18 Jan 2009

Haim argues 'Israel has not defeated Hamas'


Haim is a British based Israeli, effectively exiled and over here, he has been at the forefront of opposition to the IDF in the UK. Do have a look at his blog

Dear Friends,

It seems that the current iteration is coming to a bloody close as I write
those lines. The unilateral Israeli-declared cease fire was supposed to have
started few minutes ago. Israel has not defeated Hamas, but has run out of
time before the Obamah inauguration. They have planned to go out on the 18th
beforehand, but thought that they will be able to break the resistance.
This is similar to Lebanon 2006. After they left Lebanon, Hizballah has
become even stronger and more influential. We are seeing a reply of Lebanon,
but with even more bloodshed and terrorising of a civilian population under
occupation.
We must not relent, now that the bombs may have stopped. Now starts our big
struggle: We, who oppose Zionism and its murderous excesses, must start the
new phase of the struggle against them, so as to make sure the next invasion
never comes: We have now to pull all the stops:

BDS: Boycott, divestment, sanction,
cutting off relations with Israel,
full arms embargo,
an end to the occupation NOW!
Israel¹s leaders who ordered this invasion, and the army officers who have
carried it out, should be tried for the war crimes they committed!
Israel should pay full reparations to all the citizens of Lebanon and
Palestine which they have harmed.

No blockade of Gaza will now be possible, I reckon. We should put ALL the
pressures on Israel and its citizens - 96% of them supported the barbarities
to the very end, and should share in the fate of the state which they
support.

Palestine shall be free!

Today, the 23 day of this murderous Zionist mission, there were a number of
main issues which I attempted to cover, and are mainly on the page:

http://gaza.haimbresheeth.com/gaza-carnage-archive/day-by-day-archive

Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza: BBC

Peace Œa mirage¹ for Palestinians: BBC

Gaza hospital comes under fire: BBC

UN accuses Israel over phosphorus: BBC (today we can se also the video
evidence, which is on the website)

Brown in UK naval offer for Gaza: BBC - The man must be out of his mind -
offering to police the sea for Israel, while selling it the arms to kill
more Palestinians. Write to any media outlet you can about this travesty!)

The plot against Gaza: Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada


Time for Israel to be put on trial: Elna Sondergaard, The Electronic
Intifada

UN school attacked; civilians left to bleed to death: Press release, Al
Mezan


Finkelstein Gaza Interview on Israel breaking the ceasefire with Hamas
(video clip)

Military components factory ransacked in Gaza protest: The Guardian online
Nine people held after break-in at plant near Brighton allegedly making
parts for Israeli missiles

ANALYSIS / Israel declares victory in Gaza, but at what cost?: Ha¹aretz

Sarkozy, Merkel, and Brown to attend Gaza summit in Egypt: Ha¹aretz


Mark Regev and Tzipi Livni are humiliated by Christiane Aamnpour (2 video
clips)

Who started the war?: Rare truth from the US news media: Brasscheck TV (
Video clip - excellent)

LSE STUDENTS SECOND UNIVERSITY TO HOLD OCCUPATION WITH MORE UNIVERSITIES
ABOUT TO JOIN LSE SOLIDARITY WITH GAZA


OPEN LETTER TO INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS FROM THE R2E (Right to
Education) CAMPAIGN

Israel¹s Message: London Review of Books (ilan Pappe's excellent new piece)

Jewish British Lawmaker Likens Israel to Nazis: YouTube see Sir Gerald
Kaufman equating the Israelis with Nazis


Two letters to the guardian: One from over 300 UK professors calling for
immediate sanctions on Israel, and one from 21 Israeli academics.

Important articles in the Lancet, describing the medical evidence against
Israel on a number of key issues.

There are too many others to include here, including new caricatures and
video clips.

Haim

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who wanted to defeat Hamas ? no one, even the most stupid one didn't think that the IDF thought it could be accomplished and no one challenged it, so what the hell is he talking about, Maybe this guy haim or what ever (Not every ex-Israeli has to be treated as an expert and taken too sirious, as I have seen many Israeli morons too), sits in the UK and wants to see some more action.
I am amazed of the pseudo-analytics of those guys, if they are so smart how come nothing the predict happened, but the opposite.

STOP THE ROCKETS AND STOP THE CONSEQUENSES, THATS THE MESSAGE TO GO WITH and not wait for the next wave, or maybe Haim wants to have action again (he should go and join the IDF forces if that what he likes or join the fighting in Darfur, they need fighters like him)

Anonymous said...

An open letter to Gideon Levy Regarding Gaza

By A.B. Yehoshua

Dear Gideon,

You remember that in recent years I called you occasionally to praise you for your articles and your writing about the wrongs done to the Palestinians in the administered territories, whether by the army or by the settlers. Physical wrongs, land expropriations, acts of abuse, perversions of justice and so on. I told you that it is very difficult to read what you write, because it weighs on our conscience, but that the work you are doing and the voice you are sounding are extremely important. I was also concerned about your physical safety, knowing that you risked your life by visiting such hostile places.

I did not ask you why you did not visit Israeli hospitals in order to tell the painful stories of Israeli citizens who were hurt in terrorist attacks. I accepted your position that there are plenty of other journalists doing this and that you had taken on the crucial mission of telling the story of the afflictions of the other side, our enemies today and our neighbors tomorrow. Accordingly, it is from this position of respect that I find it necessary to respond to your recent articles on the war in which we are engaged today, so that you will be able to preserve the moral validity of your distinctive voice for the future. A few years ago, when the Hatuel family - a mother and her four children, of blessed memory - were killed on the way to one of the settlements in Gush Katif, I believed that this terrible death pained you as it did all of us but that like many of us you said in your heart: Why should these Israelis endanger their children by living provocatively, hopelessly, dangerously and immorally in Gush Katif? By what right do 8,000 Jews expropriate a sizable area in the densely overcrowded Gaza Strip in order to build blossoming villages before the eyes of hundreds of thousands of refugees living in such abysmal conditions? You were angry, as I was, at the parents and at those who sent them. And even though I believe that like all of us you felt the pain of the children who were killed, you did not brand the leaders of Hamas "war criminals" as you did the Israeli leaders, and you did not demand the establishment of an international tribunal to try them.

When I asked you after the disengagement from Gaza, Gideon, explain to me why they are firing missiles at us, you replied that they want us to open the crossings. I asked you whether you truly believe that if they fire missiles the crossings will be opened, or the opposite. And whether you truly believe that it is right and just to open crossings into Israel for those who declare openly and sincerely that they want to destroy our country. I did not get an answer from you. And even though the crossings were in fact opened many times, and were closed in the wake of the missile attacks, regrettably I still did not see you standing firmly behind a moral position which says: Now, people of Gaza, after you expelled the Israeli occupation from your land, and justly so, you must hold your fire.

The doleful thought sometimes crosses my mind that it is not the children of Gaza or of Israel that you are pining for, but only for your own private conscience. Because if you are truly concerned about the death of our children and theirs, you would understand the present war - not in order to uproot Hamas from Gaza but to induce its followers to understand, and regrettably in the only way they understand in the meantime, that they must stop the firing unilaterally, stop hoarding missiles for a bitter and hopeless war to destroy Israel, and above all for the sake of their children in the future, so they will not die in another pointless adventure.

After all, now, for the first time in Palestinian history, after the Ottoman, British, Egyptian, Jordanian and Israeli conquests, part of the Palestinians has gained a first and I hope not a last piece of land on which they are to maintain a full and independent government. And if they start building, developing and pursuing social endeavors, even according to Islamic religious law, they will prove to the whole world, and especially to us, that the moment we terminate the occupation they will be ready to live in peace with their surroundings, free to do as they wish, but also responsible for their deeds.

There is something absurd in the comparison you draw about the number of those killed. When you ask how it can be that they killed three of our children and we cause the killing of a hundred and fifty, the inference one can draw is that if they were to kill a hundred of our children (for example, by the Qassam rockets that struck schools and kindergartens in Israel that happened to be empty), we would be justified in also killing a hundred of their children.

In other words, it is not the killing itself that troubles you but the number. On the face of it, one could answer you cynically by saying that when there will be two hundred million Jews in the Middle East it will be permissible to think in moral terms about comparing the number of victims on each side. But that is, of course, a debased argument. After all, you, Gideon, who live among the people, know very well that we are not bent on killing Palestinian children to avenge the killing of our children. All we are trying to do is get their leaders to stop this senseless and wicked aggression, and it is only because of the tragic and deliberate mingling between Hamas fighters and the civilian population that children, too, are unfortunately being killed. The fact is that since the disengagement, Hamas has fired only at civilians. Even in this war, to my astonishment, I see that they are not aiming at the army concentrations along the border but time and again at civilian communities.

Please, preserve the moral authority and concern that you possessed, and your distinctive voice. We will need them again in the future, which promises further ordeals on the road to peace. In the meantime, it would be best for us all - we and the Palestinians and the rest of the world - to follow the simple moral imperative of Kantian philosophy: "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

In friendship always,
A.B. Yehoshua
Yehoshua attended the signing of the Geneva Accord
He is a long-standing critic of Israeli occupation

Anonymous said...

AIPAC RESOLUTION
March 21, 2010

AIPAC RESOLUTION
"To urge members of the House and Senate to call upon ISRAEL to reaffirm its relationship with the US and to work closely with its primary funder and trading partner and not to further treat the American presidency with contempt.
And to adhere to international law in relation to illegal settlements and Jerusalem."

posted by GDR

Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles

Derek Wall ’s article entitled  Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles , argues that Ma...