In an interview on Democracy Now! , January 14, 2009, Professor Avi Shlaim describes how Israel broke the cease-fire with Hamas and changed it's own published official records and statistics in order to claim otherwise.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/14/leading_israeli_scholar_avi_shlaim_israel
Avi Shlaim, a professor of international relations at Oxford University who served in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s. He is the author of numerous books, most notably The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. His latest book is Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace. Avi Shlaim is widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his analysis of the conflict he has shown the necessity of a political solution because a military one has no possibility of success.
(Related Link:
"How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe" by Avi Shlaim http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine )
From the interview:
"...AMY GOODMAN: Professor Avi Shlaim, Israel says the reason it has attacked Gaza is because of the rocket fire, the rockets that Hamas is firing into southern Israel.
AVI SHLAIM: This is Israeli propaganda, and it is a pack of lies. The important thing to remember is that there was a ceasefire brokered by Egypt in July of last year, and that ceasefire succeeded. So, if Israel wanted to protect its citizens-and it had every right to protect its citizens-the way to go about it was not by launching this vicious military offensive, but by observing the ceasefire.
Now, let me give you some figures, which I think are the most crucial figures in understanding this conflict. Before the ceasefire came into effect in July of 2008, the monthly number of rockets fired-Kassam rockets, homemade Kassam rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip on Israeli settlements and towns in southern Israel was 179. In the first four months of the ceasefire, the number dropped dramatically to three rockets a month, almost zero. I would like to repeat these figures for the benefit of your listeners. Pre-ceasefire, 179 rockets were fired on Israel; post-ceasefire, three rockets a month. This is point number one, and it's crucial.
And my figures are beyond dispute, because they come from the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. But after initiating this war, this particular table, neat table, which showed the success of the ceasefire, was withdrawn and replaced with another table of statistics, which is much more obscure and confusing. Israel-the Foreign Ministry withdrew these figures, because it didn't suit the new story.
The new story said that Hamas broke the ceasefire. This is a lie. Hamas observed the ceasefire as best as it could and enforced it very effectively. The ceasefire was a stunning success for the first four months. It was broken not by Hamas, but by the IDF. It was broken by the IDF on the 4th of November, when it launched a raid into Gaza and killed six Hamas men.
And there is one other point that I would like to make about the ceasefire. Ever since the election of Hamas in January -I'm sorry, ever since Hamas captured power in Gaza in the summer of 2007, Israel had imposed a blockade of the Strip. Israel stopped food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip. One of the terms of the ceasefire was that Israel would lift the blockade of Gaza, yet Israel failed to lift the blockade, and that is one issue that is also overlooked or ignored by official Israeli spokesmen. So Israel was doubly guilty of sabotaging the ceasefire, A, by launching a military attack, and B, by maintaining its very cruel siege of the people of Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel calls Hamas "terrorist." What is your definition of "terror"?
AVI SHLAIM: My definition of "terror" is the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. And by this definition, Hamas is a terrorist organization. But by the same token, Israel is practicing state terror, because it is using violence on a massive scale against Palestinian civilians for political purposes. I don't hold a brief for Hamas. Hamas is not a paragon of virtue. Its leaders are not angels. They harm civilians indiscriminately. Killing civilians is wrong, period. That applies to Hamas, and it applies equally to the state of Israel.
But there are two points I would like to make about Hamas, and that is,the first point is that it was elected in a fair and free election in January 2006. It was an impeccable election, monitored by a number of international observers, including President Jimmy Carter. So it is not just a terrorist organization. It is a democratically elected government of the Palestinian people and the representative of the Palestinian people in Gaza, as well as the West Bank.
And the second point that I would like to make is that since coming to power, Gaza has moderated its political program. Its charter is extreme. Its charter denies the legitimacy of a Jewish state. The charter calls for an Islamic state over the whole of historic Palestine. The charter has not been revived, but since coming to power, the leadership of Hamas has been much more pragmatic and stated that it is willing to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the state of Israel for twenty, thirty, forty, maybe even fifty years.
Thirdly, Hamas joined with Fatah, the rival group, the mainstream group, on the West Bank in a national unity government in the summer of 2007. That national unity government lasted only three months. Israel, with American support, helped to sabotage and to bring down that national unity government. Israel refused to deal with a Palestinian government which included Hamas within it. And shamefully, both the United States and the European Union joined in Israel in this refusal to recognize a Hamas-dominated government, and Israel withdrew tax revenues, and European Union withdrew foreign aid, in a shameful attempt to bring down a democratically elected government.
So, I do not defend Hamas, but I think that it hasn't received a fair hearing from the international community, and Israel has done everything to sabotage it all along."
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Comments: 16
"In the first four months of the ceasefire, the number dropped dramatically to three rockets a month, " Even assuming this to be true, are three rocket attacks on Israeli cities acceptable?
"It [the truce]was broken not by Hamas, but by the IDF. It was broken by the IDF on the 4th of November, when it launched a raid into Gaza and killed six Hamas men."
So three rocket attacks a month by Hamas is considered adhering to the truce but one attack by Israel is breaking it. I must be missing something. Not to mention that the rocket attacks were aimed at civilians for the sole purpose of killing and maiming as many peopple as possible while the Israeli attack was to detroy a tunnel that was being dug into Israeli territory for the purpose of either killing of kidnapping more Israelis.
"And the second point that I would like to make is that since coming to power, Gaza has moderated its political program." Really?
" Its charter is extreme. Its charter denies the legitimacy of a Jewish state. The charter calls for an Islamic state over the whole of historic Palestine. The charter has not been revived (I assume the word should be revised)"
This is true. HAmas wants to destroy Israel and makes no bones about it.
, "
"but since coming to power, the leadership of Hamas has been much more pragmatic"
In other words, since we are not yet strong enough to destroy Israel completely let's talk the stupid Jews into leaving us alone for as long as it takes until we can arm ourselves to the point where we can kill them all.
" and stated that it is willing to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the state of Israel for twenty, thirty, forty, maybe even fifty years.
Depending on how long it takes to get to the point where we can do what we want. In the meantime let's keep in practice by killing a few Isrealis every once in awhile.
This comment of mine that follows (which is more of an economic question rather than a comment) was triggered by something in your article above, and then the logic of "DEEP INFERENCE" , and then a very ill-remembered note I read somewhere on the internet(as I poorly recall) that has to do with Natural Gas or Oil off the coast of the Gaza Strip .
The part of your article that set me off to think about 'DEEPER(?) likely INFERENCES' [or perhaps faulty I-net data, triggering this inquiry I noted above ]was this:
====
"AMY GOODMAN: Israel calls Hamas "terrorist." What is your definition of "terror"?
AVI SHLAIM: My definition of "terror" is the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. And by this definition, Hamas is a terrorist organization. But by the same token, Israel is practicing state terror, because it is using violence on a massive scale against Palestinian civilians for political purposes. I don't hold a brief for Hamas. Hamas is not a paragon of virtue. Its leaders are not angels. They harm civilians indiscriminately. Killing civilians is wrong, period. That applies to Hamas, and it applies equally to the state of Israel."
=====
As you know, much of my reasoning about Israel/Palestine falls on two "DEEP" causative factors : (1) History, Religion, and accompanying Cultural Philosophy, and (2) [LONG-TERM] Economic reasoning. Much of what economics is all about has to do with the complex Near East politics, of course, even without the NG/Oil complexity, if true.
The issue as to whether there is a solid economic reason that lies below this nearly doubly-irrational and morally outrageous Gaza-Israeli situation MAY BE answered (in part or whole?) by the FACT that the off-Gaza Coastline has fields of oil or natural gas that may be present there. Here, not only the Near East interests but the European interests TOO would find themselves concerned.
Can you add evidence, or the lack of the credibility of what I have noted here, to the rumors that dot part of my (unknown on the net) speculative (as contrasted with my REALISTIC) bent?
Dick
Involving Turkey, Iraq, Syria, the Levant, Egypt , Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, management and control of water is going to become the defining reality of the politics of the Middle East. The Great Game over oil and gas in the region ( Central and S E Asia and the Middle East ) now involving China, Russia, India , Europe, Iran and the US is more obvious. I don't know how significant the off-coastline oil and gas may be . Israel's strategy has been concerned with having sources of water in the region and "transferring" Palestinians to the east has only been a part of it's strategy.
If I were a Palestinian
STEPHAN A. SCHWARTZ, Editor - The Schwartzreport
I have been following the Palestinian-Israeli relationship essentially all of my life, at various times, a private person, a journalist, a government official, and a futurist. Over that time it has become a ghastly kabuki, played again and again - a cultural meatgrinder. A possibly offensive image, which I use deliberately. I won’t go over the details; we all know the chorus.
Watching what is going on now I just wish reality could be edited. All of this death, and injury goes nowhere.
So how can this murderous ritual be ended? Can we finally agree that it will not be by any of the strategies tried over the last half century? That said let me state my goal: a functioning prosperous Palestinian state, in alliance with a prosperous Israel.
When I think about this, it seems to me the power lies with the Palestinians. If I were a Palestinian leader, particularly if I had any secret aspirations to become my people’s historical person, this is the strategy I would pursue:
I would very publicly announce that the Palestinians would disarm if an international observer corps was created to oversee this, and the events that followed for ten years. I would ask the world for assistance in creating a health care system, and a non-religious educational system. The euphoria this shift would eventuate would open a flood of aid.
Would it work? The Palestinian diaspora makes it clear that when Palestinians are in a stable environment, and with real opportunity, they prosper.
I have a Palestinian friend who came from Gaza, once an angry man, realized what he now had available to him, and opened a highly successful Mediteranean restaurant where he cooks his grandmother’s recipes. He would love to go back to Gaza and do the same thing there, and he is one of thousands.
The results would be immediate in geopolitical terms and, in a generation a Palestinian State could be transformed. An upwardly positive trend that could continue thereafter. The Israelis would have no choice but to embrace this, and many would do so with genuine good feeling. The world would have to support it. All of this good feeling would call into existence a kind of ad hoc Marshall Plan. The first decade of the transformation would be observed by the world, and supported by it. The story line would be Palestinian prosperity. It is easy to imagine the CNN special.
Once the basic structure began to emerge I would develop a massive program that would bring all the Palestinians together with a sense of expectation, and reason to believe it would bring great benefit. There may be several options, but what suggests itself to me is: Water and green power.
Water is going to become the defining reality of the Middle East, as climate change progresses. Anyone who follows this part of the world knows what a ticking time bomb it is. If I were a Palestinian, I would want my people to have a piece of providing a serious solution. Particularly because it is going to produce oil level wealth. If I were a Palestinian I would be planning how to put together a combine with a strong Palestinian presence that would produce water and green power.
I would get the Israelis to provide the engineering, in the process, training Palestinian engineers, and the Egyptians to provide the Sinai. I would see that Palestinians provided much of the work force, which would very quickly create a solid stable middle class, just as the car industry, and everything needed to feed it, achieved this in the U.S. Solar powered desalinization plants and photovoltaic installations in the Sinai could produce the fresh water that will be desperately needed, as well as green power to power a rising quality of life for all in the region. And more than any treaty it would get people to think regionally, and not just religiously.
That’s what I would do, if I were a Palestinian.
RIGHT ON! GREAT IDEAS LIKE THE ONE DESCRIBED WILL CHANGE OUR WORLD FOREVER!!
It must be becoming OBVIOUS to the WORLD that fighting and destroying and yes --MURDERING -- , along with signiicant lack of wisdom in creating 'policy and negotiations' , have failed miserably WORLD-WIDE (with a FEW exceptions certainly). Call for a NEW PERSPECTIVE that meets the Paul Tillich (a once very famous Theologian) criterion of seeking out, implanting in minds, and then finding and applying the WISDOMS of the GOD beyond the GOD of theism. That GOD -- as I see and surmise it via the powers of deep inference-- is to find and make vivid to all of humanity, the 'divinity' of OUR OWN PERSONKIND, WORLDWIDE. The last sentence in Tillich's book : "The Courage to Be" is:
"The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. " (p.190)
When Science and Technological Development are added into the list of powers of the UNIVERSAL 'ineffable and illimitable' MIND of our traditional views of the Godhead (including THEN the 'minds AND hearts' of the human race here on planet EARTH) we will come to realize that PEACE and LOVE and ORDERLINESS in affairs and creations (with advanced REAL progress and EDUCATION) will emerge to provide us EARTHLINGS with multifarious paths to BECOME 'the God who appears in REAL EVENTS (i.e. the DIVINITY in FINITE COLLECTIVE PERSONHOOD) in the anxiety of doubt." . The reach then will be for an 'isomorphic' view of our tomorrows.
It is then that we will start to realize (much to our collective amazement, I suggest) that the 'isomorphism' that can be represented as a simple statement, about finite humans and our infinite God, can be appreciated and realized : WE ARE -- INDEED -- THE CHILDREN OF GOD. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. With great CREATIVE (forever) distances to go with our human efforts and thoughts and creations of whatever stripe grasps our trained minds. WE are here to help create -- not chaos -- a path to the creations of a REALITY of "Heaven on Earth'. And we need Water, Fuels, Food, Nurture,, Work, New Energy forms, New Transportation modes, Conveniences and ABODES, and etc. etc. etc.
New Cities, NEW THOUGHTS and NEW FEELINGS and especially -- ABIDING WISDOM -- about one another that do contain in them -- RESPECT, FRIENDSHIP, and LOVE. Just like the GREAT BOOKS SAY!!
Dick
Hamas is not against the "free world." "al-Qaeda" was a non-state actor, not a nationalist resistance entity.
The US created "al-Qaeda" and used them to supply terrorists , which the US helped send to the Balkans, Soviet Russia and Afghanistan .
Our allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sponsored the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 (and nearly took down one Tower) because we put troops in Saudi Arabia . We knew it was a target and why. Why did we invade Afghanistan after 9/11? A very stupid response.
Every country has such creatures who hide behind the nation they so scorn, the US is full of them and Europe even more so. Amazingly there are few Palestinians though alive that are so daring. Not many Arabs outside of the US/Europe or Lebanon for that matter that would dare either.
Of course fawning pro Arab dictator biographies are no sign of partisanship either.
drbeck@attglobal.net
Subject: Palestine
Please check www.buildpalestine.org and you can see the progress we have made, starting with the design conference on February 2 in Bethlehem, involving 700 Palestinian leaders. You can see/hear the actual speeches by Palestinians. We have now completed the design of a special conference that will do what you have recommended. We are working with Third General Fatah leaders and thousands of face book "kids" who want to take responsibility for their own future. I was involved in the transformation in South Africa out of apartheid -- 63 trips to Johannesburg -- and my partner, Elza Maalouf, who is from Lebanon, is the key..she presents and thinks in Arabic tones and has a huge personal following. We were supported by several American business men who had no agendas at all..one was John Mackey of Whole Foods Market. We made five two week trips, with major presentations in Israel as well. One has to deal with the dance between the two..by focusing on the value-systems in both, rather than negotiation. We have been working on a pro bono basis and are searching for some funds to keep Nafiz and his team active. They have been visiting university campuses all over the West bank, and have been using the Arab tradition of meeting with families. Nafiz was in prison for five years and was the "academic dean" and kept educating all of the prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti who is thought by many, us included, to be the "Mandela" of Palestine. We have been in communication with his wife and son, who have attended our training programs. We hope he will be released following the February 9 election in Israel. He is the only leader who can connect to both the West Bank and Gaza.
I've been busy exploring 'causalities' relating to the World's Economic ills and have been busy too trying to get a handle on PROOF Theories that support my growing interests on that which I have labelled 'DEEP INFERENCE'. This latter interest has been made more vivid to me as I try to think about the prospects and dangers of what confronts the human (on Earth) race as we move toward our uncertain futures.
Many decades ago at MIT I was one of a small group of academics who taught in the Senior Executive Program there. At that point I got a flavor from the 'students' of how the thinking of executives shaped, thought, and acted -- and more importantly, how some were deeply concerned (in a good and sincere way) to make our nation and EARTH an ever improving environment. I dealt principally in my segments with R&D and Long Range Planning especially at the world marketing levels. My interests as a grad student had been in economic development and engineering design issues as worldwide developments took shape and place. I knew precious little then about the real need to know about cultural determinants of progress and the changing modes of human mind-shapes.
Your reference to goings on in these fields of GREATEST (cultural and political and moral) importance have givin me hope that during the coming decades there MAY BE an emotional-intellectual renaissance -- worldwide -- that will even stretch itself into a seeking out of a broadly based sacred secularism : an ecumenism. Thanks for the information about a group, etc. that seems to me to be climbing to the apex of my principle concern : the futures for my grandchildren and (so far) four great grandchildren. The waking up process may be further along than I have imagined.
Dick
The reduction in nuclear arms some years ago , don't you agree, would not have happened without the informed work of private groups who did not seek personal reward or influence? The principles of non-violence and conflict resolution when adhered to are the most effective. Economic, scientific and human rights issues are all related.
For example , all these issues are addressed here:
"Opportunities for Bipartisan Change in 2009"
http://www.fcnl.org/action/09opportunity-obama.htm
Another Zionist Christian for Israel,
Father St. John of the Cross