How to End the War Crimes in Gaza

Bernie Suarez

Some people may read this and say, no way, this is not a solution but I challenge your belief and I offer that this is indeed an effective and powerful way to move forward as a humanity with regard to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

Is there actually a way to end the war crimes in Gaza? There is, but the answer lies in our humanity not in politics, politicians, or a rigid ideology. Ideologies that result in human deaths are ideologies of hatred no matter how anyone spins it. We, as a humanity, must find a way of ending ideologies of hatred that serve political purposes. With acknowledgement of this first step we can then move forward to real solutions.

Investigating Gaza War Crimes

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

On August 11, Human Rights Council (HRC) President Baudelaire Ndong Ella announced the formation of an "independent, international commission of inquiry" into war crimes committed during Israel's Operation Protective Edge. 

International human rights law expert Professor William Schabas was appointed to chair a three-person panel. His special focus is genocide. 

Other members include international law, criminal law, human rights and extradition law expert, Amal Alamuddin, and former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene. 

Israel Murders Gazan Health Workers

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

Israel wages genocidal wars without mercy. Even doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other health workers are targeted. 

Civilians are as vulnerable as combatants. It's longstanding Israeli policy. 

On August 7, Amnesty International (AI) headlined "Mounting Evidence of deliberate attacks on Gaza health workers by Israeli army." 

Former prime minister Ehud Barak once outrageously called it "the most moral army in the world." It's a lawless, ruthless killing machine. 

IDF Hamas Human Shield Manual a Sloppy Forgery - The Evidence

The Israeli Defense Force just got caught red handed manufacturing fake evidence to prop up their Gaza narrative

On August 4, 2014 the IDF released what they claimed to be scans of a captured Hamas combat manual which explains the benefits of human shields (Captured Hamas Combat Manual Explains Benefits of Human Shields). This juicy story got quite a few people excited, and within 2 days their blog post had over 81,000 likes on Facebook. It turns out though, that the documents that they uploaded were forgeries, and sloppy forgeries at that. The work was so shoddy that you don't even have to be an expert to see the mistake. Read More

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Obama Wines and Dines African Dictators as Ebola Spreads - Geneva Business Insider

This month on the Geneva Business Insider, James Corbett and David L. Smith discuss: the latest on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the decision to send infected patients to Germany and the US for treatment; the conflict in Gaza and what it has done to the population of the world's largest open-air prison; and the latest moves on the Eastern European chessboard as Putin bristles at Poland's "Ukraine invasion" fears.




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SPECIAL FEATURE: David Rovics' Palestine

SPECIAL FEATURE: David Rovics' Palestine Set on Soundcloud All David's songs about Palestine in one place for free download or streaming, starting with "Gaza," just written in July, 2014.


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A Jewish American Woman Who Lived In Palestine Speaks Out Against The Israeli Occupation

A Jewish American woman (Anna Baltzer) who spent time in Palestine to observe and document human rights violations and to help with the overall situation there explains and shares photographs of her experiences while living in Palestine.  


"Anna Baltzer is such an amazing person and the perspective she brings to the cause is beyond words. Check out her page and give her a like to show some support!" ~ Tone S.

Listen to more David Rovics music below (featured in Anna Baltzer's video):


Listen to more David Rovics music here.  SPECIAL FEATURE: Palestine Set on Soundcloud All David's songs about Palestine in one place for free download or streaming, starting with "Gaza," just written in July, 2014.

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Why Aren't ISIS and Al-Qaeda Attacking Israel?

Dees Illustration

Brandon Turbeville

With the recent slaughter of Palestinians taking place on television screens across the world, only the grossly misinformed would believe that Israel’s Palestinian extermination program is actually “self-defense.” 

Yet for all of Israel’s whining about how it is being targeted by “Islamic extremists” and “terrorists,”(which should be translated to mean Palestinians, Iran, or any other secular or nationalist Arab government in the region) there is a curious and deafening silence when it is confronted with actual terrorists and Muslim fanatics such as ISIS, al-Nusra, and the myriad of other fundamentalist groups waging jihad in Syria and Iraq. 

This bizarre silence has yet to raise the eyebrows of the somnambulant general public. 

Of course, Israel’s lack of concern regarding legitimate terrorist groups is not bizarre at all when one understands the perspective and goals held by the settler state toward its neighbors in the region or its connections to the very groups who espouse Israel as their number one enemy. 

Top 5 Ways the U.S. Is Israel’s Accomplice in War Crimes in Gaza

By Juan Cole

Shutterstock

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The U.S. State Department became a little testy with Israel on Sunday over the 6th school shelling by the Israeli military, which killed 10, saying

“The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,” reads the statement from State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki. “We once again stress that Israel do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties.”

As for the standard Israeli military pretext for such war crimes, that Hamas was hiding out in the school or firing from the school, no reporter on the ground has seen any evidence of any such activity by Hamas in schools where there are people.  Then the Israeli military obfuscates things by saying that Hamas was “in the area.”  Since Gaza is so small, I suppose they are in the area of almost everything.  But the State Department didn’t let Tel Aviv off the hook this time:  “The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”

The Holy Land Is Crying Out

Free the Holy Land Five!

This is a track from David Rovics album, Meanwhile In Afghanistan, which can be downloaded for free or by donation here: davidrovics.com/meanwhile-in-afga…tan/new-album.php

The Holy Land Five are still in U.S. prison for feeding helpless Palestinians. David Rovics sings about them: I love this song, David Rovics! "The Holy Land is crying out, leaving little room for doubt; from ruined homes, the kids ask you--what in the world will you do?" ~Cynthia McKinney

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Gaza attack: 'We were striking a legitimate target' - video

Israel spokesman Mark Regev says an airstrike on a school in Gaza, which killed ten people, was targeted by Hamas terrorists and his government is investigating why civilians died.



You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society Over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 Bn/Yr

By Juan Cole

Shutterstock

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians.  A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more.  Roughly a third of Israeli trade is with Europe, and the EU is Israel’s largest single trading partner.

Unite, the largest British trade union, has now resolved to campaign for adoption of BDS against Israel.

The Sinn Fein mayor of Newry in Northern Ireland is also calling on retailers in the town to boycott Israel.

Nicaragua: ‘Netanyahu Appears To Be Possessed By The Devil’, Bolivia: ‘Israel A Terrorist State’

The Pontiac Tribune

Last night more than 100 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military offensive on Gaza. This brings the death toll on the Palestinian side to a shocking 1,600+ since July 8th, the majority of which have been innocent civilians caught in the middle of war zone.

A Leading Voice of U.S. Jewry: End the Occupation

Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, tells Democracy Now!, "I think that sending rockets that are going to kill civilians is a crime. But for Palestinians to try, in any way they can, to end this state of affair—and to expect of them to end their struggle and just focus on less than 2 percent to build a country is absurd. That is part of—that’s propaganda, but it’s not a discussion of either politics or morality."

Amy Goodman/Nermeen Shaikh

Democracy Now!

July 30, 2014

Henry Siegman, former director of the American Jewish Congress

Democracy Now!, Creative Commons License 3.0

Given his background, what American Jewish leader Henry Siegman has to say about Israel’s founding in 1948 through the current assault on Gaza may surprise you. From 1978 to 1994, Siegman served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, long described as one of the nation’s "big three" Jewish organizations along with the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. Born in Germany three years before the Nazis came to power in 1933, Siegman’s family eventually moved to the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement that pushed for the creation of a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied the religion and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, later becoming head of the Synagogue Council of America. After his time at the American Jewish Congress, Siegman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now serves as president of the U.S./Middle East Project. In the first of our two-part interview, Siegman discusses the assault on Gaza, the myths surrounding Israel’s founding in 1948, and his own background as a German-Jewish refugee who fled Nazi occupation to later become a leading American Jewish voice and now vocal critic of Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories.

IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis

Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves

A Palestinian boy plays in the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Beit Hanoun, Gaza. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

From theguardian:  

Yesterday, (July 8, 2014) Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."

This morning, he said:

"We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy."

But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state" as "misguided." The problem, he said, is that:

"Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel…

A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three… It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."

Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).

Since the discovery of oil and gas in the Occupied Territories, resource competition has increasingly been at the heart of the conflict, motivated largely by Israel's increasing domestic energy woes.

Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to "eliminate" Hamas as "a viable political entity in Gaza" to generate a "political climate" conducive to a gas deal. This involved rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in the West Bank, and "leveraging political tensions between the two parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of financial aid."

Ya'alon's comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.  

Read more

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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An Israeli Soldier's Powerful Story

Youtube

The talk by Eran Efrati was filmed in Denver, Colorado on March 3, 2014 as part of The Soldier and the Refusenik U.S. tour with Maya Wind. Eran talks about his experiences in the IDF and then more broadly discusses Israel, its relationship to the U.S. and the global expansion of militarism.

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Who Broke The Ceasfire? The Truth About Ceasefire Violations Between Israel and Gaza

A Palestinian woman reacts upon seeing her destroyed home after it was hit by Israeli shelling in Gaza. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

As reported by theguardian on Friday:

The humanitarian truce in Gaza has collapsed after two hours with fierce fighting in the south of the enclave, reports of a missing Israeli soldier and a formal Israeli announcement that it would resume its military operation.

Israeli tank fire on the southern town of Rafah was reported to have killed at least 40 Palestinians on Friday, turning what was intended to be the first day of calm into one of the deadliest days in Gaza so far. Hamas launched rockets towards Israel, while fierce small-arms fire and artillery shelling erupted at Beit Hanoun and Gaza’s northern end.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) later said it feared one of its soldiers may have been abducted in an early morning attack by Palestinian militants at a tunnel near Gaza. Israel Radio named him as Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba. A senior Hamas member, Musa Abu Marzouk, said the soldier was an officer taken prisoner near Rafah before the ceasefire came into effect.

Palestinian fishermen who had ventured tentatively out into the Mediterranean earlier in the morning rushed to get back to port, while air raid sirens could be heard along the neighbouring Israeli coast.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel’s military coordinator in the Palestinian territories told the UN envoy, Robert Serry, that as far as Israel was concerned the ceasefire – announced on Thursday night after lengthy behind-the-scenes negotiations – was over. Israel claimed that the truce was first broken by an ambush by Palestinian militants on Israeli forces near Rafah.

The following article by John Glaser, originally published at Antiwar on February 6, 2014, provides significant insight and information about recent ceasefire violations between Israel and Gaza.

Facebook Censors Author Naomi Wolf On Gaza

Counter Current

Jews, Muslims and citizens of the world in general have been following author Naomi Wolf and her comments about the War on Gaza. Since she walked out of her synagogue recently, when they refused to denounce the killing of civilians in Gaza, as a result of recent IDF operations, she has gained a lot of support from fellow dissidents who want to hear what she has to say.

Today, Naomi revealed that Facebook sent her a warning, suggesting her account could be removed, and explaining that they had censored images she posted from her sources in Gaza.

“We received a warning from [Facebook],” she explains. “Probably due to the graphic nature of the images that were posted by contributors and citizen journalists, of wounded and dying in Gaza.”

Facebook, for their part, did not tell her which specific terms of service her post had violated. She continued, reflecting, “I think of how many horrific Holocaust images I have sat through….”

This act of censorship, she explains, “seems a journalistic/editorial double standard to me. I wrote in a piece in 1995 about abortion, Our Bodies, Our Souls that made the case that ‘the argument that the truth is in poor taste is the very definition of hypocrisy.’”

What do you think? Have you been following Naomi Wolf? Does it seem like her posts violate Facebook terms of service to you?

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.    Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Jon Stewart on Israel, Hamas cease-fire - "We cannot be Israel's rehab sponsor and its drug dealer "

On Thursday night’s Daily Show, host Jon Stewart continued to try and make heads or tails of America’s actions in Israel. Despite the fact that Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly tried to broker a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, Stewart finds the nation’s actions a little confusing.

Moments after a 72-hour ceasefire was announced between the two countries, Israel asked the United States for more weapons, which the United State was ready to provide.

“Maybe they’re just running out of sh*t to blow up…maybe it’s the opportunity for peace that as we heard earlier, the administration has been working tirelessly towards,” Stewart said.

“Guys! We cannot be Israel’s rehab sponsor…and its drug dealer…It’s not gonna work, just say no!” Stewart bemoaned.


You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Two Jewish Voices Fiercely Debate Gaza Siege | Max Blumenthal vs. ZOA’s Morton Klein

Abby Martin Features a debate on Israel-Palestine you won’t hear on the corporate media.

On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin remarks on the latest news regarding the conflict in Gaza, highlighting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for 16,000 additional reserve troops as well as the announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire. Abby then features an exclusive debate on the issue between Journalist and Author Max Blumenthal and President of the Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein asking both guests their opinions on everything from what the appropriate Israeli response should be to Hamas rocket attacks to why the US refuses to allow the UN to investigate Israel for war crimes.

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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