3-22-17
Multiple global flashpoints should terrify everyone. They’re hugely dangerous along Russia’s border with Eastern European countries, in the South China Sea, in Ukraine, in Syria, Iraq, and other US war theaters, and possible Israeli war on Lebanon and/or Gaza.
America and Israel perpetuate endless wars, related violence, chaos and repression. Peace and stability defeat their rogue agendas.
Days earlier, Israel activated around 2,000 reserve soldiers. Along with regular IDF troops, they’ve been involved in military exercises since Sunday, simulating war on Gaza.
Is another one planned? IDF chief of staff General Gadi Eisenkot said the drill was called to “assess the preparedness” for war.
If launched, “we will know how to surprise in every way to prevent enemy achievements” and accomplish objectives as quickly as possible, he said.
Israel prepared contingency plans to evacuate around 250,000 civilians from communities bordering Lebanon and Gaza.
The IDF repeatedly targets the Strip by terror-bombing and cross-border incursions, other pre-dawn incidents on Wednesday.
Drones and ground forces targeted Rafah in southern Gaza, killing one Palestinian youth, injuring two others – on the phony pretext of preventing the planting of an explosive device near Israel’s border.
Israeli forces indiscriminately fired on Palestinian farmers in their fields, threatening no one. No injuries were reported.
Since January, multiple airstrikes and cross-border shelling killed four Palestinians, injuring over a dozen others.
Last month, the Mezan Center for Human Rights warned about possible large-scale Israeli aggression on Gaza for the fourth time since December 2008.
It called on the international community to “act promptly against Israel’s military escalation, to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians, and ensure respect for the rules of international law.”
It stressed “acting before a full-scale military bombardment is launched,” saying it’s “crucial to ensur(e) the protection of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
They’re defenseless and vulnerable to mass casualties again if Israel launches aggression.
Hamas seeks no military confrontation with Israel, its senior official Khalil al-Hayya stressed, adding “we are a bereaved and oppressed people who resist occupation” – their right under international law.
During the latest UN Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Council session in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine Michael Lync called Israel’s occupation “the most malignant” anywhere in the world.
Oppressing millions of people violates core international law principles, he stressed. Intensified crackdowns on human rights activists are intolerable. Gaza’s blockade is flagrantly illegal.
US and Israeli diplomats boycotted the session. Both countries want high crimes committed against Palestinians suppressed.
Rogue states operate this way. America conspires with Israel to permit lawless apartheid viciousness to persist unaccountably.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!
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