Then and Now in Gaza

This boy now. . .












. . .might have been this boy then.


(Photographer of boy with candle in Gaza unknown; on the right, by Mohammed Abed, for AFP.)

The Catalogue of Crime

So, at last, after so many attacks, so many incursions, so many 'targeted assassinations' patience with Israel has snapped. A state that is sixty years old can no longer assume impunity. UNWRA has warned that it is 'keeping a catalogue' of all Israeli actions which could be considered War Crimes.

This time, it is doubtful that even the most complacent American administration can save them. And Obama and Clinton must by now be all too aware that anything more than words of sympathy will merely increase the loathing of (in many countries) or distaste for (in most others) the USA.

They must know, among their European allies in NATO, several of whom have firmly resisted the previous administration's attempts to turn NATO into a kind of 102nd Division bound for Afghanistan, that any hope of military co-operation must be close to zero.

So Israel's foreign minister made a dash to Washington to get a last ditch promise to effectively starve and economically ruin the Gaza Strip for ever, by effectively asking the USA to assist with tightening and maintaining its blockade.

In other words, to continue the job that the war was intended to accomplish, but for which, now, there is simply not enough time.

The agreement is a 'memorandum of understanding', and therefore, hopefully not binding, for if the Obama administration conforms to its intent, the results will simply defeat any aspirations he may have to restore his country's reputation and influence anywhere else in the world.

But in the meantime, of course, the agreement has no doubt covered the last shipment of hundreds of tons of munitions the US has on the high seas for use in the last few days before Obama gets a grip. And the confirmation hearings have not yet ended, so in effect, his administration will be powerless well into January.

Whatever hopes there may be for a ceasefire, a complete one on the Israeli side, could well therefore be delayed for another two weeks or longer. It cannot necessarily be assumed that it might be an Israeli Inauguration present.

Especially when you read the story of munitions shipments on their way from the US to Israel:

"We know that the Wehr Elbe, a German-owned cargo ship left the USA on 20 December 2008 with a large consignment – 989 containers - of high explosives and other munitions destined for Israel," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"Hired and now legally controlled by the US Military Sealift Command, it was heading for the Israeli port of Ashdod and was due to transit via Greece, though its latest reported position indicates that the shipment's route may have changed."

Tenders for two other arms shipments totalling 325 containers of US munitions were approved by the Pentagon on 31 December, four days after the start of Israel's current attacks on targets in Gaza.

These two consignments were due to be shipped to Ashdod from Askatos in Greece, but they have now been cancelled, according to information provided to Amnesty International by the US Military Sealift Command.

Tender documents show that these shipments contain white phosphorus, known for its potential to cause severe burns and an indiscriminate weapon when used as an airburst in densely-populated civilian areas as now alleged in Gaza.

The US Department of Defence says it is now looking at other means to deliver the munitions to a US stockpile in Israel. A US-Israel agreement has allowed US munitions stockpiled in Israel to be transferred to the Israeli Defence Force in "an emergency".

[from 1158munich.blogspot.com/ sources not confirmed.] Did the foreign minister's dash to Washington really have anything whatsoever to do with discussing a ceasefire? It would be rather naive after this to believe it.

Israel: a Country to which neither Red Crosses nor Red Crescents have Meaning

As you can see in this report of the destruction of a Gaza hospital.

We know what the Israeli response will be; first the well-rehearsed and threadbare "We do not target civilians" and then a campaign to 'prove' that Hamas militants were using a hospital as a firing point, patients with intravenous needles in their veins as 'human shields' and babies' incubators for cover; and then that in any case, doctors at the hospital are Hamas or Hezbollah supporters anyway. (There have already been stories to that effect planted on the web about the Norwegian doctor who has been giving the BBC regular reports.)

We merely now must add two more flags to the blue one the Israelis have utterly failed to respect; and to the red, green and black one they never have and never will respect until they are forced into it.

And lest anyone forget, they took their cue from one Donald Rumsfeld and the NeoCons in this. And, given an inch of support, have, in their usual fashion, taken mile upon mile upon mile.

Nerves shot in Gaza; nerves raw in Israel

From a brief listen to tonight’s BBC Radio 4 News at Ten, the Israeli preparations for meeting any international investigation of their conduct in Gaza, or a potential war crimes investigation, are already well advanced.

We heard some being trialled tonight: briefly, for example, whether the Israeli response in Gaza was ‘proportionate’ as the UN and international law requires) should depend on the ‘numbers at risk’ (8 million against 1.5 million) as against the number of deaths. (By the time I have posted this, probably 1,000 Gazans, 13 Israelis.)

Alleged ‘war crimes’ by Israeli forces should be investigated by the Israelis. (The ICC is only supposed to intervene if the country responsible fails to carry out an investigation.) But we know that Israeli investigations seldom amount to very much.

The other potential refutations are not worth bothering with, they are predictable by anyone of reasonable intelligence.

And, in a report from Egypt, 400 of those 1000 dead are children; thousands injured. Many of those children now in hospital in Egypt (may of whom will be paralysed, some in a coma forever) bear wounds that neurologists (at least one very highly regarded in Britain, should it be said, as it no doubt will, that Egyptian doctors do not know what they are talking about) say must have been caused by gunshots at close range, often, almost always, to the head.

We will be(and are being) told that Israeli forces do not shoot children, that these are casued by Hamas fighters. Yet, over and over again, Israeli snipers have targeted young teenagers from their watchtowers. And we heard tonight, yet again, that Israeli soldiers encouraged a family to leave their home, the grandmother carrying a white flag, and then shot at the children. The spine of a two-year old is severed; she will not walk again. A young boy’s brain is so damaged he will never wake up from a coma.

It seems as though the Israelis (having realised after the Senate querying of Hillary Clinton that American unconditional, unquestioning, support may not last very much longer, barely one more week even) grasping that they may have finally gone too far even for their greatest ally, are showing signs of, if not fear, a little nervousness, at the potential consequences.

Just a little late.

And who is going to pay for the medical treatment, the frequent surgery, the long-term care, let alone the pyschological treatment, thousands on thousands of young Palestinians are going to need? Who will pay for their rehabilitation? Who rebuild the hospitals, clinics, day centres one day, one year? I can guess who will, but who should is a different matter.

Which country ruthlessly and persistently pursues others, their banks and industries, for reparations for sixty-year-old injuries for people and their families who are in many cases no longer alive? Why should not the time come when it is the turn of the State of Israel not to be owed, but to owe?

(I see that my Al-Jazeera death counter stopped working suddenly. I've checked another blog, and it's gone blank there too. How odd, just when it was within a handful of the emotive 1,000. And the day Jewish organisations have launched a campaign complaining to the press of the 'hacking' of Jewish and Zionist websites . . .)