 |
| Some of the tools of the trade in Gaza. Source: Guardian * |
By Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
"We will not
accept any initiative that does not end the blockade on our people and that
does not show respect to their sacrifices.”
It seems Hamas, the elected government of Gaza that
according to international observers was elected in a fair and democratic
election, is putting up a ferocious struggle against one of the world’s most
heavily equipped and technologically advanced armies financed and armed by the
US taxpayer. I couldn’t help thinking
about US government officials whining about Putin arming ethnic Russians in
Eastern Ukraine as I write this. US made F16’s are bombing a civilian
population of almost two million that has no air defense, no tanks and no
sophisticated weaponry.
The death toll according to today’s reports has caused the
Zionists some concern. Some 32 Israeli
soldiers have been killed and three civilians in Israel, one of them a Thai
worker. The Zionists import much of its workforce from third world countries
much like the Arab regimes do and in all these countries, many of them suffer
extreme discrimination especially African immigrants. Palestinian deaths “…rose by 72 to 693 killed, with more than 4,200 wounded. The dead
included 166 children and 67 women…” according to the Gaza Ministry of
Health quoted in today’s Wall
Street Journal.
The statement above is from Hamas spokesperson Khaled
Meshaal. Ending the blockade of Gaza by
the Zionist regime as well as freeing Palestinians in Israeli jails are major
issues for the Gazan government. Hamas
is willing to take a break in the fighting but not without addressing the
incredible economic savagery inflicted on Gazan’s by the blockade which is also
supported by Egypt’s dictatorship led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
John
Kerry, husband of the US heir to the Heinz fortune, is in the area trying to
push a cease-fire brokered by the Zionists, the Egyptians and the US. Kerry
refuses to talk to any representatives of the elected Gazan government as the
US and the Europeans have attached the dreaded “T” word to them. Once a
group is labeled a terrorist organization by the US government they are out of
the dialogue, unless of course they are “terrorists”
that serve US corporate interests as bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and many others
have at one time or another. The “terrorism”
of the IRA was well publicized in the British media when I was young while the
far more violent and destructive “terrorism”
of the British state (over 500 years I might add) was not.
Hamas
recognizes this set up for what it is and refuses to agree to a truce coming
out of this den of thieves. The group rejected last week’s cease fire proposal
from Sisi, as it wasn't consulted about an issue affecting its constituents
and that “the offer didn't go far enough
to lift Egypt's and Israel's economic siege of Gaza or free Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails.”, the WSJ adds.
Everyone wants us to accept a
cease-fire and then negotiate for our rights. We reject this.". says Hamas spokesperson
Meshaal. This is a reasonable position unless of course, it is coming form a “terrorist” group.
The
US government has consistently defended the murderous actions of the Zionist
regime from the blockade to theft of land, destruction of homes and family
farms and the importing of the semi-fascist settlers of various nationalities
whose only claim to Palestinian land is that god gave it to them a few thousand
years ago. Why should the Gazan government trust the US or Israel? As these developments unfold, the U.N.
Human Rights Council voted to “open an
inquiry” in to Israel's invasion of Gaza and as is always the case, the
U.S. was the only country of the 47 member group that voted against it. It should be
noted that neither, China, Russia, Iran, Turkey and other countries label Hamas
a terrorist organization. This term is
very useful. British colonialism in its
last violent gasp in Kenya refused to refer to the Mau Mau uprising that drove
them from the country as a rebellion as the Geneva convention would
have afforded them certain rights of war.
The British Crown also referred to American revolutionists as
terrorists.
This
heroic stand by the people of Gaza and its government will be applauded by the
vast majority of the world’s working class. The savagery of the invasion has
already caused some countries to break trade relations with the Zionist regime
and also has increased divisions
in Israeli society as workers and leftists fought fascists in the streets
of Tel Aviv; this is a positive development. There have also been
demonstrations all over the world.
As
earlier commentaries have pointed out, the Zionist regime and its racist
philosophy are a catastrophe for the Jewish people and there have been and will
most likely be more attacks on innocent Jews in response to Israel’s slaughter.
The Zionists welcome this as they appeal then to the Jews of the Diaspora
warning them that anti-Semitism is alive and well and their only safe haven in
Israel. But the anger directed at
innocent Jews in other countries is not the same as the traditional
Anti-Semitism of Europe, it is a response to the Zionist regime and it
genocidal actions.
What
will undermine these attacks is if more Jewish organizations and prominent
individuals speak out and condemn the Zionists. Where are the influential and
wealthy Jews of Hollywood here? The
Irish Republicans war against the British troops didn’t have its roots in
anti-English feeling, and nor does the present day anger at Jews who remain
silent or support the treatment of Palestinians that has gone on for years.
Hamas
and the Palestinian people are fighting for the right to their land, their culture
and religion. The US media is so
controlled and censored that so many Americans believe that Jews and Muslim
have been fighting like this for centuries, this is not so. The European Jews that dominate Israeli life
also look down on the Sephardic Jews, the Arab Jews that have lived in the
region for centuries. Ari Shavit,
considered a Jewish leftist from what I understand, wrote in his book, “My Promised Land” that “many Oriental Jews are not aware of what
Israel saved them from, a life of misery and backwardness in an Arab Middle
East.” Yet Jews held important posts in Arab/Muslim society, they fared
much better than in Christian Europe.
There is a history of racism in Israel that, as many writers
point out is ignored by US Jews, many of whom pounce on any hint of
anti-Semitism in US society.
Larry Derfner writing in the Jewish Forward in 2013 gave an example:
The Anti-Defamation League and the rest of the American Jewish establishment owe Jesse Jackson a big apology. They put the man through the wringer, they made him apologize in every possible forum for his “Hymie” and “Hymietown” remarks back in 1984. Yet look at the kinds of things Israeli leaders — senior government ministers, chief rabbis — get away with without ever having to apologize, without ever being punished in the slightest.
Just last week, Naftali Bennett, the fresh new face of right-wing Orthodox Judaism, said in a cabinet meeting how he didn’t like these releases of Palestinian prisoners. “If you catch terrorists, you simply have to kill them,” he was quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth as saying. The head of the National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, told Bennett, “Listen, that’s not legal.” Bennett replied: “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”
Derfner reminds the reader of Netenyahu’s comment in 2007: “Bibi Netanyahu bragged in 2007 that the
cuts he’d made to child subsidies had brought a “positive” result, which he
identified as “the demographic effect on the non-Jewish public, where there was
a dramatic drop in the birth rate.”
Imagine the scandal if an American political leader boasted publicly that his cuts to child subsidies had reduced the “non-Christian” birth rate. Imagine the ADL’s reaction. But in Israel, in 2007, from the mouth of a once-and-future prime minister — nothing.”
Imagine indeed. Kerry is paid by the US taxpayer, the same
group that pays for the F16’s, to go negotiate with Netenyahu who but not an
elected official of Gaza. These kind of statements can be said of Palestinians
or blacks in Israel by political figures or other important persons without
fear.
I compliment Hamas and the Palestinian people for their
heroic struggle against a vicious and brutal opponent. I cannot condemn them and the entire
government of Gaza for not putting the fate of 2 million people in the hands of
John Kerry, Benyamin Netenyahu or Sisi. They know better.
Here in the US workers and the middle class are facing a war
of our own against the same John Kerry and his class. Millions have lost homes, jobs, and public
services. Wages and benefits have been
savaged as the thugs that run this country borrow money in order to pay for US
capitalism’s wars on behalf of US corporations.
Detroit retirees have just voted to cut their own pensions. This is a
mistake.
Like the Palestinians, we have no alternative but to fight
back and one source of funds can be found by cutting all economic aid to the
Zionists, no more money, no more planes, tanks and no more spare parts. We must build a united workers movement and
not allow ourselves to be divided along race, gender or religious lines; it a
recipe for disaster.
As
an earlier blog pointed out, a decaying US capitalism, like British
colonialism and other empires of history can no longer provide guns and butter,
provide a decent standard of living at least to a considerable section of
society at home and maintain military global dominance. We have to pay for this.
There no solution to the situation in Israel/Palestine on a
capitalist basis just a there is no halting environmental catastrophe on a
capitalist basis.
*Flechette Shells: B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, describes a flechette
shell as "an anti-personnel weapon that is generally fired from a tank.
The shell explodes in the air and releases thousands of metal darts
37.5mm in length, which disperse in a conical arch 300 metres long and
about 90 metres wide".
For a democratic social federation of states in the Middle East
and the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment