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Thursday,
January 1, 2009 Another
Massacre in the On-going Israeli-Palestinian Conflict “The liberty
we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to
humanity.” George W. Bush,
State of the Union speech, January 28, 2003 (N.B.: Bush's primary
speechwriter at the time was a theologian: Michael Gerson.) “When it comes to the Israeli-Arab
conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups
like AIPAC that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to
succeed in American politics.” Henry Siegman,
former head of the American Jewish Congress “I
don't think there is such a thing as an independent Israel doing anything,
because I think no matter what they do its our [American] money, its our weapons, and they're
not going to do it without us approving it and if they get into trouble we're
going to bail them out, so there is no separation between the two.” Congressman Ron
Paul (R-TX), Dec. 28, 2008 “The world is a dangerous
place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and
do nothing.” Albert Einstein
(1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921 The year 2008 was not a very good year by
any account, either financially or politically. Chaos and immorality have
prevailed. Indeed, this was
a year when fools and criminals in power proved again that we live in a very
immoral world. First case in point: the insane Georgia-Russia war
in which hundreds of
people died because of the decisions of a few hotheads. Second case in point: the savage
bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israeli warplanes, after the government of
Israel had imposed a military blockade of the Palestinian territory. Here again,
the world more or less stood still as fools,
criminals
and accomplices
allowed for
the killing of people on both sides. The Israeli
attacks that began on Saturday December 27, 2008, are most reminiscent of
what the government of Israel did to Lebanon
during the summer of
2006. Both are examples of disproportionate retaliation to thoughtless
provocations. Indeed, the use
by the government of Israel of sophisticated American-made F-16 jets, AH-64 Apache helicopters and
devastating US-supplied GBU-39 smart bombs to target numerous
dwellings in Gaza Strip sites—with civilians making up an overwhelming
majority of the more than 300 victims—is an immoral act. Bombing a city
can only create a humanitarian catastrophe and it should not be allowed in
any circumstance. With these
planned-in-advance Christmas-New Year period attacks, when the world's
political attention is the weakest, Israel is punishing the entire population
of the Gaza Strip (1.5 million people) for the irresponsible behavior of a
small group of fanatical Hamas leaders. But, no matter
how this is phrased, nothing justifies collective punishment,
an illegal doctrine used by the Israeli government time and again against the
Palestinians while the world stands still. We understand
the rationale: Such attacks are designed to coerce the Islamist Hamas
government, (which seized power in Gaza less than two years ago in
replacement of the Fatah government of the Palestinian Authority), to stop
firing rockets in the direction of Israeli border cities and refrain from
launching suicide attacks inside Israel. Since Hamas
doesn't have one percent of the military capability that Israel has, its attacks on Israeli cities would
appear to be most foolish and irresponsible. Indeed, there is no doubt that
bombing Israeli cities is a terrorist act. But sadly, in this action-reaction
drama, one has to keep in mind that Hamas' attacks on Israeli cities came
after an Israeli military cross-border raid in Gaza in early November and
after years of an illegal blockade
of Gaza by Israel. That is the reason why both sides pretend
they are attacking the other side in self-defense in this on-going drama. Nevertheless,
even though the Hamas government seems to be run by defiant leaders who have
launched rocket attacks against Israeli cities and targeted Israeli
civilians, this does not excuse the Israeli government's disproportionate
reaction in indiscriminately bombing a heavily populated territory with
warplanes and attack helicopters. All this demonstrates how the world is
lacking a moral compass
and institutions capable of implementing rules of law and justice. Meanwhile,
the law of the jungle continues to reign and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict persists. The
neocon-controlled U.S. government of George W. Bush, contrary to most other
governments, has refused to ask for an immediate stop to the Israeli
attacks. It is
therefore an active accomplice in the carnage
and it cannot escape its responsibility and involvement. As a matter of
fact, anybody who remains silent while these barbarian acts are being
committed becomes ipso facto an accomplice. This applies to most everyone at different degrees,
the most responsible being those in authority.
____________________________________________________ Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University
of Montreal and can be reached at: rodrigue.tremblay@ yahoo.com. He is the author of the book 'The
New American Empire'. Visit his blog site at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog. Author's Website: www.thenewamericanempire.com/ Check Dr. Tremblay's coming book "The
Code for Global Ethics"
at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/ _____________________________________ Posted, Thursday,
January 1, 2009, at 5:30 am Email to a friend: http://www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/tremblay=1106 Send contact, comments or commercial reproduction
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