Flotilla Update: Israel Attacks Convoy, Deaths Reported

[JackRiddler]

I don't find it serves "US interests," except insofar as these are conflated falsely with the imaginings of the geostrategists, the interests of the US military empire and its corporate backers, and the uncritical supporters of Israel.

The same people who are responsible for all of the worst in US policy, including the invasions, the torture complex and the bogus war on terror, are the ones who give the most support and the freest rein to Israel. It is a constitutive pillar of the "world domination group" that ran the Bush regime and set the policies still followed by the Obama administration.

And I don't consider this a secondary question because it's my money, my country that is directly involved and that facilitates Israeli actions that might not otherwise be ventured.

US support for Israel IS the issue.

[barracuda]

Ive been around since Jeff first started his blog and he never tolerated this shit, maybe with the mod changed things are different now, I havent been around in a while, but I am surprised at Nordic, that is just underhanded BS.

Not much has changed, Percy. If anything the rules regarding certain aspects of personal attacks have tightened here. But 17breezes seems more than capable of giving as good as he gets. He's a big boy.

[Username]

~
US-Israel: Gaza Aid Convoy Attack Shows the Real Axis of Evil Facing the World

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Finian.cunningham@gmail.com
5 June, 2010

The last member of the international aid convoy, the Rachel Corrie MV, has not made it to its Gaza destination at the scheduled time mid-morning Saturday, according to local media reports.

The ship carrying 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was hours earlier intercepted by Israeli naval forces some 50 kilometres off the coast in Mediterranean international waters. Israeli commandos have apparently blacked out satellite communications onboard the Rachel Corrie in a repeat of similar actions taken on the six other members of the Free Gaza Flotilla on 31 May. It is presumed that the Irish-owned Rachel Corrie is now in Israeli custody.

This second violation of international laws by the Israeli state, involving piracy, armed aggression and abduction of foreign nationals, coming only days after its savage attack on the earlier convoy led by the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmami MV during which at least nine civilians were shot dead and dozens injured, clearly shows that the Israeli state sees itself beyond any legal or moral control. It is a self-justifying autonomous military machine that will fabricate any pretext for its actions, no matter how depraved these actions are. The US government under Barack Obama fits in the same criminal category given its bankrolling of the Israeli state with $3 billion every year, the US refusal to sanction Israeli over its latest international aggression or its illegal and inhumane three-year blockade of Gaza, and given Washington’s own ongoing acts of international aggression and crimes against humanity in at least three other overseas territories: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The aftermath of Israel’s recent actions clearly demonstrate that the international community is now faced with a mortal threat from this US-Israeli axis – an axis of permanent state of war on the world:

Eyewitness accounts from aid workers, released after days of incarceration, flatly contradict official Israeli claims that their heavily armed forces acted in self-defence. Aid workers corroborate initial satellite images that show Israeli forces opening fire on the flotilla before and while boarding these ships.

Turkish autopsy reports show that nine of the dead were shot up to 30 times at point blank range.

“The Turkish forensic results also showed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. Fulkan Dogan, 19, was shot five times in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back from a distance of less than 45 centimeters,” reports Press TV. [1]

Yet such use of excessive lethal force against civilians continues to be justified by Israeli government leaders and tacitly by Washington.

Hours before the interception of the Rachel Corrie, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said: “We will stop the ship, and also any other ship that will try to harm Israeli sovereignty.”

Note the ludicrous assertion that an internationally verified humanitarian aid ship is “harming Israeli sovereignty”. Such a mindset is evidently beyond any rational dialogue or supplication.

The same warped mindset is also revealed by media reports that one of the Israeli commandos involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara, identified only as “Staff Sergeant S”, is to be awarded a medal for valour for his single-handed killing of six civilians.

This multiple violation of international laws by Israel, perversely justified by Israeli leaders with the backing of the US, shows that the world indeed faces an urgent and virulent challenge to peace. This US-Israeli axis must be faced down by the international community and legally held to account. The problem is that the existing international framework under the United Nations is clearly not up to the task. The quarantine and disabling of the US-Israeli war machine will require a new international framework, perhaps headed up members of the growing Non-Aligned Movement, such as Brazil, Turkey and Malaysia. One thing is for sure from the massive outpouring of public anger and indignation across the world, including the US and Europe, such an initiative would have critically important popular support.
_______

Laodicean, that is the second posting of that essay on this thread. Please try to keep up. I doubt that it had much value the first time, frankly. Israel exists. Get used to it.

I don't get it ModBarracuda. The remark you made to Laodicean was, I think, the second comment you made on this entire incident. For all the shit that's going on here, that's all you have to say?

You didn't like the article I posted earlier, that everyone chose to ignore? No doubt Israel exists. What does that have to do with it? Why do you doubt it had much value the first time?

You all are really beginning to creep me out.
~

[compared2what?]

c2w? wrote:

I didn't make any assumptions. I did a search that turned up that photograph, which is of Satmar Hasidim. Protesting at, IIRC, the UN at some point earlier in the decade.

Can you provide a specific citation?

Thanks.

Yes. Can you do a Google search? Because if you can, you can find photos of that protest attached to articles that identify those protesters as Satmar, as well as articles that identify them as Neturei Karta. But more of the latter, which appear more reliable, as I'm sure you know. Although evidently you don't know and will never learn that I have no problem admitting error and humbly apologizing for it, which I hereby do. I additionally apologize for not doing it as feelingly as I would have if you'd just corrected me, which I regret.

And yes, I do fully concede in advance that my belief that you're playing a little power-trippy game is an assumption. It might be incorrect, therefore. But it wouldn't be unjustified.
_________________

Also, much more feelingly --

Searcher08, I'm so sorry to have wrongly implicated you as having made a careless and irresponsible error, when I was the one who didn't know what the fuck I was talking about. You know that I think the world of you, although we're fairly regularly on opposing sides of a certain subset of issues and concerns. Or at least I hope that you do. Please forgive me for having unwittingly been such a non-duly-diligent asshole to you.
___________________

And also --

AD, I apologize to you more feelingly, too. Including for the bitchiness a mere two line breaks above. I really and sincerely do.

Because:

(a) You were completely in the right; and (b) I'd honestly have no one but myself to blame even if I knew for a fact that your phrasing signified passive-aggressive game-playing. Which I don't. For all I know, you were just being cautiously distant.

But in either case, given that there's no arguing that I not only totally bit your head off without even considering that I might have been mistaken but also threw in a few disgustingly condescending and wholly unmerited Miss-Know-It-All flourishes, garnished with several tablespoons of barely concealed smug hostility first, I'm in no position to be reading you out for anything. I'm as ashamed of myself as I should be, and very much hope you'll forgive me for the insult implicit in my previous response to you as well as for the explicit elaboration on it above.

Which, btw, I'm leaving in solely in order to make it clear how far out of line I really was. Because it was pretty damn far.

I'm very, very sorry for that. And especially so because you're actually one of the very few posters to this thread who isn't either just gleefully getting his or her hatred on or speaking from a position of close-to-pure pig-ignorance. Or both.

Which is what I was really responding to when I wrote both of the ugly little exercises in overcompensatory, base and unearned self-satisfaction. The truth is that I'm afraid to speak up. Less because I fear the consequences personally than because if the antisemitism on this thread and on this forum is really as profound, immovable, and deaf to reason as it appears to be, I'd rather not find it out.
_______________________________

Although I would like to say: Holy Mary, Mother of God, quit picking on Percival. I don't agree with him either, and we don't exactly have a very chummy history together. But I'd rather disagree with someone who wasn't panting and drooling over the utopian prospect of eliminating an entire people's right to exist than agree with someone who was, quite frankly.

I mean, I unequivocally and absolutely condemn Israel not just for this action but for every single one of the numerous crimes against humanity large or small that it's committed as a matter of official policy for the last 43 years. And since I take that position on principle, I'd stand by it through storm and tempest unless and until someone showed me where the flaw in the logic on which I base the principle was. Which could happen, obviously. But since it hasn't yet wrt to this subject, moot point.

Further, and just to be crystal clear, I don't exactly condone and smile upon crimes that occurred more than 43 years ago.

It's just that as a matter of both principle and pragmatism, I'd maintain that since prior to that:

(a) all parties to the conflict behaved badly and in bad faith in various and fluctuating configurations and to various and fluctuating extents (except for Great Britain and the United States, which were unremittingly evil);

(b) both the Jewish settler/Israelis and the Arabs/Palestinians had about five centuries of reasons to think that they were fighting for their right to exist for all of that time; and

(c) they were probably completely right to think it was at high risk on both sides for most of it...

I don't know. I personally would opt to rule that the statute of limitations didn't cover acts prior to '67, that's all. It was a long time ago, and although there have been bad acts on both sides since then, there have only been absolutely and unequivocally condemnable ones on Israel's. So to me, if what you're aiming for is justice in the present, sometime around then is at or near the most constructive place to draw the line without violating principle for any party that's still alive enough to prosecute.
_______________

Anyway. I'm very sorry, AD. And Searcher08. Plus a shout out to Simulist for actually posting showing some concern for the suffering in Gaza.

Also, I'm a jerk and no angel myself, and don't claim otherwise. Though I do mean well. And I do hold that:

* It's always an absolute wrong for one class of people to declare another lesser, and then proceed systematically to strip them of their property, their rights, their citizenship and their lives. Which happens and is happening all over the world as it has without intermission since the dawn of civilization; and that therefore

* Being an absolute, it's neither more nor less wrong when Jews are on one or the other side of the equation; and that therefore

* People whose calculate that wrong at either a higher or a lower value when they factor in Jews are all equals under the sun, in that they're equally and absolutely wrong.

I really don't know what else to say. Those are my principles. It's possible and even probably that I simply don't understand from what principles 90 or so per cent of the posts to this thread proceed. But to me, they read as if they proceed in whole or in part from virulent unexamined antisemitism. And they have from the first page.

It's very disturbing.

[Percival]

Ive been around since Jeff first started his blog and he never tolerated this shit, maybe with the mod changed things are different now, I havent been around in a while, but I am surprised at Nordic, that is just underhanded BS.

Not much has changed, Percy. If anything the rules regarding certain aspects of personal attacks have tightened here. But 17breezes seems more than capable of giving as good as he gets. He's a big boy.

Fair enough I dont intend to make an issue of it and I am not to report posts to the mods and this is really the first time I have spoken with 17breezes and I havent seen anything foul from him but surely we are all capable of getting emotional talking about these sort of things so I will just let it ride and do my thing and let Nordic do his.




I would like to share my own experience. When I lived in Jerusalem I worked as a journalist for several small time rags that were published in the area and I had a chance to speak with many Hamas members and supporters and each of them made no secret of the fact that they would ultimately and ideally prefer every Jew leave the region if not voluntarily then by force and or means necessary. On the other hand I have never spoken to a Jewish inhabitant of the region, with the exception of a few radicals in the younger generation, who even once expressed any desire to harm, kill or otherwise run the Palestinian people out of the area, in fact 95% of the people I spoke to said they would love and welcome the chance to live side by side with them in peace and that the only thing preventing that is the continuous threats of hamas and hezbollah of their desire to exterminate every Jew living in the area.

I believe, even though I am Jewish and likely slightly biased, that if Israel took down the fences and walls and allowed the Palestinian people to simply live freely wherever they wanted with no further harassment or treatment of constant suspicion that it wouldnt be two or three years until Hamas grew in numbers and worked towards delivering on their promise of extermination. Under the law of Jihad a Muslim is allowed to lie, cheat, steal, drink, do drugs, shave their facial hair, eat pork etc, whatever it takes to blend and mix with those around them and allow them to complete their sworn mission and I believe as I said that it wouldnt take long, if they were allowed to live freely side by side with the Jewish people, for them to grow the kind of numbers needed to actually deliver on their promise to drive every Jew in to the Med Sea and rid the entire region of every last one of them.

So, given this information, I ask again, what is Israel to do, they are imperfect and they make grave mistakes that I and most of the Israeli people do not agree with, but these kind of real world problems are much more difficult than those of us sitting on the internet playing armchair quarterback understand and I think Israel is doing the best they can to deal with this and if the Palestinians would take the first step and stop supporting Hamas, the PLO and Hezbollah, we could really get somewhere and the people of Israel would likely immediately cease in election assholes like Sharon and Netanyahu, they are elected by a population living in fear but without that fear more level heads would prevail, yet with it they have little choice but to elect those who are the most willing to do what it takes to protect them from those who wish to do them great harm. Do the Jewish people exagerate those threats by Hamas? MAYBE they maybe they dont, but given their history you cannot blame them for taking Hamas at their word when they say their goal is to exterminate them, its been tried before and damn near almost worked and we have vowed to never let that happen again and the only way you can be successful at that is to take a very hard line and when challenged you must send a clear message that you are not weak and will do what is needed to protect your people no matter what the rest of the world thinks. Its all fucked up and I dont like any of it but sans a better solution I think Israel is doing the best they can AND SHOWING GREAT RESTRAINT because afterall they could put a quick end to this and simply carpet bomb the entire area like the US commonly does to its sworn enemies that they are at war with, yet Israel refused to go to those lengths and instead sets up a relatively harmless blockade in an attempt to simply keep arms out of the hands of Hamas militants.

Again I ask, how can they handle this better and to your satisfaction? How can they handle the threat of extermination?

[Percival]

~
US-Israel: Gaza Aid Convoy Attack Shows the Real Axis of Evil Facing the World

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Finian.cunningham@gmail.com
5 June, 2010

The last member of the international aid convoy, the Rachel Corrie MV, has not made it to its Gaza destination at the scheduled time mid-morning Saturday, according to local media reports.

The ship carrying 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was hours earlier intercepted by Israeli naval forces some 50 kilometres off the coast in Mediterranean international waters. Israeli commandos have apparently blacked out satellite communications onboard the Rachel Corrie in a repeat of similar actions taken on the six other members of the Free Gaza Flotilla on 31 May. It is presumed that the Irish-owned Rachel Corrie is now in Israeli custody.

This second violation of international laws by the Israeli state, involving piracy, armed aggression and abduction of foreign nationals, coming only days after its savage attack on the earlier convoy led by the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmami MV during which at least nine civilians were shot dead and dozens injured, clearly shows that the Israeli state sees itself beyond any legal or moral control. It is a self-justifying autonomous military machine that will fabricate any pretext for its actions, no matter how depraved these actions are. The US government under Barack Obama fits in the same criminal category given its bankrolling of the Israeli state with $3 billion every year, the US refusal to sanction Israeli over its latest international aggression or its illegal and inhumane three-year blockade of Gaza, and given Washington’s own ongoing acts of international aggression and crimes against humanity in at least three other overseas territories: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The aftermath of Israel’s recent actions clearly demonstrate that the international community is now faced with a mortal threat from this US-Israeli axis – an axis of permanent state of war on the world:

Eyewitness accounts from aid workers, released after days of incarceration, flatly contradict official Israeli claims that their heavily armed forces acted in self-defence. Aid workers corroborate initial satellite images that show Israeli forces opening fire on the flotilla before and while boarding these ships.

Turkish autopsy reports show that nine of the dead were shot up to 30 times at point blank range.

“The Turkish forensic results also showed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. Fulkan Dogan, 19, was shot five times in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back from a distance of less than 45 centimeters,” reports Press TV. [1]

Yet such use of excessive lethal force against civilians continues to be justified by Israeli government leaders and tacitly by Washington.

Hours before the interception of the Rachel Corrie, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said: “We will stop the ship, and also any other ship that will try to harm Israeli sovereignty.”

Note the ludicrous assertion that an internationally verified humanitarian aid ship is “harming Israeli sovereignty”. Such a mindset is evidently beyond any rational dialogue or supplication.

The same warped mindset is also revealed by media reports that one of the Israeli commandos involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara, identified only as “Staff Sergeant S”, is to be awarded a medal for valour for his single-handed killing of six civilians.

This multiple violation of international laws by Israel, perversely justified by Israeli leaders with the backing of the US, shows that the world indeed faces an urgent and virulent challenge to peace. This US-Israeli axis must be faced down by the international community and legally held to account. The problem is that the existing international framework under the United Nations is clearly not up to the task. The quarantine and disabling of the US-Israeli war machine will require a new international framework, perhaps headed up members of the growing Non-Aligned Movement, such as Brazil, Turkey and Malaysia. One thing is for sure from the massive outpouring of public anger and indignation across the world, including the US and Europe, such an initiative would have critically important popular support.
_______

Laodicean, that is the second posting of that essay on this thread. Please try to keep up. I doubt that it had much value the first time, frankly. Israel exists. Get used to it.

I don't get it ModBarracuda. The remark you made to Laodicean was, I think, the second comment you made on this entire incident. For all the shit that's going on here, that's all you have to say?

You didn't like the article I posted earlier, that everyone chose to ignore? No doubt Israel exists. What does that have to do with it? Why do you doubt it had much value the first time?

You all are really beginning to creep me out.
~

I havent been around much since cuda took over mod duties but it did strike me as odd that with all the shit slinging and personal attack around here he tore in to the dude for an honest mistake of posting an article that has already been posted.

However, I guess I would rather have no mod intervention here and just let us deal with it on our own so the discussion can continue and not have a mod here bitching about every little thing. Its a "be careful you might get what you wish for type of thing."


I didnt agree with your article but I certainly didnt ignore it, I thought it was an interesting and amusing take oin Israel but I didnt really know how to respond to it, I always welcome any good reading matrial whether it supports what I believe or not.

[Username]

~
Would it be against the rules for me to say I believe nothing Percival says? or that I doubt his sincerity? or that I think he's being a real pain in the ass spouting sound bites . . . "raining rockets" in-fucking-deed. How about some white phosphorus?

Not to mention that fucking wall.

Bullies.
~

[barracuda]

I don't get it ModBarracuda. The remark you made to Laodicean was, I think, the second comment you made on this entire incident. For all the shit that's going on here, that's all you have to say?

You didn't like the article I posted earlier, that everyone chose to ignore? No doubt Israel exists. What does that have to do with it?

You all are really beginning to creep me out.

I don't have a lot to say on this topic, Username, other than to watch the thread for signs that the comments might be tipping towards advocacy of fascism, anti-semitism, or outright cheerleading for war. No one on the thread has a real answer to the situation in the region, but I do think that these circumstances and this incident are as much the fault of the United States government as it is the Israelis. I have wondered as I've been reading the thread, how many innocent Arabs has my own government murdered since the interception of this flotilla caused the deaths of the activists on board. Hundreds? Thousands?

The focus of the worldwide media on the actions of the Israelis, and the length of this thread, while understandable, is disproportionate to the severity of the incident itself in these terms. And as much as I condemn the loss of life and the flagrant manner in which those lives seem to have been taken, there is more going on than just objection to this outrage on it's own terms. The incident is acting as a touchpoint for the release of hatred of the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, which, while I agree with that sentiment entirely, can and does serve to mask and propagate existing hatred of Jews by those for whom this is an opportunity too great to be missed.

Nations generally come into being through acts of power, dispossession and oppression of the weak. It's an ugly and hateful business, but it is business as usual. Israel is little different in this regard. The question raised by the essay you posted regarding the right of existence can function a shrill dog whistle for certain persons whose attraction to sites like this one, where conspiracy and deep politics are discussed, can be underscored by the myths of Bloody Jewry throughout history, innocent or not. And that's what creeps me out, almost as much as the actions of the Israelis. Especially the second time around.

And no, you don't have to hate Jews to detest the actions of Israel against the Palestinians and the blockade. But it won't disqualify you from that privilege of self-righteous outrage in most circles. I just don't want that to be true in any circles I'm personally a party to. So I'm touchy about it.

I havent been around much since cuda took over mod duties but it did strike me as odd that with all the shit slinging and personal attack around here he tore in to the dude for an honest mistake of posting an article that has already been posted.

Percival, if you consider my response to Laodecian as having "tore in to the dude", then you are more thin skinned than he shows signs of being. I don't generally say "please" when I proceed upon a tearing.

Would it be against the rules for me to say I believe nothing Percival says?

No, that is well within the board guidelines.

[Username]

~
Thank you for the thoughtful response. Agreed, America is just as much a murderous bullying nation as that of Israel. And the Jew-hating stuff is getting fierce. Absolutely scary. I don't know what to say about it either, really. But I feel we're being played. Both sides.

And Percival and Breezy aren't helping.
~

[Sweejak]

Israel has authority to halt arms imports into the Gaza Strip. But it also owes a general duty of protection to civilians under its control, and has specific duties to allow them access to adequate food and medical supplies, and to maintain public health standards -- duties it has deliberately violated in imposing the siege on Gaza. Currently 77.2 percent of Gaza Palestinians either face or are vulnerable to hunger; of these, 65 percent are children younger than 18. According to UNICEF, 10 percent of Gaza children show signs of stunting, while the World Health Organization maintains that another 10 percent face chronic malnutrition.

Moreover, collective punishment is specifically barred under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that the objective of the blockade is to weaken the Gaza economy and undermine support for Hamas. That is a political, not a military, objective, and it is impermissible under international law to target innocent civilians to achieve nonmilitary goals.

Actions taken to enforce an illegal siege cannot themselves be legal. Israel's blockade violates the human rights of Gaza Palestinians and must be brought to an end.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/articl ... ntifada%29

[Sweejak]

The prize-winning writer and creator of Wallander was among those on board the Gaza flotilla. Here he shares his private diary of the events leading to his capture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2 ... CMP=twt_gu

[Percival]

~
Would it be against the rules for me to say I believe nothing Percival says? or that I doubt his sincerity? or that I think he's being a real pain in the ass spouting sound bites . . . "raining rockets" in-fucking-deed. How about some white phosphorus?

Not to mention that fucking wall.

Bullies.
~

Kniock yourself out. While some may cheer that sort of personal attack on, those of us who prefer a more intellectual, honest and less personal approach see very clearly what that is:

Out out of bullets and now resorting to throwing the gun at your opponent because thats the last option you have.

So yea, feel free.


If you want my take I havent seen a single one of you offer solution, you have simply let your emotions overcome any sense of reason that you may have.

If you want to side with Hamas that is ok but lets me clear who the type of people are who side with those who want to exterminate Jews. If thats the company you want by all fucking means your freedom of association applies. Dont let me stop you.

[Percival]

~
Thank you for the thoughtful response. Agreed, America is just as much a murderous bullying nation as that of Israel. And the Jew-hating stuff is getting fierce. Absolutely scary. I don't know what to say about it either, really. But I feel we're being played. Both sides.

And Percival and Breezy aren't helping.
~

Israel=Jews.

Hamas has vowed to exterminate Jews. Supporting Hamas is hate speech IMO.

[Username]

~

Hamas has vowed to exterminate Jews.

I would have to hear those words from Hamas, today, before I can believe there is truth in what you say.
~

[Username]

~
LINK

On October 16, 2006, while in the little town of Bethlehem: Occupied Territory, I met four newly elected Hamas members.

Two had been elected to the Palestinian Parliament/PLC and two to the Municipality/local government.

PLC Representative, Anwer M. Zboun, lives in the Abiet refugee camp and has a Masters Degree in Physics.

Thirty-three year old Mahmoud Alkhatib, lives in Aida refugee camp and has obtained a Masters Degree in Islamic Studies.

Khaled Saada and Salah Shuka were elected to the Municipality/local government.

Anwer M. Zboun, greeted my Sabeel group in English and with a broad smile on his face stated, “We welcome you to our home and the Holy City of Bethlehem. We are suppose to be terrorists, are you afraid?”

We all laughed then Zboun continued earnestly,

“We are a Palestinian resistance movement and we are not against any people. We are against the occupation. We want to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed.”

“Hamas was born from the suffering of the Palestinian people and we belong to the global Muslim movement. It was on December 14, 1987 after an Israeli driver killed nine Palestinians that the first Intifada [uprising] began and the Islamic Resistance movement in Palestine was renamed Hamas.”

“Hamas is a national liberation movement based on Shariha [Islamic Laws and Orders]. Hamas is not against any religion. We are not a terrorist movement we resist the occupation. Christians voted for us for many reasons and they know we are faithful to this cause: that God knows better than we ourselves know what is for our benefit. We do not force anyone to believe as we do. The public and private schools both teach Islam and Christianity.

“In November 1988 Arafat issued a birth certificate for the Palestinian State and under religion he stated: ‘None.’ This is because we are a secular state. As Muslims and Christians we live together peacefully and our attitude is citizenship is for everyone. Everybody should have freedom of belief, traditions and a personal life. Hamas does not propose anything that contradicts Christianity.

“Our slogan is: Remove Suffering for everyone. The issue of Israel is about the occupation. We have no problems with religious beliefs; our problem is that Israel is illegally occupying our land.

“Since March 2005, we have honored a unilateral cease-fire. But Israel martyred 200 Palestinians, injured 1,200 and has detained 3,500. Many are under the age of sixteen. In the last two weeks Israel has killed twenty-five Palestinian and yet we have maintained the cease-fire. Israel does not recognize us and recognition takes both sides.

“Abbas has stated that we do recognize Israel, but there must be clear borders and Israel does not yet have them. The PA recognized Israel ten years ago but we Palestinians are detained in an open air prison.

“We resist the occupation which is our right guaranteed under International Law. International Law demands Israel withdraw to the 1967 borders, release the prisoners, and stop the assassinations, illegal wall and home demolitions.

“Hamas defines terrorism as a violation of the rights of others and their property. Bush defined terrorism as evil. We are weak with resources and our voice is not heard in the West, only the voice of America and Israel gets press. America asked us to hold democratic elections and we did. We thank everyone who was involved in our transparent and democratic elections. We did what the USA asked and now they are punishing our people. Democracies are supposed to respect and not intervene in what others want.

“We had democratic and transparent elections and how are we rewarded? By the EU and the USA who have cut funds to the poorest of people who live under occupation. Hamas suggested that the International community monitor all the financial aid to assure that it went to the people and not to Hamas. We offered this suggestion to the world and we have been ignored.

“So now we look to the Arab and Muslim world to strengthen our local infrastructure and economy and hope to bring back investors. We know there are people in Europe and America who will not allow us to go hungry.

“We believe aid and support are in Gods hands and not governments.”

June 17, 2009

Hamas Sends Peace Letter to President Obama via CODE PINK

by Medea Benjamin

The Hamas government in Gaza reached out to President Obama on the occasion of his visit to the Middle East, announcing that Hamas was willing to talk to all parties “on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.” CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who carried the letter out from Gaza, said that the letter represented a significant development and an effort by Hamas to present a new face to the Western world. “While Osama bin Laden used the occasion of President Obama’s visit to deliver a scathing attack, Hamas reached out to a feminist U.S. peace group to deliver a letter to Obama urging dialogue, mutual respect and adherence to international law,” said Medea Benjamin.

In the letter, Hamas urged Obama to visit “our ground Zero” in Gaza and bring about a “paradigm shift” in the Israel-Palestine conflict based on enlightened world opinion and international law.

“This is a people who have just been subjected to a vicious attack that left over 1,300 dead and thousands wounded, and there is not a word here about armed resistance or Zionism. They are reaching out and actively seeking a resolution to the conflict based on the findings of the world’s leading international legal bodies and human rights organizations from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. This is a major breakthrough and the U.S. government should take advantage to begin a dialogue with Hamas.”

The letter was signed by Ahmed Yusef, Deputy Foreign Minister and hand-delivered to Benjamin, who was in Gaza headed a 66-person delegation representing 10 nations. Benjamin and representatives of CODEPINK are delivering the letter to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today, June 4, during Obama’s visit to Egypt.

The text of the letter is below.

His Excellency President Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.

June 3rd 2009

Dear Mr. President,

We welcome your visit to the Arab world and your administration’s initiative to bridge differences with the Arab-Muslim world.

One long-standing source of tension between the United States and this part of the world has been the failure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.

It is therefore unfortunate that you will not visit Gaza during your trip to the Middle East and that neither your Secretary of State nor George Mitchell have come to hear our point of view.

We have received numerous visits recently from people of widely varied backgrounds: U.S. Congressional representatives, European parliamentarians, the U.N.-appointed Goldstone commission, and grassroots delegations such as those organized by the U.S. peace group CODEPINK.

It is essential for you to visit Gaza. We have recently passed through a brutal 22-day Israeli attack. Amnesty International observed that the death and destruction Gaza suffered during the invasion could not have happened without U.S.-supplied weapons and U.S.-taxpayers’ money.

Human Rights Watch has documented that the white phosphorus Israel dropped on a school, hospital, United Nations warehouse and civilian neighborhoods in Gaza was manufactured in the United States. Human Rights Watch concluded that Israel’s use of this white phosphorus was a war crime.

Shouldn’t you see first-hand how Israel used your arms and spent your money?

Before becoming president you were a distinguished professor of law. The U.S. government has also said that it wants to foster the rule of law in the Arab-Muslim world.

The International Court of Justice stated in July 2004 that the whole of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem are occupied Palestinian territories designated for Palestinian self-determination, and that the Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal.

Not one of the 15 judges sitting on the highest judicial body in the world dissented from these principles.

The main human rights organizations in the world, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have issued position papers supporting the right of the Palestinian refugees to return and compensation.

Each year in the United Nations General Assembly nearly every country in the world has supported these principles for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. Every year the Arab League puts forth a peace proposal based on these principles for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Leading human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have also stated that Israel’s siege of Gaza is a form of collective punishment and therefore illegal under international law.

We in the Hamas Government are committed to pursuing a just resolution to the conflict not in contradiction with the international community and enlightened opinion as expressed in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and leading human rights organizations. We are prepared to engage all parties on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.

However, our constituency needs to see a comprehensive paradigm shift that not only commences with lifting the siege on Gaza and halts all settlement building and expansion but develops into a policy of evenhandedness based on the very international law and norms we are prodded into adhering to.

Again, we welcome you to Gaza which would allow you to see firsthand our ground zero. Furthermore, it would enhance the US position; enabling you to speak with new credibility and authority in dealing with all the parties.

Very Truly Yours,
Dr. Ahmed Yousef
Deputy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry
Former Senior Political Advisor
to Prime Minister Ismael Hanniya

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