July 2009 - Posts

• What is wrong with the Palestinians? A whole lot.

  BY:  SAMI JAMIL JADALLAH There is something very wrong with people who claim to be smart, intelligent, educated, hard working, honest, nationalists, and decent to accept such a stupid, corrupt, incompetent, reckless, useless leadership and organization for the last 45 years that failed at everything it set out to do -turning the PLO to a manager and contractor of the Jewish Occupation with leadership that at best can be described as self serving, racketeering mafia that made financial fortunes for itself and members of their families fleecing national treasury, while claiming to represent and lead the Palestinian people toward liberation and independence. The Palestinians remain under Occupation till now. There is something very wrong with people who never held the leadership accountable for its failing, for lack of accountability and transparency, for the numerous disasters that befell the Palestinians in exile and under Occupation, where tens of billions wasted, tens of billions remain unaccounted for, where tens of thousands perished and died in the cause of liberation and where hundreds of thousands were exiled (Kuwait) and lost everything because of the reckless and irresponsible behavior of the leadership. There is something wrong with people where “intellectuals” who are supposed to be the conscious of the nation and guardians of the people’s interests and rights collude with Arafat, the PLO and Fatah leadership and remained silent while witnessing firsthand the abuse of power and authority by Arafat, lack of collective leadership, lack of financial accountability, lack of holding the leadership and officers responsible for the many repeated failures. There is something wrong with intellectuals who became self serving of a system that corrupted their body and soul. Rather than standing up for the people’s rights, became a tool and apologists for a failed leadership. They simply sat on their face all these years while knowing the PLO and its leadership are nothing more than a lie, a fraud, bunch of crooks and thieves, unfit to lead let alone liberate. The failures and the mess we see today did not take place overnight. They were there years ago, when Arafat became the sole dictator, dispensing financial favors for loyalty, making sure that all those around him are “eunuchs” with no voice bought and sold with money and privilege and subordinated powers accepting personal insults and humiliations by the “Old Man”. There is something wrong with a business community and leadership failed to dedicate its money, access to power to building a viable economy with professional and skilled jobs for the people it chose collusion with a corrupt and failed leadership, benefiting from the corrupt leadership of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority with rewards of monopolies and business opportunities that added billions to their wealth while the rest of the people could hardly have a decent job to live on. A business leadership that “cornered” wealth rather than “spreading” wealth, robbing average small entrepreneurs from business opportunities, becoming part of the mafia that is the Palestinian Authority. There is something with leaders of so-called “civil societies” that rather than serving the general interest of the people and public became self serving of their own pockets accumulating substantial wealth from donations they get from foreign donors anxious to do some good for the miserable people of Palestine. So many leading names became corrupted by access to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority and the business opportunities created through such relations that they became silent and blind, failing to speak out on corruption, incompetence, ineptness, abuse of power and authority, civil rights abuse, never speaking out for accountability and transparency in government and public service, muzzled by the dollars they get. To them the Occupation is a business, a big business. There is something wrong with people and their so called representative (PNC) who never demanded any sort of accountability and who never held the leadership responsible for it failures and mistakes in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Tunis, in Kuwait. There is something wrong with people who failed to demand accountability and public inquiry into the many massacres committed against the Palestinian people in Tal-Zaater, in Sabra and Shatilla, in Jenin, in Hebron. Who would believe that Israel’s of Begin form a public and independent commission to hold hearing into the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla but says nothing about Palestinian leadership’s failures to hold a similar hearing? Something very wrong with such people and such leadership. Who would believe that the leadership never made public accounting of the billions at its disposal, people’s money, with no accounting of SAMED Industries, no accounting of tens of billions of investments in Africa, in Europe, North America and the Middle East with no one knowing what happened to these tens of billions? And more troublesome is the deafening silence as they see and witness financial corruption and thefts of public funds on a daily basis. Who would believe that Israel charges its hero and prime minister, Rabin, with failing to adhere to its laws limiting bank accounts of officials outside Israel, forcing him to resign yet accept Yasser Arafat's private and personal decision to transfer millions of dollars of the “people’s money” to the private accounts of his wife so she can enjoy the high standard of living in Paris. Israel dismisses its prime minister over few thousand dollars while the Palestinians worship a man who robbed them blind and failed them. Who would believe the Palestinian accept a leader who agrees and accept hundreds of millions transferred into his personal and private account, money collected by Israel from taxes it collects on Palestinian imports, rather than having all the funds going to the people’s treasury? Who would accept but Palestinians their leaders to have public money deposited into private accounts of their leader’s entrusted to retired Mossad agents and crooked bankers in France and in Switzerland? Why Israel punishes its leaders for keeping several thousands of dollars in foreign accounts, yet the Palestinians do not demand to know where are the billions hidden and lost in the private accounts of Arafat. Who would believe that there are so many traitors, informers and collaborators working for and on behalf of the occupying enemy making it very possible for Israel to target and assassinate key leadership such as Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Abdul-Aziz Rantisi, Engineer Abuy-Ayash and many many more resistance fighters gunned downed in cold blood based on information and intelligence provided by members with Hamas and Fatah? Who would believe there are tens of thousands of such collaborators and informers within the highest levels of government of Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Authority to the drivers of the donkey carts in the streets of Gaza or Nablus? Who would believe that Palestinians accept, say nothing and do nothing about having to wait for hours and days, by the hundreds of thousands if not millions at more than 650 security checkpoints while more than 3,000 VIPs of Fatah, PLO and Palestinian Authority speed through these Israeli security points? One has to wonder what kind of people the Palestinians are made of and what kind of a leadership that negotiate for itself such privilege while the people its suppose to represent languish for hours and days at these humiliating and degrading security checkpoints with so many women, sick and very young dying while waiting to go through. I am sure the leadership is very proud of its achievements for itself. It never cared about the people when in Beirut, Tunis and now Ramallah. One has to wonder what kind of people that accept a leadership that promised liberation for 45 years, only to come back as manager and partner with the occupation. A leadership that continues to meet and negotiate while Israel continues to expropriate and steal more and more land for its settlements, while settlers are terrorizing village and destroying farms, with some 70,000 Palestinians under virtual 25 hours curfew in Hebron and does nothing to chase this leadership out of Ramallah? Abbas’s partner Olmert succeeded to build 2,500 housing units in settlements, 400 Km of the Apartheid Wall, while Abbas, Saeb, Quari and Abed-Rabou were having regular visits and drinks with Olmert, Livni and Barak. They even met with these killers and murderers after the war on Gaza. Who would believe that leaders from around the world make the efforts to visit Gaza to see the devastation caused by the Palestinian Authority negotiating partners yet not Abbas, not one single leaders of the Ramallah authority bothers to make the efforts to visit Gaza? Who would believe that Palestinians accept the lies of both Hamas and Fatah as they talk of liberation when the only thing they are interested in is “who gets what of the financial pie” that is the Jewish Occupation? Who would believe the lies of Hamas that it is Israel that detonated a truck load of explosive during a “Resistance Ceremony” killing some 40 innocent people and lies about its reckless and irresponsible behavior and total disregards of the people’s safety and security as it parked the loaded truck next to the people? Who would believe that a leadership like Hamas turns the absolute and honorable right to resist and fight the occupation including armed means, into an act of ‘terror” through the reckless, irresponsible and immoral use of “suicide bombings” that kills innocent people, yes innocent people in cafes, buses and restaurants and turned resistance into a self serving business, with families celebrating the death of a son in a suicide mission rather than celebrating his or her life and graduation from college, making families accept “blood money” from such killers and murderers like Saddam. It is one thing to carry a gun and shoot and kill an Israeli soldiers or an armed settler in the Occupied Territories, it is another thing to murder people on a bus in Tel-Aviv.  Hamas leadership blurred the lines between what is right and what is wrong, and what is honorable and legitimate resistance and acts of terror.  Hamas reckless behavior and leadership deprived the Palestinians from such a noble right to fight and resist the Occupation. Hamas failed to liberate and managed to pull the rugs and legitimacy from underneath legitimate armed resistance. Who would believe that smart and intelligent people believe that the useless worthless Qassam rockets will liberate Gaza and that Hamas fighters will defend the people of Gaza when in fact such irresponsible resistance managed to kill not more than a dozen Israel soldiers while Israel managed to destroy some 30,000 homes made more than 500,000 homeless and killed some 1,800? Where is the smart intelligent resistance? Certainly it is not in Gaza. Why does Hamas leadership put the fate and lives of millions of people in the hands of reckless, irresponsible resistance fighters and fails to take charge and fails to take responsibility for its failed strategy? One has to wonder what kind of people the Palestinians are for accepting the daily abuse and misuse of power and authority by the Palestinian Authority Security Forces with a mission to protect the soldiers and settlers of the Occupation, retreating to its barracks when the Israeli army decided to carry out a military operation or an assassination, leaving the Palestinians without any security or safety and open to Israeli fire? Who would believe that people who suffered for so long under occupation with more than 700,000 spending time in Israel jails since 67, tens of thousands dead at the hands of the Jewish Occupation accept the abuse and criminal behavior of Arafat’s Preventive Security Forces in Gaza and the West Bank where more Palestinians died in its jails than those who died in Israel’s jails? Who would believe that Palestinians accept and remain silent while Arafat and his cronies turned the Preventive Security Forces into a mafia, racketeering and protection organizations for its leadership and officers accumulating millions in the process?  Who would believe that the leadership and commanders of the Preventive Security Forces, during the shameful and criminal commands of Dahlan and Rajoub, of course with the blessings of Arafat, and who acted so tough and rough subjecting average Palestinians to torture, physical and verbal abuse are rewarded with promotions as they ran away scared, abandoning their posts before the advancing Israeli forces leaving behind their staff and political prisoners locked behind bars? Fulfilling the old saying “assadon alaya wa fel hurubi na’amatun” Loins when it comes to me but an ostrich when it comes to war and enemy. It is difficult to believe how the PLO leadership of the last 45 years turned and transformed the Palestinian people from a nation and people dedicated to education, hard work with ambitions to become doctors, engineers, lawyers, industrialists and teachers and turned them into unskilled laborers for Israeli market killing their hopes and ambition to have a university degree. Young people now can look forward to joining gangs, joining “Sulta” and join the Palestinian Authority and becomes a security officer or a functionary, dedicated to protecting the Authority, the leadership and the Jewish Occupation? It is even more difficult to accept the utter silence, bordering on cowardliness where people fails to rise up against such an Authority where more than 80% of the people are below poverty line while the elites; the “returning” leadership enjoys million dinars homes, luxurious cars with drivers for themselves, their wives and mistresses, spending thousand of dinars on dinner and drinks enough to feed several families for a month. Never understood how brave individuals who faced Israeli tanks and guns with stones and rocks, could become a nations of cowards failing to take up the challenge of popular sustainable and persistent uprising against the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Fatah and against the Israeli Jewish Occupation that lasted some 42 years? Why are the people so brave before Israeli guns and tanks yet do not take the challenge and march on Ramallah and Gaza and chase the leadership out of office and out of the country? It is also not so surprising that the Palestinian people accepted the role of refugees, living in miserable camps, with open sewers, waiting for the end of the month to collect their rations of dry milk, flour, and cooking oil from UNRWA rather than take the challenge taking over such services themselves. No wonder the Palestinian people and leadership became a nation of beggars, “shahadeen”with no self respect and dignity and a leadership of thieves. Too bad for the Palestinian people after being the model of well educated hard working intelligent people they became the laughing stock of the Arabs, and the world. Thanks to such a self serving corrupt incompetent inept leadership of thugs, thieves and collaborators. Never seen a case where a leadership not only failed to liberate but succeed in destroying a people and a dream. Thank you Yasser Arafat, thank you Mahmoud Abbas, thank you Ahmed Qurai, thank you Farouk Qadoumi, thank you Saeb Eurikat, thank you Yasser Abed-Rabou, thank you Mohamed Dahlan, thank you Jibril Rajoub, thank you Tayeb Abdul-Raheem, thank you Khalid Mishaal, thank you Hakam Balawi and thank you Azzam Al-Ahmed, thank you all for succeeding where Israel failed. For and on behalf of more than 7 million people for your successful dedicated leadership. We deserve you, as you deserve us. Posted Jul 29 2009, 09:56 PM by freepaliadmin with no comments

• Football game or tear gas and bullets? Palestinians put racist ad to test

  The row over a racist advert of Cellcom - an Israeli mobile phone operator, which shows Israel Occupation Forces soldiers playing football with Palestinians on both sides of the Apartheid Wall, continues. In the Cellcom advert, IOF soldiers on patrol along the Wall stop their army jeep when it is hit by a soccer ball from the Palestinian side of the Wall. A game ensues, back and forth with the unseen Palestinians after a soldier dials up "reinforcements," including two smiling women in uniform, to come and play. The advertisement made by McCann Erickson, part of U.S. Interpublic Group, ends with the upbeat voiceover: "After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun." The advert has been extensively criticized for making light of the Palestinian suffering inflicted by the West Bank Apartheid Wall. The Palestinians put controversial ad to test. A video recently posted on YouTube has tried to reenact the game in reality, and found that the result could not be further removed from the situation on the ground: when the Palestinians kick the ball to the other side of the Wall, what they get in return is a salvo of tear gas grenades and bullets. Protesters in Bilin tested the "fun" claimed by Cellcom to find that it "smells" and can "kill you" if you play it with Israelis. One of the activists in Bil'in said: "We wanted to show everyone how the soldiers really behave, contrary to what was shown in the ad. This is a message from the protestors on what really goes on at the separation fence – this is what we get from the soldiers, tear gas." The Israeli ad prompted Arab lawmakers in Israel to demand it be taken off air. MK Ahmed Tibi called to scrap this television commercial. What the Israelis sees as "Just a little fun" is actually an Apartheid Wall that separates families and prevents children from reaching schools and clinics, yet the advertisement presents the Wall as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv. Cellcom, however, has remained defiant and stood by the commercial. "We are a communications company that facilitates human interaction," they said. "We don't deal with politics. We've had very positive feedback about the advert. There was absolutely no cynical intention behind it." The ad went out during the same week as Palestinians marked the fifth anniversary of a World Court ruling that Israel's walls and fences in the West Bank were illegal. Hagai Matar, an Israeli activist, said that the violent atmosphere near the fence was far from resembling the pastoral, pleasant atmosphere reflected in the Cellcom advert. "While the people of Bilin suffer from frequent and repeated harassments by the army, while the residents are subjected to nightly arrests, violence and tear gas, not only during rallies but also in their yards, the people of Bilin continue to use amusing and creative ways to protest the separation fence," he said. I got really too nauseous watching the ad. You see the Israeli occupation forces playing with ?!… the people that they are incarcerating behind the Apartheid Wall. But the most grotesque and disgusting part of this TV ad is the fact that the Palestinians basically aren't seen. Why? Because they are not there waiting for the football, but for … This ad correctly portray the occupation as monsters or aliens … This is the alienation that Israeli society feels toward the Palestinian people. In reality, if a Palestinian comes close to the Apartheid Wall to return a football … he is likely to get shot. Cellcom should take this racist commercial off the air immediately and appologies for the Palestinian people. Refusing to do so only confirms the fact that racism is a culture that is widely adopted, believed and practiced in Israel. Posted Jul 25 2009, 09:10 PM by freepaliadmin with no comments

• Time to Talk about the Rise of Jewish Crime?

  BY:  GILAD ATZMON "I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum is quoted as saying at a July 13 meeting with the two undercover agents. "I'm doing this a long time," the complaint says Rosenbaum told the two agents. He then added: "Let me explain to you one thing. It's illegal to buy or sell organs. … So you cannot buy it. What you do is, you're giving a compensation for the time." As we learn from Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne that “Britain is setting a shameful new record in anti-Semitic incidents this year,” we also happen to be informed by every press outlet about the massive New Jersey Corruption Sweep:  A shocking tale of money-laundering and human organ trading led by a bunch of Rabbis. The NY Times reports “It was replete with tales of the illegal sales of body parts; of furtive negotiations in diners, parking lots and boiler rooms”.  In an article titled the “Jewish Launderette” the Israeli Ynet takes it further  providing the juicy details. “The FBI raided synagogues and arrested a few Rabbis. One of those who are held in custody is Rabbi Yitzchak Levi Rosenbaum of Brooklyn who is suspected of trading in body parts. He is charged with a decade-long activity selling kidneys, exploiting both ill and poor donators. He would convince a donator to sell his kidney for $10.000. Rabbi Levi Rosenbaum would then sell the kidney to the needy for $160.000.” I may raise the inevitable question here, can you imagine your local priest or Imam trading in ‘body parts’? Can you think of a Muslim cleric or a pastor trying to buy your kidney or sell you one in a ‘parking lot’ or in a 'diner’? I do not think so.   Here is my suggestion to Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary and everyone else who happens to be ‘concerned’ with the ‘rise of anti-Semitism’.   In the light of Israeli brutality, the conviction of gross swindler Madoff and the latest images of Rabbis being taken away by FBI agents, it is about time we stop discussing the rise of anti-Semitism and start to elaborate on the rise of Jewish Crime.   Posted Jul 25 2009, 09:01 PM by freepaliadmin with no comments

• Hamas and Fatah "categorically reject" USA proposals that ignore ROR

  Palestinians are waiting to return home Jerusalem – Ma’an News Agency, 20 July 2009 Senior Hamas and Fatah officials stated their objections on Sunday to what they said were US suggestions that Palestinians accept a land swap with Israel and give up the right of return. The officials said that the US is pushing for a final status agreement with Israel that does not include the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, and maintains so-called Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank. Senior Fatah official Hatem Abdul Qader, who deals with Jerusalem issues, said “the United States is trying to deceive the Palestinians through these proposals, which they think are creative, but [exist] only in their imaginations.” He called for the US to take concrete steps to stop Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements as an alternative. The official said, “If the United States cannot take small steps in this direction, then how it can make these big leaps that will not be accepted by the Palestinians?” “The main challenge for this administration is to stop the settlements and land confiscation, particularly canceling the Israeli decision to confiscate 139,00 dunums [of land along the Dead Sea shores and to stop the settlement plans in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.” If the US takes these “basic steps,” it could lead to “real peace,” he said. He also said that Palestinians refugees cannot give up the right to return to their homes in what is now Israel, basing their claim on UN Resolution 194. “Going around [Resolution 194] will not lead to real peace between Palestinians and Israelis.” Meanwhile Hamas senior official Salah Bardawil said that “the issue of land swap was proposed since the Camp David negotiations … President Yasser Arafat rejected this at the time then and paid his life as a price for this rejection.” Bardawil also said “We cannot accept anything that is proposed by the Americans regarding this issue.” He said “all Palestinian factions” believe that a resolution to the conflict should be based on an Israeli withdrawal from the land it occupied in 1967 (the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem), the creation of a Palestinian state, and the realization of the right of return. He also stated Hamas’ “categorical rejection” of the alleged American proposals. “It’s a waste of time for the US administration headed by [Barack] Obama to begin its political maneuvers with a rejected argument.” Posted Jul 22 2009, 03:30 AM by freepaliadmin with no comments

• How Israel torpedoed its ceasefire with Hamas

  BY:  DAVID MORRISON  “Success is freeing the civilian population of southern Israel from the fear of an incoming Hamas rocket.” [1] Those were the words of Israeli spokesman, Mark Regev, in an interview with David Fuller on More4 News on 9 January 2009, two weeks into Israel’s assault on Gaza. By 9 January, Israeli forces had killed nearly a thousand Palestinians, ostensibly to achieve this success, but rockets were still being fired out of Gaza into Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian groups – and continued to be fired after Israel halted the assault ten days later. In fact, Israel had achieved the success of “freeing the civilian population of southern Israel from the fear of an incoming Hamas rocket” months earlier.  It did so, not by taking military action against Hamas, but by negotiating a ceasefire agreement with it in June 2008. Under the agreement, brokered by Egypt, in exchange for Hamas and other Palestinian groups stopping the firing of rockets and mortars out of Gaza, Israel undertook to lift its economic blockade of Gaza and cease military incursions into Gaza.  The ceasefire was to be for six months initially, but, if successful, it was to be renewed and to apply to the West Bank as well. What is more, Hamas stuck rigidly to the ceasefire agreement, and fired no rockets or mortars out of Gaza into Israel from 19 June, when the ceasefire came into operation, until 4 November.  Other Palestinian groups fired a small number, despite being restrained by Hamas.  As a partner for peace, Hamas could not be faulted – it made a deal with Israel and stuck to it. Mark Regev confirmed the ceasefire’s “success” on More4 News on 9 January.  When David Fuller put to him that “there were no Hamas rockets during the ceasefire before November the 4th, there were no Hamas rockets for 4 months”, Regev replied: “That’s correct”. How did the success evaporate? So, how did the success of “freeing the civilian population of southern Israel from the fear of an incoming Hamas rocket” from June to November evaporate?  Answer: on 4 November 2008, Israel took action that caused it to evaporate.  Israel broke the terms of the ceasefire agreement by making a military incursion into Gaza and killing 7 members of Hamas.  This was the first military incursion into Gaza since the ceasefire began on 19 June. Israel had now breached both of its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, having already failed to lift the economic blockade of Gaza as promised.  In retaliation, Hamas resumed rocket and mortar fire out of Gaza into Israel. There is no doubt that the Israeli government knew (a) that the military incursion into Gaza on 4 November would mean that the civilian population of southern Israel would no longer be free from Hamas rockets, and (b) that, if it continued to refrain from military incursions into Gaza, as it had done from 19 June, the civilian population of southern Israel would be free from Hamas rockets indefinitely.  In other words, it chose course (a) in the full knowledge that civilians in southern Israel would be less safe. Providing justification It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Israel made this choice, because it wanted a justification that could be sold to the world for launching the military assault on Gaza that began on 27 December.  The assault could not have been launched before 4 November, when the civilian population of southern Israel were free from Hamas rockets.  To justify a ferocious military assault in the name of “freeing the civilian population of southern Israel from the fear of an incoming Hamas rocket”, there had to be some.  Is there any doubt that Israel chose course (a) in order to provide some? David Fuller put it to Mark Regev that “the civilians of southern Israel are less safe now than before you started operations”.  Regev replied:  “The civilians of southern Israel fully support this operation and you know why: because they’ve been living under the threat of incoming Hamas rockets, not for days, not for weeks, but for months, but for years.  We’re trying to create a new security environment in which they no longer have to live in constant fear of an incoming Hamas rocket.” That omits the very important fact that, for four and a half months from June to November 2008, the civilians of southern Israel were NOT living under the threat of incoming Hamas rockets, and that, if Israel had refrained from making a military incursion into Gaza on 4 November, they would have continued to be free from the threat of incoming Hamas rockets. Tzipi Livni’s big lie The Israeli town of Sderot, situated about a kilometre from the north-east corner of Gaza, has been the target for many of the rockets fired out of Gaza.  The Israeli authorities brought many visitors, including Barack Obama, the future US President, to Sderot to see the damage done by these rockets and to bolster their case for taking military action to counter them. On 31 December 2008, a few days after Israel launched its military assault on Gaza, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, went to Sderot and declared: “Last Saturday [27 December] at 11:30, Israel started its military operation in the Gaza Strip – there was no other alternative.  For eight years now, Israel has been under attack from the Gaza Strip and it has become worse. Hamas, which is an extreme Islamic organization, a terrorist organization, … has been targeting Israel on a daily basis.” [2] Tzipi Livni was telling a big lie, when she said “there was no other alternative”.  There was an alternative, which worked well from 19 June to 4 November, as the following account of life in Sderot in October illustrates:-  Israeli town celebrates end to daily rocket TheStar.com - Columnist - Israeli town celebrates end to daily rocket fire.  Besieged residents of Sderot relieved at quiet start to Yom Kippur, thanks to the ceasefire with Hamas. Toronto Star, October 09, 2008 [3] Oakland Ross MIDDLE EAST BUREAU SDEROT, Israel–Young boys horsed around on their bicycles, families hurried to make last-minute purchases at the downtown supermarket, and food stands did a steady business in shawarma and beer. Meanwhile, the October sun sparkled down from a blue and rocket-free sky. If this seems like an unremarkable description of any Israeli town about to mark the holy day of Yom Kippur, it almost could be – except for that part about rockets. Just a kilometre from the Gaza Strip, this southern Israeli town has been struck by an average of three missiles a day for each of the past seven years – and that is a long way from what most people would consider normal. Lately, however, the cloudless firmament over Sderot has been mostly free of deadly ordnance, and the community is doing its best to resemble what for a long time it has singularly failed to be – a halfway normal town. For seven years, local residents barely went out at all. But, late last June, under Egyptian mediation, the Israeli government reached a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Since then, with only a few violations, the rocket salvoes from Gaza have stopped. So have the punitive Israeli military incursions into the neighbouring strip – attacks that had been a frequent and deadly feature of Palestinian existence prior to the laying down of arms in June. Less than a month later, on 4 November, Israel broke the ceasefire and, as a result, the near rocket-free days that Sderot had enjoyed since 19 June ended. Key facts indisputable The key facts about the ceasefire are indisputable.   They are confirmed in reports by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center [ITIC], reports that are publicly available on the Center’s website [4] and are used extensively by the Israeli Government. For example, a report entitled The Six Months of the Lull Arrangement [5], written on 17 December 2008, just before the 6-month ceasefire agreement was due to expire, summarises its effect as follows: “The lull arrangement brought relative quiet to the western Negev population and the Gaza Strip, especially during its first months, but it did not completely end the rocket and mortar shell attacks.”  (paragraph 3) The report makes no attempt to hide the fact that the ceasefire worked well up to 4 November 2008 and that it was Israel’s military incursion into Gaza on that date which brought it to an end in all but name.  Here’s what it says: “An analysis of the situation on the ground indicates two distinct periods: i) A period of relative quiet between June 19 and November 4: As of June 19, there was a marked reduction in the extent of attacks on the western Negev population. The lull was sporadically violated by rocket and mortar shell fire, carried out by rogue terrorist organizations, in some instance in defiance of Hamas (especially by Fatah and Al-Qaeda supporters). Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire. The IDF refrained from undertaking counterterrorism activities in the Gaza Strip, taking only routine defensive security measures along the border fence. Between June 19 and November 4, 20 rockets (three of which fell inside the Gaza Strip) and 18 mortar shells (five of which fell inside the Gaza Strip) were fired at Israel. ii) The escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement, November 4 to the time of this writing, December 17: On November 4 the IDF carried out a military action close to the border security fence on the Gazan side to prevent an abduction planned by Hamas, which had dug a tunnel under the fence to that purpose. Seven Hamas terrorist operatives were killed during the action. In retaliation, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations attacked Israel with a massive barrage of rockets.” (paragraph 4) So, the ITIC confirms that from 19 June to 4 November “Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire” and that the relatively small number of ceasefire violations were “carried out by rogue terrorist organizations, in some instance in defiance of Hamas (especially by Fatah and Al-Qaeda supporters)”. The ITIC also confirms that Israeli forces entered Gaza on 4 November and killed 7 members of Hamas and that the subsequent rocket fire by Hamas and other groups was “in retaliation”.  Clearly, if Israeli forces hadn’t entered Gaza, there would have been no retaliation – and the population of the Western Negev would have continued to be free from Hamas rocket fire. Another ITIC report, Escalation in the Gaza Strip justifies the Israeli incursion into Gaza by saying that the purpose of the tunnel was to abduct Israeli soldiers.  One doesn’t have to be a military genius to know that, once the tunnel was discovered, there was no need to enter Gaza to prevent the abduction of soldiers on the Israeli side of the fence. Decline of rocket and mortar firing The rate of rocket and mortar firing declined dramatically from 19 June onwards, when the ceasefire came into force.  The following bar chart from the ITIC report, Escalation in the Gaza Strip, illustrates the decline:    please write to author for this bar chart!!! It is not copying at the moment on the site (editors will try to insert again, but success is not guaranteed!) According to the bar chart, 1,199 rockets were fired out of Gaza in the five and a half months in 2008 up to 19 June, that is, on average, more than 200 a month.  By comparison, in the four and half months of the ceasefire from 19 June until 4 November, only 20 rockets in all were fired, that is, on average, less than 5 a month.  In fact, the rate of firing fell by 98%. (The equivalent decline for mortar shells is 1,072 to 17, that is, on average, 180 a month to around 4 a month.  Again, the rate of firing also fell by 98%). Note also that the number of violations of the ceasefire declined as time went on – only one rocket and three mortars were fired in September, and two rockets and no mortars in October. Clearly, up until 4 November, the ceasefire arrangements had been very successful in reducing the threat to Israeli civilians. Return of near daily rockets Hamas and other Palestinian groups continued firing rockets and mortars out of Gaza throughout Israel’s military assault on Gaza and afterwards.   Here is a picture of life in Sderot in mid-March:- Israeli town copes with return of near daily rockets In Sderot, Purim holiday fun masks stresses of rocket attacks from Gaza militants. By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the March 14, 2009 edition [7] SDEROT, ISRAEL The very hour Chana Melul returned to Sderot with her three young boys, whom she'd taken on vacation up north to escape the front lines, the rockets were back. Minutes after they set down their suitcases, a Qassam rocket launched from nearby Gaza landed about 50 yards from their apartment building. It crashed into a storage shed and blew apart the sidewalk that leads to the community center around the corner. The center includes a rocket-resistant theater, recently built to give kids and grownups living here a little stress-free entertainment. But for Ms. Melul, a single mother, the disquiet never really goes away. … Nearly two months after Israel and Hamas each declared unilateral cease-fires, they have yet to come to an official truce. … In the meantime, the violent volleys continue. Several times a week, Israel strikes at smuggling tunnels and the Palestinian militants in Gaza it says are responsible for launching rockets. Hamas and other groups such as Islamic Jihad send several rockets and short-range missiles into Israel on an almost daily basis. … Geographically, her closest neighbors are in northern Gaza, where houses have suffered destruction in the recent war that simply can't be compared to the damages done here by Qassam rockets. Clearly, the near rocket-free conditions, which Sderot enjoyed prior to Israel breaking the ceasefire on 4 November, were not restored by Israel’s assault on Gaza.  Israel killed more than 1,400 Palestinians (including over 400 women and children) in the assault and 13 Israelis, including 3 civilians, also died, but the end result was that Sderot was a less safe place than before Israel broke the ceasefire. ITIC reports show that in the 2 months after 18 January, when Israel ceased major military operations, 95 rockets were fired out of Gaza.  In other words, the rate of rocket firing was nearly 50 a month, which is over 10 times the rate during the four and a half months of the ceasefire . Understandably, Israel didn’t complain very loudly about this continued firing, since doing so would have drawn attention to the fact that its military action had failed to suppress the capability of Hamas and other groups to fire rockets out of Gaza. Tzipi Livni’s big lie Israel claimed to be acting in self-defence when it launched its assault on Gaza on 27 December 2008.  In the words of Tzipi Livni, there was “no other alternative” to combat attacks out of Gaza.  That was a big lie: there was an alternative – the ceasefire, which from 19 June to 4 November had been very successful in reducing the threat to Israeli citizens, even though Israel didn’t lift its economic blockade of Gaza. Clearly, from the point of view of keeping Israeli citizens safe, Israel’s assault on Gaza beginning on December 27 was totally unnecessary.  All Israel had to do to maintain the relative calm of last September and October was to stick to the terms of the ceasefire agreement.  It chose not to do so. References: [1]  www.uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SILJxPTqjAM [2]  www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2008/FM_Livni_press_conference_IDF_operation_Gaza_31-Dec-2008.htm         [3] www.thestar.com/World/Columnist/article/514498 [4]  www.terrorism-info.org.il/site/home/default.asp [5]  www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e017.pdf   www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ct_e011.htm [7]  www.csmonitor.com/2009/0314/p25s07-wome.html   www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/ipc_e039.pdf Posted Jul 22 2009, 03:21 AM by freepaliadmin with no comments