Gaza - a new way of seeing

The death toll so far – more than 600 Palestinians killed – most of them women, children and civilian men. 29 Israelis killed, almost all of them soldiers. And yet the UK and US governments keep telling us Hamas are the terrorists.

Whenever Israel’s apologists, like John Kerry or some chap called Hammond, who says he’s now the UK’s Foreign Secretary, are asked to condemn Israel’s slaughter of civilians they always fall back on the mantra that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself.’ But let’s imagine the boot was on the other foot.

Suppose it was the Israelis who had been expelled by terrorists from their country, and then blockaded in a giant prison camp or turned into a subject people whose menfolk could be rounded up and taken away by the occupying Palestinians whenever they felt like it, and who had a little more of their land stolen every day.

Suppose it was the Israelis who had been strung along for decades in a ‘peace process’ which was supposed to free them but never got anywhere. And suppose that every now and then they got fed up, and tried to resist, and that then the Palestinians slaughtered them by the houseful.

Would we hear Kerry and Hammond banging on about the Palestinians’ ‘right to defend themselves’? As one of the more intelligent Israeli newspapers put it: ‘The Palestinians are expelled from their homeland and later attacked in the refugee camps to which they fled, and the Jews boast of being more moral.’

Israel: "we're a bit sorry"

A year after its merciless assault on Gaza that killed 1,400 people, Israel has agreed to pay $10 million compensation to the United Nations for destroying or damaging stores, schools, offices and vehicles funded by the organisation in the desperately impoverished besieged enclave.

Israel claimed that Hamas fighters were operating near or in UN buildings, but a UN inquiry rejected its arguments, and accused the Israeli military of “negligence or recklessness”, saying that the deaths of civilians should be investigated under international law. In one of the worst incidents, Israel fired mortars in the "immediate vicinity" of a school being used to shelter Palestinians who had fled from their homes, killing up to 40 people.

Meanwhile, life for the Palestinians goes on much as usual. On Friday, three people, including a 14 year old boy, were killed by Israeli air strikes, the Egyptians have been preventing an aid convoy carrying much-needed clothing and medical equipment from crossing into the territory, and President Obama’s half-hearted attempts to establish a Palestinian state have got precisely nowhere.

Sabotating Palestine + strangest rail disaster

Just as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was praising Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his commitment to peace, the Israelis were busy sabotaging any dwindling prospects there might be, with plans to build illegal settlements in the West Bank for another 73,000 people. Already 400,000 live in illegal Israeli settlements, usually built on hilltops like Crusader castles.

Having given Israel the weapons to massacre 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza and flatten their homes, shops, schools, hospitals and universities, America is now promising to pay for some of the damage, but even then it can’t resist shabby manoeuvres to try to undermine the Palestinians’ democratically elected Hamas government.

The message to the Palestinians seems pretty clear. If you follow Mr Abbas’s line, the Americans will praise you, and every day the Israelis will steal more of your land.

On this day.....65 years ago, one of the most bizarre rail disasters in history happened in a tunnel in Italy. Train 8017 which ran from Naples to Potenza had become known as the “Black Market Express” because many of its passengers were illicit traders. In the early hours of March 3, 1944, the train got stuck in the Galleria delle Armi tunnel in the Apennines, its wheels spinning helplessly on the icy track.

There were just a handful of survivors as carbon monoxide fumes killed 521 people, most of them dying quietly in their sleep.

Genocidal priest + Iraq + Gaza

A former priest has been convicted of genocide in Rwanda. Emmanuel Rukundo, who had been an army chaplain, helped remove Tutsis who had taken refuge at a seminary. Many were then killed. Altogether 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in just 100 days of 1994 – the fastest mass slaughter in history.

Rukundo is the second Roman Catholic priest to have been convicted of genocide. Many victims were murdered in churches where they had been urged to shelter by government radio. Five thousand were killed in one at Ntarama, where one man hidden under a pile of bodies managed to escape and tell the tale. See A Disastrous History of the World.

Iraq. So it’s confirmed. Jack Straw’s grounds for vetoing the release of cabinet minutes on Iraq are just another piece of Labour’s spin and deception. He says it’s to protect the confidentiality of what people say in Cabinet, but Clare Short has now confirmed what so many of us suspected (see my blog of Feb 25) – that actually the cabinet were too cowardly to question Blair’s decision to go to war, and said nothing. And some of these people are still in power – Brown, Hoon, Straw, Darling, Beckett.

Stranger than fiction. When Blair had to step down as PM, he was appointed Middle East “peace” envoy by the Americans. Yes, I know the man who helped kill tens of thousands in Iraq, and obstructed a ceasefire in Lebanon so the Israelis could sow thousands of cluster bombs to blow the arms and legs off little children might seem an odd choice, but not to George Bush. But even I had to pinch myself when I saw this – the “peace” envoy has just made his first, yes his first, visit to Gaza – though, of course, he is refusing to meet representatives of Palestine’s democratically elected government. Don't want to get confused by listening to both sides, do you Tony?
FACT. In the 2006, Palestinian general election, Hamas won more than 44% of the vote. In the last UK general election, Labour won less than 36% of the vote.

Gaza - the EU has the solution! + explosive anniversary

So the EU’s humanitarian aid chief (!) has visited Gaza, seen the murder and destruction described in yesterday’s blog, and got to the bottom of the problem – it’s all the fault of Hamas! The EU, which gives Israel all manner of privileges, dismisses the Palestinians’ democratically elected government as “terrorist”. Now politicians like Mr Michel (a former Belgian Foreign Minister, no less) tend to avoid any definition of “terrorist” so they can use it to describe anyone they don’t like, but surely what it means is someone who kills, injures or terrorises civilians in order to achieve a political objective.

So here’s a little competition (Mr Michel may enter if he wishes). Using the facts from the Gaza massacre – summarised in my blog of yesterday – who better fits the definition “terrorist”. Is it (a) Hamas or (b) Israel ? For people like Mr Michel and Labour in Britain, it is all so very simple. If only the Palestinians would just knuckle down under the occupation, blockade, theft of land, killings, kidnappings or whatever else Israel cares to inflict on them, there’d be no problem. Let me let you into a little secret, Mr Michel and co. It is not going to happen. The Palestinians will continue to resist until they are free. Giving them their liberty is the only route to peace.

On this day.....seven years ago, a huge explosion at a military barracks in Lagos, Nigeria flattened whole streets nearby and sent shells, grenades and bullets flying through the air. People thought it was a military coup, or a terrorist attack and an estimated 20,000 fled their homes. Many were trampled to death in the streets, others drowned in a canal, and perhaps 2,000 were killed altogether. See A Disastrous History of the World for more details.

Gaza - return to oblivion

So the massacre in Gaza is over and the world can forget about the Palestinians until the next one begins. After a brief flurry of sympathy and understanding for the people inhabiting the world’s biggest open prison, normal service is rapidly being resumed. The BBC and Sky are refusing to broadcast an appeal to help those Palestinians made destitute, homeless, disabled, hungry and thirsty by the Israelis. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made it clear that no Israeli war criminals will be prosecuted whatever the circumstances. But what do you expect from a man who killed hundreds of Palestinian children to improve his election prospects ?

Because of Israeli censorship, it’s impossible to be certain about how many Palestinians were killed, and the figure is likely to rise as more and more bodies are pulled from the rubble. However, it seems that at least 1300 Palestinians have been killed, nearly a third of them children. It is almost certain that the majority of the people Israel killed were civilians and not members of the Palestinian resistance.

The Israelis have injured at least 5,000 more and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings – houses, universities, factories, schools, mosques, orchards etc. 50,000 Gazans have been made homeless, and 400,000 have no water. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, including ten soldiers. Literally 99% of the casualties have been inflicted by the Israelis, so what is Labour’s analysis of the problem? We have to stop Hamas getting weapons! Not a dicky bird from Labour, or the rest of the “free world” on stopping the flow of arms to Israel.

Indeed, Gordon Brown has even offered to prostitute the Royal Navy to the service of the Israelis as a jailer for the Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/israel-gaza-ceasefire-fragile

If you want to defy the BBC and Sky and donate to the Gaza appeal, this is the link.
https://www.donate.bt.com/bt_form_gaza.html

But there is little point in just rebuilding Gaza again so the Israelis can destroy it again. Reconstruction this time needs to be allied to political and military action to ensure Israel can never again massacre Gazans and destroy their homes.

Israel breaks the ceasefire + a stormy anniversary

Just imagine if Hamas had fired off a rocket and injured an Israeli, what a song and dance there would have been from the British media and from Labour ministers. Well, on Friday, the Israelis shot another two Palestinian children and at least another three Palestinian adults and there was barely a peep. The adults do not even appear to have been part of the Palestinian resistance. Some of the victims were in a fishing boat which, according to the Israelis, had “strayed off course.” The Israeli gunboat also hit a number of other boats and a house on the shore.

And where is the Silent President? Mr Obama excused his uncharacteristic lack of loquacity during the massacre in Gaza on the grounds that he was not yet in office. But, I seem to remember he assured us, he would have much to say once he was. Well, we’re still waiting Mr President, and time is running out.

On this day.....250 years ago, of course, Robbie Burns was born. More significant for the disaster history blog, though, is that on January 25, 1990, the “Burns’ Day” storm hit southern England. Gusts of 87 miles an hour were recorded in London, and altogether, 47 people were killed, while the actor Gordon Kaye, star of ‘Allo, ‘Allo was seriously injured. The winds were less strong than in the “Great Storm” of just over two years before, but the death toll was much higher because this time the winds came during the day when there were more people out and about.

See The Disastrous History of London for the full story.