Blaming Hamas?

[justabro]

Israel and its supporters see these international campaigns as a huge threat. Israel has escaped the sanctions that have been applied to other states which commit human rights abuses and violate international law only because the United States automatically vetoes all attempts to hold Israel accountable. Israel is also crucially dependent on huge annual inflows of foreign aid, to the point where it is conceivable that the state would collapse if the flows of outside cash which prop it up were to be withdrawn.

Anything that undermines public support in the US, Canada and Europe, therefore, threatens the external backing on which the Israeli state depends for its very existence. It is true that the governments which turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law mostly ignore popular opinion in their own countries as well, but this could change if support for Israel were to become a serious political liability. In this regard, what is particularly worrisome from Israel’s point of view is the fact that support for Israel among Jews in the United States and Canada, especially among younger Jews, has declined dramatically. If Jews stop supporting Israel, then all foreign support is in jeopardy.

Threats to Israel’s international legitimacy bring with them an even greater internal danger: the danger that Israeli Jews will themselves start seeing the Zionist formula – in essence, a militarized apartheid state holding down the Palestinian population by force – as a dead end.

If working-class Israeli Jews were to see their interests as being different from those of the ruling elite – if they come round to the view that their long-term interests will be better served if they join Palestinians in working for a democratic secular state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews – Israel’s ruling class would find itself in the same untenable position that the white elite in apartheid South Africa faced in the early 1990s. Already, Israel’s rulers are debating what to do about the “demographic threat” they are facing: Israeli Jews are leaving the country in increasing numbers to move to other countries, while the Palestinian population continues to increase.

[Wild Wild West]

Shin Bet: 2009 had lowest terror levels in Israel this decade - Haaretz - Israel News

This is coming from Israeli intelligence, so it must be thiqah.

I wonder if Bassam Zawadi will recommend that the Palestinians are therefore rewarded for their good behaviour? Or, is he waiting for them to be provoked into doing something so that he can condemn them again?

[Wild Wild West]

Israel continues air strikes in Gaza:

IAF targets tunnel, weapons manufacturing site in Gaza air strike - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

- Some people (such as a certain Mr Zawadi) have no shame, otherwise they would be prasing Hamas for their restraint.

[Wild Wild West]

Part 1:

[Wild Wild West]

It is well worth reading this thread again on the third anniversary of the Gaza war to see just how and why these neo-salafis are so out of touch.

[Fofomag]

beautiful post pluma, BEAUTIFUL!

[Wild Wild West]

NYT Reverses Time to Put Retaliation Before Attack in Gaza | FAIR Blog

[Wild Wild West]

Good article by Glenn Greenwald.

This is a must-read for any neo-con Salafi who might possess a grain of shame.

Obama's kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

[Wild Wild West]

[Abu-Asiya]

^ Some interesting quotes:

Finklestein: "Dan [the zionist on the panel] says that you can't deal with Hamas and that's why there's a siege there. Well there's also an occupation in the West Bank. Now certainly Israel can deal with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Afterall they pay all the bills for the Palestinian authority. The PA is on their payroll. So why haven't they been able to end the occupation of the West Bank? Why do they continue to build settlements in the West Bank? Why do they reject all the Palestinian peace overtures from the PA, their own puppet regime."

Dan: "What you call the West Bank is actually the land of our fathers. It is the homeland of the jewish people."

Finklestein: "As the head of state of Qatar promised four-hundred million dollars to Gaza, and economically things were actually improving in Gaza, many people in the West Bank were saying 'Gaza looks better than our situation' so it was time for Israel to go in and wreak havoc, mayhem once again to reduce Gaza to a desperate state."