Egypt said it had received "simultaneous consensus" from both sides for the truce which will begin at 21:00 GMT on Sunday.
Israel promised to send negotiators to the Egyptian capital on Monday.
Os egípcios receberam um "consenso simultâneo" de israelenses e palestinos para uma nova trégua de 72 horas para negociarem um acordo a longo prazo. O cessar-fogo começa hoje às 21:00 GMT. A delegação israelense, sob pressão internacional, prometeu chegar ao Cairo amanhã de manhã.
This morning, Israel bombed Hebron, in the West Bank killing one more youngster and injuring a dozen. Esta manhã, Israel bombardeou Hebron, na Cisjordânia, matando mais um jovem.
1,922 Palestinians killed. Including at least 1,407 civilians. Of whom 448 are children and 235 are women.
10,000 Pregnant women in Gaza are displaced.
373,000 Children require psycho-social support.
65,000 Displaced people have had their homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
67 Israelis killed. Including 64 soldiers, three civilians - one foreign national. A few have been recently wounded by rockets from Gaza.
"We told the Egyptians that if the Israelis are not coming and if there is no significant development, we are leaving today," Palestinian negotiator Bassam Salhi said.
Binyamin Netanyahu said: "Israel will not negociate under fire". No, Israel wants a ceasefire and will go to Cairo to procrastinate a deal until the US, Tony Blair and dictator Sissi manage to trick the Palestinians into another phony deal.
Vale lembrar que no fim do cessar-fogo, os israelenses se recusaram a continuar a negociar e voltaram para Tel Aviv. Os palestinos ficaram a fim de resolver o problema de uma vez por todas. Mas para negociar precisa ter com quem falar do outro lado da mesa.
Netanyahu declarou esta manhã: "Israel não negociará sob fogo". Que fogo? Do foguetório, é claro, não dos incêndios de bombas que continua jogando em Gaza. Isrel quer cessar-fogo para ganhar tempo e os EUA, Tony Blair e o ditador Sissi arquitetarem um acordo enganoso para os palestinos assinarem e a IDF voltar a bombardear daqui a pouco, na calada, ou daqui a dois anos com estardalhaço e o mundo já tiver esquecido o massacre de 2014.
The killings of Palestinians continue in Gaza (1.922, and 9.806 injured) and people all over the world showed support for Gazans marching for them yesterday on the DAY OF RAGE FOR GAZA - which was a great success, mainly in London, where the demonstrations gathered thousands of British and foreigners. (So many people turned up - more than 150.000 - that when the front of the march reached Hyde Park, the back still had not left the BBC.).
Today I want to set some records straight answering to some questions I've been asked by email. Hoje vou responder algumas perguntas que veem me fazendo por email, mostrando fotos das passeatas de milhares de pessoas contra a Operação Protective Edge em Gaza e vídeos gravados no final da passeata no Hyde Park em Londres.
1. O Hamas é terrorista ou não?
_ O Hamas é um partido político vitorioso na eleição democrática de 2006 supervisionada por observadores internacionais. Desde então, começaram as sanções a Gaza até a chamada Guerra de Gaza em 2007, quando o Fatah, patrocinado e armado por Israel/EUA/Inglaterra, tentou destruir o Hamas. O Hamas derrotou o Fatah com meios obsoletos, confiscou as armas enviadas pelos estrangeiros, instalou um governo paralelo na Faixa para esta poder organizar-se, e como todo governo, tem um exército de defesa que são as Brigadas al-Qassam. As Brigadas al-Qassam são um exército de cerca de 10 mil militantes treinados na medida do possível para a defesa da Gaixa de Gaza e de seus cidadãos. E a ala política do Hamas é mais civilizada e mais intelectualizada do que o atual governo israelense.
2. Qual é a ligação do Hamas com os extremistas muçulmanos do ISIS e do Al Qaeda?
_ Nenhuma. Só nas fabulações dos governos de Israel e Estados Unidos para apavorar a opinião pública ocidental.Estes dois sim, são grupos extremistas com vocação internacionalizante de opressão para aplicar as regras fundamentalistas que pregam em sua ignorância.
O Hamas é um partido religioso nacional e nacionalista que visa apenas libertar seu povo do jugo do ocupante que o oprime. Quando o Estado da Palestina for estabelecido, com soberania, acho que seu discurso vai ficar cada vez mais moderado inclusive no plano religioso.
Falando nisso, o Hamas é menos radical do que os judeus ortodoxos. No cristianismo, talvez pudesse ser comparado com os evangélicos, que por sinal, nos Estados Unidos, apoiam Israel por razões óbvias - George W. Bush é um dos evangélicos proeminentes dos US...
Os dirigentes do Hamas não são fanáticos. São "estudados", bem educados; os líderes da ala política têm no mínimo mestrados e os da ala religiosa são doutorados em teologia. O que muda também um pouco o perfil e os distancia de tendências religiosas integristas e mentalidades obtusas, como a dos que governam Israel hoje em dia.
3. Por que os para-militares do Hamas espantam a gente com aquela máscara?
_ O uniforme é como dos outros exércitos, de camuflagem. A máscara é para proteger suas famílias das represálias do Shin Bet + IDF, que vigiam tudo o que acontece na Faixa através dos drones que a sobrevoam dia e noite e que consideram todo resistente um alvo. A represália, além de sequestrar, torturar ou executar sumariamente o resistente, consiste também de demolir a residência dos familiares, com eles dentro.
4. Israel é um país terrorista?
_ Por definição, é: terrorismo, modo de coagir e ameaçar pessoas ou povo impondo-lhes a vontade pelo uso sistemático da violência e do terror. Em Gaza, o barulho constante dos drones armados inclusive em tempo de "paz" é um terror enlouquecedor que Israel impõe à população.
Na Cisjordânia, as barreiras humilhantes, o muro, os soldados que invadem e ocupam as casas, a demolição aleatória de residências de madrugada, a destruição de lavouras e ocupaão de terras ancestrais também são terror disfarçado.
5. Depois de tudo o que os judeus passaram durante o nazismo, não têm direito de defender-se e viver em paz?
_ Têm. Contudo, o conflito entre Israel e Palestina não é religioso. Não é de judeus contra cristãos e muçulmanos. É de um país, super-potente militarmente contra outro que invadiu e ocupa há 67 anos infringindo todos as leis internacionais existentes, inclusive cometendo crimes de guerra e crimes contra a humanidade. Israel, hoje, na Palestina, age como os nazistas agiram com os judeus, os ciganos, os comunistas e todos os seus oponentes durante a Segunda Guerra. É este o problema. Há muitos judeus humanistas que discordam totalmente com a política expansionista israelense. Como mostram dois dos vídeos nesta sequência entre as perguntas, gravados durante a grande manifestação em Londres ontem.
6. Foi o Hamas que provocou Israel com os foguetes?
_ A IDF, Forças israelenses de ocupação, bombardeiam a Faixa de vez em quando em tempo normal só para aterrorizar e mostrar quem manda. E o Hamas responde com o foguetório que é mais um desabafo. Além do mais, a provocação, também é, por definição, de Israel, com seus drones que sobrevoam a Faixa sem parar com um barulho surdo insuportável que é em si uma tortura. Além do mais, desrespeita as leis internacionais e bombardeia de vez em quando só pra mostrar que são eles que mandam.
7. Por que você chama os foguetes do Hamas de foguetório?
_ Por que são "mísseis" que eles montam artesanalmente. Na verdade, são aqueles foguetes que usamos para comemorar gols e a virada, mas aprimorados. Nada a ver com os mísseis potentes que os EUA fornecem a Israel. E o problema vai continuar até depois dos bombardeios cessarem, pois há muita munição israelense que não explodiu na hora que foi usada, e que pode explodir e explodirá mais tarde.
Munição israelense perigosa que fica / Unexploded munitions in Gaza
8. Por que os Estados Unidos são cúmplices de Israel indiscrimiandamente e sem medida?
_ Por que, de maneira geral, os estadunidenses são bastante preconceituosos e ignorantes do mundo fora de suas fronteiras. Isto vai até para quem estuda até doutorado porque as formações são cada vez mais especializadas e a cultura geral é negligenciada. Como em todos os países ocidentais, inclusive o nosso. Se a imprensa fizesse seu trabalho com esponsabilidade e discernimento em vez de servir interesses financeiros e ideológicos dos donos da mídia e dos lobbies, supriria esta deficiência. Porém, os jornalistas também são produto de universidades privadas - o ensino público universitário nos EUA é inexistente e ridículo - que os forma nos moldes ideológicos dominantes. Ou seja, a crença , destilada pleo lobby israelense, que Israel os protege do extremismo árabe e que sem Israel, são vulneráveis. A Casa Branca é bastante medrosa, pois os Estados Unidos cresceram, se eniqueceram, empobrecendo outros povos e parasitando riquezas alheias. Portanto, tem medo até da sombra, ou melhor, como ficou provado com os fones e emails grampeados, até dos amigos.No fundo, os Estados Unidos têm amigos de conveniência e de interesse nas presidências dos países ocidentais, mas as populações destes países, com raras exceções, antipazam com eles. Com Israel era diferente. A simpatia era um pouco generalizada porque as pessoas acreditavam em seu papel de vítima tão bem interpretado e desconheciam, por serem mal e pouco informados pelos ditos jornalistas, de seus atos bábaros dissimulados. Tenho certeza que até hoje, apesar de todo esse massacre, há muitos estadunidenses, e brasileiros, que ignoram que Israel é o ocupante, que constrói invasões civis na Palestina e que a Faixa de Gaza é uma prisão. Inclusive leitores do New York Times, que é um jornal formador de opinião, da elite. Pois o NYT, como disse anteriormente, tem uma agenda própria e respeita a ética da imparcialidade quando quer.
9. Como Israel pode viver sob a ameaça dos túneis?
_ Há túneis que ligam Gaza ao Egito que são usados, majoritariamente, para "importar" do Egito comida e outros bens necessários, já que a Faixa de Gaza é uma prisão com produção escassa e limitada, fechada ao comércio até com a Cisjordânia, que é o mesmo país. E há os túneis militares, cavados pelo Hamas para defender-se dos ataques da IDF, que quer desarmar as Brigadas al-Qassam completamente e destruir os túneis e continuar se armando com arsenal sofisticado para voltar a bombardear a Faixa indefesa daqui a pouco. É justo? Israel poderia ter celado os túneis militares em seu próprio território e pronto, como explica Norman Finkelstein abaixo.
10. Por que você acha que Israel não tem direito de defender-se?
_ Não é que eu não ache que Israel não tenha o direito de defender-se, é que sei que no Direito Internacional um país que ocupa outro tem obrigação de protegê-lo e não agredi-lo como Israel faz.
Não se há de esquecer que Israel é o ocupante, é o infrator das leis internacionais e os palestinos são os ocupados que se defendem das agressões quotidianas do ocupante. E não o contrário.
Israel tem o direito de defender-se de outros países soberanos, com exércitos e direitos na ONU. A Palestina é um país desarmado que vive subjugado.
_ Não é que eu não ache que Israel não tenha o direito de defender-se, é que sei que no Direito Internacional um país que ocupa outro tem obrigação de protegê-lo e não agredi-lo como Israel faz.Não se há de esquecer que Israel é o ocupante, é o infrator das leis internacionais e os palestinos são os ocupados que se defendem das agressões quotidianas do ocupante. E não o contrário.
Israel tem o direito de defender-se de outros países soberanos, com exércitos e direitos na ONU. A Palestina é um país desarmado que vive subjugado.
11. Quando você diz na lista de mortos palestinos "unidentified", significa o quê? _ Significa que o corpo está destroçado pela bomba e é impossível saber de quem se trata.
_ Israel. Enfim, quer negociar em seus termos, durante um cessar-fogo em que vai enrolar para que as negociações sejam intermináveis e tudo acabar como em 2012 quando La Hillary defendeu os interesses dos israelenses até forçar a barra para o Hamas dobrar-se com promessas que não foram realizadas; e dois anos mais tarde, Gaza voltar a ser bombardeada. O fim do bloqueio é o mínimo. Mesmo. Ninguém consegue viver como os palestinos estão vivendo na Faixa de Gaza. Se o mundo fosse justo, quem estaria no Cairo no lugar de Tony Blair seria George Mitchell ou alguém com a mesma idoneidade moral.
Negociação com três mediadores parciais é um acinte para os palestinos, e mesmo assim eles concordaram em negociar. Israel não quer nem ouvir falar, a não ser se lhes garantirem que vão levar todas as vantagens.
12. Você é imparcial?
_ Ja disse em blog anterior em anos passados e repito: imparcialiade jornalística é mito. Eu, faço o que posso para servir a verdade.
Postei um artigo há alguns anos sobre o jornalismo e a ética onde dizia que a parcialidade em jornalismo 99 por cento das vezes é invisível a olho nu. Na maioria das vezes ocorre de maneira sutil que o leitor e o espectador não percebem e são enganados sem conhecimento de causa. A indução de pensamento está no espaço dedicado à informação, na hierarquia da manchete, no lead, ou cabeçalho, na escolha dos entrevistados. Não é que os gringos não digam que há quase 2.000 palestinos mortos, é que dizem que há 64 jovens soldados israelenses, mostrando fotos dos rapazes e do enterro com as famílias pesarosas; quando falam nos gazauís, dão a cifra, desumanizando os mortos, e dão a palavra aos porta-vozes isarelenses que inventam estórias e a familiares dos soldados sem dar espaço para o representante palestino nem para nenhum dos centenas de familiares dos gazauís vítimas dos ataques em que mais de 400 crianças foram mortas. Esta é uma das maneiras de influenciar o leitor fazendo de conta que se é imparcial.
Neste blog, eu não sou imparcial nem neste "conflito" nem em outros que sigo. Pois acho que o jornalismo é como a medicina, uma profissão e um sacerdócio. Tem de servir a informação e dar a palavra a quem não tem voz e não aos poderosos só porque estes falam alto e têm os bolsos cheios de dólares.
Tomo partido, mas vou ao fundo da questão. Sou analista, estudei para isso e digo a verdade conforme meu ponto de vista, é claro. Quem concordar concorda com conhecimento de causa e quem discordar, idem. Não engano ninguém com discurso encoberto nem com ambiguidade.
Tento enxergar todos os lados com objetividade histórico-cultural local, estou sempre procurando o leão invisível escondido atrás de cada palavra e de cada ato que testemunho. A realpolítica nunca é clara e às vezes visa o imediato, mas na maioria das vezes o mediato para alguém levar vantagem. Eu tento cavar o buraco no qual outros tentam jogar terra para acobertar um fato. Tento servir a justiça, ser ética e informar com a maior correção possível, na medida das minhas capacidades.
Quanto à questão palestina, para mim é a maior injustiça da minha geração, enfim, da geração contemporânea de 15 a 100 anos. A dor deles dói em mim. E quero que esta dor pare definitivamente. Como eles, não quero analgésicos que a diminuam ou a suspendam temporariamente. A ocupação da Palestina é uma doença gravíssima, mas curável, com cirurgia. O mundo tem condições tecnológicas e financeiras para fazê-la. É só querer. É só matar o mal pela raiz. Ou seja, forçar Israel a retirar-se civil e militarmente da Palestina inteira e reconhecer o Estado Palestino dentro das fronteiras de 1967.Enfim, com uma ONU das 193 Nações Unidas e não apenas dos Estados Unidos, já teria havido intervenção há décadas para resolver o problema. Por que Israel é diferente? Não faz sentido e é inadmissível.
Não sou imparcial, não. Sou pela justiça.
Democracy Now: Cumplicidade US, destruição de Gaza e túneis
OPEN LETTER TO UN SECRETARY GENERAL BAN KI-MOON, from several Human Rights Organizations.UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, stand for law and justice or resign!
Mr. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
We, the undersigned Palestinian human rights and community-based organizations, are extremely disappointed by your performance, notably by your biased statements, your failure to act, and the inappropriate justification of Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law, which amount to war crimes.
Until today, you have taken no explicit and tangible measures to address the recent Israeli attacks in the occupied Palestinian territories since 13 June. Moreover, your statements have been either misleading, because they endorse and further Israeli false versions of facts, or contrary to the provisions established by international law and to the interests of its defenders, or because your words justify Israel’s violations and crimes.
You have undeniably assumed a biased position toward the current attack on Gaza and Israeli violations in the West Bank by failing to clearly condemn Israeli unlawful actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, while, on the other hand, not hesitating to accuse – sometimes mistakenly – Palestinian combatants in Gaza of violations of international law. This bias can be noted in the following excerpts:
The Secretary-General strongly condemns the killing today of at least 10 Palestinian civilians in shelling outside of an UNRWA school in Rafah providing shelter to thousands of civilians. The attack is yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, UN staff and UN premises, among other civilian facilities.Such statement, by failing to name the perpetrator — Israel — is not only biased, but also offensive to UNRWA, itself a UN agency, as well as to other UN agencies and international organizations the struggle to provide relief and protection to Palestinians in Gaza.
UNRWA, which has lost nine staff in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, hosts around 270,000 internally displaced (25 percent of Gaza’s population) in its shelters. UNRWA’s preliminary analysis on a previous attack against one of its schools has indicated that it had been hit by Israeli artillery, constituting an indiscriminate attack and likely a war crime.
Moreover, by condemning the storage of weapons in UNRWA schools without offering complete details and a proper account on international law, your statements endorse Israeli excuses to unlawfully, indiscriminately target such civilian objects.
In addition, by condemning
the reported violation by Hamas of the mutually agreed humanitarian ceasefire which commenced this morning. He is shocked and profoundly disappointed by these developments,the Secretary-General reveals a reckless endorsement of the Israeli version of facts, blaming Hamas for violating the ceasefire, even though admitting that “[t]he Secretary-General notes that the UN has no independent means to verify exactly what happened,” and, still, demanding “the immediate and unconditional release of the [falsely allegedly] captured soldier,”
The following statement further illustrates the Secretary-General’s ignorance of facts on the ground:
The Secretary-General has learned with concern that leaflets are reportedly being dropped by the Israeli Defence Forces in the northern Gaza Strip this evening, warning tens of thousands of residents to leave their homes and evacuate to Gaza City.The drop of leaflets had been a known practice since the beginning of the Israeli operation in Gaza, contributing to a scenario of more than 480,000 internally displaced.
If true [our emphasis], this would have a further devastating humanitarian impact on the beleaguered civilians of those areas of the Gaza strip, who have already undergone immense suffering in recent days.
In the same statement,
The Secretary-General strongly urge[d] all sides to avoid any further escalation at this time[, noting] that all sides must meet all obligations under international humanitarian law, both towards civilians ahead of impending attacks, as well as maintaining proportionality in any kind of military response,Revealing an undue equalization of the two sides of the conflict and failing to address the greater impact of violations committed by Israel, which has killed at least 1,814 the vast majority of whom are civilians, during its operation in Gaza.
Mr. Secretary-General,
When you make no distinction between oppressors and victims, in all your statements,
When you name Palestinian combatants as perpetrators of violations and war crimes while you ignore naming Israel, as you used to do in referring to specific actions,
When you avoid codifying Israeli actions that amount to war crimes, while you insist on prescribing Palestinian reactions as grave breaches of international humanitarian law,
When you always advocate unlawfully the Israel right to self-defense, while having not pointed out the Palestinians legitimate and legal right to resist occupation, colonization and institutionalized discrimination,
When you adopt and advocate Israeli false stories, while not mentioning Palestinians’ narrative,
When you disregard facts on grounds clearly resulting from Israeli attacks, while you seek the immediate and unconditional release of a falsely captured soldier who was in the battle field,
You do not maintain peace and security; nor do you ensure human rights.
By reviewing yours statements, it becomes evident you have not been fulfilling your mandate. In contrary, your statements have not only allowed the continuance of Israel’s killing our people, but also, encouraged States to continue providing Israel with impunity.
As you cannot say the truth, we advise you to either drastically change your positioning — not only in words, but also in your efforts to, through the UN, effectively end the current conflict — or to resign. For us, if you continue playing this role, you prove what our people feel, that you are a partner in, or at least an enabler of, the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel against our families, children, women, elders – against our people."
Richard Falk (Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967); Luisa Morgantini (Former Vice President of the European Parliament); Ahmad Muhaisen (President of The association for twining French cities and Palestinian refugee camps); Breyten Breytenbach (Poet, writer, painter and activist); John Pilger (journalist, film-maker and author).
Escritor e analista político Tariq Ali na passeata de milhares de pessoas ontem em Londres, contestando o jornalista da BBC que tenta defender Israel. Só discordo da sua opinião de 1 Estado. 2 Estados é o que os Plaestinos merecem e querem.
Aliás, embora a BBC tenha melhorado a cobertura, continua entrevistando só os porta-vozes israelenses.
Israel declared a three kilometre "buffer zon"e inside Gaza's borders last week, an area that represents 44 percent of Gaza's territory. Anyone within the zone has been warned by the Israeli military to leave or risk being bombed.This buffer zone has only exacerbated Gaza's siege. To the east, Palestinians in Gaza are fenced in by Israeli artillery tanks, mortars, cannon shells and snipers. On Gaza's western side, Israeli warships form a blockade and allow only a three-mile fishing zone. To the north resides more military checkpoints and soldiers. To the south, the Egyptian military has closed off the Rafah border. The buffer zone has tightened the Israeli chokehold around Gaza's small strip of land.
Israel confiscou mais três quilômetros dentro de Gaza (em vez de fora) para uma "buffer zone" 'zona tampão", ou seja, uma zona da qual expulsaram os moradores "sob o risco de serem bombardeados". Esta zona tampão exarcebou o sítio e diminuiu 44 por cento do território da Faixa de Gaza. Os 1.8 milhões de gazauís se encontram ainda mais apertado, esmagados, literalmente, entre os F16, tanques, morteiros, snipers, navios, ao norte, sul, leste, oeste e ar.Netanyahu's spokesperson, the great deceiver Mark Regev, "responds" to the "revenge shooting "claim video.
O porta-voz de Netanyahu, o grande enganador Mark Regev, "responde" ao vídeo sobre o assassinato de um civil (assassinato e denúncia do reservista da IDF Eran Efrati que mostrei em blogs anteriores) por vingança.
Jon Snow interviews the great deceiver Mark Regev and Fatah MP Hanan Ashrawi. Regev says: "Israel's goal is peace and quiet for Israelis".
"Tel Aviv has no metro... When the Israeli army entered the Gaza strip and found there an astounding system of underground tunnels, an idea made the rounds: Why not invite Hamas to build the Tel Aviv metro? They have the expertise, the technology, the planners, the manpower.
But this war is no joke.
Afeter 30 days of fighting (so far), who has won?
It is, of course, much too early to draw final conclusions. The ceasefire has blown up. It will take months and years to sum up all the consequences. But Israeli popular wisdom has already drawn its own conclusions: it is a draw.
This conclusion, by itself, is a kind of miracle. For an entire month, Israeli citizens have been bombarded by a barrage of propaganda. Daily, hourly, they were subject to an endless stream of brainwashing.
The political and military leaders dictated a picture of victory. Tanks and troop carriers coming out of the Gaza Strip have been ordered to fly large flags. All photos of troops leaving the Strip showed happily smiling soldiers. (In my imagination I see the troops training for the exit, with the sergeant-major shouting: "You there, Private Cohen, correct your smile!")
According to the official line, our glorious army has achieved all its goals. Mission accomplished. Hamas has been beaten. As one of the tame "military correspondents" put it: "Hamas is crawling on all fours to the ceasefire!"
It is therefore a great surprise that in the first poll after the fighting, 51% of the Israeli Jewish public responded that the war has ended in a draw. Only 36% answered that we have won, while 6% believe that it ended in a victory for Hamas.
When a guerrilla organization with at most 10,000 fighters achieves a draw with one of the mightiest armies in the world, equipped with the most ultra-modern weapons, that is by itself a kind of victory.
Hamas has not only shown a lot of courage during the fighting, but also surprising ingenuity in preparing for this campaign. It is still standing upright.
The Israeli army, on the other hand, has shown very little imagination. It was quite unprepared for the maze of tunnels...
Indeed, as a commentator dared to write, the army has become a heavy, cumbersome, conservative machine. It followed its established routine, without employing special forces. Its doctrine was, in essence, to pound the civilian population into submission, causing as much killing and destruction as possible, so as to deter the "resistance" as much and as long as possible. In Israel, the terrible pictures of death and destruction did not evoke compassion. On the contrary. People were proud of it.
In the end, both sides were thoroughly exhausted. Yet in the Cairo ceasefire negotiations, Hamas did not surrender.
For the Israeli leadership, the only alternative to retreat was the conquest of the entire Gaza Strip. This would have enabled it to exterminate Hamas physically and dismantle its infrastructure. But the army strenuously objected and convinced the political leadership, too. An estimated thousand Israeli soldiers would have been killed, the entire Strip would have been turned into ruins...
Israeli society has no stomach for so many [Isareli] casualties. And the international outcry against the civilian carnage in Gaza would have been too much.
So now Netanyahu is doing what he had sworn never-ever to do: he is conducting negotiations with the "despicable terrorist organization" - Hamas.
There is a mental illness called paranoia vera. Its main symptom: the patient takes a crazy assumption (the earth is flat, Kennedy was killed by extraterrestrials, the Jews rule the world) and builds an entire logical system around it. The more logical the system is, the sicker is the patient.
Israel's current paranoia concerns Hamas. The assumption is that Hamas is an evil jihadist terrorist organization, bent on the annihilation of Israel. As one journalist put it this week: "a gang of psychopaths".
The entire policy of Israel is based on this assumption. So was the war.
You can't talk with Hamas. You can't make peace with it. You must annihilate it.
This demonic picture has no connection with the real world.
I don't like Hamas. I don't like religious parties in general – not in Israel, not in the Arab world, not anywhere. I would never vote for one.
But Hamas is an integral part of Palestinian society. In the last internationally supervised Palestinian election it won a majority. True, it took power in the Gaza strip by force, but only after winning a clear electoral majority in the Strip, too.
Hamas is not "jihadist"' in the sense of al-Qaeda or ISIS. It is not fighting for a world-wide Caliphate. It is a Palestinian party, totally devoted to the Palestinian cause. It calls itself "the resistance'. It did not impose religious law (the "sharia") on the population.
Ah, but what about the Hamas Charter, which demands the destruction of the State of Israel and contains virulent anti-Semitic statements?
For me, this is frustratingly deja vu. The PLO had a Charter that also called for the destruction of Israel. It was paraded around endlessly in Israeli propaganda. A respected professor and former army intelligence chief, Yehoshafat Harkabi, spoke for years about nothing else. Only after the signing of the Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO were the relevant clauses of this document formally struck out, in the presence of President Bill Clinton.
Because of religious restrictions, Hamas itself cannot sign a peace agreement. But, like religious people everywhere (especially Jews and Christians), it has found ways around God's commandments. The founder of Hamas, the paralyzed Sheik Ahmad Yassin (who wrote the Charter and was assassinated by Israel) proposed a 30-year Hudna. A Hudna is a truce sanctified by Allah, which can be renewed until the Last Judgment.
Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace organization to which I belong, first demanded eight years ago that our government start talking with Hamas. We ourselves had a series of friendly discussions with several Hamas leaders. The current official line of Hamas is that if Mahmoud Abbas succeeds in signing a peace agreement with Israel, Hamas will accept it – provided it is ratified by a referendum.
Unfortunately, there is very little hope that Israel will be cured of this paranoia soon.
Assuming that this war will soon be over, what will remain?
The war hysteria that submerged Israel during this war has brought with it an odious wave of fascism. Lynch Israeli mobs have hunted Plaestinians in Jerusalem, Journalists like Gideon Levy need bodyguards, university professors who dared to advocate peace were censored (justifying a world-wide academic boycott), artists who voiced mild dissent were dismissed.
Some people believe that this is a milestone in the decay of Israeli democracy. I still hope that the evil wave will recede. But something will surely remain. Fascism has been sanctioned in the mainstream discourse.
One symptom of fascism is the "knife in the back" legend. Adolf Hitler used it all the way to power. Our glorious army was on the verge of victory, when a cabal of (Jewish) politicians stuck a knife in its back. One can already hear this now in Israel. The brave soldiers could have conquered all of the Gaza strip, if Netanyahu and his stooges – the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff – had not given the order for an ignominious retreat.
At the moment, Netanyahu is at the height of his popularity. An overwhelming 77% of the Jewish citizens polled approve of his conduct of the war. But this can change overnight. The criticism voiced now in whispers, even in his own government, may break into the open.
In the end, Netanyahu may be devoured by the very same super-patriotic flames that he has stoked.
The awful pictures of devastation and death coming out of Gaza have made a profound impression abroad. They cannot be simply erased. Anti-Israeli sentiment will remain, some of it tinged with outright anti-Semitism. Israel's (false) claim of being "the nation-state of the Jewish people" and the almost total identification of Diaspora Jews with Israel will inevitably lead to blaming all Jews for Israel's misdeeds.
The impact on Arabs is far worse. For every child killed, for every home destroyed, new "terrorists" will surely grow up.
There might have been some positive results too.
This war has created temporarily an unlikely coalition of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority.
Two months ago, Abbas was the punch bag of Netanyahu. Now he is the pet of Netanyahu and Israeli public opinion. At the same time, paradoxically, Abbas and Hamas have also been drawn closer together.
This could be a unique opportunity to start a serious peace process, in the wake of the solution of the Gaza Strip problems.
If…"
Uri Avnery, jornalista israelense e criador da ONG de Direitos Humanos Gush Shalom, em Tel Aviv. 09/08/2014
Afeter 30 days of fighting (so far), who has won?
It is, of course, much too early to draw final conclusions. The ceasefire has blown up. It will take months and years to sum up all the consequences. But Israeli popular wisdom has already drawn its own conclusions: it is a draw.
This conclusion, by itself, is a kind of miracle. For an entire month, Israeli citizens have been bombarded by a barrage of propaganda. Daily, hourly, they were subject to an endless stream of brainwashing.
The political and military leaders dictated a picture of victory. Tanks and troop carriers coming out of the Gaza Strip have been ordered to fly large flags. All photos of troops leaving the Strip showed happily smiling soldiers. (In my imagination I see the troops training for the exit, with the sergeant-major shouting: "You there, Private Cohen, correct your smile!")
According to the official line, our glorious army has achieved all its goals. Mission accomplished. Hamas has been beaten. As one of the tame "military correspondents" put it: "Hamas is crawling on all fours to the ceasefire!"
It is therefore a great surprise that in the first poll after the fighting, 51% of the Israeli Jewish public responded that the war has ended in a draw. Only 36% answered that we have won, while 6% believe that it ended in a victory for Hamas.
When a guerrilla organization with at most 10,000 fighters achieves a draw with one of the mightiest armies in the world, equipped with the most ultra-modern weapons, that is by itself a kind of victory.
Hamas has not only shown a lot of courage during the fighting, but also surprising ingenuity in preparing for this campaign. It is still standing upright.
The Israeli army, on the other hand, has shown very little imagination. It was quite unprepared for the maze of tunnels...
Indeed, as a commentator dared to write, the army has become a heavy, cumbersome, conservative machine. It followed its established routine, without employing special forces. Its doctrine was, in essence, to pound the civilian population into submission, causing as much killing and destruction as possible, so as to deter the "resistance" as much and as long as possible. In Israel, the terrible pictures of death and destruction did not evoke compassion. On the contrary. People were proud of it.
In the end, both sides were thoroughly exhausted. Yet in the Cairo ceasefire negotiations, Hamas did not surrender.
For the Israeli leadership, the only alternative to retreat was the conquest of the entire Gaza Strip. This would have enabled it to exterminate Hamas physically and dismantle its infrastructure. But the army strenuously objected and convinced the political leadership, too. An estimated thousand Israeli soldiers would have been killed, the entire Strip would have been turned into ruins...
Israeli society has no stomach for so many [Isareli] casualties. And the international outcry against the civilian carnage in Gaza would have been too much.
So now Netanyahu is doing what he had sworn never-ever to do: he is conducting negotiations with the "despicable terrorist organization" - Hamas.
There is a mental illness called paranoia vera. Its main symptom: the patient takes a crazy assumption (the earth is flat, Kennedy was killed by extraterrestrials, the Jews rule the world) and builds an entire logical system around it. The more logical the system is, the sicker is the patient.
Israel's current paranoia concerns Hamas. The assumption is that Hamas is an evil jihadist terrorist organization, bent on the annihilation of Israel. As one journalist put it this week: "a gang of psychopaths".
The entire policy of Israel is based on this assumption. So was the war.
You can't talk with Hamas. You can't make peace with it. You must annihilate it.
This demonic picture has no connection with the real world.
I don't like Hamas. I don't like religious parties in general – not in Israel, not in the Arab world, not anywhere. I would never vote for one.
But Hamas is an integral part of Palestinian society. In the last internationally supervised Palestinian election it won a majority. True, it took power in the Gaza strip by force, but only after winning a clear electoral majority in the Strip, too.
Hamas is not "jihadist"' in the sense of al-Qaeda or ISIS. It is not fighting for a world-wide Caliphate. It is a Palestinian party, totally devoted to the Palestinian cause. It calls itself "the resistance'. It did not impose religious law (the "sharia") on the population.
Ah, but what about the Hamas Charter, which demands the destruction of the State of Israel and contains virulent anti-Semitic statements?
For me, this is frustratingly deja vu. The PLO had a Charter that also called for the destruction of Israel. It was paraded around endlessly in Israeli propaganda. A respected professor and former army intelligence chief, Yehoshafat Harkabi, spoke for years about nothing else. Only after the signing of the Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO were the relevant clauses of this document formally struck out, in the presence of President Bill Clinton.
Because of religious restrictions, Hamas itself cannot sign a peace agreement. But, like religious people everywhere (especially Jews and Christians), it has found ways around God's commandments. The founder of Hamas, the paralyzed Sheik Ahmad Yassin (who wrote the Charter and was assassinated by Israel) proposed a 30-year Hudna. A Hudna is a truce sanctified by Allah, which can be renewed until the Last Judgment.
Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace organization to which I belong, first demanded eight years ago that our government start talking with Hamas. We ourselves had a series of friendly discussions with several Hamas leaders. The current official line of Hamas is that if Mahmoud Abbas succeeds in signing a peace agreement with Israel, Hamas will accept it – provided it is ratified by a referendum.
Unfortunately, there is very little hope that Israel will be cured of this paranoia soon.
Assuming that this war will soon be over, what will remain?
The war hysteria that submerged Israel during this war has brought with it an odious wave of fascism. Lynch Israeli mobs have hunted Plaestinians in Jerusalem, Journalists like Gideon Levy need bodyguards, university professors who dared to advocate peace were censored (justifying a world-wide academic boycott), artists who voiced mild dissent were dismissed.
Some people believe that this is a milestone in the decay of Israeli democracy. I still hope that the evil wave will recede. But something will surely remain. Fascism has been sanctioned in the mainstream discourse.
One symptom of fascism is the "knife in the back" legend. Adolf Hitler used it all the way to power. Our glorious army was on the verge of victory, when a cabal of (Jewish) politicians stuck a knife in its back. One can already hear this now in Israel. The brave soldiers could have conquered all of the Gaza strip, if Netanyahu and his stooges – the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff – had not given the order for an ignominious retreat.
At the moment, Netanyahu is at the height of his popularity. An overwhelming 77% of the Jewish citizens polled approve of his conduct of the war. But this can change overnight. The criticism voiced now in whispers, even in his own government, may break into the open.
In the end, Netanyahu may be devoured by the very same super-patriotic flames that he has stoked.
The awful pictures of devastation and death coming out of Gaza have made a profound impression abroad. They cannot be simply erased. Anti-Israeli sentiment will remain, some of it tinged with outright anti-Semitism. Israel's (false) claim of being "the nation-state of the Jewish people" and the almost total identification of Diaspora Jews with Israel will inevitably lead to blaming all Jews for Israel's misdeeds.
The impact on Arabs is far worse. For every child killed, for every home destroyed, new "terrorists" will surely grow up.
There might have been some positive results too.
This war has created temporarily an unlikely coalition of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority.
Two months ago, Abbas was the punch bag of Netanyahu. Now he is the pet of Netanyahu and Israeli public opinion. At the same time, paradoxically, Abbas and Hamas have also been drawn closer together.
This could be a unique opportunity to start a serious peace process, in the wake of the solution of the Gaza Strip problems.
If…"
Uri Avnery, jornalista israelense e criador da ONG de Direitos Humanos Gush Shalom, em Tel Aviv. 09/08/2014
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário