A good day to bury bad news
Over at Informed Comment, Juan Cole has a good review of the implications of last night’s US election results. If you want to know my views in detail you can see them in the 4th comment down on that page. In summary, whilst this result is not insignificant, and in fact important in many of the ways that Juan describes, the limits of the differences between Democrats and Republicans are considerable and should not be overlooked. In the US as here in Britain, politics consists of two wings of the Business Party squabbling over power. The differences are largely tactical rather than moral. Today, control over one part of the US state-corporate-imperialist apparatus has simply passed to a less radical set of managers.
But as the election results dominate the headlines, it’s a good day to bury bad news. So this morning, the US-armed “Israeli Defence Force” shelled a row of houses in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killing at least 19 and wounding 40 people – including 9 children and 4 women - who were sleeping at the time of the attack. We can of course expect Israeli protestations of how they are obliged to defend themselves against the terrorist threat posed by sleeping children and how they always take extraordinary measures to avoid innocent deaths. The latter is of course a straightforward lie, as demonstrated in my recent review of Britain’s role in the Israeli-Hezbollah war. The IDF, like the Israeli state as a whole, holds innocent Arab life in complete contempt.
This last week’s assault on Beit Hanoun has claimed 260 Palestinian casualties, with 53 dead – “women, children and ambulance drivers among them” as Sami Abdel-Shafi points out. The Guardian's Rory McCarthy describes the grief of Talal Nasr, searching a crowded cemetery for a space to bury the body of his 13-year-old daughter, shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. Every casualty means unimaginable grief and pain for the bereaved, like Talal Nasr. The grief caused by the casualties of this past week must now be added to that from those killed, maimed and starved by the Israeli assault and strangulation of Gaza, effected with the West’s full backing, in punishment for the Palestinians failure to follow orders and choose our preferred candidates in their recent elections.
Its been an impressive display from our democracy-loving governments, not least since the latest atrocities come a week after we rejected a 10 year truce offered by Hamas. In fact this was an offer not only of a ceasefire but also of a serious effort to help coax the embittered Palestinian population toward acceptance of their ethnic cleansing from their homeland and its usurpation by the Zionist colonists. But instead , Israel and the West have chosen the bullet over the ballot box, rejecting a generous offer and again embracing terror.
Perhaps today’s will be the final outrage that causes Hamas to end its unilaterally observed ceasefire of the past 18 months and return to its own terrorism, putting aside its peace offers, which Israel and its allies have found so embarrassing. Its hard not to draw the conclusion that this is exactly what’s intended. As it was in Vietnam, the challenge here is, "with considerable armed force but little political power, [to] contain an adversary who has enormous political force but only modest military power." The Hamas offer, much the same as the other offers that have been on the table since the 1970s, is peace on the 1967 boundaries in accordance with the international consensus, which has far more political and moral strength than the US-Israeli counteroffer: a Greater Israel with Palestinians herded into open air prisons. Politics and negotiation therefore are out of the question. Violence must prevail, because it is in the field of violence that we can achieve victory, not in the field of politics rationality and morality, where we are bankrupt. Peace offers are ignored, offers made and conditions stipulated than can and should never be accepted, and provocation after provocation after atrocity meted out, with casualties mounting until finally a serious (Palestinian) terrorist outrage occurs). And then....well, we told you. These people are fantics - pathalogical haters of Jews. All we want is security, but we have no partner for peace.
As the west congratulates itself on the wonders of its democracy today, its worth reminding ourselves of the bloody reality of western power as witnessed this morning on the streets of Beit Hanoun, whilst jubilant Democrats nursed their hangovers. As I've said, whilst the election result is not insignificant, the limits of the differences between Democrats and Republicans are considerable and should not be overlooked. Today, control over one part of the US state-corporate-imperialist apparatus has simply passed to a less radical set of managers. One constant that will remain - that always remains whether Democrats, Republicans, Labour or Tories are in power - is the status of peoples, unpeoples, like the Palestinians.
But as the election results dominate the headlines, it’s a good day to bury bad news. So this morning, the US-armed “Israeli Defence Force” shelled a row of houses in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killing at least 19 and wounding 40 people – including 9 children and 4 women - who were sleeping at the time of the attack. We can of course expect Israeli protestations of how they are obliged to defend themselves against the terrorist threat posed by sleeping children and how they always take extraordinary measures to avoid innocent deaths. The latter is of course a straightforward lie, as demonstrated in my recent review of Britain’s role in the Israeli-Hezbollah war. The IDF, like the Israeli state as a whole, holds innocent Arab life in complete contempt.
This last week’s assault on Beit Hanoun has claimed 260 Palestinian casualties, with 53 dead – “women, children and ambulance drivers among them” as Sami Abdel-Shafi points out. The Guardian's Rory McCarthy describes the grief of Talal Nasr, searching a crowded cemetery for a space to bury the body of his 13-year-old daughter, shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. Every casualty means unimaginable grief and pain for the bereaved, like Talal Nasr. The grief caused by the casualties of this past week must now be added to that from those killed, maimed and starved by the Israeli assault and strangulation of Gaza, effected with the West’s full backing, in punishment for the Palestinians failure to follow orders and choose our preferred candidates in their recent elections.
Its been an impressive display from our democracy-loving governments, not least since the latest atrocities come a week after we rejected a 10 year truce offered by Hamas. In fact this was an offer not only of a ceasefire but also of a serious effort to help coax the embittered Palestinian population toward acceptance of their ethnic cleansing from their homeland and its usurpation by the Zionist colonists. But instead , Israel and the West have chosen the bullet over the ballot box, rejecting a generous offer and again embracing terror.
Perhaps today’s will be the final outrage that causes Hamas to end its unilaterally observed ceasefire of the past 18 months and return to its own terrorism, putting aside its peace offers, which Israel and its allies have found so embarrassing. Its hard not to draw the conclusion that this is exactly what’s intended. As it was in Vietnam, the challenge here is, "with considerable armed force but little political power, [to] contain an adversary who has enormous political force but only modest military power." The Hamas offer, much the same as the other offers that have been on the table since the 1970s, is peace on the 1967 boundaries in accordance with the international consensus, which has far more political and moral strength than the US-Israeli counteroffer: a Greater Israel with Palestinians herded into open air prisons. Politics and negotiation therefore are out of the question. Violence must prevail, because it is in the field of violence that we can achieve victory, not in the field of politics rationality and morality, where we are bankrupt. Peace offers are ignored, offers made and conditions stipulated than can and should never be accepted, and provocation after provocation after atrocity meted out, with casualties mounting until finally a serious (Palestinian) terrorist outrage occurs). And then....well, we told you. These people are fantics - pathalogical haters of Jews. All we want is security, but we have no partner for peace.
As the west congratulates itself on the wonders of its democracy today, its worth reminding ourselves of the bloody reality of western power as witnessed this morning on the streets of Beit Hanoun, whilst jubilant Democrats nursed their hangovers. As I've said, whilst the election result is not insignificant, the limits of the differences between Democrats and Republicans are considerable and should not be overlooked. Today, control over one part of the US state-corporate-imperialist apparatus has simply passed to a less radical set of managers. One constant that will remain - that always remains whether Democrats, Republicans, Labour or Tories are in power - is the status of peoples, unpeoples, like the Palestinians.
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