Israel’s Role in Creating Hamas

Review of:
Hamas: The Islamic Resistance Movement
Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell
Polity Press, 2010 (340 pp.)

Beverly Milton-Edwards is Professor in the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast. Steven Farrell, who has dual British-Irish citizenship, is Middle East Correspondent for The New York Times.

By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall

Hamas is about the militant Palestinian group which was democratically elected to run the Palestinian Authority in 2006. The main value of the book is the rich context it provides regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which is totally absent from the mainstream media. Hamas clearly documents the role Israel played in promoting the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in Palestine. The book also emphasizes the essential role foreign financial assistance plays in perpetuating this war – with the US heavily backing Israel and other Islamic states backing occupied Palestine.

Occupy Gaza: Boats Sailing Now to Gaza

By US to Gaza

At this moment, two boats are in international waters in the Mediterranean heading to Gaza. One boat, the Saoirse from Ireland, includes parliamentarians among its passengers. The other, the Tahrir, carries representatives from Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Palestine.

The U.S. Representative on the Tahrir, Kit Kittredge, was a passenger on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope mission in Athens in July. A journalist from Democracy Now is on the Tahrir also. Civil society organizations in Gaza await their arrival, and look forward to the delivery of letters collected from thousands of U.S. supporters in the To Gaza With Love campaign.

We need your help to make this mission a success. Please take these actions immediately:

Norway backs Palestine bid at UN; gets bombed 5 days later

7/25 UPDATE: Norwegian Shooter Loves Israel, By Israel National News. “The time has come to stop the stupid support of the Palestinians…and to start supporting our cultural cousins – Israel.”

7/24 UPDATE: Oslo Police Conducted Bombing Exercise Days Before Terrorist Blast. Also see this June 2011 news flash: Norway Announces Withdrawal From Libya Campaign

After supporting Palestine’s bid for sovereignty at the United Nations in an announcement on Monday, Norway today suffered numerous terrorist attacks.

Three days ago, July 19, Reuters reported:

Norway, host of the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli peace accords, said on Monday it was “perfectly legitimate” for Palestinians to take their case for statehood to the United Nations for voting in September.

Israel bombing Gaza with Drones

Gaza Under Attack From A Swarm Of Drones

By Julie Webb-Pullman
Scoop.NZ

The whole of Gaza City is under air attack with Israel Defense Force (IDF) drones and other aircraft roaming the skies firing rockets and dropping bombs on the Palestinian population.

For Scoop, Julie Webb-Pullman reports from within Gaza that there are swarms of strike aircraft: “There was at least one explosion, then sirens. I can still hear drones , more sirens, lots of sirens, more explosions.”

From one vantage point, she can see a lot of smoke emitting from near Gaza City’s university.

From her rooftop, Julie Webb-Pullman reports: “It looks like a massive airstrike – the city of Gaza is under a pall of acrid smoke. The drones still droning. I can’t tell where the strikes were, but definitely in the middle of town, as well as further out.”

Israeli Navy Attacks International Monitoring Vessel in Gaza Waters

By Julie Webb-Pullma
Scoop NZ

GAZA July 15, 2011: The Israeli navy today attacked international monitoring vessel Oliva and several Palestinian fishing boats in Gazan waters, for the second time in two days.

The Oliva, which monitors and documents Israeli attacks against Gaza fishermen, began its operations on 20 April 2011 under the auspices of the Spanish Civil Peace Service. The monitoring team is comprised of activists from Italy, Sweden, USA and the UK.

Israel says Flotilla poses “threat” by 87-yr-old Holocaust survivor and by poet Alice Walker

By Electronic Intifida

In a move intended to convince skeptics to finally accept Israel’s claims that the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2 poses a real danger, the Israeli military spokesperson’s office has issued photographic evidence in a blog post titled “Flotilla II Seeks Provocation, Poses Threat to Israel.”

Well, it turns out that the “threat” is none other than Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and poet Alice Walker whose fearsome and terrifying smile can be seen in the Israeli-issued image. But the danger to Israel does not end there. As the “IDF” Spokesperson explains:

Israel passes draft law requiring Palestinians to pay for their own home demolitions

Home demolition in Hebron (image from anticap.wordpress.com)

By International Middle East Media Center

A Committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs.

The law will now be passed to the full Knesset for a final reading, where it is expected to pass due to the current makeup of the Knesset.

Obama Wants More Dead Rachel Corries to Boost Standing with AIPAC

By Craig Murray
Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan

I am proud to call Ray McGovern a friend. He is a retired senior member of the CIA, and was so valued as an analyst that he used to give the US President his daily intelligence briefing. Ray and I both had senior government service careers, in the course of which you make personal friendships that last, hopefully as long as you do. So sometimes we both get told things from the inside of government.

As Ray sets out on the US Gaza peace flotilla ship, he has been warned in the starkest of terms that the Obama administration will do nothing to protect their US flagged vessel, or the US citizens on board, against attack by the Israelis.

Israel fires on Golan border protesters, kills 23, wounds 50

Radio Netherlands reports:

Israeli troops opened fire on Sunday as protesters from Syria stormed a ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights, with Damascus saying 23 demonstrators were killed.

Hundreds of protesters rushed the ceasefire line, cutting through barbed wire as they tried to enter the Golan Heights in a repeat of demonstrations last month that saw thousands mass along Israel’s north.

Similar protests were held in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Break down the wall: Freedom for Palestine (music video)

By One World

Palestine is in crisis. Today Palestinians face daily human rights abuse and live in crushing poverty in refugee camps and under Israeli Occupation.

In response to this injustice, a group of international musicians are releasing the song Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld.

Turkey Flotilla Inquiry: Activists Killed ‘Execution Style’

By Richard Silverstein

Furkan Dogan, 19 year old Turkish-American, killed execution style by IDF after being wounded (All Voices)

Turkey’s investigation of the Mavi Marmara massacre contains troubling findings that two victims were killed before any IDF soldiers boarded the ship, in fire from helicopters, that the youngest victim, a Turkish-American, was killed execution style after being wounded in the leg, and that a photographer was killed with a laser-guided weapon while taking photographs:

Father of teen killed in Gaza flotilla raid seeks American justice

By Natasha Mozgovaya
Haaretz

Professor Ahmet Doğan, whose 19-year-old son Furkan was killed aboard during the Israeli army raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla from Turkey in May, is in Washington in an attempt to convince American officials to open an investigation into the raid.

Furkan was an American citizen who was born in the U.S. His father will be meeting with Congress members Tuesday and on Wednesday speak with members of the State Department and the Ministry of Justice.

Professor Ahmet Doğan: If my son was an Israeli who was shot by Turks in international waters, how would the U.S. react?

ICTV: Face to Face with Israeli Commandos on the high seas, Feb. 26 & 27

By Victoria Community TV

We talk with Kevin Neish of Victoria, British Columbia, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara last May when it was attacked by Israeli forces.  The ship was on a humanitarian mission to bring relief supplies to the people of Gaza and to break the long-running Israeli blockade.  Kevin talks about the big issues of what is going on in the Middle East and Gaza, a bit of history, and then the story of what happened the night the ship was attacked.  The program includes film smuggled off the ship and seldom seen before, with a narration by Kevin.

Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution?

North Africa and the Global Political Awakening, Pt 1

By Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research

It seems as if the world is entering the beginnings of a new revolutionary era: the era of the ‘Global Political Awakening’ perceived as a threat by globalists, writes Andrew Gavin Marshall.

“For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive… The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination… The worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening… That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing… The nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious passions. These energies transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still perches…

Who’s afraid of a Palestinian State?

By Bob Row

On Feb.16 a summit to be held at Lima, Peru will be attended by nine South American leaders and eleven Arab chiefs of state to discuss a proposal of declaration by the first, recognizing an independent Palestinian State.

Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia  recently recognized a Palestine State along borders prior to the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Chile also did it, but without reference to a map. Others are yet to decide (Venezuela and Uruguay favor to agree).

Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre

At Countercurrents.org

We the Palestinians of the Besieged Gaza Strip, on this day, two years on from Israel’s genocidal attack on our families, our houses, our roads, our factories and our schools, are saying enough inaction, enough discussion, enough waiting – the time is now to hold Israel to account for its ongoing crimes against us.

US Warns Against Recognitions of Independent Palestine

Argentine FM Says Recognition None of US Business

By Jason Ditz
AntiWar.com

Speaking today in Santiago, Chile, Undersecretary of State William Burns condemned the moves by multiple South American nations to recognize Palestine as an independent nation, calling the moves “premature” and insisting such recognitions were unacceptable until Israel agreed to a two-state solution.

William Burns

The comment was not well greeted by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who expressed annoyance that “once again the United States has publicly expressed an opinion about sovereign actions taken by the Argentine Republic.”

John Pilger: ‘The Canadian Boat to Gaza is a vital exercise’



By Canadian Boat to Gaza

In addition to close to 100 organizations, a growing number of prominent individuals have endorsed the Canadian Boat to Gaza (CBG), including filmmakers John Greyson and Magnus Isacsson, Quebec Solidaire politician Amir Khadir, renown U.S. dissident Noam Chomsky and Mavi Marmara survivors Farooq Burney and Rifat Audeh.

One of the latest to sign up is John Pilger, the veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker.

Archbishop of Wales calls Israel treatment of Gaza apartheid

By BBC News

The Archbishop of Wales has urged church members to speak out on the ‘injustice’ of Gaza

In an address to a formal meeting of the Church in Wales, he compared the current stalemate between Israel and Palestine to apartheid in South Africa. He was also critical of Israel’s decision not to extend its ban on settlement building in the West Bank. 

Former Israeli guard makes documentary: Checkpoint

By Yoav Shamir
CounterCurrents

Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir once served his army reserve duty as a checkpoint guard, which was what inspired him to make this documentary, Checkpoint. For 80 minutes, Shamir simply shows us videotape of what happens at the various checkpoints that the Israeli government operates, which are in place to regulate the travel of Palestinians, purportedly in an effort to combat terrorism.