Posted by Bob Lord
It's hard to find much to be happy about regarding the situation in Gaza. We have our supposedly progressive President making statements like this: "There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders." Really, Mr. President? What country to you know that would tolerate a five-year naval blockade of its coastline? But, as the President's logic seems to go, if a country resists such a naval blockade, it's resistance justifies an aerial bombardment by the same folks who are imposing the blockade.
But the one-sidedness of American leadership is well-known. What's worse this time is some of the rhetoric in the mainstream Israeli media. Ariel Sharon's son penned an op-ed, published by the Jerusalem Post, in which he stated that Israel should "flatten Gaza." Eli Yishai, an Israeli deputy Prime Minister, stated: "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years."
If Israeli leadership and media are making these sort of remarks, the Israeli public cannot be far behind. What underiles this attitude is a core belief that the Palestinian people are lesser than they. Without that core belief, one cannot encourage genocidal acts in this manner.
So I guess the saving grace here is that Romney is not President. Both when he visited Israel and at the time he made his 47% remarks, Romney's words demonstrated, quite clearly, that he saw the Palestinians as a lesser people than the Israelis (in much the same way that he saw the 47% as lesser than the 53%). So, at his core, Romney is right there with the hate merchants in Israel. I'm not happy with Obama's remarks in support of Israel, but at least I don't have to worry that he'd be on the same page as the wackos in Israel. That's some consolation I suppose.
Well said
To portray Israel as some kind of victim with every right to defend itself is a grotesque inversion of reality. Israel has been in illegal occupation of both the West Bank and Gaza, where most of the population are families of refugees who were driven out of what is now Israel in 1948, for the last years. Israel is in control of Gaza’s land and sea borders, territorial waters and natural resources, airspace, power supply and telecommunications, preventing the movement of people, materials and food supplies. Israel even calculates the 2,279 calories per person that would keep Gazans on an exemplary diet, and then reduces this by 25%. And it continues to invade the strip at will.
So, Gazans are an occupied people and have the right to resist, including by armed force., while Israel is an occupying power that has an obligation to withdraw.