza at the end of 2008. At the time I suggested that this war was a symbol of Israel's weakness, not its strength, particularly after the defeat in Lebanon in 2006. Israel was spoiling for a fight to prove that it could still be the neighbourhood bully - by picking on the weakest kid on the block. But the effect - aside from failing to destroy Hamas - was only to make it harder for regional allies like Egypt and Turkey to justify their continued ties when the whole world turned away from Israel in disgust. And, I argued in January 2009, this war's brutal and vicious character could lead to some major knock on effects throughout the region.

But even in the unlikely event that Israel is able to achieve a "total victory" there is still the growing danger that the Arab anger this present brutality has unleashed will destroy the American empire's already shaky hegemony in the Middle East...
If these regimes begin to collapse - and Egypt's is the one to watch - it will signal the collapse of four decades of work to create a compliant network of pro-American regimes, with Egypt as the jewel in the crown. America's rulers, already frustrated with Israel's failure in Lebanon to weaken Iran, may begin to raise graver doubts about the utility of Israel's Iron Wall strategy.

As it happens, Egypt's dictatorship did fall in rapid succession after revolution in Tunisia, leading to a season of upheaval throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Libya, while a mixed result because of the involvement of western imperialism, marks the fall of another dictator, which could inspire the movement in Syria. Upheaval seems to be returning to Bahrain after the Saudi monarchy tried to help the Bahraini monarchy crush the revolution. All of this upheaval, combined with the rapid economic growth of Turkey alongside a process of reform that has weakened the power of the Turkish military, has elevated that country's role in the Middle East. The immensely popular, moderate Islamism of the Justice & Development Party led by Tayyip Erdogan has sought increasingly to assert its own interests and authority as a leading Muslim power of significance.

Israel's political leadership is now paying the price for the inability of Israeli political institutions and political thinking to switch gears. With growing international isolation - and economic unrest at home - the Israeli leadership is a one note song: repress, expand the settlements, refuse responsibility, refuse negotiations, repress. It's clear that this strategy has reached the limits of its effectiveness. It was one thing for groups of activists to challenge Israel's policies but now a major regional power - Turkey - has all but broken diplomatic ties with Israel and has announced that it is taking Israel to the International Court of Justice to challenge the Gaza blockade. Besides being a major own goal for Israel, it marks a new stage in its decline.

Turkey no longer needs Israel as it once did and feels confident enough to suspend its military ties with the country. Erdogan will travel to Egypt later this month and, perhaps, even visit the Gaza Strip in a further slap in the face to Israel. Just as America and NATO have attempted to insert themselves into the Arab revolutionary process, in order to direct it towards neo-liberalism and western strategic advantage, primarily against China and Russia, so Turkey is also inserting itself into the process. But Turkey, as a Muslim democracy in the Middle East, has far more credibility amongst the regional population. After all, they weren't spending billions to prop up the recently overthrown dictators, unlike the NATO powers. This move by Turkey is a brilliant tactical move to raise its prestige yet further as a regional leader. One only wonders if Turkey will sideline Israel in importance for any empire that wants to have sway in the Middle East. If it does, if Israel's importance as a bagman for western imperialism becomes redundant, its decline will be accelerated. The voices in American ruling class circles who already have been raising doubts about the usefulness of Israel - like Walt & Mearsheimer - will become louder and more confident. Israel may soon discover that it is, in fact, the tail and not the dog, and a very expensive tail indeed.

Turkey to take Israel to ICJ - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

"Anti-Semitism" Committee A Rearguard Defence Of Israel's Crimes

It's nothing new really - the right wing, who can barely make their lips form the words "anti-racism", spend boatloads of cash to "take a stand" against anti-Semitism. Except that what they're really defending are the odious actions and policies of the state of Israel. That's exactly what this hokey Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism is all about.

When there was serious, life-threatening anti-Semitism prior to and during the Second World War, with the rise of Jew-hating fascism, did the Canadian Parliament set-up any special committees? No, the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King pronounced that "none is too many" and turned away desperate Jewish refugees. Back then the Jews weren't of any particular political use to the ruling class in Canada or the US or the UK - or numerous other countries that turned them away. It's still the case that most Jews aren't of any particular political interest to the Canadian political elite. Most Jews don't live in Israel and aren't any more pro Israel than the rest of the population. In fact, this bullshit "coalition" specifically excluded a Jewish organization that didn't have a pro-Israel agenda, Independent Jewish Voices of Canada.

It's also worth noting that Parliament has never set up a committee to combat Islamophobia - even as Muslims suffered job and income losses, suffered harassment and attacks in the streets, campaigns against their places of worship and demonization in the media, not to mention no-fly lists that disproportionately target Muslims, etc. But then Canada's Parliament has facilitated that particular form of discrimination and oppression.

Nor has there been a coalition to combat homophobia, a fact that gay, former MP Mario Silva might want to ponder as he stands shoulder to shoulder with Tory MPs who would happily take away his right to get married, enjoy same sex spousal benefits or any other legal equality that has been fought and won in the last thirty years.

But, besides demonstrating an utterly craven hypocrisy on the question of racism, the existence of this committee also demonstrates something of greater significance - after all, we knew that Parliament was a corrupt dung heap filled with sycophants and toads. Israel and its racist, genocidal policies - it's Apartheid - is suffering the deepest international crisis of legitimacy in its history. The old methods of justifying Israel's uncivilized and inhumane practices by referring to the inhumanity suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust and, more generally, as a result of European anti-Semitism, has faded in potency. After all, why should the Palestinians be punished for crimes committed by Europeans over half a century ago?

Nor is the underlying racist, colonialist justification holding the same weight as it once did. The argument that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East is less impressive when not only are their Arab neighbours overthrowing dictatorships in favour of democracy, prominent Israeli officials have more than once expressed their dismay that they are losing "reliable" leaders. The truth is revealed that Israel's existence depends precisely on neighbouring dictatorships to suppress the solidarity felt by the Arab peoples of the region for their Palestinian brothers and sisters. The $2 billion/year that the US spent to prop up Hosni Mubarak actually saved billions more that Israel didn't have to spend on its military in fear of being swamped by the hostile nations around it. Israel could instead focus on their real goal and pleasure - squeezing the Palestinians bit by bit, through illegal settlement expansion, though constant harassment and humiliation, through economic destruction of any indigenous economy, with the goal of driving them out and taking over the whole of "eretz Israel" - from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. This has been the goal from before the founding of Israel and has never been particularly hidden.

And just as Israel's "democratic security" depended upon pliant dictatorships for neighbours, it is dependent upon a pliant dictatorship to rule over the Palestinians. The real outrage over Hamas, and the illegal and ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip is entirely about the fact that the Palestinians - even faced with the full horrors of Israeli Apartheid, refused to submit and voted for a party not sanctioned by their Israeli/American overlords. They are to be punished in perpetuity for voting incorrectly. But as the recent high profile fiascos (and massacres) involving anti-Israel protestors has revealed - whether it is blockading aid boats or shooting unarmed protestors on Israel's border - Israel is just another tinpot dictatorship that allows a small minority within its borders to vote and have full rights.

What Mario Silva - happily voted out in my riding of Davenport - and the goons on Toronto council who tried to deny funding to Pride based upon the participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid don't realize is that they are fighting against the wheels of history. And with the revolutions in the Middle East still roiling and reshaping the region (and the world), the wheels of history have just sped up. Their pathetic committee will have no real impact on the inevitable: Israeli Apartheid will be revealed for what it is and defeated.

Anti-Semitism on the rise at Canadian universities, committee says - The Globe and Mail

Israel Is No Different Than Syria

Israel likes to tout itself as the "plucky little democracy" in the Middle East, and as an island of European-style democracy besieged by a sea of dictatorships and dark, Arabic hordes. Besides the (fading) appeal to the oppressions Jews suffered in Europe, particular the horrors of the Holocaust, it is this "light of nations" image - and the racist stereotypes of the Arab societies and peoples - that has been a key component of its PR in the west. For the political elites, of course, it is more real politick than that - Israel is their watchdog to keep the unruly Arabs who happen by unlucky accident to control the lion's share of the world's oil supply. These tropes have served Israel well since its founding in 1948.

However, you have to wonder how long this image can stick when it is so at variance with the reality of Israel's actual record. This weekend's murder of unarmed protesters by Israeli soldiers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights region of Syria reminds us once again that Israel, in fact, behaves no differently than the dictatorships that surround it - or used to before Egyptians did theirs in. The usual answer given to such accusations is that Israel only deals harshly with its enemies but practices an open form of democracy and vibrant civil debate amongst its multi-cultural citizenry. Well, this is as true of Israel as it was of the early United States of America - i.e. not at all. Because it disappears the many millions of people who are denied civil rights and who faced armed, murderous repression by the Israeli state, which exercises control over the most fundamental aspects of their lives - from control of tax revenues to control of ground water, airspace and international borders.

We shouldn't forget that it was less than two years ago that Israel - without provocation and having broken the terms of a peace treaty with Hamas several times - invaded Gaza and murdered over 1,000 civilians, including hundreds of children. Since then, another 200 Palestinians have been killed with dozens killed in the last month during the demonstrations to mark the Nakba ("catastrophe") and Naksa ("setback") that marked the founding of the state of Israel from the Palestinian point of view. In other words, Israel has killed as many protesters as the Syria security forces. Just because Israel goes one step further than the Syrian dictatorship and refuses to recognize the civil rights of a majority of the human beings over whom it rules - and kills - hardly makes Israel a better regime. Nor is the fact that Israel prevents the majority of the indigenous population from returning to their homeland as a way to avoid the overwhelming demographic challenge of denying democratic rights not only to a small majority - as is the case now - but to a massive an insurmountable one.

And the fact that Israel has such a large body of domestic support amongst the Jewish population for its actions provides no more of an exoneration than the denial of citizenship rights to the Palestinians makes its actions democratic. The reality is that Israel only exists because of the largesse of American dollars - to the tune of $3 million per day - and American high tech weapons. And just as in the Arab dictatorships where the regimes provide privileges to a section of the population, usually from the ruler's tribe, region or religious minority, in order to create a loyal base in the population, Israel does the same with the local Jewish population - it just so happens that American government money allows the base to be larger than in the relatively poorer Arab countries. The weight of history also brings support to the regime - in Egypt, the regime maintained for a long time the patina of support that carried over from the immense popularity of Gamal Nasser, the anti-imperialist and populist president until his death in 1970. With Israel the historic weight of the Holocaust and the previous oppression of the Jews in Europe provides a further base of support to the actions of the Israeli state.

These elements all combine to provide a cover to some of the most brutal crimes against democracy and human rights in the world today - all with the enthusiastic support of the Canadian government. And they make it clear that the struggle against this oppression of a multi-pronged one. The revolutions in the Arab world - and hopefully Assad will be the next dictator to fall - are a key element in undermining Israel legitimacy and support base. Along with those mighty events is the continued resistance of the Palestinians themselves both within the region and internationally along with their allies to expose Israel as an apartheid type state. And, lastly, to destroy western state and corporate support for Israel, which provides the domestic foundation for Israel's colonialist and *theocratic policies at home.

Israel fires on 'Naksa' protesters - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

*I deliberately use "theocratic" and not "ethnocratic" for a number of reasons. First, Jewishness or Judaism is both a religion and a set of cultural practices/shared history but this doesn't coincide with an ethnicity in the same way as, say, Han Chinese does (and this is still problematic), nor is it, like say, American or Canadian, the denotion of a civil conception of citizenship. And, as the original "liberatory" claims of Zionism dissipate, the state is more and more reliant upon religious justifications to support its claims over the land and the people.

Israel Exonerates Israel in Flotilla Massacre - But It Won't Stop Global Backlash

You've got to hand it to the Israeli government when it comes to chutzpah. They refuse to permit any independent inquiry into their massacre of nine humanitarian aid activists in international waters. Their own "inquiry" has reached the stunning conclusion that the only criticism that should be directed at the operation is that they weren't prepared for the potential for violence.

The report, however, praised the commandos who took part in the operation, saying they were justified in opening fire and killing nine people after being confronted by violent pro-Palestinian activists aboard one of the ships.

Huh? So, let me get this straight - commandos illegally board your ship, firing live rounds from the air and the sea and if you resist this violent assault then you are a "violent pro-Palestinian activist"? I shudder to think what a "better" planned assault would look like: drop a bomb and sink the ship outright?

Well, this bogus inquiry might soothe consciences in Israel where the population is used to killing innocents by the boatload to justify the theft of land from the locals. But in the rest of the world there are a significant number of people prepared to call "bullshit" on such a farce. As Phyllis Bennis, a widely read commentator on US foreign policy notes:

The ferocity of the massacre on the Mavi Marmara has forced even reluctant U.S. allies to criticize Israeli policy, some for the first time. For some countries, the reaction has been exceptionally strong. Turkey, responding to the murders on board the Turkish-flagged ship, withdrew its ambassador from Israel and announced a reduction in overall military and trade relations. Turkish President Abdullah Gul stated that "from now on, Turkish-Israeli ties will never be the same. The incident has left a deep and irreparable scar." Turkey then issued three demands to Israel as the price for restoring normal relations: apologize for the raid, organize an independent investigation, and significantly, to lift the blockade of Gaza. Losing or even diminishing Israel's longstanding relations with NATO's only Muslim-majority country, ties that included access to water, joint military exercises and a ready market for military exports, will have serious consequences for Tel Aviv...
NATO has yet to respond, but Turkey is reported to be considering a request to the NATO High Command to answer Israel's act of war against the Turkish-flagged ship with an act of collective defense as required under the NATO charter.

Even within the US establishment itself, Israel is increasingly seen as a problem, rather than a useful ally. According to this article in Palestine Monitor:

It [is] not surprising therefore to read that the Chief of the Mossad told the Knesset as recently as June 2010: “For the US, we have ceased to be an asset and become a burden.”

The effect of this growing pressure on Israel, and the growing momentum of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign is creating an atmosphere of frustration inside Israel, with the Israeli government proposing a new raft of laws meant to punish any Israeli professors who support the BDS campaign. Rather than squelching the campaign, it has instead drawn more people into opposition to the government's heavy-handed response.

And while there is a bunker mentality forming amongst a significant portion of the population, others are instead critical of the government for not ending the occupation. If the BDS campaign gains further momentum and begins to seriously impact the Israeli economy and visible cultural events and production, it will become clear to ever wider swathes of the Israeli population that the Occupation must end. It's clear that as much as the Israeli government wants to hand-wave and outright lie about what happened on the Mavi Marmara, it has only increased the international opposition and isolation of Israel.

Israeli campaigners believe the Gaza flotilla incident represents a tipping point in raising support for boycotts. Musicians including Elvis Costello, Gil Scott Heron and the Pixies have cancelled shows in Israel. Hollywood actors also snubbed Jerusalem's international film festival and internationally acclaimed writers have supported the BDS movement, which is gaining support in dozens of countries.

In early June, George Galloway announced that Viva Palestina, which was central to the last flotilla, will organize another, more massive convoy from both land and sea. The goal is to have 60 ships and 500 vehicles, including cars, trucks and buses. The convoy and flotilla will set out on Sunday, September 12. The world will be watching.

G20 Weaponsgate: A Page Out Of Israeli Propaganda Book

I must admit that I thought it a little funny that amongst the so-called weapons intended for use against the G20 that police bigwig Bill Blair put on display for the media were medieval siege fashion-wear. And with good reason. It turns out that it was all a crock of shit.
You see, the arrows that Blair claimed were going to be doused in gasoline and lit on fire a la Robin Hood and his Merry Men were actually confiscated from a guy who was on his way to a medieval role-playing society. They had nothing to do with the G20 - and Blair knew it. Same with the machetes and the chainsaw and the chainmail armour.
It's stunning to me that everything this guy has said has turned out to be an utter lie and yet nobody is asking for his head on a platter. Would any of the rest of us mere plebes be able to lie about several key things - including things that put others' lives in danger - and not get canned from our jobs? Apparently there is one rule for the people at the top and one for the rest of us.

But actually, it's more accurate to say that the other people at the top, who could have Blair turfed in a heartbeat, support this strategy. We know this because it's used over and over and over again to the usually gullible mugs who work for the media. It was done years ago in Miami as part of the ramp-up to justify attacking protesters against the FTAA.

And it was done recently to justify Israel's murderous assault on the humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza. After murdering 9 people, including several who received multiple gunshots to the head, mob execution style, the IDF proved that the passengers were dangerous by releasing photos of all the weapons that they were carrying. Clearly the IDF were only defending themselves - like the Toronto Police.
As the two photos here demonstrate, those devious Turks (Muslims, the lot of them) were up to no good and intending to take on the Israeli commandos with violent attacks using dvds (think Chinese throwing stars), kefiyehs (Palestinian national symbols are particularly dangerous to Israeli commandos - like garlic to vampires), some steak knives, and a wrench or two. But worst of all in the following picture - the ship had on board a power tool. Those murderous buggers were a bloodthirsty lot and clearly intended - as the photo demonstrates - to cut some Israeli handrails but bloody fast.

Conclusion: Cops and paramilitaries the world over are fucking obtuse. The only thing that makes their cravenly stupid attempts to justify various horrors possible are the even more stupid members of the media who swallow it like Jim Jones Kool-Aid. While I don't think that anyone should be subject to police batons, boots, tear gas or lockdowns, if it rattled a few brain cells into active life in the heads of a few journalists, it can't be such a bad thing that they got a taste of what is usually reserved for us rubes. Perhaps they've started to notice a not-so-subtle pattern emerging.

Gaza Freedom March Faces Egyptian Repression

By Kevin Ovenden Viva Palestina Convoy Leader

Viva Palestina faced with 2,000 riot police in the port of Al-Arish!

To all friends of Palestine,
Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.
This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.
He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.
We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.
The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.
We are now calling upon all friends of palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy’s and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!

Help Galloway Kick Jason Kenney

I RECEIVED THIS APPEAL IN MY INBOX this morning. People may remember when George Galloway was barred from entering Canada for the crime of having provided grassroots aid to the people of Gaza, who are suffering under an illegal and immoral Israeli blockade. It looks like it might blow up in the faces of the Tories and we should all help to apply some fire to the wick. With the scandal around detainee torture, the petty maneuverings around the economic stimulus, and just plain old incompetence and foolhardiness, this could be another nail in the Tory coffin.

Dear friends:
The Defend Free Speech Campaign is pleased to announce that British MP George Galloway has recently won an important victory against Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney in the Federal Court of Canada. On October 31, 2009, the Court announced that it would hear a judicial review of Kenney’s decision to ban Galloway from entering Canada. The Court is expected to issue a final decision in January 2010.
The significance of this development should not be underestimated: only about10 to 15 per cent of all cases ever make it to the Court. This indicates that Galloway has a serious case against Kenney - one that we can win!
But we urgently need your help!
Between now and December 21, we must raise a minimum of $20,000 CAD to cover basic legal expenses. Our dedicated legal team has been working pro-bono since the ban was announced, and will continue to do so, but they have had very little support for mounting court costs.
By contrast, Jason Kenney and the federal government have unlimited resources to undermine Galloway's case in the Court, and to attack our campaign in the media and the public. Indeed, this was their approach when the ban was first announced.
In order for the case to proceed, we're going to need your generous financial support, and we need it as soon as possible. At stake is much more than Galloway’s ability to enter and speak in Canada; at stake is the freedom of Canadians to criticize and oppose their government without fear of censorship or retribution.
Please help us to defend free speech by making a donation today!

There are two easy ways to donate:
1) Online
Click here to make an easy and secure donation by credit card (please note, your donation will be private; we do NOT list the names of contributors):

2) By cheque or money order
Mail your cheque or mondey order made payable to "Peace and Justice Committee" to:
Defend Free Speech Campaign
427 Bloor Street West, Box 13
Toronto ON M5S 1X7
No donation is too big or too small, and every penny counts towards our $20,000 goal.

In addition to making a donation, you can support the Defend Free Speech Campaign by taking the following steps:
+ Forward this e-mail to friends, family, co-workers and all your e-mail contacts, encouraging them to support the campaign, too!
+ Visit our website
+ Add a link to our campaign on your website.
+ Join our Facebook group: Help George Galloway beat Jason Kenney in Federal Court!
+ Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Update your status to: I'm helping George Galloway beat Jason Kenney in Federal Court! You can, too.
+ Follow us on Twitter.
+ If you belong to a trade union, student union, peace or social justice
group, download this sample resolution to endorse the campaign and make a
donatio.

Thank you in advance for your generous support! This is a campaign we can win, but only with your help.

In solidarity,
James Clark
Defend Free Speech Campaign

Background

On March 19, 2009, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney banned British Member of Parliament George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway learned about the ban from the British media, which had been contacted by members of Kenney's staff. Hours after the ban appeared in the media, Galloway finally received written confirmation of the ban from Canada's High Commission in London.

Letter from the Canadian High Commission.

Response from Galloway's Canadian lawyers.

Galloway had been scheduled to visit four Canadian cities - Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa - as part of a North America-wide speaking tour in March and April 2009. He had been invited by local peace coalitions, student unions and church groups to speak about his recent humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza, and to speak about his opposition to the war in Afghanistan.
Galloway spent two weeks speaking to audiences in major cities all over the United States, but was banned from entering Canada by Jason Kenney.
In response, peace activists and civil liberties campaigners launched the Defend Free Speech Campaign, which helped galvanize public opposition to the ban. Unfortunately, we were unable to overturn it before Galloway was scheduled to speak in Canada. As a consequence, Galloway was forced to speak to Canadian audiences through an online video connection from New York City.
Since then, the Defend Free Speech Campaign has remained committed to opposing Kenney's attack on free speech, and has supported a legal challenge in the courts. The Federal Court ruling on October 31 is our first major victory.

More background information is available on our website, including timelines, media reports, and legal documents.

Israel: The Plucky Democracy That Opposes Democracy

ISRAEL LIKES TO PORTRAY ITSELF as the Middle East's only democracy; a bastion of (western) civilization in a sea of (oriental) despotism. That picture has always been false, of course, as soon as you include the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed and who now are subject to Israeli rule in the Occupied Territories but who have zero civil rights in Israel. It's not for nothing that Israel is compared with South Africa's racist apartheid system.
But Israel's disrespect for basic democratic rights is even more pervasive than this. Just ask the Bedouin in the Negev desert, who have never had their right to their pastoral lands recognized, though they have lived there for hundreds of years prior to the founding of Israel. Most of them must live in tin shacks or tents because Israel destroys any more permanent buildings. One Bedouin community had finally won the right to elect its own local council, however the Israeli parliament cancelled the vote just weeks prior to it taking place - likely to ensure it maintains control while a lawsuit moves through the courts to demand land rights. According to Abu Ras, a geography professor at Ben Gurion University:

"If there is a Palestinian state, Israel does not want the Bedouin controlling lands that connect those two Palestinian territories. It would rather the Bedouin were concentrated in as small a space as possible."

Also within Israel, the parliament's Central Elections Committee attempted to ban Arab parties from Israeli elections in January of this year. Ultimately it was overturned in the Supreme Court but the unanimity of all the Jewish parties was indicative of the level of disrespect towards the civil rights of the large Arab minority inside Israel. Israeli government cabinet minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said after the Supreme Court decision that is was "unfortunate, since no boundary was established to prevent the disloyalty of some of the Arab MKs toward the state of Israel...

"In the next Knesset, we will pass a citizenship law that will prevent the disloyalty of some of Israel's Arabs."

And in Gaza, of course, the Israeli government has maintained a deadly blockade since Hamas won a landslide victory, following an election that was imposed upon Palestinians by Israel and the United States. In 2007, Israel and the USA supported and armed an attempt by Fatah to overthrow the Hamas government. It failed badly and Hamas took total control of the Gaza Strip. In the present round of prisoner-swap negotiations between Hamas and Israel, for the release of Cpl. Shalit, Israel continues to refuse to lift the illegal blockade. Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri said in an article in Xinhua that:

"This siege is imposed on the Gaza Strip because Hamas won in the legislative elections in 2006, and apparently this siege has nothing to do with the deal to release the Israeli soldier... The Israeli decision is part of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Palestinian people."

 Across the northern border in Lebanon, the government now includes members of Hezbollah, which is incredibly popular with the country's large Shia population, having led an insurgency against the illegal Israeli occupation throughout the 80s and 90s. Israel's defeat at the hands of a small guerilla force has never sat well with it, nor the idea of an independent Lebanese state to its north.  Again, even though it is the democratic will of the people of Lebanon that Hezbollah should be represented in parliament and that it should continue as a guerilla force to defend the southern borders, Israel cannot accept this democratic affront to its god-given right to determine the shape of the region. To call Israel a democracy is to do damage to the word.

After Goldstone: Israel's Gaza Siege Continues To Kill

Israeli tanks enter Gaza on Wednesday

AT THE MOMENT ISRAEL ISN'T SHELLING GAZA OR DROPPING CHEMICAL WEAPONS but its illegal and cruel policies continue to kill civilians. Since Israel's preferred candidates - Fatah - badly lost the 2007 democratic election, they have imposed a brutal blockade against the entire population. This has led to the collapse of the local economy and turned the entire Gaza Strip into a giant, open-air prison.
Of course, the American government, including under Obama, has happily gone along with this. There was, in fact, never any chance that Obama would substantially change the attitude of the US towards Israel, which remains the watchdog of the Middle East on behalf of America. It continues to receive billions of dollars in direct aid and loans (that are always forgiven), as well as in donations of military equipment.
Of course, from the media, you would never think that anything untoward was going on until there are reports of retaliatory fire by those much maligned Qassam rockets that are like slingshots - homemade, with little or no explosive warhead - compared to the 21st century military machine of the Israeli Occupation Forces. You would never hear about the Israeli jets that buzz Gaza City late at night so that children lay awake in fear that a missile will fly into their home. Nor do you hear about the regular harassment and dispossession of Palestinian farmers and residents in the West Bank whenever the utterly bonkers religious settlers make a move to reclaim that land given them by God, as though they're fighting the freaking Canaanites.
Well, a report by the International Middle East Center noted that the 361st medical patient died today as a result of Israel's blockade. It was a 41-year old man who needed cancer treatment. Israel literally waited till he was dead to grant permission, though he had all his forms and papers in order. On Tuesday a 13-year old boy died after also being denied access to cancer treatment by Israel.
Today, Israeli tanks also rolled into Gaza near the Egyptian border and opened fire on houses, forcing people to flee. And in the West Bank, Israel kidnapped - again, illegally - 7 men and have taken them to detention camps "for questioning".
All this is pertinent to the fact that Israel continues to resist any domestic inquiry into its invasion of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Of course the US is standing full square behind Israel's absurd outrage and supporting them "in their fight against the Goldstone report." As Israeli president Shimon Peres stated today:
"It is outrageous that a respected institution like the United Nations provides a platform to spread lies and stories about Israel."
Of course Israel has defied the International Criminal Court before over the building of the "Apartheid Wall", which cut deep into the Occupied Territories. And Israel regularly attacks the UN as biased because it passes meaningless resolutions in the General Assembly calling on Israel to follow the Geneva Conventions against annexing occupied territory, killing civilians, etc. etc.
But there are certain truths that cannot be denied - Israel launched a military offensive against major population centers in the Gaza Strip. There had been a full blockade of Gaza for over a year and a weapons embargo against the Palestinians for much longer than that. The only thing the Palestinians have are light weapons. The numbers speak for themselves: 1400 Palestinians died vs 13 Israelis. In other words 100:1. If that isn't evidence of the use "disproportionate and indiscriminate" violence, I don't know what is.
Likely, the most hawkish elements in the cabinet, like Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, will step back from refusing an inquiry - especially since Hamas has immediately agreed to one. The political costs are much lower to hold an inquiry that, at most, gives a slap on the wrist to politicians or suggests that Israeli generals allowed some soldiers to act too zealously. As an article in the Christian Science Monitor quoted Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor as saying:
"'Today, with the development of international law, one of the best means of defense is for a state to investigate itself.'"
And an investigation by Israel of itself will ensure that the Goldstone Report isn't referred to the International Criminal Court. The whole thing will be the usual, ritualized whitewash of Israeli war crimes.
In the meantime, nothing will change. Israel will continue to kill, maim and starve Palestinians. Settlers will continue to dispossess them. Jerusalem authorities will continue to deny them building permits and to drive them from their homes or deny them the right to return. After all, it's just another day in the Holy Land.

60 Minutes Goes Pro-Palestinian!

This is a remarkable piece of journalism in the United States of America - to show the racism and colonialism of the Israeli Occupation is almost unheard of in the mainstream media. It is definitely worth watching - I know I learned something from it. Could this be a sign that something is shifting in America viz. Israel?


Watch CBS Videos Online

"They Created A Desert & Called It Peace"

Gaza: Was There A Winner?

It may seem crass to talk about winning and losing in the face of the Gaza slaughter, as though it were a football game. But there is good reason when one considers that the final tally of a battle or a war shapes key future events, determining the likelihood of future victories or even whether other battles will be entered into by those involved.
And it is not only those directly involved who must be considered, for a victory or defeat by the army of choice will determine future actions. It is a truism about the Middle East, for instance, that Israel's 6-day, smashing victory over three Arab armies in 1967 secured them the sponsorship of the United States, which has sustained their superior position viz. their regional competitors.
Based upon a numbers count it would seem that Israel is the definite winner. There are, after all, something like 1300 dead Palestinians, plus another 5400 wounded, with well over half of the total being accounted for by civilians, even with only women and children being counted as such. This compares to 3 dead Israeli civilians and another 10 dead soldiers, most of them killed by friendly fire, apparently.
But we can't look at the present invasion in terms of crude - and deadly - numbers.
Israel has a massive military superiority over Hamas and its allied militias, like Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and DFLP. They have F-16s, guided bombs and missiles, Merkava tanks, phosphorous shells, unmanned surveillance drones, a navy, all the latest techno gizmos, access to US satellite intelligence - not to mention, apparently, the intelligence support of Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's favourite Palestinian collaborator, and leader of Fatah. All of this ensured that a Hamas military victory over Israel was utterly impossible and Hamas seems to have been smart enough to avoid direct confrontations in the open.
Israeli political leaders had set themselves a series of goals prior to and during the operation. Since Israel initiated the present conflict, planning it far in advance, prior even to the 6 months ceasefire negotiated with Hamas, and set the terms for its victory, it must be measured against those goals. In addition, other, unintended consequences must be looked at.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, along with Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, have argued that the primary goal of the Gaza invasion was to stop Hamas lobbing rockets and mortars into southern Israel. If this were really the purpose of the attack, then certainly Israel has failed miserably, as demonstrated by the ceaseless firing of rockets throughout the invasion and even immediately following Israel's unilateral ceasefire. What's more, if the Israeli government wanted to end Gazan rocket fire the answer was very simple - meet the conditions of the original ceasefire negotiated with Hamas and agree to continue it. Hamas had, after all, met its terms - not only discontinuing Hamas' firing of rockets but putting a lid on rocket fire by rival militias such as Fatah and Islamic Jihad. Between June 19, when the ceasefire was agreed and November 4, when Israel launched a military raid, breaking the ceasefire, rocket and mortar fire was effectively nil (see attached pdf, p.6). It was Israel that failed to meet the terms of the ceasefire and which repeatedly provoked Hamas with attacks, arrests and killings.
The second stated goal was to prevent Hamas from re-arming. However, again, actions speak louder than words. If this were Israel's sole goal, they could have negotiated a deal with their pliant Egyptian ally or focused bombing strictly in the border region, where the smuggling tunnels exist. Nonetheless, even the head of Israel's intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, reports that the tunnel network hasn't been destroyed and that it will be up and running again in short order if Egypt doesn't clamp down.
In other words, stopping smuggling was never dependent upon bombing the hell out of Gaza - it couldn't even be effective. What was required was Egyptian cooperation. But Egypt is now less likely, not more, to agree to a politically unpopular clampdown against the Palestinians, after hundreds of thousands demonstrated in solidarity with Gaza and against the Egyptian dictatorship. That was made clear after Israel and the US signed an agreement - without telling the Egyptians - to tackle the tunnels on Egyptian soil. The Egyptian Foreign Minister responded saying that Israel and the US can "do what they wish with regard to the sea or any other country in Africa, but when it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people and Egypt's ability to protect its borders." President-for-life Mubarak went on television to specifically state that foreign monitors would not be allowed in Egypt. But even if Egypt agrees to more American Army Engineers to help it police the border, or an increase in police numbers IDF officials don't believe that this will stop the smuggling. So, Israel's second policy goal is clearly a failure.
The real key for Israel was the need to restore its deterrent capability" - basically to instill fear in any and all Arabs who might think to challenge the occupation or any other Israeli strategic goals. New York Times billionaire columnist Thomas Friedman supportively referred to this as "educating" Hamas by "inflicting a heavy death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza population." This was, in other words, according to Israeli supporters and critics, a terrorist operation by the state of Israel. As Norman Finklestein pointed out in a recent interview: ""The goal of the operation was to terrorize the civilian population so that Palestinians would be afraid of Israel. This is the dictionary definition of terrorism."
Has Israel restored its deterrent capability, so badly damaged by its failed war in Lebanon in 2006, and its withdrawal under duress from Gaza in 2005 and southern Lebanon in 2000? Certainly every Israeli politician, journalist and military leader is claiming this. However, if the goal was simply to impress upon Hamas that they couldn't defeat Israel militarily, this was already known. Hamas has been trying since at least 2002 to agree a long term truce with Israel, only to face Israeli bombs and targeted assassinations. Certainly by now, any Palestinian knows that it doesn't matter what you do, Israel will try to kill you.

"it is overwhelmingly Israel that kills first after a pause in the conflict: 79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day). In addition, we found that this pattern -- in which Israel is more likely than Palestine to kill first after a conflict pause -- becomes more pronounced for longer conflict pauses. Indeed, of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days."

The irony is that this pattern almost ensures the continuation of violent resistance since even non-violence is met by Israeli attacks. At a certain point, Israel's deterrent capability is undermined by the fact that only utter defeat and an acceptance of genocide would prevent Palestinians from resisting Israel's aggression. Certainly Hamas was suitably unbowed to fire off nearly two dozen rockets after Israel's unilateral ceasefire and to demand a withdrawal within one week or they would restart hostilities. What's more, everyone can see, as they did in Lebanon in 2006, that while Israel could defeat three Arab armies in six days in 1967, after three weeks fighting a starved, blockaded, disarmed population in Gaza, the IDF didn't take more than a corner of Gaza City.
Ultimately, of course, it will be in the coming days that the interpretation of events will unfold, depending upon the actual state of Hamas and other resistance organizations. It is likely that while Arabs throughout the region will of course remember that Israel can, in fact, destroy unarmed populations, that it is possible to resist and survive. What's more, Hamas will likely be strengthened politically, while Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization will be fatally weakened. Israel, the US, EU and their Arab client regimes may try to hold him up but everyone knows that they are now dead as a resistance movement and thus in the eyes of the Palestinian people.
This makes it more likely that Israel will, as a result of this onslaught, be forced to recognize Hamas as the legitimate representative of the Palestinians, as will the international community. The 18 month campaign to destroy the results of the democratic election of Hamas, first by arming Fatah and fomenting a civil war and now with a direct intervention, have utterly failed.
And outside of the Middle East, Israel has managed to discredit itself even further, spurring into being a massive movement in solidarity with the Palestinians and against Israel. They have shattered the myth that Israel is the victim and the Palestinians the aggressors. This movement, the heroic resistance of the Palestinians and the images of Israel's utter brutality, which they were unable to hide, though they barred all journalists from entering Gaza, has pushed even Israel's staunchest allies to criticize them. Turkey, Israel's only Muslim ally, strongly rebuked Israel, demanding their exclusion from the UN until they implemented the Security Council resolution. Egypt, the biggest Arab nation and paid billions by the US to play with Israel, has been made even more unstable by the slaughter, creating concern for the US' major Arab bulwark in the region. Jordan recalled their ambassador in protest. And there is even suggestion in a fascinating article by Justin Raimondo that the US ruling class is growing tired of Israel's mad dog routine, which threatens US hegemony in the region by alienating Arab allies and threatening others with domestic political upheaval because of Israel's penchant for killing Arab civilians.
It's unclear how all this will pan out over the medium term. But it is clear that the Gaza operation, which Israel was forced to end before Obama's inauguration, has not all gone the way Israel hoped. It may not even go the way that Livni and Barak hoped it would in terms of their electoral prospects, with the ultra-war mongers in Likud making most of the gains from the invasion. 

Hamas and the Palestinian people will live to fight another day, with a much larger international movement, one in which the call for boycott and divestment may get a major hearing. And the whole region has been destabilized thanks to Israel's compulsive need to avoid peace at any costs. The blowback is looking to be much worse than what they started out fighting, as they have internationalized the conflict.

"Not A Single Palestinian Has Raised His Voice Against Hamas"

This is a fascinating article in Wednesday's Jerusalem Post about the state of the of the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Essentially, the article argues that Hamas, while under significant pressure from the Israeli onslaught, has yet to buckle and continues to effectively resist.

What is particularly interesting is that one of the key goals of the offensive - to break Palestinians' support for Hamas, has utterly failed.

"Although Hamas has been hit hard, not a single Palestinian in the Gaza Strip has raised his voice against the movement and its leaders. Hopes that the massive IDF operation would encourage Palestinians to revolt against a weakened Hamas have not materialized.
If anything, many Palestinians agree, the Israeli offensive has actually boosted Hamas's popularity and undermined the so-called moderates in the Arab world."

It also admits that the IDF has been about much more than destroying the "infrastructure of terror", which one would assume means military stores, training facilities, bunkers, etc. Rather, they have destroyed "scores of Hamas-linked charities and organizations that were providing the Palestinians with a vast network of social, economic, health and education services."
This is an open admission of what is clearly a war crime.
No wonder the UN - minus the utter scumbags of Canada's Tory government - are accusing Israel of doing just that and calls are growing to take Israel to the International Criminal Court for genocide.

Meanwhile, over in Latin America, both Venezuela and Bolivia have announced that they are cutting ties with Israel over their invasion in Gaza. This is a brilliant response that will hopefully build momentum towards isolating the Israeli regime.

Israel: A Nation In Decline? Discuss

Generally attention is rightly focused on Israel's many crimes in the Gaza Strip. But this editorial by Alexander Cockburn on the widely read Counterpunch.org argues that the Gaza offensive is also a sign of Israel's decline. Cockburn quotes approvingly Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, from an interview prior to the invasion, who makes the same point. It's worth quoting at length:

"But since ’82, 26 years ago, Israel has not won any war. They did not defeat the Palestinian resistance, and they did not defeat the Lebanese resistance. Since that time, Israel has not expanded but has contracted. They have withdrawn from southern Lebanon and from Gaza. These are indicators that the future is not favorable to Israel. Then today Israel, with all its military capabilities – conventional and unconventional – are not enough to guarantee Israel’s security. Today, with all these capabilities, they can’t stop a simple rocket from being launched from Gaza."

Oddly enough, from the opposite end of the spectrum, that crazed zionist wingnut Daniel Pipes suggested back in 2004 that Israel was in decline:

"In its early decades, Israel's strategic prowess was legendary, transforming a weak country into a regional powerhouse. The past decade has seen the opposite process, whereby that powerhouse reduces itself to a tempting target. "

You gotta hand it to Pipes, he was pointing out Israel's decline a couple of years before the 2006 Lebanon fiasco. And Israel's present attempt to eliminate that embarrassment hasn't changed Pipes' mind. In a January 11 editorial in the Jerusalem Post he attacks the present Gaza offensive and comes to the devastating conclusion that "no one at the upper echelons of Israel's political life articulates the imperative for victory. For this reason, I see Israel as a lost polity, one full of talent, energy, and resolve but lacking direction."
Pretty strong words.
Pipes also points to an interesting paper by Anthony Cordesman for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, entitled "Tactical Gains, Strategic Defeat?" Cordesman, Senator John McCain's former national security assistant and the former director of intelligence assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is a thoroughly mainstream, relatively high level analyst in the US state machine with a long resume. His arguments are equally stark and worth quoting at length:

"This raises a question that every Israeli and its supporters now needs to ask. What is the strategic purpose behind the present fighting? After two weeks of combat Olmert, Livni, and Barak have still not said a word that indicates that Israel will gain strategic or grand strategic benefits, or tactical benefits much larger than the gains it made from selectively striking key Hamas facilities early in the war. In fact, their silence raises haunting questions about whether they will repeat the same massive failures made by Israel’s top political leadership during the Israeli-Hezbollah War in 2006. Has Israel somehow blundered into a steadily escalating war without a clear strategic goal or at least one it can credibly achieve? Will Israel end in empowering an enemy in political terms that it defeated in tactical terms? Will Israel’s actions seriously damage the US position in the region, any hope of peace, as well as moderate Arab regimes and voices in the process?
"To blunt, the answer so far seems to be yes. To paraphrase a comment about the British government’s management of the British Army in World War I, lions seem to be led by donkeys. If Israel has a credible ceasefire plan that could really secure Gaza, it is not apparent. If Israel has a plan that could credibly destroy and replace Hamas, it is not apparent. If Israel has any plan to help the Gazans and move them back towards peace, it is not apparent. If Israel has any plan to use US or other friendly influence productively, it not apparent."

The fact that there is a growing sense of unease and dismay amongst Israel's strongest supporters, even as Zionism's opponents detect important weaknesses should hearten those of us who want to see a just peace in the Middle East. It will only be through a series of defeats for Israel, on multiple levels and not just the military, that such a peace is possible.

Israeli Soldiers Refuse Gaza Service

Apparently a group of 10 Israeli soldiers would rather do time in jail than join in the killing frenzy taking place in Gaza.

No'em Levna, a first lieutenant in Israel's army, refused to serve in Gaza, saying, "We killed 900 Palestinians in 17 days, including hundreds of children.
"If violence must be used, it should be used minimally, and that isn't what’s happening," he added. "Killing innocent civilians cannot be justified. Nothing justifies this kind of killing. It’s devilish.
"It is Israeli arrogance based on logic. It’s saying, 'if we hit more, everything will be okay,'" he said. "But the hatred and anger we are planting in Gaza will rebound on us."

Israel Bans Arab Parties, Supports Ethnic Cleansing

Perhaps it shouldn’t be any surprise given the present wholesale slaughter but then Israel likes to tell the world, particularly Europe and North America that they’re the only democratic country in a region ruled by despots and hereditary monarchs.
It makes it all the more interesting then that Israel’s Central Electoral Committee has just banned Arab parties. Mixed parties, like the Communist Party, are OK. Jewish parties are OK. But those Arabs – well, they’re traitors, aren’t they?

“Parliament spokesman Giora Pordes said the election committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of the motion, accusing the country's Arab parties of incitement, supporting terrorist groups and refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist.”

The motion was put forward by a far-right party. That it won support amongst Israel’s mainstream parties shows just how far Israel’s colonialism has caused the nation’s political consciousness to degenerate towards ethnic authoritarianism.
But then, the plan from the beginning has always been to “spirit the penniless Arab population” across the border and out of Israel, as Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl put it. And that’s still the attitude today.
A poll in March of 2008 found that 76% of Israeli Jews support the idea of transferring the Israeli Arab population out of the country should a Palestinian state be founded.

“…29% said all Israeli Arabs should relocate. An additional 19% said only Arabs living in close proximity to the Palestinian state should relocate, and 28% said transfer should be decided based on loyalty or disloyalty to the State of Israel.”

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, echoed this sentiment in December, just two weeks before the Operation Cast Lead began in Gaza. In an interview with Army Radio, reported in Haaretz, Livni stated:

“Once a Palestinian state is established, I can come to the Palestinian citizens, whom we call Israeli Arabs, and say to them ‘you are citizens with equal rights, but the national solution for you is elsewhere.’”

This is of no great controversy in Israel. It was founded on the basis of expulsion. As Benny Morris, the “left wing” Zionist historian argued in a 2004 Haaretz interview:

“Ben-Gurion was a transferist. He understood that there could be no Jewish state with a large and hostile Arab minority in its midst. There would be no such state. It would not be able to exist…Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here."

Based upon that logic, it is no small stretch for him to say the following in the same interview:

“The Israeli Arabs are a time bomb. Their slide into complete Palestinization has made them an emissary of the enemy that is among us. They are a potential fifth column…”

After all, the goal is to maintain a “democratic, Jewish” state. Unfortunately, there is the small matter of all those pesky Arabs living inside Israel – 20% of the population and growing.
And more than that, there’s another 3.7 million Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, meaning that the number of people living under Israeli rule at the present is only slightly more than 50% Jewish. Fortunately for the “democratic, Jewish” state the majority of Palestinians under their rule have no vote, no civil rights and don’t even have independent control of their tax collection.
Not very democratic.
However, in Gaza there is a thriving democracy. In 2006, under the watch of international monitors and the basis of one-person, one-vote, the population of the Gaza Strip elected Hamas as the majority party in their Legislative Assembly.
Perhaps that example of democracy at work is part of what Israel wants to eliminate.

Photos From Toronto Demo

It was hard to say but there were certainly several thousand people outside the Israeli consulate this very chilly morning, demanding an end to Israel's slaughter in Gaza. Our whole house made it out to the rally - including my daughter Beatrice. It was the first protest for our little rebel grrl.

Jorge, Ian, Kathryn & Bea, Silja

Kathryn, my partner, & Baby Bea

Beautiful placard design

The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War placards - putting the heat on our Prime Minister

Now this, this was my favourite placard. Someone should do one with Stephen Harper.

The Newest Spectator Sport

Sometimes it's tough living in the suburbs, trying to find something to do. Everything's so homogenized and alienating and you can only wander around the shopping malls so many times, right?

When I was a kid my grandparents used to take us to the airport to do some planespotting. I shit you not. We'd sit on the road at the end of the runway and watch planes take-off, taking turns with the binoculars, while they smoked cigarettes. It was a nice way to spend time with my grandparents and the memory has obviously stayed with me - even if it's kind of a weird past-time now when I think about it.

Well, if you're in Israel you don't have to watch anything so boring as some dumb old jumbo jets taking off, flying people to Disney World in Florida. No, you can set up your lawn chair and watch the Israeli Army and Air Force slaughter unarmed Palestinian civilians. "Forget snuff films, honey. We're taking the kids to Gaza to see it live!"