Israel's "Operation Autumn Clouds" : Palestine's bitter winter of discontent?.

by Fred Johnston Sun Nov 12, 2006 16:17 sylfredcar at iolfree dot ie

Gaza is bearing witness to a genocide, a deliberate push to make Palestine uninhabitable for the Palestinians. Notoriously, and to the great shame of mankind, the US again vetoes, through their odious ambassador Bolton, a UN Security Council motion to condemn Israel for shelling a housing complex in which civilians, including tiny children, died; The Israeli Prime Minister regrets it and puts it down to 'technical problems' but warns that such things can happen.

Perhaps the war crimes of Saabra and Chatila were also problems of a 'technical' nature, as was the dispossession of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from their lands.The Palestinians are, after all, a nuisance in the way of a greater, more long-term objective.

Meanwhile, in Israel itself, there are moves to further limit the rights of Israeli Arabs. The dream of an Israeli State which includes Palestine and from which all Palestinians have been expelled to other countries has not gone away - this some way explains the refusal of the right of exiled Palestinians to return to their former homeland. The irony of this idea mirroring the historical Jewish experience is not lost, I'm sure, on some commentators.

The social rubble that is now the Palestinian State is a shame on every Western shoulder and many Israelis - some of whom are old enough to remember others who thought they knew all about removing people - hang their heads in shame and grief at what their government does in their name. The Palestinians committed the grevious sin of obeying the essence of democracy, that great ideal that the US is trying to shoot into the hearts of Iraqis, and electing a government of their own, led by Hamas. Alas, like dangerous children playing with a gun, the US and Israel hopped up and down: "You didn't do it RIGHT! You didn't do it RIGHT! Do it like THIS!"

I am grieved that more of our writers and artists are not writing letters to newspapers voicing concern at the clear-onesidedness of US policy in all of this and/or the aggressive rights-denying attitude of the Israeli State. I am always grieved at this. Oh, yes, there are now and then individuals who'll step forward; but where is the letter signed by whole groups of writers, groups of artists? Why have we decided to be silent, who demand in less turbulent arenas that the public shut up and listen to us?

by straight up Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:05

The dream of an Israeli State which includes Palestine and from which all Palestinians have been expelled to other countries has not gone away - this some way explains the refusal of the right of exiled Palestinians to return to their former homeland. The irony of this idea mirroring the historical Jewish experience is not lost, I'm sure, on some commentators.

iNDEED you might also wonder why all Israelis or juus as you call them also have no right of return to arab countries in fact have not had since 1967 , 150,000 that figure is in Iraq alone, and why the Israeli government offered to lift the ban if the arabs did likewise to which the arabs scoffed and said errrr no way

tis a 2 way street my friend, wish you would get your facts straight, another pallywood lie exposed

also the incursions will stop i would say when rockets stop flying in from gaza, something i should remind you that the pallys leadership promised they would abide to when Israel handed them back the territory to govern to see if the leadership could be trusted and yep once again they failed miserably, no surprise really, gaza exposed them horribly, they cant help themselves, they have to fight because they hate israelis too much