Gaza's only contact with the outside world ...
Israeli intelligence reminds me of the con man who thinks that if he says something convincingly enough and often enough his listener will believe him. And surprisingly many people are conned by such people. The reporters, though they dutifully reported the story left themselves an out in recognizing that Israeli officials have a tendency not only to attempt to snow the world media, but apparently to snow themselves (if they believe what they’re saying).
The only hopeful interpretation of this malarkey is that perhaps Israel makes this claim in order to prepare its own people for a near-term ceasefire. If they can convince the nation that it is Hamas clamoring for a ceasefire and ready to say “Uncle,” then it is easier to climb down from the precarious branch onto which they themselves have crawled.
I have said this any number of times and will say it yet again. There IS no way Israel can defeat Hamas short of occupying every square inch of Gaza and remaining there in force to prevent Hamas from reasserting itself. Hamas knows that no matter how severe the losses it must endure, it can only win. Even losing is a win as long as it survives.
Hamas, as Hezbollah before it in 2006, has emerged as the lions of resistance to Israel. Islamists the world over are lining up to do whatever they can to help Hamas. Israel’s assault throws Hamas ever more firmly into Iran’s embrace.
Richard Silverstein | If Wishing Made It So
... and a necessary means of survival ...
Even if the Israeli army were to succeed in killing every Hamas fighter to the last man, even then Hamas would win. The Hamas fighters would be seen as the paragons of the Arab nation, the heroes of the Palestinian people, models for emulation by every youngster in the Arab world. The West Bank would fall into the hands of Hamas like a ripe fruit, Fatah would drown in a sea of contempt, the Arab regimes would be threatened with collapse.
If the war ends with Hamas still standing, bloodied but unvanquished, in face of the mighty Israeli military machine, it will look like a fantastic victory, a victory of mind over matter.
What will be seared into the consciousness of the world will be the image of Israel as a blood-stained monster, ready at any moment to commit war crimes and not prepared to abide by any moral restraints. This will have severe consequences for our long-term future, our standing in the world, our chance of achieving peace and quiet.
In the end, this war is a crime against ourselves too, a crime against the State of Israel.
Uri Avnery | Israel Is Losing This War
... under threat.
Richard Silverstein's enjoyed a deserved spot on my blogroll for many years now. However, I was surprised to find him dropping a comment at Tom Feeley's remarkable news resource, InformationClearingHouse. Surprised because, while many of the articles Tom posts are essential reading, many of the comments turn my stomach.
This is especially true when it comes to articles addressing Israel's barbaric sixty-year genocide of the country's Palestinian population. I've learned over time that many commenters, professing to be from the so-called 'progressive left', are intolerant beyond measure. An inordinate number are out-and-out anti-Semites and display an innate but intense dislike of Jewish people.
And, let me be clear about this. Judaism or being Jewish has nothing whatsoever to do with Zionism or being an Israeli citizen. It's a case of "All Zionists are Jews but not all Jews are Zionists." Nor, it needs to be said, are all Zionists intent on wiping out Muslims. The state of psychosis in which Israelis live means many are unduly influenced by the fanatics and zealots holding sway. In short, they know no better.
Generally, scanning comments tends to spoil articles — the content of which is way above and beyond the grasp of many of its bigoted or racist readers. Take, for example, Mike Whitney's expectedly incisive article Two Years of Starvation Followed by Fire-bombing and Paul Craig Roberts's America’s Shame. Both deserve reading. And it was in the latter article that I found Richard's comment. My surprise was ameliorated by his answering a comment spammer, something he is inordinately well-qualified to do.
Do yourself a favour and read a Guardian article, Hasbara spam alert, written by Richard and posted to InformationClearingHouse by Tom. As he points out in the article, "Propaganda 2.0 is here" and, combined with racism, xenophobia and bigotry, boy is it ugly.
Notes:
1) Serving the interests of the Hasbara (Propaganda 2.0), The Wall Street Journal gives voice to the vegetative war beast, Ariel Sharon, through his former spokesman and now president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dore Gold. Gold, the type of person from whom you'd not buy — or even accept, a used car, dishes up The Gaza-Egypt Smuggling Tunnels Must Be Closed, yet another spurious argument for further land grabs and Palestinian asphyxiation. Needless to say, the WSJ does not mention the two ghastly years (2002-2004) Gold spent articulating the dark visions of The Butcher of Sabra and Shatila, nor his stint as foreign policy advisor for fraudster, war criminal, and soon-to-be prime minister Bibi Netanyahu.
2) Seth Freeman yesterday penned So what if Israel uses the internet?, slamming Richard Silverstein's denunciation of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's abuse of Israeli citizens to disseminate disinformation and outright lies. So impassioned is Freeman's piece I've little doubt he'd have backed Joseph Geobbels's right to propagandize over the Internet had it been available to him.
Today, he bemoans Israeli intransigence and intolerance.
Whether on the balmy streets of Jaffa, or in the upper echelons of Israeli officialdom, the message appears to be the same: if you raise so much as a murmur of dissent in a time of war, the strong arm of Israeli law will come crashing down and stifle your protests in a flash. Israel's boast that it is the "only democracy in the Middle East" rings more hollow now than ever before.One thing about Richard Silverstein. You can be pretty sure his values tomorrow will be consistent with those he espouses today. Freeman? Go figure.
