Gaza Freedom Flotilla
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud , Minnesota
Thanks to Israeli killings on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, President Obama’s expected triumph over terrorism is unlikely to take place anytime soon. In a near universal condemnation Israel is seen as too heavy a burden for America and many suggest the severance of the umbilical cord that binds the two.
Militants see Israeli bloodshed with American-supplied weapons, helicopters and guns as justification for their operations. In reaction, numerous Muslims have volunteered to strike at US and Israeli targets. An upward swing in terrorism is now the expected outcome.
In general US taxpayers are incensed at the Israeli flaunting of the weapons supply agreements and violation of international law. Ahmed Davutoglu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, appearing on the CNN’s GPS program, also commented on law. In fact, liberals of the younger generation Americans favor adherence to laws, international or otherwise.
The UN voted to condemn the armed aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, one of the first moves by that body against Israel. It also voted to establish a commission to investigate the issue. The government of Israel has already rejected that resolution.
An investigation is unlikely to take place unless it is totally controlled by Tel Aviv. Since its founding Israel has rejected all the calls for international involvement. That position is usually defended by the US veto in the Security Council.
As usual Elliot Abraham sprang up to defend the Israeli action and repeated their falsehoods. The person appearing on the opposing side responded to some of them. They appeared on the CNN. The moderator of the program, the usual voluble Fareed Zakaria had nothing to say given that the topic was Israel. He has been well trained in his native land to show deference to the masters.
Tom Friedman and Charles Krauthammer blamed the victims in their syndicated columns published in the New York Times and the Washington Post. David Brooke, a writer for the New York Times, did precisely the same thing on the National Public Radio. That position once again was expressed by Martin Indyk in the latest issue of the Time Magazine.
These individuals are all diehard supporters of their favorite, the only democratic state in the Middle East. One can gather from their opinions that Palestinians don’t exist, and the people in Gaza deserve their fate. Palestinians, of course, from their perspective are children of a lesser God.
Who cares about human rights when people involved are goyim without a history of holocaust? This is a well articulated position in the United States. The defenders of Israel have made it stick in the policies of several administrations since Eisenhower. Great advocates of human rights such as Natan Sharansky kept his mouth shut. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Despite the international outrage not a single Muslim spoke out or wrote in a major US media on the flotilla issue. Muslims, of course, lack communications skills that is likely to persist for yet another generation.
Aimed at damage control most reporters defended the Israeli action. Extremists had already lined up in that corner including the far-right of the Republican Party.
Israeli intention to starve the people of Gaza into submission is seen as normal. The government in Tel Aviv believes that would lead to the overthrow of the Hamas regime. It is a page lifted from the conduct of the US foreign policy towards Cuba. However, the communist regime still stands in Havana and has not been overthrown.
Israel does not want to give up the occupation of the Palestinians, either in the West Bank or Gaza. The territory of Gaza is surrounded on all the sides by the Israeli military. Hamas can maintain law and order internally and Israel gets to keep the area occupied. For all practical purposes Gaza has become the world’s largest open air prison.
For the sake of public relations the occupier allows the entry of humanitarian aid, some medicine and food, only to keep the people alive in the territory. They are not allowed to have cement or lumber to build schools. That subterfuge is often cited in the US media as the generosity of the Israelis.
The occupation will go on because Israel is a law unto itself. Only the US can make things budge. But that too is at the mercy of AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) which holds America by that anatomical body-part which hurts the most.
When veteran journalist Helen Thomas said to tell Israelis “to get the hell out of Palestine” all hell broke loose but it resonated well almost everywhere, particularly in the Muslim World and the Third World. It was especially appealing to the formerly colonized that “these people are occupied and it’s their land.”
The creation of Israel in Palestine is a phenomenon of the modern times. It is an only example of occupation and colonization in the post-colonial period. It would never have happened without the active collusion of the well-known colonial powers.
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