Palestinians

Image: A delegation of international bishops has described Gaza as “a shocking scandal” and an “injustice that cries out to the human community for resolution.”

You simply cannot adhere to the principle of universal civil and political rights and, at the same time, support a Zionist state. To do so is to involve oneself in a contradiction. The liberals are being forced to face this fact. And, as this happens, they will have to make a real choice: cease being Zionist or cease adhering to the liberal ideal. I suspect that, along with Ari Shavit, most of them will decide to “stand with the damned.”

by Dr. Lawrence Davidson

 Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) said the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza returned control of that territory to the Palestinian people and the EU would play an important role in implementing the scheme. “This agreement is intended to give the Palestinian people freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives.

 
 
 
by Stuart Littlewood
 
I have just received a very disappointing reply from my true-blue Tory MP to pleas for real government action over the slaughter in Gaza.

Photo credit: Palestinian people stage a demonstration to protest the Israeli attacks in Ramallah (AA)
 
 

 The level of devastation wrought by Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza should convince any world citizen of the depths with which fascism has taken root in Israeli society

 
 

With that one word, Obama could earn his Nobel Peace Prize and glory in an achievement too long delayed, revel in the dissolution of the power of AIPAC over America, find solace in the reality that under his administration the world found the United States that acted on its true beliefs of inclusiveness of all and for all, both in the United States and in the community of nations. 

 

“How long a time lies in one little word!” (Shakespeare, Richard II)

Israel Prize laureate and renowned scholar Zeev Sternhell fears the collapse of Israeli democracy, and compares the current atmosphere with that of 1940s’ France. The time we have left to reverse this frightening trend is running out, he warns

 In sum, despite its current ability to rip thousands of Palestinians to shreds on the flimsiest of pretexts, all is not well for Israel. Even their short term goals have not been met in this latest attack. Despite everything, the unity government has not broken, and Fatah and Hamas are currently presenting a united front in the ceasefire negotiations.

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.

“Over more than six decades I have however slowly come to realize that the Zionist project had from its beginning a racist element in it in aspiring to build a state exclusively for Jews.

The smell and the sights we saw were shocking. The moment we parked and I got out, a very strange smell hit us—the smell of dead bodies. That smell will never leave me; it is still stuck in my nose. We saw totally flattened houses and other houses partially destroyed.  It reminded me of pictures from war-torn areas where years of fighting erased a village