by Stephen Lendman

Israel and America give double standard hypocrisy new meaning. Washington wages endless direct and proxy wars of aggression claiming humanitarian intervention.

Israeli occupation harshness is nearly seven decades old. Besieged Gazans suffer most - preemptively attacked by land, sea and air at Israel's discretion, isolated in the world's largest open-air prison.

Last summer's genocidal war left large parts of Gaza in ruins - besides committing mass murder, including willfully massacring mostly noncombatant men, women, children, infants and the elderly.

According to UNRWA, "(n)ot a single home has been rebuilt" - eight months after Israel's genocidal war ended.

UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness reports "(t)o date, 9,161 Palestinian refugee houses have been considered totally destroyed and 5,066 have suffered severe (damage), 4,085 major (damage), an 124,792 minor damages."

To date, UNWRA received "funding to reconstruct (only) 200 of the 9,161 houses totally destroyed."

According to Metal and Engineering Industries Union vice president Muhammad Hamad, Israel blocks 85% of needed construction equipment and metal materials from entering Gaza.

In early March, Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement executive director Eitan Diamond said:

"Six months after the fighting, not a single house destroyed during the last round of hostilities has been rebuilt."

"Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and living in tents. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed."

Gaza's economy is in ruins. Its 1.8 million people are suffering hugely - ruthless Israeli collective punishment according to unenforced international law.

Gisha spokesperson Shai Grunberg said "Gaza's population needs an economic future." Israel's illegal siege must end.

"Merchants and business people must be allowed to exit Gaza in order to revive business connections and make new ones, sign deals, reconnect with the markets, and rebuild factories."

"Young people must be allowed to get an education and reunite with family. The restrictions on the passage of goods must be lifted" straightaway.

Israel systematically refuses - even after pledging during last year's Cairo peace talks to do so.

Following Nepal's devastating April 25 earthquake, the region's worst in 80 years, Israel sent 260 IDF medical and military personnel to Kathmandu - double standard hypocrisy and then some.

Its team set up a field hospital with 60 beds. On Wednesday, it began operations in coordination with Kathmandu's army hospital.

Around 2,000 Israelis were in Nepal when disaster struck. Dozens of backpackers were stranded. Israel's Foreign Ministry said only one of its nationals remains unaccounted for. Four planes and helicopters airlifted Israelis out.

No Israeli relief money was sent. Washington sent a paltry $10 million. Israel sent a large rescue team over 3,000 miles allegedly to help its nationals and Nepalese victims in need.

Israeli media touted its mission irresponsibly. A Hebrew University study "rank(ed) (Israel) near the bottom among leading free-market economies in providing foreign aid to developing nations."

Washington fares no better. It's so-called foreign aid is largely military-related benefitting its own agenda.

Israel's so-called disaster relief combines self-promotion propaganda with exploiting local populations.

Its aid mission to Haiti following its January 2010 devastating earthquake was accused of organ trafficking.

In November 2009, Alison Weir reported on Israeli organ trafficking and theft from Moldova to Palestine.

She cited an earlier Donald Bostrom's article in Sweden's Ftonbladet suggesting Israel's military illicitly removes removes body parts - including from Palestinians. According to Weir:

"…Israeli organ harvesting - sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli ministries - has been documented for many years. Among the victims have been Palestinians."

Medical anthropology/Organ Watch founder Nancy Scheper-Hughes says "Israel is at the top" among nations engaging in organ trafficking.

"It has tentacles reaching out worldwide," she said. It has a pyramid system at work that's awesome."

"They have brokers everywhere, bank accounts everywhere. They've got recruiters. They've got translators. They've got travel agents who set up the visas."

They pay "the poor and the hungry to slowly dismantle their bodies" or simply take what they want from fresh corpses."

Body parts are commodities, to be harvested and sold to the rich, even though organ sales are prohibited in most countries, but not under international law.

Is Israel's Nepal mission more about "rescuing" organs and body parts than helping stranded Israelis and Nepalese victims? It has nothing to do with providing humanitarian aid.

At the same time, it continues ruthlessly persecuting Palestinians - besieged Gazans most of all.

Nepalese victims make daily headlines. Long-suffering Gazans are totally ignored - including Israel's willful reconstruction blockade.

It's just a matter of time before its forces smash up more of Gaza - along with murdering and maiming thousands more Palestinians defenseless against its onslaught.

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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