ISIS AND THE THREAT TO ISRAEL

While the forerunners and later derivative groups of what is now ISIS, or IS as they now prefer to call themselves, were busy fighting Israel’s enemy in Syria, Israel and the US together with their Western allies were content to let the al-Assad regime forces and the Islamists slug it out between them. Both sides remain, however, the enemy of Israel. But, as the civil war in Syria progressed, so the various Islamist forces ranged against al-Assad began to coalesce. Though still not quite fully united, the group that now calls itself the Islamic State has emerged by far the most influential. It has grown almost exponentially over the last twelve months or so and has now spread itself into Iraq where it has become a regional threat as it continues to collect more and more fighters both locally and from overseas.

But its growth has now reached a tipping point. Not only is it a threat to the already unstable politics of Iraq as the movement expands eastward out of Syria into Iraq, but it has now also become a threat to Israel as Israel and its Western allies begin to realise that IS hasn’t taken its eye off the ball in western Syria where it borders with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

So far the Islamists that have flocked to the so-called ‘Islamic State’ forces have been busy consolidating their forces in the territories they now occupy where they are using local recruits to slowly expand holdings in order to build and establish their ‘caliphate’.

However, in western Syria the IS are now also beginning to become influential and the Israeli fear of having them on their border has startled the Israeli government and, just to assure IS that Israel is still a potent force, Israeli yesterday demonstrated its potency by shooting down a Syrian jet strike aircraft when it strayed over the border into Golan Heights airspace on the very same day that the US and their allies attacked IS targets in Syria. With the US attacking IS and Israel demonstrating there is no let up in its desire to see al-Assad gone, it’s clear that Israel remains intent on not allowing the polarising of forces fighting each other in Syria to influence its own long term strategic goals of defeating both the so-called ‘Islamist’ extremists on one side and al-Assad and his allies Hezbollah and Iran on the other.

It’s also clear that Israel and the US, together with their allies, have colluded with each other to define a strategy to defeat a direct threat to Israel without letting it be seen that the West and its allies are taking the battle to the IS in Syria in order to protect Israel. It could very well be the reason why Netanyahu called a sudden halt to the onslaught against the Gaza Strip at a time just when his extreme right-wing partners in his government were calling for the complete occupation of the Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas.

As the ceasefire in the Gaza was announced almost unilaterally by Netanyahu there was barely a murmur of protest from the extreme right-wing. Something clearly had upset Netanyahu’s plans for the Gaza Strip. Could it have been the growing threat of the IS potentially coming to Israel’s doorstep in the Golan Heights? It certainly seems that way.

ABBOTT GOES FOR THE JOHN HOWARD PLOY ON TERRORISM

According to this Guardian report Abbott has ‘played down the possibility that Australia’s renewed involvement in Iraq would increase the chance of terror plots against Australian targets. He said Australia was targeted in Bali in 2002 before any involvement in the previous Iraq war’.

This is utter nonsense. All Abbott is attempting here is to mimic John Howard’s ridiculous attempt to hoodwink the Australian people over the reasons for the Bali bombings.

Today’s terror threats – if, indeed, there really are any – are as a direct result of this government’s plans to send Australian forces to Islamic lands for the purpose of killing so-called ‘Islamic’ militants. And, while the Bali bombings did happen some six months before Howard joined the US in invading and destroying Iraq in March 2003, the bombings occurred because the Indonesian militants that were responsible for the bombings knew, just like all Australians knew, that, despite all of Howards worthless denials at the time about not having made a decision about going to Iraq, that there was never any doubt that he would. Howard used the Bali bombings for his own political purposes and may even have manipulated circumstances to have allowed the outrage to occur.

For Abbott to infer that the present threat level isn’t as a response to Abbott’s plans to enjoin the US in their fight against so-called ‘Islamist’ militants is downright garbage. And, in light of the way Howard used the Bali bombings to suit his political agenda, one has to wonder to what extent threats today in Australia haven’t been contrived to suit Abbott’s political agenda.

ABBOTT’S SECRET WAR

Last month I suggested that Australian SAS forces were already in Iraq. I suggested this based on the assertion by an American neoconservative writers indiscreet wording in an article that said, “Western commandos such as Seal Team Six, Delta Force and the British and Australian SAS should also expand operations to carry out the kind of intelligence-driven leadership targeting that was an important part of the 2007-2008 surge”. The use of the word ‘expand’ and the tone of the narrative hinted that Australian SAS, together with other Special Forces, were already deployed to the region.

Today, Mark Kenny, the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief political editor writes: “While a contingent of SAS commandos departed for the Middle East on Monday, Fairfax Media understands several SAS commandos have been in the region on standby for weeks.” What ‘standby’ means is anybody’s guess but I can’t imagine for one moment that they’ve been idle but, regardless of whatever they have been up to, their presence earlier on and long before any formal announcements made by Abbott regarding Australia’s involvement in the region indicates that Abbott had committed Australia to enjoin the US long before there was any debate on the matter.

Kenny also goes on to write: “Mr Abbott said the fact that the legitimate government of Iraq had invited Australia to assist in defeating an insurgent force, made Australia's participation in the air and ground war legal”. While Abbott concedes there are legal problems associated with operating with allies inside Syria, he doesn’t rule entirely rule out the possibility saying, “I’m not ruling some action is Syria but it is not part of the government current intentions because, as I’ve said quite frequently over the past few days, the legalities of operations in Syria are quite different from the legalities of operations in Iraq”. However, when he was telling Australians and the parliament a few weeks ago that he’d made no decision about Australia becoming involved in Iraq, it’s obvious that he clearly had already decided what Australia’s role would be in Iraq. Why, then should he be believed when he says that going into Syria is not part of the Australian government’s intentions? And can we not question weather or not Australian SAS forces aren’t already in Syria as well as Iraq?

DID ROGUE ELEMENTS OF THE UKRAINE MILITARY SHOOT DOWN MH17?

The Dutch Safety Board has released a preliminary report of the shootdown of Malaysian Airline flight MH17 on 17 July 2014. The report states that the cockpit area of the Boeing 777 airliner was hit with “a large number of high energy objects”. The report does not identify nor speculate what these objects were. However, a close examination of evidence available on the internet, including photographs of the wreckage coupled with information from the preliminary report, all but confirms that the aircraft was shot down by another aircraft using rapid fire machine cannon of some 30mm calibre. This contradicts earlier speculation that the aircraft was downed by a surface to air missile (SAM). 

Some experts who have said the airliner was brought down by a SAM have pointed out that the BUK anti-aircraft missile system is a radar guided weapon that can be fitted with a proximity fuse that detonates the warhead as the missile closes in on its target. While the BUK missile system does indeed have this capability, it does not account for the uniform size of the round holes that are shown on the cockpit skin debris which are consistent with 30mm diameter cannon shells. The BUK system warhead is a conventional fragmentation high explosive device that would have peppered the target with irregular sized and jagged holes and not the round holes that can clearly be seen in the films and photographs of the wreckage.

Some earlier reports suggested that a Ukrainian Sukhoi Su25 may have been responsible for the shootdown. This scenario was refuted by the Ukrainian government and its Western allies who argued that the Su25 was incapable of reaching the 33,000 feet altitude that MH17 was cruising at. Wikipedia’s article on the Su25 states that the service ceiling at best for this aircraft is just under 23,000 feet. However, the authoritative Military Today website states that the SU25’s service ceiling is 10kms which, oddly, is almost 33,000 feet. The upshot is that it is well within the realms of reality for the Su25 to have shot down MH17.

The next consideration is; why was the airliner shot down? It is generally agreed that, regardless of who was responsible for shooting it down, it almost certainly was a tragic case of misidentification. Once realised it was a terrible mistake, every effort was made by whoever did it to cover up their responsibility with all sides then blaming each other for the deed.

The Ukrainian-Russian separatists who have been widely blamed for the shootdown certainly have had a recent history of shooting down Ukrainian military aircraft and helicopters but there is no explanation from the Ukrainians or their Western allies as to why separatists would have shot it down apart from the possibility that the separatists mistook it for a Ukrainian troop transport. But then why would the separatists assume that when the aircraft was flying high over the disputed area of the eastern Ukraine and heading toward Russia. The separatists would have had no reason to assume it was a Ukrainian aircraft. The Russians certainly wouldn’t have shot down a civilian aircraft no matter where it was from. The Ukrainians too would not have shot down any aircraft flying in that direction and at that height even if they believed it was carrying the Russian president Vladimir Putin – or at least the Ukrainian government wouldn’t have attempted to shoot down the Russian president. But what about the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist neo-Nazis in the military? Would they have unilaterally attempted it or even committed the crime with an understanding from the government that they would be disowned and the government’s role in the affair denied if they were caught out?

The Russians, no matter how much the West is trying to stir things up against them, would never have left themselves exposed to such a heinous crime. Nor would the Russian separatists, who have no access to the Ukraine Air Force’s Su25’s, have any reason to shoot down any aircraft under these particular circumstances. That leaves only the Ukrainian nationalists. And, since the US and Europe are their allies, there’s no reason for them to dig too deeply either. 

LAND GRABS AND NEOCON DELUSIONS

Neoconservative propagandist and Israeli apologist, Jonathan Tobin writing in Commentary yesterday, attempted to justify Israel’s latest grab of some 400 hectares of West Bank land. Tobin attempts justify the grab by saying that the land in question is ‘state land’ adjacent to one of Israel’s earliest settlements in the West Bank which was built after the 1967 war. He argues that in the event of Palestine being given statehood, the land and the settlement would become a part of Israel under an arrangement whereby Israel accede some other lands to Palestine in exchange.

There’s a number of problems with this piece nonsense, not least of which is the fact that Israel and the ultra right-wing Zionists have no intention of ever allowing the Palestinians to have a state of their own and therefore there will never be any kind ‘land swap’.

Tobin goes on to write:

Let’s be clear about this. Neither the ownership nor the future of Gush Etzion is up for debate in any peace talks. In every peace plan, whether put forward by Israel’s government or its left-wing opponents, the bloc remains part of Israel, a reality that most sensible Palestinians accept.

Tobin and his fellow Zionists both in Israel and throughout the world might be in for a rather rude awakening sooner or later at some time in the future.

It is very presumptuous to believe that the Palestinians will accept anything other than full control of all of the West Bank including removal of all of the settlements and a return of all of their lands swallowed up by the meandering Israeli ‘security’ wall and fence.

Israel is beginning to realise that worldwide support for the Palestinian cause is growing rapidly and at the expense of support for Israel. People around the world can now see through Israel’s lies and propaganda. The recent wars against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank has shown the world that that real ‘terrorists’ all along have been the Israelis with their relentless bombardment and killings of civilians of the Gaza Strip and their shootings of Palestinian protestors in the West Bank. Israel’s credibility is crumbling rapidly and, in the end, it’s likely to be the demands of the peoples of the world that will ultimately allow the Palestinians to prevail in their quest for statehood – without conceding any of their lands to the Israelis. 

ABBOTT, AS HOWARD DID IN 2003, MISLEADS AUSTRALIANS

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Defence Minister, David Johnston, are deliberately misleading the Australian people and more than likely the Australian parliament, by telling us that the government hasn’t been asked to commit to helping the US again in Iraq.

Tony Abbott is following in almost the same footsteps as John Howard did in March 2003 when he kept telling the Australian people and parliament that he hadn’t been asked by Bush to commit to the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ just before the invasion and destruction of Iraq, an event which has led directly to the current crisis in Iraq today.

One would be extremely naïve to believe that Abbott has not already been invited to participate in action against Islamic State forces in Iraq and that invitation was made and accepted when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel both visited Australia earlier this month. One would also be extremely naïve to believe the outgoing director of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) David Irvine when he says that Australia’s involvement with the US in Iraq would not further radicalise young Australian Muslims thereby increasing the likelihood of terrorist acts being committed in Australia. Given the history of Australian Muslims participation in the current war in Iraq, it is far more likely that radicalised Muslims will consider committing terrorist acts in Australia when Abbott does join with the US in the fight against Islamists in Iraq.

While as yet no scientific polls regarding Australians opinions about going to war in Iraq again have been released, however, at least one online poll shows that a strong majority, some 75% of Australians, would be against any such action.

SO WHAT’S NETANYAHU’S GAME?

In an extraordinary and surprising move, Netanyahu has all but unilaterally agreed to a ceasefire in his war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. By ‘unilateral’ I mean without the support of the extreme right–wing of his cabinet including Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett, Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovich and Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan; all of whom were intent on destroying Hamas completely and fully occupying the Gaza Strip permanently and ultimately annexing the territory to Israel.

Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are, of course, delighted – as is Abbas and the Palestine Authority, who are now enthusiastic about the prospect of having a seaport and maybe even an airport with which to rebuild their country.

But what happens when Netanyahu is gone and the real right-wing Zionists who are in the ‘don’t care what the rest of the world thinks’ camp take over?

The war against Hamas was extremely popular amongst Israelis who wholeheartedly supported bombing the Gaza into submission with a view to full occupation. It begs the question: What next? Will the extreme right bring Netanyahu down and will they then renew hostilities by once more provoking the Palestinians in the Gaza into launching more rockets into Israel by randomly shooting dead Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as they did to get this latest round of carnage going?

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t believe this is the end of it. I have no idea what Netanyahu has in mind at this stage. I can only suggest that Netanyahu, always sensitive to public opinion despite seemingly able to push affairs right up to the very edge, has backed off due to overwhelming and growing worldwide public support for the Palestinians; or possibly having been threatened by the US who would support a push for the Palestinians to enjoin the ICC if Netanyahu didn’t make peace.

Netanyahu may well have something else up his sleeve but, if he hasn’t, then this could well be the beginning of the end for Netanyahu. And, if that happens sooner rather than later, then it may be a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ for both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people if the extreme right replace him.

ISRAEL’S ENDGAME FOR GAZA MOVES CLOSER

It seems that a full-on invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s ultimate endgame plan for the Palestinian enclave, is moving inexorably closer to realisation.

Israel again has called up thousands of reservists and Israel’s Communications Minister and security cabinet member, Gilad Erdan, has announced that Israel is close to being in a position to launch a full invasion. Erdan asked that Israelis be patient.  

Erdan also made it clear that Israel will not be conceding to any of Hamas’s demands inferring that Israel had no even considered any of Hamas’s demands which were put forward for discussion during the ceasefire.

Since it was obvious that Israel was never going to entertain any of Hamas’s demands, Hamas had little choice other than to resume hostilities in order to force the issue. The alternative would be to submit to eternal ghettoisation, oppression and persecution at the hands of the Israelis. Both sides now seem intent on pushing the matter to an ultimate conclusion once and for all.

For the Israelis, the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the transfer of the population into the Sinai, Jordan or Lebanon have always been part of the ultimate Zionist endgame. It has never been anything else. Talk of living peacefully side by side with the Palestinians has only ever been an illusion for the benefit of Israel’s Western supporters who continue to plough money into Israel. But the reality is that Israel has never ever had any intention of allowing a Palestinian state to exist. Israel has skilfully manipulated affairs in such a way as to completely fool the West – and particularly the US – for years into believing they only want peace with the Palestinians when all the while they were merely waiting for an opportunity to grab the occupied territories for themselves on the pretext of defending themselves against ‘terrorism’.

For the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip there is now little to lose. They will likely fight on and they will pin their hopes on world opinion and outrage against Israeli atrocities influencing the world’s Western leaders into forcing the Israelis into stopping their war and accepting Hamas’s demands.

There will be no peace for either side any time soon. 

ISRAEL: NO BETTER THAN ISIS OR AL-QAEDA

ISIS, or just IS (Islamic State) as they now call themselves, as well as al-Qaeda are, of course, Israel’s arch enemy – as well as much of the rest of the world. But is Israel any better than their arch enemies when it comes to committing crimes against humanity? And, just because Hamas also happens to be an Islamic organisation, can it really be compared with IS or al-Qaeda?

Neocon propagandist Jonathan Tobin, writing today in Commentary magazine, would have you believe that Israel are, as usual, the victims, while Hamas and the other Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fighting for their freedom are terrorists who need to be treated with the same contempt as IS and al-Qaeda.

The reality, as anyone with even an iota of a sense of logic and compassion can see, is that Israel that also behaves in such a way that the carnage and death they bring to civilians in the Gaza Strip has the same result that the carnage and death that IS and al-Qaeda bring down upon the peoples they choose to ravage. The only difference between them is the weapons and methods they choose to commit their crimes. IS and al-Qaeda us small arms and knives to kill their victims whereas Israel use aircraft and tanks to pump bombs and shells into their hapless victims.

Zionist propagandists and their neocon allies attempt to equate Hamas with IS and al-Qaeda are plainly falling on deaf ears in the West as the enormous protest rallies and marches in support of the Palestinian cause demonstrate.

NATAN SHARANSKY: NEOCON ZIONIST NUT JOB

Natan Sharansky, an Israeli intellectual, extreme right-wing neocon Zionist and ex-deputy prime minister of Israel, has written an article published in the Washington Post in which he says: “The pictures of destruction and mourning in Gaza that have filled media around the world for the past several weeks have been very painful and sad to view. One would be hard-pressed to find an Israeli who does not sympathize with the suffering of Gaza’s victims.”

Is he nuts?

Did he miss the stories about Israelis taking grandstand seats in Israel overlooking the Gaza Strip to watch the place being bombed? Did he not hear about the cheers that went up from the Israelis watching the bombings every time there was an orange ball from a bomb detonating followed by a huge explosion as the sound of the detonation caught up with the sight of it?

‘One would be hard-pressed to find an Israeli who does not sympathize with the suffering of Gaza’s victims’?

Really? Who does this nutjob think he’s kidding?

ARE AUSTRALIAN SAS TROOPERS ALREADY IN IRAQ?

Neoconservative propagandist Max Boot, writing in the UK magazine Spectator, says:

With more American (and, one hopes, allied) eyes on the ground, it will be possible to call in more air strikes with greater effectiveness, as occurred in Afghanistan during the autumn of 2001. Western commandos such as Seal Team Six, Delta Force and the British and Australian SAS should also expand operations to carry out the kind of intelligence-driven leadership targeting that was an important part of the 2007-2008 surge. (Bold is my emphasis.)

Well, we know there are already American ‘advisors’ on the ground in Iraq and more are on the way, that much we have already been told, but there has been no announcement from any of America’s allies about any UK or Australian special forces being deployed on the ground in Iraq. Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott, however, has offered to send ground forces if asked to.

Max Boot has been around the traps for a very long time and has over the years developed a strong network of US administration and defence department insider sources so, when Boot writes that special forces – including Australian SAS – should expand operations in Iraq, one wonders if Boot hasn’t let the cat out of the bag by inferring that they should expand on the numbers that are already there. Knowing the Abbott government’s propensity not to ‘discuss military operational matters’, one shouldn’t be too surprised to find that Australian SAS units may already be in Iraq.

NETANYAHU: THE BETTER OF THREE EVILS?

If either of Netanyahu’s right-wing political rivals for the Prime Minister’s job had been leading Israel over this last year or so, what would be the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank today?

A future potential Israeli leader is the extreme right-wing Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party which is devoted to creating a Greater Israel that includes all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and excludes any possibility of there ever being a Palestinian state. Bennett is currently Minister of the Economy in Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Another contender is the even more extreme right-winger Avigdor Liebermann, the controversial leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party and currently Foreign Minister in the Israeli government. He is also a past Deputy Prime Minister.

Had either of these two rivals of Netanyahu been Prime Minister of Israel during the past year or so we would be looking at a vastly different Middle East today.

During the recent conflict Liebermann said that Israel will eventually need to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and ‘overthrow’ Hamas saying that “the occupation of Gaza and the overthrow of Hamas is a process that would take more than four months”. Naftali, a little less brash than Liebermann, nonetheless is adamant about obtaining a positive Israeli ‘victory’ over Hamas saying that the Israelis should continue until the Gaza Strip is ‘demilitarised’, a euphemism for occupation which is the only way Israel can ever hope to permanently keep Hamas out of the Gaza Strip.

Both Liebermann and Bennett are strong Greater Israel Zionists and support increasing settlements in the West Bank as well as building new ones in the Gaza Strip with a view to eventually annexing both territories to Israel.

The difference between the Liebermann-Naftali attitude and Netanyahu’s is that neither Liebermann nor Naftali make any secret about what they envisage for the future of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Netanyahu on the other hand, who actually wants the same thing, is far more politically pragmatic about these issues given that, as prime minister, he needs to tread a fine line between the reality of needing US support militarily and politically and knowing that the US will not support an invasion and full occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In other words, Liebermann and Naftali are both of the ‘We don’t care what the world thinks’ faction of Israel’s extreme right-wing as opposed to Netanyahu who very much cares what the rest of the world thinks of his actions because he needs to rely on their support for all that he does.

Liebermann and Naftali, if they had their way, would simply go ahead and fully occupy the territories at the slightest excuse, while Netanyahu will only do so when he feels he has the US on his side and has a big enough casus belli to do it.

NEOCONSERVATIVE PSYCHOPATHY: THEIR MADNESS IS SPREADING AMONGST THEM

Yesterday, regular readers may recall, I wrote briefly about the psychopathy of Daniel Pipes and his ludicrous beliefs relating to Hamas and its struggle against Israel’s attempts to destroy the Gaza Strip. Today, it seems, that psychopathy is spreading among other neoconservatives. Jonathan Tobin, writing in Commentary magazine says:

As bad as the situation there [the Gaza Strip] is, the Israelis have done their best to limit their fire to those shooting at them. As is the case with all wars, including those fought by the United States, sometimes mistakes happen and civilians sometimes do get caught in the crossfire created by terrorists eager to turn their neighbors into “martyrs.”

Tobin goes on to say:

Anyone who truly cares about Gaza’s civilian population will draw the appropriate conclusions and concentrate their criticisms on the terrorist group whose genocidal ideology impels it to continue their war against Israel’s existence as long as there are Palestinians left to be sacrificed.

Clearly, the neocons are getting desperate and have got together and decided that the more gullible amongst those that read their rants may not recognise the neoconservative’s psychopathy and actually accept their lunatic ravings at face value. Little can be said about the state of mind of those that go along with their nonsense.

DANIEL PIPES: EXTREMIST NEOCONSERVATIVE PSYCHOPATH

In his latest piece published on the neoconservative online magazine National Review Online, Daniel Pipes demonstrates the extent of his utter lunacy by writing:

Hamas’s greatest strategic weapon in its effort to damage Israel’s reputation and ostracize it was neither rockets nor tunnels but wrenching photographs of dead civilians purportedly killed by the IDF.

This leads to the bizarre situation in which Hamas seeks the destruction of Palestinian property, compels civilians to sustain injuries and death, inflates casualty figures, and may even intentionally attack its own territory — while the IDF takes gratuitous fatalities to spare harm to Palestinians. The Israeli government goes further, providing medical care and food and sending technicians into harm’s way to make sure that Gazans continue to enjoy free electricity.

I’m surprised that NRO even published this transparent piece of absolute garbage that exposes Pipes to be nothing less than a raving psychopath.

NEOCONS DELUSIONAL OVER WORLD OPINION ABOUT GAZA CRISIS

Seth Mandel, a neocon propagandist writing for Commentary magazine, seems to think that Hamas has overplayed its hand during the current crisis in the Gaza Strip. Mandel says “that maybe the international community is so torn up by the violence in Gaza that they want more than ever to prevent its recurrence. And no matter how often they try to blame Israel, they seem to understand that there’s only one way to prevent future bloodshed: demilitarize, at least to a significant degree, the Gaza Strip”.

Looking at the demonstrations around the world, particularly the massive display of solidarity from the South African people recently, most people around the world, whilst agreeing that they want more than ever to prevent the violence from reoccurring, would prefer that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip be given their freedom, and, if any one side needs disarming, it should be Israel.

Mandel is delusional if he believes that the world supports what Israel has in mind for the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZA CONFLICT: IRRISISTIBLE FORCE MEETS IMMOVABLE OBJECT

It doesn’t look good for the people in the Gaza Strip. It’s unlikely that the present ceasefire will hold long enough for there to be any meaningful outcome for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israelis are demanding the Palestinians disarm and the Palestinians flatly refuse to do so.

It is an all too familiar tactic that the Israelis have always employed when dealing with the Palestinians whereby they make an unrealistic offer which they know the Palestinians cannot possibly accept and then, when the Palestinians reject the offer, the Israelis and their backers blame the Palestinians for the breakdown in negotiations. The Israelis know full well that Hamas and other Palestinian fighters will never give up their arms.

On the other hand, Netanyahu, with the backing of the Israeli people and President Obama, are determined to destroy Hamas and all Palestinian resistance. Netanyahu will likely blame the Palestinians for any continuation of war after having refused to be demilitarised. The Israeli side, in turn, will also refuse Palestinian demands to lift the blockade on the grounds that lifting the blockade will allow Hamas and their allies to be rearmed.

The Palestinians want their own sovereign state free of any dominance by Israel. The Palestinians want to be able to trade freely with whoever they want. They want all of their lands back and the Israeli settlers gone. They want free access between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They want the Israeli military cleared from the West Bank and Jordan border areas. They want East Jerusalem as their capital. None of these demands, however, will ever be acceptable to the Israeli right-wing.

In the Palestinians favour is support for the Palestinian cause from the people of the world – especially after witnessing first hand the carnage that Israel wreaked on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during this latest round of fighting. Israel’s propaganda this time around has failed them. Internet technology has exposed their propaganda to be just that – lies and distortions of the truth. Israel has accused Hamas of using the Gazans as ‘human shields’ because they launched their rockets and mortars from within civilian areas when the reality is that there actually is nowhere else in the Gaza Strip from which launch their armaments short of in the middle of an empty paddock where they will be exposed to the enemy. No one is buying the ‘human shield’ nonsense anymore. No one is buying the Israeli garbage about Hamas bombing their own hospitals and schools. No one really believes that Hamas have forced civilians to stay in their homes after the Israeli have warned that they’ll be bombed. No one believes anymore the transparent Israeli lie that they are only targeting Hamas and other militants. Israel’s lies about how they conduct war have been exposed.

So, what’s next?

Unfortunately, the Israelis haven’t achieved even their stated aims of disarming Hamas and closing down all of the tunnels. And they certainly haven’t got anywhere near their, until recently, unmentioned aim of destroying Hamas completely, transferring the Palestinian people out of the Gaza Strip and reoccupying it for themselves with the eventual aim of annexing it into Israel.

At very best, the likely outcome will be either an extremely edgy and prolonged ceasefire or a renewal of the bombing of the Gaza Strip followed by a full-on invasion and occupation. In the event of a prolonged ceasefire, Israel will likely provoke the Palestinians in much the same way as they did that stared this round of violence; by randomly shooting civilians trying to work in the fields close to the border. Once the Palestinians retaliate to the shootings by launching rockets into Israel, Israel will then use this as an excuse to launch their full-on offensive against the Gaza Strip.

In the end, either this time around or the next, the Israelis will eventually attempt to gain the Gaza Strip for themselves using an irresistible force, and the Palestinians will remain as difficult an object to move as they have before. The only force that has any chance of dissuading the Israelis from eventually taking the ultimate step to their goal is the power of public opinion and a complete change in attitude from the US and their Western allies.

ISRAELI HARD RIGHT EXPOSE ZIONISMS TRUE AIMS FOR GAZA

I have for these last ten years on this blog been writing that the ultimate goal of right-wing Zionism has always been the creation of a Greater Israel that would ultimately incorporate the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and even south Lebanon up to the Litani River if they thought they could get away with it. I have written over the years that it has never been the intention of Israel to allow any form of Palestinian state to exist. Talks about a ‘two state solution’ and ‘Palestinian sovereignty’ have only ever been conducted by Israel in order to appease the West, particularly the US, in order to ensure the continuing flow of aid and support to Israel. There has been an endless parade of ‘talks’ about ‘peace’ over the years. They have included  the Jarring Mission, the Rogers Plan, the Reagan Plan, the Oslo Accords, the Wye River Memorandum, the Camp David Summit, the Taba Summit, the Elon Peace Plan, the Nusseibeh-Ayalon Agreement, the Arab Peace Initiative, the Road Map to Peace, the Madrid Conference, the Hebron Protocol, the Annapolis Conference, the Beirut Summit, the Peace Valley Plan, etc., all of which have been going on for years and none of which – not one – have amounted to anything, and all the time while these talks and negotiations have been going on, Israel has slowly and insidiously permeated its way onto lands that do not belong to them.

Some Israeli Zionists now believe they are close to their goal if only they could get Netanyahu to cross the point of no return in the Gaza Strip. One extreme right-wing Zionist, Martin Sherman of the Israel Institute of Strategic Studies Zionist think tank, has gone so far as to pen in one of Israel’s most nationalistic papers, The Jerusalem Post, an article in which he suggests that “the only durable solution requires dismantling Gaza, humanitarian relocation of the non-belligerent Arab population, and extension of Israeli sovereignty over the region”. This should leave no doubt in anybody’s mind what Israel’s true intentions ultimately are.

And Sherman is not alone in coming out with what the Zionists really wish to achieve. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Israel will need to overthrow Hamas and reoccupy the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Economy Minister, Naftali Bennett, another extreme right-wing Zionist, is calling for the government to go forward to “victory” and to “demilitarise” the Gaza Strip which effectively means permanent occupation though he hasn’t quite gone as far as suggesting transfer of Palestinians – at least not yet.

Netanyahu is playing his cards close to his chest. Despite some 95% of Israelis have succumbed to the relentless propaganda and who now support the war against Hamas, and Obama conceding to Israeli requests for more ammunition, Netanyahu is clearly not entirely convinced that America will support an all-out push to finish off Hamas and is certainly not sure what the world-wide repercussions would be if Israel were to reoccupy the Gaza Strip on a permanent basis.

They’re not there yet, and I hope they never will, but the intent is there as it always has been. For now, though, only time will tell what Netanyahu’s up to.

NEOCON PROPAGANDA: ‘ISRAELIS TAKE PRISONERS BUT HAMAS KIDNAPS ISRAELI SOLDIERS’

Writing in Commentary today, Israeli apologist and neocon propagandist Jonathan Tobin said: “…the Netanyahu government decided to accede to the [ceasefire] proposal put forward by the United States and the United Nations. But that decision has been rendered moot by the decision of Hamas to use the cover of the cease-fire to launch a suicide attack on Israeli forces that led to the possible kidnapping of a soldier.”

Not mentioned by Tobin was the ‘kidnapping’ of almost 300 Palestinians who had been taken by the Israelis during the first days of their invasion of the Strip, and nor did Tobin mention that many of them had been ‘interrogated’ by Shin Bet, the Israeli security service who are notorious for their use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, a Western euphemism for torture.

Tobin forgets that it is the Israelis that have invaded the Gaza Strip and that the Gaza people have a right at all times to defend themselves against any aggression and also have the right, as do the Israelis, to take prisoners of war.

Tobin argues that, rather than a truce, Israel should go all out to destroy Hamas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip. To ‘demilitarise’ the Gaza Strip will involve a prolonged occupation and who knows what horrors Tobin has in mind when he says ‘Hamas should be destroyed’.

IS THE U.S. GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES AGAINST THE GAZAN PEOPLE?

The hypocrisy of the US knows no bounds. On the one hand they tell the world they are demanding the Israelis put a halt to the carnage they are wreaking in the Gaza Strip and, on the other hand are resupplying the Israelis with the wherewithal to continue their carnage.

The US knows full well that the weapons and fuel they are supplying to the Israelis is for the purpose of continuing to wage war against civilians. They have no excuse. The US are fully aware that Israel are committing war crimes yet the US continues to supply weapons which they know the Israelis are more than likely to commit further war crimes with.

Why are the nations of the world not condemning the US for their complicity in Israeli war crimes?

WARNINGS DO NOT ABSOLVE WAR CRIMES

The Israelis have been in the habit of calling some Palestinian families to warn them that their homes are about to be bombed. Most of these homes are owned by civilians, most of whom have no connection to Hamas or any other political or militant organisation.

Deliberately bombing civilians is a war crime but, by warning the civilian occupiers that their homes are about to be destroyed, the Israelis believe that it somehow absolves them of any crime. Furthermore, not only do the Israelis think that it absolves them of crimes, but it also provides them with an opportunity to then accuse Hamas of using civilians as ‘human shields’.

How would it be, one wonders, if an Hamas operative telephoned the mayor of say Sderot and told him that the town hall was about to be bombed by rockets but, due to the fact that they can’t guarantee the accuracy of the rockets, it would be best if he evacuated the entire township within the next ten minutes. And if the mayor then refuses to evacuate could he not then be accused of using civilians as human shields?

HAS NETANYAHU GONE BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN?

Whenever Israel has chosen to use aggression to intimidate its neighbours in the West Bank, Lebanon or, as it is doing today, in the Gaza Strip, it has always left itself wriggle room to back off when public opinion and, more importantly, US and Western support seemed to be running against them.

It has done this by progressively escalating their assaults on their enemies by pretending to be the victim when their enemies retaliate. That way they can always tell the world via their well-oiled global propaganda machine that they are merely responding to attacks being made against them by ‘terrorists that hate Jews’. They claim that they only want peace and that their assaults against the Palestinians are purely defensive and designed to deter attacks against them. They tell the world that their assaults are designed to eliminate or minimise civilian deaths and injuries and are aimed only at military targets. They claim that, when civilians are killed and wounded, it is because the place where they have been killed or wounded was being used by ‘terrorists’ who have deliberately used the civilians in the area as ‘human shields’ in order to avoid having their weapon placements being hit.

However, when one delves into the histories of Israeli’s various conflicts with their Palestinian and Arab neighbours, a different reality emerges.

Rather than retaliating against rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters, as is claimed in this latest round of extreme violence, Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip were actually responding to shooting attacks against unarmed Palestinian civilians by the Israelis who have used snipers to kill at least five innocent Palestinian civilians, including a 58-year-old mentally ill woman who had wandered too close to the border fence with Israel. More than 60 other Palestinian civilians have also been wounded by Israeli snipers as they worked in the fields near the border. These attacks against Gazan civilians have been for the express purpose of goading the Palestinian fighters into retaliating by firing rockets into Israel which, in turn, then provides Israel with an excuse to attack the Gaza Strip on the pretext of stopping the rockets.

In the past when Israel has launched major attacks against Hamas, Israel has always used the same tactic whereby they attack and keep attacking until at some point world public opinion causes the Israelis to agree to a ceasefire.

But this time around, the circumstances of the fighting have provided Israel with an opportunity to press on with the fight as they see the possibility of actually realising their dream of retaking the Gaza Strip with the ultimate aim of pushing out the Palestinians and reoccupying it and eventually annexing it to Israel. There have been a number of factors that have produced these circumstances. Firstly, while Netanyahu has always been sensitive to public opinion, his government today has a number of senior ministers and officials in it who are even more right-wing than he is. They are the ‘don’t care what the rest of the world thinks’ faction of the Israeli government who are quite openly advocating a full invasion and occupation of the Gaza Strip and the complete destruction of Hamas and their allies by either killing or capturing all of them and/or forcing them to flee out of the Gaza Strip. This would be the first step toward reoccupying the territory with Israeli civilians. Secondly, Netanyahu’s aggressive stance this time around has very strong support among Israelis, 80% of whom support his actions against the Palestinians. Also working in Netanyahu’s favour is Hamas’s insistence that any ceasefire will be accompanied by assurances that the Gaza Strip will have its blockade against it lifted and that it will be able to trade freely with Israel, Egypt and internationally via an internationally monitored seaport and airport. Hamas is hoping that popular worldwide support for their demands will persuade international leaders, especially in the US and Europe, to push Israel for a ceasefire and an agreement that features Palestinian demands. Israel, on the other hand, is looking for nothing less than the full destruction of Hamas and has made it clear that they will not be acceding to Hamas’s conditions for a ceasefire. Netanyahu will likely take full advantage of the unprecedented support he has gained from the Israeli people.

During the course of this round of violence, Netanyahu has steadily ramped up the assaults against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and particularly on Gaza city itself and the surrounding neighbourhoods. The bombing and shelling has become increasingly more indiscriminate with civilians being deliberately targeted as they seek shelter in hospitals and schools after their homes had been destroyed. Civilian infrastructure is also being increasingly targeted as the recent destruction of the Gaza Strip’s only electric power generating plant has demonstrated.

As the destruction of the Gaza Strip gathers pace the Israeli propaganda machine has been hard at it spinning the increasingly most outrageous and obviously transparent lies that would be laughable if not for the tragedy they are attempting to cover up or blame others for. The Israelis have even accused Hamas of bombing their own hospitals and schools and killing their own children and other civilians in spite of independent witnesses confirming that the Israelis were responsible for the death and destruction of these people and facilities.

Netanyahu has stated that the Israeli Defence Forces will not rest until every tunnel has been destroyed and all of the rockets found and destroyed. In making such a statement and knowing that an operation of that magnitude will likely take some considerable time, he has clearly indicated that Israel has no intention of leaving the Gaza Strip anytime soon – if, indeed, ever.

Netanyahu is very much aware of the world’s reaction to the onslaught that is taking place in the Gaza Strip. He has seen the massive pro-Palestine demonstrations that have taken place around the world and has heard the pleas from world leaders and the United Nations to end the slaughter but he continues to ignore them. He gets encouragement from the fact that the US, while calling for Israel to enter a ceasefire agreement, at the same time stocks up Israel’s diminishing munitions supplies as well as continuing to supply Israel with the jet and diesel fuel needed by the Israelis to continue their attacks on the Gaza Strip and the Gazan people.

Netanyahu thinks he’s on a roll this time around and, with the backing of the majority of the Israeli people who have succumbed to the propaganda behind him together with the support of the US, sees no reason to relent in his aspirations to defeat Hamas and put the Gaza Strip under Israeli control. With the destruction already wrought in the Gaza Strip coupled with domestic and US support, Netanyahu may have convinced himself that he has gone beyond the point of no return and may even believe that it is his manifest destiny to retake the Gaza Strip and make it a part of Greater Israel once and for all.

ISRAELIS WAGE TOTAL WAR AGAINST THE GAZA STRIP

Such is the small size of the Gaza Strip, together with the extremely dense way the enclave is populated, and coupled with the devastating way the Israelis have destroyed entire neighbourhoods including homes, hospitals, schools, government buildings and infrastructure as well as the huge loss of civilian life across much of the entire Strip, the Palestinians can be forgiven for thinking that total war is being waged against them.

And, as the entire world can see in this day and age of social media, total war, contrary to anything the Israeli propaganda machine is saying, is indeed being waged against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The only means by which the Palestinians can defend themselves is to give the Israelis a dose of their own medicine by way of deterrence with whatever meagre weaponry they have at their disposal which comes mainly in the form of homemade rockets and mortars and lightweight firearms.

When total war is being waged against a people, the people are entitled to defend themselves by whatever means is at their disposal. The ‘human shield’ meme that the Israelis and their Western supporters like to accuse Hamas of being guilty of by virtue of defending themselves from within the midst of the civilian population is hardly valid particularly when total war is being waged around them and when there is no other place from which one can defend oneself without exposing yourself to the enemy.

The Israeli claim that their aim is simply to destroy Hamas rocket launching sites and the tunnels is merely an excuse to wage total war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and to completely destroy the entire enclave and deprive the Palestinians there of anywhere to live forcing them to seek refuge elsewhere. This will then allow the Israeli to occupy most if not all of the Gaza Strip for the purpose ultimately of annexing it to Israel and populating it with Israeli’s.

THE ISRAELIS' BIG LIE

When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview on Sunday what his exit strategy from Gaza is, Netanyahu replied:  “Sustainable quiet. I mean we didn't seek this escalation, Hamas forced it on us. They started rocketing our cities, steadily increasing the fire”.

The implication here is clear. Netanyahu is saying that Hamas started the present round of violence between the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Israel by lobbing rockets into Israel. The suggestion is that Hamas simply started firing rockets into Israel in order to provoke the Israelis – for some unexplained reason – into retaliation.

But this is not the case.

What Netanyahu – together with most of the Western media, conservative commentariat and other assorted Israeli apologists – have forgotten to mention is the months of indiscriminate shooting by IDF snipers of unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that preceded the current crisis. Israel was not retaliating to unprovoked rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip but, rather, the Palestinians in the Gaza were retaliating to deliberate provocation by the Israelis who were murdering Palestinian civilians, one of whom was a mentally ill woman shot dead by an Israeli sniper. Others were farm and salvage workers who were in the open areas that were farmed and worked close to the Israeli security fence.

Israel’s claim that Palestinians had started this round of violence is a familiar refrain whenever there has been conflict between the two sides. However, when one examines the chronology of events that has led up to these conflicts, one finds that invariably it has been Israel that has been the provocateurs.

In just the first two months of 2014 alone, Human Rights Watch have documented four killings of unarmed Palestinian civilians by Israeli Defence Force snipers with another 60 having been wounded by shooting by the IDF firing from the other side of the border fence into the Gaza Strip. In order to deter the Israelis from shooting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and also to encourage the Israelis to lift their crippling blockade of the enclave – which in itself is a form of provocation – Palestinian fighters have launched rockets into Israel. It has been just the kind of response the Israelis have been looking for as it provides them with an excuse to escalate by bombing and rocketing Hamas targets inside the Gaza Strip.

This method of quiet provocation then retaliation followed by a disproportionate counter-retaliation by the Israelis who would then claim to be the victims follows a very familiar pattern for which Israel has a long history. It was even used by the Israelis to kick start the 1967 Six Day War in which Israel ultimately occupied the Syrian Heights, which they later illegally annexed and renamed the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Sinai and the Gaza Strip. History would have us believe, at least according to the Israelis, that it was the Syrians that started the 1967 war by lobbing artillery shells onto Israeli settlements close to the demilitarised zone on the border between Syria and Israel at the Syrian Heights. The reality, as General Moshe Dayan later confided to a reporter, was something quite different. As Dayan explained, it was the Israelis that deliberately provoked the Syrians by pushing bulldozers up the hills into the demilitarised zones in order to get the Syrians to open fire on them with their artillery pieces. This then provided the Israelis with an excuse to counter-retaliate by firing on the Syrian position using tank, artillery and aircraft. (1) As a result of these actions, the situation eventually escalated and resulted in the Six Day War.

As well as the killings by the IDF of civilians in the Gaza Strip, there have also been the killings of youths and children in the West Bank over the past 19 months or so. Some had been involved in stone throwing though they had never been any real threat to the heavily armed and protected Israeli occupying forces, but most had not been involved in protests or stone throwing at all and were innocent bystanders who were deliberately targeted by Israeli snipers. Some 16 of these killings of Palestinians by the IDF during 2013 alone have been documented. There were also the filmed killings of two youths shot by Israeli snipers on Nakba Day. Then there were the killings of several Palestinian youths latter when the Israeli occupying forces were searching for the kidnappers of the three Israeli settler youths who were latter found murdered. Few of these events get reported in the Western media but the Western media are quick to widely report any retaliation from the Palestinians presenting such actions as being unprovoked and therefore worthy of Israeli retribution as part of the Israeli right to defend itself. Little, if anything, is ever said about the Palestinians right to defend themselves.

Ever since the Israelis began taking lands from the Palestinians in 1947 until now they have always used provocation to justify their actions. The Western world has generally ignored their blatant crimes and has rarely insisted on the Israelis obeying the various UN resolutions that have been made against them. Slowly, though, the peoples of the Western world are becoming more aware of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people and this is happening now because the media moguls that have control over the mainstream media do not as yet have control over the social media via the internet. While ordinary people are able to voice their views to a far wider audience than ever they did before, so the truth of what is really happening to the Palestinian people will be revealed. It’s just a matter of time before the Zionist Israelis will eventually have to answer for their crimes.

The world now knows exactly what the fascists of Israel are really up to. It’s not about defending themselves, it’s about creating a Greater Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people.

ENDNOTE

(1) Maoz, Zeev, Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel’s Security and Foreign Policy. (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2009.) p. 84.