Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War

Shamus Cooke | 05.01.2009 07:53 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Palestine | World

It is possible that the current conflict will provide Israel with the pretext it has needed to finally attack Iran, since government officials have not been shy in discussing the idea before operation Cast Iron began.

The very real possibility of a wider Middle East war — itself capable of drawing in the world — receives no comment from Barack Obama, who also must have known about Israel’s plans beforehand.



Yet another Israeli led and U.S. backed massacre is taking place as the world watches in horror. The western media, is desperately trying to peddle the puny rockets of Hamas as bullying, does journalistic back flips in avoiding the utter carnage brought down by the much more powerful –U.S. made and paid for—Israeli missiles.

In an effort to target Hamas, the Israeli military has massively bombed over 300 sites and counting, including a five story building that was demolished at a university campus. As of this writing, 391 Palestinians have been officially counted as dead with nearly 2000 wounded. The number of dead is certainly undercounted, as bodies still lie under mountains of rubble (the number of dead Israelis is five). To say that only “Hamas militants” are being targeted is a most shameful lie.

The truth is, if one is to target Hamas specifically, the Gaza population in general must be attacked, since they offer Hamas not only wide support, but attend Hamas-financed schools, mosques, health clinics, and soup kitchens.

This fact led to the above mentioned bombing at the university. Hamas is not simply an Islamic parliamentary body but a nationalist political organization with a large social service apparatus with close ties to the majority of people in the region.

On November 4, while much of the world watched Barack Obama’s victory celebration, Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip. Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel. During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis. Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN

Hamas’ recourse to rockets represents acts of desperation, which unfortunately— due to their arbitrary character— help Israeli citizens cling to their right-wing Zionist government for protection.

The outrage produced by the occupation and now destruction of the Palestinian society, combined with the continued savagery of the Israeli government, make the Middle East an especially combustible area. .

The U.S. puppet dictator in Egypt, Mubarak, is making his already-shaky regime less popular by his role in the conflict, by manning the tightly sealed Israeli border with machine gunners to force back terrified Palestinians.

The king of Jordan, Abdullah, yet another U.S. financed tyrant, resides over a population deeply sympathetic to the Palestinians, but did all that his bosses in Washington would allow him to do— nothing.

The whole Middle East is brewing with resentment in hatred with this action, putting pressure on strained U.S. puppet dictators across the region, such as the recently formed one in Iraq.

Not only are the Middle East client states in danger of disintegration, but Israel is capable of expanding the conflict, as the western corporate media openly talks about Hamas’ “enablers” in Lebanon and Iran. Much attention is being focused on not only Hezbollah’s open support of the Palestinians, but on Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who “decreed” that all Muslims have an obligation to defend the Palestinians.

Now, accusations are being made that Iran, Hezbollah, and even China have supplied Hamas with more “sophisticated” missiles.

The undeniable logic here is that Israel would be justified in attacking these countries if they were found — or suspected of — supplying Hamas with weapons or other support useful in a war setting.

It must also be noted that the current Israeli military operation was not a spontaneous act, but the result of months of planning, since the level of targets being fired upon requires substantial intelligence gathering. The planning involved was revealed by Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, who called the bombing campaign the “first of several stages” in operation “Cast Iron”. A rejected ceasefire and the continuing swell of ground troops ready to invade on the border could intensify the slaughter.

It is undeniable that Israel’s allies, most importantly the U.S., were fully aware of the invasion beforehand, but also of the destabilizing effects it would have on the entire region at a time when the Middle East — thanks to the U.S. and Israeli — needs only a spark to ignite. It is possible that the current conflict will provide Israel with the pretext it has needed to finally attack Iran, since government officials have not been shy in discussing the idea before operation Cast Iron began.

The very real possibility of a wider Middle East war — itself capable of drawing in the world — receives no comment from Barack Obama, who also must have known about Israel’s plans beforehand. Other leading Democrats simply cheer-leaded the Israeli advance while sternly lecturing the Palestinians.

This reaction of the Democrats comes not from some underground Zionist conspiracy, but the very profitable service Israel provides to U.S. corporations, by providing “stability” to the region — through state terror — so that U.S. businesses can continue to dominate the region.

In exchange, the Israeli ruling class receives not only huge subsidies from the U.S. — in the form of weapons of mass destruction and cash — but is enabled to use the constant threat of war to terrorize its native working class into submission.

This grossly irrational-appearing relationship between the U.S. and Israel has a solid, logical core: that of the profit motive inherent in a capitalist economy and the oil needed to lubricate it. So that U.S. corporations may dominate the Middle East, competing corporations elsewhere need to be scared away, while native populations need to be terrorized into obedience.

The basis on which to end this war requires mass protests, demanding that billions of dollars of U.S. aid to Israel cease, combined with a deeper understanding of the causes of imperialism and war.



* Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at  shamuscook@yahoo.com

Shamus Cooke
- Homepage: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11573

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

video: the massacre

05.01.2009 08:44

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll


youtube has censored the video

05.01.2009 17:18

youtube has censored the video

s


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech