Bush's Final Gift: Gaza

Just when we thought it was impossible for the calamitous George Bush and Svengali Dick Cheney to do any more damage to the world or to America's interests, they loosed one final Parthian shaft into the heart of the Mideast by giving Israel a green light to blitz Gaza and try to exterminate the Hamas movement.

The assault on Gaza, which has provoked worldwide outraged, was President Bush's parting gift to Israel.

According to Agence France Press, Bush even humiliated his useless secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, by ordering her to abstain at the United Nations on a ceasefire resolution she has helped draw up after Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert called the president and demanded the US not support the vote.

Bush's green light to Israel's assault on Gaza has unsavory precedents.

In 1982, then Secretary of State Alexander Haig gave Israel's Ariel Sharon a green light to invade Lebanon and crush the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israel's guns and bombs pounded large parts of besieged Beirut to rubble. The invasion was a disaster and led to the deaths of 18,000 to 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, and the massacres of 2,000 Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Israel's neo-fascist Lebanese allies, and the death of 247 US servicemen.

Osama bin Laden noted a few years ago that the 9/11 attacks on New York were in direct retaliation for Israel's brutal bombardment and destruction of downtown Beirut. Not surprisingly, the US media ignored this story.

In 2006, the Bush administration worked out a plan with Israel to again invade Lebanon, crush Hezbollah, then go on to attack Syria and Iran. This plan, like other American-Israeli machinations, collapsed in ignominy. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice struggled to prevent the UN and world powers from ending Israel's attack on Lebanon, which killed over 1,000 civilians and inflicted billions of damage on Lebanon. But Hezbollah's unexpected effective resistance turned the invasion into a humiliating US-Israeli defeat.

Rice was at it again in Gaza, attempting to thwart efforts by the UN, EU and other powers to end the three-week massacre there.

Once again, America has covered itself with shame and hypocrisy. Shame and hypocrisy only exceeded by America and Israel's leading co-conspirator in the Gaza siege, Egypt, which has barred the only escape root from the hell of besieged, starving Gaza.

President-elect Barack Obama, who is regarded by many around the globe as a savior, has only issued a few platitudes about the Gaza massacre. He did not hesitate to comment on the attack on Mumbai and other world issues, but his lack of response to the savaging of Gaza could be a dismaying portent of more of the bloody same in the Mideast.

So far, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, a third of them children, and close to 5,000 seriously wounded. Three Israeli civilians are dead from Hamas rockets. The psychic wounds inflicted on 1.5 million terrified Palestinian civilians subjected to 1,000 and 2,000 lb bombs, 155mm artillery shells, cluster munitions, heavy mortar fire, air to ground missiles, white phosphorus, and high-velocity tank shells cannot be described.

Gaza has very few basements. Its people cower in apartments and buildings, never knowing when a bomb will crash through the roof or a tank shell through the wall. According to the UN, before the latest crisis, 70% of Palestinian children in Gaza suffered from emotional disorders as well as malnutrition.

Israel's goal remains to eradicate Hamas and kill as many of its members before world outrage finally forces a cease-fire. Once Hamas is crushed, the lapdog Fatah organization, which is financed and run by the US and Israel, will be put in charge of Gaza and be the sole voice of Palestinians. By contrast, Hamas keeps refusing to recognize Israel until Israel recognizes the rights of millions of Palestinian refugees.

Fatah's yes-men will then agree to the US-Israeli plan for the West Bank, which recognizes Israel's retention of its useful parts, and leaves millions of Palestinians squeezed into Israeli-policed tribal enclaves, or Bantustans. In short, little versions of Gaza.

The strategy of Hamas is simply to survive and continue to defy Israel and its allies. The homemade rockets still being fired by Hamas are an act of foolhardy but determined defiance by desperate people with no hope and no future.

The US-Israeli-Egyptian-British plan to eradicate Hamas, which is the Arab world's only democratically elected government has another important objective. Hamas was founded in 1987 by a group of Islamic charities linked to Egypt's venerable Muslim Brotherhood movement. The new Hamas movement gained widespread popular support by promising to defend Palestinian rights to their lost lands and by providing a broad range of social welfare to destitute Palestinian refugees subsisting in squalid slums.

Hamas, in essence, is a democratic revolutionary movement that threatens all of the Mideast's US-backed dictatorships and monarchies. Its biggest threat is to Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood remains the unofficial opposition to the regime of President Husni Mubarak, who has ruled his nation with an iron fist for 28 years.

Mubarak's dictatorship over Egypt is the keystone of US domination of the Mideast. Egypt holds almost a third of the Arab world's total population.

Gen. Mubarak is now 81. Egypt faces regime change soon. The last thing Washington wants is for Hamas' revolutionary ideas and zeal to infect Egypt's quiescent, non-violent Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition to Mubarak, and risk seeing the US-backed Cairo regime replaced by a nationalist or Islamist government.

So it was essential, in the US-Israeli-Egyptian view, to once and all crush the Hamas movement and keep Gaza's Palestinians - who were ethnically cleansed from their homes in what became Israel in 1948 - safely penned up in the Gaza prison. A high-ranking Vatican official just called Gaza a 'concentration camp'.

There is also another subtext to Egypt's cynical behavior. Cairo greatly fears that Israel will eventually dump control of Gaza's restive Palestinians into Egypt's lap. Jordan, similarly, fears Israel will demand it assume policing Palestinian enclaves on the West Bank. Worse, Jordan fears Israel will eventually ethnically cleanse parts of the West Bank and drive its Arab inhabitants into the Hashemite Kingdom, which is already 60% Palestinian.

Israel has been remarkably successful in barring the world's eyes from the carnage in Gaza and advancing its side of the story. In North America, the name 'Hamas' never appears without the label, 'terrorist.'

But when journalists and cameras finally do get in, there will be even more international outrage against Israel's repression. No matter. The world, including the ineffectual regimes running so many Arab states, has proven helpless in the face of Israeli actions and their staunch defense by the Bush administration.

As I said last week, Israel is handing a 'fait accompli' to President Barack Obama. Israel's squabbling politicians primarily launched this war to boost their chances in upcoming elections, but also to destroy Hamas while their protector, George Bush, was still in the White House. The crushing of Gaza was also intended by Israel's security establishment to end any hopes Obama may have had of creating a viable, independent Palestinian state on the West Bank.

A short-term success for Israel, perhaps. But these Israeli politicians will pay a heavy price in the long term for this slash and burn policy. The world will turn further against Israel and see it, as too many critics claim, as a brutal oppressor. Comparisons with the Warsaw ghetto uprising will inevitably be made. More important, any hope for a real peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors has been set back for years.

Equally, America will be blamed for the carnage in Gaza. In my latest book, 'American Raj: Liberation or Domination?'
I try to explain why there is so much anger and hatred directed against the United States. Gaza is now Exhibit `A.'

While our media mostly repeats Israel's side of the argument, people across the Muslim world hear nightly of Gaza's agony and horror - and will soon see television footage. Everyone knows the F-16's, helicopter gunships, and self-propelled heavy artillery raining death on Gaza comes from the US courtesy of American taxpayers. Everyone knows the White House has been blocking action to succor the Palestinians and ordering its Arab satrap regimes to stay quiet - or, as in the case of Egypt, keep the prison gates locked.

If 9/11 was payback for Beirut, 1982, then the next attack on the US or its citizens abroad will likely be labeled, 'Gaza'. We apparently learn nothing from our mistakes.

Comments

[trubluelefty]

Why do people come in to simply comment on but not read the material in the articles, I wonder. Just amazing to see that no one cares to learn, understand, read, or research the problem from any view point other than their own already set ways. Children in Gaza were murdered. Hundreds of them. Wrap a visual around that as plenty are available online and try to imagine ever reversing such a situation. Palestine life is cheap for some of the 'readers' in here.

[PhilipTaylor]

This is why I pushed for impeachment all through September, October, and November!

If only we had not had to suffer through the period from Nov 5 to January 20 we could probably have:

1. Saved the economy
2. Been partially out of Iraq
3. Avoided the IS-PAL event
4. Implemented TARP to help homeowners
5. Started a Stimulus Program
6. Stopped the FED from dumping $Trillion into the Corrupt WS Banks
7. Started Healthcare Reform]

And many other things!

But most of all we would not have had to listen to the Spinned Bush Farewell Tour.

[behindEnemyLines]

Wow, this article just solidified my opinion of what gets posted on this website. So George Bush is the one who was launching rockets into Israeli towns. There you go Dems more evidence of war crime. This has to be the most asinine assertion I've read on this site. Bush Derangement Syndrome at it's finest.

[chaos4700]

We can't see your opinion very clearly with that big old straw man in the way. Mind telling me where any of us re-used John Bolton's old "Saddam Hussein /himself/ was the threat to the United States!" argument and paraphrased it? I agree, it's nonsense -- but then that just makes your post a useless truism, doesn't it?

[trubluelefty]

This is not about being a 'dem'. Did you read the article or the headline? go back and read it. Excellent

[Michale32086]

@Counterglow

}}}}
How about this for a fact: Israel has killed about a thousand Palestinians in the past few days. Most of them are women and children. Margolis is right, and you need to face facts.
{{{{

And when HAMAS seized control of GAZA in a bloody coup that left 1500 Palestinians brutally dead, where were you???

Where was your faux outrage then???

Strange how you only care about dead Palestinians when Israel is involved.....

Strange... And sad....

Michale.....

[chaos4700]

We're talking about the seizure that took place after Israel and the US conspired to politically isolate and sabotage the Fatah-Hamas unity government that had existed for three months after the internationally certified democratic elections, correct?

[Hasur]

1500 Michale? where did you get that number? or have you already "proven it" somewhere else?... Hamas siezed power in Gaza after 6 days of fighting in June 2007... between 115-120 people died about 34 of them civilians... check ANY news paper article from that time.

[Michale32086]

@justice2all

}}}}
shrill, it is hard to say..given the fact it is Israel that is killing the Palestinians in masses
{{{{

Actually, this is not true..

Israel is killing HAMAS in masses.

It's the fact that HAMAS surrounds themselves and their weapons with innocent civilians and are forcing innocent civilians to become human shields and that is what is causing the innocent civilian casualties..

Considering the ratio of innocent civilians to combatants, Israel is doing a decent job of protecting innocent Palestinians.

Ironic, isn't it. Israel is more concerned for the welfare of innocent Palestinians than HAMAS is.

Michale.....

[Counterglow]

This isn't the American mid-west, idiot. There's nowhere IN Gaza that isn't surrounded by civilians. When you've had a real history lesson, come back and comment intelligently.

[Michale32086]

Ya know, it gives me GREAT pleasure to prove someone like you completely and unequivocally wrong..

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=31.573526,34.517326&spn=0.020585,0.04549&t=h&z=15

This depicts the north central Gaza/Israel border.

Take a look around. What you will see are wide open areas that would actually INCREASE the range of Hamas missiles.

Get that?? If Hamas actually placed their launchers AWAY from crowded civilian areas, their missiles WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE!!!

Of course, Hamas would still be committing terrorism against Israel.. For a short time, anyways.. :)

But doing this would virtually ELIMINATE innocent civilian Palestinian casualties...

Now, you were saying something about commenting INTELLIGENTLY???

Michale.....

[KaneandAbel]

Michale
Day after day... in every blog, whenever a comment against brutality of Israel by a commentator who is anguished by the situation in Gaza... you are there. Almost every comment is counteracted by you. Almost as if it is your job to state again and again the Israeli government talking points .... almost clockwork like...

Like its your work almost... like you get paid for it.....in fact makes me think you, maybe, do get paid for it!

Otherwise you could not be up all the time making the Israeli government propagada point to counter act every single opposing view. You do look like a Israeli government spokes-person! Which I suspect you are.... Are you?

You know what you could do. Go away. We are hearing on cable TV the propaganda machine working all the time ... we just need honest commentators here..not paid spokes-persons!

[Michale32086]

So you have any facts or comments to address the situation??

Or are you just bent on making personal attacks against me???

Michale.....

[Hasur]

"HAMAS surrounds themselves and their weapons with innocent civilians and are forcing innocent civilians to become human shields"

could you even explain how your rediculous statement would logistically possibly in the midst of Israel relentless bombardment?

Your map of Gaza does not prove your point... NOBODY would fight a war from "open areas" let alone against one of the most powerful armies in the world.

[justice2all]

NO doubt on Obama/Biden policy towards Israel/Gaza will be the same as Bush amin.. Every time a journalist asks Obama about innocents dying in Gaza he goes on to mumble about “Israel has a right to defend itself and Israel’s security is paramount’,,so I guess the security of the Palestinians doesn’t matter to him. Especially after his foolish speech in Israel about how he’d do everything possible if someone was sending rockets to his house…Obama will be yet another joke just like Bush was. So much for change you can believe in. I want my vote back

[Michale32086]

What Obama realises is that Hamas also threatens the Palestinian security as well.

Michale....

[chaos4700]

Not even a tenth as much as Israel does. Seriously.

[Michale32086]

@gageeandbaba

}}}}}
why do you think Obama is silent right now? AIPAC he needs to get into office before he can say something about this, or AIPAC will call him an anti-semite, terrorist sypathizer, muslim extremist. YOU KNOW IT.
{{{{{

Obama's feelings on HAMAS are crystal clear...

It's one of the reasons why I voted for him...

Michale.....

[victoria38]

"Israel's goal remains to eradicate Hamas"...according to Mr. Margolis..my question is, what's wrong with that??

[justice2all]

WRONG!. Israel's goal is to eradicate Palestinians. Read the article. Learn some history

[Michale32086]

There is absolutely NOTHING that would lend itself to that ludicrous theory..

Nothing but Anti-Israel hysteria, I mean..

Michale.....

[victoria38]

I read it..twice..and I repeat.. what is wrong with eradicating a terrorist group such as Hamas..??

[krd1598]

I have a few questions and comments about your article. First of all, you said that "in 2006, the Bush Administration worked out a plan with Israel to again invade Lebanon, crush Hezbollah, then go on to attack Syria and Iran." What is your source for this? What was the plan called? It's funny, I've never heard anyone, even the most conspiratorial nuts out there, even mention it.
Secondly, you said Obama "is regarded by many around the globe as a savior." If that is true, all that tells me is that there must be a bunch of morons around the globe. Yeah, that's real smart, let's think that that a 1/2 term senator from Illinois is going to save the world.
You also said that "Hamas is a democratic revolutionary movement." Let's see, a democratic revolutionary movement that will lop your head off if your not a muslim. That's sounds real democratic to me.
Finally, I will freely admit that our country and the Israeli's have made mistakes and I do not agree with a great deal of our foreign policy. However, what makes me sick is your 'blame America first", crap. According to you people, the US and especially Bush are always to blame for the worlds problems.

[victoria38]

I cannot wait for next Tuesday.....then it falls on the saviour's shoulders...He can't vote "present" in the Oval Office...

[bobsled1]

Dear Mr. Margolis,

My wish for you and all your loved ones is to experience the same peace and tranquility that the residents of Sderot in Southern Israel have experienced over the past 8 years, as unprovoked rocket attacks reigned on their town and made their lives a living hell. Tell me, how many columns did you write over those eight years condemning those attacks on innocent civilians and praising Israel for showing incredible restraint that few nations would ever consider had they been under similar attack.

If you and your family were under such attack and you finally said "enough is enough" and did everything in your power to restore normalcy to the lives of your loved ones once and for all, I'd love for some a-hole writer such as yourself to then write a column decrying the terrible crime you committed by wantonly attacking innocent people for no reason at all.

It's hard to believe that reality and logic can be so thoroughly twisted as you have managed.

[victoria38]

Bingo !!

[justice2all]

Israeli talking points. Nobody is buying them at this point

[Garioch]

The only way the rocket fire could be seen as unprovoked would be ignoring all the prior history of the territory along with the current siege conditions.
It's an interesting idea but tell me when do the Palestinian people recieve the same right to self defence and consideration as far as peaceful living conditions go?

[raysmom]

Actually, the Israeli Army took the unprecedented step of making thousands of recorded calls to cellular phones registered to Palestinians, and spent 3 days spreading flyers into Gaza about the impending response to constant Hamas shelling from Gaza. They warned people to leave the area, and to expel any weapons or Hamas terrorists in their midst. They gave up the element of surprise in order to try to minimize civillian casualties. They didn't voluntarily give up Gaza so that Hamas would have a better place to bomb them from! Fatah condemns Hamas- just look at that part of their society. 50 years spent hating, creating nothing, letting their culture descend into poverty and uselessness, while Israel spent the time bringing education, history, and medicine to the people of the world in unprecendented numbers.

The truest statement I have heard lately is this: "If Hamas were to lay down their weapons, there would be no war. If Israelis were to lay down their weapons, there would be no Israel. "

If you deny this undeniable truth, you are worse than ignorant.

[mbshults]

Really? The Israeli move into Gaza would have happened even if the rockets had not been flying?

I am not a particularly biased person when it comes to this situation and have to say that you seem to be biased. You make some potentially good points, BUT you don't recognize the reality of the situation in any kind of even handed manner. This leaves me wondering if your perspective is valid or just completely biased.

Hamas wants to destroy the State of Israel. It is the basis for their existence. How is Israel supposed to engage with a group that won't negotiate with them? Israel is supports Gaza with power, water, and supplies, but this only supports a group that wants to wipe them out. So, should they not allow that support? No, because then they would be punishing innocent civilians. Either way they are in a bad spot.

Both Hamas, Israel, and the Bush administration have blame to share here. Yet, despite the blame that can be dished all around, I have to say that if rockets were coming over a border and hitting the US I would want my leaders to stop it.

I doubt your moderation will allow this post, but if so then perhaps could realize that this type of piece is inflamatory rhetoric. Why don't you focus on something that would help this situation instead of making it worse by using your pulpit to capitalize on this tradgedy and stir up even harsher sentiments.

[Henry]

Are you aware of the conditions in Gaza described by some very credible sources as apartheid?Gaza is a box that is militarily intimidated and cut off from the rest of the world. Is it not? Can these Muslim people visit their cousins in neighboring lands? Can these people count on water, food, medical service? It is pretty shameful the way our press fails with respect to this and it might make you wonder about their failure.

[Michale32086]

They COULD do all those things..

If only their leaders (who took control of GAZA in a bloody coup that killed 1500 Palestinians*) would quit firing missiles at Israel and acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist...

Michale.....

*Don't you find it fascinating that no one seems to care about dead Palestinians unless Israel is somehow involved?

[mbshults]

Yes, I am aware that Gaza is under a very dire situation. I am also aware that the responsibility for that is complex and not easily resolved. It isn't as easy as saying it is Israel's fault. I don't think the press has failed to report this situation. It is readily available.

What makes me wonder is how Hamas can use the Gazans as human shields and get away with it. They also set off rocket attacks on civilian populations and yet so many, such as yourself, are saying that Israel is in the wrong for going after them. Why aren't you condemning Hamas for these actions?

Do the conditions in Gaza justify the attacks of Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians? Are you saying that it is OK to intentially target civilians as Hamas is doing? What are you saying here?

If you send rockets across any national border at civilians that government has to respond. They have to protect their citizens. Period. At least Israel is not intentionally targeting civilians, but is hitting them because they are being used as human shields. Just like the UN complexes.

[gageeandbaba]

why do you think Obama is silent right now? AIPAC he needs to get into office before he can say something about this, or AIPAC will call him an anti-semite, terrorist sypathizer, muslim extremist. YOU KNOW IT.

[charlietuna11]

this is an incredible piece of journalism. sent article to multiple friends. its so much easier to close ones eyes and make believe these tradegies never took place.i hope there are more people like yourself who fear not the naked truth..i'm so ashamed my nation plays such a major role in this genocide. i hope our president elect speaks out and brings hope to the weak and opressed. i pray he doesn't dissappoint.....

[victoria38]

Obama/Clinton will follow same path as Bush/Rice

[justice2all]

NO doubt on that. Every time a journalist asks Obama about innocents dying in Gaza he goes on to mumble about “Israel has a right to defend itself and Israel’s security is paramount’,,so I guess the security of the Palestinians doesn’t matter to him. Especially after his foolish speech in Israel about how he’d do everything possible if someone was sending rockets to his house…Obama will be yet another joke just like Bush was. So much for change you can believe in. I want my vote back

[chaos4700]

Fantastic article. You lay it all out clearly and you do a great job of undercutting all of the false rhetoric peddled by the pro-Israel lobby. I fear for the US' future now that we've thrown in with Israel -- we need the rest of the world if we're going to regain our economic footing, and now we've exhausted everyone's faith and trust in the United States as an honest broker who works in the name of peace and democracy.

[ApolloSpeaks]

CARTER'S GIFT TO REAGAN

Jimmy Carter's parting gift to Ronald Reagan was the resolution of the 444 day hostage crisis with Iran. Bush's gift to Obama is the mayhem in Gaza. An inauspicious start for Obama's presidency.

[victoria38]

You just gotta love it...Hamas lobbing rockets is Bush's fault...