The withdrawal of Israeli ground forces and Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 was a reconfiguration of control from outwith the Strip.

It was an Israeli Public Relations stunt to display to the International Community Israel's purported 'Genuine Peace Credentials'. In fact, the real agenda is the much coveted East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Strip represents a mere 1 % of Mandate Palestine. It is heavily populated to the tune of perhaps, now, 1.6 million Palestinians. It has always been the deep desire of Israel to detach the Strip from Israel's legal and moral obligations for its welfare. The riddance of its inhabitants has been deeply longed for. It has a whole background in itself! It is actively isolating it from the rest of the Occupied Territories, trying to create two separate entities. It wants to 'cancel out' the existence of 1.6 million Palestinians as not being part of Israel/Palestine, so that it can claim the latter do not count, falsely asserting that it is ahead in demographics.

It is the largest prison on earth. Israel controls everything! It decides everything. Israel wields unconscionable power of life and death. It has veritably been a slow death. Everything has collapsed: social services, the fishing industry, the economy, factories and industry, the devastation of agriculture, the health system.

If the words of Dov Weissglass, advisor to the Israel prime minister, on February 16th, 2006, are anything to go by, then the siege and blockade are barbaric and inhumane:

'It’s like a diet –
the Palestinians will
lose lots of weight,
but they won’t die.'

The War on Iraq was an outrage! We all knew that Bush & co. were a bunch of dangerous demented neo-cons. Blair became wayward and way of course and out of touch. Bush and Blair buddies? Was that a factor? We all know about AIPAC and the pro-Israel Lobby distorting U.S. foreign policies for their own strategic self-interests. Is there some near equivalent in the U.K.?

How was it that the ludicrous hype about Saddam Hussein being able to launch missiles at British bases in Cyprus so readily 'swallowed' by gullible recipients of media reportage?

In the aftermath of the invasion, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General stated that the war on Iraq was illegal. Surely that is sufficient grounds based on a non-partial credible source at the very pinnacle of the UN system to indict those who were involved.

The World Order, on that fateful day of the invasion, was overturned. It reverted back to the Suez Canal Tripartite aggression against Egypt. Are we to suffer the insuferable? Attacking and invading a sovereign state that was not attacking or invading anyone is unprecedented. It demolishes the Nuremburg-formed laws of war, after WWII, that deem this type of aggression of pre-emptive wars as unlawful. The Nazis had indulged in this on similar pretexts. The Nuremburgh Trials outlawed it as baseless.

Hope for Palestinian emancipation, restitution and recovery of the Occupied Territories is in vain. The Peace Process has been killed off many times by the Israelis. They have never sought peace. It would be a major obstacle to expansionism. We have seen it before over decades. It has been at the heart of the many wars in the Middle East. They are in a vice literally. Between the anvil and the hammer! The Israeli colonization process is dragging down the Palestinians to even deeper levels of straightened circumstances and dire socio-economic depravtion, all in the vein of heaping intolerable, unviable and deteriorating living conditions in order to drive out the Palestinians in dribs and drabs. Any Palestinian homeland, or an Archipelago of townships, cantons, shruken ghettos, walled up towns and villages, mega territorial prisons, and bits and pieces of remaining Palestinian territories is the frightening outcome for them and all that it entails in more suffocating and strangulating siege. Bit by bit, in no uncertain terms, the Israeli State and its organs are in unison and should-to-shoulder that every effort is expended in furthering tactics and methods of gradual dispossession, displacement and unbearable pressures.

Just to cite one example: an incident, little reported, overlooked as insignificant and hardly likely to elicit media glare was the final and permanent closure of the only gate through which tens of thousands of East Jerusalemite Palestinians would have to pass through to reach inside the core part of East Jerusalem. By this means, some 70,000 Palestinians of the City will actually, through time, be excluded entirely from the central hub of their socio-economic existence on which they depend on for everything – livelihoods, social services, religious places of worship, friends and family. Once again, through this one means, greater hardship and suffering is engendered, through colonialist engineering, to ethncally cleanse by sly and surruptitious methods hardly likely to attract unwelcome attention from the International Media.

Netanyahu's speech was peppered with the word 'peace' this last Sunday June 14th, 2009. But 'peace' in reality means 'pacification'. De facto entrenched colonization is inherent to that word. Emancipation for the Palestinians is in vain and a remote propect. Subjugation and repression has become a masterful Israeli skill and feeds a large security and high tech industry. Restitution of that 22 % of their remaining homeland will be a remote prospect if Israel is allowed to continue with its 'ways'.
A sheer distortion in his speech saying that Israel 'withdrew' from the Gaza Strip and all it got in return were 'suicide bombers' and 'thousands of missiles'. Palestinians were disturbingly aware what lay behind that policy of 'withdrawal'. It was part of a devious game at isolating them not only from the rest of the world but from the rest of the Occupied Territories. It was to proceed with the really important agenda of further entrenchment in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Peace Process has been killed off many times by the Israelis. They have never sought peace. It would be a major obstacle to expansionism. We have seen it before over decades. It has been at the heart of the many wars in the Middle East. They are in a vice literally. Between the anvil and the hammer! The Israeli colonization process is dragging down the Palestinians to even deeper levels of straightened circumstances and dire socio-economic depravation, all in the vein of heaping intolerable, unviable and deteriorating living conditions in order to drive out the Palestinians in dribs and drabs.
Any Palestinian homeland, or an Archipelago of townships, cantons, shrunken ghettos, walled up towns and villages, mega territorial prisons, and bits and pieces of remaining Palestinian territories is the frightening outcome for them and all that it entails in more suffocating and strangulating siege. Bit by bit, in no uncertain terms, the Israeli State and its organs are in unison and should-to-shoulder that every effort is expended in furthering tactics and methods of gradual dispossession, displacement and unbearable pressures.
Just to cite one example: an incident, little reported, overlooked as insignificant and hardly likely to elicit media glare was the final and permanent closure of the only gate through which tens of thousands of East Jerusalemite Palestinians would have to pass through to reach inside the core part of East Jerusalem. By this means, some 70,000 Palestinians of the City will actually, through time, be excluded entirely from the central hub of their socio-economic existence on which they depend on for everything – livelihoods, social services, religious places of worship, friends and family.
Once again, through this one means, greater hardship and suffering is engendered, through colonialist engineering, to ethncally cleanse by sly and surruptitious methods hardly likely to attract unwelcome attention from the International Media.

It is mind-boggling what's happening in Iran. There are a lot of contradictions such as Musavi having been instrumental in the U.S. embassy hostage taking and being a leading founder of the Islamic Revolution and a protege of Imam Khomeini. All indications are that a mixture of factors are at play here. There seems to be rivalry among the Old Guard and Ruling Elite which themselves are broken up into power groups. Rafsanjani, a powerful figure and economic baron is at odds and in rivalry with Ahmadinjad and the Revolutionary guards, who are vying over control of Iran's economy and vastly lucrative oil industry.

Then, we have the huge frustrations and passions of the Iranian people so evidently obvious with the mass demonstrations. There seems to be deep unpopular feeling against Ahmadinejad which indicates deep divisions and alienation in society. It could be the class system coming to the fore and the glaring disparity between the 'haves' and 'have nots'.

The politics of Iran are complex to say the least. Ahmadinejad may very well have won the elections according to surveys carried out by researchers from the West. On the other hand, we are being led to believe that there is more than a whiff of corruption and vote-rigging. We, as laypeople have little idea of what is presently unfolding. However, we have to bear in mind that, with the U.S. and Israel looming in the background, then it might be more than pertinent to note some of the comments of Paul Craig Roberts who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration, who wrote on June 16th, 2009 that:

As a person who has seen it all from inside the U.S. government, I believe that the purpose of the U.S. government’s manipulation of the American and puppet government media is to discredit the Iranian government by portraying the Iranian government as an oppressor of the Iranian people and a frustrater of the Iranian people’s will. This is how the U.S. government is setting up Iran for military attack.


Bloomsday Edition
June 16, 2009
Why the US Wants to Delegitimize the Iranian Elections
Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

'The Arabs attempt to strangle Israel at birth' is a Myth and classic Israeli propaganda churned out so that the immigrant settler Jews in the Middle East can perpetuate the status of Victimhood and 'another Holocaust in the making at the hands of the Arabs'.
Such a Myth conveniently veils the Operations of Ethnic Cleansing carried out in early 1948 well before the Arab Armies entered Palestine on May 15th, 1948. It is also convenient that this Myth not unaccidentally ignores the fact that these Arab Armies stayed in the areas allotted to the Palestinians by the Partition Plan of November 1947. Other facts are also conveniently ignored.
Stating 'decades of suicide bombings' is hyperbole. Exaggerating 'suicide bombings' is in the vein of blaming the victims to the exclusion of rampant violence of Israel's occupation and colonial policies. The first suicide bombing began in 1994 after the massacre of Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. 'Suicide bombings' came to a halt a few years ago. That does not amount to 'decades of suicide bombings'.
'Hizullah's shelling of northern Israel for six years' – what period or phase does the 'six years' indicate? Here again there is no substantiation, explanation let alone facts. When Israel withdrew in 2000 there was no shelling by Hizbullah until the War on Lebanon in July 2006. Has the person conveniently omitted that Israel occupied Lebanese territory for over 18 years, not to mention Israeli devastating invasions of that small country?
'Iran's bloodthirsty threat to wipe Israel off the map' – that is mere supposition, heresay, unproven and unevidenced and factually incorrect. That is demonising propaganda! It's aim is to taint anyone and everyone with 'Hitler' and the 'Nazis'. Such a tactic is a gross distortion.
Jewish settlers in Hebron celebrate the deaths of Palestinians. In one instance, there was photographic evidence of Jewish settlers giving out sweets to each other on the death of a Palestinian.

THE COLONIAL WAR OF ATTRITION AGAINST PALESTINE

"Palestinians have been the subject of frequent attack -- often with civilians and their homes in the direct line of fire. Since 1967, the Israeli army demolished more than 20,000 Palestinian houses, uprooted more than 3,000,000 trees, revoked residency rights of more than 6,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem, imprisoned more than 700,000 Palestinians for various periods of time, and killed or assassinated 15,000."

and

"Since Israel removed its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2004, Israeli settlements have expanded at their fastest rate in history. Moreover, Israel has issued plans to build more than 150,000 illegal housing units in Israeli settlements. In 2008, amidst the "settlement freeze" agreed upon in the 2007 Annapolis framework, tenders for new settlement building increased by 550 percent. Actual settlement construction has increased by 30 percent since the launching of the new round of peace talks."

and

" Since it removed 8,000 settlers from Gaza, over 50,000 new settlers have come to the West Bank in less than 3 years. The Israeli army is still in effective control of 24 percent of the land along Gaza's northern and eastern borders."

and very disturbingly:

"Israel's 21-day incursion into Gaza left an immense humanitarian crisis: More than 50,800 Gazans were left homeless; 80 percent of the population are now dependent on assistance; between 35 and 60 percent of the agriculture industry was wrecked (60 percent of the agricultural land in the north of the Strip may no longer be arable); 219 factories were destroyed or severely damaged; 48 percent of the 122 health facilities assessed were found to be damaged or destroyed; 15 of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 41 primary health care centers suffered damages; 14,000 homes, 68 government buildings, and 31 NGOs were either totally or partially damaged -- as a result, an estimated 600,000 tons of concrete rubble will need to be removed.

DE-DEVELOPMENT OF GAZA STRIP - INTENTIONAL

Dr. Sarah Roy's seminal research book 'The De-development of the Gaza Strip' highlights the consistent Israeli policy to ensure that no economic and industrial development occurs in the Strip. Israeli Professor Avi Shalim, at Saint Anthony's College, Oxford stated that during all those 38 years, even until now:

"The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised
values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding
ground for political extremism."

Guardian, January 7th, 2009


Prior to the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the Jewish settlers, the Israeli military, bypass roads, settlements, buffer zones and military bases took up more than 40 % of the Strip. Just 8,000 Jewish settlers controlled 40 % of arable land.The Water Resources of the Strip were lionized by the settlers. Some 80 % of the Palestinian population lived in abject poverty and misery, subsisting on $2 a day. Juxtapose that with the lush luxurious Jewish settlements, much like in the West Bank. Professor Avi Shlaim also went to say:

"Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the
economy of the Gaza Strip. Gaza, however, is not simply a case
of economic under- development but a uniquely cruel case
of deliberate de-development.
To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of
cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods.
The development of local industry was actively impeded so as
to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their
subordination to Israel and to establish the economic
underpinnings essential for real political independence."


Guardian, January 7th, 2009

As soon as the Oslo Agreements were signed, supposedly ushering in peace, Israel went ahead building a wall around the Strip, turning it into a mega prison with all the dire implications therein!

YAD VASHEM AND DAYR YASIN

I have no qualms about the Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust. However, the location of the memorial is right next door to the ruins and site of Deir Yassin.

The Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, which is on the outskirts of then 1948 West Jerusalem, now forming part of a Jewish neighbourhood, was the scene of a grotesque massacre of Palestinian men, women and children. Some several hundred were grossly butchered. It was a peaceful village of stone cutters who had a peace agreement with a nearby Jewish settlement. This infamous pivotal massacre was instrumental, some say, in a successful campaign of terrorizing more Palestinians into fleeing - in accomplishment of the Jewish Zionist template for the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, shaped and formed over the previous several decades.

Itamar Shapira, an Israeli employee instructor at the Yad Vashem memorial, was sacked in early May of this year for daring to mention and make a comparison that the Holocaust is the trauma of the Jewish people, rightfully memorialized as the epitome of Jewish suffering and the trauma of the Palestinian people as evidenced in their Nakbah, or Catastrophe in 1948 and 1967.

He also spoke to visitors to the Jewish Memorial about the Dayr Yasin Massacre and how the fact that, on leaving Yad Vashem, one can see some remaining ruins of the village nearby. Is the Palestinian Nakbah, or Catastrophe, in both 1948 and 1967 given its due weighting according to Itamar Shapira? According to him:

"If Yad Vashem chooses to ignore the facts, for example the massacre at Dir Yassin, or the Nakba ["The Catastrophe," the Palestinians' term for what happened to them after 1948], it means that it's afraid of something and that its historic approach is flawed," Shapira said.
Haaretz, May 4th, 2009

I wonder if the Pope will be aware of that on his visit to those climes?

THE RACIST WALL BELTING BETHLEHEM

The Racist Genocidal Wall belting Bethlehem nearly all the way around is about Israel grabbing all the vacant Palestinian land between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem. The scenic Shepherd's Hills have nearly all been seized. Bethlehem will not be able to expand. No new housing. No urban development. No commercial development as it is being purposefully strangulated. Its natural historic, commercial, social and cultural ties with East Jerusalem have been severed.

Genocide is defined in International Law as the killing, or in part, of an ethnic group.
This can be achieved by various means and not the usual stereotype of Genocide as on the Rwandan scale.

Palestinians from Bethlehem, Ramallah and the West Bank are forbidden from entering East Jerusalem. Many Palestinians have not been able to enter their ancient city for years - the commercial, religious, educational, medical, social hub of remaining Palestine.

All of it is very clear. The Israelis do not want Palestinians from entering, be it for whatever purpose. It is part and parcel of the Ethnic Cleansing Demographic War - a very old story over the course of 61 years.

It is all very deliberate. Urban, commercial, social and cultural suffocation will eventually herald the demise of Bethlehem. Pressures, in cases intolerable, will be piled on, pressurizing the Palestinians to emigrate. This is clearly Ethnic Cleansing.

It is happening elsewhere in the West Bank. The creation of suffocating, stifling mega prison ghettos, on the minimum of Palestinian land, is the objective. The Wall, barriers, fences, trenches, earth mounds, checkpoints, iron gates - totalling over 600 - the racist Permit System, mass curfew house arrest, home and property demolitions, seizing of Palestinian lands and water resources all constitute the Israeli executioner's noose around the neck of Palestinian society. Pure and simple!

FAMOUS QUOTES BY ZIONIST JEWISH FIGURES

Famous Quotes
"Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population - an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs..." Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall, 1923.

The Palestinians are "..beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the "Beasts"', New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

"We must expel Arabs and take their places."  David Ben Gurion, future Prime Minister of Israel, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.

"A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the future. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, or find some rich man or benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else-, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not difficult, not dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE!... Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important... to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with playing at colonizing."Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism (precursor of Likud), The Iron Wall, 1923.

"Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries - all of them. Not one village, not one tribe should be left." Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department in 1940. From "A Solution to the Refugee Problem" Joseph Weitz, Davar, September 29, 1967, cited in Uri Davis and Norton Mevinsky, eds., Documents from Israel, 1967-1973, p.21.