Medical Aid as a Weapon


by Paul Larudee /
Q: Why is Egypt preventing medical aid to Gaza?
A: So that Israel can use it as a weapon, that’s why.

This explains why dozens of volunteer medical personnel cannot reach the desperately understaffed hospitals in Gaza. It explains why Egypt turned away a convoy of desperately needed medical supplies.

In this time of crisis, Egypt has sealed the border with Gaza, except occasionally to Palestinians who are registered with Israel as residents of Gaza. For anything else, please apply to Israel.

That’s fine for UNRWA, ANERA, UPA and other groups Israel has approved as relief agencies and who buy a lot of their supplies from Israeli sources, store it in Israeli warehouses, use Israeli transportation, have personnel that live in Israel and generally meet Israeli requirements and contribute to the Israeli economy. But what about doctors that carry Lebanese passports? Or Pakistanis, Algerians, Venezuelans, Sudanese, Iranians, Cubans or Syrians? Or who are not permitted to travel to or through Israel because they are on a long list of people who are critical of Israel, such as the organizers of the relief convoy that was turned away? Until the Sisi administration they used to be able to enter through Egypt.
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So Who Is Under A Siege?

American airlines have halted flights to and from Israel’s  following a rocket strike near Ben-Gurion Airport yesterday. According to some reports, the change is due to a decision made by the  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Many European airlines follow this call and also suspend flights. So you tell me who is under a siege?

 

The End of Israel

By Gilad Atzmon

In his speech to the nation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged yesterday that the war on Gaza is a battle for the existence of the Jewish State. Netanyahu is correct. And Israel cannot win this battle; it cannot even define what a victory might entail. Surely the battle is not about the tunnels or the militants’ underground operation, the tunnels are just weapons of resistance rather than the resistance itself. The Hamas and Gaza militants lured Israel into a battle zone in which it could never succeed and Hamas set the conditions, chose the ground and has written the terms required to conclude this cycle of violence.

For ten days Netanyahu did all he could to prevent an IDF ground operation. He was facing the reality that Israel lacks a military answer to Palestinian resistance. Netanyahu knew that a defeat on the ground would eradicate the little that remains of IDF’s power of deterrence.
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On my way to Japan...

22-30 Japan Summer Tour

22 Osaka Concert with Eric Weigman, Namba, Jazz Spot 845, Osaka, Japan

23-  8 pm, Gilad Atzmon Trio, Kamihikouki Cafe, Sapporo, Japan Japan

24 Lecture at the Sapporo University 

24 Lunch time concert at Otaru University of Commerce

25 A talk and a concert (Hakon Storm Guitar, Eric Wiegmann dr)  at the Little Clover, Osaka, Japan

26-27  With Norman Watt Roy @ Fuji Rock, Japan

28 Gilad Atzmon Trio The Royal Horse, Osaka, Japan

29  The Power Cats (Asaf Sirkis, Ross Stanley & Gilad Atzmon) Yorozuyasobe,  Kobe

30 With Norman Watt Roy in Kyoto

31 With Shez Raja at The Hideaway, London

August

2 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE @ Passing Cloud, East London

7 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE featuring American Guitar Star Saul Rubin (Playing cureently with Sonny Rollins' band)  at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, London

8-15 The best Jazz workshop in Europe - Saarwellingen Music Workshop, Saarwellingen, Germany  (An integrated Workshop and a music festival)

25-26 Gilad with Strings, a tribute to Charlie Parker, Ronnie Scott’s,  London

Don't Miss: International Jazzworkshop: Concerts from 08 - 15 august 2014

Gaza 2014: Old Israel in a New Middle East

By Mosab Qashoo

 

The military operations undertaken by both Israel and Gaza bear many resemblances to what occurred in 2008 and 2012. Military might is still just as disproportionate, with Israel dropping hundreds of tonnes of explosives in 1,600 bombings and Hamas firing 1,500 non-explosive projectiles and rockets. Similarly, while it is unjust to compare casualties, the enormous gap between the over 265 Gazans and the 2 Israelis killed is telling. Of course Israeli weaponry is ever advancing with the assistance of US tax dollars. Despite the loss of its tunnels into Egypt and its severed relationship with the Syrian regime, Hamas has launched rockets farther than ever before and has sent surveillance drones and SCUBA divers into Israel. Interestingly, both Hamas and the Israeli government have implemented new tactics meant to warn civilians of impending attacks. Many news networks have focused on so-called “warning rockets” or “roof tapping”, very friendly sounding words that, no doubt, were crafted and injected into the conversation by Israeli Hasbarists. This media sculpting is very skillful, considering that these “warning rockets” are likely more powerful than Hamas’ most advanced rocket. Not to mention that most of these smaller bombs hit less than a minute before a massive bombing, giving Gazans little time to move to a slightly safer location, and certainly not enough time to gather family photos, identity documents, money or other valuables. They also announced their ground invasion in advance, though there is little Gazans could do to prepare. Hamas has provided slightly more meaningful warnings through text messages and TV broadcasts hours prior to launching rockets, a reasonable time for Israeli citizens to take care of their business and get into their bomb shelters. It is as if there is a side battle of who can appear to be giving the most warning to the other side.

The use of social media is a much loved topic in most news outlets. In this instance, the interest lies not in the use of social media to allow for citizen journalism or political participation, but instead for its application in military scenarios. For example, Israel now has a smartphone app that warns Israelis of approaching rockets and projectiles. On July 14th, Hamas hacked into the most watched Israeli TV station during prime time and also managed to send blanket text messages to Israeli cell phones in order to convey, in Hebrew, a message stating that Israeli children are not more important than Palestinian children, and that their projectiles would continue as long as Israel continued to target Gazan children, houses, hospitals and schools. Hamas may have learned to focus its media message on the Israeli public rather than the international community from Hezbollah during its conflict with Israel in 2006, the idea being that Israelis will hear these messages and encourage their government to tone down aggression.

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Operation Bibi Rescue

By Gilad Atzmon

The IDF launched a vast ground operation in Gaza last night. Until now, Israel has failed to articulate its military objectives. No one in Israel is willing to commit to a definition of what a victory would look like. I am afraid that the military objective is obvious: saving Netanyahu’s political career.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister Moshe Ya’alon have no other options. The two have tried to avoid a ground operation. Like most IDF leaders, Netanyahu and Ya’alon know that the Israeli army lacks the capability to counter Gaza’s ballistic defiance. Israel lost its power of deterrence a while ago. Instead, it developed impressive technology to deal with a ballistic threat. The Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system performed exceptionally well, however, strategically, it proved counter effective. It liberated Hamas and other organisations in Gaza to unleash their rockets arsenal against Israeli cities, putting Israel on the defence while maintaining an ethical position since no one was getting hurt.

From a military perspective, this exposes a unique shift. The Hamas and IDF have swapped military doctrines. While in the past, Israel and the IDF were associated with the offensive doctrine philosophy – the belief that “attack is the best form of defence.”  Now the Hamas and other Palestinian freedom fighters are calling the shots and seeking engagement.

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Hamas growing in military stature, say analysts


An expert in Hamas affairs says its use of tunnels to launch incursions, ability to repulse commando raids and use of powerful Gaza manufactured rockets are signs of a growing military maturity

By Mohammed Omer
 
GAZA CITY - The strength projected by Hamas is based on its military potential of the movement - its capacity to employ force against the enemy. Both engineers and fighters from Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have died over the years so the group could achieve what this military capacity is today.

It has been a painful process of trial and error, analysts say. When Hamas was established in 1987, it simply planned to copy Israel’s iconic sub-machine gun, the Uzi. Now it has M-75 missiles which with a range of about 80 kilometers that can reach further than Tel Aviv.
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Uproar over 'Hitler' Facebook post

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/07/15/uproar-over-hitler-facebook-post

A woman who spearheaded the ANC's social media election campaign in Western Cape is at the centre of an anti-Semitism row.

ANC volunteer Rene Smit at the weekend posted a picture of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler with the caption: "Yes, man you were right" on her Facebook page.

Below the picture of Hitler were the words: "I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to tell you why I was killing them."

Smit said she shared the picture as part of the "outpour of protest against the Israeli killing of innocent babies and women in the Gaza Strip".

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Gaza: Hamas and the ceasefire that wasn't

Rockets from Gaza are launched towards Israel, 15 July

By Mohammed Omer
#GazaUnderAttack
Hamas almost immediately distanced itself from a ceasefire proposal that didn't meet any of its aims - or come through the right channels

When rumors began spreading late on Monday about a possible Hamas-Israel ceasefire brokered by Egypt,  Ismail Haniyeh - the top Hamas leader in Gaza - appeared on a pre-recorded TV interview from an unknown location to address Palestinians.

In the video, Haniyeh's message was clear - he wanted to reassure Gazans that he and Hamas were unwilling to compromise on the innocent blood spilled in Gaza during the last nine days.

“It is not possible for any party to bypass the conditions set by Palestinian Resistance to implement a period of calm” he said in the clip.

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FAQ on Failed Effort to Arrange Ceasefire Between Israel and Hamas

 July 15, 2014 IMEU
 
Experts
 
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, former advisor to Palestinian negotiators, and author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East (2013) and The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (2006).  
 
Mouin Rabbani, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, and a contributing editor with Middle East Report and the ezine Jadaliyya. Former Senior Middle East Analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Noura Erakat, Human rights attorney and member of the Legal Support Network for the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, and co-editor of the ezine Jadaliyya.
 
FAQ
 
Q - Why do you think Hamas didn't accept the terms of the ceasefire?
 
RK - "Hamas has insisted that there be a lasting resolution of the basic problem of Israel's siege of Gaza, as was promised as part of the 2012 cease-fire, but never implemented in spite of Israel's recognition that Hamas scrupulously maintained the cease-fire until quite recently. The Egyptian proposal makes lifting of the siege conditional on Israel's approval, which means never."

MR - "Hamas, and with it other Palestinian organizations such as Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have indicated that they were not consulted on the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, and that it has not been formally presented to them but rather released to the media after its terms were agreed with Israel.

"In terms of the proposal's contents, what these organizations and many Palestinians object to is that it simply restores a 2012 ceasefire agreement that Israel has systematically violated and does not provide any guarantees such violations would cease. These violations consist not only of periodic armed Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, but also Israel's refusal to respect clauses on the rights of fishermen in Gaza's territorial waters and farmers in land close to the Gaza/Israel boundary.

"Hamas has additionally stated that it would not accept an agreement that does not provide for the immediate re-release of Palestinian prisoners who were released by Israel in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel, but re-arrested by Israel in the last month.

"More broadly, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations are averse to returning to an untenable status quo, which lasts only until Israel once again decides to launch a major assault on the Gaza Strip, and which does not include concrete steps towards lifting the ongoing and prolonged blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"There is widespread Palestinian suspicion that Egypt, which has shown nothing but unremitting hostility towards Hamas since the current regime seized power in July 2013, released a proposal it ensured would be acceptable to Israel but rejected by the Palestinians, in order to help Israel legitimize an escalation of attacks against the Gaza Strip. It is likely to have done so in close cooperation with its new best friend, Tony Blair, and other advocates of Israeli power in the Arab world and internationally."
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Who is Major General Qassem Suleimani ?

 

Who is Major General Qassem Suleimani ?

… by  Hamed  Ghashghavi,   Tehran

 

[ VT Editors Note:  Hamed brings us a rare look into one of Iran's top military commanders, who often are censored from Western Press to avoid any analogies between our own George Washington, heaven forbid. While the two generals were not co-religionists, they shared a passionate desire to not have their people exploited by overseas commerical and military powers.  I personally was not aware of General Suleimani so we are happy share this from the son of an Iranian veteran from the eight year war with the US backed Saddam and Iraq... Jim W. Dean ]

__________________________________

The name of this Iranian Commander is not unknown to many who study the Middle-East situation, but these days during the battle against the evil soldiers and unhuman Takfiris in Iraq, his name has been mentioned on some mainstream media like Fox News, Washington Post, CBS News, and the Guardian.

What I would like to illuminate our readers is the career of this great man whose Pentagon high level officials are afraid to hear the name.

He is the commander of the Qods Force, a division of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which conducts special operations outside Iran. Their name comes from the Arabic name for Jerusalem Al-Quds. Qods Force was created in the 1990s.

According to Western intelligence scources, General Sulaimani has  played  a major role in the arrangement of post-Saddam Iraq plus the Western imposed war on the Syrian people. He had earlier helped the Afghans to resist to the American colonization there. His efforts have also been very effective in strengthening the resistance structure of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

So inside and outside of Iran among those who know a little about the realities on the ground no one can deny his significant role in the struggle against the Israeli and U.S. forces.

4

The Supreme Leader of the Iranian revolution who delivers the messages of condolence or congratulation only for the very important cases, nine months ago gave a condolence message for death of General Sulaimani’s mother in which he said: “Your act in the favor of Islam and Muslims may be very useful for your mother, God bless her soul.”

And we must know that the Supreme Leader chooses his words carefully even for such a message that can be simple in our eyes. In Iran there are many  young guys who are ready to give their lives for the Supreme Leader and their country particulary at the time of the imposed wars by the US and the EU on Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and the continuing “all options are on the table” theats to Russia and Iran.

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Once Again, Israel is Defeated

iron-domeBy Gilad Atzmon

As the Israeli Cabinet announced earlier today that it accepted the Egyptian cease-fire offer, Palestinian freedom fighters in Gaza continued firing rockets targeting the whole of Israel. 

The situation is clear.  Israel is desperate for a break in the violence. In spite of its endless ‘bravado,’ and military might, Israel lacks the military capacity and the courage to encounter Palestinian resistance on the ground. The Israeli elite recognizes that the military can’t resolve the problem, if anything, its extensive use would diminish Israeli manoeuvrability on the international front.

Hamas, on the other hand, has won its biggest military, political and ideological victory to date - it has managed to deliver some elementary messages to all of Israeli society:

You are living on our Palestinian stolen land, our Right to Return is elementary and is not negotiable. You Israelis do not belong here, you never did, and you had better consider your options immediately.

Hamas has also managed to dismantle the BDS / Jewish Lefty’s desperate and blatantly deceitful attempt to present the conflict as an issue over the ‘1967 occupation.’  The range and targets of Palestinian missiles deliver a clear message to both Israelis and their controlled opposition agents within the Left. Palestine is a stretch of land between the river and the sea. In other words, no more empty talk on ‘conflict resolutions.’ It is either Israel or Palestine. And today it seems Palestine it will be. 

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Collective punishment and the right to self-defence – Gaza Context

collective

 

By
http://paltelegraph.com/collective-punishment-right-self-defence-gaza-context/

Two weeks ago at the 26th session of the UN Human Rights Council, states and NGOs discussed the human rights situation in Palestine, condemning the Israeli aggression that had ensued in the oPt following the disappearance of three Jewish-Israeli settler teenagers in the West Bank. The states present for this discussion along with several NGOs who spoke about the current situation in the oPt urged the President and members of the Council to take immediate action to ensure that Israel upheld its obligations as a member of the Council and end the collective punishment of the Palestinian population.  Yet a fortnight later, Gaza is being pounded by missiles from Israel as part of ‘Operation Protective Edge’, the military occupation launched by Israel five days ago which it claims is to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian fighters.  In reality however the attacks have targeted the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.  Over the last few days these attacks have escalated and intensified showing no signs of slowing down.  The Israeli army has stated that it is making preparations for a ground attack.

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Hundreds trapped in synagogue as Paris protest turns violent

http://www.timesofisrael.com/clashes-in-paris-as-thousands-march-against-israel-offensive/

Thousands gather in Paris to demonstrate against Gaza operation, hurling stones at house of worship

PARIS — Clashes erupted in Paris on Sunday as thousands of people protested against Israel and in support of residents in the Gaza Strip, where a six-day conflict has left 166 Palestinians dead.