The
Gaza Bombardment - What You're Not Being Told
http://scgnews.com/the-gaza-bombardment-what-youre-not-being-told
So
why is Israel really attacking Gaza? It's not about self defense and
it's obviously not about avenging those three teenagers. Those are
just cover stories for the naive. What this is really about is
natural gas.
It
turns out that Gaza has quite a bit of natural gas on its coastline.
One of the largest sources in the region. British Gas, which holds a
joint exploration agreement for the area estimates that the
fields hold at least 1 trillion cubic feet of gas. That
gas belongs to the Palestinian people and they should be the ones to
benefit from it. Israel
disagrees.
(An
interesting side story on this issue: At one point Russia
was bidding for a chance to develop Gaza's gas fields.)
After
the death of Yasser Arafat, under questionable
circumstances,
Israel has controlled those fields, and British Gas has negotiated
with Tel Aviv.
With
power divided between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the
Palestinians have been too weak to put up any meaningful ,resistance
and Israel would like to keep it that way. The Unity Government
between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority threatens Israel's
control of those fields, and as such it has to be destroyed.
It's
pretty basic really. These are the real motives of all wars:
resources, territory and power. They'll always come up with an
excuse, and it's easy to fall for them if you don't do your research,
but there's also a really easy way to avoid getting duped: always
stand against wars of aggression. Period. Make it a matter of
principle, and the facts and morality will always end up being on
your side.
And
speaking of morality, even if those teenagers had been killed by
Hamas, what kind of psychopath thinks that this gives Israel the
right to go and kill over a hundred people who had nothing to do with
it? We're talking about little kids here.
I'm
not going to show you the pictures of the dead or dying children here
in this video, but I have looked at them, and as a father it's almost
unbearable to see. If hearing about those bombs falling doesn't phase
you emotionally, if this is just a political debate for you, then go
look at the pictures (these
for example).
You have no right to defend what Israel is doing, if you don't have
the courage to even glance at the consequences.
And
anyone who would justify these crimes after seeing the civilian
casualties should be ashamed of themselves.
The
bombing heavily populated residential areas is a war crime, and the
U.S. government is funding it with your tax dollars. That's right.
Israel receives over 3 billion dollars in foreign aid from the U.S.
each year. (But hey, it's not like the American people actually need
that money, the national debt is only 17 trillion dollars.)
Of
course it's no accident that you've never had face what's being done
to the Palestinian's in your name. If you turn on the mainstream
media at any point during this crisis all you'll see is constant
stream of reports focusing on the Palestinian rockets being fired in
response. These reports conveniently fail to mention that as of yet
these primitive rockets have not killed one single Israeli.
The
Obama administration is also running with this artificial narrative.
But
the rockets, the rockets! Let's all bring this back to the puny
homemade rockets that the Palestinians are launching out of
desperation and frame this as a question of Israel's self defense.
Pretend
for a moment that this wasn't happening in the Middle East, but
rather in the south west of the United States. Hey, just for kicks
let's say it was happening in Palestine Texas. So three teenagers
from Mexico are visiting Palestine Texas and they get killed, by
somebody, we don't know who. Mexico of course takes this as an
invitation to launch airstrikes, on the entire on the entire region.
For ten days the Mexican air force dutifully pummels Palestine Texas,
and the surrounding villages, but unfortunately these darn rednecks
were unaware that this was perfectly within Mexico's rights, so they
started taking pot shots at Mexican fighter jets with their shotguns
and deer rifles, and some started shooting in the general direction
of the Mexican border. The bullets didn't reach their targets, but
still they tried to defend themselves, and THAT is unacceptable.
Sound
absurd? That's what you people sound like when you parrot the
mainstream media and talk show pundits without thinking. Totally
incoherent.
Israel
isn't defending itself against the Palestinians any more than the
Europeans were defending themselves against the natives of the
Americas. Year after year the Israelis have taken more Palestinian
land, bulldozed more homes, set up new settlements, and
systematically expelled the inhabitants. You can make up
justifications or deny it all you want, but the maps don't lie
.
This
isn't defense, this is ethnic cleansing.
Of
course there are those who are actually ok with what these maps tell
us. There are people who like to assert that Israel has the right to
steal every square inch of Palestinian land because supposedly one
thousand five hundred or so years ago their Jewish ancestors were
expelled. They call this the right of return.
Ok,
let's go with that.
Rights
are an interesting topic. The thing about rights, is that if human
right actually exists then it would have to universal to all of
humanity.
So
what about the Palestinian's right of return?
Don't
you find it a bit odd that one of the primary stipulations that
Israel always imposes upon the Palestinians during negotiations is
that in order to reach a peace agreement the Palestinians have to
accept that they
have no right to return to the land that was taken from them in the
past 50 years?
We're not talking about people who have some kind of abstract
ancestral claim, these are the actual people who lost their homes,
and their farms, and their businesses in this lifetime.
So
is the right of return an actual right or is it not? You can't have
it both ways without exposing the dirty underbelly of this issue:
which is that Zionism is a fundamentally racist and fascistic
ideology.
The
video below is an extreme display, but it's not unique in Israel
these days. If you do a little research on the topic you'll find that
hardline Zionism very much resembles a neo-nazi movement.
And
no, Zionism is not inseparable from Judaism, and it has nothing to do
with who you are genetically.
So
what can we do to help the Palestinians? Start by actively engaging
this debate everywhere it comes up. Don't avoid the conversation just
to be polite. Women and children are being massacred in Gaza right
now, and silence in the face of oppression is to take the side of the
oppressors.
It's
time to start confronting those who support what Israel is doing
right now. This isn't a matter of opinion or preference. To defend
the use of the military against civilian populations, is shameful,
it's immoral and it has consequences.
A
particular weight of responsibility sits on the shoulders of those in
the so called conservative churches of the United States, because
this is where the bulk of the support for Israel is found. It's up to
you who see what is really going on to wake the people in your church
up. If the Pastor in your church defends bombardment of Gaza, or any
war for that matter, you need to confront him, and if he doesn't
respond when you confront him in private then confront him publicly.
If that sounds extreme to you, then go look at those pictures of the
little kids who are on the receiving end of this. Go take a glimpse,
but understand that the horror of seeing a photo of a dismembered
child is nothing like what their parents are feeling.
And
to the people of Israel, you need to do some serious soul searching.
Is this the image you want the world to have when they think of
Israel? An image of a brutal oppressor that murders civilians without
hesitation? But more importantly, is this what you want to be?
Bonus
Videos
1.
Miko Peled Son of a high ranking Israeli general tells the real story
of the Palestinian occupation:
2. Norman Finkelstein ends the argument properly:
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