Dr. Saeb Shaath

What does Israel want more than Palestinians Blood?

After all the killing and destruction of its genocidal war on Gaza, blood-drenched Israel still wants to control the air that Gazans breathe; to control what they eat and drink; to control what materials they may use to rebuild with their flattened suburbs.

With staggering irony, Israel is staking a claim on Gaza’s reconstruction, aiming to dictate where, when, and how it will be done – and by whom!

Speaking to Reuters news agency, Western diplomats have said that: ‘Israel has asked the United Nations, and other aid groups, to provide a detailed list of goods, equipment and personnel that they want to bring into the Gaza Strip … to meet immediate needs for rebuilding’. Israel, meanwhile, has told the aid groups that it ‘would consider expanding the list of materials authorized to enter the Gaza Strip’. Under current restrictions, Israel does not allow the transport of cement and steel into Gaza - in case the Palestinians use it to build ‘bunkers’.

Hello people of the world - what is going on here?

Gazans, who have no army and are suffering under Israel’s neo-Nazi occupation, have been burned alive by white phosphorus live on our TV screens. They have been carpet bombed by neo-Nazi animals. Hitler himself did not do what Israel has just done in Gaza! Moreover, the International community let the Israeli state away with its war crimes against a captive, unarmed civilian population, who are under their occupation and have only primitive means of resistance.

What is going on? How can this be happening in the 21st century? How will we explain to coming generations all the destruction; all the killing of civilians; all the breaking of international laws and norms? How will we explain the rejection of the very first principle of Human Rights; the right to life?

The declaration of human rights enshrines “The rights to life, liberty and security, and the right to be free from slavery servitude, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, as well as the rights to personal dignity and security.

Long before the latest war on Gaza, its inhabitants were abused daily by Israel. If the extended misery of the Palestinians did not move the “free world leaders” and decision makers, how will they respond to the images of burnt corpses of children? Don’t they care about defenceless children?

PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii warriors – Fingers on the genocide joystick

The people of Gaza inhabit a massive Nazi-Israeli-Zionist concentration camp. They have been used as test subjects by the ‘civilised’ western world’s military industries for the latest American and European weapons. Israeli soldiers, safely cocooned in their protective ceramic plated suits use their weapons like kids playing the latest war games on PlayStation 3 or on Nintendo Wii. They stayed at a safe, make-believe distance while killing animals, burning fields and blowing up residential towers, homes, schools and hospitals with people inside them. We are discovering the impact of their games as we watch the bodies being pulled from under the rubble of Gaza’s suburbs today.

The UN HQ and facilities; any living or moving thing the Playstation 3 warriors were blowing them up in an indiscriminate orgy of destruction. Like gamers, they were not concerned with ammo, as it is in never-ending supply, thanks to the military industries of the USA and the EU, which continually restock them.

At the present, the USA’s Pentagon, and its Boeing, Lockheed Martin and EU subsidiaries are evaluating the devastating results of their F16 fighter jets, drones and Apaches. I hope that, while they are counting how many kids were burned by white phosphoric clouds of fire, they also observe that these were unarmed babies. Let’s, while we’re at it, take note of how many Palestinians will survive the depleted– Uranium cancers and for how long - or was this the main objective? Some of the companies contributing to these atrocities have also contributed big sums of money to Obama’s election campaign - for instance Lockheed Martin.

Welcome to the Jungle

Some Industrial and political forces in Europe and the USA perceive Gaza as a step towards easing the credit crunch. Military factories produce and sell their stock; security companies are busy evaluating and analysing, and screaming that there are new breeds of radical and fanatical terrorist organisations mushrooming throughout the Middle East and Western Europe. The planned result is that the budgets and arsenals for the ‘War on Terror’ must be doubled. Ways and means of seizing more of the taxpayers’ money – in order to ‘safeguard’ them against imminent attacks - have to be invented. To pre-empt any terrorist attacks, we are told, the money and the arsenal should be at the disposal of Israel yesterday, The Palestinians resistance to Israel occupation is “Terrorism” now!

Money, Greed, Power and Silvio Berlusconi’s Sharm offensive!

Everyone now agrees that Gaza needs a makeover! Yet, the reconstruction of Gaza, with all the billions the Arabs are contributing will divert most of those cash injections into the domains of western industries.

Suddenly, after Israel declared its unilateral-ceasefire, all the EU leaders showed interest in Gaza! Witness the influx of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (equally concerned with his own make-over, apparently, as he proudly showed off his new-look hair transplant and facial works), Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (who currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency). Since the Nazis of Israel, started their onslaught on Gaza I did not smile, but the sight of a preening Silvio Berlusconi in Sharm el Sheikh made me giggle full-heartedly.

What brought all the EU’s big boys and girls, within hours, to Sharm? They gathered, with breathtaking speed, like bored housewives jumping on an opportunity for juicy gossip. The people of London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and many, many capitals and cities of Europe marched day and night for 20 days to get their apathetic leader’ attentions; to impel them to condemn the war and to help in sparing Gazan lives. Riots broke out in many European capitals. Some of London’s principal shops were destroyed; Saddened British kids knocked on the door of 10 Downing Street. People besieged the British parliament, and their clamouring fell on deaf ears. No one moved a finger…Sharm el Sheikh whispered a come hither, and they ran, changing into their suits on the plane just before landing. Sexy Sharm appeal, for sure, but why?

After the unilateral ceasefire, they lined up to:

1. Portray Israel’s unilateral ceasefire as a response to their requests and an Israeli gesture of good will towards the newly inaugurated US President Obama. This spin cannot defy the reality of facts on the ground.

2. Seal the fate of Gazans, by insuring the Israeli occupations and dominance from a close quarters of the Gaza strip.

3. Hand over to Israel a political victory, since its criminal war on the defenceless Gazans did not achieve its goals of destroying the resilient resistance of the Gazans. The Zionist Israel PM Olmert said that he also ” received on Saturday a letter from EU leaders pledging co-operation in halting the arms smuggling into Gaza”. EU leaders, therefore, are doing their utmost to deny the Palestinians the tools to liberate their homeland from the neo-Nazi-Zionist occupation.

4. Show the new Boss at the White House that they are taking care of business for him during the transitional period, and the inauguration ceremonies, by securing Israel’s position as top dog, with the political means to impose its will on the Middle East.

They have to secure their agents in the Arab world, since, although the Israeli army proved highly effective in butchering children women and civilians from a safe distance, it cannot fight a real contact war. The IDF did not enter any city to fight the Gazan resistance, since that would transport its soldiers from the comfort of their Nintendo Wii safety to urban guerrilla warfare - and that is scary. That would be a real fight, not the joystick distance killing, and blazing immolation with phosphoric and cluster bombs that Israeli forces are accustomed to. Israel’s unilateral ceasefire took place while the Palestinian resistance stood its ground, with its primitive rockets functioning ably and reaching far beyond the original targets.

EU’s loud alarm bells: Arabs, Turks and Persian’s defiance

Doha’s Arabic and Islamic Summit rang very loud alarm bells. It forced Kuwait’s Economic Summit to be more forceful in its support for Gaza and to rub shoulders with the defiant States and the resistance in Palestine.

(a) The rejection and resistance to Israel and its agents are finding new allies; the acceptance of Israel through the Arab Peace Initiative has been cancelled in Doha, and Kuwait’s summit threatens to follow suit.

(b) The scenario of the attacks on Lebanon in 2006 is repeating itself, but in a horrifying new form; now there is no Security Council Resolution (1860) with teeth to station international forces on the ground in order to secure the Israel / Gaza borders. Something has to be done to fulfil, through diplomacy, what Israel could not realise by force.

(c) The moderate Arab regimes are losing rapidly. They needed assurances, after their mistreatment by the two Barbie-dolls - Israeli Tzipi and American Condi - who signed the deal without any consideration to Egypt’s National security or its regional interests. The signing of the MoU exposed the actual significance of the Arab moderates in the USA’s designs for the Middle East. Hence, before going to Kuwait’s summit, they needed a ceasefire to convince their Arab counterparts that they achieved it through own brilliant diplomatic efforts and influence over Israel and its western Boss. Somehow, the Israeli unilateral ceasefire has to be repackaged by the EU Leaders to save face in Kuwait.

(d) Turkey is a NATO member and an EU candidate, taking radical steps in harmony with its raging public opinion, expressing support to the Palestinians of Gaza and hinting at leading a campaign to bar Israel from the UN. Moreover, Turkish anger (public and official) is strong enough to push Turkish leaders to be more sympathetic towards Hamas.

Europe is very concerned that this anger might find its way into new state polices, which would suit Turkish national interests, rather than the western hegemony of the area. Turkey discovered that it could fill part of the power vacuum created since the occupation of Iraq and the paralysis of the Arab official system. It would be a major regional player, which would pay back the EU from that power base, for their mistreatment of Turkey in the EU admission saga. Turkey’s new role would hinder Israeli efforts in dominating the region by violence on behalf of its western masters, and it would play into the hands of the next target on the list, Iran, Syria and the resistance.

EU’s total disregard for the human rights of the Palestinians

On Monday EU External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, in Jerusalem said: “While the expected humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip would flow quickly, reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure would only begin when the EU had an acceptable Palestinian partner” .She goes on to lecture the Palestinians about what type of peace they should be shopping for.... It is also for the Palestinian population on both sides to say, 'We want this peace,'" she said. This woman is amusingly cynical! She goes on: "We know that many people have been killed and we felt terribly sorry. We don't want to see civilians killed, but at the same time the population has to decide if it wants to go to peace." The EU Commissioner displayed the EU’s total disregard for the human rights of the Palestinians, as it positioned itself alongside Nazi-Zionist Genocidal war on Gaza. Taking such steps and making such statements is the EU’s way to overwhelm the Gazans and their resistance to neo-Nazi occupation in Palestine.

EU’s big boys and girls have assured Israel that it should be able to meet the unfulfilled targets of its “self-defence war” against the Gazans (“4th largest army in world”) by spinning and diplomacy. The big boys and the big girl were very busy after all.

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Dr. Saeb Shaath, Writer, thinker, public speaker on Middle Eastern affairs and a former diplomat. He is the co-founder of Irish MAP (Medical Aid for Palestine).