Israel Detains Palestinian Ministers
Knocks out Electricity to Half of Gazans
Half of the Palestinians in Gaza, who were already living pretty miserable lives after decades of marginalization and brutalization by the Israelis, were left without electricity yesterday.
Palestinian officials like Saeb Erekat rejected the idea that knocking out electricity for hundreds of thousands of people is targeting a "terrorist infrastructure." In fact, destroying electricity generation capability interferes with water purification. Palestinian children will die because of this, from drinking unpurified water. And what crime did Palestinian toddlers commit, to be murdered in this way?
The Israelis escalated the crisis by detaining Hamas government ministers. The likelihood is that the captors of the Israeli soldier are freelancers. This wasn't something plotted out by the Haniyeh government, which, in fact, recently granted a huge concession on the issue of potentially recognizing Israel.
PM Ismail Haniyeh called for the United Nations Security Council to intervene.
The ministers detained are members of a freely and democratically elected government. I can't imagine under what legal authority the Israelis have arrested them. But everyone in the Middle East can see exactly what "elections" and "democracy" amount to. Bush's promises have never seemed so hollow.
Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, called for the US to get involved as an honest broker. Well, I suppose miracles do happen.
I am upset about the renewed crisis in Palestine because it is an emotional issue and will spill over into Sunni Arab Iraq. It is likely that pro-Palestinian Sunni guerrillas will kill some US troops specifically to avenge the people of Gaza. This is one reason I am complaining about the massively disproportional character of the Israeli response. It has the potential of further endangering American lives in the region.
And, it is counter-productive. The Israelis can't get back their soldier by destroying electricity plants in Gaza. They can't get more security by depriving Palestinians of security.
PS Jeff Morley at WaPo does a fine piece on the beach bombing background to the current round of violence.
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/29/2006 06:33:00 AM
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17 Comments:
Prof. Cole I have to sincerely thank you for your stance on the latest crisis in Palestine.
Have a (rhetorical) question. Why when the Zionists capture a Palestinian including elected representatives it is an arrest and when the Palestinians do the same it is hostage taking and kidnapping ? Here we are after all talking of a soldier and not a civilian (i.e. not in uniform).
The sorry story of all this is that for the West, Palestinians – all of them – are anyway terrorists whatever the (enemy) objective targeted, be it civilian or military. The EU dared calling for restrain from both parties and in particular the Palestinians !?!?
Henceforth if there was no "suicide bomber" to vilify it would have been something else (which was the case anyway pre-Camp David)... Make you wonder.
If a "Christian" – looking at the sad state of affairs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, etc. – cannot swallow it any-longer, it makes you wonder what is the state of mind of a "Muslim"
It seems to me more than likely that after this cycle of (neo)colonialism has ended, the liberated people will pursue this time all the Western leaders responsible for such outrages. In the 60 Nations which acceded to their independence were just happy to do so... I believe it will not be the case this time round, indeed not only the West (which is teaching – sic – the Iraqis) can institute (impartial – resic) Tribunals of the victors !
The State department still continues on its virtual reality show. Comments from Dr Rice:
We'll talk about how the international community can support the new Iraqi Government, the first democratically elected government in Iraq that really now has asked the international community for its support and I think the G-8 can make a firm statement about that.
We should talk about Afghanistan and how we can support Afghanistan. We should also talk about democracy and the importance of democratic development, whether it is in Russia itself, where we hope that Russia would enhance its commitment to democratic development, but also in places like Belarus and places that have yet to see a democratic future. And so it's a broad and important agenda. I look forward to meeting with my foreign minister colleagues.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/68407.htm
I am concerned listening to IBA News (World Harvest Television cable channel) and the Israeli government representatives interviewed there. As I understand them, and from the comments of the interviewer, it seems the IDF is preparing for a house to house search in Gaza. They state that they intend to increase the pressure on the Palestinians until they are forced to relent. For this reason, they are destroying bridges so that the soldier cannot be moved out of Gaza.
The main complaint of the Israeli government is the "ability of the Palestinians to paint themselves as victims when they are the ones who are firing hundreds of rockets at innocent civilians."
The situation is becoming more and more Orwellian as the Israeli spokesmen hint at wholescale "extra judicial" executions of the entire Hamas command structure, including those in Syria and other countries.
There seems to be the underlying threat of possible airstrikes against Hamas leaders in Damascus even.
Juan - You wrote: "The likelihood is that the captors of the Israeli soldier are freelancers. This wasn't something plotted out by the Haniyeh government..." Freelancers, really? Haniyah government, actually? I think it would have been more accurate to say that "factions" within the "fractious" Haniyah "authority" (Hamas is no more a functioning government than is the Red Crescent...) were responsible for the disasterous attack. This in no way condones the Israeli response.
"The likelihood is that the captors of the Israeli soldier are freelancers."
"By way of deception; thou shalt do war." - Mossad motto
Israel is breaking Geneva Conventions. Where are the MSM?
Geneva? All Geneva is anymore is an expensive city.
If history is ever truthfully taught in schools, our decendants will surely feel that the West failed the plight of its own people.
I understand and appreciate cultural differences. They are akin to differences between notes in a song, but we seem to be playing off key.
If we are going to use the worn out binary of East and West to describe the analog gradient of human endeavor, we need to place peoples like the Palestinians within the body of Western civilization. They are our brothers and sisters (people should remember this every time they put sugar in their coffee, and when they reach for a magazine while sitting on their sofa), yet the "West" is intent upon playing an out of tune instrument.
Or more accurately, the West seems to be intent on breaking some strings, so that certain notes (the poor, brown-skinned notes) never have to be heard from again.
I sometimes wonder if Muslim nations are the only nations wholly outraged by Israel's actions because they're the only places that report these actions on a regular basis.
Dr. Cole wrote:
"The ministers detained are members of a freely and democratically elected government. I can't imagine under what legal authority the Israelis have arrested them."
and FriendlyFire added:
"Israel is breaking Geneva Conventions. Where are the MSM?"
The simple truth is that Israel's activities all along have been illegal and in contravention of the principles outlined in the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
Rather than argue against the Zionist machine, let us try to defend it. It's more fun this way.
Israel can arrest duly elected officials of the Palestinian Authority because Nazis murdered millions of Jews in Europe.
It is acceptable for Israel to take land from Palestinians because several thousand years ago, God gave this land to all Jews. It is the Palestinians' own fault that they foolishly tried to live in a region where someday Zionist settlers would return to claim what is rightfully theirs.
When taking land and water from Palestinians who present resistance, Israel, regrettably, must sometimes kill them.
Israel also regrets the deaths of over a thousand Palestinian children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely in a sniper's bulls eye centered on the child's head at the time or another regrettable juxtaposition.
The EU, the UN and the US should not criticize Israel for taking land from people who legally own it, farm it and depend on it for their livelihood, because it is only a small sliver of land and besides, Darfur and Rwanda happened and the EU, the UN and the US did not step in to prevent those instances of genocide. Israel should not be singled out for special adverse treatment until all other instances of genocide have been corrected.
Israel receives billions of dollars in direct and indirect aid every year because Israel has a special relationship with the United States.
Palestinians who carry guns are militants and may be shot on sight because Israel has no negotiating partner for peace on the Palestinians side.
Israelis who carry guns are righteous and honorable because Israel has the moral high ground.
Israel is an honest broker of the peace and the truth. Examples of cover-ups and distortions are brought to light by anti-Semitic extremists.
Palestinians can never be trusted to tell the truth, or when they expose the rare example of a media bias, it is overplayed. The repeated instances of over-reporting of Israeli deaths (where one death is reported repeatedly giving the impression of a higher death toll) and the under-reporting of Palestinian deaths (where they are simply not reported at all) are all singular events, and it is proof of anti-semitic press that this issue is even raised.
Even though our nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, we should overlook this idea when considering Israel because otherwise, we are being anti-semitic.
OK - satire mode off.
If we want peace in the Mideast, Israel must be held accountable.
Thank you Dr. Cole for providing this forum.
Regards,
I agree....please look at my diary on my blog and daily kos. I argued essentially what you said.
here's the site:
www.unscriptedandunedited.blogspot.com
thanks
agree...
Gaza
Power Plant Hit by Israeli Airstrike is Insured by US Agency
Israel stabs us American taxpayers in the back again. That power plant took 150 million and 5 years to build. It provides two-thirds of Gaza's power.
The estimate I've read for the latest round of expropriation in the West Bank is 10 billion US taxpayer dollars. Plus interest because, of course, we don't have 10 billion dollars to fund Israel's genocide and must borrow it ourselves before making a present of it to Israel. A present of other people's lives and lands.
If I were an Xtian I'd be afraid that my god would strike my dead for my impiety. The blasphemous Xtians are instead reveling in the slaughter : Christian pilgrims back Israeli troops
Surreally, I remember George W Bush himself declaring "enough is enough!" after Ariel Sharon reduced Jenin to rubble. That was before The Israel Lobby explained the lay of the land to lad from Texas.
How much murder and despoliation will we allow "our" government to fund and to carry out in our all of our names before we finally take responsibility for what is, if not ours whose, government's actions? That's the way it works in a democracy. The only thing that's keeping America from being a democracy is us : its faint-hearted, dilatory, pre-occupied people.
Perhaps
it would be best
if we found some people
one from the Nicobar islands
another from central Chad
maybe an Aleut
and maybe a child of world class "protective parents"
who've never heard of IsraPalestinael,
or even monotheistic religions
For only they could be detached enough
to not deal
with the situation
with any emotion
GUANTANAMO
Concerning the prisoners, how can you say "Many of them are really bad characters"? It came as a great suprise that you are echoing the words of Bush and Rumsfield.
The whole point of the world-wide outrage is the fact that these people have been imprisoned for many years without accusations and open trials
The War Tapes made by and starring soldiers in Iraq with cameras premiers tonight in Berkeley and at the Castro Theater in SF. One of the stars Sgt Bazzi, a refugee from Lebanon's civil war, will be answering questions tonight (6/30) and tommorrow at the Castro Theater.
SF Chron front page story
The result is "The War Tapes," a 94-minute film culled from 1,100 hours of footage, which is revolutionary on several levels. Not only is the film created in the same raw, user-generated manner that is powering the explosion of blogs and video-sharing sites on the Internet, it is bypassing the traditional media gatekeepers who some soldiers -- and, for different reasons, anti-war activists -- think are not telling the war's true stories.
"I think if we can get people in to see the film, I think it's going to change the way people see the war," said Staff Sgt. Zack Bazzi, a soldier in the film, in a telephone interview from Washington. "There's a huge gap between the people who are fighting this war and the people who are at home. I think this will be eye-opening for people who have been watching the war at home on TV. It's not the same.
"Part of the reason is the media. A reporter can be with us, use all the lingo, try to be our buddy," Bazzi continued. "But still, we look at them and say, 'You're the media.' "
On Friday, June 30th, The War Tapes opens in the following cities:
BERKLEY, CA (Landmark Shattuck Cinemas)
BOSTON, MA (Kendall Square Cinema)
CONCORD, NH (Regal (Hoyts) Concord 10)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (The Castro Theatre)
WASHINGTON, DC (E Street Cinema)
Chris Ross was interviewed on NPR today. He seems convinced that the captured Israeli soldier is being used as an excuse to destroy Hamas. The seizure of Hamas parliamentarians and cabinet ministers is intended to cut the head off the organization - says that it's working. He expects Abu Mazen to declare an emergency government - made up of technocrats so that it doesn't appear to be a coup by Fatah. Note Ross is the moderate face of the Israeli lobby in Washington. If this is really the object of the massive destruction of Gaza, the Israeli Government has its own surprise coming. Emprisonment is nothing new to Hamas leadership, and all it will do is make them into martyrs, strengthening the organziation. American media seems to have forgotten that the present Palestinian government was duly elected, as the US required. So what is this unholy alliance of Israel and the US going to do next? Hold another election, and another, and another, putting "the [elected] terrorists" in jail, until they get a government that will kowtow? Not a chance. The US has given Israel a free hand to kill whom they want, jail whom they want, and make life intolerable for all of the remainder. We are going to pay for this, sooner or later.
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