Rogue State of Israel XXXVII : Licenced to Lie Cheat Kill?

The Deal: multilateral ceasefire; Israel to open more of its Gaza crossings, Egypt to open Rafah; Palestinian National Authority to take over Gaza's borders and rebuilding efforts with the help of the EU, Norway, Qatar and Turkey; Israel to reduce security buffer inside Gaza, from 3m to 1m; Israel to respect part of Oslo agreement and extend fishing limit off Gaza's coast to 6 miles, with the possibility of extending it further to the point of the 12-mile international allowance.
In a separate, bilateral agreement, Egyp will agree to open its 14 km border with Gaza at Rafah (So it depends on the USA).
Ultimately, the Palestinians also expect the re/construction of Port and Airport.
O Acordo: cessar-fogo multilateral; Israel abre suas barreiras fronteiriças com a Faixa de Gaza e o Egito abre a de Rafah que a comunica com o Egito; A Autoridade Nacional Palestina assume a responsabilidade das fronteiras da Faixa; a reconstrução;A ANP chefia a reconstrução; Israel reduz a zona-tampão a 1 quilômetro; Israel extende os limites de pesca a 6 milhas, com possibilidade de extender até o respeito total dos Acordos de Oslo.

A Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians started today at 16:00 GMT. 
Egypt and Israel will open the crossings to achieve the expedited entry of humanitarian aid, materials for reconstruction, fishing into 6 nautical miles and the continuation of indirect negotiations between the two sides over the seaport and airport.
In the end, Israel will make money out of the misery it has caused and everything remains the same. The occupation must end.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared that the ceasefire will usher in a new era for the country. "Together, we will build a new nation and end the occupation".
Furthermore, Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, wrote to the governments of the UK, US, Australia, Canada, South Africa and five Latin-American countries on Tuesday, reminding them that all states are obliged under international law to investigate alleged violations, including war crimes, committed by nationals. Malki said that governments should warn their citizens taht they could be liable for investigation and prosecution, for committing war crimes while serving in the IDF during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
On the other hand, eminent British lawyers wrote to the international criminal court earlier this month urging it to investigate alleged war crimes committe in Gaza. "The International community cannot continue to act wimply as witness to such bloodshed and extreme civilian suffering."

Cessar-fogo em Gaza acabou de ser decretado hoje a partir das 16:00 GMT.
Egito e Israel vão abrir as fronteiras para a entrada de ajuda humanitária, material para reconstrução, respeito do tratado de pesca a 6 milhas. A discussão principal sobre porto e aeroporto foi adiada para daqui a um mês, assim como o fim total do bloqueio.
O presidente palestino Mahmoud Abbas declarou que este cessar-fogo abre uma nova era para o seu país. "Juntos, construiremos uma nova nação e acabaremos com a ocupação".
Além disso, o governo palestino solicitou aos governos da Austrália, Inglaterra e Estados Unidos que investiguem seus cidadãos que lutaram na IDF por crimes de guerra.

A violência voltou a povoar as noites e os dias de Gaza com os bombardeios israelenses, enquanto o Egito propôs ontem um cessar-fogo que "abrisse travessias chave no território bloqueado" e não terminasse o bloqueio como querem os gazauís e o Hamas demanda. Desde o fim da trégua no dia 19 de agosto, o número de mortos em Gaza aumenta de hora em hora, pelo menos 112 foram mortos nestes últimos dias em mais de 350 bombardeios ao longo da Faixa.

O jornal Haaretz deu a entender que Israel mudou de estratégia e agora decidiu destruir o máximo de prédios destruíveis. É por isso que além dos bairros populares, está bombardeando prédios inteiros na zona residencial "nobre" de Gaza onde mora a classé média. Destruir indiscrimidamente. Destruir prédios que alojam dezenas de famílias que durante a noite perdem tudo. A desculpa do bombardeio do último prédio de 13 andares (20 feridos graves e 2 mortos) é que políticos do Hamas costumam frequentar o barzinho que fica no térreo. É brincadeira! De madrugada? Doze andares embaixo dos apartamentos de 70 famílias? Se o problema não fosse tão grave, com tantos feridos e tantas famílias desabrigadas, seria até piada.
E a enrolação do "aviso" prévio. Aviso prévio, nada. O tal aviso prévio são duas ou três bombas menores que são jogadas nos prédios. Os moradores acordam assustados (os do último andar não escapam) e têm de 5 a 15 minutos para escapar escada abaixo. Quem consegue descer um prédio de 13 andares tão rápido e com menino no colo e puxando os maiorzinhos escada abaixo?
O Hamas revidou com um foguete que acertou uma casa em Ashkelon ferindo levemente quatro israelenses, segundo a mídia local. 

Hoje é o 51° dia da Operação Protective Edge que começou no dia 08 de julho e o número de mortos palestinos chega a 2.143, dos quais 490 crianças, até ontem. Mais de 11.100 feridos. 540 mil palestinos ficaram desabrigados.
Os israelenses continuam em 69, cinco civis, dos quais uma criança.  

Fiquei sabendo esta manhã que 71 mesquitas foram destruídas. E também o estádio de futebol de Gaza, de novo, já fora destruído em 2012 e em 2009. Destruição por todo lado. Escombros. Vidas quebradas. Demolições de propriedades públicas e privadas só pra cantar de galo. Binyamin Netanyahu é insaciável. Injustiça demais.

Israel tem proibido que a Anistia Internacional e o Human Rights Watch entrem em Gaza para investigar seus crimes de guerra e violações de direitos humanos. As autoridades israelenses dão duas razões para a proibição: o fechamento do Erez crossing (que separa Israel da Faixa, e que nenhuma das duas organizações de direitos humanos está na lista de grupos de assistência aprovadas pelo Ministro das relações sociais. Porém, o COGAT (orgão governamental israelense que coordena as atividades nos territórios ocupados) diz que "grupos não registrados podem submeter pedido de cadastro extradordinário a ser considerado conforme as medidas baseadas na situação de segurança política".  Ou seja, deixa pra lá.

Como diz meu colega Robert Fisk em um artigo do mês passado que publico abaixo: impunidade. É isso que é pior quando se lida com os horríveis crimes que Israel repete sem parar. Não dá pra aguentar. É demais. 

Violence reverberated across Gaza with Israel launching several deadly air strikes on Monday, while Egypt proposed a new ceasefire that would "open key crossings into the blockaded territory", but not end.

Since the last truce collapsed on 19 August, the death tool in Gaza has risen steadily with at least 112 Palestinians killed in more than 350 Israeli strikes across the territory in the last days.

Haaretz hints that Israel has altered its policy and is now intent on causing as much damage as possible to buildings it sees as "potential targets", which means, nice residential and commercial buildings. Israel decided to attack the middle class to try to turn them against Hamas. 
In three dats Israel has toppled or destroyed five towers and shopping complexes in its new tactic aimed at increasing destruction and pressure.
And they dare say that they are targeting Hamas. Deception, deception. This last residential building was attacked "because it has a coffee shop on the ground floor where Hamas' polititians gather to talk". Really! At dawn?

Hamas retaliated with a rocket hat hit a house n Ashkelon early this morning lightly wounding four israelis, local media reported.

Today marks the 51th day since Israel started its military campagin in Gaza on July. The death toll has reached 2,143 Palestinians, of which 490 are children, according to the Palestinian health Minister. More than 11,100 are severely wounded. 540 thousand people lost their homes.
The Israeli death tooh reached 69. 64 soldiers (5 from friendly fire) and 5 civilians, including 1 child.

I learned this morning that 71 mosques have been destroyed. And also the Gaza Stadium. Destruction everywhere. Rubbles. Broken lives. Injustice.

Israel has been preventing Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch workers from entering Gaza to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations. They cited two reasons for their refusal to grant appropriate permits: "the closure of the Erez border crossing, located between Israen and the Gaza Strip, and that neither human rights organization is part of a list of aid groups approved by the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs". Really?However, Israel's COGAT (coordinator of government activity in the [occupied] territories) states that "unrecognized groups may sumit an exceptional request that will be considered in light of the prevailing policy based on the political-security situation". Bla bla bla.

As my colleague Robert Fisk says in a July article I publish below: impunity, that's the worst part of dealing with Israel's repeated horrendous crimes. We can't stand it any more. It's too much, too often, too undignifying for all of us. 

  

"Impunity is the word that comes to mind. Eight hundred dead Palestinians. Eight hundred [now 2.133]. That’s infinitely more than twice the total dead of flight MH17 over Ukraine. And if you refer only to the “innocent” dead – ie no Hamas fighters, young sympathisers or corrupt Hamas officials, with whom the Israelis will, in due course, have to talk – then the women and children and elderly who have been slaughtered in Gaza are still well over the total number of MH17 victims. 

And there’s something very odd, isn’t there, about our reactions to these two outrageous death tolls. In Gaza, we plead for a ceasefire but let them bury their dead in the sweltering slums of Gaza and cannot even open a humanitarian route for the wounded. For the passengers on MH17, we demand – immediately – proper burial and care for the relatives of the dead. We curse those who left bodies lying in the fields of eastern Ukraine – as many bodies have been lying, for a shorter time, perhaps, but under an equally oven-like sky, in Gaza.

Because – and this has been creeping up on me for years – we don’t care so much about the Palestinians, do we? We care neither about Israeli culpability, which is far greater because of the larger number of civilians the Israeli army have killed. Nor, for that matter, Hamas’s capability. Of course, God forbid that the figures should have been the other way round. If 800 Israelis had died and only 35 Palestinians, I think I know our reaction.

We would call it – rightly – a slaughter, an atrocity, a crime for which the killers must be made accountable. Yes, Hamas should be made accountable, too. But why is it that the only criminals we are searching for today are the men who fired one – perhaps two – missiles at an airliner over Ukraine? If Israel’s dead equalled those of the Palestinians – and let me repeat, thank heavens this is not the case – I suspect that the Americans would be offering all military support to an Israel endangered by “Iranian-backed terrorists”. We would be demanding that Hamas hand over the monsters who fired rockets at Israel and who are, by the way, trying to hit aircraft at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. But we are not doing this. Because those who have died are mostly Palestinians.

More questions. What’s the limit for Palestinian deaths before we have a ceasefire? Eight hundred? Or 8,000? Could we have a scorecard? The exchange rate for dead? Or would we just wait until our gorge rises at the blood and say enough – even for Israel’s war, enough is enough. It’s not as if we have not been through all this before.

From the massacre of Arab villagers by Israel’s new army in 1948, as it is set down by Israeli historians, to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, when Lebanese Christian allies of Israel murdered up to 1,700 people in 1982 while Israeli troops watched; from the Qana massacre of Lebanese Arabs at the UN base – yes, the UN again – in 1996, to another, smaller terrible killing at Qana (again) 10 years later. And so to the mass killing of civilians in the 2008-9 Gaza war. And after Sabra and Shatila, there were inquiries, and after Qana there was an inquiry and after Gaza in 2008-9, there was an inquiry and don’t we remember the weight of it, somewhat lightened of course when Judge Goldstone did his best to disown it, when – according to my Israeli friends – he came under intense personal pressure.

In other words, we have been here before. The claim that only “terrorists” are to blame for those whom Hamas kills and only “terrorists” are to blame for those whom Israel kills (Hamas “terrorists”, of course). And the constant claim, repeated over and over and over, that Israel has the highest standards of any army in the world and would never hurt civilians. I recall here the 17,500 dead of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, most of whom were civilians. Have we forgotten all this?

And apart from impunity, the word stupidity comes to mind. I will forget here the corrupt Arabs and the killers of Isis and the wholesale mass murders of Iraq and Syria. Perhaps their indifference to “Palestine” is to be expected. They do not claim to represent our values. But what do we make of John Kerry, Obama’s Secretary of State, who told us last week that the “underlying issues” of the Israeli-Palestinian war need to be addressed? What on earth was he doing all last year when he claimed he was going to produce a Middle East peace in 12 months? Doesn’t he realise why the Palestinians are in Gaza?

The truth is that many hundreds of thousands of people around the world – I wish I could say millions – want an end to this impunity, an end to phrases such as “disproportionate casualties”. Disproportionate to what? Brave Israelis also feel this way. They write about it. Long live the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. Meanwhile, the Arab, Muslim world becomes wilder with anger. And we will pay the price". 

Robert Fisk, in The Independent