Whitewashing Gaza Assault?: Israeli War Crimes

By Dr. Abdul Ruff

After killing over 3000 defenseless Palestinians, committing all possible extra-war crimes, upon possibly improving the pro-government ratings on domestic front for the polls as well as its global terror standing and showcasing its newly developed weapon systems for the third world customers like India, on the 22nd day of violence in Gaza, Israel announced a ceasefire. The dramatic Israeli announcement of ceasefire came about as Obama was about to reach the White House to assume power. Reports suggest Israel has begun a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza , three weeks after launching a full-scale assault against the Palestinians for supporting the Hamas.

I- Palestinians, the lost Sheep

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, like what the Bush said in Afghanistan and Iraq , said Israel had “achieved” its goals and Hamas, elected by people in preference to US-Israel sponsored Fatah, had been “defeated”. Israel said its troops would remain in Gaza for now. Hamas said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza . Israel 's "goals have been achieved, and even more", Olmert said.

Israel and anti-Islamic media still argue the stopping of rocket-fire had been a chief aim of the military campaign. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza is continuing to hold, a day after Hamas said militants would stop attacks for a week to give Israel time to withdraw. Ehud Olmert said he wanted troops to leave as quickly as possible, and some have already left. Pressure is now growing on Israel to reopen border crossings with Gaza to let in vital aid, as people lack basic supplies after the three-week conflict. Israel called a ceasefire on Saturday, saying it had met its war aims. After facing all possible destructions for many days, Hamas, after refusing for days, has also declared its own truce with one of its leaders claiming a "great victory" over Israel .

Olmert said the latest attacks "again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute-by-minute basis". Olmert warned the Palestinians in Gaza that if they "decide the blows they've been dealt are not sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with force".

Hamas first rejected the move, saying any continued Israeli presence in Gaza would be regarded as an act of war. Hamas spokesman Farzi Barhoum said, shortly before the ceasefire began: "The occupier must halt his fire immediately and withdraw from our land and lift his blockade and open all crossings and we will not accept any one Zionist soldier on our land, regardless of the price that it costs". PLO Chief and Fatah leader whose term as Palestinian president would be over soon, led for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza .

II- Notorious Fascist in Mideast

Going on regular rampage, Israel kills the Palestinians and does not vacate their lands. Even after the unilateral truce Israeli forces killed a Palestinian near the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis . The continued Israeli terrorism puts an immediate strain on the ceasefire, which followed three weeks of fighting. Israel says its troops will not pull out for now, but Hamas said it would not accept an Israeli presence in Gaza .

The US has welcomed the ceasefire, saying it "expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately". UN General Ban expressed relief, saying the ceasefire should be "the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza ". Hamas representatives have been taking part in talks in Cairo , brokered by President Mubarak, aimed at reaching a bilateral deal. Germany , France and Britain sent identical letters to the Israeli and Egyptian governments offering support for a ceasefire and their help in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza .

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Hamas has been badly damaged both militarily and in terms of government infrastructure; rocket factories and dozens of smuggling tunnels had been destroyed, he said. Israel must withdraw completely, lift its economic blockade of Gaza and open border crossings.

International leaders are due in Egypt on Sunday for a summit aimed at shoring up the ceasefire. Heads of state from across Europe will join Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon at Sharm El-Shiekh to give their backing to a permanent peace.

On 17 Jan, Germany , France and Britain sent identical letters to the Israeli and Egyptian governments offering support for a ceasefire and their help in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza . Egypt hosted a summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the UN chief and several EU leaders, aimed at securing a permanent truce. Representatives of Germany , Britain , France , Italy , Spain , Turkey and Jordan are expected to attend the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Arabs fear Jews and Americans, both jointly and separately, but they also need the petrodollars of the USA and Europe and enjoy bogus prestige in their “shallow companionships”.

It is world phenomenon that leaders collect cash for the Muslims killed by their enemy and settle the matter coolly. One does not if the Arabs would resort to cash for crime and get some money form USA and Israel for the Palestinian holocaust and share it with Palestinians. The fact the a “friend” of Arabs for whose sake Indian appointed an assist minister in foreign ministry, India kept its mouth tight and their leaders are inconspicuous for their ignoring the holocaust of Palestinians though India was the first among the nations to accord the PLO a status of a State long ago. Perhaps, the Saudi led Arab nations have requested New Delhi not to support the Palestinians cause and concentrate only on its domestic terrorism by Hindu militants.

III- After-effects of Holocaust

Many people in the occupied Palestine face shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Big questions remain, our correspondent says, such as how much Israel will open the border crossings, who will police Gaza 's southern border and how much power Hamas still has. The director of operations for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said most important was how to get supplies into Gaza . He said the first priority was water, as half a million had been without it since the conflict began. Huge numbers of people were also without power "We have a big recovery operation ahead of us, reconstruction - none of it will be possible of course, on any scale, until we get crossing points open," he told the BBC.

Unrwa was keen to reopen its schools, where 50,000 people were sheltering. Tens of thousands have been made homeless by the bombardment. Thousands have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on 27 December. Palestinian medical sources say at least 95 bodies have been pulled from the rubble since Israel halted its offensive. Local sources said the conflict had left 4,000 buildings destroyed.

A further 20,000 buildings were severely damaged, Gaza municipal officials said after an initial count.

The top Hamas leader in Gaza , Ismail Haniya, said Israel had "failed to achieve its goals". In a speech broadcast on Hamas TV station, he said: "God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people."

Hamas said it would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. "Our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip," said Hamas's deputy chief in Syria , Moussa Abou Marzouk.

The first group of journalists who managed to says that in the town of Beit Lahiya northern Gaza via the Erez crossing as part of to gain independent access to the Strip from Israel saw the first real destruction - streets churned up by Israeli heavy armour, overturned cars, a lake of raw sewage in the street and a mosque left as a charred ruin. Hamas officials stopped the BBC from filming at one site where bodies were still being removed - a sign, perhaps, that there had been some kind of military target nearby.

In Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border many of the 40,000 people who fled the town during the conflict, were returning to pick through the ruins of their homes on Sunday. People are salvaging whatever they can, our correspondent says - even the broken bricks and corrugated iron are taken away on donkeys. Hamas is still very much control in the town, our correspondent adds. One fighter told the BBC their determination and ability to fight was undiminished.

III- Israel is Satisfied with blood quench

Surrounded by an array of European political leaders, some of whom were highly critical of Israel 's tactics in the conflict with Hamas, the Israeli prime minister said his country was not interested in staying in the Gaza Strip. We didn't set out to control Gaza , we don't want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as quickly as possible," he said. Anonymous Israeli officials, quoted by AP news agency, said the withdrawal would be completed before US President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on 20 January Tuesday. Israeli leaders want to get off to a smooth start with the new administration in Washington .

The European leaders had traveled to Israel to lend their support to the ceasefires.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the opening of the crossings into Gaza was important to "make possible a resumption of the talks that are necessary for a permanent peace".

It not a question of Israeli failure, as some would suggest to confuse the world that is eager to see the pullout and punishment o Jewish fascists. The fascists plan well ahead even though they eventually end devastatingly, and the present withdrawal after dong enough damage in Gaza is only a tactical move. Jews have their own way of doing business and terrorism around the world 'Israeli failure'

The Palestinian group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza on 18 Jan. A statement read by a Hamas spokesman said the group would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. The move came hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect and after the assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wanted to leave Gaza "as soon as possible". Some Israeli troops have begun pulling out of the Gaza Strip. Earlier, there was more rocket fire from Gaza into Israel .

Hamas' deputy chief in Syria , Moussa Abou Marzouk, said the ceasefire was in the name of all "Palestinian resistance factions". The group said the ceasefire would be temporary unless Israel met these long-standing demands. In a televised speech, the top Hamas leader in Gaza , Ismail Haniya, said the Palestinian people had won a great victory over Israel and that the three-week offensive had not cowed the Palestinians.

Israel has said its troops will stay in Gaza for as long as necessary and did not comment directly on the Hamas demands. On the Israeli side of the border with Gaza , says Israeli helicopters and drones have been flying overhead and Israeli troops are on high alert. Many people are hoping that a ceasefire would last, but no-one on either side of the border will be surprised if the fighting starts up again

USA characteristic of its nuances on international arena with its double-speaks, does not call for the disarming o fascist Israel , though that would have been natural fallout of such holocaust terrorism on Palestinians. Not only the USA , even the UN or UNSC did not make any such humanitarian announcement to stop such fascist invasions don’t reoccur in future. The Western leaders arrived in Mideast as a tourist team and not as responsible world powers to initiate measures to arrest the invaders and the holocaust masters.

The Gulf of Suez is full of activities. With Gaza still smouldering, foreign leaders descended on the region, thinking about the future. Gordon Brown's plane made a lazy figure of eight over the Red Sea as prime ministers and presidents vied for the right to land first at Sharm el-Sheikh. Britain and others have offered to keep an eye on this stretch of water to prevent shipments of arms being offloaded on the coast of Sinai and smuggled across the peninsula into Gaza . Sharm, a Mecca for divers and winter sun worshippers, has seen more than its fair share of international gatherings, including the famous 1996 Summit of the Peacemakers, which followed a spate of suicide attacks in Israel and sought, in familiar language, "to enhance the peace process, to promote security and to combat terror".

IV- Western Business as Usual

Meanwhile, heads of state from across Europe traveled to Egypt for a summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to try to shore up the ceasefire. They discussed how to make the ceasefire durable and respected by Hamas, how to get aid to Gaza and beginning the process of rebuilding there. Speaking after the talks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would be sending a team to assess the immediate humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza . "Within 10 days, I think we'll be able to make an assessment report and we will issue a humanitarian urgent, a humanitarian flash appeal." At the Jolie Ville Golf Resort, many gathered to discuss the Israeli inattention of holocaust in Palestine .

Combating terror and promoting security were clearly top of the agenda, with European powers queuing up to offer technical and training assistance to stem the smuggling of arms into Gaza . There was also plenty of talk about addressing the appalling human consequences of Israel 's bloodiest assault on the Palestinians since 1982. Britain, for example, has offered to help ferry injured Palestinian children to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - something that will involve a brief journey across Israel, which most of the children will never have seen. But summit participants also dared to look to the future, voicing their hopes that the damage can be repaired and some good come out of it. Egypt 's President Hosni Mubarak said he was willing to host an international meeting to "muster the necessary resources to rebuild Gaza ".

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France went further, raising the possibility of "a great conference that would make it possible to lay the foundations of a lasting peace".

In a possible reference to the Americans - so conspicuously absent at this critical moment - Sarkozy said "we shall need everyone".

With America on holiday, it has fallen to Europe to carry the baton of Middle East diplomacy, even if only for a few days. But everyone knows that if the peace process is to experience new life and rise, like a phoenix, out of the ashes of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military operation in Gaza , then President-elect Barack Obama is probably the only person who can make it happen.

V- Whither Palestinians in holocaust?

Much has been made of Israel 's timing, in launching its assault on Gaza in the dying days of the Bush administration, and ending it days before Barack Obama's inauguration. The Israeli terror invasion of Gaza, killing as many Muslims as it could within thus many days, exposed the badly threatened and irreparably divided Islamic world and a panicky Arab world interested only in counting the cash form USA and Europe and the rest of the world. When Georgia entered the North Ossetia to retake the region that has long declared independence form Georgia , Russia quickly moved in its forces to “kick” the Georgian forces out of North Ossetia . Russia is keen to bring the North Ossetia with its own South Ossetia in due course and hence supported the independence of North Ossetia.

But when Israel, as a routine bloody fascist gesture to kill Palestinians, invaded Palestine during the Xmas days, none, either in “democratic’ world or in Islamic world, bothered or dared to kick the Israelis out of Gaza and give hopes for the Palestinians. That is Islamic tragedy. None came forward to kick the invaders out of Gaza . Only a few nations in South America threatened to send the Israeli envoys out of their countries as a punishment for invasion. If a small , but nuclear enabled Israel could terrorize the Islamic world, it is of any one’s guess what would happened if USA invades the remaining Muslim nations on some pretext or other.

The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile, although no air strikes, rocket attacks or major clashes were reported overnight. Palestinian militants fired about 20 rockets over the border after the Israeli ceasefire announcement, and Israel responded with an air attack. Hence the Hamas, like innocent school boys do, claims victory. A unilateral Israeli ceasefire began but one does not know what exactly the US Israel combine is all about now. It was not the first time Israel invaded Palestine , killing defenseless Palestinians and destroying their properties and landscape in a sustained manner and it won’t be the last time either since Palestinian holocaust has been on Jewish agenda with or without USA , Europe and Arab nations.

After watching the holocaust unleashed by Israeli terror forces in Palestine, the Western powers and their discredited media now want Hamas to go for a truce once again that would be thwarted by Israel. Israel launched an air strike on Gaza supposedly in response rockets from Gaza .

While about 3000 defenseless Palestinians have been killed officially, only a couple of Israelis have been killed since Israel launched its offensive against on 27 December. I in Mumbai terrorism a few foreigners were killed, Israel has killed in thousands in Palestine . Hence Indian leaders are satisfied with the support of its willing strategic partner. India would now place orders with Israeli embassy for more weapon systems.

Egypt on Sunday the 17 Jan hosted a summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the UN chief and several EU leaders, aimed at securing a permanent truce. Israel says its troops will not pull out for now, but Hamas said it would not accept an Israeli presence in Gaza . Against the wishes of Tel Aviv, Hamas representatives have been taking part in talks in Cairo , brokered by President Mubarak, aimed at reaching a bilateral deal.

Arabs fear Jews and Americans, both jointly and separately, but they also need the petrodollars of the USA and Europe and enjoy bogus prestige in their “shallow companionships”. One does not if the Arabs would resort to cash for crime and get some money form USA and Israel for the Palestinian holocaust and share it with Palestinians. The fact the a “friend” of Arabs for whose sake Indian appointed an assist minister in foreign ministry, India kept its mouth tight and their leaders are inconspicuous for their ignoring the holocaust of Palestinians though India was the first among the nations to accord the PLO a status of a State long ago. Perhaps, the Saudi led Arab nations have requested New Delhi not to support the Palestinians cause and concentrate only on its domestic terrorism by Hindu militants. But the there have been devastating holocaust in Palestine by the Jewish state aided ably by the US-led state terrorists trying to destabilize the Gulf States at any cost. Saudi Arabia cannot shirk its responsibility for the onslaught on the innocent Palestinians. When the entire world is watching the holocaust in Palestine by Zionist fascists with Islamic hatred, even the Palestinian leaders also seem to “enjoy” the brutality of the Israeli terrorists.

Whether or not the large scale genocides of Palestinians would make Israel safe, or the USA safer, Hamas is not going to surrender before the US-Israel fascism. The question now is if the Israeli terror leaders are brought to justice by the competent international authorities without US interference. Also, whether the Arab world create the necessary security arrangements or the Palestinians (Hamas) or let the Israeli fascist complete their holocaust program in Palestine so that they could "own" the Palestinian lands without any claimants . The West wants Hamas to lick its wounds and regroup to fight and get killed themselves. The US-Israeli combine gambles on dragging Israel into a war of attrition, while the emotionally struck Palestinians who have lost almost every thing during the last six decades o the existence of Israeli-US nexus since the inauguration of Israeli state on Palestinian lands, expecting help form their useless and insensitive Arab brethren. Either the Arabs can kill the Palestinians all by themselves or effectively defend them from anti-Islamic forces in disguise as great modern "democrats and secularists".