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Deception and genocide part of Israel's arsenal against 'terrorism'

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Israel has resorted to all-out genocide in its determination to wipe out Palestinians (Screenshot via YouTube)

Under the pretence of fighting terrorism, Israel has bombardment thousands of innocents in its ongoing destruction of Gaza. David Mcilwain writes.

BACK IN 2008, Australia’s former PM Malcolm Fraser presented “the case for Hamas” in an opinion article in The Age. Following Hamas’ election in a majority vote in all the Palestinian territories, approved as free and fair by UN observers, there had been a failed coup by the opposition Fatah party and its Western supporters, with a subsequent ceasefire.

As Fraser wrote:

‘Hamas won a legitimate election in early 2006. Aid workers on the ground in Palestine knew that Hamas would win because Hamas helps local people while Fatah, corrupt and inefficient, did not. The West claimed to be surprised at Hamas’ victory. It betrayed its own principles by making it plain that democracy was only acceptable if it gave the kind of result that Israel and the U.S. wanted.’

At that time, following the election of Labor under Kevin Rudd, there was a possibility of change in policy that put some distance between Australia and its “dangerous ally” the U.S., which defined all groups resisting Israel’s occupation as “terrorists” with whom no negotiation was possible.

As Malcolm Fraser noted:

Terrorism must, of course, be condemned but if one measures the loss of life in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is clear that the scales are heavily balanced against the Palestinians. The tactics used by Hamas are inefficient as a weapon of war, almost futile, but they have extracted a disproportionate response.

 

There must be talks leading to negotiations involving all the players including Hamas. Progress will not be quick, it could be months and possibly years, but a ceasefire, even initially for a limited period, would be a good start. The ending of the blockade of Gaza and the cessation of new settlements in the West Bank would be a prerequisite. In addition, the adjudication of boundaries of Israel and Palestine would be critical to a final settlement.

Fraser would surely be turning in his grave to see what has happened in the 16 years since, with negative developments on all fronts and now the enactment of the Zionist state’s genocidal “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Even at the time, his wisdom did not go unchallenged, with a response from political activist Mark Leibler that may as well have been written this year, illustrating how Israel has never been committed to any of the goals essential for a fair peace settlement.

Indeed, the prospect of such a possible agreement and concessions to Palestinians under a new U.S. government in November 2008 “forced” Israel to break the enduring ceasefire with Hamas. As reported by The Guardian, an Israeli airstrike on militants in Rafah – the day after Barack Obama’s election – provoked the rocket fire that Israel needed to justify its ongoing attacks on Gaza, but which Hamas had acted rigorously to prevent.

Two months later, Israel launched its first brutal war on the now blockaded territory – Operation Cast Lead – which lasted until Israel agreed to a ceasefire just after Obama’s inauguration.

In that 25-day attack, the world had a preview of what was to come, both in the brutality and war crimes committed by the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) against defenceless civilians, and in the stupefying justifications of Israeli leaders and their Western cheer squads.

Australia under PM Julia Gillard distinguished itself as a proud defender of the Zionist state’s exceptional impunity. An international inquiry into the war under Justice Richard Goldstone achieved nothing, as Goldstone was pressured to make charges against “both sides”; Hamas for firing “indiscriminate” rockets into Israel, and Israel for killing 1,500 and injuring 5,000 civilians, using prohibited weapons, and destroying water and waste systems and thousands of civilian homes and buildings.

Israel told lies and made excuses that it was fighting terrorism, so it was Hamas and the Palestinian resistance that took the blame and faced demands from Israel’s Western allies.

The lessons we can take from the events of 2008-9 are that Israel’s strategies and propaganda are consistent, predictable and ruthless. Any means is suitable to the end of achieving the goals of the state without compromise. The alleged motto of the Mossad rings ever true – ‘By way of deception you shall engage in war – and not least in the current “ceasefire” talks in which the head of Mossad is involved.

Hamas has been consistent and unchanging in its demands and conditions for a three-stage settlement, and in agreement with mediators Egypt and Qatar and the U.S.; by contrast, Israel has consistently introduced new and clearly unacceptable demands, at the same time as claiming Hamas is responsible for the failure of talks.

It is, however, not the farcical circus of ceasefire talks that concerns us, as Israel’s deceptions that go unnoticed are the real game and the real threat. Particularly relevant at this most dangerous moment since WW2 is Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons, apparently including tactical and other unknown devices the secretive state has developed over the last 50 years.

With typical, if breathtaking, chutzpah, Israel campaigns to stop Iran developing a single nuclear device, portraying it as a “terrorist regime” that would threaten the whole world were it to obtain one. What should be clear to us, and has been clear to Israel’s enemies for decades, is that the Zionist state holds the whole world to ransom with its possession of nuclear weapons and its preparedness to use them.

This nuclear blackmail is clearer than ever since Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, as the response that Iran is morally obliged to make must be weighed against a likely nuclear response from Israel. Since Israel fired a missile at a group of kids in Majdal Shams as a trick pretext to strike Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr in Beirut, it has been abundantly clear that the state means deadly business and will stop at nothing unless it is stopped.

The carefully executed and exquisitely timed assassination of Haniyeh crossed the reddest of Iran’s lines, while also confounding the negotiations with Hamas. The whole sequence and timing of events appears planned and coordinated, while the insipid response of Western nations including Australia suggests foreknowledge or even collaboration.

As the region becomes increasingly tense and Israel continues and intensifies the atrocities in Gaza which have driven this war from the beginning, it is vital to recognise and understand the tricks and lies that underpinned it; what happened in the Syrian Druze town of Majdal Shams a month ago remains the key event — the Gulf of Tonkin style deception that launched an unstoppable cascade of violent consequences for which Israel alone must be held responsible.

It may be hard for some to accept that Israeli leaders would conspire to do such evil, to execute a terrorist bombing of innocents as a false casus belli. Israel and all her Western allies constantly define their wars of aggression and convenience in terms of the fight “against terrorism”, but as Malcolm Fraser noted, such a claim and pretext is hard to sustain when the fight is against a weaker and smaller force defending its own territory.

A brief consideration of Israeli actions in Gaza should however make it clearer. Reporting recently from Deir al Balah in Gaza, Al Jazeera journalist Hind al-Khoudary reported on shocking atrocities happening in nearby Khan Younis, following an Israeli evacuation order in the middle of the night. Those who refused to leave their homes despite Israeli shelling and missiles found themselves fired on from quadcopter drones if they tried to escape on the street.

Unlike the “Islamic terrorists” who launch stabbing attacks in Western capitals, the Israeli terrorist machine is pervasive and inescapable, and its injured and terrified victims fill the bombed out buildings and choked hospitals, waiting for their turn at martyrdom.

David Macilwain is an independent observer and writer with a special interest in West Asia and Russia.

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Deception and genocide part of Israel's arsenal against 'terrorism'

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