This is from the London Review of Books, link courtesy of Judy from Canada. Worth reading in its entirety. The author is Henry Siegman, who is director of the US Middle East Project in New York, a visiting professor at the University of London, and a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America.
Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network…Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further. This was confirmed not only by every neutral international observer and NGO on the scene but by Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division…
I've been saying similar things for years about the Israelis, including a letter published by the NYT that got me several nasty responses. The Israelis have been pulling this sort of stuff for years: a truce or ceasefire is declared and they do nothing to make life easier for the Palestinians. Eventually, Hammas or some other group loses patience and the Israelis say "see, I told you." Jews and Jewish organization have to speak out on this because non-Jews are immediately labeled "antisemitic."
Posted by: John L. Miller on January 26, 2009 12:06 PMReally? I beg to differ. For not one day during the truce did Hamas stop firing rockets. Not one. Rockets are much much more dangerous than border closings. It was incumbent upon Hamas to stop firing rockets first. And to John, Jews will never speak out against against their state. And political antisemitism is just as bad as any other type of antisemitism. You say "I just don't support Israel, but I don't hate Jews." But, their is no reason for you to hate Israel and not hate tens of other countries, who actually murder on a grand scale. Don't fool yourself, it's called political antisemitism.
Posted by: Dan on January 26, 2009 10:49 PMDan,
Did you read what Henry Siegman wrote?
"Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further."
It's a fact that Hamas did stop firing rocket during the truce. But the Isaelis did not open the blockade.
Posted by: myth on January 27, 2009 2:42 AMDear Dan, first of all I don't "hate" Israel. As a secular or cultural Jew, I'm ashamed of Israel and its outrageous treatment of the Palestinians. Maybe I'm naive but I expect more from a country run by Jews. Say anything negative about that country and the Holocaust is immediately invoked and you are quickly labeled an anti-semite or self-hating Jew. That just doesn't play anymore.
Posted by: John L. Miller on January 27, 2009 1:57 PM