[fastpat]

In the ongoing Israeli domination and attacks against the Palestinians, here's the latest view:

June 30, 2006
The Gaza Beach Party Massacre
Israel bombs beach-goers and re-invades Gaza – because they can
by Justin Raimondo

The pretext under which the Israelis have re-invaded the Gaza Strip speaks volumes about the mentality of the settler state and those who hold it up as an exemplar of heroic virtue worthy of American support: one of their soldiers, Gilad Shalit, was kidnapped, and so, of course, this justified taking out half the Strip's electrical grid – a form of "collective punishment" that will result in the deaths of young innocents, as the water-purification facilities for many thousands are knocked out. The Israeli leadership firmly believes that the life of one of their own is worth more than hundreds of Palestinians, young or old, fighters or bystanders, guilty or innocent. This is the message they are sending to their antagonists in Hamas and Fatah, and, in an interview with Abu Abir, a leader of the "Popular Resistance Committees," it is quite clear that this message has been received:

Q: "But the murder of the hostage doesn't improve your reputation in the world, and doesn't help end the IDF incursion in Gaza."

Abu Abir: "We executed a person belonging to the category of people who are stealing Palestinian land and daily harming Palestinian civilians. What is inhumane is the execution of our women and children in cold blood. The blood of Zionists is not dearer than the blood of our children, women, and warriors."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't about land anymore. It is about who is human, and who is not: who is a lord, and who is a helot. It is about power and domination, and the Israelis, by means of their much-vaunted "unilateral withdrawal" from parts of the occupied territories, have set up a theater in which their ideology of domination can be acted out indefinitely. Of course, they need a "reason" – which can be provoked or manufactured, as the case may be – but in reality they can invade at will, for any and no reason, and this ability to dominate is the payoff, the orgasmic climax the Israeli leadership is seeking.

The buzzing of Bashar al-Assad's summer residence, the mass arrest of democratically elected Palestinian lawmakers and ministers, the targeting of infrastructure in violation of the Geneva accords and the commonly held concept of human decency – the Israelis do it simply because they can. This isn't "colonialism" – it's sadism.

Israel's amen corner is constantly reiterating two themes that supposedly justify whatever horrific tactic the IDF employs: (1) The other side targets innocent civilians, and (2) Israel has the right to defend itself. The evil suicide bombings in pizza parlors and night clubs have – rightly – turned public opinion in the West against the perpetrators and lessened support for the Palestinian cause. Yet the tables are turning: Israel is now openly targeting the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. "Retaliation" for the kidnapping of a soldier and a Jewish settler on occupied lands is clearly not at all defensive: soldiers, after all, are fair game in wartime, and the settlers are clearly involved in an act of aggression, i.e., dispossessing Palestinians of their land.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9224