Gaza: The Killing Goes On

So the killing goes on and on. Israel is pushing the idea that bombing schools will somehow bomb away terrorism and bomb their way to peace?

In 1996, Israeli jets bombed a UN building where civilians had taken refuge at Cana/ Qana in south Lebanon, killing 102 persons; in the place where Jesus is said to have made water into wine, Israeli bombs wrought a different sort of transformation. In the distant, picturesque port of Hamburg, a young graduate student studying traditional architecture of Aleppo saw footage like this on the news [graphic]. He was consumed with anguish and the desire for revenge. He immediately wrote out a martyrdom will, pledging to die avenging the innocent victims, killed with airplanes and bombs that were a free gift from the United States. His name was Muhammad Atta. Five years later he piloted American Airlines 11 into the World Trade Center....

You wonder if someone somewhere is writing out a will today? I bet there is. Why do we allow Isreal to threaten our peace and kill innocent people to appease the land-rights written the Bible. It's bonkers. Nice once Hugo Chavez for expelling the Israeli ambassador. We should too.

As to who is at fault for the current bout of fighting;

Thus, a systematic pattern does exist: it is overwhelmingly Israel, not Palestine, that kills first following a lull. Indeed, it is virtually always Israel that kills first after a lull lasting more than a week.

The lessons from these data are clear:

First, Hamas can indeed control the rockets, when it is in their interest. The data shows that ceasefires can work, reducing the violence to nearly zero for months at a time.

Second, if Israel wants to reduce rocket fire from Gaza, it should cherish and preserve the peace when it starts to break out, not be the first to kill.

Indeed.
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Gaza: Links Updates

More links of interest on the current crisis;

Sadly, all the death and carnage Israel has wrought will be for nothing, says Jane's Defence Analyst; "With a military victory for Israel over Hamas not possible, the security situation in southern Israel and Gaza will not improve, even in the longer term." - and the view is echoed by Gary Younge;

"The trouble is that over the last seven years, the war on terror has been thoroughly discredited - not only morally, but militarily and strategically....Meanwhile, Israel has been busy implementing the very tenets of the war on terror that have served the US so badly, primarily that intractable political problems can be solved solely by military means with the aim of not simply bombing your enemies into submission, but eliminating them altogether and then creating resolution on your own terms from the rubble."

You may (or may not) know that Israel has banned the press from Gaza (though reports are coming out thick and fast anyway) but that is not the only media 'management' they are up to. Evidence has emerged that the Israeli government is looking to recruiting volunteers to 'sell' their message on forums and websites. The recruitment email looks like this;

Dear friends,

We hold the military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it’s a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote - the more likely we gain positive sentiment.

Of course, governments manipulating the media in war is nothing new - witness our own governments shameful activities over Iraq and Afganistan - however this is the network media version of that struggle.

And finally a real call recorded on the Isreali army's 'shop-a-terrorist' version of Crimestoppers. In short - they got punked:

EI: I have some information for you on members of terrorist groups that are in Gaza.

Israeli officer: Oh I hope so...

EI: You don't know what the terrorists are doing here in Gaza and we want to be saved from them ...

Israeli officer: Yes, I think everyone should do exactly what you're doing because we're all fed up with them. All they do to us is bad things.

EI: Exactly, the people in Gaza feels the same but the world can't hear our voice.

Israeli officer: Oh they will hear sir. You know they've [people of Gaza] started to phone us and ask for help, and ask us what they should do, and we've helped a lot of them. They thanked us for that and we want to help more people.

EI: But you know the terrorist groups are all over the Strip. I mean there's no place in the Strip where there aren't terrorists. They're all over the place.

Israeli officer: You just wait. We'll get to them, you'll see.

EI: But as you know, it's not easy for one to talk from Gaza, to give you information, it's not an easy thing.

Israeli officer: Look, firstly it's not easy, second thing, we've got other ways to reach you, very good ways not on this line and in the end your assistance to us will end up helping you too. Every person who doesn't have to be hurt in Gaza helps us and helps you. We benefit and you benefit. We want to destroy this Hamas leadership who are hiding, afraid for their lives. They are hiding and others are being killed because of them. What are we fighting each other for? Over nothing!

EI: Ok, let's talk ... let me give you some of the information and then we'll talk some more. Do you have a pen?

Israeli officer: Yes. I have a pen and I'm writing.

EI I want to give you names of the biggest terrorist organizations, not just in Gaza, but in all Palestine.

Israeli officer: Ok, let's see

EI: Ok, the first one ...

Israeli officer: You mean to tell me they're all from Hamas?

EI: All of them are people ... you'll see. The first one, his name is Ehud Barak [Israeli minister of defense].

Israeli officer: Ehud Barak? By God there's no one like you ...

EI: Second, Gabi Ashkenazi [Israeli army chief of staff]

Israeli officer: Do you know him?

EI: Of course.

Read the full thing: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10114.shtml
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The Media in Gaza

Or not, as the Israeli army banned the press from Gaza saying;

"We must not allow international press to open a public relations office for terrorists."

But the Foreign Press Association took them to court over this;

"We believe the Israeli government should ensure unfettered access for the world's media to Gaza during this crisis."

And won. However the military is still refusing to let the press in changing the story to 'security risks'. Not that this is new - all governments try to control the press during war. What is interesting however, is that despite this the reports are flooding from Gaza thanks to digital media:

That the Israelis should use an old Soviet tactic to blind the world's vision of war may not be surprising. But the result is that Palestinian voices – as opposed to those of Western reporters – are now dominating the airwaves. The men and women who are under air and artillery attack by the Israelis are now telling their own story on television and radio and in the papers as they have never been able to tell it before, without the artificial "balance", which so much television journalism imposes on live reporting. Perhaps this will become a new form of coverage – letting the participants tell their own story. The flip side, of course, is that there is no Westerner in Gaza to cross-question Hamas's devious account of events: another victory for the Palestinian militia, handed to them on a plate by the Israelis.

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Gaza Moves Towards Endgame

As you will probably know, ground forces are now in Gaza and the fighting is intense. While Israel used it's air-power there was little Hamas could do other then fling inaccurate rockets in their general direction, but now there are boots on the ground - Hamas is in a position to strike back: so the situation reaches it's end-game. However this is still an asymmetric war where Israel has the advantage of armour, air-power, better weapons and better financing for its forces. Hamas has the ground and a willingness to embrace death.

The global fallout continues: on Friday in Kabul 3000 protesters took to the streets;

In the capital Kabul, up to 3,000 protesters gathered for several hours outside a key mosque where they shouted "Death to Israel", "Death to infidels" and Islamic chants such as "God is greater," an AFP reporter witnessed.

This is key because of the 'hearts-and-minds' that the West is trying to win over. This is a huge blow for that campaign and you can be sure the Taliban will be making hay out of this. So to more links of interest:

Very interesting essay from Juan Cole on the situation, history and most importantly the longer-term political and population demographics;

The main immediate problem for the Israelis is that simply preventing Hamas from waging an ever more sophisticated microwar is an extremely short-term and technical objective. It may or may not be achievable by the methods of the current war, which appear so far to be conventional methods. Its outcome is not very material to a settlement of the larger issues.

Helena Cobban writes on the options open to Isreal now - remember the famous von Clausewitz quote; 'war is a continuation of politics by other means' - so when the fighting stops (or indeed grinds on) - where next? Unlike a conventional war, all Hamas have to do to win is survive whereas the unclear aims of the Israelis seem not lead to definitive outcomes;

At the end of the day, to extricate itself from the uber-quagmire that Gaza represents, both physically in itself and politically throughout the region and the world, Israel will still have to engage in a negotiation with Hamas. Here's why....

Also of note is the use of micro-blogging like Twitter to follow events;

Here's the main Twitter #Gaza feed which the IDF are posting to) and Al Jazeera's one. Both are worth a look.

More Updates on Gaza

As the bombing and death grinds on, a few more links of interest;

Why, despite the bombing, Hamas is still going strong;

In the west, too many people think that Hamas is "only" the "terrorist organization" that it's designated to be by the US State Department. They imagine it is made up of wild-eyed, implacable Islamist radicals who have much more in common with the Afghan Taliban than with any movement that is considered "civilized" in the west....Not so. Hamas's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, always placed a lot of emphasis on the need for education, self-restraint, and the need to rebuild the social fabric of Palestinian constituencies torn apart by years of Israeli attacks, occupation (including the heinous divide-and-rule tactics of the Shin Bet), and physical and social dispersal.

and...

Anarchists Against the Wall block an Israeli airbase.

US-client state and only country which boarders into Gaza except Israel, Egypt is having to deploy riot police to keep control.

Israel bans press from reporting from Gaza.

Divide and rule: US backed Palestinian forces ban pro-Hamas protests.
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