Crise Global 53

Calar as armas de Israel
Israel comete crimes de guerra

5-01-2009 (Le Monde Diplomatique) ... No seu livro Just and Unjust Wars, o filósofo americano Michael Walzer notava o seguinte: «O tiro aos pássaros não é um combate entre combatentes. Quando o mundo se vê irremediavelmente dividido entre os que lançam as bombas e os que apanham com elas, a situação torna-se moralmente problemática».

Eu sempre gostava de saber porque carga de água a televisão portuguesa e boa parte dos jornalistas pátrios descrevem a invasão criminosa de Gaza —sob as ordens dum sionista corrupto que ainda não está na prisão, nem destituído, por mero conluio da oportunista classe política israelita— como se toda a culpa fosse do Hamas e dos foguetes caseiros que este disparou contra Israel, matando, ao todo, 17 pessoas.

Não sabem que só depois de Israel ter comprovadamente violado as tréguas de Junho de 2008, promovidas pelo Egipto, o Hamas recomeçou a lançar engenhos explosivos vários?

Israel violou este cessar-fogo a 5 de Novembro, e os lançamentos de rocktes do Hamas recomeçaram a 8 do mesmo mês. Estes factos constam do mapa do próprio Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros israelita, que acima reproduzimos. Desafio pois o Mário Crespo e outros jornalistas a divulgá-lo.

A propaganda sobre o apoio do Irão ao Hamas é um não argumento. O apoio sistemático e incondicional dos Estados Unidos e do Reino Unido ao Estado-terrorista de Israel é um dado constante há largas dezenas de anos. Quem arma e paga as formidáveis Forças Armadas israelitas? Quem impede nas Nações Unidas uma investigação ao arsenal nuclear, químico e biológico, completamente ilegal, do Estado de Israel? Quem boicota na ONU a investigação dos crimes de guerra das FFAA israelitas? Então, depois de tudo isto, alguém acha ainda que o Hamas está interdito de procurar aliados para se defender de Israel?

Israel tem vindo a violar o direito humanitário e a cometer crimes de guerra ao longo de décadas, como demonstra Gilles Devers no seu blogue Actualités du droit, num texto intitulado «O que é um crime de guerra?» («Qu’est-ce qu’un crime de guerre?», 30 de Dezembro).

«Cada um analisará como entender os acontecimentos de Gaza, nas suas implicações militares, diplomáticas e de política interna. Não é esse o meu objectivo. Mas há realidades objectivas que estão aí, aos olhos de todos. Esclareço: Israel está a controlar as imagens, mas a televisão Aljazeera transmite toda a informação que é suficiente para dizer que é evidente que nestes dias Israel está a cometer crimes de guerra em Gaza.»

«E é um caso de reincidência. A Convenção de 1949 sanciona além disso no seu artigo 49 a construção de colonatos nos Territórios Ocupados, e no artigo 53 a destruição de propriedades na ausência de imperativos militares. A instalação de colonatos e a edificação do muro em território palestiniano também são contrárias à Convenção, como afirmou o Tribunal Internacional de Justiça numa deliberação de 9 de Julho de 2004. O massacre de Sabra e Chatila de Setembro de 1982 – para citar apenas um – nunca foi julgado.»

Obama quebrou finalmente o seu pesado silêncio sobre a agressão assassina de Israel. Sabemos todos, e ele também, que o cerco criminoso e agressão militar a Gaza por parte dos sionistas de Israel, irá ser (já está a ser) a primeira, e porventura decisiva, prova de fogo do mandato do novo presidente eleito dos Estados Unidos. O sinal dado por Obama em direcção à suspensão imediata da agressão e ao retomar do diálogo entre judeus e palestinianos chegou tarde, mas foi suficiente para transmitir ao lóbi judeu mundial, e em particular, americano, que o sucessor de Bush II não estará porventura disposto a tolerar a cobrança e usura antecipadas pela não obstrução do voto judeu à sua eleição.

O tempo joga contra Israel, não porque seja impossível a convivência entre judeus, árabes, filisteus e católicos nas terras da Palestina, onde convivem há milhares de anos, mas porque o sionismo que se erigiu em Estado de Israel apostou em destruir e/ou expulsar os palestinianos das suas terras, para aí instaurar a lei judaica e a sua corrupta democracia militar.

O pêndulo dos equilíbrios tectónicos da geopolítica mundial desloca-se cada vez mais em direcção ao Oriente. É lá que está o dinheiro, o trabalho produtivo e quase tudo o que consumimos! É uma viragem de ciclo cujo alcance está longe de ser intuído pela generalidade dos políticos em exercício. Na realidade, o ciclo da supremacia Ocidental, iniciado em 1415, com a conquista de Ceuta ao Islão pelos portugueses, e o começo do primeiro ciclo de globalização, chegou ao fim. Precisamos de um Novo Tratado de Tordesilhas!

A segunda globalização não é bem aquilo que muitos de nós pensam. Na realidade, a globalização de que se fala, com início na queda do Muro de Berlim e na implosão da União Soviética, foi até agora apenas o preâmbulo da deslocação tectónica do epicentro mundial do poder, da Euro-América para a Ásia. O pico do abalo deverá ocorrer por volta de 2015-2020, se até lá os falcões do Ocidente, de que o sionismo mundial é protagonista de topo, não resolverem precipitar o planeta num novo holocausto.

A hegemonia Ocidental no Médio Oriente acabou. Todo o gasto inútil para segurar esta areia movediça apenas contribuirá para a nossa ruína. Parecemos cada vez mais um bando de fantasmas a caminho da penúria resultante da armadilha do consumismo e da substituição do nosso tecido económico pelo transe da especulação financeira e da criação imparável de dívidas individuais e colectivas.

É por esta razão que teremos que calar as armas de Israel quantos antes!

Silence has become complicity
By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 29, 2008

Rocket fire did not resume until Israel broke the truce on November 5.

What we now know, is that Israel did not view the truce as a means to bring calm to southern Israel but instead used it as an aid for gathering intelligence in preparation for war.

ÚLTIMA HORA

Jimmy Carter, que teve uma importância decisiva no estabelecimento do cessar-fogo entre o Hamas e Israel, desfeito por mais esta ofensiva do genocídio planeado pelo sionismo mundial contra as populações palestinianas, acaba de publicar um artigo no Washington Post, que faz um ponto simultaneamente crítico e independente sobre os crimes de guerra israelitas.

An Unnecessary War, By Jimmy Carter
Thursday, January 8, 2009; Page A15

I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided.

After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty. Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the rockets, either through diplomacy or military action.

Knowing that we would soon be seeing Hamas leaders from Gaza and also in Damascus, we promised to assess prospects for a cease-fire. From Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who was negotiating between the Israelis and Hamas, we learned that there was a fundamental difference between the two sides. Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza, and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza.

We knew that the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved, as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food had found that acute malnutrition in Gaza was on the same scale as in the poorest nations in the southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian families eating only one meal a day.

... Since we were only observers, and not negotiators, we relayed this information to the Egyptians, and they pursued the cease-fire proposal. After about a month, the Egyptians and Hamas informed us that all military action by both sides and all rocket firing would stop on June 19, for a period of six months, and that humanitarian supplies would be restored to the normal level that had existed before Israel's withdrawal in 2005 (about 700 trucks daily).

We were unable to confirm this in Jerusalem because of Israel's unwillingness to admit to any negotiations with Hamas, but rocket firing was soon stopped and there was an increase in supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel. Yet the increase was to an average of about 20 percent of normal levels. And this fragile truce was partially broken on Nov. 4, when Israel launched an attack in Gaza to destroy a defensive tunnel being dug by Hamas inside the wall that encloses Gaza.

... After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire, with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators.

REFERÊNCIAS

Recomendo vivamente à desmiolada e subserviente imprensa portuguesa que leia os artigos seguintes:

• Wikipedia — Gaza–Israel conflict
• A história de Israel-Palestina num PDF indesmentível
• Le Monde — GAZA: Minute par minute : le suivi des événements
  
• Wikipedia — Violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2000-2008 Total Death Toll)
• 2006 — Palestinian death toll triples this year
  
  30-12-2006 (The Independent) — The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip tripled this year, according to an Israeli human rights organisation. B'Tselem said 660 Palestinians had been killed during 2006, including 141 minors. The report claimed that at least 322 of those killed were not fighters.
  
  At the same time, B'Tselem recorded a drop in the number of Israelis killed during the year. Palestinians killed 17 civilians, including one minor, and six members of the security forces.
  
  In Gaza alone, since the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on 25 June, Israel has killed 405 Palestinians, including 88 minors. Of this total, 205 were defined as non-combatants. B'Tselem said the number of civilians killed showed a "deterioration in the human rights situation in the occupied territories". That impression was reinforced by the demolition of 292 homes, housing 1,769 people, 279 of them in the Gaza Strip. Israel also demolished 42 Arab homes in East Jerusalem built without a permit.
  
  
• 2002 — Palestinian death toll mounts
  
  7-04-2002 (BBC News) — The Israeli army says it has killed at least 200 Palestinians in its sweeping 10-day offensive in the West Bank.
  
  Reports have spoken of dozens of dead bodies lying in the streets of Jenin refugee camp where the army met much stiffer resistance than expected from Palestinian fighters. Seven of its own soldiers have died there.
  
  
• The Angel of Death, by Elaine Supkis Meinel (uma excelente introdução histórica aos equívocos sobre os judeus e o Estado de Israel inoculados na consciência ocidental pela propaganda sionista internacional, senhora dalguns dos mais importantes órgãos de comunicação de massas mundiais.)
  
  "Israel won’t protect Jews from annihilation. Love of humanity, the desire to share, the feelings of mercy and the desire to save, not steal: this is the golden key to Life. Picking up the sword and killing everyone in the way in the Middle East and beyond will only sow dragon’s teeth. The Bible itself is quite clear about this. Even the Death God mentions it, occasionally."
  
  

OAM 510 08-01-2009 00:22 (última actualização: 20:46)

Crise Global 52

Invasão de Gaza: cerco e genocídio




A televisão portuguesa tem transmitido uma imagem distorcida do criminoso ataque militar desencadeado por uma das mais modernas forças armadas do planeta contra uma população indefesa, subnutrida, sem assistência médica e aterrorizada por uma campanha militar de tipo nazi que mantém cercado por terra, mar e ar, e sob constantes provocações militares, policiais e terroristas, quase um milhão e meio de palestinianos cujo território e vidas foram transformados num inferno a partir do momento em que o Reino Unido, em 1917 (Balfour Declaration), decidiu exportar os judeus fugidos da Rússia para a Palestina, como se a Palestina não fosse há muito uma terra habitada maioritariamente por árabes e filisteus. Hoje, como em 1948, quando foi declarado o Estado de Israel (na sequência do holocausto nazi, mas também após uma campanha de terror nacionalista, étnico e religioso sem precedentes contra os árabes e os antigos filisteus da Palestina), o objectivo das vanguardas políticas sionistas foi sempre o mesmo: expulsar os palestinianos (filisteus e árabes) das suas terras e expandir o território atribuído aos judeus em 1947 pela ONU (sob proposta do presidente americano Harry Truman) até ao perímetro máximo da Palestina — para o que teriam que aterrorizar e expulsar as populações palestinianas para os países vizinhos. Basta olhar para este mapa para perceber que foi precisamente isto que fizeram desde 1947 até hoje! O mau serviço prestado pela comunicação social lusitana à verdade dos factos não poderia ser mais lamentável.

Sabe-se hoje que a criação do estado de Israel foi basicamente um expediente da diplomacia anglo-americana, visando basicamente dois objectivos conjugados: aliviar a pressão que os contingentes de judeus fugidos aos Progrom russos exerciam sobre as economias e sociedades europeias, nomeadamente no Reino Unido, e criar um vórtice de problemas políticos, culturais e religiosos, capaz de oferecer uma espécie de oportunidade permanente de ingerência por parte das potências ocidentais (sobretudo anglo-americanas) naquela que viria a ser a mais importante bacia petrolífera do planeta. Em 1917, holandeses, ingleses e americanos conheciam já o valor estratégico potencial do ouro negro, ao contrário do resto do mundo. A criação do Estado de Israel, além de satisfazer a vontade própria de muitos judeus por esse mundo fora, serviu no essencial (embora por um preço elevado) para assegurar o controlo ocidental da principal fonte energética que sucedeu às máquinas a vapor.

É este o contexto que torna tão difícil resolver o conflito israelo-palestiniano, o denominado problema de Israel, e o denominado problema do Médio Oriente. Os objectivos estratégicos de Israel que presidem a mais esta guerra injusta, desproporcional e de contornos genocidas, são ilegais, eticamente intoleráveis e politicamente inaceitáveis. Ou seja, a Europa e o resto do mundo devem unir-se numa só exigência dirigida ao estado e à nação israelitas: parem imediatamente a vossa agressão contra a faixa de Gaza!

Um dia virá em que o petróleo deixará de ser a fonte energética principal das economias deste planeta. Crê-se, aliás, que esse dia não está longe, antes pelo contrário. É bem possível que entre 2030 e 2050 o petróleo deixe de ser uma fonte de conflito entre os homens. Nessa altura, o Ocidente deixará de proteger os interesses de Israel. Nessa altura, Israel, com uma demografia em plena decadência, rodeada por inimigos árabes, palestinianos e persas, por todos os lados, que irá fazer? Talvez seja tempo de repensar radicalmente as suas prioridades.


ÚLTIMA HORA

5-1-2009 12:56 — Os serviços de espionagem e operações especiais israelitas (Mossad) acabam de lançar uma operação de contra-informação, segundo a qual o Hezbollah estaria a preparar-se para atacar Israel. Esta manobra destina-se, por um lado, a criar uma atmosfera internacional menos desfavorável à actual invasão criminosa da faixa de Gaza por parte das forças armadas sionistas. Mas há uma segunda intenção nesta manobra: alargar, em caso de necessidade, a guerra ao Líbano, provocando desta forma uma rápida internacionalização do conflito. Interessados nesta proliferação da guerra? Muitos! Desde logo, todos os produtores de petróleo e gás natural, e bem assim boa parte dos produtores de matérias primas e alimentares, que vêm na actual deflação mundial uma séria ameaça aos seus equilíbrios económicos. Por outra parte, uma nova guerra alargada poderá levar os Estados Unidos a novos esforços militares na zona, com o consequente impacto na sua despesa pública, a qual já prevê para 2009 um agravamento na ordem dos 2 biliões de USD. Obama vai pois ter uma cermónia de posse bem regada de sangue!


REFERÊNCIAS

Understanding The Gaza Catastrophe
By Richard Falk, UN Human Rights Envoy
Professor Emeritus Of International Law and Policy At Princeton University.

For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing blockade imposed by Israel, and a variety of traumatizing challenges to the normalcy of daily life. A flicker of hope emerged some six months ago when an Egyptian arranged truce produced an effective ceasefire that cut Israeli casualties to zero despite the cross-border periodic firing of homemade rockets that fell harmlessly on nearby Israeli territory, and undoubtedly caused anxiety in the border town of Sderot. During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.

Israel also refused exit permits to students with foreign fellowship awards and to Gazan journalists and respected NGO representatives. At the same time, it made it increasingly difficult for journalists to enter, and I was myself expelled from Israel a couple of weeks ago when I tried to enter to carry out my UN job of monitoring respect for human rights in occupied Palestine, that is, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza. Clearly, prior to the current crisis, Israel used its authority to prevent credible observers from giving accurate and truthful accounts of the dire humanitarian situation that had been already documented as producing severe declines in the physical condition and mental health of the Gazan population, especially noting malnutrition among children and the absence of treatment facilities for those suffering from a variety of diseases. The Israeli attacks were directed against a society already in grave condition after a blockade maintained during the prior 18 months.

Gaza: The World’s Largest Prison, by Ghali Hassan. Global Research, August 13, 2005.

Sometime in August, Israel will configure its 38-years illegal military occupation of the Gaza Strip by unilaterally ‘disengaging’ from the territory and evacuating the Jewish settlers there. No one knows for sure if it really will happen. The Palestinian territory will continue to be under Israel’s brutal occupation. Israel’s ‘disengagement’ plan is nothing but an Israeli PR over-sold by Western media as the brutality of the Occupation continues unhindered, and Israel will continue to guard the world’s largest open-air prison.

...It is revealed recently that the Israeli Army (IA) is building a high tech complex to surround the coastal territory with the world most impenetrable barrier. The barrier will include fences with electronic sensors, watchtowers mounted with remote control machineguns, and hundreds of videos and night vision cameras. The complex includes new army bases and 22-foot concrete walls around nearby Israeli settlements. Watchtowers armed with remote-controlled machine guns are to be built every 1.2 miles. Remote-controlled, unmanned vehicles will begin patrolling the area soon after the completion of the barrier. The barrier will run about 35 miles and will cost about $220 million. The barrier will be completed by mid-2006. Thus, Israel will symbolically relinquish its control of Palestinian lives to remote-controlled aliens. Freedom of movement will disappear completely from the life of Palestinians.

...The Wall is not only imprisoned the Palestinian people, but also expropriates their land and fractionates the entire Palestinian civil society. Israel claims that the Wall is built to protect Israel is a fabricated lie. Its true purpose is to expropriate Palestinian land and water sources, weaken Palestinian identity, and at the same time consolidate Jewish ethnicity over Palestine (Judaisation of Palestine). The aim is to create a ‘demographically pure Jewish state’. "[W]e are going to cleanse the whole area and do the work ourselves", said Benjamin Netanyahu, America’s favourite terrorist and former Israel’s Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

...As for Palestinians living in Gaza, Israel will continue to control Gaza's borders, coastline, airspace, telecommunications, water sources, and electricity supply. Egypt, which is well-known for its harsh treatment of Palestinians, may be given the role of Israeli enforcer on its border with Gaza. US-made F16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters will continue as often as possible to rain their deadly missiles and bombs on Palestinian population centres there. Palestinian identity will be further weakening – by Israel’s policy of fractionation –, and Palestinians in Gaza will be more isolated from not only the rest of the world, but also from the rest of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

As Ur Shlonsky, a professor of Linguistics at Geneva University in Switzerland wrote, Israel’s aim is to "terrorise the civilian population, assuring maximal destruction of property and cultural resources". At the same time, "the daily life of the Palestinians must be rendered unbearable: They should be locked up in cities and towns, prevented from exercising normal economic life, cut off from workplaces, schools and hospitals, This will encourage emigration and weaken the resistance to future expulsions" similar to that of 1948.

The Invasion of Gaza: "Operation Cast Lead", Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda, by Michel Chossudovsky (Global Research.)

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation "Cast Lead" is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

"Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas."(Barak Ravid, Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

"Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip. Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel. During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis. Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN." (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

..."Operation Justified Vengeance"

A turning point has been reached. Operation "Cast Lead" is part of the broader military-intelligence operation initiated at the outset of the Ariel Sharon government in 2001. It was under Sharon's "Operation Justified Vengeance" that F-16 fighter planes were initially used to bomb Palestinian cities.

"Operation Justified Vengeance" was presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, under the title "The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces".

"A contingency plan, codenamed Operation Justified Vengeance, was drawn up last June [2001] to reoccupy all of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip at a likely cost of "hundreds" of Israeli casualties." (Washington Times, 19 March 2002).

According to Jane's 'Foreign Report' (July 12, 2001) the Israeli army under Sharon had updated its plans for an "all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army".

...The Dagan Plan

"Operation Justified Vengeance" was also referred to as the "Dagan Plan", named after General (ret.) Meir Dagan, who currently heads Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

Reserve General Meir Dagan was Sharon's national security adviser during the 2000 election campaign. The plan was apparently drawn up prior to Sharon’s election as Prime Minister in February 2001. "According to Alex Fishman writing in Yediot Aharonot, the Dagan Plan consisted in destroying the Palestinian authority and putting Yasser Arafat 'out of the game'." (Ellis Shulman, "Operation Justified Vengeance": a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, March 2001):

"As reported in the Foreign Report [Jane] and disclosed locally by Maariv, Israel's invasion plan — reportedly dubbed Justified Vengeance — would be launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians. (Ibid, emphasis added)

The "Dagan Plan" envisaged the so-called "cantonization" of the Palestinian territories whereby the West Bank and Gaza would be totally cut off from one other, with separate "governments" in each of the territories. Under this scenario, already envisaged in 2001, Israel would:

"negotiate separately with Palestinian forces that are dominant in each territory-Palestinian forces responsible for security, intelligence, and even for the Tanzim (Fatah)." The plan thus closely resembles the idea of "cantonization" of Palestinian territories, put forth by a number of ministers." Sylvain Cypel, The infamous 'Dagan Plan' Sharon's plan for getting rid of Arafat, Le Monde, December 17, 2001)

...Ground Attack

On January 3, Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza in an all out ground offensive:

"The ground operation was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting targets in flames that burst into the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire. (AP, January 3, 2009)

Israeli sources have pointed to a lengthy drawn out military operation. It "won't be easy and it won't be short," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a TV address.

Israel is not seeking to oblige Hamas "to cooperate". What we are dealing with is the implementation of the "Dagan Plan" as initially formulated in 2001, which called for:

"an invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory by some 30,000 Israeli soldiers, with the clearly defined mission of destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian leadership and collecting weaponry currently possessed by the various Palestinian forces, and expelling or killing its military leadership. (Ellis Shulman, op cit, emphasis added)

OAM 507 05-01-2009 04:23