Gaza: the Transparency of Naked Aggression
John Leonard | 02.07.2006 09:24 | Anti-militarism
In spite of strict censorship, even blocking Reuters, a growing minority see proof that 9/11 was a cynical self-terror act to ignite a new war of civilizations for total world domination -- and share this insight as the only way to stop the war on Iraq and Iran.
Here we explore the parallels with the endless war on Palestine.
Here we explore the parallels with the endless war on Palestine.
How to Start a War
On instructions of an Israeli double agent, extremist Abul Abbas hijacked the cruise ship
Achille Lauro, brutally killing helpless Leon Klinghoffer. It was one of the all-time triumphs of Zionist
agitprop against the Palestinians. Source: The War on Freedom, p. 367.
WHAT IF the recent kidnapping of the Israeli soldier and settler were an Israeli false-flag operation?
There is a sense in which it doesn't matter; the brutality of the collective punishment of Gaza has
shocked the world regardless. Yet the war party have worked out that spontaneous protests are never
enough. Peace will not have a chance, until people of good will see through the tactics of fake
self-terror.
The Israelis sacrifice a pawn or two to militants, then issue themselves carte blanche to kill and destroy
as much as they want in Gaza and the West Bank.
The kidnapping is so convenient and ready-made for the goals of ongoing Zionist aggression, that it
is hard to believe it wasn't made to order. I'm not into long-shot coincidence theories.
On the other hand, the odds of the establishment peace mouthpieces subscribing to my "conspiracy theory"
may seem as long as the odds of thousands of Palestinian prisoners to a single Israeli one.
Four years ago, in The War on Freedom, I wrote:
"Hamas, a major detonator of violence, was financed by Israel as a counterweight to the PLO."
"Undercover action by Oriental Jews posing as Arabs was a standby of early Zionist tactics. Spies do more than observe and report;
they can also infiltrate an enemy organization as provocateurs to instigate actions that backfire on it.
Any observer of the Mideast crisis will note how regularly and severely the Palestinians seem to hurt
their own cause with ill-considered attacks." [In The War on Freedom, p. 365, citing the
"Arab Platoon of the Palmach... the elite strike force of the Haganah" in "Early Operations of
Israeli Intelligence," The Department for Jewish Zionist Education.]
I then pointed out that while it can be difficult to distinguish dupes from double agents -- bin Laden
is an example -- their effect is the same. "In a terror organization, the ready-to-die cannon fodder are only
the bottom level. They have handlers, or operators; these have managers, who select the targets. Once
the organization is infiltrated, it is easy enough to taint their ideas and influence them in the wrong,
outrageous direction."
Often enough we do see evidence that an atrocity is directly instigated by the synthetic terror tacticians
of the world powers, as with the recent "sting" in Toronto, where the Mounties delivered the
"explosives" to the patsies themselves. Since Israeli covert operations have completely infiltrated and
dominated Palestine for generations, their hand is generally better hidden nowadays, but the synthetic
terror intent and program are indisputable nonetheless.
The intense infiltration was corroborated by a Christian Science Monitor reporter who noted in "How
Israel builds its fifth column" (
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0522/p01s04-wome.html) that Palestinian society is
absolutely riddled with Israeli informers and collaborators.
Any population will have a few hotheads. Synthetic terrorism is the perverted military intelligence
technique that recruits or even creates the necessary fall guys and then capitalizes on them. But any
Palestinians crazy enough to invite an overwhelming asymmetrical response do not represent Palestine.
The Old Testament commandment, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is actually a teaching of
moderation: "Thou shalt not escalate." The Zionist commandment is just the reverse, same as the Nazi
and the American fascist-racist rule: "Our lives are worth more than theirs. If a partisan shoots one of
our soldiers, we will decimate the whole village."
The astronomical disproportion of the vengeance wreaked on the innocents of Gaza has rocked the
world in protest. Yet the US media spin machine still manages to place the blame on the Palestinians, at
least for domestic brainwashed minds.
Trying to get "Keep-it-simple, Stupid!" Americans to understand the paradox of killing your own pawns to
win the whole game has seemed like an even greater challenge -- they don't even play chess.
At least, until 9/11, that is. Now the Strangeloves who hijacked our government sacrificed 3,000 mostly
American citizens in a huge false-flag operation. That strikes a lot closer to home than the
sadism of the Zionists half a world away.
At the huge conferences on "9/11 Truth" in Chicago and Los Angeles this past month, Webster G.
Tarpley pounded away at his headline message: the only way to stop nuclear war on Iran is to expose
the truth about 9/11. He is author of the definitive
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA,
and his resolution,
"9/11 Truth --
The Key to Stopping World War III" was acclaimed by voice
vote of the Chicago conference. See highlights below of this and of the
Reuters report
on the Los Angeles meet, which has been censored in the US-UK.
If Main Street America were to come to us, see our cast-iron proofs and realize that 9/11 was a fraud,
an inside job from start to finish, that would jam the terror panic button which is all the neocon fascists
have to enslave us. The word of the day would not be impeach, but lynch!
But not only the right-wing corporate-owned media are blocking. At the LA conference, film producer
Barrie Zwicker, a disillusioned fan, gave a presentation on "The Shame of Noam Chomsky."
Disinformation agents like this MIT prof whine the sick argument that Islamic terrorism is only to be
expected the way "we" exploit them. That only makes Bush's base see red.
The pseudo-leftists will never let on that the terrorists are working for US-UK-Israeli military
intelligence. The professed pacifist leaders are fakes, sell-outs, phonies. You can tell because they do
not pick up the only weapon we have to stop the Blitzkrieg, 9/11 Truth.
Are not the Palestine sympathizers, Arab or not, who will not look at Israel's synthetic terror tool then
just as feckless?
Four years since I published
The War on Freedom, the first book in English exposing 9/11.
I took great pains there to draw the parallels with the Zionist aggression game (with examples
like the Lavon affair, the Achille Lauro, and Naeim Giladi -- see the section "The Pattern of
Provocation.") Almost 20,000 copies were sold. Yet the "9/11 Truth Movement" is no less Zionist
on the whole than the Great Zionist Entity itself, the USA.
Thousands of Americans now understand 9/11 was a false flag op. Why is no one talking or writing
about Zionist false-flag terror tactics -- like suicide bombings by confused patsies -- as the
instrument of repression of the Palestinians? How long must they suffer?
I'm not talking about the few on the fringe who want to blame the Jews for everything. Israel is not
even a country, it's the merest fraud, a branch agency of empire, in fact, a massive false-flag
operation, populated by patsies for British divide and conquer, inherited and paid for by
Americans who bought the Zionist doctrine in the bargain.
Since 9/11, the Israeli public has been panicked by suicide bombings and other symbolic but
ineffectual, totally counterproductive acts of terror, and has been sold on a genocidal Final Solution --
which we can see being carried out, one step at a time.
It is incumbent on Americans, Britons and Jews to learn quickly to see through their governments' war
propaganda tricks, or they will go down like Hitler's Germany to enduring ignominy and defeat.
Indeed, in my books, the shame of the Anglo-American elite is already replete. I publish Tarpley and
Chaitkin's George Bush: The Unauthorized
Biography, in which the most explosive chapter, "The Hitler Project," details how the
Bushes and other Angloid financiers built up Hitler. My next book, Yeadon's The Nazi Hydra in America,
piles on the evidence. Historian Anthony Sutton showed how Wall Street also financed the
Bolsheviks and the butcher Stalin as a strategic decision in their pursuit of world hegemony.
The bloodbaths of the 20th century were no accidents, but planned by those who profited by
them -- the Anglo-American banksters and their patrons, the House of Windsor.
What fools people are to let them carry on their murderous game into a new century!
What a beautiful place the world could be, with real self-determination for the nations and
an end to power-mad meddling!
=====
9/11 TRUTH -- THE KEY TO STOPPING WORLD WAR III
RESOLUTION SUBMITTED TO THE 911 CHICAGO TRUTH CONFERENCE, JUNE 2-4,
2006
Summary:
The neocon fascist Bush regime has everything prepared for a nuclear attack on Iran. Only the trigger,
the false-flag terror act which will be the pretext, remains to be seen. Only the facts about 9/11 can
awaken the people to look for the culprits in the White House, and not in Iran.
Bush retains 35% support among those who are so terrified by the Bin Laden fairy tale they will
approve everything, and this is enough to launch the new war.
The 9/11 Truth movement has now understood the bankruptcy of compromise theories -- "Let it
Happen on Purpose" -- which admit there may have been some real Arab hijackers as well as
government complicity, because that leaves intact the enemy image the war party needs.
The false-flag attack will probably come in the guise of an "anti-terror drill," and activists should do all
they can to monitor, publicize and shut down such drills.
The Vermont Green Party was the first in the nation to put 9/11 crimes at the top of its articles of
impeachment. This is the path to follow.
If the thousands of 9/11 activists would call in to a talk radio show once a week, we could win this
battle.
If martial law comes, we should call a general strike on the Spanish model of the protests which
recently brought down the fascist puppet Aznar.
Full text:
http://www.waronfreedom.org/tarpley/chicago-resolution.html
=========
Reuters: 9/11 conspiracy theorists gather at LA conference
June 25, 2006 (summary).
1,200 people packed the "9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda" conference of two days of seminars, video
presentations, and a panel discussion to be shown on C-Span.
"There are hundreds of smoking guns that people need to be made aware of," said organizer Alex
Jones, radio talk show host. He called for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney and charged the
mainstream media with a cover-up.
Prof. Steven Jones released further conclusive proofs that the steel structure of the WTC was sliced in
place by thermite before being exploded in a controlled demolition. Actor Charlie Sheen, DVD
producer Dylan Avery and Congressional candidate Lt. Col. Bob Bowman also put in appearances.
Webster Tarpley, author of "911 Synthetic Terror; Made in USA," said the Sept. 11 attacks were an
example of "state-sponsored, false-flag terrorism" designed by rogue CIA elements "to start the war of
civilizations." Tarpley said Washington was "gripped by war psychosis" and had used terror as a pretext
to turn the United States into a police state.
Full text:
http://www.waronfreedom.org/tarpley/ReutersLosAngeles.html
Progressive Press HOME
Achille Lauro, brutally killing helpless Leon Klinghoffer. It was one of the all-time triumphs of Zionist
agitprop against the Palestinians. Source: The War on Freedom, p. 367.
WHAT IF the recent kidnapping of the Israeli soldier and settler were an Israeli false-flag operation?
There is a sense in which it doesn't matter; the brutality of the collective punishment of Gaza has
shocked the world regardless. Yet the war party have worked out that spontaneous protests are never
enough. Peace will not have a chance, until people of good will see through the tactics of fake
self-terror.
The Israelis sacrifice a pawn or two to militants, then issue themselves carte blanche to kill and destroy
as much as they want in Gaza and the West Bank.
The kidnapping is so convenient and ready-made for the goals of ongoing Zionist aggression, that it
is hard to believe it wasn't made to order. I'm not into long-shot coincidence theories.
On the other hand, the odds of the establishment peace mouthpieces subscribing to my "conspiracy theory"
may seem as long as the odds of thousands of Palestinian prisoners to a single Israeli one.
Four years ago, in The War on Freedom, I wrote:
"Hamas, a major detonator of violence, was financed by Israel as a counterweight to the PLO."
"Undercover action by Oriental Jews posing as Arabs was a standby of early Zionist tactics. Spies do more than observe and report;
they can also infiltrate an enemy organization as provocateurs to instigate actions that backfire on it.
Any observer of the Mideast crisis will note how regularly and severely the Palestinians seem to hurt
their own cause with ill-considered attacks." [In The War on Freedom, p. 365, citing the
"Arab Platoon of the Palmach... the elite strike force of the Haganah" in "Early Operations of
Israeli Intelligence," The Department for Jewish Zionist Education.]
I then pointed out that while it can be difficult to distinguish dupes from double agents -- bin Laden
is an example -- their effect is the same. "In a terror organization, the ready-to-die cannon fodder are only
the bottom level. They have handlers, or operators; these have managers, who select the targets. Once
the organization is infiltrated, it is easy enough to taint their ideas and influence them in the wrong,
outrageous direction."
Often enough we do see evidence that an atrocity is directly instigated by the synthetic terror tacticians
of the world powers, as with the recent "sting" in Toronto, where the Mounties delivered the
"explosives" to the patsies themselves. Since Israeli covert operations have completely infiltrated and
dominated Palestine for generations, their hand is generally better hidden nowadays, but the synthetic
terror intent and program are indisputable nonetheless.
The intense infiltration was corroborated by a Christian Science Monitor reporter who noted in "How
Israel builds its fifth column" (
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0522/p01s04-wome.html) that Palestinian society is absolutely riddled with Israeli informers and collaborators.
Any population will have a few hotheads. Synthetic terrorism is the perverted military intelligence
technique that recruits or even creates the necessary fall guys and then capitalizes on them. But any
Palestinians crazy enough to invite an overwhelming asymmetrical response do not represent Palestine.
The Old Testament commandment, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is actually a teaching of
moderation: "Thou shalt not escalate." The Zionist commandment is just the reverse, same as the Nazi
and the American fascist-racist rule: "Our lives are worth more than theirs. If a partisan shoots one of
our soldiers, we will decimate the whole village."
The astronomical disproportion of the vengeance wreaked on the innocents of Gaza has rocked the
world in protest. Yet the US media spin machine still manages to place the blame on the Palestinians, at
least for domestic brainwashed minds.
Trying to get "Keep-it-simple, Stupid!" Americans to understand the paradox of killing your own pawns to
win the whole game has seemed like an even greater challenge -- they don't even play chess.
At least, until 9/11, that is. Now the Strangeloves who hijacked our government sacrificed 3,000 mostly
American citizens in a huge false-flag operation. That strikes a lot closer to home than the
sadism of the Zionists half a world away.
At the huge conferences on "9/11 Truth" in Chicago and Los Angeles this past month, Webster G.
Tarpley pounded away at his headline message: the only way to stop nuclear war on Iran is to expose
the truth about 9/11. He is author of the definitive
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA,
and his resolution,
"9/11 Truth --
The Key to Stopping World War III" was acclaimed by voice
vote of the Chicago conference. See highlights below of this and of the
Reuters report
on the Los Angeles meet, which has been censored in the US-UK.
If Main Street America were to come to us, see our cast-iron proofs and realize that 9/11 was a fraud,
an inside job from start to finish, that would jam the terror panic button which is all the neocon fascists
have to enslave us. The word of the day would not be impeach, but lynch!
But not only the right-wing corporate-owned media are blocking. At the LA conference, film producer
Barrie Zwicker, a disillusioned fan, gave a presentation on "The Shame of Noam Chomsky."
Disinformation agents like this MIT prof whine the sick argument that Islamic terrorism is only to be
expected the way "we" exploit them. That only makes Bush's base see red.
The pseudo-leftists will never let on that the terrorists are working for US-UK-Israeli military
intelligence. The professed pacifist leaders are fakes, sell-outs, phonies. You can tell because they do
not pick up the only weapon we have to stop the Blitzkrieg, 9/11 Truth.
Are not the Palestine sympathizers, Arab or not, who will not look at Israel's synthetic terror tool then
just as feckless?
Four years since I published
The War on Freedom, the first book in English exposing 9/11.
I took great pains there to draw the parallels with the Zionist aggression game (with examples
like the Lavon affair, the Achille Lauro, and Naeim Giladi -- see the section "The Pattern of
Provocation.") Almost 20,000 copies were sold. Yet the "9/11 Truth Movement" is no less Zionist
on the whole than the Great Zionist Entity itself, the USA.
Thousands of Americans now understand 9/11 was a false flag op. Why is no one talking or writing
about Zionist false-flag terror tactics -- like suicide bombings by confused patsies -- as the
instrument of repression of the Palestinians? How long must they suffer?
I'm not talking about the few on the fringe who want to blame the Jews for everything. Israel is not
even a country, it's the merest fraud, a branch agency of empire, in fact, a massive false-flag
operation, populated by patsies for British divide and conquer, inherited and paid for by
Americans who bought the Zionist doctrine in the bargain.
Since 9/11, the Israeli public has been panicked by suicide bombings and other symbolic but
ineffectual, totally counterproductive acts of terror, and has been sold on a genocidal Final Solution --
which we can see being carried out, one step at a time.
It is incumbent on Americans, Britons and Jews to learn quickly to see through their governments' war
propaganda tricks, or they will go down like Hitler's Germany to enduring ignominy and defeat.
Indeed, in my books, the shame of the Anglo-American elite is already replete. I publish Tarpley and
Chaitkin's George Bush: The Unauthorized
Biography, in which the most explosive chapter, "The Hitler Project," details how the
Bushes and other Angloid financiers built up Hitler. My next book, Yeadon's The Nazi Hydra in America,
piles on the evidence. Historian Anthony Sutton showed how Wall Street also financed the
Bolsheviks and the butcher Stalin as a strategic decision in their pursuit of world hegemony.
The bloodbaths of the 20th century were no accidents, but planned by those who profited by
them -- the Anglo-American banksters and their patrons, the House of Windsor.
What fools people are to let them carry on their murderous game into a new century!
What a beautiful place the world could be, with real self-determination for the nations and
an end to power-mad meddling!
=====
9/11 TRUTH -- THE KEY TO STOPPING WORLD WAR III
RESOLUTION SUBMITTED TO THE 911 CHICAGO TRUTH CONFERENCE, JUNE 2-4,
2006
Summary:
The neocon fascist Bush regime has everything prepared for a nuclear attack on Iran. Only the trigger,
the false-flag terror act which will be the pretext, remains to be seen. Only the facts about 9/11 can
awaken the people to look for the culprits in the White House, and not in Iran.
Bush retains 35% support among those who are so terrified by the Bin Laden fairy tale they will
approve everything, and this is enough to launch the new war.
The 9/11 Truth movement has now understood the bankruptcy of compromise theories -- "Let it
Happen on Purpose" -- which admit there may have been some real Arab hijackers as well as
government complicity, because that leaves intact the enemy image the war party needs.
The false-flag attack will probably come in the guise of an "anti-terror drill," and activists should do all
they can to monitor, publicize and shut down such drills.
The Vermont Green Party was the first in the nation to put 9/11 crimes at the top of its articles of
impeachment. This is the path to follow.
If the thousands of 9/11 activists would call in to a talk radio show once a week, we could win this
battle.
If martial law comes, we should call a general strike on the Spanish model of the protests which
recently brought down the fascist puppet Aznar.
Full text:
http://www.waronfreedom.org/tarpley/chicago-resolution.html =========
Reuters: 9/11 conspiracy theorists gather at LA conference
June 25, 2006 (summary).
1,200 people packed the "9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda" conference of two days of seminars, video
presentations, and a panel discussion to be shown on C-Span.
"There are hundreds of smoking guns that people need to be made aware of," said organizer Alex
Jones, radio talk show host. He called for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney and charged the
mainstream media with a cover-up.
Prof. Steven Jones released further conclusive proofs that the steel structure of the WTC was sliced in
place by thermite before being exploded in a controlled demolition. Actor Charlie Sheen, DVD
producer Dylan Avery and Congressional candidate Lt. Col. Bob Bowman also put in appearances.
Webster Tarpley, author of "911 Synthetic Terror; Made in USA," said the Sept. 11 attacks were an
example of "state-sponsored, false-flag terrorism" designed by rogue CIA elements "to start the war of
civilizations." Tarpley said Washington was "gripped by war psychosis" and had used terror as a pretext
to turn the United States into a police state.
Full text:
http://www.waronfreedom.org/tarpley/ReutersLosAngeles.html Progressive Press HOME
John Leonard
Homepage:
http://www.waronfreedom.org
Comments
Hide the following comment
Rampage in Gaza
03.07.2006 02:37
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
-- Ariel Sharon, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.
"What is driving the conflict is the radical inequality between the Jewish minority, that rules all of the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and the disenfranchised Palestinian majority, who are paying the price for the luxury that Israel lives in…But what pays for that normality for Israelis is the total dispossession of the majority population. And Israel believes that it can hide them behind walls, in ghettos, as was done to Jews in Europe in the 1930s and '40s". Ali Abunimah "Electronic Intifada"
The Palestine Chronicle conducted an informal internet poll on Wednesday which showed that nearly 75% of the people questioned believe that the "reinvasion of Gaza was preplanned". This tells us that most people, who follow developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, know that Israel’s actions are not simply a spontaneous reaction to the kidnapping of one of its soldiers, but are part of a broader strategy for achieving their political objectives. The abduction of Gilad Shalit is simply being used as a pretext for more ethnic cleansing and land expropriation. These are the means by which Israel has traditionally achieved its territorial objectives.
The Gaza invasion is better understood in terms of the statement made by Ariel Sharon at the beginning of this essay. Sharon’s comments are far from original. In fact, similar statements have been made by every Israeli prime minister since the founding of the state in 1948. David Ben Gurion put it this way in 1937, "We must expel Arabs and take their places". Ben Gurion’s blunt declaration is no different from Sharon’s or any of his successors. It merely summarizes the prevailing sentiment of the Israeli leadership for the last 60 years.
Golda Meir elaborated on Ben Gurion’s comments by denying the existence of the indigenous people altogether, saying, "There’s no such thing as a Palestinian people. It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t exist".
Meir’s denials may seem foolish but they are consistent with the stated beliefs of every Israeli prime minister who has served since she left office in 1970.
Yitzak Rabin’s assertions are nearly identical to those of Meir and Ben Gurion. He said,
"[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the west Bank to Jordan. "
How different is this from Prime Minister Olmert’s comments three weeks ago when he addressed the US House of Representatives, "I believed, and to this day still believe, in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land"?
There is absolute unanimity among Israel’s leaders past and present, liberal and conservative, on this one, critical issue. The rhetoric many vary, the politics may differ, but there is no substantial difference. In reality, the settlements went through their greatest period of expansion under the "dovish" Labor party.
Labor and Likud; two parties, one policy.
The invasion of Gaza has nothing to do with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier or even with Hamas’ rise to power. It is simply a continuation of the same, unalterable policy of annexation through brutality and subjugation. This is simply the latest manifestation of Israel’s territorial ambitions.
The immensity of operation "Summer Rain", suggests that plans have been in place for quite some time and that the aims may be farther reaching than is now apparent.
Could this be the beginning of "Transfer"; the Israeli scheme to force Palestinians off their land by creating (as Rabin said) "conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration"?
It’s very possible. The intentional destruction of electric power plants, water lines, bridges, and other vital infrastructure, as well as the cutting off of food, financial resources and medical supplies, indicate that Israel is tightening the noose on the Palestinians in an effort to make life untenable in the West Bank and Gaza. Why else would they unleash their venom against objects that are in no way related to the kidnapping of the soldier and will, probably, only put him in greater danger?
Israel is doing whatever it can to make human survival impossible in the occupied territories. It is paving the way for a second Palestinian Nakba.
Ariel Sharon knew that spreading misery’ throughout the territories was the only way to deal with the "demographic problem". He said, "You don’t simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away. I prefer to advocate a positive policy, to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." (Ariel Sharon Aug 24, 1988)
In the minds of Ehud Olmert and the Israeli leadership, the invasion of Gaza is a "positive policy" which will "induce" vast numbers of Palestinians to leave. The humanitarian crisis they are precipitating is not seen as a disaster, but an opportunity. Every Palestinian, who is driven from his homeland by grinding poverty, racism or violence, provides another inch or two of ground for Israel to claim as its own.
And, when the unilateral borders are finally set and Israel owns everything from the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Olmert will have realized his dream of "Greater Israel". The rivers of blood that have fed that vision will mean nothing.
Menachem Begin said much the same over 20 years ago when he proclaimed, "The partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized…Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And, forever."
God help us.
Goal of Israel's military action is questioned
Is it to free captive soldier, teach Hamas a lesson or topple Hamas government?
Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service
Friday, June 30, 2006
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the return of Cpl...
* Printable Version
* Email This Article
(06-30) 04:00 PDT Jerusalem -- Israeli leaders found themselves under fire from all sides Thursday as the crisis over kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit dragged into another day without any sign of a breakthrough.
"The purpose of our intended actions is not to punish the civilian Palestinian population, but to achieve the central aim right now -- to return our boy Gilad home," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Shimon Peres, the normally dovish deputy prime minister, said Israel was justified in sending troops to Gaza and staging mass arrests of Hamas politicians in the West Bank. The military operation had broader goals than just the return of the kidnapped soldier, he said.
The Palestinians "have to decide if they are a government or if they belong to a terroristic organization," said Peres. "There was a hidden hope that Hamas, once they built a government, they will change, they will improve their behavior, they will become responsible. To our great disappointment, they became part of their terroristic arm."
But across the Israeli political spectrum, critics wondered whether the military operation could succeed, or whether Olmert and his new, largely untested Kadima-led government would be unable to deliver his chief promise to voters -- a withdrawal from remote parts of the West Bank.
"I think we need to differentiate between Israel's full, unfettered right to take violent action in Gaza in order to stop the barrage of Qassam rocket attacks (into southern Israel) and to force the release of Gilad Shalit, and the actual action that is being taken. It is not clear what the goal is at all," said Yossi Beilin, head of the left-wing Meretz Party.
"It doesn't appear to be a 'surgical strike' in order to release the kidnapped soldier which, by the way, none of us would have any complaints about," said Beilin. "I do have one prayer -- that whoever started this action knows how to end it. He must have an exit plan to get out of Gaza. He must have the understanding to say, at a certain point, 'This is what was accomplished, and this is what was not accomplished, but enough, and we can't stay there,' " he added.
On the right, Effi Eitam of the National Religious Party-National Union, said he supported the military action -- but only if it brought down the elected Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority.
"If it is just a show of strength on our part, then nothing will have been accomplished," said Eitam. "If it is a change of direction of this government, and the political and diplomatic goals are achieved, then we in the opposition praise this. We will support it. The main goal must be to topple the Hamas government."
Yuval Steinitz of the right-wing Likud Party, a former chairman of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said he backed the current operation and had supported the "disengagement" -- last year's pullout of settlers and Israeli soldiers from Gaza, but expressed concern for developments in the strip since then.
"There is a strategic problem developing in Gaza since the disengagement," said Steinitz. "The terror groups have set up training camps and established a popular Palestinian army along the lines of the Hezbollah in Lebanon. The attack on the tank and the outpost is a symptom of these developments."
Steinitz said the problem would have to be confronted, and he urged action sooner rather than later. "Israel will launch a ground operation against the Qassam and terror infrastructure, either before there is a disaster and a Qassam rocket scored a direct hit on a classroom full of children or a bus, or after. It will happen. It has to happen," he said.
Uzi Dayan, a former deputy chief of staff and head of the tiny, centrist Tafnit Party, took a broader view, suggesting that Olmert's success in settling the current crisis would have long-term implications for the central policy of his government -- the "convergence" plan to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank.
Dayan said military tactics had to be combined with a clearer political strategy. "The need to rescue the soldier Gilad from the Gaza Strip is no more important than the need to give security to the children of Sderot," the Israeli town most threatened by the cross-border Palestinian rockets.
"There are two more military objectives -- to provide security to the residents of the Western Negev, a military solution to the issue of the Qassam rockets, and the second long-term aim is to resurrect Israel's deterrent capacity. If we don't do that, we will not achieve the diplomatic objective," he said. "Anyone who cannot provide a military solution to the Qassam rockets or resurrect deterrence cannot carry out the convergence plan in the West Bank, and that is the broader context in which these events must be considered."
Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, agreed that Olmert's political program was threatened as the crisis has grown.
"There's no question that the last couple of weeks, the Qassam missile attacks and kidnapping and killing makes a further disengagement in the West Bank far more complicated and less likely," Steinberg said.
U.S. to pay $48 million to cover damages to Gaza power station
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
United States officials said they expect that U.S. funds will be used to pay for the damages caused by an Israel Air Force strike Tuesday on a Palestinian power station in the Gaza Strip. The power station was insured by a U.S. government agency, according to The Boston Globe.
The Foreign and Defense Ministry departments that oversee foreign relations were unaware of the decision to target civilian facilities in the Strip, or the decision to attack the power station. Because of this, officials did not know that the station was insured by a U.S. government agency. Israel did not inform the U.S. prior to attacking the power station.
The power station in Gaza was built over a period of five years, at a cost of $150 million. In 1999, the Enron Corporation, along with Palestinian businessman Said Khoury, began working on the project. In 2000, Khoury's Morganti Group purchased Enron's share of the project.
The power station began operating in 2002, reaching full commercial capacity in 2004. The owners of the power station insured it, through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, for a sum of $48 million due to "political risks." OPIC is a U.S. government authority that insures U.S. investments in developing markets.
A spokesman for the agency said the insurance purchased by the Morganti Group covers instances of political violence, which include wars and acts of terror.
The plant supplies electricity to some 860,000 people.
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