The Truth About Those Hamas Rockets
by Dennis Rahkonen / December 31st, 2008

Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass
destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of
Iraq.

A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more
credible excuse ? the Hamas rockets case ? as justification for its own
murderous shock and awe in Gaza, a long-planned campaign perniciously
aimed at ousting a ?regime? that came to power via popular, democratic
vote.

Yes, such rockets exist, but they?re little more than slingshots
against Israel?s incredible military might, and they?re used out of
desperation by Palestinians who?ve never been accorded the democratic
space within which to gain redress of their eminently just grievances.

Israeli apologists have presented absurd propaganda about those
devices.

We?ve been asked, for instance, what would we do if rockets were being
launched on our homes in New York or Texas, from Canada or Mexico?

The proper answer is that, if those two nations had been unlawfully
occupied or embargoed by the United States for sixty years of
relentless oppression and repression, and if all attempts at peaceful
change had been forcefully prevented or scuttled by the U.S., then such
attacks would be an understandable, indeed justifiable attempt at
gaining intolerably deferred liberty.

Our appropriate response wouldn?t be to bomb the hell out of the
nearest Canadian or Mexican city, but to collectively look into mirrors
and earnestly ask ourselves, ?What have we done wrong to incur their
wrath??

And then act to correct the situation.

Conscientious Israelis acknowledge that the Hamas rockets rationale is
fraudulent. For instance, Jerusalem Post writer Larry Derfner has
noted:

?We don?t want to see how people in Gaza are living, we block it out of
our minds ? which, I suppose, is natural for a society at war, but
which also keeps that war going longer than it might if we would
recognize that Gaza is getting so much the worst of it.

?The [Palestinian] Kassam [rockets] have terrorized the 25,000 people
in Sderot and its environs, but have caused very, very few deaths or
serious wounds. By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans,
locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled their
economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands of them?

?This is crazy. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East, but
because we still think we?re the Jews of Europe in the 1930s, or the
Israelites under Pharaoh, we spend a lot more time fighting our enemies
than we might if we looked at the whole picture, not just our half of
it . . .?

As Gazan hospitals and morgues fill beyond capacity because of an
ongoing air assault that cruelly began at precisely the hour when
countless children were heading home from school, we?re expected to
believe that small craters mostly in empty Israeli fields constitute
this terrible episode?s chief sin.

Bugs bothered by sporadically impacting, glorified fireworks cobbled
together in backyard garages are ludicrously supposed to be the primary
problem, not human limbs and lives escalatingly shattered by the most
destructive weapons that military science can produce!

At any point during the past six decades, Israel could have had peace,
simply by assenting to the great moral imperative of our time, namely
the Palestinians? right to their own, unitary, sovereign homeland.

Something that Israel continues to resist both tooth and nail, F16 and
Apache helicopter gunship.

Two years ago, in Southern Lebanon, Israel engaged in similar bombings
in civilian areas. Then, too, it maintained that only ?terrorist?
targets were being hit. As impartial observers finally ascertained the
truth, clear evidence of enormous civilian carnage surfaced.

The Israeli leadership lied then, and it?s lying now.

There?s a veritable holocaust occurring in densely packed Gaza. Think
Guernica, or the Warsaw Ghetto, with all the searing irony that
comparison involves.

Apart from being an ethical travesty offending all decent hearts, it?s
an unpardonable outrage to especially Arab/Islamic peoples around the
world.

Witness the angry protest demonstrations in cities across the planet.

It takes no extraordinary analytical prowess to appreciate that, when
the White House ridiculously blames what?s currently happening on
?thugs? in Gaza, and when moderate Arab states adopt an accomodationist
position pleasing the U.S. and Israel, a profound Arab/Islamic
radicalization billows and swells.

New Osama bin Ladens are being born as innocents in Gaza are getting
ripped to death by American-made Hellfire missiles, dispatched toward
fleshly targets by Israeli pilots.

In fact, the almost certain, counterproductive outcome of Israel?s
action makes us necessarily suspect that secret motives mistakenly
judged by Tel Aviv to be worth the risk are actually at play.

Three possibilities spring immediately to mind:

1) Obscenely using de facto genocide to give the present Israeli
government a ?tough? image before upcoming national elections.

2) Roping Barack Obama into a harder pro-Israeli stance than Tel Aviv
fears he?d otherwise take.

3) Creating a manipulated, intensely propagandized situation that would
enable a desired Israeli attack on Iran.

Whatever the most deeply hidden reality, Israel?s gargantuan crime must
be universally condemned in the strongest possible terms . . . and
halted at once!

Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing progressive
commentary with a Heartland perspective for various outlets since the
'60s. Read other articles by Dennis.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤