by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Time and again, Israeli soldiers, police, or other security forces assault, wound or kill Palestinians with impunity.
At times, incidents like December West Bank shootings and similar violence are state-sponsored Israeli provocations for preemptive war on Gaza, earlier on Lebanon.
It’s possible that’s behind the shootings of Israeli soldiers and civilians this month. Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF notoriously stage these type incidents to falsely blame Hamas and/or other Palestinians.
Most likely, this month’s shootings are all about Palestinian rage against longstanding apartheid ruthlessness, an intolerable daily ordeal, the world community dismissive about what’s gone on for 70 years, no relief for a long beleaguered people forthcoming.
Last Sunday, shootings injured seven Israeli settlers near the illegal Ofra settlement.
Reports indicated the incident occurred near a bus stop, a pregnant woman severely injured. Her prematurely delivered baby died. She and her wounded husband remain hospitalized in stable condition.
On Thursday, two Israeli soldiers were lethally shot, two others injured in a central West Bank shooting incident.
When these type incidents occur, Palestinians are automatically blamed before evidence indicates who’s responsible.
In America when these type incidents occur, they’re called assault with a deadly weapon – homicide when deaths occur.
When Israeli settlers commit violence or vandalism against Palestinians, nearly always accountability doesn’t follow.
When soldiers witness settler attacks on Palestinians, they nearly always don’t intervene to stop them.
When Palestinians commit violence against Jews, they’re falsely accused of “terrorism.” More on how this crime is defined below.
Israeli forces repeatedly attack and at times kill Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and of course Gaza – over 220 nonviolent Gazans threatening no one killed since March 30 alone, more than 24,000 injured from live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets or toxic tear gas.
The world community’s reaction is virtually nil, never enforcing accountability on Israel no matter how egregious it high crimes – why the Jewish state gets away with mass murder and a whole lot more.
On Thursday, Israeli forces lethally shot a Palestinian, reportedly in response to stabbing incident. They killed three other Palestinians this week.
In response to this week’s violence in the West Bank, Netanyahu threatened Hamas, saying “(w)e will operate against you” if incidents continue. “There will not be a situation in which there is a ceasefire in Gaza and the use of fire in Judea and Samaria.”
Will war on Gaza follow, the fourth in the past decade, naked Israeli aggression each time launched, civilians mostly harmed.
Whenever violent incidents occur in the Occupied Territories, Palestinians are blamed, pronounced guilty by accusation – flagrantly violating international law.
Rule of law principles judge everyone innocent unless convicted in a legitimate tribunal based on credible evidence – beyond a reasonable doubt, the burden of proof on the accuser, not the accused.
Israel’s response against Palestinians, the vast majority guilty of no crimes, is shoot first and ask no questions, case closed.
The US Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
According to the UN, terrorism includes the following:
“(T)he perpetration of a criminal act (such as murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking, arson, and so on), or threatening such an act.
“(T)he intent to spread fear among the population (which would generally entail the creation of public danger) or directly or indirectly coerce a national or international authority to take some action, or to refrain from taking it when the act involves a transnational element.”
Most often, the scourge of terrorism is state-sponsored. Howard Zinn once said “(h)ow can you make war on terrorism if war is terrorism (and if) you respond to terrorism with (more) terrorism…you multiply (the amount of) terrorism in the world,” adding:
“Governments are terrorists on an enormously large scale.” The US war OF terror is responsible for millions of casualties post-9/11 alone.
The US army earlier called terrorism “the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear.”
Individual terrorist acts, when correctly defined, pale in comparison to state-sponsored actions, notably wars of aggression, raping and destroying nations, massacring their people for political, economic and other aims – US, NATO, Israeli specialties.
Netanyahu regime hardliners want war on Gaza. He threatened it. In response to the killing of two Israeli soldiers, Ramallah, the seat of PA governance, was besieged by Israeli forces, illegally declared a closed military zone.
Its entire population is being held hostage and collectively punished while the search continues for who’s responsible for the incident. Dozens of Palestinians were arrested – despite no evidence indicating their involvement in the shootings.
Separately, a Palestinian suspected, not convicted, of lethally shooting two Israelis in October was gunned down by IDF soldiers.
Cold-blooded murder of defenseless Palestinians is longstanding Israeli practice – what state-sponsored terrorism is all about.
Millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are held hostage to Israeli viciousness – the Jewish state waging a long undeclared war on their rights and welfare, too often at the ultimate price of their lives.
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