by Stephen Lendman

On Tuesday, Israel's Operation Protective Edge aggression entered day 50. Mass slaughter and destruction continue.

MSM scoundrels largely lost interest. Killing Palestinians no longer matters. Justifiable outrage is absent.

So-called halted US arms shipments to Israel two weeks ago was head fake deception. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said no change in US support for Israel exists.

Weapons include Hellfire missiles, attack helicopters and powerful bunker buster bombs.

Israel uses them to kill Palestinian civilians. Doing so violates core international laws, norms and standards.

Washington unconditionally supports and encourages Israel's killing machine. It uses banned weapons. They include chemical, biological and radiological ones.

Medical professionals report treating injuries never before seen. Palestinian suffering goes unnoticed.

On August 26, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported what MSM scoundrels ignore.

"Israeli occupation forces have continued their brutal and immoral offensive on the Gaza Strip for the 50th consecutive day in violation of the international law," it said.

"They have employed their full-fledged arsenal to attack the Gaza Strip from the air, sea and land, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, including children and women."

"Many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes that attacked their homes without prior warnings."

"Israeli forces have attacked homes and civilian facilities and property."

In the past 24 hours alone, Israeli bombs, missiles and shells murdered 14 Palestinians. Another 120 were injured. Many seriously.

Some won't survive. Others are maimed for life. Mostly non-combatant women and children are affected.

"Additionally," said PCHR, "a charity, 2 mosques, a workshop and a poultry farm (were) destroyed."

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are displaced. Most parts of the Strip lack water, electricity and other basic services.

Every square inch of Gaza is unsafe. No safe havens exist. Israel considers civilian neighborhoods, hospitals, mosques, schools and UN refuges legitimate targets.

State terror is official Israeli policy. War without mercy continues. It rages lawlessly. Western leaders support Israeli genocide.

Ceasefires come and go. Israel claims a divine right to mass slaughter and destroy with impunity.

It does so for any reason or none at all. It commits virtually every imaginable crime and then some.

International laws don't matter. Nor UN resolutions. Accountability is nonexistent.

Fact: Israel's entire history is bloodstained.

Fact: It reflects lawless depravity.

Fact: Early Zionists called for "establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Eretz Yisrael." It began a process of:

• settling Jewish agriculturists, artisans, and tradesmen in Palestine;


• organizing effective action groups in various countries;


• building Jewish consciousness and a national identity; and

gaining acceptance for a Jewish homeland.

At issue was replacing Arabs with Jews. In 1917, Britain unilaterally "establish(ed) in Palestine (a) national home for the Jewish people."

The 1915 McHahon-Hussein Agreement guaranteed one for Arabs. Britain betrayed them. So did America and France.

Sykes-Picot (1916) carved out Western regional spheres of influence. Ottoman Arab provinces were divided their way. Arabs had no say.

In 1920, Britain's Mandate period began. It assured:

• a liberal Jewish immigration policy;


• immediate citizenship for Jews;


• easy Jewish land acquisition at the expense of indigenous Arabs;


• contiguous settlements to solidify a Jewish presence;


• employment for Jewish immigrants;


• favorable customs policies to develop Jewish commerce and;


• partiality toward Jews at the expense of indigenous Arabs.

Zionist founder Theodore Herzl called Palestine "our unforgettable historic homeland." He called for establishing it by replacing Arabs with Jews.

In his book "Overcoming Zionism," Joel Kovel wrote:

Zionism seeks "the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militarized and aggressive state."

"(It) cut Jews off from (their) history and led to a fateful identity of interests with anti-Semitism (becoming) the only thing that united them."

"(It) fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism, and showed signs of fascist malignancy."

If you accept "the idea of a Jewish state," you mix its twin notions of "particularism (and) exceptionalism…"

They're "the bane of Judaism…(They give) racism an objective, enduring, institutionalized and obdurate character."

It turned Israel "into a machine for the manufacture of human rights abuses."

Its bloodstained history reflects it. Israel rules by strength, confrontation, intimidation, force and violence.

State terror is official policy. So are institutionalized racism, colonization and apartheid.

Lawless occupation continues. Premeditated aggression is called self-defense.

Peace is pure fantasy. Palestine's Nakba never ended. Palestinians are considered existential threats.

Israeli Arab citizens are called fifth column ones. At issue is creating an ethnically pure Jewish state by any means necessary.

Zionism is a cancer. It harms Jews and non-Jews alike. It justifies Jewish ethnocracy, exclusivity and superiority.

Laws favor Jews. Arab rights don't matter. Judaization and de-Arabization reflect official policy. So does slow-motion genocide.

Treat them like "dogs" so they'll leave, said Moshe Dayan. Ben-Gurion favored "terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation," and violence.

Palestinians remain isolated on their own land. Besieged Gazans suffer most. Israel terrorizes, mass slaughters and destroys.

It does so with impunity. Accountability is nowhere in sight.

Official policies include:

• premeditated naked aggression;


• other high crimes against peace;


• calling wars of choice self-defense;


• blaming Palestinians for its crimes;


• ignoring core international laws, norms and standards;


• violating binding UN resolutions;


• maintain large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;


• using illegal weapons in all its wars;


• inventing pretexts to wage them;


• using US tax dollars to commit mass slaughter and destruction;


• refusing to declare official borders to advance its Greater Middle East agenda;


• maintaining the myth of unique Jewish suffering;


• calling legitimate criticism anti-Semitism;


• land theft;


• settlement expansions on stolen Palestinian land;


• imprisoning Palestinians for wanting to live free on their own land;


• denying them self-determination and other fundamental rights;


• torture;


• targeted assassinations;


• treating Palestinian children like adults;


• brutalizing them;


• murdering them in cold blood;


• at the same time, claiming victimization;


• using Palestinians as human shields;


• targeting civilians like combatants;


• collectively punishing millions of Palestinians lawlessly;


• denying diaspora ones their legitimate right of return;


• stealing Palestinian resources;


• controlling virtually every aspect of their lives;


• terrorizing West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinian communities;


• conducting unjustifiable multiple daily pre-dawn raids;


• imprisoning Palestinians for belonging to the wrong political parties;


• incarcerating many thousands of Palestinian political prisoners;


• subjecting them to brutalizing gulag prison harshness;


• maintaining lawless, militarized occupation;


• claiming a divine right to do it; and


• prioritizing premeditated wars without mercy.

Operation Protective Edge continues. Peace, equity and justice remain more fantasy than reality.

Palestinians yearn for liberation. Some day they hope. For sure no time soon.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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