Israel: Perpetrator or self-proclaimed victim? 
By Ludwig Watzal 

Besides the fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas (Islamist 
Resistance Movement) a ?war of opinions? has broken out over the issue 
who?s the perpetrator and who is the victim. Western media outlets have 
already made up their mind and put the sole blame on Hamas. The Israeli 
military attacks against a defenseless population have been going on 
since 1948 and follow usually the same pattern, especially, after 
Israel occupied and colonized the rest of Palestine after 1967. The 
decades-long occupation is the real cause of the conflict. Would the 
Israeli government not object to the right of self-determination of the 
Palestinian people, withdraw its troops and its colonizers from the 
occupied territories and let the Palestinians live their life in 
freedom, the conflict could be resolved in a minute. 

The population in the Gaza Strip has always been harder hit than the 
rest of the Palestinian people. The closure of the Strip, put in affect 
by the government of the late Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, hasn?t been lifted 
ever since. Even PLO chairman Yasser Arafat needed an Israel permit 
when leaving the imprisoned Strip. The strangulation of the people of 
Gaza got even more severe after Hamas took power in 2007, after a US 
and Israeli instigated coup led by their warlord Mohammed Dahlan 
failed. His collaboration with the occupation forces was notorious.
 
Although, Hamas was the only democratically elected government in 
Palestine so far, they were stigmatized as a terrorist organization by 
Israel. The Israeli patron, the US, and its clients in Europe borrowed 
this Israeli classification. Having adopted this propaganda tool, they 
put themselves in political chains and became politically immobile. 
This holds also true for the actual Israeli attack. US President Barack 
Obama, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European political 
leaders put all the blame on Hamas, simultaneously stressing Israel?s 
right of self-defense.
 
They have totally forgotten that Israel is an occupying power. None 
other than Noam Chomsky has pointed to this contradiction: ?When 
Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend 
themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any 
military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are 
crushing. You can't defend yourself when you're militarily occupying 
someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's 
not defense.
 
None of the political leaders have ever investigated the real causes 
that led to Israeli onslaught. Like in December and January 2008/09, 
when Israel killed 1 400 people in Gaza, two-third of them women and 
children, or currently under the so-called military operation ?Pillar 
of Defense? (!), none of these leaders are interested in the horrific 
circumstances that caused the fighting: Israel?s long-lasting 
occupation of Palestinian lands.
 
In November 2008, after a long truce between Israel and Hamas, the 
Israeli military killed four Hamas militants without reason. After 
Hamas retaliated with home-made Kassam rockets, Israel started its 
brutal military assault called ?operation cast lead?. The then little 
Bush called the result of the massacre an act of self-defense, and the 
just newly elected Obama played golf on Hawaii. This massacre took 
place before the upcoming Israeli elections. It?s like déjà vu again; 
on January 22, 2013 the Israelis are called to the polls again. 
Probably, this attack will boost the hawkish right-wing parties. This 
time again, the Israeli government broke the cease-fire.
 
On November 13, 2012, Israel exerted pressure on Hamas, which led to a 
pre-formulated truce agreement; however, the assassination of Ahmed 
Jabari on 14 November 2012, head of the Hamas resistance forces, was 
the justification of Israel?s full-scale warfare. The script looked 
very familiar to the prelude of the massacre of 2008/09, and the 
consequences will be more of the same: death and destruction.
 
One should never have any illusions about the ?Nobel Peace Prize 
Laureate?. He is just a leader of an Empire. It makes no difference 
whether he is white, black, brown or yellow. He decides according to 
the rules that are set by political interest groups and the military 
and financial power agglomeration in the US. As predicated in an 
article after the US elections, his policy towards Israel would not 
change one jota.
 
His support of Israel?s aggression is ironclad and wholeheartedly. And 
during his second term he might even start the long desired war against 
Iran. Why should a US President criticize Israel?s assassination policy 
while he presides personally over his own drone ?kill list? and orders 
the killing of suspects in several countries on a daily basis? 
?Terrorists? and even American citizens are pulverized without due 
process.
 
The Netanyahu government plays with the Obama administration cat and 
mouse.
 
First, the forced colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was 
taken off the international agenda by the clamor over Iran?s alleged 
nuclear program.
 
Second, the attack on the people of Gaza should foil the secret 
negotiations between the US and the Iranian government over the nuclear 
issue.
 
Third, Netanyahu tries to undermine the bid of the Palestinian 
Authority to gain a better status at the United Nations by writing 
letters or making phone calls in order to pressure other heads of 
states not to dare to vote for the Palestinian motion.
 
And finally, it gives the Palestinian a taste of what will come if 
they do not withdraw their request to the United Nations.
 
This is contrary to American interests. Can an Empire allow a tiny 
client state to preside over its national interest and damage its 
credibility internationally?
 
With its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel?s 
occupation under the Geneva Convention did not end. According to 
international law, the Israeli government is still responsible for the 
well-being of the population in the occupied Gaza Strip. Instead 
bothering, the Israelis put them on a diet, which just prevents the 
population from starvation, and they are collectively punished by the 
siege by land, water and air. Or is Israel?s final goal to bomb the 
Gaza Strip into oblivion? At least, the statement made by Eli Yishai, 
Israel?s Minister of the Interior, could be understood like this:
 
?The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the middle Ages. 
Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.? If that holds true we 
could see a fight between the Israeli version of ?enlightenment? and 
the Palestinian ?forces of darkness?. That the ?sophisticated? West 
doesn?t reject this rhetoric nonsense outright should make the audience 
wonder. The future of the Near and the Middle East will be brighter 
than ever.

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