Israel Threatens Disproportionate Respose

After a couple of home-made Qassams hit southern Israel and a few mortar rounds injured a couple of soldiers, Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert finally lost it and publicly threatened a "disproportionate" response. So there you have it. A sitting P.M. threatening war crimes. Make no mistake about it, the message couldn't have been clearer: "Israel will commit war crimes, massacre innocent civilians and kill children if you don't stop the harrassment." Remember, Hamas declined to renew the Gaza ceasefire and guarantee a halt to rocket fire because Israel continues to blockade the entire Gaza Strip. That effectively punishes an entire people, outlawed by Geneva Convention, for the random acts of a few resistance fighters. You might wonder where the Palestinians in Gaza came from. Many are refugees from the over 400 Arab villages destroyed by Zionists during the 1948 War that led to the occupation of Palestine and the establishment of Israel. Since their greviences have never been addressed, and Israel continues to illegally seize land and deny services, there is resistance. Duh. That's a no-brainer.

Let's put this in perspective. The Gaza operation has already killed over 1,330 Palestinians - about 800 civilians including women and children. According to Oxfam, quoted in this article, that's as many civilians as were killed in all Afghanistan by all hostilities LAST YEAR.

And for what? With Israeli elections approaching, it is easy to conclude that this show of force was designed to send messages and win votes. As callous and insensitive as that sounds, the Israeli press has admitted as much. But when Turkey's courageous Premier Erdogan had the presence of mind to speak truth to power and confront Israeli president Peres at Davos recently, the Israeli press and members of parliament were horrified. According to this article, "'One does not risk the foreign policy of a country that claims to be a regional power for the sake of local elections,' an Israeli source familiar with Turkish policy said." Well, that appears to be just exactly what the Israeli government has done. But beyond risking their foreign policy, the Zionists have massacred innocents and now have blood on their hands.

Previous posts have noted that in addition to civilian casualties in Gaza, the Israeli military operation has destroyed vital infrastructure, hectares of farm land, thousands of stock animals and 230 factories. If that doesn't qualify as ethnic cleansing and serious war crimes, well, we just ought to stop pretending such things matter. As a direct result of Israel's actions, a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions looms over an entire people. Shortages exist in every vital category: water, fuel, oil, hospital supplies and food. Read about the immediate food crises and its potential in this alarming article. It's no wonder the Turkish Premier is so upset and vocal. The Author wonders why the rest of the world, including the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan have been so quiet? Regrettably, it appears the Obama administration and their special envoy George Mitchell have it all wrong as well. One needs to remember that Hamas was democratically elected and speaks for the Palestinian people. It's time we talked to them and the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people were included in the international process. Read about how George Bush screwed up that election and the ensuing debacle in this previous post about Israel's previous Gaza incursion which is now the subject of a war crimes inquiry in Spain.

UPDATE: Aljazeera and Haaretz are reporting that retaliation bombing is now underway.

Technorati Tags: Gaza, Israel, Palestine