Op-ed: Gaza and The Terror State | PKKH.tv
PKKH Exclusive | By Talha Ibrahim
With mankinds advancement, new measures of defense and aggression were resorted to, during the times of need. From petty squabbles to full-fledged wars waged between states, new doctrines were adopted for victory. But there was a constant trade-off, of a virtue that the man lost; he ceased to be honorable.
Terrorism is always considered to be a path that has no honor, no glory. A society that yearns for harmony has always come to oppose terrorism in any form, whether it is the breaking of criminal laws or promotion of violence. In response to the concerns of the society, to counter the influence of terrorism whether from external elements, or internal elements within the society, states made counter-terrorism forces to combat them, in the form of state owned militias and law enforcement agencies. These forces were used in times of peace and war, for the establishment of harmony.
Alas! Times became too complicated, as deceit became the new political system. Under this new system, the state advanced its foul objectives within the society and elsewhere. The non-violent deceit mongering measures were carried out through parliament, while the violent measures through the forces, that were initially made to combat terrorism in itself.
Hence the term State Sponsored Terrorism was coined.
The historical precedents are testimonial to the fact that the State-Sponsored terrorist activities were first confined within their own boundaries, but eventually they spread across the borders and came to be seen as International Terrorism.
Today the FBI states that International terrorism involves violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or any state. These acts appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping. International terrorist acts occur outside the United States or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to coerce or intimidate, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.
We would be judging the State of Israel according to this definition.
Israel is a Jewish state, born from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter from the United Kingdoms Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, the leader of the British Jewish community in response to the demand of a Jewish state. The letter stated,
His Majestys government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
From a secret wedlock between the Sons of Zion and the British Empire, the state of Israel came into being, illegitimately occupying the land of Palestinians. Today Israel occupies a unique place in the international community for its victimization and brutal measures against the Palestinians. As a major perpetrator of state terrorism, it is consistently downplayed or ignored by the western countries, in accordance with the general principle, that violence employed by ourselves or by our friends is excluded from the category of terrorism, by definition. The record of Israeli terrorism, however, is considerable, far too extensive even to attempt to record here. Particular thoroughness would be given to Israels atrocities, as a Terrorist State, in the recent years leading to the events of the year 2012.
A glimpse would suffice, if some of Israels previous actions are taken into consideration.
Israels Prime Minister Begin in a letter published in the Israeli press in August 1981 wrote in response to what he regarded as criticism of the Israeli bombing of Beirut, which killed hundreds of civilians. Begin offered a partial list of military attacks on Arab civilians, which included over 30 separate episodes that left many civilians dead. He concluded that under the Alignment government, there were regular retaliatory actions against civilian Arab populations; the air force operated against them; the damage was directed against such structures as the canal, bridges and transport. The former UN ambassador Abba Eban wrote in response, The picture that emerges is of an Israel wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor I would dare to mention by name.
Perhaps Mr.Eban would have been reminiscing about Hitlers regime.
The eves of 1982 autumn took away with them, the cries of 3500 people butchered at the Sabra and Shatila camps. The United Nations General Assembly later condemned what happened at Sabra and Shatila as an act of genocide. A UN commission of inquiry concluded that the Israeli authorities and their forces were involved and responsible for the deaths. The then head of the Israel Defence Force, Ariel Sharon later would hold four ministerial posts before becoming Israeli Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. Not a single person accused of the crime was prosecuted.
The year 2012 is marred by Israels attempt to hegemonies the international community with terror. What started off by Netanyahu declaring pre-emptive strikes against Iran became short of being a crisis situation. After the IAEA inspection of Nov 2011, Iranian nuclear program became one of the most conflicting issues in the world. Iran insists that it is planning to develop its nuclear program to generate electricity, while the western countries believe that Iran is planning to build nuclear weapons. Israel has been most vocal in this regard. With Netanyahus government constant threats, signaling the ever readiness of Israel to attack Irans nuclear facility, tougher sanctions against Iranian oil exports imposed by US and Europe and Irans threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, a tense situation has prevailed in the Middle East.
But Israel clearly forgets that it also has a clandestine nuclear program. It is a well-known fact that Israel has been maintaining nuclear weapons since 1967. Ironically Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty up till now, but supports establishment of a Middle East Zone, free of weapons of mass destruction. Much of what is known about Israels nuclear program comes from revelations in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center who served an 18-year prison sentence as a result. Perhaps Israel has double standards, when it comes to Muslim Countries.
But what came as a surprise was Israels launching of its military offensive against Gaza on 14 November, marking the latest eruption of conflict with Hamas which has raged between the two sides for years. This move of aggression was named as Operation Pillar of Defense, and was started by killing the Hamas commander, Ahmed al Jabbari in an air strike Amidst the decries of international community, Israel asserted that the air strike and the follow up operation is in fact a reaction of being hailed by the missiles that were fired from the Gazas territory.
Once a nation victimized by holocaust, Israel has made it its faith to be replicating it on others. Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wrote on 18th Nov, calling for even more aggressive Israeli strikes in Gaza. We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza, states Sharon in The Jerusalem Post citing the bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki by America. In many countries anti-Semitism is considered to be a criminal offense. Promotion of a vile ideology like holocaust of the Jews is tantamount to blasphemy. Conversely, Matan Vilnai, deputy defense minister of Israel, in his recent interview to the army radio, called for a holocaust to be brought upon Palestinians. The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves, he said.
It should be remembered that Shoah in Hebrew refers to holocaust.
The claims of Israel that the rocket attacks leading to breaking of truce were initiated by Hamas, has landed it into hot water once again. As the reports of the onslaught started coming in, the world realized that it was a farce that was propagated to justify the war. The chain of events that started from Israels attack on an arms factory in Sudan, reportedly supplying Hamas; killing of 15 Palestinian fighters in October; shooting a mentally unstable Palestinian walking in the buffer zone, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Israel borders and shooting of Abu Dhaaqa on 8th Nov, a 13 year old boy after an incursion near al-Qarara village northeast of Khan Yunis tells a different story. The chance of a long term truce was dampened next, by the killing of Ahmed al Jabbari, a Hamas military commander involved in peace diplomacy. In an interview, Gershon Baskin the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, an NGO and a think-tank, stated, peace was within reach. The only credible reason for killing of Jabbari is that Israel did not want to commit to truce.
Contrary to above, if it is believed that Israel was attacked by Hamas in the first instance, how can Israel justify its illegal actions in Gaza. As an occupied territory, it is covered by the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations by their military occupier. Indiscriminate bombing of occupied territories by the occupier is clearly a violation of international law. Other than that Israel has imposed a strict blockade around Gaza that has resulted in widespread anemia in the society. Around 5% of children are suffering from malnutrition. Routine colonization of land is also being done from the west bank side, where new house building schemes are announced most of the time. It is also imperative for the international community to consider that Israel has broken around 15 ceasefire treaties in the last six decades.
7 days, 1500 missiles and the deaths of around 150 Palestinians, of which majority are children, and a ceasefire has been finally brokered up between the two sides, that has yet to be announced. On the other hand, almost all the rockets of Hamas fired at Israel were intercepted by dome-missile-interceptors. Those that managed to land killed 5 people, including a soldier and a contractor. Yesterday, bomb explosion in a bus in Tel Aviv injured 10 people, and was initially blamed on Hamas but later it was reported that it was the act of a lone operator unaffiliated with any major groups.
In an emergency meeting of UN Security Council, America has blocked the resolution to condemn Israel for the atrocities committed in Gaza. US has always supported Israels terrorism. It did not came as a surprise for international community as Netanyahu is on record as saying: contrary to the childish scare-mongering in some of our media suggesting that Israel is now more isolated internationally, we have conducted this operation with firm Western backing.
I wonder whom Israel would terrorize next.
Talha Ibrahim is an amateur writer currently pursuing Chartered Accountancy, Talha wants to be a wise man someday. Not having any particular affinity towards right wing or left wing politics, he forms his conclusions derived from his own idiosyncratic goggles.
Source
PKKH Exclusive | By Talha Ibrahim
With mankinds advancement, new measures of defense and aggression were resorted to, during the times of need. From petty squabbles to full-fledged wars waged between states, new doctrines were adopted for victory. But there was a constant trade-off, of a virtue that the man lost; he ceased to be honorable.
Terrorism is always considered to be a path that has no honor, no glory. A society that yearns for harmony has always come to oppose terrorism in any form, whether it is the breaking of criminal laws or promotion of violence. In response to the concerns of the society, to counter the influence of terrorism whether from external elements, or internal elements within the society, states made counter-terrorism forces to combat them, in the form of state owned militias and law enforcement agencies. These forces were used in times of peace and war, for the establishment of harmony.
Alas! Times became too complicated, as deceit became the new political system. Under this new system, the state advanced its foul objectives within the society and elsewhere. The non-violent deceit mongering measures were carried out through parliament, while the violent measures through the forces, that were initially made to combat terrorism in itself.
Hence the term State Sponsored Terrorism was coined.
The historical precedents are testimonial to the fact that the State-Sponsored terrorist activities were first confined within their own boundaries, but eventually they spread across the borders and came to be seen as International Terrorism.
Today the FBI states that International terrorism involves violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or any state. These acts appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping. International terrorist acts occur outside the United States or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to coerce or intimidate, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.
We would be judging the State of Israel according to this definition.
Israel is a Jewish state, born from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter from the United Kingdoms Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, the leader of the British Jewish community in response to the demand of a Jewish state. The letter stated,
His Majestys government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
From a secret wedlock between the Sons of Zion and the British Empire, the state of Israel came into being, illegitimately occupying the land of Palestinians. Today Israel occupies a unique place in the international community for its victimization and brutal measures against the Palestinians. As a major perpetrator of state terrorism, it is consistently downplayed or ignored by the western countries, in accordance with the general principle, that violence employed by ourselves or by our friends is excluded from the category of terrorism, by definition. The record of Israeli terrorism, however, is considerable, far too extensive even to attempt to record here. Particular thoroughness would be given to Israels atrocities, as a Terrorist State, in the recent years leading to the events of the year 2012.
A glimpse would suffice, if some of Israels previous actions are taken into consideration.
Israels Prime Minister Begin in a letter published in the Israeli press in August 1981 wrote in response to what he regarded as criticism of the Israeli bombing of Beirut, which killed hundreds of civilians. Begin offered a partial list of military attacks on Arab civilians, which included over 30 separate episodes that left many civilians dead. He concluded that under the Alignment government, there were regular retaliatory actions against civilian Arab populations; the air force operated against them; the damage was directed against such structures as the canal, bridges and transport. The former UN ambassador Abba Eban wrote in response, The picture that emerges is of an Israel wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor I would dare to mention by name.
Perhaps Mr.Eban would have been reminiscing about Hitlers regime.
The eves of 1982 autumn took away with them, the cries of 3500 people butchered at the Sabra and Shatila camps. The United Nations General Assembly later condemned what happened at Sabra and Shatila as an act of genocide. A UN commission of inquiry concluded that the Israeli authorities and their forces were involved and responsible for the deaths. The then head of the Israel Defence Force, Ariel Sharon later would hold four ministerial posts before becoming Israeli Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. Not a single person accused of the crime was prosecuted.
The year 2012 is marred by Israels attempt to hegemonies the international community with terror. What started off by Netanyahu declaring pre-emptive strikes against Iran became short of being a crisis situation. After the IAEA inspection of Nov 2011, Iranian nuclear program became one of the most conflicting issues in the world. Iran insists that it is planning to develop its nuclear program to generate electricity, while the western countries believe that Iran is planning to build nuclear weapons. Israel has been most vocal in this regard. With Netanyahus government constant threats, signaling the ever readiness of Israel to attack Irans nuclear facility, tougher sanctions against Iranian oil exports imposed by US and Europe and Irans threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, a tense situation has prevailed in the Middle East.
But Israel clearly forgets that it also has a clandestine nuclear program. It is a well-known fact that Israel has been maintaining nuclear weapons since 1967. Ironically Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty up till now, but supports establishment of a Middle East Zone, free of weapons of mass destruction. Much of what is known about Israels nuclear program comes from revelations in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center who served an 18-year prison sentence as a result. Perhaps Israel has double standards, when it comes to Muslim Countries.
But what came as a surprise was Israels launching of its military offensive against Gaza on 14 November, marking the latest eruption of conflict with Hamas which has raged between the two sides for years. This move of aggression was named as Operation Pillar of Defense, and was started by killing the Hamas commander, Ahmed al Jabbari in an air strike Amidst the decries of international community, Israel asserted that the air strike and the follow up operation is in fact a reaction of being hailed by the missiles that were fired from the Gazas territory.
Once a nation victimized by holocaust, Israel has made it its faith to be replicating it on others. Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wrote on 18th Nov, calling for even more aggressive Israeli strikes in Gaza. We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza, states Sharon in The Jerusalem Post citing the bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki by America. In many countries anti-Semitism is considered to be a criminal offense. Promotion of a vile ideology like holocaust of the Jews is tantamount to blasphemy. Conversely, Matan Vilnai, deputy defense minister of Israel, in his recent interview to the army radio, called for a holocaust to be brought upon Palestinians. The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves, he said.
It should be remembered that Shoah in Hebrew refers to holocaust.
The claims of Israel that the rocket attacks leading to breaking of truce were initiated by Hamas, has landed it into hot water once again. As the reports of the onslaught started coming in, the world realized that it was a farce that was propagated to justify the war. The chain of events that started from Israels attack on an arms factory in Sudan, reportedly supplying Hamas; killing of 15 Palestinian fighters in October; shooting a mentally unstable Palestinian walking in the buffer zone, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Israel borders and shooting of Abu Dhaaqa on 8th Nov, a 13 year old boy after an incursion near al-Qarara village northeast of Khan Yunis tells a different story. The chance of a long term truce was dampened next, by the killing of Ahmed al Jabbari, a Hamas military commander involved in peace diplomacy. In an interview, Gershon Baskin the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, an NGO and a think-tank, stated, peace was within reach. The only credible reason for killing of Jabbari is that Israel did not want to commit to truce.
Contrary to above, if it is believed that Israel was attacked by Hamas in the first instance, how can Israel justify its illegal actions in Gaza. As an occupied territory, it is covered by the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations by their military occupier. Indiscriminate bombing of occupied territories by the occupier is clearly a violation of international law. Other than that Israel has imposed a strict blockade around Gaza that has resulted in widespread anemia in the society. Around 5% of children are suffering from malnutrition. Routine colonization of land is also being done from the west bank side, where new house building schemes are announced most of the time. It is also imperative for the international community to consider that Israel has broken around 15 ceasefire treaties in the last six decades.
7 days, 1500 missiles and the deaths of around 150 Palestinians, of which majority are children, and a ceasefire has been finally brokered up between the two sides, that has yet to be announced. On the other hand, almost all the rockets of Hamas fired at Israel were intercepted by dome-missile-interceptors. Those that managed to land killed 5 people, including a soldier and a contractor. Yesterday, bomb explosion in a bus in Tel Aviv injured 10 people, and was initially blamed on Hamas but later it was reported that it was the act of a lone operator unaffiliated with any major groups.
In an emergency meeting of UN Security Council, America has blocked the resolution to condemn Israel for the atrocities committed in Gaza. US has always supported Israels terrorism. It did not came as a surprise for international community as Netanyahu is on record as saying: contrary to the childish scare-mongering in some of our media suggesting that Israel is now more isolated internationally, we have conducted this operation with firm Western backing.
I wonder whom Israel would terrorize next.
Talha Ibrahim is an amateur writer currently pursuing Chartered Accountancy, Talha wants to be a wise man someday. Not having any particular affinity towards right wing or left wing politics, he forms his conclusions derived from his own idiosyncratic goggles.
Source
