This brutality will never break our will to be free

[ProgressiveMuslim]

For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the startComments (…)


Khalid Mish'al
The Guardian, Tuesday 6 January 2009
For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world's biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment. In this most densely populated of places, nothing has been spared Israel's warplanes, from government buildings to homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and markets. More than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.

This river of blood is being shed under lies and false pretexts. For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start. Israel was required to open crossings to Gaza, and extend the truce to the West Bank. It proceeded to tighten its deadly siege of Gaza, repeatedly cutting electricity and water supplies. The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated - as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire. Israel enjoyed a period of calm. Our people did not.

When this broken truce neared its end, we expressed our readiness for a new comprehensive truce in return for lifting the blockade and opening all Gaza border crossings, including Rafah. Our calls fell on deaf ears. Yet still we would be willing to begin a new truce on these terms following the complete withdrawal of the invading forces from Gaza.

No rockets have ever been fired from the West Bank. But 50 died and hundreds more were injured there last year at Israel's hands, while its expansionism proceeded relentlessly. We are meant to be content with shrinking scraps of territory, a handful of cantons at Israel's mercy, enclosed by it from all sides.The truth is Israel seeks a one-sided ceasefire, observed by my people alone, in return for siege, starvation, bombardment, assassinations, incursions and colonial settlement. What Israel wants is a gratuitous ceasefire.

The logic of those who demand that we stop our resistance is absurd. They absolve the aggressor and occupier - armed with the deadliest weapons of death and destruction - of responsibility, while blaming the victim, prisoner and occupied. Our modest, home-made rockets are our cry of protest to the world. Israel and its American and European sponsors want us to be killed in silence. But die in silence we will not.
read on...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/06/gaza-israel-hamas

[cali]

1. um, no.

hamas is not an innocent in all this.

[The Traveler]

2. From where I am standing

it looks like both the government of Israel and Hamas are likely guilty of war crimes. All involved in this horror ... leaders of both sides ... should be charged, arrested, tried and if convicted held to account.

At this point, I have little capacity to sympathize with either side. My sympathy lies solely with the innocent bystanders who are getting the shit kicked out of them because supposedly grown men cannot sit down and settle their differences.

Perhaps if the leadership of Hamas were to swing alongside the leadership of Israel, someone will get the idea that negotiating a just peace is not optional. In general, I am opposed to the death penalty but in this case I might be willing to make an exception.

Trav

[Idealism]

3. There is no innocence, just degrees of wrong-doing

Israel has done far more wrong.

[aquart]

4. "Free" is an interesting concept in the MidEast.

What happened to the largest part of the Palestine Mandate which was partitioned for the Arabs? Why are the "Palestinians" greedily trying to assert ownership of the tiny part that was partitioned for the Jews?

Why did Hamas deliberately provoke a bloody confrontation with the Israelis without making any plans to send their children into safe hiding? Is there NO humanitarian Arab/Muslim organization which would have worked to keep these children safe from the murderous, evil Israelis? Not one sympathizer to smuggle a small, young human thru a tunnel or thru the Egyptian border?

Dead children are great publicity for Hamas. Sucky publicity for Israel.

Meantime, Ramallah on the West Bank is chock full of peaceful Palestinians working, going to school, eating chunky ice cream.

I'd be interested in seeing how "free" a Gazan is to advocate making peace with Israel.

BTW, didn't 51 Hamas-held Fatah prisoners die in the bombing? You know, people who think it's okay to negotiate with Israel? How "free" were they?

[Idealism]

5. Aid groups can't get into Gaza, what makes you think people can leave?

Hamas didn't start this latest scuffle. Israel has been planning it for well over 6 months, even according to their Prime Minister. The Ticking tunnel raids set this off in November, destroying tunnels under Gaza that were used to import goods into the Strip. They also would be the tunnels used to smuggle people out of Gaza, so there is another problem with your theory that they should get the young children out through a tunnel.

The West Bank has unemployment bordering on 50% because of Israeli incursion into their land, stealing thousands of acres of farms. Agriculture is the biggest job industry in the West Bank, so stealing land is devastating to them. Couple that with the fact that most Palestinians can't legally work inside Israel, and you can see why they have such high unemployment. The West Bank has done nothing wrong to Israel, yet they are under occupation similar to Gaza, albeit not as extreme.