Palestine

The next phase of the war

So, I assume everyone understands that the war isn’t over? And since the war isn’t over, let’s not talk yet about anyone having ‘won’.

The ‘ceasefire resolution’ was a joke. It was a resolution that was based on Hizbullah surrendering. The only problem is that Hizbullah has no reason to surrender, not having been defeated. But if the war not being over means Hizbullah hasn’t won, that doesn’t mean Israel has won. They hoped to divide Lebanon and failed, and I doubt a phony ‘ceasefire’ while they continue to occupy and slaughter people is going to bring them closer to their political goal. They hoped to destroy Hizbullah and failed. They hoped to demonstrate their might and failed. They want a ‘ceasefire’ based on a Hizbullah surrender, but Hizbullah was ready for a reasonable ceasefire from day one, and is as able to fight in spite of an unreasonable ceasefire now as it was on day one.

What it means is that Israel will be in Lebanon to continue its destruction and killing and to prevent the refugees it has created from going home safely. In the process, they’ll claim Hizbullah is violating the ceasefire. I suppose people some believe them.

Those who do believe them are unlikely to listen to Eqbal Ahmed’s talk from 1982, another talk that could almost have been given today. Eqbal never forgot the link between what the Palestinians were facing and what Israel was doing in Lebanon and elsewhere. He noted the differences between Israel’s intentions towards the two groups: colonial towards the Lebanese, genocidal towards the Palestinians.

Eqbal Ahmed was courageous and did things that one had to respect.

On that subject, did you know that Venezuela has recalled its ambassador to Israel? See the note below from the Stop the Wall Campaign.

OPEN LETTER TO THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA AND PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ

from Stop the Wall Campaign

The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, the Palestinian grassroots movement against the Wall that ghettoizes our people, would like to thank the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its president, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, for their principled decision to call back the Venezuelan ambassador from Tel Aviv. This courageous step is valued by all of our people as the model of action we would expect the world to take to protest against the continued war crimes, the Occupation and the colonial apartheid regime Israel represents.

The support for the struggle of the Palestinian and Lebanese people against the Zionist project of ethnic cleansing has been expressed by you on many occasions. The fact that it has been translated this time in concrete action installs gratitude and hope in the people in Palestine and Lebanon. In the Arab world and far beyond, the people are expressing their appreciation for this act of solidarity in their slogans and the placards in their mobilizations.

For more than 58 years the Occupation has continuously violated Human Rights, international conventions and all UN resolutions relating to Arab rights.

Since the creation of Israel, the world nations have passed over hundreds of resolutions demanding that the Occupation respect the rights of the Palestinian people and the people in the other Arab states. Yet, Apartheid Israel has continued its aggressions against the Palestinian people under the excuse of “self-defense” in order to consolidate its grip over Palestine and the region. Israel’s latest war in Lebanon is certainly not the first time the Occupation has expanded its aggression beyond Palestine to other Arab states. The recent and ongoing bombings of Beirut are reminiscent of the destruction of the city and the mass killings of its people in 1982, just like the recent massacre in Qana which has an eerie resemblance to 10 years earlier when over 100 civilian residents of Qana were killed.

While the world is watching, horrified by the war crimes against the Lebanese population, the Occupation continues its policies of expulsion and killings through the wanton bombings and attacks on the Gaza Strip and the accelerated construction of the Apartheid Wall aimed to ghettoize the Palestinians within the West Bank.

Governments all over the world have given out statements but none of them has been willing to take concrete action. This inaction – or complicity – of international diplomacy betrays our people and our calls to exert clear pressure on the Occupation and contradicts the international conventions and treaties these same governments have ratified.

As Palestinian people struggling for our existence against the fourth most powerful army in the world and the last apartheid regime, we need to know that we are not alone. The withdrawal of the Venezuelan ambassador has given us new confidence and hope that the solidarity with our cause is gaining strength until Justice will prevail over Impunity.

However, this move should not remain isolated. It is crucial that the other governments of this world start to listen to the people they are representing and to respect the treaties they have signed. The people in Spain, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, South Africa and many other countries have started campaigns to ask for the interruption of diplomatic ties with the Occupation. In many Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay and Panama, the people in their mass mobilizations have clearly chosen the side of the occupied people denouncing the discourse of equidistance between the colonizer and the colonized, resistance and state terrorism.

We are thus calling upon all governments to follow the example of the Bolivarian Republic to use their diplomatic and economic power until the respect of the full rights of the Palestinian and Lebanese and all other Arab people is ensured.

Words are not enough. As we are continuing to struggle against the definitive ethnic cleansing of Palestine, it is time to act to end Israeli impunity. The current silence and inaction of the world leaders are a form of complicity that will weigh on all of Humanity.

We ask the world to continue to engage in sustained action to isolate Apartheid Israel until our struggle achieves Liberation, Justice and Dignity for our people and the refugees can return to their homes.

End Israeli Colonialism and Racism!

End the massacres in Palestine, Lebanon and all over the Middle East!

Isolate Apartheid Israel! – Free Palestine!

——-

StopTheWall.org – Visit the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign web site.

N. and the Memory Wall (On a day in the future)

N., a young Palestinian/Israeli Jew, was late for her meeting with her friend H., the child of Palestinian Muslim refugees who had returned from Lebanon on a bus a few years before. N. was still preparing her gift for H., a hat to cover his prematurely bald head. She was meeting him at the new Museum of Jaffa, which she called the Museum of Tel Aviv.

Continue reading “N. and the Memory Wall (On a day in the future)”

Two Events on Friday

On Friday morning I went to an event called “Prominent Canadians speak out against the bombing of Lebanon”. It was at a banquet room of a five-star hotel in downtown Toronto. The hotel is actually right next to the Israeli consulate, where many a rally and vigil has occurred over the past decades.

Given my background and work with activist groups, I felt some discomfort at the title, the self-identification of the speakers as “prominent Canadians”, and the setting at a major hotel. I understood the logic though. Our society is a hierarchical one. The “prominent” have authority to speak, the non-prominent do not. Press conferences are held at hotels. When activist groups hold press conferences in outdoor, public spaces, like the OCAP press conferences I’ve been to, often the press doesn’t bother to show up. So, perhaps by setting up this panel in a hotel, and identifying the speakers as prominent, the press would show up, despite the press’s truly stark, and ever-increasing, racism on this topic. Right?

Evidently not. I saw a CityTV video camera there, and heard that some CanWest outfit was in attendance as well as the Toronto Sun. I haven’t yet checked if they covered it at all. In addition, there was a scattering of members of the public. I’d say twenty in all.

I cannot say anything bad about the panel, though.

Michael Mandel, a law professor, spoke about the violations of international law committed by Israel. Anton Kuerti, a concert pianist, talked of the humanitarian situation based on his following the press. Judith Weisman, from Jewish Women’s Committee to end the Occupation, read from Jennifer Loewenstein’s recent piece, which I had been so moved by two days before when the piece had come out that I had to write Jennifer right away (reading Jennifer’s article was as cathartic as watching George Galloway’s interview on Sky News). Weisman also told some personal stories of the constant humiliation of Palestinians that she had witnessed, evidence that we have completely lost our moral compass. Atif Kubursi, a UN consultant and professor of economics, emphasized the humanitarian situation based on his recent work in Lebanon. He also very skillfully explained various aspects of the political situation in Lebanon, support for Hizbullah, etc. David Orchard, who organized the event, spoke about Canada’s trajectory away from international law and towards support for war crimes, under Harper. A young Lebanese-Canadian scientist spoke about the effects on the victims and what she’d been hearing from her family in Lebanon.

While Weisman raised the issue of Palestine and the important connection between the events in Lebanon and Palestine, I do worry that even in “progressive” circles this connection is fading. Of course, the UN resolution that was just ratified gives nothing to the Palestinians, instead rewarding Israel for its destruction and slaughter. And Hizbullah, whether or not they undertook their July 12 operation to try to relieve Gaza, has been, since the Israeli invasion and for some time to come will be, too occupied to be able to think about helping the Palestinians. But leftists who are trying to mobilize solidarity from positions of relative safety should never forget the connection, for two reasons. First, there is the ethical obligation. Our societies are actively participating in the re-destruction of Lebanon, yes, but our societies have been participating in the destruction of Palestine for decades, and that means we owe something to the victims. Second, there is no way to even begin to understand what is happening, Israel’s motives and decisions, as well as those who are resisting Israel, without understanding Palestine and what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

—-

The second event I went to was a Sumoud fundraiser. Sumoud is a Toronto-based group that tries to educate and organize for Palestinian political prisoners. The prisoner issue is of course central to events in Palestine and Lebanon. Israel has thousands of Palestinians locked up in its prisons: 9,000 adult male prisoners, 300 children, 100 women – those were the numbers at the start of this current crisis. Israel has since kidnapped probably 600 more Palestinians.

The Sumoud event was a cultural event at a union hall, and it was very well attended, and I think successful as a fundraiser for relief in Lebanon and prisoner organizations in Palestine (the split will be 50-50 I believe). There was plenty of Arabic music and dancing, with much of the crowd singing and dancing along. The first act was a pair of poets who did spoken word, a style of rap where the rapper provides the music by singing/rapping the words of the poem. I’ve seen a lot of spoken word, now, some of it political. I’ve seen it in the US where I suspect the genre started, and here in Canada. It is a beautiful form, a good way to deliver surprises and wit, as well as convey powerful messages and emotions. On all of those counts, the performers last night were spectacular. The two who performed last night are my first and second favourite of the spoken word poets I’ve heard.

Whatever else happens, let’s make sure we forget about Gaza

Israel didn’t stop its starvation of Gaza, nor its attacks on Gaza, simply because it also took up destroying and invading Lebanon.

No, indeed, Gaza’s people are still starving and dying in their electrified prison. Consider this statement by a group of Canadian Health Professionals, organized by Science for Peace:

As Canadian health professionals, we are deeply concerned by the silence of the Canadian government and the Canadian media about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. We are calling on the Canadian government and the media to truthfully recognize the humanitarian situation and to respond with compassion and effective help.

Even before the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006, and even before the election of the Hamas government, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was dire.

* When the settlers left Gaza in August, 2005, the Israeli army left 40 percent of the land covered in millions of tons of rubble, rendering it unusable for cultivation. Israel continued to control all access to Gaza and continued to control water resources.

* After the Hamas government was elected, the Palestinian health system collapsed due to the freeze of tax revenues by Israel and the stoppage of international aid (led by Canada). Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reported at the time that Israel is responsible for the outcome of the collapse of the Palestinian civil society in general and the health system in particular. Specific to Gaza, PHR-I stated that Shifa Hospital, the central hospital in Gaza, has not received (for at least a month) the essential medicines it needs for basic care , such as furosemide (a diuretic medicine that reduces fluid pressure on the lungs and other organs) and erythromycin (broad-spectrum antibiotic). In Shifa Hospital four patients already have died as a result of the reduction in the number of their dialysis treatments from three per week to only two. James Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for Disengagement to the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, stated on March 15, 2006, that the collapse of health services and the education system, which addresses the needs of one million children, would be a total failure for the new government, and would have tragic consequences for the Palestinian people. This should not be permitted under any circumstances.

* Six months before the capture of Cpl. Shalit, PHR-I filed a petition and a request to the Israeli Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to stop the sonic booms, deeming it a collective punishment of the civilian population that particularly traumatized children. The petition was rejected and the sonic booms persist. According to /The Guardian Weekly/ (June 16-22), daily life was violent: 3000 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel over the past five years from Gaza, killing five people; on the other side, Israel dropped 6,000 shells on Gaza since the beginning of April, claiming the lives of elderly farmers, children, and women as well as the family of Huda Ghalia on the Gaza beach; no figures were given about Israeli ground assaults in the same five year period. The June 8th report of MSF-USA, however, reports that Israeli bombing in north Gaza was particularly intense, in one incident killing 45 cows which affected the food supply; MSF continues that bombing since the beginning of the year was so intense in the north that people could not access health-care facilities. Extra-judicial executions and kidnappings by the IDF persisted, and the day before Cpl. Shalit was captured, the IDF kidnapped a Gazan doctor and his brother.

* Before the current offensive, UN aid relief workers were giving daily food rations to 735,000 Gazans, more than half the overcrowded territory’s population of 1.4 million people. 79 percent of households were living under the poverty line and unemployment was 40 percent.(U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, report July 12, 2006)

Since the capture of Cpl. Shalit, the situation is far worse in Gaza because of the destruction of the water, sanitation, food, health, and electricity infrastructure. As of July 8, 2006

* World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that the public health system is facing an unprecedented crisis. WHO estimates that though hospitals and 50 percent of Primary Health Centres have generators, the current stock of fuel will last for a maximum of two weeks. WHO, based on UNRWA’s data related to communicable diseases, stated that the total number of cases of watery and bloody diarrhoea amongst refugees for the last week in June and the first week in July has increased by 163 percent and 140 percent compared to the same period last year (also reported in Defense for Children International-Palestine section). WHO estimates that 23 percent of the essential drug list will be out of stock within one month. WHO is also alarmed by the tightening of restrictions on patients needing to leave Gaza for treatment.

* The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that in June 70 percent of the Gaza population were already unable to cover their daily food needs without assistance. As of 8 July, WFP has 20 days of emergency food stocks to cover its expanded caseload of 220,000. Given the escalating crisis, there are growing numbers of people who now need assistance. WFP believes it is essential that a humanitarian corridor for relief items and personnel remains open to avert a further deterioration in the food security situation at this critical time.

* UNICEF reports that children are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, insecurity and fear. Care givers say children are showing signs of distress and exhaustion, including a 15 percent-20 percent increase in bedwetting, due to shelling and sonic booms.

* The Office of the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that since destruction of the electric plant, the lives of 1.4 million people, almost half of them children, worsened overnight. In the hottest time of the year, most Gaza residents have power for only 6-8 hours/day. In urban areas, water is available between 2-3 hours/day. The water authority has enough chlorine for two months. UNRWA reports that the Water Utility’s daily operation has been cut two thirds, resulting in water shortages and a critical situation at the sewage plants.

* On 19 July the Palestinian Human Rights Centre reports that since 28 June 2006, 115 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza, 550 have been wounded, passage of food, fuel and medicine is denied, six bridges have been destroyed, and transportation and access to medical clinics is disrupted.

According to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions (1977), the onus is on the warring state to protect the civilian population from the impact of military operations. As the occupying power, the State of Israel is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention Articles 19 and 50 to treat humanely Gaza’s wounded and sick, to protect hospitals, to protect and care for children. Article 55 states that the Occupying Power has the duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population. Article 56 states that the Occupying Power has the duty, in cooperation with the national local authorities, to ensure and maintain medical and hospital services, public health and hygiene. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, demand Israel’s immediate compliance with the Geneva Conventions and restoration of Gaza’s infrastructure.

The undersigned Canadian health professionals fear for the lives of Palestinian people. We ask the Canadian Government to demand that Israel fulfil its responsibilities as a signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention and take immediate and effective measures to provide protection of the civilian population in Gaza, to reduce severe risks to public health, and to secure appropriate medical care. We ask our own government for the immediate restoration of Canadian aid to the elected Palestinian government to ensure that water, food, medicine and the necessities of life are immediately available and accessible in Gaza.

Yours faithfully,

(as of July 28, 2006)

[~90 signatories follow]

On military strategy

A couple of good quotes from Uri Avnery:

‘And most of all: even the best army in the world cannot win a war that has no clear aims. Karl von Clausewitz, the guru of military science, pronounced that “war is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means”. Olmert and Peretz, two complete dilettantes, have turned this inside out: “War is nothing more than the continuation of the lack of policy by other means.”‘

and

‘Because it’s only with enemies that one makes peace.’

Continue reading “On military strategy”

Forget that big massacre, we’re moving on to new ones

In my city it this morning’s headlines were about a local heat wave, not blown up children and ugly quotes from criminals about how determined they are to keep up the slaughter.

Which is not to say that children aren’t being blown up. Israel blew up a kid and and an adult in Gaza today with a missile. That’s 177 total killed in the “Summer Rains” side of Israel’s two front massacre. 40 of those are children.

Continue reading “Forget that big massacre, we’re moving on to new ones”

The biggest massacre so far

Israel just killed more than 50 people, mostly children, in a single bombing. Count on the silence of Stephen Harper, or some formulation encouraging to the bombers. Count on there being no consequences for the killers or their cheerleaders.

According to the story, the Lebanese government told Rice that she’s not welcome in Lebanon any more. Rice replied that she didn’t want to go anyway.

Continue reading “The biggest massacre so far”

In praise of moral equivalence

Rahul had a very good blog post discussing the doctrine of ‘collateral damage’ and the related doctrine of ‘moral equivalence’. The idea is that they intentionally kill civilians, and we accidentally kill them. So, even though we kill hundreds or thousands and they kill dozens, they are morally inferior. Indeed, they are morally inferior twice over, because first of all, they kill civilians on purpose, and second of all, they force us (poor us!) to kill civilians because we are trying to kill them, and they keep hanging around all these civilians all the damned time.

This is, as Rahul says, a jumble of racist and incoherent arguments. Let us try to disentangle this jumble.

First, let’s take the idea that they target civilians and we don’t. This is false. We target civilians all the time. Leave aside the bombing of civilian infrastructure and the wholesale destruction of civilian areas, like Jenin Camp in 2002, because we can still argue that we visited all this destruction while trying to get at people we didn’t like.

We deliberately target civilians for murder. Israeli snipers fire straight into the centre of the Red Crosses on Red Cross trucks. They have shot children and administered a coup de grace at close range, in Gaza. In Iraq, Rahul took a photo of ambulances in Fallujah with nice clean bullet holes through the driver’s side. And of course, there was the recent murder of the UN observers. Canadian Prime Minister Harper defiled the Canadian who died their as he defiled the other Canadians who Israel has killed by saying that he doesn’t think the UN post was targeted. He won’t pay any political price for making the statement. But it is still worth noting that he says so from Canada, and Robert Fisk, who is in Lebanon, described their killing this way:

In past years, I have spent hours with their comrades in this UN position, which is clearly marked in white and blue paint, with the UN’s pale blue flag opposite the Israeli frontier. Their duty was to report on all they saw: the ruthless Hizbollah missile fire out of Khiam and the brutal Israeli response against the civilians of Lebanon.

Is this why they had to die, after being targeted by the Israelis for eight hours, their officers pleading to the Israeli Defence Forces that they cease fire? An American-made Israeli helicopter saw to that.

Second, Rahul points out that evidence we offer that Hizbullah targets civilians is that they use inaccurate weapons.

This means either that

1) When we use our accurate weapons to kill civilians we are doing so on purpose, or

2) We are using inaccurate weapons and killing civilians, in which case we are condemning Hizbullah for doing something we do more of.

The third argument for the moral superiority of our killing of more people is that they are cowardly because they are around civilians, forcing us to kill them. About this argument, Jonathan Cook had this to say:

The UN head of humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, who is in the region, accused Hizbullah of “cowardly blending” among the civilian population, and a similar accuation was levelled by the British foreign minister Kim Howells when he arrived in Israel.

In 2002 Israel made the same charge: that Palestinians resisting its army’s rampage through the refugee camps of the West Bank were hiding among civilians. The claim grew louder as more Palestinian civilians showed the irritating habit of gettting in the way of Israeli strikes against population centres. The complaints reached a crescendo when at least two dozen civilians were killed in Jenin as Israel razed the camp with Apache helicopters and Caterpillar bulldozers.

The implication of Egeland’s cowardly statement seems to be that any Lebanese fighter, or Palestinian one, resisting Israel and its powerful military should stand in an open field, his rifle raised to the sky, waiting to see who fares worse in a shoot-out with an Apache helicopter or F-16 fighter jet.

Of course, in the prison of Palestine, Palestinian fighters do exactly that. They have no cover and no way of hiding from Israel’s armaments and complete surveillance. So they fire their puny weapons in order to show defiance, and to ensure that Israeli soldiers cannot operate with complete impunity on the ground, but instead need to hide in their armored vehicles. They are then slaughtered. But this does not win them any points with us, either. Our reaction is every bit as vulgar and racist in that case as it is in others. Mitch Potter from the Toronto Star, a truly disgusting racist, was quoted by Dan Freeman-Maloy likening Palestinians to rodents, a standard racist analogy, for facing the Israeli army on open ground: ‘“Another batch of Palestinian militants drawn out lemming-like and falling by the dozen to higher-calibre Israeli fire, just like their predecessors.” [For Potter to call Palestinians lemmings is certainly ironic].’

I recently heard that a Canadian general named Lewis MacKenzie has said that yes, Israel has killed hundreds, but considering the weaponry that Israel has this is a low figure, and that if Hizbullah had this kind of armament, Israel would be a parking lot.

MacKenzie’s argument, restated, is that the imbalance in numbers killed is actually much less than the actual military imbalance. Lebanese and Palestinians should take comfort, then, because Israel could be killing many, many more of them. And Israelis should be afraid, because even though they can’t, Hizbullah really wants to kill us all. MacKenzie is, in addition to being a general, a mind-reader. Jonathan Cook’s answer to this:

In fact, although no one is making the point, Hizbullah’s rockets have been targeted overwhelming at strategic locations: the northern economic hub of Haifa, its satellite towns and the array of military sites across the Galilee.

Nasrallah seems fully aware that Israel has an impressive civil defence program of shelters that keep most civilians out of harm’s way. Unlike Horowitz I won’t presume to read Nasrallah’s mind: whether he wants to kill large numbers of Israeli civilians or not cannot be known, given his inability to do so.

Rahul’s blog post concludes with the idea that the doctrine of “collateral damage” must be discarded because it is incompatible with the rules of war and the Geneva Conventions.

The jumble of “moral equivalence”, meanwhile, when unpacked, is false on every single count.

Kill some Canadians? Kill some UN observers? No problem…

Israel bombed a UN post and killed some observers.

They’ve also stated that if an international force is to go to the newly-leveled Lebanon in order to protected those who leveled it from the people who have been slaughtered, displaced, and whose city has been leveled, they’d prefer it not be the UN. Eloquently reinforced by the bombing: a bombing is worth a thousand words.

Continue reading “Kill some Canadians? Kill some UN observers? No problem…”

Buzz Hargrove and Terrorism

ZNet just posted an exchange between a unionist from the Canadian Auto Workers’ union and the union’s president, Buzz Hargrove. Given the amount of democracy in Canadian unions, it wasn’t exactly an “exchange”, so much as the unionist’s reaction to the Official Position laid down by the President, who also spends an awful lot of his time cavorting with Canada’s wealthiest and most powerful people. Joe Emersberger, who has appeared in this blog in the past and who I respect a lot for his letters, is the unionist in question. And while I thought his letter was good, I felt a point-by-point response to Hargrove’s letter is in order. Here it is, below. My comments are in bold.

Dear Prime Minister,

The crisis in the Middle East cannot be allowed to escalate and I believe Canada can take a leadership role in finding a diplomatic resolution.

Unfortunately, Harper has already squandered Canada’s diplomatic credibility by his pronouncements of unconditional support for Israel and for the United States, and his military operations in Afghanistan. While the Martin liberals were headed in this direction, Harper has accelerated matters to the point where Canada’s credibility is close to zero.

The potential of provoking a much wider conflict, plummeting the entire region into chaos, is a real danger. Up to 200 people in Gaza and Lebanon have been killed and thousands more may die because of the destruction by Israeli bombings of power plants, homes and hospitals.

At least Israel’s agency in the bombings has been acknowledged here. But the passive voice appears in this letter “Up to 200 people… have been killed…” as it does throughout the media, when Israel is doing the killing.

Hamas and Hezbollah must assume responsibility for this latest crisis, but this does not give Israel the license to kill innocent citizens and destroy the infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hamas: the elected government of the Palestinians, who had held a unilateral ceasefire for months while Israel attacked and provoked, while Canada, the US, Israel, and the rest of the world imposed tremendous suffering on the Palestinian population by embargo – an embargo that has over 1/4 of the children of Gaza starving, while Israel dropped bombs and sent death squads to assassinate Palestinians, must assume responsibility for the latest crisis. Hizbollah: the political movement with elected members in the Lebanese government, that didn’t want to disarm, arguing that they needed to maintain their arms in the event of an Israeli invasion, and has no arms that are any match for the US/Israel military machine, after constant low-level incursions and conflict with Israel on the border, must assume responsibility.

The continuing killing of Israeli soldiers and over 25 innocent citizens alike cannot be ignored by the world community.

Although the world community can, and has, ignored the continuing killing of Palestinian civilians. As Hargrove has, in his letter. Palestinians are not qualified as “innocent citizens”. They simply do not exist in Hargrove’s world.

We are extremely concerned about the recent killing of 7 Canadians in the bombing of Lebanon.

Hargrove here follows the media in using the passive voice, referring to the Canadians as if they were killed by a natural disaster. Israel bombed the place they were vacationing in, as it has bombed so many civilian areas over the past several months (years) and killed so many civilians – thousands, since 2006.

Certainly Israel has the right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens by extremist forces such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

But the Lebanese and Palestinians do not have such reciprocal rights. The Palestinians do not have the right because, in Hargrove’s world and Hargrove’s letter, they do not exist. The Lebanese, perhaps, because in Hargrove’s world and his racist calculus, because to exercise a right of self-defense against Israel is the same as “terrorism”.

Countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iran that harbour extremist forces must expect that there will be consequences to their complicity in the attacks on Israel.

This is the most interesting aspect of the letter. Read this carefully. This seems to me to be tantamount to a military threat from the President of a Canadian union to the “countries” (NOT merely the governments) of Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. The words “harbour extremist forces” and “consequences”. This is pure Bush-language.

And the world knows very well what these “consequences” are – tremendous violence, against defenceless civilians, from the air. It is hard for me to see how this section of this letter is not supportive of terrorism. It amounts to a threat of violence against civilians, and Hargrove knows it. This is kind of posturing is unworthy and frightening from the president of the United States. From the president of a worker’s union in a small country, it is utterly revolting.

Finally, if these COUNTRIES are to face some dark and unknown “consequences” for their “complicity”, what “consequences” are WE going to face for ours, since theirs is a matter of speculation and ours a matter of public record?

However, Israel’s military response has been brutal and disproportionate to the provocation by Hezbollah and Hamas.

Emphasizing again the inversion of provoker and provoked, and removing the Palestinians from the equation.

The killing of innocent civilians and destruction of the infrastructure destabilizes the region and impedes advancing the goals of democracy and peace for Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese people.

Ah, I was wrong. The Palestinians have finally appeared, as a people who need democracy. But what was Canada’s response to their democratic election? To cut aid to a starving, besieged people and then to describe their being bombed as a “measured response”. What does Hargrove say to Harper, the man who cut this aid and made this description, about it, in a letter to him? Nothing.

The CAW calls for:

the immediate return, unharmed, of captured Israeli soldiers. an end to the shelling of Israeli cities by Hamas militants. an end to the shelling of Israeli cities by the Hezbollah militants.

The demands of Hamas and Hizbullah in this are clear: Hamas wants, of the 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, most of whom are there on “evidence” taken under torture, the 1,000 “administrative detainees” who have not been charged, plus the 400 children, plus the 100 women, returned, in exchange for the tank gunner they captured. Hizbullah wants the Lebanese prisoners and an end to Israeli attacks. These would be easy for Israel to grant, and easy for Canada to ask Israel to grant as part of a negotiated solution. But nothing on this from Hargrove.

Another interesting question is why Hargrove sees fit to make his first demand in a letter to the Canadian Prime Minister a demand to Hizbullah and Hamas, a demand Harper agrees with, and over which Harper (and now Hargrove) has absolutely no influence or credibility.

-an end to Israeli bombing of Lebanon and Gaza and all military operations including the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and Lebanon.

This section at least acknowledges that Israel is bombing Gaza, for the first time in the letter. Withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while it would be a good thing, would not lift the siege. And Hargrove, who doesn’t acknowledge the siege, doesn’t acknowledge this need either.

-the release of the Palestinian ministers and parliamentarians arrested by the Israelis

But not the 400 children, 100 women, and 1000 administrative detainees, plus the Lebanese prisoners, who, if they were released, would lead immediately to the release of the Israeli soldiers.

-the immediate reinstatement of international aid to the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of President Abbas.

No mention of the elected government?

-expedite the evacuation of all Canadians who are caught in the war zone in Lebanon.

Canada must take a leadership role in bringing the parties to the table to find a resolution to this crisis, which has cost too many innocent lives.

In order for Canada to take a credible leadership role, the federal government must end its unsavoury attempts to mirror George Bush’s policies during this crisis and instead, reflect the strongly held Canadian values of fairness and justice – and to uphold our obligations to international law.

We propose the Canadian government withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and further propose they be reassigned to a peacekeeping role in the Middle East.

The last few paragraphs clash strongly with the previous content, so much so that they suggest a different writer. If Harper does what Hargrove suggests, Canada will be precisely doing “unsavoury attempts to mirror George Bush” and will have lost all hope of a “credible leadership role”.