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
