Hear, O Israel!!

WRITTEN BY Stefano Sarfati Nahmad

Hear, Hear O Israel!
You have massacred infants and blamed their parents for it
saying that they used them as shields. I can think of nothing,
nothing more disgraceful.
Only in the space of a generation, in the name of that suffering,
you have caused suffering to others: you have hermetically sealed them
in a territory, and you started to slaughter them with the most sophisticated
of arms, indestructible armoured tanks, state-of-the-art helicopters
brightening the night-time sky as if it were day, to strike them more efficiently.
But 668 dead Palestinians and 4 dead Israelis is not a victory, it’s just
a defeat for you and for humanity as a whole.

Hear, O Israel!
I do not repudiate my history, or that of my family, which had
undergone the Shoah. But I repudiate you, the Israeli State, because you
believed that to make the credit of the Shoah mature, you would
be allowed to rid yourself of the Palestinian people and occupy their land.
But that is not the way things operate, life does not work that way. The people of Israel
have to live their own lives and not live by means of the deaths of others.

Hear, O Israel!
I do not repudiate my history, or that of my family, which had
undergone the Shoah, but today I am Palestinian. I am on the side
of the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance. I am with the
heroic resistance of the Palestinian women who kept on giving birth
to little Palestinian girls and boys in the refugee camps, in the villages
from which you had uprooted their olive trees, stolen their land. I am with the thousands
of Palestinians jailed in your prisons for having only resisted
your annexation plans.

Hear, O Israel!
There will be no Israel without Palestine, but there could be Palestine
without Israel, because your credit, by now completely dried up
by your mad and suicidal policies, was not towards the Palestinian
people who never raised a finger against you, but it was towards the people
of Germany, Italy, Poland, France, Hungary
and Europe in general; and they are to be blamed for their inaction.
Hear, O Israel, hear these names: Deir Yassin, Tel al-Zaatar,
Sabra and Chatila, Gaza. They are some names, names written
in the annals of history, that
will be voiced every single time one sees the name: Israel.

Translator’s Note: This poem is a reference to the most important Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael, which is recited in the morning and in the evening by all practicing Jews and it is the prayer that even secular Jews will have been taught and have heard more than any other. Primo Levi wrote a memorable version of it which was the incipit of his first book, “If this is a man”, the title of which is a line from his adaptation of this prayer. It is often used in a way to stir the conscience of the listener, but it is especially directed at a Jewish public, which may intend the Shema as a moral obligation to hear, remember and bear witness.

Translated by Mary Rizzo for Tlaxcala, www.tlaxcala.es

Israel...An Abnormal State

Who complained to the United Nations Security Council about the firing of Qassam rockets by the Hamas government in Gaza? The government of Israel.

And when the Security Council met to discuss the threat from Gaza, who refused to send its foreign minister to UN Headquarters so as "not to legitimize the Security Council's discussion of the operation against Hamas"? And who left the most important international arena to its UN ambassador, while the Palestinians and Arab countries flooded the building with high-level delegations? The government of Israel.

Who demanded in every diplomatic encounter that the Security Council impose sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program and punish Syria for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah, and then accused Iran and Syria of ignoring U.N. resolutions?

And when, over Israel's objections, that very council passed Resolution 1860 calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, who proclaimed that it would not accept it and intended to continue fighting? The government of Israel, of course.

It would be funny if it were not a matter of national importance: Israel complains to the UN about the Hamas government, and the next day claims that Hamas is not worthy of recognition and that the Security Council should not be discussing the conflict. Someone in Jerusalem is confused. Or not: Israel wants the international community, represented by the Security Council, to protect it from Hamas, Syria and Iran, but not to hamper the Israel Defense Forces operating with all its strength in Gaza. The problem is that the international community rejects this arrangement and wants to intervene even when it hampers Israel.

As usual with us, political rivalries affect foreign-policy discourse. Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak pass responsibility to Tzipi Livni and the Foreign Ministry for the diplomatic downfall in the UN. Livni defends herself with the argument that she warned them of the expected resolution, and that the prime minister was the one who forbade her from taking part in the deliberations. Olmert hoped that his personal friendship with George W. Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy would allow him to torpedo a Security Council resolution, but his friends disappointed him and preferred to back up their foreign ministers. Sarkozy did not postpone the discussion and Bush did not veto the resolution.

Israel's problematic conduct in the UN is doubtless affected by disagreements among its leaders, but it reflects a deeper problem. Israel has not yet decided whether to be a normal member of the international community and pay the price of normalcy, or to remain isolated on the outside. This dilemma began almost with the establishment of the state, and has persisted since. The natural tendency of Israeli diplomats is to see the UN and its institutions as insignificant, as a famous statement by David Ben-Gurion once intimated. It was a kind of hostile organization, controlled by a majority opposed to Israel, which is saved only by an American veto in the Security Council.

In recent years, Israel has tried to soften its attitude and normalize its relationships with the international organization. The Foreign Ministry is proud of the involvement of Israelis in UN institutions and the resolutions Israel has initiated in the General Assembly. The Security Council has been perceived as an asset in dealing with Iran and Hezbollah, and even in negotiations with the Palestinians. Only four weeks ago, Livni praised Resolution 1850, which supported the Annapolis process, and called for a continuation of talks on a final agreement. In the days before the war in Gaza, the Security Council resolution was seen as a tool to strengthen Kadima as the party of negotiations and peace against the rejectionism of Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud.

But then came the crisis, and Israel returned to her old rejectionist stance. Once again it had to beg America to save it, and came out humiliated. In retrospect, Jerusalem tried to soften the embarrassment, and claimed that the resolution was not so bad. If that's the case, why did Israel demean itself in a failed attempt to prevent it? Would it not have been preferable to send the foreign minister to New York to demonstrate involvement and concern, and also to talk about the resolution in a positive way after it was passed?

In eight days, a new president will move into the White House, one obligated to strengthening the influence of international institutions. Barack Obama will not be in a hurry to cast a veto for Israel's sake. Israel should become involved in this process and not be seen as the disturbed child of the international community.

On the 18th Day, “The Invincible Army” Still Faces Fierce Resistance

On the 18th day of “Operation Cast Lead”, the “Invincible army” seems to be sinking more and more in the Gaza quagmire after the Palestinian resistance has confronted it in one of the fiercest battles since the beginning of the ground offensive.

After claiming that Hamas has lost over 60 percent of its military capabilities, the Palestinian resistance movement exchanged heavy fire with advancing Israeli forces in open areas in Gaza thus refuting Israel claims. Israeli ground forces have not been able to advance into Gaza amid total media blackout on the course of the operation and losses in army ranks.

Hamas said its resistance fighters detonated explosives under an Israeli armored vehicles and battled Israeli occupation forces backed by IAF and navy fire in what was described as the most ferocious fight in Gaza so far. Explosions and the sounds of heavy machine gun fire echoed continuously through the city of Gaza. An Israeli paratroops officer was critically injured Monday night after an explosive device blew up inside a booby-trapped building in northern Gaza. Two other soldiers were also wounded in the incident. Also four more occupation soldiers were wounded in night battles, according to the occupation army.

The fierce battle comes as the Israeli media has widely speculated that the occupation leadership may approve an expansion of its massive offensive in Gaza despite ongoing talks in Egypt on how to end the Israeli aggression against the Strip.

The tanks retreated shortly after dawn from the neighborhoods of Tal al-Hawa and Sheikh Ajlin. At least one Palestinian was martyred in the nighttime fighting although the toll was expected to be higher, medics said. Palestinian medical officials said at least 971 people in the Gaza Strip have been martyred, including over 280 children, and around 4400 other wounded since Israel began its offensive on December 27.

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported Tuesday that the occupation army shelling was not allowing the Palestinians to remove dead bodies from several of the fighting spots along the strip. The Palestinians reported that about a dozen bodies, two of which are believed to be those of Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades, have been left in the area between Rafah and Kahn Younis.

Human rights groups report shortages of vital supplies including water, in the Gaza Strip, due to the aggression. A fuel shortage has brought frequent power blackouts.

Clashes between occupation troops and resistance fighters were also reported around the southern town of Khan Yunis. Israeli warplanes pounded the densely-populated coastal strip with more than 60 air strikes overnight. Over 45 Palestinians were reportedly martyred in the overnight aggression and on Tuesday.

Hamas kept up its defiance in the face of the onslaught, vowing it would emerge victorious. In a rare televised address on Monday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya vowed: "We are approaching victory. I tell you that after 17 days of this foolish war, Gaza has not been broken and Gaza will not fall."

Israeli cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel was "very, very close" to achieving the goals of the campaign, the deadliest it has waged against Palestinians in decades.

"I assume that in the coming week, the situation will be assessed and a decision made at a cabinet meeting on whether and how to continue the operations," Mofaz told Army Radio.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Tuesday claimed his troops have inflicted damage on Hamas in Gaza, but will continue fighting to achieve more.

Ashkenazi claimed that Israeli soldiers are doing exceptional work and Hamas fighters, infrastructure and government institutions have been dealt a serious blow. But he said that, "We still have work to do."

Israel ignored a UN Security Council resolution - on which the United States abstained but backed in principle - which called last week for a truce. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who is to head to the Middle East on Tuesday, called on Israel and Hamas to immediately stop the fighting, saying "too many people have died." The Security Council was to hold closed-door consultations on the crisis later on Tuesday.

Another message to readers.

Looks like I can't keep away from this blog :D
I will try and make time to post articles, but next week is make or break week for me :@

Oh before I forget, I'd like everyone to attend Demonstrations for Gaza - attend as many as you can! not only is it a great experience but the people of Gaza need to know that the world hasn't given up on them.
Oh by the way if you do happen to come across wierdo muslims who claim demonstrations are "haram" then slap them. & I'm talking about a bitchy slap.

:)

Byeeee <3

Israel to do what US did to Japan in WWII?

The head of an Israeli opposition party says Tel Aviv should deal with Gaza the same way the US dealt with Japan in World War II.

"We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II," Avigdor Lieberman, the head of an ultra-nationalist opposition party, said Tuesday.

Japan was brought down to its knees before surrendering in 1945 after the US dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Lieberman was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying that Israel needed to decisively "break the will" of Hamas in the Gaza Strip -- home to some 1.5 million Palestinians.

Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead on Dec. 27 to put an end to rocket attacks on southern Israel. At least 940 Palestinians have died during the offensive, while some 4,400 others have been wounded.

The Israeli army has sustained serious casualties since a ground operation into Gaza was launched in the second week of the attacks. Official numbers indicate at least 10 Israeli soldiers have been killed in battles against Hamas fighters.

Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of the coastal sliver, demands a cessation of an 18-month Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip before its fighters suspend rocket attacks.

"Israel won't be secure so long as Hamas is in power, and therefore we need to come to a decision that we will break the will of Hamas to keep fighting," said Lieberman, who quit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition government last year.

Gaza now Israeli weapons testing lab?

Israel has turned Gaza into a research laboratory to test out its new "extremely nasty" weapons on Palestinians, a medical expert says.

After working for 10 days at the Shifa Hospital in the war-torn Palestinian territory, Dr. Mads Gilbert, a member of a Norwegian triage medical team in Gaza, blasted Israel for conducting experimental military work in the impoverished strip.

"There's a very strong suspicion I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons," Gilbert told reporters at Oslo's Gardermoen airport upon his return home on Monday.

Dr. Gilbert said the kinds of injuries he and his colleague Erik Fosse had seen during their ten-day aid work in Gaza had proven that Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME) was being used in the embattled territory.

DIME, which is an experimental kind of explosive, is believed to have strong biological effects in those who are hit by the "low lethality" weapons.

Survivors close to the lethal range may have their limbs amputated as their soft tissues and bones are shredded to pieces. The victims may also subsequently contract cancer from the micro-shrapnel embedded in their body tissue within just four to six months.

"This is a new generation of very powerful small explosives that detonates with an extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10 meters (16-98 feet)," said Gilbert.

"We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations... without shrapnel injuries which we strongly suspect must have been caused by the DIME weapons," he added.

The weapon "causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh. It looks very different (from a shrapnel injury). I have seen and treated a lot of different injuries for the last 30 years in different war zones, and this looks completely different," said Fosse, 58.

"If you are in the immediate (vicinity of) a DIME weapon, it's like your legs get torn off. It's an enormous pressure wave and there is no shrapnel," he explained.

Israel had also used the weapon in the 2006 war with Lebanon and previously in Gaza.

"We are not soft-skinned when it comes to war injuries, but these amputations are really extremely nasty and for many of the patients not survivable," he added.

Following reports on the use of suspected chemical weapons in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations committed in the territory.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Tuesday that "Accountability must be ensured for violations of international law," suggesting that the Council consider a mission to assess violations committed by both sides in the conflict.

The latest casualty figures according to Health officials have topped 940 since the operation began on 27 December, while some 4,400 others have been wounded.

Senior United Nations officials have expressed grave concern about reports that over 40 per cent of the Palestinians killed in the Israeli offensive, and almost half of the wounded, are women and children.

The new report comes on top of earlier reports which revealed the Israeli military had used controversial white phosphorus shells on Gazans.

The Times said on Thursday that it had identified stockpiles of M825A1, a US-made White Phosphorus munition, from high-resolution pictures taken from Israeli artillery units on the Gaza border.

A phenomenon characteristic of the chemical -- also known by the military as WP or Willie Pete is that it can burn through flesh to the bone and leave bodies "entirely shriveled with black-green skin."

Earlier last week, Gilbert's team, told Press TV that medics had found depleted uraniumin some Gaza residents.

The reports of profound human sufferings come as Israel continues to reject the fact that it has imposed a humanitarian crisis among the battle-hardened 1.5 million population of Gaza.

Israeli war on Gaza claims 930 lives so far mostly civilians

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces' war on Gaza Strip has entered its 18th day on Tuesday with the number of victims rising to 930 and the injured to 4300 the vast majority of whom are civilians.

Dr. Muaiwya Hasanein, the director of ambulance and emergency in the health ministry, told the PIC on Tuesday that the martyrs included 286 children and 95 women. He added that the victims were mostly civilians in the light of the continued IOF shelling on densely populated residential areas.

He noted that 375 of the wounded are in very serious conditions, and pointed out that the wounded included 1490 children and around 690 women.

Hasanein said that 13 paramedics and doctors were killed in the IOF deliberate targeting of medical teams while 32 others were injured and 15 ambulance cars were destroyed along with a number of civil defense vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian armed wings led by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, succeeded in repulsing the second IOF attempt to advance into Gaza city from several axes.

Qassam sources said that 11 IOF army vehicles were destroyed in the violent clashes at the outskirts of Gaza city.

PIC reporters said that the IOF tanks tried to advance at dawn Tuesday under concentrated air and sea bombardment that included the use of the internationally banned incendiary bombs.

Qassam fighters confronted the advancing tanks with RPGs and explosive devices, which forced those tanks to retreat.

Local sources noted that the IOF troops infuriated over their failure to enter Gaza city opened indiscriminate firing at residential quarters inflicting an unspecified number of martyrs and wounded who could not be evacuated due to the continued IOF shelling.