HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ACCUSES ISRAEL OF SHOOTING PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS HOLDING WHITE FLAGS

Peter Beaumont writes in today's The Guardian that Human Rights Watch accuses the Israeli Defense Forces of shooting 11 Palestinian civilians carrying white flags in Gaza during last January's offensive.

Reports Beaumont:

"The deaths – including those of five women and four children – took place in seven separate incidents across Gaza in areas controlled by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), where there was no fighting and no Palestinian fighters were nearby."

In the meantime, the IDF has issued a voluminous report that finds no violations of the rights of the Palestinians and no basis for charging Israel and its IDF with any war crimes.

Beaumont reports on some of the cases brought up by Human Rights Watch:

"In one case, the civilians were walking in a group on a street. In another, they were driving slowly on tractors and in cars, trying to leave the area with the wounded, according to the report.

""On the way we saw tanks and soldiers," said Omar Abu Halima, 18. "When we saw them [the Israeli soldiers] they told us to stop. After we stopped they fired at us. They killed my cousin Mattar. My cousin Muhammad was wounded and later died."

"In another case – also in al-Atatra – two women holding white flags stepped out of a house that the IDF was demolishing to tell the soldiers that civilians were inside. "We opened the door and a sniper fired at us from a house," said Zakiya al-Qanu, 55. "Ibtisam was hit and I turned to go back inside and another bullet grazed my back. Ibtisam died in the doorway.""

Israel's reaction has been something like, "the Palestinian terrorists were using white flags to deceive IDF soldiers and then shoot them."

But Beaumont reports:

"Human Rights Watch said it could find no evidence of misuse of white flags or the use of civilians as human shields in the cases detailed. "These casualties comprise a fraction of the Palestinian civilians wounded and killed," the report says.

""But they stand out because, in each case, the victims were standing, walking or in slowly moving vehicles with other unarmed civilians, and were trying to convey their non-combatant status by waving a white flag.""

Of course, there will be no formal charges against the IDF or any of its soldiers because the IDF said it could find no evidence of abuse or maltreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza.

The only way that the world can condemn these Israeli war crimes is to publicize them and let the public know what really happened in Israel's three-week incursion into Gaza this past January.

WASHPO: ISRAEL MAY HAVE COMMITTED WAR CRIMES BUT HAMAS IS WORSE

When in the cross hairs of very negative public opinion and condemnation for war crimes, as Israel now finds itself, have your shills try to place blame on the other guy. This is what Richard Cohen tries to do in his pro-Israeli piece in today's The Washington Post. "Israel may have killed Palestinians in its unjustified three-week bombardment of Gaza, but Hamas is worse." What the world needs is a full United Nations investigation of Israel's actions, not the whitewash conducted by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) of its own conduct, as if all the charges about killing defenseless civilians, men women, children, were mere "hearsay."

U.S. ALLOWS MASSIVE RE-ARMING OF ISRAEL, AMNESTY SAYS

Amnesty International sent me notification today that the U.S. has just completed a massive arms shipment to Israel. How could Barack Obama's administration approve this shipment after seeing what Israel did to the Palestinians in Gaza at the beginning of January. Israel bombed the Palestinians most of whom are under 16 constantly day and night. The Israeli Defense Forces used white phosphorous shells to terrorize the population. IDF soldiers shot defenseless men, women and children in the streets. And there was no escape for the Palestinians. Israel had closed and sealed all of its borders. The result was that civilians in Gaza had no where and no means to flee.

So how could the U.S. re-arm Israel now?

Writes Amnesty:

"New information obtained by Amnesty researchers this week confirmed a massive shipment of U.S. weapons was delivered to Israel on March 22nd.

"The administration allowed the delivery, despite clear evidence of Israeli human rights violations, some amounting to war crimes, including the controversial use of U.S. made white phosphorous munitions over densely populated areas. That's the white phosphorous that sticks to flesh and sears it until completely deprived of oxygen. . .

"Last month, our researcher from Gaza came to Washington, DC and met with State Department officials to present our evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza. They told us during those meetings that they were concerned and would review our evidence.

"The State Department has a moral and legal obligation to make sure U.S. weapons don't go to foreign forces with a record of committing gross human rights violations.

"So, what happened? Did they decide against overwhelming evidence that Israel's actions were completely justified and didn't violate numerous international and U.S. laws? Did they put any extra restrictions on the use of these new arms? . . .

"There is no way you and I can let tons of weapons land in Israel's hands with no questions asked."

U..N. WANTS INVESTIGATION OF ISRAEL FOR POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES

The BBC reports that UN investigators have harshly criticized Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for cruelty and war crimes committed during the IDF's invasion and bombardment of Gaza this past January.

Writes the BBC:

"UN human rights investigators have questioned the legality of Israel's Gaza offensive in a wide-ranging report to the UN Human Rights Council.

"One investigator, Richard Falk, asked how a military assault with modern weapons could have been made "against an essentially defenceless society".

"The report found civilians appeared to "have taken the brunt of the attacks" with schools and clinics also hit."

Gaza and the Palestinians living there were not only defenseless, they were not allowed to flee or escape the fighting. Israel had sealed all of its borders with Gaza so that civilians and families and children could not run away from the death and destruction.

Reports the BBC:

"Mr Falk argued that in order to determine if the war was legal, it was necessary to assess whether Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza.

""If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," he said in Geneva.

""The overall ratio of deaths, 1,434 on the Palestinian side, 13 on the Israeli side, is suggestive of the one-sidedness of the military encounter," he added.

"Gaza's borders were closed, he stressed, so civilians were unable to flee the fighting.

"Mr Falk called for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas."

Some other UN investigators cited specific instances of Israeli soldiers firing and killing civilians and children.

The BBC writes:

"Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary general's special representative for children and armed conflict, cited a long series of incidents to back her charges, in her report to the UN Human Rights Council.

"In one, she said, Israeli soldiers shot a father after ordering him out of his house and then opened fire into the room where the rest of the family was sheltering, wounding the mother and three brothers and killing a fourth."

Yes, the world needs to hold Israel and its IDF accountable for the unnecessary and cruel death and destruction they wrought upon the Palestinians in Gaza. The trouble is that it is almost impossible to hold a party like Israel responsible when its allies like the United States and many members of Congress give an imprimatur to Israel no matter what it does or no matter what war crimes it commits.

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.

AMNESTY INTL. CONDEMNS BOTH ISRAEL & HAMAS FOR WAR CRIMES

The BBC reports that Amnesty International has condemned both the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas for targeting civilians, in flagrant violations of the humanitarian laws of war.

Writes the BBC:

"The human rights group said it had evidence both Israel and Hamas had used weapons sourced from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians.

"It called for the UN Security Council to impose the embargo on all parties.

"Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the conclusions of the report, in which Amnesty accuses each of war crimes."

Amnesty specifically cites Israel's use of shells containing white phosphorous which causes severe and deep burns once it attaches to human flesh. And Amnesty condemns Hamas for allowing rockets to be fired indiscriminately at Israeli towns and villages, thereby causing civilian deaths and casualties.

Reports the BBC:

"Donatella Rovera, the head of an Amnesty fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, said: "Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.

""Their attacks resulted in the death of hundreds of children and other civilians and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

""At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel.

""Though far less lethal than the weaponry used by Israel, such rocket firing also constitutes a war crime and caused several civilian deaths.""

Many politicians in Israel as well as AIPAC here in the U.S. are always blaming Iran for supporting Hamas as well as Hezbollah. But almost all of the weapons used by Israel and the IDF come from the United States. And when they are used with such devastating effect against people, especially children, in Gaza, the Palestinians must believe that America and Americans hate them and stand with Israel in trying to eradicate them from the homeland.

The BBC reports:

"The [Amnesty] report said fragments and components of artillery, tank shells, fins from mortar rounds and aircraft-launched missiles and bombs were found in school playgrounds, hospitals and homes in Gaza.

"Israel's weaponry predominantly came from the US, the report said.

"About 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died in 22 days of fighting last month."

OBAMA CONTINUES POLICY OF SUPPORTING ISRAEL, NOTWITHSTANDING CRUEL ATTACK ON GAZA

The Obama administration is debating whether to attend the human rights symposium and gathering sponsored by the United Nations. The Washington Post reports that Obama still has not come to a final decision. He does not want to be part of a group that will condemn Israel for its actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.

This is another major Obama mistake. Many countries have no qualms in condemning Israel for its disproportionate and cruel war against Gaza, where the majority of inhabitants are children. When the rest of the world sees that the U.S. and Obama still insist in siding with Israel, notwithstanding the damning evidence against the Israel Defense Forces, the result will be antagonism and suspicion and even hatred generated against the United States and Americans.

ISRAEL USES "DISPORPORTIONATE" MILITARY FORCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israeli leaders can't be serious in thinking that "disproportionate" military force is going to make the Palestinians in Gaza stop their unfortunate rocket attacks aimed at Israeli towns and villages.

If anything, the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) response is sure to increase Palestinians' hatred for all things Israeli and make them even more determined to keep up their rocket firings.

What Israel needs to do is to open all borders, allow unconditional free flow of food, medicine, building materials and trade. Israel also needs to quit referring to the Palestinians and their democratically elected government Hamas as "terrorists."

After thousands of years of recorded wars and killing the other side, has any country or entity or people ever really "triumphed?" The answer surely comes back in the negative. Wars and killings accomplish nothing but exacerbate the desire and need for retaliation and revenge.

BUSH IN ISRAEL SAYS EPIC BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL - WHO IS GOOD AND WHO IS EVIL?

George Bush said it again, he believes the forces of good are in an epic battle with the forces of evil in the Middle East. In his view, Israel and the United States represent the forces of light, but Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran (not to mention Hugo Chavez) act as the forces of darkness.

In this Manichean scheme, Bush's foreign policy centers on killing the (Islamic ?) evil-doers and praising virtuous Americans and Israelis.

Suppose you were a Palestinian 10-year old in Gaza. How would you like to be called an evil-doer and a force for darkness? Or have your mother and father so characterized?

The Israeli-Palestinian situation cannot be so easily resolved into good versus evil. Some Palestinians shoot missiles into Israel which kill innocent Israeli civilians. But some Israelis support the Israel Defense Forces which shoot missiles into homes in Gaza or fire tank shells that explode with steel darts that kill innocent Palestinians.

To build American foreign policy on such black/white thinking between good and evil in the way that George Bush has is to risk having a simplistic U.S. foreign policy that alienates people of good will all over the world and makes them enemies of Americans.

KRISTOL IN NYT MAKES ISRAEL BLAMELESS IN PALESTINE

The arch-conservative and Bush supporter Bill Kristol has a column in today's The New York Times on statements by Obama, Clinton and McCain commemorating this year's Passover. Apparently only McCain passes Kristol's muster because neither Obama nor Clinton apply the Passover of old to today's Israel fighting against Palestinian insurgents.

Writes Kristol:

"McCain’s statement is also the only one to mention current assaults on Jews. He asks us to reflect on three young Israelis — Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser — who were kidnapped in the summer of 2006 by Hamas and Hezbollah, and “who will celebrate this occasion, once again, in captivity.” McCain recalls his meetings with the families of two of these men in December 2006, reiterates his commitment to seek their swift release, and urges others to do the same.


"So if Clinton’s Passover message is liberal, and Obama’s is multicultural, one might call McCain’s Zionist. There’s a clear choice of worldviews here — and not just for Jews, but for all Americans."


The reader is left to pick the right choice, meaning the one favored by Kristol. But wait! We know that the families of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped are going through agony, and everyone wants them to be released.

But how about the Palestinians? Specifically, how about the families of those two dead boys harmlessly riding their bicycle last week when they were cruelly killed by steel darts from an exploding tank shell fired by Israeli soldiers? How about that Palestinian photographer killed in the same attack. Why does Kristol omit the atrocities suffered on the other side?



Palestinians have done horrible things to Israelis, such as firing missiles indiscriminately into neighboring Israeli towns. But the Israelis have responded in kind. Shelling Palestinian homes, killing Palestinian children, shooting innocent civilians.

If Kristol is going to apply the lessons of Exodus, he should take into account that in today's world, Israel is not without Palestinian blood on its hands. It is not fair to quote Exodus and apply it to today's Israeli government in a way that makes today's conflict a story about Israel's righteousness versus Palestinians' darkness.

But this is what Kristol seems to do:

"Sacrifices for the sake of freedom, the triumph of good over evil — if John McCain was at a Seder this past weekend, he surely would have liked this passage: “In all ages they rise up against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.”"

The Palestinians could, if they wished, take the same passage and use it to justify their own insurgency.

JIMMY CARTER IN MIDDLE EAST, WILL MEET HAMAS OFFICIAL IN SYRIA

Jimmy Carter is in Israel but Israeli officials seem to be snubbing him because of his forthcoming meeting with a Hamas official in Syria.

Adam Entous writes for Reuters:

"Israeli leaders shunned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit because of his plans to meet Hamas and Israel's secret service declined to assist U.S. agents guarding him, U.S. sources said on Monday."

Carter knows an important principle in establishing peaceful coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians is to show respect to both sides, and that includes Hamas. If Israel refuses to talk with Hamas leaders, we will have another hundred years of missiles raining down on Israeli towns and Israeli Defense Forces storming little Gazan villages and killing civilians as well as militant Palestinians.

Israel of course claims Hamas is a "terrorist" organization, but the Palestinians say the same thing about the Israeli government. Whether a group is "terrorist" seems to depend on who does the judging. Many observers say Bush is the greatest "terrorist" when he orders the U.S. Navy to shell small Somali villages because he wants to kill Qaeda "members."

After his 2006 book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, Israeli officials and many American Jews accused Jimmy Carter of being an anti-Semite. However, Carter has in no sense done or said anything that is anti-Semitic. But he does believe, contrary to George Bush's retarded policy of shooting-first-and-talking-later diplomacy, in talking and negotiating with both sides.

Reports Entous:

"Carter visited the Israeli border town of Sderot on Monday and said he was "distressed" by cross-border rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. "I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians," Carter said, adding that he hoped a ceasefire would be reached soon.

"Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the group's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

"Israel said it rejected Carter's request to meet jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas."

CONDI RICE PLAYS THE FOOL, HOPES TO RE-START PEACE TALKS BETWEEN ISRAEL & PALESTINIANS

To think than Condoleeza Rice is going to convince the Palestinians to reconvene peace talks with Israel and prime minister Olmert is beyond comprehension, in view of the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have just killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza, including some 30 children.

Imagine how you would feel if your child ended up with a bullet fired by the IDF? Would you feel kindly disposed towards Israel? Or would you forever remember that Israel caused the death of your son or daughter?

I realize that Israel wants to stop Palestinians shooting missiles into neighboring Israeli towns. However, that does not justify Olmert sending in the IDF to use disproportional force and to kill Palestinians indiscriminately. Has Israel and Olmert ever heard of the laws of War or the Geneva Convention? Or do all rules go out the window when it comes to the Palestinians?

CHANGE U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AWAY FROM MILITARY AID TO HUMANITARIAN GOALS

While most European nations are reducing their standing armies and their defense budgets, the United States is increasing the billions of dollars it spends every year for war planes, missiles ad bombs. This is the result of the militaristic policy of people like Bush and Cheney who think that the world's problems can be solved with soldiers and bullets. Furthermore, with a Republican administration for the last seven years, the U.S. has been giving more money for military weapons to countries like Israel and Colombia. We can see the results.

Israel invades Gaza and over the last few days more than 100 Palestinians have been killed, of whom at least one third are civilians including women and children. The bullets and bombs used by the Israeli Defense Forces are those provided by U.S. aid. If Israel's actions violate international law and are a form of state-sponsored terrorism inflicted on civilian populations in Gaza, then the United States has provided aid and military hardware to terrorist organizations.

Similarly, the U.S. has given Colombia hundreds of millions of dollars to beef up its military to fight FARC, the group that violently opposes Colombia's social and class system. Now FARC is not to be lionized because it engages in kidnappings, murders and other human rights abuses. But neither is Colombia or its administration led by Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. But the dispute between FARC and the Colombian government can never be solved by bullets and military operations, and the use of these tactics just makes the resolution between these two groups that much more intractable.

The United States needs to recognize its own bellicose intentions towards the rest of the world. Yes, let the U.S. continue with foreign aid for food, education and standard of living, but let it cease seeding the world with bombs, guns and missiles which can solve none of the world's problems or disagreements, but only exacerbate conflicts and bloody confrontations. Israel and Colombia are prime examples.

ISRAEL TERRORIZES PALESTINIANS AND KILLS 40 INCLUDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Stop the killings in Gaza. Today, Israeli soldiers, tanks and warships killed over 40 Palestinians in Gaza. We have a de facto war raging between the Palestinians and Israel.

Certainly no one would not sympathize with Israel's concern over protecting its citizens from being killed or injured from rockets fired into Israel from Gaza. However, the solution cannot be in killing all the Palestinians.

Israel opens itself to the charge that its actions are state-sponsored terrorism against the civilian population of Gaza. Nothing can be accomplished by sending in tanks, soldiers and airships to kill Palestinians including Palestinian civilians.

ISRAELI ARMY CLEARED OF WRONGDOING FOR DROPPING CLUSTER BOMBS ON SOUTHERN LEBANON

Here's a decision that cannot be unexpected. Israel's military prosecutors absolve the Israeli Defense Forces of violating any rules of warfare by dropping thousands of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon during the recent Israel-Lebanon II War.

Isabel Kershner reports today in The New York Times:

"Israeli military prosecutors announced Monday that they would not press charges over the army’s use of cluster bombs during the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, actions that had been widely criticized by human rights organizations. . . ."

"Cluster bombs are not prohibited in warfare, but their use is criticized because they contain "bomblets" that explode over a wide area and may strike unintended targets. In addition, bomblets that fail to explode become, in effect, land mines that can be detonated by civilians long after fighting has stopped. More than 30 Lebanese are said to have been killed by munitions left behind after the monthlong war in 2006.

"Soon after the fighting stopped, a top United Nations aid official, Jan Egeland, described Israel’s use of cluster bombs as "shocking" and "completely immoral," not least, he said, because most had been fired in the last 72 hours of the war, when it was clear that the conflict was moving toward a resolution."

Why did Israeli Defense Forces inundate 30 miles of southern Lebanon with these deadly cluster bombs? Israel says it was targeting Hezbollah fighters, but many suspect that IDF was punishing Lebanon's civilian population for aiding and supporting Hezbollah.

To me, the whole military strategy of IDF in firing and dropping cluster bombs smacks of illegal collective punishment and the shameful targeting civilians for their political views. Because so many Lebanese would vote for Hezbollah in parliamentary elections and because so many Lebanese civilians oppose Israel's harsh military responses to the perceived terrorist threat from Hezbollah, the IDF carpets a thirty-mile swath with those immoral clusterettes.

Children be warned, don't pick up that shiny attractive looking cylinder lying there in the dirt if you don't want to give up a hand or a foot, or be blinded for life.