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.

INJUSTICE IN TX FEDERAL COURT CONVICTS FIVE OF AIDING HAMAS

It is a travesty that a federal jury in Texas has convicted the largest Islamic charity of aiding a terrorist organization. Paul Weber writes for the AP on The Washington Post web site that a jury in Texas has convicted five charity leaders of each one of 108 counts. The five convicted men could be sentenced to prison for the rest of their lives.

Federal juries can be notorious for their tendency to convict, especially if the accused have Latino or even worse Islamic/Arabic names.

Reports Weber:

"Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land's former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, the chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a specially designated terrorist, money laundering and tax fraud.

"Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. Holy Land itself was convicted of all 32 counts.

""I feel heartbroken that a group of my fellow Americans fell for the prosecution's fear-mongering theory," Elashi's daughter, Noor, said outside the courthouse late Monday. "This is truly a low point for the United States of America, but this is not over.""

This is the second go-around for these five. Their first trial ended in a hung jury. This time, they were not convicted of engaging in any terrorist plot but in providing funds for Hamas, the civic, social and militant organization that rules Gaza in Palestine. Imagine being convicted in a federal court because you collected and transmitted monies for the aid of Gazans who live day-to-day in abject misery and poverty.

The verdict is akin to finding that Colombianos sending money home are guilty of supporting "illegal" political organizations insofar as some of the money happens to find its way to members of the FARC.

This unfortunate verdict penalizes those who in good will support charities that care for people whom Israel and the U.S. don't like.

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.

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.

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.

STOP CYCLE OF VIOLENCE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA

Instead of sending down missiles upon Hamas members in response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel needs to rethink its strategy towards the Palestinians. Especially in the Middle East, the plan cannot be an eye for an eye. Otherwise the cycle of killing and shooting will go on ad infinitum.

The BBC reports that Israel's missiles killed nine Palestinians today.

"An Israeli army spokesman said Tuesday's air strike in Abisan, near Rafah, was in response to rocket attacks that hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot earlier.

"More rockets followed the air strike, and Hamas vowed to take further action.

""This blood will not be shed in vain; this crime will not go unanswered and the Israeli occupation will pay a heavy price," Sami Abu Zuhri said in remarks quoted by AFP."

KEEP BORDER OPEN BETWEEN EGYPT AND GAZA FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS

Let's hope the border between Egypt and Gaza remains open. Otherwise, if Israel and the United States get their way, the border will be shut again, prevent Palestinians in Gaza from obtaining the basic necessities of life, such as food and medicine.

Why the U.S. wants the border closed is incomprehensible, given George Bush's insistence on freedom and democracy. Hamas won the election held by Palestinians in January 2007. Yet Bush who likes to claim that "terrorists hate democracy" could only sputter in disbelief that the Palestinians freely chose Hamas. Israel calls Hamas "terrorist organization," so Bush was put in the hypocritical position of rejecting Hamas notwithstanding the free and fair outcome of the elections.

ISRAEL AGREES TO RESUME FUEL TO GAZA AFTER BEING ACCUSED OF INFLICTING "COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT"

Today Israel announces that it will resume fuel shipments to Gaza after a 10-day suspension. When the decision came down, the Israel Supreme Court was hearing a case against the government brought by human rights groups who argued that the fuel suspension was "collective punishment" and therefore illegal. Apparently the Israeli government decided to give up. Here is the link to the BBC report on Israel's decision.

This is the right decision. Whoever gave the order to suspend basic necessities of life to the Palestinians in Gaza should be sacked. It has caused the world to wonder in revulsion at how Israel treats the common Palestinian people. Granted that Israel has the right to protect its citizens from rocket attacks emanating from Gaza. However, it is a huge mistake both ethically and in terms of public relations for the Israeli government to punish the people as a whole for the actions of a few. Furthermore, collective punishment never succeeds.

Instead of the iron fist and collective punishment, Israel show try diplomacy and negotiation, and this should not just be extended to Fatah but also to Hamas and its leaders. Guns and bombs and military action never works and will never work.

BUSH AND ISRAEL WANT TO RE-SEAL BORDER BETWEEEN GAZA AND EGYPT, PREVENT PALESTINIANS FROM OBTAINING NECESSITIES OF LIFE

The eight-meter high corrugated steel fence is now down between Gaza and Egypt and thousands of Gazans have been crossing into Egypt to obtain the basic necessities of life - food, cooking fuel and medicines.

Several weeks ago, Israel had closed and sealed all borders with Gaza. This was collective punishment. Palestinian militants continued to fire missiles into Israel, and Israel took reprisals on the whole population. The result was that Palestinians in Gaza were effectively "locked down," unable to obtain even the basic necessities.

Now, the wall being torn down, Gazans are free to cross over into Egypt to obtain life's necessities. The whole world can see the pitiful state of the Gazan population and the evils of collective punishment. Egypt is doing the right thing by allowing Gazans to cross over the border and enter Egypt.

But how about the United States? The BBC is reporting that both Israel and the U.S. want the border to be re-sealed. How could the Bush government support such an anti-humanitarian proposal? If the border is re-sealed, then Gazans return to their barely survivable modus vivendi. There will be rationing of food, electric power, cooking fuel, medicines.

This is another example of the Bush foreign policy which is mean, vindictive, cruel, harsh and short-sighted. Bush thinks he can force suspects to admit guilt and implicate associates by torturing them. He thinks he can solve world problems by dropping bombs. And he thinks that he can ensure Israel's security by locking almost one million Gazans in a virtual prison with no escape and little food.

PALESTINIANS KNOCK DOWN BORDER GATE, FLEE TO EGYPT, ESCAPE ISRAEL'S HARSH COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT

The Palestinians in Gaza have taken enough collective punishment from Israel, and so today they knocked down the wall and gate bordering Egypt. The Egyptian authorities did the right thing in not opposing the Gazans who are desperately looking to escape their dreadful prison after Israel imposed a lock down of all the other border gates and prohibited needed shipments of food, medicine and power.

Would anyone believe that countries could get away in 2007 with collective punishment on a whole people in order to stop a few from shooting missiles into and onto Israel towns? When Palestinians fire missiles at Israeli towns, this is barbaric. But over the last month Israel has cut off power for heat and lights and cooking fuel for the whole Gazan population. Israel also reduced the amount of medicines and food for Gaza. This surely qualifies as illegitimate collective punishment. How many residents of Gaza, the old, the sick, the very young, have died because of Israel's clamp down?

So congratulations to the Palestinians for knocking down the wall. At least now they have access to basic necessities of life in nearby Egyptian towns.

ISRAEL INFLICTS COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT ON PEOPLE OF GAZA - THIS IS A WAR CRIME

The news reports out of Gaza are dreadful. Israel is inflicting collective punishment against the whole population as a means to retaliate against the few who are shooting rockets from Gaza into Israel.

I thought we condemned the Nazis during the second World War for inflicting collective punishment on cities and villages where German soldiers were killed. The Nazis inflicted penalties of up to 100 for one. One German soldier's death required 100 civilians to be hanged. The Allies were no different or no less guilty of barbaric collective punishment. Consider the fire bombing of Dresden by British and American war planes. More than 40,000 German civilians killed during the span of one night as the whole city was destroyed. This too was collective punishment. And a war crime.

Now it seems to be Israel's turn to engage in this horrendous practice. Punish the whole population by stopping all shipments of food and gasoline into Gaza. Let the people suffer from lack of medicine and electricity. Cause huge bread lines and periods of power outage. Continue with such wholesale punishment until the rockets stop.

ISRAEL CUTS POWER TO GAZA - COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IS ALWAYS WRONG

Now Israel pledges not to cause a humanitarian crisis as it reduces power and fuel to Gaza. See the story reported by the BBC. I guess Israel is just going to cause minor inconvenience when Gaza residents have electricity only a few hours a day or they suffer fuel rationing for their autos.

Someone please explain to me why this is not collective punishment? It is just as bad when a grade school teacher holds the whole class back because of the disruptions of a few. It makes no sense, and besides it is unethical. It is also immoral and illegal.

Israel cannot cut off power to a whole population because it wants to punish the acts of the few who fire rockets into Israeli cities. Unless collective punishment is moral and legal. Cutting off water and power now, what will be the next step? Kill half the population as the Romans did two thousand years ago when they wanted to get revenge for seeing their soldiers killed , or as the Nazis did in Italy after popular uprisings.

Whoever suggested cutting the power to Gaza should be dismissed from the Israeli government. And whoever went along with this immoral collective punishment should be booted out of office by Israeli voters.

ISRAEL IS TOO HARSH ON GAZA REFUGEES

Talk about "mean." The government of Israel will not let some 200 refugees cross into the West Bank from Gaza. We are talking about families fleeing Israeli shelling of Gaza and the deteriorating conditions there in regard to food and electric power. Lots of children with their parents. And Israel refuses to allow them to leave the tunnel where they are huddled and cross into Israel proper to reach the West Bank.

BUSH'S PAEAN TO DEMOCRACY TURNS OUT TO BE FAKE

Bush's meeting with Ehud Olmert about Hamas and the people of Gaza today reveals gross hypocrisy in Bush's confessed love of democracy.

At a "democracy speech" in 2003, Bush mentioned "democracy" about 20 times, signalling that his presidency would emphasis the right of all peoples to free and fair elections. The comes the election for the Palestinians in January 2006 and Hamas wins in a free and fair election.

Because Bush says Hamas is a "terrorist" organization, the United States and Israel refuse to accept the election results. Israel keeps millions of dollars due to the Palestinian government and the United States cuts off all economic aid. The Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, are reduced to begging and penury.

Now Bush and Olmert agree to recognize the "new" Palestinian government that has been chosen, not elected, by Abu Maazen. Israel agrees to release the funds, and the U.S. agrees to contribute financial aid.

What does all of this say about U.S. foreign policy under Bush? It screams to all onlookers that the United States government under Bush cares not a whit for real democracy, but only for those "democratic elections" that elect people who share Bush's limited view of the world, and his notions of "good versus evil." All the talk by Bush about democracy has been shown up to be merely that, talk without real principles. The U.S. government really does not care about free elections or self determination of peoples.

Bush's hypocrisy is held up for all the world to see.

HAMAS WAS DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED - HOW COME THE U.S. CUT OFF ALL AID?

Gaza is in a state of melt-down. Hamas fighters with guns roam the streets looking for Fatah supporters. There are no services. No one gets paid. And Israel controls all electric power and food allowed in.

Whose fault is this? George W. Bush. Ever since Hamas won a democratically-run election in January 2006, Bush & Co. has refused to recognize the Hamas government, saying it wanted Hamas to admit that Israel has a right to exist. So after spouting all the nice words on how George Bush thought democracy and the right to vote in elections gave liberty to all, Bush post factum puts a condition on whether or not the winners are acceptable. So it is not a question of democratically held elections. Rather, it is whether George Bush approves of the winners.

This makes a shambles of what democracy means. It is clear to all that democracy counts for nothing, that elections don't matter, if the United States does not find the winners acceptable.

CIVIL WAR IN GAZA - THE RESULT OF BUSH'S INCOMPETENCE

The raging civil conflict as reported by Jeremy Bowen of the BBC in Gaza owes its origins to that incompetent George Bush and his muddled foreign policy when it comes to Israel. It was Bush who cut off all aid to Hamas after the 2006 election when Hamas representatives were elected by the people in a democratic election. It was Bush who said the United States would never recognize Hamas as a valid government of Gaza. It was Bush who sided with Israel in saying that Hamas first had to recognize the State of Israel. The result of this "good versus evil" approach has been to strengthen the militants in Gaza and to convey to Hamas that the United States can never be counted on to engage in fair and equitable diplomacy with the elected representatives of the people.