Saturday 19 May 2018

israel Repurposes Nakba Myths To Justify Monday’s Massacre in Gaza

by Jonathan Cook
On Monday and Tuesday, Palestinians commemorate the anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, their mass expulsion and dispossession 70 years ago as the new state of Israel was built on the ruins of their homeland. As a result, most Palestinians were turned into refugees, denied by Israel the right to return to their homes.
Tens of thousands turned out on Monday in the occupied territories to protest against seven decades of Israel’s refusal to make amends or end its oppressive rule.
The move on Monday of the US embassy to Jerusalem, a city under belligerent occupation, has only inflamed Palestinian grievances – and a sense that the West is still conspiring in their dispossession.
The focus of the protests is Gaza, where unarmed Palestinians have been massing every Friday since late March at the perimeter fence that encages two million of them. For their troubles, they have faced a hail of live ammunition, rubber bullets and clouds of tear gas. Dozens had been killed and many hundreds more maimed, including children.
Early reports on Monday suggested that Gaza’s demonstrators were being massacred by the Israeli army. Amnesty International called the events a “horror show”.
But for more than a month, Israel has been working to manage western perceptions of the protests – and its response – in ways designed to discredit the outpouring of anger from Palestinians. In a message all too readily accepted by some western audiences, Israel has presented the protests as a “security threat”.
Israeli officials have even argued before the country’s high court that the protesters lack any rights – that army snipers are entitled to shoot them, even if facing no danger – because Israel is supposedly in a “state of war” with Gaza, defending itself.
On Sunday night the Israeli air force dropped leaflets across Gaza warning Palestinians not to go near fence. “The Israel Defense Forces is determined to defend Israel’s citizens and sovereignty against Hamas’ attempts at terrorism under cover of violent riots,” the leaflets said. “Don’t get near the fence and don’t take part in Hamas’ show, which endangers you.”
Many Americans and Europeans, worried about an influx of “economic migrants” flooding into their own countries, readily sympathize with Israel’s concerns – and its actions.
Until now, the vast majority of Gaza’s protesters have been peaceful and made no attempt to break through the fence.
But Israel claims that Hamas has exploited this week’s protests in Gaza to encourage Palestinians to storm the fence. The implication is that the protesters have been trying to cross a “border” and “enter” Israel illegally.
The truth is rather different. There is no border because there is no Palestinian state. Israel has made sure of that. Palestinians live under occupation, with Israel controlling every aspect of their lives. In Gaza, even the air and sea are Israel’s domain.
Meanwhile, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former lands – now in Israel – is recognized in United Nations Resolutions.
Nonetheless, Israel has been crafting a dishonest counter-narrative ever since the Nakba, myths that historians scouring the archives have slowly exploded.
One claim – that Arab leaders told the 750,000 Palestinian refugees to flee in 1948 – was in fact invented by Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion. He hoped it would deflect US pressure on Israel to honor its obligations to allow the refugees back.
Even had the refugees chosen to leave during the heat of battle, rather than wait to be expelled, it would not have justified denying them a right to return when the fighting finished. It was that refusal that transformed flight into ethnic cleansing.
In another myth unsupported by the records, Ben Gurion is said to have appealed to the refugees to come back.
In truth, Israel defined Palestinians who tried to return to their lands as “infiltrators”. That entitled Israeli security officials to shoot them on sight – in what was effectively execution as a deterrence policy.
Nothing much has changed seven decades on. A majority of Gaza’s population today are descended from refugees driven into the enclave in 1948. They have been penned up like cattle ever since. That is why the Palestinians’ current protests take place under the banner of the March of Return.
For decades, Israel has not only denied Palestinians the prospect of a minimal state. It has carved the Palestinian territories into a series of ghettos – and in the case of Gaza, blockaded it for 12 years, choking it into a humanitarian catastrophe.
Despite this, Israel wants the world to view Gaza as an embryonic Palestinian state, supposedly liberated from occupation in 2005 when it pulled out several thousand Jewish settlers.
Again, this narrative has been crafted only to deceive. Hamas has never been allowed to rule Gaza, any more than Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority governs the West Bank.
But echoing the events of the Nakba, Israel has cast the protesters as “infiltrators”, a narrative that has left most observers strangely indifferent to the fate of Palestinian youth demonstrating for their freedom.
Once again, the executions of recent weeks, supposedly carried out by the Israeli army in self-defense, are intended to dissuade Palestinians from demanding their rights.
Israel is not defending its borders but the walls of cages it has built to safeguard the continuing theft of Palestinian land and preserve Jewish privilege.
In the West Bank, the prison contracts by the day as Jewish settlers and the Israeli army steal more land. In Gaza’s case, the prison cannot be shrunk any smaller.
For many years, world heads of state have castigated Palestinians for using violence and lambasted Hamas for firing rockets out of Gaza.
But now that young Palestinians prefer to take up mass civil disobedience, their plight is barely attracting attention, let alone sympathy. Instead, they are criticized for “breaching the border” and threatening Israel’s security.
The only legitimate struggle for Palestinians, it seems, is keeping quiet, allowing their lands to be plundered and their children to be starved.
Western leaders and the public betrayed the Palestinians in 1948. There is no sign, 70 years on, that the West is about to change its ways.
A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.
Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disap

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Now I’ve heard it all, White House: israel Not to Blame for Gaza Killings

REALITY
1. Land Day is on the 30/03 every single year.
2. Hamas did not organise the protests. Grassroots Palestinians did.
3. The Gaza fence isn’t an international border.
Scores slain are ‘propaganda,’ US officials say
It’s seemingly a straightforward sequence of events – Israeli troops lined up along the Gaza border, firing machine guns into the strip at unarmed protesters, and scores of those protesters were killed, the US is desperate to portray it as a “propaganda” plot by Hamas.
The White House portrayed themselves as wholly comfortable with Israel’s actions, saying they totally absolve Israel of any responsibility for all of those people they killed. Spokesman Raj Shah insisted the protests were Hamas’ fault, and the deaths are, too.
Shah further rejected reporter suggestions that Israel should show any sort of restraint, saying Hamas is responsible for whatever happens. He said Israel has an absolute right to engage in “self defense” against the protesters.
Historically the US would issue some vague call for all sides to exercise restraint in the face of a large death toll. White House officials, however, seem angered that the massacre has taken attention away from their new Jerusalem embassy, and seem determined to be entirely okay with whatever Israel does in response to the dissent.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

America’s Jerusalem embassy for mass murder, occupation and wider war, baptised in Palestinian blood

By Finian Cunningham | RT | May 14, 2018
How obscenely ironic. Embassies traditionally symbolize diplomacy and peace. The opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem was occasioned by a grotesque baptism of murder of Palestinians, heralding wider war in the Middle East.
Not only that, but on the very anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes of ethnic cleansing and dispossession over the past century – the 1948 Nakba or Catastrophe for Palestinians – the US government is brazenly siding with the heirs of that historic violence, the Israeli state.
Trump’s wholesale abandonment of any shame in endorsing Israeli violations against Arab historic rights is an incitement to regional conflagration.
It’s hard to express the horror. Israeli snipers shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, while some 100 kilometers away in Jerusalem, US dignitaries and evangelical pastors were blessing the opening of Washington’s new embassy as ‘God’s work’.
US President Donald Trump’s policy in the Middle East, if you could call it “policy”, has descended into absolute lunacy. No wonder, most European states stayed away from the US reception for unveiling its new diplomatic center.
Trump’s reckless disregard for Palestinian-Israeli peace is plunging the region into a blood bath. This week’s incendiary snub to Palestinians and the wider Arab region followed his tearing up of US obligations to the Iran nuclear accord. That violation of an international treaty has left diplomats from Europe, Russia, China and Iran scrambling to salvage a deal, which if it falls apart will unleash more instability and even war in the Middle East.
When Trump announced in December the moving of his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem it was roundly rebuked at the United Nations. The move violates decades of international consensus that Jerusalem should be a shared capital between Palestinians and Israelis pending the outcome of peace negotiations.
Trump said his decision was merely a “reflection of reality”. Cynically, it marks US acquiescence to illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
To be fair, Washington’s decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem was made over 20 years ago in 1995. Presidents Clinton, GW Bush and Obama opted to delay the actual move, claiming that such a move depended on progress in peace talks. Trump has now put into action legislation that was already on the books.
But what his declaration signifies is the jettisoning of any pretense by the US of being an “honest broker” between Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinian leaders now refuse to even engage with US officials, such is their disgust.
Paradoxically, Trump is helping to clarify the situation. The US is openly backing Israeli conquest of Palestinian territory and oppression of Palestinians. Washington is now transparently complicit in criminal Israeli policy rather than hiding behind a facade of mediation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump this week for “making Israel great again”. With typical chutzpah, Netanyahu urged other nations to follow suit, absurdly claiming that by relocating their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem they would facilitate peace.
The perverse logic, as proven already by the US policy, is that any chance of peace between Palestinians and Israelis is being utterly destroyed.
The hellish conditions that Palestinians are subjected to under relentless Israeli occupation are driving them to the desperate act of lining up in their thousands under the fire of Israeli snipers.
Over the past six weeks since Gaza’s population began the “Great Return March” some 50 unarmed protesters have been murdered by Israeli live fire. On the day of the US Embassy opening, dozens of more civilians were shot dead, within hours of the Jerusalem ceremony.
Israeli commanders have openly admitted that a shoot-to-kill tactic is being used whereby soldiers are even targeting children who dare to approach a separation barrier on Gaza’s eastern border with Israeli-held territory.
The Gaza protests were organized by ordinary Palestinians to highlight their desperate plea against a barbaric occupation and prevention of residents returning to their historic homes, including in Jerusalem. Some 70 per cent of Gaza’s population are descended from refugees who were displaced by Israeli settlers in the 1948 pogroms and later in the 1967 War.
Under Israeli siege, which the UN has described as illegal, Gazans are prevented from moving out of the coastal strip. Some two million people – half of whom are under 18 years old – subsist in unlivable conditions. Over 90 per cent of Gaza’s water supply is contaminated, electricity is available for only a few hours per day, fisherman are prevented from going beyond a few miles from the shore where human sewage runs directly into the sea.
As American historian Norman Finkelstein points out, Gaza is being tormented by military occupation, an inhuman blockade, massacres conducted with impunity by Israeli military, and children being poisoned. It is this context of genocide in which the recent protests are taking place.
Those protests were organized to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s declared foundation on May 14, 1948. The next day, May 15, is what the Palestinians and many supporters around the world prefer to focus on – the Catastrophe.
Trump’s decision to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem this week could not be more provocative and criminally insane.
It truly is a shockingly callous display of US support for seven decades of barbaric oppression against Palestinians and the wider Arab region.
Jerusalem is seen as a holy site for Muslims and Christians. Washington’s acquiescing to Israel’s declaration of the city as “undivided capital” of the Jewish Israeli state is an outrageous blow to hundreds of millions of people from other faiths. As well as a vandalistic swipe at world opinion based on ordinary principles of justice, morality and compassion towards the long-suffering Palestinian people.
Europe bears a heavy responsibility for the plight of Palestinians. After Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006, the EU and the US both moved to sanction the new Hamas government owing to its refusal to recognize the state of Israel. The Israeli siege on Gaza has thus been perpetrated with the complicity of the EU and the US, albeit the latter appearing more brazenly complicit under Trump.
European governments may be discomfited by Trump’s strident contempt for Palestinian rights and international law. But they have contributed to the present deterioration in the Middle East by pandering towards Washington’s policies of sponsoring Israeli occupation, as well as sponsoring reactionary Arab client regimes like Saudi Arabia, and fomenting illegal wars and regime-change operations.
Trump’s impetuousness and ignorance – no doubt encouraged by multi-million-dollar donations from rich Jewish Americans like Sheldon Adelson – has set the US on a collision course with the Arab masses from his insolent indifference to their rights. As if that could not be any more combustible, Trump is pushing the same Israeli-Saudi despot agenda of hostility towards Iran, as evinced by the nuclear accord sabotage.
Europe has for too long tied itself to the shipwreck that is US policy in the Middle East. Surely, European governments must realize by now that if explosive violence and conflict is to be avoided in the Middle East, they must abandon the US shipwreck and begin asserting an independent foreign policy.
A genuine peace process advocating for long-neglected Palestinian rights, and repudiating US attempts to collapse the Iran nuclear accord are two immediate matters for the Europeans to claw back some sanity and respect – before it’s too late.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

علم الصواريخ السورية المقارن .. صواريخ سورية تدك الاسرائيليين في الجولان

كل نوع من العلوم الانسانية لايتطور الا باطلاق دراسات مقارنة تعمل عمل ميزان ومعيار ومرايا عاكسة لتقدير ابعاد وأعماق العلوم الانسانية ونتاجاتها باجراء احتكاك مقارن بينها ..
 فهناك علم الأديان المقارن .. وعلم اللغة المقارن .. وعلم القانون المقارن .. وعلم أصول الفقه المقارن .. وعلم الحديث المقارن وعلم الثقافات المقارن .. وكل شيء له علم مقارن .. ولكن وفيما نحن نقارن بين الثوار السوريين والسخاء والعطاء الدولي والعربي في دعمهم القينا نظرة سريعة على مسيرات العودة السلمية للفلسطينيين والسخاء في تجاهلهم .. ولفت نظرنا اننا يجب ان نطلق فرعا جديدا في العلوم الانسانية والاجتماعية والسياسية سنسميه (علم الثورات المقارن) .. وقد نسميه (علم الخليجيات المقارن) .. او علم الخوذ البيضاء المقارن .. وطبعا لا خوذ بيض في غزة الآن ولا فلسطين .. ولااوسكارات ولابطولات ولاأفلام أكشن ولااكسسوارات ولا مسارح ولا اضاءات ولا غبار وأنقاض .. ولا أقلام حمرة ولا أصباغ على الوجوه .. ثم لا دموع ولا تأثيرات صوتية مفزعة ومؤثرة يعجز عنها ستيفن سبيلبيرغ في فيلمه الشهير (الحديقة الجوراسية) التي يجب ان يضع فيها أيضا مشاهد لعناصر الخوذ البيضاء وهم يصورون الديناصورات وهي تفتك بالبشر فيما هم ينقذون الأشلاء والأعضاء المبتورة .. ويصورون بمهارة أسنان الديناصور ودماء الاطفال تحديدا تقطر منها وتسيل على جواف أفواهها .. وتركز الكاميرات على عيون الديناصور الشريرة .. وعيون الأطفال المذعورة ..
دعونا نغادر علم الخوذ البيضاء المقارن ونعود الى علم الثورات المقارن .. لاننا نستطيع أن نقدم هذه المقارنة البسيطة كمدخل للبحث ونقول:
ان عدد من اصيبوا خلال الأسابيع الأخيرة من الفلسطينيين بالسلاح الاسرائيلي ربما يصل او يتجاوز الخمسة عشر ألف مصاب بين شهيد وجريح .. لم يرسل العالم برقية تعزية واحدة حتى الآن وصمت ترامب وابنته الرقيقة المشاعر ولم يغرد صاحبنا ولم “يتوتر” (من فعل “توتر” وهو فعل رباعي مشتق من تويتر) .. وبعد عشرة آلاف مصاب وجدت تيريزا ماي نفسها مضطرة للتدقيق في الأخبار والتحقق مما نمي اليها عن ضحايا مجزرة غزة !! .. فاذا كان عدد سكان غزة مليونا فاننا بحساب بسيط نجد ان اسرائيل اصابت تقريبا 2 % من السكان في قرابة اسبوعين .. أي انها في عشرين اسبوعا ستصيب 20 % من السكان .. وفي 100 أسيوع فانها ستصيب 100 % من السكان بأذى بين الموت والاعاقة والاصابة .. اي ابادة شاملة لشعب كامل خلال سنتين تقريبا .. حتى الهنود الحمر احتاج المستعمرون البيض الى 300 سنة لابادتهم نهائيا .. اما اسرائيل فانها اذا استمرت على هذا المنوال فانها ستتقوق على البيض وتبيد الفلسطينيين عشرين مرة في النصف الأول من هذا القرن الذي تعقد فيه صفقة القرن .. وهذا يفتح علينا بابا للعلوم اسمه (علم الابادات المقارن) و(علم صفقات القرون المقارن) ..
وبالمقارنة فان عدد من تم تصويرهم في دوما يستحمون بالماء من السلاح الكيماوي كما زعم العالم المنافق لايتجاوز عدد أصابع اليد الواحدة .. ولكن ارسل العالم الغربي 110 صواريخ توماهوك من أجلهم ولم تنتظر تيريزا ماي لتنتظر التحقق مما نمي اليها حتى خمس دقائق .. وكأن منخريها الكبيرين قد تحسسا رائحة السلاح الكيماوي التي وصلت من دوما الى لندن لشدة كثافتها .. وميزت غاز السارين الذي تصنعه بالتحديد المصانع السورية .. وهذا يفتح علينا المجال لاطلاق علم جديد انساني هو (علم الشم السياسي المقارن) ..
وهذا في علم السياسة والثورات المقارن يعني ان من حق الفلسطينيين ان ترسل اميريكا كل مخزونها الصاروخي
من توماهوك لضرب الجيش الاسرائيلي من مبدا المعاملة بالمثل كما انتصر ترامب لأهل دوما الذين كانوا بعدد اصابع يده .. وكي يكون عادلا فان سيحتاج أيضا كل المخزون النووي يضبه على رؤوس الااسرائيليين .. كي يتساوى المصاب الدوماني والمصاب الفلسطيني بالحنان الاميريكي والغضب الترمبي .. وهذا يفتح علينا بابا اسمه (علم التوماهوك المقارن) ..
واذا أخذنا علم الثورات المقارن ووضعنا في الميزان ماسمي الثورة السورية ومالقيته من ضخ للفتاوى بالملايين .. كل يوم خمسة آلاف فتوى ورؤيا ودعاء وركعة وسجدة وصلاة ووقوف على عرفة وهبوط للملائكة .. أما لمسيرات العودة فكانت الملائكة في اجازة .. والصلوات في سفر طويل .. وصدرت هزالى الفتاوى .. ولكنها من شدة الهزال والضعف واصابتها بالاسهال والتجفاف سقطت فيها التاء وحلت محلها السين .. !! وهنا تتفجر علوم جديدة من علوم المقارنات مثل (علم هبوط الملائكة المقارن) .. و (علم الفتاوى المقارن) .. و (علم الفـ*اوى المقارن) ..
واذا اخذنا ماأنفقته دول الخليج العربي بدليل اعتراف هوميروس الخليج حمد بن جبر آل ثاني في سورية لنصرة أهل السنة ووضعناه في الميزان بالمقارنة مع ماوضع في فلسطين لاحتجنا الى مجهر الكتروني لرؤية نصيب فلسطين من الذهب العربي لأنه بحجم الجراثيم .. ولو وضعنا ملايين قطع السلاح التي أدخلت الى سورية وتبرع بها أهل المال العربي في كفة مقابل ميزان غزة لوجدنا أنه لم تدخل بندقية واحدة الى غزة من أهل النفط العرب حتى بنادق الخشب لم تدخل .. وهذا مايعني ان علينا ان نفتش عن علم بنادق الخشب المقارن ..
واذا ماتأملنا في عدد البرامج واللقاءات والريبورتاجات المفتوحة في العالم ضد الجيش السوري وقيادته وساعات البث والتحليل والشتم واللعن والتعنيف والتخوين والبكاء ورفع الشعارات وكتابة القصص والقصائد والمقالات والاجتماعات في مجلس الامن .. ووضعناه في ميزان غزة اليوم لوجدنا أن غزة مجرد فاصلة او نقطة حبر في مكتبة بحجم مكتبة الكونغرس .. وهذا مايمكن أن يشجعنا على اطلاق علم التحريض المقارن .. .. أو علم التنقيط المقارن .. أو علم مجلس الأمن المقارن (او ماكان يسمى علم القلق المقارن للباحث اللامع القلق بان كيمون) ..
استطيع أن اكتب منذ اليوم الى يوم الدين عن مقارنات لانهاية لها .. مثل كم عدد المتظاهرين في الخليج المحتل دعما لحق الفلسطينيين في القدس بالمقارنة مع عدد المتظاهرين في شوارع اليونان ولندن ..؟؟ وعن الانتحاريين الجهاديين الذين يعسكرون في تركيا قبل الانطلاق نحو غزة بعد أن ينفذ صبر اردوغان .. الذي لم يتحمل بطش الجيش السوري يوما واحدا ولكنه نام على دماء مرمرة والحرية .. وهو بحق صاحب علم (نفاذ الصبر المقارن) أو علم العصملي المقارن ..
ولكن اسرائيل لاتمانع في أي من هذه الدراسات المقارنة التي تجعلها في شدة الحبور والرضا .. الا ان مايخيفها هو علم مفارن لاتريد اسرائيل منا ان نتعرف عليه ولاأن نحاول التطرق اليه هو ماافتتحته المقاومة .. فنحن لدينا علم التحرير المقارن .. وعلم النصر الالهي المقارن .. وعلم وادي الحجير المقارن .. وعلم الميركافا المقارن .. وعلم بيت العنكيوت المقارن .. ونحن أضفنا اليها علم الصواريخ المقارن .. وعلم الأيام المعدودة المقارن .. وعلم الجيوش العظمى المقارن .. وعلم الصمود المقارن .. وعلم نهاية القوى العظمى المقارن .. وعلم التضحية الذي لايقارن .. ولايضاهى .. ولاشبيه له في الوجود ..

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

US Complicity in Gaza Massacre


US Complicity in Gaza Massacre
EDITORIAL | 18.05.2018 | EDITORIAL

US Complicity in Gaza Massacre

The horrendous bloodshed this week in Gaza is directly related to US President Trump’s controversial decision to relocate the American embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem.
The US bears responsibility in large part for the atrocity in which more than 60 unarmed Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli military. This was a cold-blooded massacre.
Thousands of others were maimed from live fire. An eight-month-old baby girl, Layla Ghandour, was among the victims after she died from asphyxiation from tear gas fired at the protesters.
Washington’s shameless defense of Israel’s brutal use of lethal force as “restrained” and its subsequent blocking of an independent UN inquiry into the mass shootings only compound Washington’s culpability in the massacre. A massacre which threatens to add further tensions to an already combustible region.
The question is how much of US complicity was a deliberate calculation by Washington to provoke widespread violence, not just in the occupied Palestinian territories, but in the wider Middle East?
Trump’s decision to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was implemented despite international warning that the move violated global consensus that Jerusalem should be a shared capital between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Trump’s decision recklessly snubbed Palestinian rights by symbolically siding with Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its “undivided capital”.
Not only that but the US embassy move was pointedly scheduled to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s foundation as a state on May 14, 1948. The date is also marked by Palestinians as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”, when millions of Palestinians were forced from their homes and ancient land by Israeli settlers.
Such a move by the Trump administration was bound to exacerbate already heightened Palestinian grievances after decades of injustice against their right to statehood and their right to return to ancestral homelands. Some 70 per cent of Gaza’s two million residents claim to be refugees who demand the right to return to their homelands in what is now Israeli-occupied Jerusalem and elsewhere in the modern state of Israel.
Trump’s blatant partisan intervention on the side of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory flies in the face of UN resolutions and international consensus which views Palestinians as having an inalienable claim to statehood. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory has expanded without relent despite countless UN resolutions condemning such expansion as illegal.
At least one thing is incontestably clear now. Washington’s role in the decades-old conflict no longer has the pretense of being “an honest broker” or “neutral mediator”. For decades, the US has tacitly sponsored Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. It is 25 years since President Bill Clinton oversaw the Oslo Peace Accords. Today, the so-called peace process is dead and Palestinians are further than ever from realizing their right to a state in coexistence with Israel.
Trump has made it clear that as far as the US is concerned there is no peace process, that there is no “Two State Solution”.
It is telling that Palestinian leaders no longer recognize the US as a mediator. The US is part of the ongoing problem of an illegal colonialism against Palestinian people. Israeli governments are not interested in finding an honorable peace settlement. Their tacit position seems to be one of relentless conquest and driving the remaining Palestinian population out of the entire land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
What is the solution? It seems now that the only decent arrangement is for a One State Solution to be striven for, in which all the people of the Holy Land are entitled to share equal rights. However, that is something that is anathema to the Israeli leaders who want only to create a solely Jewish state.
The international community must face up to the illusion of a Two-State Solution. The world must somehow muster the political will to advocate for the rights of Palestinians to live in the land which was formerly known as Palestine.
For seven decades, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the source of ongoing conflict in the entire Middle East. Without a proper, just peace settlement that recognizes and delivers on the rights of Palestinians the region will continue to be wracked by violence.
Washington’s brazen and reckless intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be recognized now as an incendiary role. The US has forfeited any claim to be a mediator. It is a malevolent actor.
Israel’s project of conquest is part and parcel with the wider US ambition to control the Middle East for its imperialist designs. America is not some benign player as its mythical image-making would pretend.
The mass murder this week in Gaza in conjunction with the US giving its stamp of approval to Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory is a fitting proof of Washington’s real role in the Middle East. Washington cares not a jot for democracy or peace in the region. It is motivated entirely by hegemonic control for American imperial power.
Chaos and conflict is the fuel for American presence and control. Dispossession of Palestinians goes hand-in-hand with Washington’s strategic planning to balkanize and destroy states. We have seen this nefarious policy with regard to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. Washington needs Israeli conquest in the same way it needs a cluster of other client despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab dictatorships. To crush indigenous democratic rights in order to project its power interests, chiefly for the huge oil wealth of the region, as well as for denying perceived global rivals from gaining influence, especially if that influence might be more progressive.
The US is hellbent on keeping the Middle East in turmoil and conflict. Forget about lofty claims of “democracy building”. Washington’s power relies on creating war and bloodshed. The Project for a New American Century, and other neocon strategy documents, have long prescribed this very policy of creative-destruction, in hoc with Israel, as a formula to consolidate US power, no matter the cost in millions of innocent lives.
Washington’s callous and criminal disregard for Palestinians is a piece of its strategy for mayhem. The renewed confrontation with Iran is also testimony to this pernicious policy.
The cynicism of the US is staggering. This week at the UN, the American ambassador Nikki Haley walked out when the Palestinian envoy, Riad Mansour, began his address to the Security Council about the atrocity in Gaza. For months, Haley has been denouncing Syria, Russia and Iran over alleged violations. Yet she had not the conscience to listen to how Israeli troops butchered unarmed Palestinians in cold blood.
Haley’s rank hypocrisy is closely matched by Western mainstream news media. Their saturated coverage and hysterical distortions over Syria blaming the Assad government and Russia for alleged atrocities was in stark contrast to their muted response to the US-backed cold-blooded murder in Gaza this week.
The criminal arrogance of the US and its complicity in mass murder was exposed this week. It was an object lesson on how the US is not a force for good, as it so often proclaims. Rather, it is evidently a force for destruction in the interests of its own selfish imperialist designs.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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Gaza: Crime Without Punishment

19-05-2018 | 10:36
Just imagine if the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad had killed 62 unarmed protesters and injured thousands of others.
Palestinian protesters
Surely, the American response would be fierce. At the very least, the US would unleash a thousand cruise missiles – the number currently within range of Syria.
Better yet, imagine if Lebanon’s Hezbollah killed 62 Jewish settlers living on occupied Palestinian territory.
Within days, another US-led coalition would be on hand to provide unconditional support for “Israel”, as it indiscriminately obliterates civilian targets.
Of course, it wasn’t Bashar al-Assad that killed 62 unarmed protesters and it wasn’t Hezbollah that killed Jewish settlers this week. It was the “Israeli” military that fired into thousands of Palestinian demonstrators as they marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’/’disaster’), signifying the Palestinian exodus from their own land in 1948.
For such an appalling crime, “Israel” is not only spared condemnation from Washington – it is applauded.
Support, justifications, and even praise for “Israel’s” actions, were key components of the US strategy when it came to dealing with the latest carnage in the besieged Gaza Strip.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley shamelessly commended the “Israelis” for acting with “restraint” in handling the protests. A few hours later, Haley walked out of a UN Security Council meeting when the Palestinian envoy began to speak.
But even though officials in Washington love to boast about how Russia, Iran, and Syria are isolated, no country on earth is as lonely as the US in its defense of “Israel”.
During Tuesday’s Security Council meeting, even Washington’s closest allies criticized Tel Aviv’s response to the protests, which happened to coincide with the opening of the new US embassy in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Although most of Haley’s statements about the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict can be described as hypocritical, few are as outrageous as the one claiming that this week’s protests in Gaza had nothing to do with the relocation of the American foreign mission from Tel Aviv to al-Quds.
Richard Becker with the ANSWER Coalition described Haley’s claim as a “bad joke”.
“It had everything to do with it,” Becker said. “I think that [Nazi Minister of Propaganda] Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of Niki Haley’s performance. He would have said ‘that’s the way to go; turn everything upside down and just keep repeating the lie. Make it a big lie.'”
But even the big lies failed to hide the lack of international support for the embassy move. Testifying to just how isolated Tel Aviv and Washington had become is the fact that less than half of the 86 foreign dignitaries invited to attend the celebration in Jerusalem actually bothered showing up.
The joint US/”Israeli” effort to put lipstick on a pig also failed to disguise the fact that last December’s decision by the Trump administration to recognize al-Quds as the “Israeli” capital sparked the latest chapter in the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict.
The bloodiest day of that chapter – and indeed since the 2014 “Israeli” onslaught on Gaza – overlapped with the inauguration of the new embassy.
“Israel” defined by one massacre after another
While some 750,000 people were originally forcibly expelled from historical Palestine, many became internal refugees.
About 70% of the Gaza Strip’s population of two million are descendants of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948.
They live under a decade-long land, sea and air blockade and cannot leave the Gaza Strip without hard-to-obtain permits from the Israeli military.
Over the course of the last seven weeks, Gaza’s residents staged rallies dubbed the Great March of Return.
The “Israeli” military responded by killing 111 Palestinians, including an eight-month-old baby girl, who succumbed to tear gas suffocation. More than 12,000 have been wounded.
Richard Becker believes that “it’s very appropriate that a massacre was carried out” on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba.
“‘Israel’ only came into being because of massacre after massacre that drove out the Palestinian population,” Becker adds.
Although international humanitarian law prohibits soldiers to use live ammunition in situations that do not constitute an imminent threat to life, “Israeli” snipers, safely ensconced hundreds of feet away, picked off one Palestinian at a time.
Perhaps the heavily armed “Israelis” felt it was a proportional response to the slingshots used by some of the protesters.
If so, “Israel’s” benefactors in the west seem to agree.
After all, Tel Aviv can be told politely that the slaughter of unarmed women and children in full view of the global media is not a ‘nice’ thing to do. So don’t expect any real pressure from western capitals, let alone another Anglo-Saxon ‘humanitarian intervention’.
Source: al-Ahed News

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

I Live In Gaza. I Want You To Know Why We’re Protesting.

19-05-2018 | 11:27
Zaheyya, 70 years old and tired after a long walk from Saladin Road to the “no-go” zone, looked among the huge crowd of protesters for a place to rest as she carried a Palestinian flag and her embroidered bag over her shoulder.
Palestinian protester
When I approached Zaheyya on Monday and asked if I could interview her to find out why she is participating in the Great Return March in spite of her age and sickness, she replied, “Shame on you, for asking me this question! I will come every day until UN Resolution 194 is implemented.”
The resolution Zaheyya recalled was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, and it called for the return of all Palestinian refugees to their lands. It was never adopted by the UN Security Council, and so it was never enforced. But Palestinians have not forgotten.
“I am a refugee from Huliqat village that was ethnically cleansed in 1948 by the hands of the Haganah [the Zionist paramilitary organization] and I have the right to go back,” said Zaheyya. “This is our day to show ‘Israel’ that the old will die, but the young will never forget… Yes, I will join my people and shout with all my strength, move on people, go back to your homeland, the land is waiting for you.”
It was inspiring, but then Zaheyya started shouting something else. “Tear gas, gas, gas! Run people, run!”
Tear gas cans began rolling between us and the crowds. Everyone ran from the area, while “Israeli” snipers on top of the hills and watchtowers started shooting randomly at the people protesting. At one point, I lost sight of my mom. I could not see her, because there was dark smoke everywhere. Do you know what that feels like? To not know if your mother is okay as snipers are shooting at you and everyone around you?
It took me half an hour to find her again – when the air cleared out from the tear gas bombs. After we did, my mom, as always, hugged me. “Calm down. I am okay,” she said. We started laughing and cursing the snipers.
Monday was hard, and it was heartbreaking. After a long day, I found out that my brother Mustafa, who is 29 years old, was shot. He was lucky, the bullet that penetrated his leg was not explosive.
At least 62 people were killed that day, and nearly 3,200 wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. Those injured included journalists, medics, and dozens of women.
Since then, all of the victims have been painted in the international media as martyrs for Hamas. All the protesters – me, my family, Zaheyya, thousands of others like us – have had our demands warped and our voices silenced by others for political purposes.
So let me be clear with you. Gaza is the biggest open-air prison on earth. Nearly two million people are denied the basic freedom of movement. Ninety-seven percent of the water here is undrinkable. The unemployment rate is 44 percent.
We have said over and over again that the right of return is the solution to all of our miserable problems. That is why we protested on Monday. That is why we have been protesting since March 30. Two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees from lands stolen by “Israel” in 1948.
Palestinian boy
The Great Return March is the first time in my life that I have seen a huge number of people uniting and calling for right of return. It is the decision of ordinary Palestinians in Gaza, and it is the call for everyone who is concerned about humanity. There is only one flag that has been rising up in the marches, carried by kids, the elderly, journalists, nurses, doctors, and teachers. It is Palestine’s.
Issam, a 15 year-old boy from Khan-Younis, was injured with a tear gas canister that was dropped on his head on Monday. He rejoined the march the next day, while his head was still bandaged.
Asked whether he is already healed or still in pain he replied, “I am in pain, but I cannot leave my friends alone today, and we will fly our kites. We spent last night preparing it. We wrote on it: ‘Palestine, we are coming back.'” These are the kites that children fly near the buffer zone, the ones that have been deemed strategic threats by “Israel” and used as excuses to shoot children.
Last week, my 11-year-old brother Mohammed decided to take his bird to set him free at the buffer zone. He wanted his bird to cross the fence, even when he couldn’t.
Source: Think Progress, Edited by website team

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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OVERVIEW OF ANTI-ISIS OPERATION IN SOUTHERN DAMASCUS ON MAY 19, 2018 (VIDEOS, MAPS)

South Front
Overview Of Anti-ISIS Operation In Southern Damascus On May 19, 2018 (Videos, Maps)
Click to see the full-size image
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), Liwa al-Quds, the Palestinian Liberation Army and other pro-government factions are developing their anti-ISIS operation in the areas of Taqdam, Yarmuk and al-Hajar al-Aswad in southern Damascus.
According to pro-government sources. army troops have captured new points in the eastern and western parts of the ISIS-held pocket. The current goal of the SAA and its allies is to isolate the Yarmouk refugee camp. These efforts have not resulted in a success yet. However, considering that ISIS is steadily loosing ground in the area, this scenario is inevitable.
Overview Of Anti-ISIS Operation In Southern Damascus On May 19, 2018 (Videos, Maps)
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عقوبات على نصرالله: رسالة أولية قبل تشكيل الحكومة


مايو 18, 2018

روزانا رمّال

تدرّجت العقوبات المالية الأميركية والغربية على حزب الله تباعاً في الأشهر والسنوات الماضية حتى وصلت الى رأس الهرم اليوم بعدما أعلنت وزارة الخزانة الأميركية فرض عقوبات على الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصرالله وعدد من القادة البارزين في الحزب. بينهم نائب الأمين العام للحزب الشيخ نعيم قاسم، ورئيس المجلس السياسي إبراهيم أمين السيد، ورئيس الهيئة الشرعية محمد يزبك ومعاون نصرالله للشؤون السياسية حسين الخليل..

يتعاطى حزب الله غالباً مع العقوبات التي تطال عناصر منه بخفة كاملة على اعتبار أن أحداً منهم لا يتخطى الاعتبارات التي تمنع الحزب من القيام بأي عملية مصرفية طبيعية في بنوك غربية وعربية تابعة بخيارها السياسي للمنطق والتوجّه الأميركي السياسي والاقتصادي في المنطقة. وبالتالي فإن وقف التعامل مع أشخاص ومؤسسات تابعة لحزب الله مرتبط بالتعامل بكل ما لديه علاقة بالجمهورية الاسلامية الايرانية. وهو معروف سلفاً من قبل محور لا يتخطّى الممنوع، لذلك قام منذ سنوات بإنشاء بنوك مصرفية تابعة للدول التي تجمعها المشكلة نفسها وبنوكاً أيرانية موجودة في لبنان سهلت العمل بعض الشيء مع جزء من هذا الواقع. أما الأهم فإن حزب الله لا يتأثر غالباً بهذه القرارات بل يتأثر بما له علاقة ببيئته الشعبية، أي أن الضائقة المالية والاقتصادية التي تنشأ في هذه البيئة بسبب العقوبات تؤثر عليه وعلى سلوكه السياسي الذي قد يضطره في بعض الوقت على التخفيف من الهجوم في بعض الخطابات على دول خليجية محدّدة تحديداً السعودية أو البحرين لعدم التضييق على الشيعة في البلدين بعد أن تمّ طرد الكثير من العائلات، لكن بدون أن يعني ذلك ان الحزب التزم بهذا بل أداره بشكل تكتيكي بحت. وما لبث ان عاود استهدافه للمملكة العربية السعودية خصوصاً في سلوكها السياسي والعسكري في اليمن ومؤخراً في مسألة الموافقة على نقل السفارة الأميركية إلى القدس ضمناً، لأن هذا لم يكن ليتمّ بدون تشجيع سعودي برأي حزب الله، خصوصاً أن الخطاب الديني على ما كشفه أمين عام الحزب في خطابه الأخير صار يعتمد على فكرة أحقية تاريخية لليهود في القدس.

بالعودة للعقوبات فجديدها عقوبات خليجية أميركية هذه المرة أما الأهم فهو تسمية نصرالله شخصياً ضمن هذه المجموعة. وفي ذلك رسائل هامة باختيار التوقيت الذي أتى بعد الانتخابات النيابية وتحقيق الحزب نتيجة مهمة أكدت أن أياً من البيئة المحيطة فيه أو التي تحتضنه كبيئة ناخبة وليس فقط مؤيّدة لم تتأثر بأي من مشاركاته الخارجية بحروب أبعد من الحدود اللبنانية ولم تتأثر أيضاً بما حققته هذه المشاركات من نتائج كلفته تقديم أرواح وجرحى كثر ضمن عقيدة القتال ضد الارهاب وبالمنطق او السلوك نفسه الذي تخصص فيه بمواجهة «اسرائيل» التي وجدها خصماً حاضراً في الميادين كلها.

هذه العقوبات تقول التالي للأفرقاء اللبنانيين الذين توجهت إليهم بشكل خاص.

اولاً: مخاطبة الأميركيين لخصوم حزب الله أي حلفائها الخارجيين من الانتخابات بمخاوف السيطرة التي يمكن أن تطغى على الموقف الاستراتيجي لملفات وطنية في مجلس النواب بتغير الأكثرية، مفادها عدم الخوف من نتائج الانتخابات وأن الدعم لا يزال موجوداً وأن الساحة لن تكون خالية لحزب الله أو فارغة من الأفكار ووسائل المواجهة أي أنه ليس عليهم الاستسلام للحزب.

ثانياً: هذه العقوبات تخفّف من وهج انتصار حزب الله بالساحة اللبنانية بعد الانتصار الانتخابي، فتزيح النظر عن هالته وتأخذ العيون نحو تذكير الحزب أن سيطرته على مفاصل البلاد اقتصادياً أو سياسياً ليست خياراً جيداً إنما هي خيار يعني العزل عن المجتمع العربي والدولي. وبالتالي فلا مناص من التحالفات والمشاركة مع حلفاء السياسة الأميركية في الحكومة والخضوع الى ما تمليه بعض الشروط لتسيير أعمال الدولة وإعطاء الأولوية لصورة حكومة منفتحة على كل الدول والإبقاء على شبكة المصالح السابقة والحفاظ عليها.

ثالثاً: العقوبات تؤثر مباشرة على تشكيل الحكومة التي يفترض أن يتم قريباً. فالمطلوب في أي تشكيلة مقبلة أن ترفع مصلحة الدول العربية، خصوصاً الخليجية التي انضمّت الى قائمة العقوبات بشبه إجماع إلى أعلى المستويات كما رفع أولوية المصلحية السياسية لهذه الدول وأخذها بعين الاعتبار، وإلا فعزل لبنان اقتصادياً عن محيطه العربي بعد أن اكدت نتائج الانتخابات قدرة حزب الله على تشكيل أكثرية وزارية حليفة مؤيدة لسياسته الخارجية.

رابعاً: تسويق تشكيل حكومة وفاقية جامعة بعيداً عن الاستفزاز. وهذا للإشارة لم يكن ليتمّ لو كان حلفاء الولايات المتحدة من الأحزاب اللبنانية هم مَن سيطروا على أكثرية المجلس بل كانت خطة السبهان المتمثلة بحكومة خالية من حزب الله هي المطلب المنشود، لكن وبما أن الدفة مالت لحزب الله وحلفائه فصار التوجه الى امتصاص الجولة مرتبطاً بحكومة وفاقية جامعة بما يشبه العودة لشكل الحكومة السابقة التي تحوّلت تصريف اعمال، وارتضت بها المملكة بعد فك أسر الحريري كأخف الشرور.

خامساً: بلا شك يبقى لرمزية استهداف نصرالله شخصياً مالياً وترتيبه على لوائح الارهاب حساباً اساسياً في العمل الأميركي الذي يستهدف دائماً النيل من صورته «الحكيمة» المتفق عليها في الشارع اللبناني.

سادساً: الاتفاق النووي الإيراني الذي انسحبت منه واشنطن رسالة مباشرة لطهران بالتضييق عليها وعلى حلفائها، منهم حزب الله.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!