COMPARE ASSAD OF SYRIA AND NETANYAHU OF ISRAEL

Compare Bashar al Assad's procedures with those of Bib Netanyahu.  Both claim they are fighting armed terrorists.  Both order their war planes to bomb homes of civilians, killing scores of men, women and children.  Both engage in collective punishment against their political opponents.

STOP ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

Good for Pakistan in signing a deal for a gas pipeline with Iran!

The United States has no business imposing an economic blockade on Iran and its people.  Economic sanctions are just a form of collective punishment, punishing the people for the "sins" of their leaders.  While this collective punishment does not make use of bombs and bullets, it still imposes harsh economic punishment on ordinary Iranian men, women and children.

I call upon Pres. Barack Obama and Sec. Hillary Clinton to stop the economic warfare waged against the Iranian people and end the sanctions.

WARNING TO PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS: NO KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS

Instead of Def. Sec. Gates and Pres. Obama telling Netanyahu that the Israeli government can take any steps "necessary" to defend itself against Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza, Gates and Obama should have warned Israel against attacking Palestinian civilians in a form of "collective punishment."

I condemn those Palestinians who fired rockets into Israel endangering innocent Israelis. I also strongly condemn acts of collective punishment inflicted by Israel against Palestinian society and civilians in Gaza.

END ISRAEL'S COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF PALESTINIANS

The militaristic government of Israel and many of its supporters here in their U.S. try to argue that Israel has every right to impose a blockade of food, petroleum, medicine and building materials on the Palestinians in Gaza. Their argument is that Israel's blockade is an effort to deny Hamas, a terrorist organization, materials that could in any way be used for attacks on Israeli towns and cities.

But if that were true, Israel could deny everything shipped to Gaza - medicines, construction materials, food, fuel, every thing. Because Israel could argue that anything allowed into Gaza helps Hamas.

Recall that the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza freely and democratically elected representatives of Hamas in January 2006. By blocking necessities of life to the ordinary Palestinian, Israel is trying to punish those who voted for Hamas as well as Hamas itself.

This is clearly a good example of odious "collective punishment."

No nation, including Israel, is allowed under international law to punish civilians as a way to punish the political government.

True, the U.S. and Britain did just this during WWII when Allied airplanes carpet-bombed Berlin, Dresden and Dusseldorf. Talk about "war crimes." Each German city suffered more than 50,000 souls incinerated in one night. We are talking women, children, men, all non-combatants.

Israel has no legal or moral right to continue the blockade. I congratulate the peace activists in recent days who tried to bring Palestinians some relief in their miserable existence caused by the Israeli government's foolish quest to punish citizens who voted for Hamas.

BBC REPORTS ON ISRAEL'S "WANTON DESTRUCTION" OF HOMES IN GAZA

The BBC has a report today on "wanton destruction" of Palestinian homes by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the three-week bombardment of Gaza this past January.

The BBC reports that Amnesty International found evidence that IDF intentionally destroyed apartment buildings and homes:

Human rights investigators say Israeli forces engaged in "wanton destruction" of Palestinian homes during the recent conflict in Gaza.

"Amnesty International has told the BBC News website the methods used raised concerns about war crimes.

"Israel's military said buildings were destroyed because of military "operational needs".

"The Israeli Defense Forces said they operated in accordance with international law during the conflict.

"However, the use of mines to destroy homes contradicted this claim, the head of the Amnesty International fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, Donatella Rovera, has argued."

This is only one facet of Israel's barbaric destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, including police stations, schools, mosques and hospitals.

"There were also whole neighbourhoods reduced to rubble in areas where the Israeli ground forces were present.

"Ms Rovera said Amnesty International was concerned about "large scale destruction of homes and other civilian properties" during the conflict.

""The destruction was, in our view, and according to our findings, wanton destruction - it could not be justified on military grounds," she said.

"Ms Rovera said her team found fragments of anti-tank mines in and around destroyed properties."

The International Court of Justice needs to pursue its investigation of these IDF actions. Destroying civilian homes as a form of collective punishment is a war crime, not allowed by any country including Israel. Of course Israel will say that there were "terrorists" hiding in the buildings, or that Hamas "terrorists" were hiding behind women and children and using them as "shields." This is just more spin put forth by Israel to attempt to justify the indefensible.

Israel and the IDF have tried to starve the Palestinians in Gaza and thus eliminate all of them. When closing the borders did not have its desired effect, Israel then tried to eliminate the Palestinians by bombs, war planes and tank shells filled with white phosphorous.

HOW COULD HILLARY CLINTON PLEDGE U.S. SUPPORT TO ISRAEL?

How can the United States government and Hillary Clinton pledge eternal support and friendship to Israel after what Israel did to the Palestinian people in Gaza at the beginning of January?

The Israeli Defense Forces bombed mosques, schools, yes even a university, police stations and worst of all homes and apartment buildings. Can anyone come up with a better example of "collective punishment?" Israel responding to rocket fire from Gaza decides to punish and bomb the entire Gazan population.

But this is nothing new for Israel. For the last year and half preceding its attack on Gazan infrastructure and the Palestinian people living there, Israel closed all border crossings, letting in meagre rations of food, fuel and medicine. Again we have a classic example of punishing the population for the sins of a few.

Of course rocket firings into Israeli towns must stop. But that is no excuse for Israel to try to kill the entire Palestinian population.

So how could Clinton commit the U.S. to everlasting support of Israel in view of all the above?

ISRAEL KEEPS BORDERS SHUT TO PALESTINIANS

Is there any serious observer who does not consider Israel's persistence in locking the borders into and out of Gaza a typical case of collective punishment? This is a classic and long-recognized war crime.

Because Israel blames Hamas democratically elected by the Palestinians in Gaza in January 2006 the "enemy" and "terrorists," it is determined to punish ordinary people who elected Hamas and who now more than ever support Hamas after Israel's disproportionate destruction of infrastructure, schools, police stations, universities, mosques, ordinary apartment buildings and homes.

Thus Israel's locking down the borders, and the consequent blockade of food, medicine, fuel, building materials into Gaza.

After killing over 1400 Palestinians who were unfortunate enough to live in buildings targeted by Israeli war planes and tanks, or whose homes adjoined those buildings, Israelis are now determined to keep the Palestinians in a continuous state of eking out their existence amidst the ruins and rubble of Gaza.

Obama needs to visit Gaza and see for himself. Remember when the Israelis scared Tony Blair on the verge of doing just that thing. They told Blair there was a secret Palestinian plan to kidnap him or even kill him. Blair cancelled his visit spooked by Israeli scares.

ISRAEL'S CHOKE HOLD ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel has apparently withdrawn all of its troops from Gaza. However, it has positioned them all around the Gaza border, ready to re-initiate the attack upon notice. Furthermore, Israel continues to fly drones across Gaza, looking for Hamas officials, or Palestinians set to fire rockets into Israel. The borders remain closed: that means no commerce, no building materials, only the barest amount of food, medicine, fuel.

Israel needs to allow Palestinians some chance to live. It should immediately re-open all of the Gaza borders. It should cease the drones over Gaza. It should allow in an unlimited amount of food, medicine and fuel. The U.N. bans collective punishment of civilian populations. This applies to Israel's actions against Palestinian society.

On their part, Palestinians in Gaza need to prevent and renounce the random firing of rockets aimed at Israeli towns and villages.

As it now stands, Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble. Not only Hamas civic offices but over 4,000 homes. More than 50,000 Palestinians are living in United Nations shelters mostly in schools. Over 1200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's bombardment, many of them children under 16.

The BBC reports:

"Rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's three-week offensive will cost billions of dollars, the UN has warned.

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless and 400,000 people still have no running water, it says."

ISRAEL - STOP ILLEGAL BLOCKADE OF FOOD, MEDICINE TO PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

The BBC reports that Israel has temporarily allowed an easing of the blockade so that fuel and other essentials could be transported into Gaza.

The Palestinians living in Gaza, more than one million, have been punished by Israel for the rocket attacks threatening Israeli villages and towns that have emanated from Gaza. For the last several months, Israel has imposed a total blockade of medicines, food and fuel.

Israel must stop once and for all this cruel and destructive collective punishment. To deny food, medicine and other essentials of life to Palestinians just because some in Gaza have fired missiles cannot be justified as legal under international law. Israel's blockade offends basic human rights as outlined in the Declaration of Human Rights.

ISRAEL CONTINUES ILLEGAL BLOCKADE & COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel is still causing severe disruptions for the Palestinians in Gaza by maintaining a near total blockade of food and medicine and fuel. Israel says it will not stop the blockade of these essential elements of life until Hamas controls the people who are firing rockets from Palestine into Israeli towns and villages.

Someone please justify under human rights law what Israel is doing. Under international law and the charter of the United Nations, "collective punishment" such as what Israel is doing is explicitly prohibited as against human rights.

I realize ordinary Israelis want to stop the disturbing and horrific missile attacks, but Israel needs to come up with some way other than inflicting collective punishment on the million plus inhabitants of Gaza who just like we have a basic human right to food, clothing, fuel and shelter.

ISRAEL LETS IN 40 TRUCKS WITH FOOD TO GAZA BUT BORDER CLOSINGS CONTINUE

Israel continues its illegal and inhumane and unjust blockade of Gaza. Today, the BBC reports that Israel did let in 40 truck-loads of food and some fuel but that just highlights the true nature of the blockade. Forty trucks of food for over a million Gazans reveals the awful nature of the collective punishment that Israel continues to inflict.

Israel says it will not open the borders for the necessities of life until insurgents stop firing missiles and rockets into Israeli towns. But how can Israel justify the punishment of an entire population on account of the very few who are firing the rockets? I thought war-crimes trials after WWII demonstrated the illegal and indefensible nature of collective punishment.

ISRAEL INFLICTS COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel still persists in cutting off food, medicine and fuel from the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel claims it is doing this because it must close all the border crossings for purposes of security because Palestinians have been firing rockets into Israeli towns.

Linda Gradstein writes for The Washington Post:

"The resulting Israeli blockade has disrupted a U.N. program that feeds about half of Gaza's population, said Ging. Food distributed through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency includes flour, oil, rice, sugar and canned meat, and is meant to provide 60 percent of daily caloric needs.

""Many of these families have been subsisting on this ration for years and they are living hand to mouth," Ging said angrily. "This is a disastrous situation and its getting worse and worse. Even during the cease-fire we were prohibited from building up our reserves which could have prevented the current crisis. This is shocking.""


This is outright collective punishment, a violation of international law. A few Palestinians fire rockets, therefore starve and punish the entire Palestinian people.

Israel, stop this illegal and inhumane practice of collective punishment!

ISRAEL CONTINUES BLOCKADE OF FOOD, MEDICINE, FUEL TO GAZA

Israel continues with its blockade of food, medicine and fuel to the Palestinians in Gaza. Can we have any better example of the shameful and despised practice of collective punishment? Some Hamas members shoot missiles into Israeli towns along the border, so Israel decides to punish the entire Gaza population by denying essentials of life. Israel is thereby saying that it is willing tokill the entire million people in Gaza for the actions of a handful.

ISRAEL CUTS OFF FUEL, FOOD TO PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Aleem Maqbool writes for the BBC website today on the latest collective punishment meted out by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Writes Maqbool:

"Over the last six days, Israel has all but closed its crossings with the Gaza Strip.

"No fuel (paid for by foreign donors) has been allowed into Gaza for its power station, no food has been allowed in for the United Nations' aid distribution centres on which most Gazans rely.

"No journalists are being allowed into Gaza to cover the story."

What is the Israeli government thinking? Because there have been recent rocket attacks on nearby Israeli villages after the Israeli army sent tanks into Gaza, the Israeli leaders decide to punish the whole population in Gaza. That includes women, children, elderly, infirm, innocent civilians.

I thought collective punishment was disgraced in WWII. Apparently, it is alive and thriving in today's Israel.

STOP ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel should stop the almost total blockade of Gaza, says a report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

"“The agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip is close to collapse, as no exports are allowed, and there is a total unavailability of fertilizer, pesticides and other crucial inputs,” according to the report, released yesterday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)."

By sealing off Gaza and its population from food, power and medicine, Israel is in fact applying a hated collective punishment to the Palestinians living there. And I thought that collective punishment was inflicted only by tyrannical regimes intent on punishing the population for the sins and offenses of the few.

When Tony Blair try to visit the leaders of Hamas in Gaza several weeks ago, he had a sudden change of plans after the Israelis told him of a "death plot." Instead of visiting Gaza and seeing the human desperation and misery caused by the Israeli blockade, Tony Blair made other plans. So Tony Blair was scared out visiting Gaza. Who knows if the alleged plot was anything more than a made-up story by Israelis not wanting Tony Blair to get the other side of the story.

ISRAEL PREVENTS FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS FROM LEAVING GAZA - A GOOD EXAMPLE OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT

Ethan Bronner of The New York Times reports in today's paper that Israel will not allow Fulbright scholars from Gaza to leave and come to the U.S. to study.

Talk about collective punishment! These gifted students have not fired missiles at Israel, they have not shot at Israeli troops, they have not instigated violence. Nonetheless, Israel will not allow them to leave Gaza to study abroad. This is the very essence of collective punishment - punishing the population because of acts of a small minority.

JIMMY CARTER CRITICIZES EUROPEAN LEADERS FOR NOT DENOUNCING ISRAEL'S UNJUST TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS

The Guardian has an article by Jonathan Steele and Jonathan Freedland about former president Jimmy Carter criticizing a "supine" Europe for failing to protest the Israeli blockade of Palestinians in Gaza.

Write Steele and Freedland:

"Britain and other European governments should break from the US over the international embargo on Gaza, former US president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian yesterday. Carter, visiting the Welsh border town of Hay for the Guardian literary festival, described the EU's position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as "supine" and its failure to criticise the Israeli blockade of Gaza as "embarrassing"."

Carter is the only American out there who is not afraid to go up against the powerful Israeli lobby and denounce Israel's unjust and criminal collective punishment of the Palestinians.

Steele and Freedland report more on Carter's speech:

"The blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed by the US, EU, UN and Russia - the so-called Quartet - after the organisation's election victory in 2006, was "one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth," since it meant the "imprisonment of 1.6 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees". "Most families in Gaza are eating only one meal per day. To see Europeans going along with this is embarrassing," Carter said."

Carter brings up a subject upon which European leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown have been strangely silent. And how about the silence of former prime minister Tony Blair? He has a job of trying to bring peace to Palestine, yet he has remained incommunicado. Why hasn't he spoken up as Carter? Europe's leaders are a milquetoast bunch. They loudly protest against Iran's development of nuclear power but they are mute when it comes to Israel's enforcement of collective punishment.

ISRAEL USES COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IN RESPONSE TO GAZAN ROCKETS

How can anyone support Ehud Olmert and the Israeli government when we see what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza? As a response to militant Palestinians shooting rockets from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns, Israel has now cut off the supply of fuel and oil.

Wait! This is collective punishment. Israel is punishing the whole people as a response to the actions of a few. And whom does collective punishment punish? The families in Gaza, the children, the old, the sick, the needy, the schools, the hospitals. This cannot be justified. Collective punishment is never allowed and should never be used.

So I ask, how can anyone say he or she supports the Israeli government when Israel does this to the Gazans? No wonder Israel creates enemies in the Middle East. Collective punishment is sure to engender hatred and animosity for a long time.

SOME ISRAELIS CALL FOR DESTRUCTION OF GAZA VILLAGES AS RESPONSE TO MISSILES

Members of Israel Cabinet have been making irresponsible threats against the people and towns of Gaza in reaction to the incessant missiles falling in nearby Israeli towns and cities. The BBC reports that members have called for harsh Israeli response in the form of collective punishment against the Gaza population:

"Senior Israeli officials - including members of Mr Olmert's government - have demanded far harsher military and economic action in response to the continuing rocket barrages.

"The Israeli interior minister, Meir Sheetrit, said the army should choose a neighbourhood of Gaza, give its residents a day to leave, and then destroy it."

Destroying and razing a village would be unfair and a serious war crime under international law. No matter how much Israelis want the rockets to stop, Israel is not permitted to punish Gaza residents indiscriminately and/or collectively. Gaza children deprived of a home have not done anything to Israel and its citizens to warrant having their homes destroyed and themselves made homeless.

Israel should know that the wrong way to avenge the rockets is to demand an eye for an eye. Nothing can be solved by the use of military force. Shooting or killing Gazans or member of the Hamas party can do nothing except exacerbate the feelings for revenge and blood atonement.

ISRAEL SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT, A DECISION DESTINED TO STAIN ISRAEL JUDICIARY

The Israel Supreme Court has ruled that cutting off fuel and food supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza is perfectly legal. This is as notorious a ruling as that of the U.S. Supreme Court in Korematsu more than 60 years ago when the Court ruled that locking up Japanese Americans was perfectly okay and within the power of the president. We all know that Korematsu has been a stain on the U.S. justice system, and we also know that the Israeli court has now made a huge blunder, seeming to countenance and approve despicable collective punishment for the rocket attacks of a few.