by Richard Silverstein
Originally appeared at Mint Press News
SEATTLE — While addressing Israel’s leading national security think tank on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro offered a harsh, relatively unprecedented assessment of the country’s apartheid legal system.
Unrest grows among Palestinian citizens of Israel, outraged by restrictions on access to al-Aqsa and causalities in the occupied territories
by Jonathan Cook
(Al-Jazeera ) – The violence rocking the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and now Gaza is on the verge of spilling into Israel, Palestinian leaders in Israel warned.
Obviously the real “concerns and interests” of the United States in the Middle East have noticeably diverged from those of Israel. As a consequence Israel is now loudly complaining that Washington has abandoned it. Well, Washington might do well to play the same game – to loudly complain about Israel’s traitorous behavior.
With what absolution then do they preach death and destruction? Shouldn’t this administration find these false prophets enemies of the people? Do they not incite to riot and enlist their minions to support illegal activities that are detrimental to the peace of America? Have they not brought America more insecurity by confirming in the minds of those fearful of a clash of civilizations that indeed America is on a crusade to destroy Islam?
Image: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and California Gov. Jerry Brown (2nd L) sign a pact to strengthen economic and research ties between California and Israel at the Computer History Museum on March 5, 2014 in Mountain View. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
CNN continues to foster the fantasy that the very existence of a poor, vulnerable little Israel is in grave danger from big, bad Palestine. It makes no mention of the fact that Israel has the most modern weaponry on the planet, provided by the United States, or that Israel receives $3 billion a year in aid from the U.S., while Palestine receives nothing. It also doesn’t mention that many of the weapons used against Palestinians citizens are in violation of international law.
Half-truths, Omissions and Distortions
White House and State Department officials had already become increasingly disturbed by what they saw as heavy-handed battlefield tactics that they believed risked a humanitarian catastrophe capable of harming regional stability and Israel’s interests.
They were especially concerned that Israel was using artillery, instead of more precision-guided munitions, in densely populated areas. The realization that munitions transfers had been made without their knowledge came as a shock.
“If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?”
(PRESS TV) -An Israeli paper has removed an article from its website, which urged “genocide” in the besieged Gaza Strip, a report says.
Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum
What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of Gaza has never been lifted.
