To assist in a crime makes one a criminal by any legal standard. And the biggest crimes of all are war crimes, since they kill en masse and showcase the cruelest form of human behavior.
The fact that Israel is actively committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip is not open to debate, since a cursory glance at the conflict obviously exposes them in practice.
The two most glaring war crimes Israel is committing – as defined by the Geneva Convention – are the concepts of “collective punishment” and “necessity and proportionality.”
Under collective punishment, a warring party cannot respond to an attack by waging war on the attacker’s community, as is clearly happening in Gaza. The clearest proof that collective punishment is being used is that a 1,000 Gaza homes have been destroyed and the majority of the casualties are civilians.
Under “necessity and proportionality” a warring party must only use the amount of force necessary to defeat the opponent; disproportional force is a crime. So, for example, if Hamas fires wimpy rockets that kill virtually no Israelis, then it is “disproportionate” for Israel to rain massive bombs, missiles, and artillery to reduce large sections of Gaza to rubble. Even Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the Israel attack a “deliberately
It is also a specific war crime to deliberately attack civilians, and especially to attack facilities treating the wounded. But Israel has attacked al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza four times, according to Reuters. The latest shelling of al-Aqsa killed 4 and wounded 70.
Even the pro-western Human Rights Watch has denounced Israel for committing war crimes:
“Israeli air attacks in Gaza investigated by Human Rights Watch have been targeting apparent civilian structures and killing civilians in violation of the laws of war.”
Obama’s aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes is also closed to debate, since his administration stands guilty from the very beginning of the conflict by shielding Israel from international political pressure, hiding its war crimes by deliberate misrepresenting what is happening, and giving political space for the war to continue by not intervening directly.
It was a blatantly laughable lie when Obama said that his government was “using all means” to achieve a ceasefire early in the conflict.
The U.S. influence over Israel is tremendous, and Obama could have ended the conflict in the first hour by simply declaring, “If Israel does not stop its attack on Gaza, the US will refuse further military and financial assistance and sever all diplomatic and political ties.” War over.
Instead of taking this action, or any action for that matter, Obama sat on the sidelines. In fact, Obama deliberately waited until the end of the second week of the war to even send his Secretary of State, John Kerry, to broker a ceasefire deal. Of course, Obama could have come himself.
Obama further assisted in Israeli war crimes by repeatedly justifying Israel’s right to commit them, deceitfully placing all Israel’s actions under the big umbrella of “self-defense.” Again, war crimes are war crimes, and were purposefully created to trump any excuse of self-defense.
After ten days of a brutal bombing campaign an Israeli ground invasion was announced, which everyone knew would intensify the bloodshed. This would have been a key moment for the US government to finally intervene. But instead, as ABC News reports:
“President Barack Obama said Friday that he encouraged Israel’s leader to minimize civilian deaths in its ground push into Hamas-ruled Gaza, while letting him know that the US supports Israel’s right to self defense.”
A statement like this can be interpreted to mean only one thing: a green light to continue the massacre.
When John Kerry was finally sent to the Middle East to broker a peace deal, he was still making excuses for Israeli’s war crimes. USA Today reports:
“Kerry also blamed the latest wave of violence on what he called Israel’s “legitimate” efforts to pursue and punish those who last month kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the West Bank.”
Again, bombing a whole city because three Israeli teens were killed is disproportional collective punishment – war crimes. There is also no evidence that Hamas is responsible for the death of three Israeli teens, which it has denied since day one.
The colossally disproportionate aspect of the war has been continually smoothed over by the Obama administration, which consistently lumps Palestinian and Israeli civilian deaths evenly together, as if they were happening with equal frequency. But in reality the 550 Palestinians that have been killed and 3,500 wounded are mostly civilians, while the few dozen Israeli’s who’ve died have been mostly soldiers.
How dangerous are the Hamas rockets that the Obama administration endlessly talks about? CBS news recently reported:
“Hamas also fired 50 more rockets at Israel, including two at Tel Aviv, causing no injuries or damage.”
This has been the story of the conflict which Obama has justified the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip by continually saying “no nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders.”
Obama’s muted language about Israel’s aggression can be compared to the recently shot down Malaysian jet, for which Obama summoned his “outrage” while instantly blaming the pro-Russian Ukrainians, though without a shred of evidence.
Most of the world believes Israel’s actions are outrageous, an opinion not allowed to be expressed at the United Nations, thanks again to the Obama administration, which used its clout to sterilize Israel’s actions by limiting the UN’s statement on the conflict.
Specifically, the Obama administration used its influence over the UN Security Council to limit its statement to “serious concern” about civilian casualties on “both sides” of the conflict, thus white washing the nature of events and providing the aggressor with invaluable political breathing space.
The Obama administration has also assisted Israeli War Crimes by continually blaming Hamas for not agreeing to the Egyptian brokered ceasefire agreement. Hamas is the elected government of the Gaza Strip, and thus has a right to not agree to a ceasefire agreement. But of course Hamas’ not agreeing to the Egyptian agreement does not justify a continual Israeli blitzkrieg of the Gaza Strip, though the Obama administration’s logic implies exactly this.
Lastly, the Obama administration has consistently lied about the origins of this bloodbath. The three dead Israeli teens were not the cause of this conflict, but the pretext, which the Israeli government consciously exploited to promote war among the Israeli population.
The real cause of the war was the recent alliance between the Palestinian Authority – which governs the West Bank – and Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. This alliance gave the Palestinians their strongest hand in bargaining with Israel in perhaps decades, which was enough to spark a new round of massacres from the Israeli government in an effort to re-balance the bargaining table.
This ongoing bloody dynamic continues in large part because the US government allows it. The vast majority of people across the world are denouncing Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians, and so too must US citizens denounce their government’s criminal actions in assisting Israeli war crimes.
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action. He can be reached at shamuscooke@gmail.com
The only thing sadder than the need to point this out is that it won't be believed.
“Again, bombing a whole city because three Israeli teens were killed is disproportional collective punishment – war crimes. There is also no evidence that Hamas is responsible for the death of three Israeli teens, which it has denied since day one”.
And let’s add to that, that this was a civil crime of murder that required a normal police homicide criminal investigation, not ant sort of Knesset interference propelling military escalation.
How can a police investigation of a court of law and justice system and rule of law even operate in their thus rendered so-called ‘Democracy’, when a blood thirsty idiot (and clearly a mass murdering criminal of war himself) is running the country and is mouthing off to militate and undermine any routine form of criminal investigation and due process of civil law and order?
What sort of democracy can possibly function in that way?
So I even reject their often repeated claim to be a great Democracy, as the facts show they are a great militarist invasive Tyranny, with a sham of democratic spinners and talking head apologists and war-mongering homicidal rabble-rouses, that weld on the armour of pretense and the sheild of pontificating lies and spin around in plain-view, presenting themselves as a lawful Democratic government.
And all these alleged humans in the perpetual make-war-not-peace camp in Israel should be aware that the Germans, who were once wiping them out, in a deliberate attempt to actually eliminate them completely from Europe, are now supplying them with their most advanced weapons systems, trading and transacting freely with full diplomatic interactions and peace. Not a single rocket is coming from Berlin these days.
So the insistence that the worst of possible enemies can not make a mutual peace is clearly nonsense, a canard of the homicidal nationalist fool.
The rot at the top of the Israeli Government is in fact the shockingly mentally-deficient and bereft of any ideas, Israeli government – itself. the absence of any form of actual national leadership. Leaders who believe in war and do not believe in the capacity for peace, so refuse to ever go there, and are driven by motives that are altogether inimical to peace have no place trying to claiming to be a respectable lawful democratic civilian government.
And did anyone see/hear Ban Ki Moon jabber on timid weasel words and nonsense and suck-up to Israel’s government last night? What a shameless and sickening lack of leadership from him as well. How much is he being paid again, and why does he have a role in the UN?
Ben Rhodes, mouthpiece for the Obama administration, is blaming the Russians for deaths on MH17: "We do think President Putin and the Russian government bears responsibility for the support they provided to these separatists, the arms they provided to these separatists, the training they provided as well and the general unstable environment in eastern Ukraine," Rhodes said in an interview with CNN." http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.ht…
Using this logic, Pres. Obama and the USG are responsible for all the recent deaths in Gaza, and all the deaths in Iraq and Syria because the US provided weapons, training, and money to Israel and to Syrian "rebels" in the "unstable environment" of the Middle East.
” … The Obama administration has also assisted Israeli War Crimes by continually blaming Hamas for not agreeing to the Egyptian brokered ceasefire agreement. Hamas is the elected government of the Gaza Strip, and thus has a right to not agree to a ceasefire agreement. But of course Hamas’ not agreeing to the Egyptian agreement … ”
You missed a point here, this was not an actual agreement, it was nothing at all as Hamas were not a party to a negotiation, they were just present with a fait accompli, take it or leave it position.
Here are you scraps, Palestinians, we are calling them peace, so chow down on this gruel because this is all that’s on the menu.
So this was not a ceasefire agreement, its was implicitly a DIS-agreement with a gun to your head to make peace under any terms offered.
Ridiculous! That wasn’t going to happen, it was a farce designed and setup too fail from the outset, which was the objective of the exercise, as cover and to poison the well, and make way for the civilian slaughter and damage to come.
And are we really expected to accept that the military government in Egypt has the best interests of the Palestinians at heart and is in any position to broker peace?
And where is Kerry going again? To ‘broker’ another ceasefire ‘agreement’ farce with Egypt?
The implicated war criminals are brokering the ceasefire agreement too? Without any conferring with Hamas again?
How obvious can it be that they want it to fail, and to poison and impair the possibility of peace, so badly, that the ‘war’ and war-crimes of Washington and Israel continue on without resolution, for many months?
Kerry is a professional global vandal, not a diplomatic representative who genuinely seeks peace, he is in the same cohort as those he flocks with.
“Birds of a feather, flock together.”
Obama is voyeur of the lowest order. The feckless piece of crap watches as Israel works genocide on the Gaza Ghetto. What an arrogant son-of-a-bitch.
Obummer is learning from this – he's learning from Isn'treal how to commit war crimes against a civilian population – while holding up Duh Gutterment as the "good guys" – so that when the time comes, he's got an all-inclusive playbook to follow as he escalates his criminal activities against the American people. . .
Congratulations Don. I agree completely, and I would add that Pres. Obama is a coward, bought and paid for by the dedicated supporters of Israel who have almost unlimited resources. I believe that he was born in Hawaii but that he is as ignorant about world affairs as a college freshman in some Kansas on-line university. Obviously, big money was behind him when he attended quality universities. I would like to know his academic history, his earned degrees, and how he was appointed professor of Constitutional law right out of grad school. I don't know of a similar case.
Big money indeed. The Obama's connections to the Kennedy clan is truly a curiosity . Besides the Obama being feckless, how did he manage to get so deeply imbedded within the ruling aristocracy?
Oh dear, does anyone know where I can find a website which translates Gibberish to English?
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Is there anyway I can give the admin a thumbs-up for deleting this character's comments?
Once out of office, Obama will be rewarded approximately $100K for each dead Gazan. Tony Blair will be envious.
Right. On. Shamus, a masterful brief – are you in the legal profession? We need you on the tribunal.
Interesting that, even with complete Israeli control over the borders and all the 200+ check points INSIDE the West Bank, they still do not have solid suspects for the killing of the three young Israelis.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired rockets toward Israel in reaction to a child run over by settlers, attempted kidnappings of other Palestinian children in the West Bank, along with a reaction to the horrific torture and murder of the Palestinian teen. Not to forget the severe beating of the USA/Palestinian boy. People keep trying to say, Hamas fired first… NO, THEY DID NOT. Read a West Bank news source on the internet. A real eye opener, I tell you.
I bet Nutty Yahoo's got thegoods on obammie. Heck, nutty yahoo blackmailed Kkklinton… http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-said-to-ha…
Well in any case, isn't Hamas an accomplice too? Why do they even bother to toss their dime-store rockets on Israel except to instigate this kind of reaction?
Why do they even bother?
When your being invaded and your homes are being destroyed, you fight back with whatever weapon comes to hand. . . even if all you have are rocks or oversized bottle rockets.
Excellent reply.
John, remember this latest round was instigated by Netanyahu when he assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner by blaming Hamas for the murder of the three Israelis. He was the one who first unleashed his operation whatever. Hamas rightly responded and as it turns out now, those three dead Israelis were not the work of Hamas according to the Israeli police chief. So, the mayhem caused by Netanyahu is now to be forgiven or held to task. The guy know vengeance very well and has no respect for human rights. He can do this because he can totally depend on both houses of senate and the US presidents. Period.
I agree the Israelis are not acting with proper restraint. I do not however agree with the sweeping accusations against Israel made in this article.
Obviously the two sides are extremely mismatched in terms of military power. Obviously this leads to the weaker side suffering the worst casualties. But ask yourselves: if the tables were turned, do you think Hamas would be showing any restraint whatsoever?
Whether Hamas would or not isn't relevant to the subject at hand. Nice try to deflect and muddy the issue. . . but we're not falling for it – Shill.
soo… Two wrongs make a right? And one of the wrongs is a supposition. Should we feel sorry for the poor Israelis children who would have been killed? How about if the sides were balanced, don't you think they would have reached a peace by now? As an example, at least the "state sponsored" side of the Iraq-Iran war that the US instigated ended after 10 years.
Ehud
Ehud Barack Obama is complicit in these war crimes because he just sits on the sidelines and kisses Israel's ass by giving them so much military and economic aid. Israel should give up the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Another reason Israel does not deserve aid is that it's not a third world nation. Although it's not a third world nation, it receives the most aid in the world.
Thank you for a wonderful blog. Your suggestions are so helpful. I've been journaling for quite some time and it helps me to write down my prayer for the day and helps me focus. As for meditating, I like to play a CD with nature or ocean sounds. It's very calming.
I am happy to find this post very useful for me, as it contains lot of information.
Nothing will satisfy the beast no matter the color or its origin. War crime in cooperation is part part of the beast being beast or whatever it is that you want to call the beast.
Whether Hamas would or not isn't relevant to the subject at hand. Nice try to deflect and muddy the issue. . . but we're not falling for it – Shill.
This post is senseless………… just because their aim was lousy and therockets fired did no damage does not excuse Hamas from firing the damn things. Take out the tunnels, the launchers, the rockets, all fire power and then and only then should the talks resume.
The only thing sadder than the need to point this out is that it won't be believed.
Thanks for sharing such an amazing post. It is really a helpful post and I guess that most of the individuals who are intersted in the palestinien cause will take a great help from this. if just Obamas administration used its influence over the UN Security Council the conflit Will change it direction.
seront annoncés les thèmes ? Via Email ? Sur le site du monde.fr ?
I agree the Israelis are not acting with proper restraint. I do not however agree with the sweeping accusations against Israel made in this article.
Well in any case, isn't Hamas an accomplice too? Why do they even bother to toss their dime-store rockets on Israel except to instigate this kind of reaction?
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