and it was only for pointing out a fact of world war 1.
PS.watch out they don't make you a target.

care to explain.

THE REALITY OF ISRAEL'S DESIRE FOR PEACE

Countdown to the offensive

Israel is waiting callously for the Annapolis meeting to pass before wreaking intended destruction on Gaza, writes Saleh Al-Naami

Last Sunday Zaher Al-Orr had a surprise for his son Ashraf and his friend Mohamed Abu Herbid. He prepared breakfast for them before going home, after their night shift. The three worked as guards in a bathroom fittings factory near Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Normally they would have breakfast after returning from work. But this was going to be a special morning. Another worker who clocked in early joined them in the meal. Things didn't go exactly as Al-Orr planned. Minutes after the men sat down to eat, an Israeli artillery shell exploded on their dining table. All four men died.

Not only has Israel's shelling of Gaza grown more brutal, the targets have also changed. Now the Israeli air force is shelling the offices, positions, and patrols of the Palestinian police.

Five policemen were killed at two different police stations. Dozens others were wounded. Citing sources at the Israeli staff command, Israeli radio said that the intensification of military operations in the Gaza Strip aims at "punishing" Palestinians for the shelling of nearby Jewish settlements.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says that an incursion into Gaza is "imminent". Israeli television Channel 10 said last Friday that the international community was siding with Israel. Offer Shelah, presenter of the "Harvest of the Week" on Channel 10, said that, "despite the casualties among Palestinian civilians, the world is showing sympathy and tolerance for Israel's action. This is due to the fact that Abbas is continuing to meet Olmert at a time when the Israeli army is killing the Palestinians. Why be more royal than the king?"

Amnon Abramovic, an announcer at the Hebrew-language Israeli television, put it in a nutshell: "our army killed in 24 hours 10 Palestinians, including children, and yet we didn't hear anyone protesting."

(Did anyone know?)

The continued shelling of the Palestinians in Gaza is not a substitute for an Israeli incursion. Most likely, it is a prelude. In its Friday issue, Haaretz cites Israeli military sources as saying that the likelihood of waging an all-out military campaign in Gaza has grown since the military realised that the collective punishment Israel is imposing on the Palestinians wasn't stopping the firing of homemade rockets.

(Israeli defense analysts predicted that this would actually increase Gaza's response - and Israel plans to use this as a pretext for their long-premeditated assault.)

According to Israeli television Channel Two, a heated debate is taking place within the Israeli Joint Chiefs of Staff over military attacks on Palestinian police stations. Although the police stations are an "easy target", army generals note that attacking them may undermine security in Gaza and thus cause further complications for Israel. The generals want any incursion into Gaza to be postponed until the Annapolis summit is held, for fear of weakening the Israeli negotiating position.

Israel has already rallied international support for a military operation in Gaza. In its Sunday issue, Maariv reported that during his recent visit to Washington, Barak obtained a US green light for an offensive in Gaza. Barak, the newspaper says, brought intelligence officials with him. Reportedly they told the Americans that Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza were stockpiling weapons and that Hamas now has a virtual army.

IDF Complicit In Gaza Arms Smuggling
israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7686/index.php

According to Israeli intelligence reports, Hamas has stepped up the smuggling of weapons in an unprecedented manner to consolidate its military capabilities. The Islamic Jihad movement is also said to have doubled its arsenal of weapons and succeeded in recruiting a large number of security officials in Gaza following the Hamas takeover.

(Which was a response to Israel-America's failed Coup attempt by proxy, using corrupt members of Fatah.)

Meanwhile, the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are believed to have received considerable assistance, partly from Lebanon's Hizbullah.

Israel's retired army generals have reservations about a major campaign in Gaza. General Yaeir Naffe, a former commander of Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, believes that an incursion would be "useless unless it lasts for a minimum of two years." He warns that unless the Israelis stay for a long time in the Strip, the firing of rockets will resume. Speaking to Israeli Hebrew- language radio last Sunday, Naffe argued, "contrary to the situation in the West Bank, in Gaza we don't only need to stop the firing of rockets, but to guarantee that the Palestinians won't be able to produce rockets in the future." If the Palestinians succeed "to fire one rocket after our withdrawal, the whole operation would be seen as a failure," he added.

(But why aren't the Palestinians allowed the right to their own security? The hypocrisy surrounding this whole 'debate' is ludicrous.)

Some Israeli politicians linked the escalation in Gaza with Barak's personal motives. Former Israeli Education Minister Shulamit Aloni said that Barak was using Gaza to become prime minister. In an interview with the Nazareth- based newspaper Events, Aloni described Barak as "the most dangerous man for Israel, because of his nature, because he is a man of war, and because of his arrogance. He is taking an extreme position because he thinks that by committing crimes he would be able to defeat Netanyahu in the upcoming elections."

Aloni called for Barak to be tried as a war criminal in The Hague.

The Palestinians are taking Israel's threats seriously. Dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday that he was aware that the US administration gave Israel a green light to attack Gaza, and warned that Gaza would "be a tomb for the invaders".

The Ezzeddin Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, called on other resistance groups in Gaza to form a "joint operations room" to confront Israel's escalation. Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said that Israel's invasion of the Strip would be a "great folly... they will know that they had committed a big mistake by invading the Strip. They say they're angry at the abduction of soldier Gilad Shalit. Let me assure them that we will kidnap many more of their soldiers if they invade the Strip," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The Palestinian Ministry of Interior maintains that Israeli attacks on the Palestinian police are designed to throw Gaza into "chaos". Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Al-Ghosein told the Weekly that the ministry has no plans to evacuate police stations in anticipation of further shelling, but he didn't rule out such a move in the future.

Abu Ahmed, spokesman for Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, promised that the firing of rockets at Israel would continue, both during and after any Israeli offensive. For Gaza's beleaguered Palestinians, one thing is clear: following the Annapolis meeting, Israel will attack.

desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/11/reality-of-israels-desire-for-peace.htm

Massive Israeli Aggression To Follow Annapolis PR Event
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/385451.html

Report: After Annapolis, Israel will Attack Gaza
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/385451.html?c=on#c184121

This comic deeply offends and upsets me. My family has been murdered through outright anti-semitism, all my family around my grandparents disappeared in concentration and labor camps. This is exactly the kind of thing which makes me feel nautious on Indymedia, and far more under attack than on any other website on the net, including the far rights: i simply expect them to hate me.

The activist left in the UK keeps on falling into the same modes of thinking that Germany's Socialists did, which enabled it to be appropriated so well into NS. The term anti-semitism has been blurred by the state of Israel, and many of its defenders, to be focused around critique of Israel. Latuff plays exactly into this by not appreciating that anti-semitism is something other than this, by making a joke out of it as if this were the same as making a joke out of criticizing critique of Israel.

Anti-semitism is a view of the world where you see Jews as ruling the world. I think it is particularly rife amongst the left and consipiracy theorists because its nice and easy to think that there is someone controlling everything, that power is as strictly hierarchical as it were under feudal times. Anti-semitism is based on rejecting the concept that everyone recreates power structures, enforces it upon each other, maintains this current system. Activists are not immune to this, look at how so much of feminism is still so marginalised in our movement, how much patriarchal modes of behaviour that reinforce gender based subordination are ignored.

Ive been told so many times that anti-semitism is too confused an issue to bother with any more, that the biggest problem in the world is what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and that this should be my focus. If I care about the Palestinians then forget the holocaust, thats irrelevant now and anyways has nothing to do with anything, its a part of history (which i suspect many people on indymedia would want to argue against as well...). I can't. My scars keep getting inflamed by people like Latuff who laugh at them, ignore them, ridicule them.

Understanding anti-semitism is one of the main keys to understanding Israel's psyche. Outrightedly rejecting it simply inflames the scars, enrages the beast...

If you are interested in understanding anti-semitism then a good, but difficult place to start is Moishe Postone, 'Anti-Semitism and State Socialism'. Its been published in a lot of places, but you can find it in an Anti-German rag (a movement which Postone condems in Principia Dialectica issue 2) here:  http://antifa-hamburg.com/no-liberation-reader/en/download.html

which is that the cartoon is explicitly about the way in which the 'anti-semitism' accusation is used to exploit the horror of the Holocaust and of anti-Jewish prejudice of the past G-d knows how many centuries in order to silence critics of the indefensible actions of the Israeli state and, perhaps on occasion unwillingly, some of its citizens in the IDF? i really don't understand the confusion here. is it not true that there are lots of people silencing criticism of Israel's actions through the use ofthe accusation of 'anti-semitism'? I didn't know that anti-semitism meant a belief in jewish conspiracies...is it then different to 'normal' racism? if not, it means treating Jewish people differently, badly, in a discriminatory way, because of their racial identity (although we could claim that Judaism is religious, not racial)....it's those issues again! Is positive discrimination still racism? If yes, then demanding special treatment AS Jewish people is racist.

"This comic deeply offends and upsets me."

What should upset and offend you is Zionist Extremism's willingness to "Cry Wolf", slandering any and all opponents of Zionism and Israeli policy as "Antisemitism", as it cheapens the term, and makes people less likely to respond to actual cases of antisemitism.

"The activist left in the UK keeps on falling into the same modes of thinking that ..."

No, that's not true, and to suggest this calls your own purpose here into question. The activist community is not "the Left", but people of all walks of life concerned with the direction this world has taken.

"Latuff plays exactly into this by not appreciating that ..."

Latuff does appreciate this. That's the point of the cartoon.

"Anti-semitism is a view of the world where you see Jews as ruling the world."

No, antisemitism is a hatred of people because they are Jewish, just as Zionist Extremists hate Arabs because they are Arabs.

"Ive been told so many times that anti-semitism is too confused an issue to bother with any more, that the biggest problem in the world is what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and that this should be my focus."

By whom? I think it is important to be wary of hatred, regardless of who is the target. But indeed, since antisemitism is at its lowest point in recorded history, while hatred of Muslims and Arabs sadly seems to have replaced it, I do think it is important to keep things in perspective, and not ONLY condemn hatred of Jews, but racism of any form - including Israeli Apartheid.

" http://antifa-hamburg.com/no-liberation-reader/en/download.html"

That is not a study of antisemitism. It is a ridiculous slur against critics of Israel and the anti-Global Corporatization Movement, which is based on a flawed, deceptive premise, and has no place here.

Remember, this is Latuff, the guy who won second place in Iran's "Let's mock the Holocaust" cartoon contest, so it's not like there's any point in trying to expect he'll understand the historical and cultural context of antisemitism. He's just not capable of anything except "four legs good, two legs bad," and he's just not capable of understanding why retreading old antisemitic stereotypes while scratching out the word "Jew" and using the word "Zionist" instead doesn't do a damned thing to ameliorate the antisemitism involved. "Oy gevalt" is right to be disgusted; Latuff represents the IMC network at its worst.

And judging from his distinctive posting style "Zionism is racism" and "Condemn all racism" are Canada's Jordan Thornton, the sort of guy who thinks spambots pushing pharmaceuticals and casinos are actually Zi-i-i-ionist attempts by the Mossad to destroy the IMCs. In other words, Jordan is the kind of person who can praise Latuff unreservedly.

The Hamburg anti-fa piece is brilliant. But those -- like Jordan -- who could learn most from it are also the most blinded by their hatred.

Dear old gehrig forgot to post the cartoon that Latuff won 2nd prize for in the Iranian Holocaust Cartoon Competition ( http://www.irancartoon.com/120/holocaust/index.htm). The competition was a response to those who defended the right of a Danish Newspaper to print cartoons of Mohammed that were considered offensive by many muslims.

I've posted it for him.

Were not gehrig so blinded by his own hatred, he might even understand it.

Decide for yourself if Latuff is mocking the Holocaust.

I'd rather drink with Jordan than gehrig.

Oh, by all means.

Go follow the link to the other entries in the Mock-the-Holocaust cartoon contest. Go see the kind of contest Latuff won second place in. It's an eye-opener.

Then ask yourself this: why are self-described "anti-racists" defending Carlos Latuff?

@%<

Another truly wonderful and truthful image from Latuff, one of our SHINING LIGHTS here in Brazil, from where I am posting. Carlos Latuff is one of the most talented and creative cartoonists alive today, and his images convey what thousands of words cannot say.
Like Gilad Atzmon, he has an authentic love for and commitment to the Palestinian people, and chooses to use his artistic talents to make very strong visual statements which tell the truth about the situation in the Middle East, and the chess game going on over there, in which Palestine is central.

Parabens Carlos, muito obrigado, e continua com sua trabalha maravelosa com forte. Voce e muito mais melhor.

Looks like some of Latuff's work is up on UCIMC too....

 http://publici.ucimc.org/jan08.pdf