31 de marzo de 2008

80-Year-Old Deacon Arrested at Mall for Antiwar T-Shirt

In Long Island, New York, an eighty-year-old church deacon was removed from a shopping mall Saturday and arrested after he refused to remove a t-shirt protesting the Iraq war. Deacon Don Zirkel was handing out antiwar pamphlets when he was approached by security guards at the Smith Haven Mall. The guards placed him under citizen’s arrest after he refused orders to turn his t-shirt inside out. When the local police arrived they charged him with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.

Military Drops Another Haditha Prosecution

Military prosecutors have dropped all charges against a Marine accused of killing twenty-four unarmed Iraqis, including women and children in Haditha in 2005. Lance Cpl Stephen Tatum became the fifth Haditha defendant out of eight to see charges dropped in a case that brought international condemnation on US troops in Iraq. Tatum initially faced charges of unpremeditated murder and negligent homicide. One Marine testified that Tatum told him to shoot a group of Iraqi women and children he found on a bed in a closed room. That Marine said he walked away but saw Tatum return and heard a loud noise, possibly gunfire or a grenade.

Report: US Air Strike Kills Eight Civilians in Basra

As the Iraqi military struggled in Basra, the US military stepped up its direct involvement by carrying out multiple air raids. Iraqi police reported eight civilians were killed. Saturday when a US warplane strafed a home in the southern part of Basra.

25 de marzo de 2008

Testigos hablan sobre ataque mortal estadounidense en Afganistán

En Afganistán, testigos están hablando sobre el último ataque mortal de Estados Unidos contra civiles afganos. Seis miembros de una familia murieron el miércoles, cuando fuerzas estadounidenses atacaron una localidad del sureste del país.

Una familiar dijo: “Los estadounidenses los mataron durante la noche, no cometieron ningún delito, ellos [los estadounidenses] los mataron dentro de su habitación”.

Un residente dijo: “Helicópteros estadounidenses dejaron a los soldados, los soldados ingresaron a las casas y mataron a todos los que hallaron. Martirizaron a tres miembros de una familia, incluso a un niño. Una mujer está herida, y en la segunda casa una mujer, un niño y su padre fueron martirizados”.

Dos de los muertos eran niños de no más de 10 años de edad. Los testigos dicen que dispararon balas a la cabeza y el pecho. El ataque tuvo lugar un día después de que legisladores afganos dijeron que treinta personas, entre ellos civiles, murieron en un ataque aéreo de la OTAN en la provincia de Helmand. El informe no fue verificado en forma independiente.

Ex-soldados revelan nuevos detalles de maltratos en Abu Ghraib

Hay nuevas denuncias de maltratos en prisiones estadounidenses en el extranjero. Una denuncia que será publicada en la revista The New Yorker dice que prisioneros en la prisión iraquí de Abu Ghraib fueron sumergidos en latas de basura repletas de agua helada y eran colocados desnudos en duchas heladas a temperaturas muy bajas hasta que quedaban en estado de shock. El sargento Javal Davis le dijo a The New Yorker que algunos prisioneros no eran alimentados durante varios días antes de ser interrogados. El sargento Davis también dice que sospechaba que prisioneros estaban siendo cremados en la prisión luego de ver un incinerador que contenía huesos humanos. Otra soldado, Sabrina Harman, dijo que Estados Unidos encarceló a mujeres y niños en Abu Ghraib, entre ellos a un niño de 10 años. Harman se hizo tristemente célebre por aparecer en una fotografía posando encima del cadáver de un prisionero, que ahora dice que cree que fue torturado hasta la muerte.

Prisionero de Guantánamo: Interrogadores estadounidenses amenazaron con violar a prisioneros

En Bahía de Guantánamo, el prisionero de 20 años Omar Khadr dice que funcionarios estadounidenses amenazaron con violarlo como técnica de interrogatorio. En una declaración recientemente revelada, Khadr dice que recibió varias amenazas de violación desde que está preso hace seis años. Khadr tenía 15 años en el momento de su captura.

Número de estadounidenses muertos en Irak llega a cuatro mil
En Irak, el número de soldados estadounidenses que fueron asesinados superó los cuatro mil. El domingo, una bomba casera causó la muerte de cuatro soldados estadounidenses mientras patrullaban el sur de Bagdad.

Murieron 58 iraquíes; la Zona Verde fue bombardeada
Mientras tanto, al menos 58 iraquíes murieron el domingo; trece de ellos fallecieron cuando la Zona Verde, que está intensamente fortificada, fue bombardeada con morteros. El bombardeo fue descrito como uno de los peores y más prolongados en la región controlada por Estados Unidos durante el último año. En la ciudad de Mosul, en el norte de Irak, doce soldados iraquíes murieron cuando un atacante suicida hizo estallar un camión bomba al paso de las tropas de guarnición. Otros cuatro soldados iraquíes murieron cuando estalló una bomba al costado de una carretera en las Montañas de Hamrin.

Informe: Estados Unidos exhortará a Gran Bretaña a implementar aumento de soldados en Basora
Mientras tanto, el Sunday Mirror de Londres informa que Estados Unidos planea exhortar a Gran Bretaña a que implemente un aumento de soldados en Basora para combatir la creciente violencia en la región sureña de Irak. Gran Bretaña le entregó el control de Basora a las fuerzas iraquíes en diciembre, pero ahora se le podría solicitar que retome su papel.

Ex diplomático dice que Estados Unidos presionó y espió a aliados previo a la guerra de 2003
El ex embajador chileno ante la Organización de las Naciones Unidas reveló nuevos detalles sobre cómo el gobierno de Bush presionó a sus aliados para que apoyaran la invasión de 2003 a Irak. Según Heraldo Muñoz, Estados Unidos amenazó con tomar represalias comerciales contra los países amigos que negaran su apoyo, espió a sus aliados y presionó para que se destituyera a los enviados de la ONU que se resistían a apoyar la guerra. Muñoz dice que la estrategia diplomática generó “rencor” y “gran desconfianza” que aún perdura en las relaciones de Washington con sus aliados en Latinoamérica y Europa. El ex diplomático chileno afirma que Bush personalmente presionó a los líderes de seis naciones en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU: Angola, Camerún, Chile, Guinea, México y Pakistán. Cuando Chile intentó mediar un acuerdo para retrasar las acciones militares, quien era el embajador de Estados Unidos en aquel entonces, John Negroponte, junto al ex Secretario de Estado Colin Powell, rápidamente tomaron medidas para anular la iniciativa.

Bush es acusado de mentir sobre programa nuclear de Irán
El Presidente Bush fue acusado de mentirle directamente al pueblo iraní sobre las ambiciones nucleares de Irán. En una entrevista realizada el jueves, Bush dijo: “Declararon que querían tener un arma nuclear para destruir a personas, algunas del Medio Oriente”. La entrevista fue emitida por Radio Farda, que es financiada por el gobierno estadounidense y trasmite en Irán en idioma persa. Los comentarios de Bush contradicen directamente las opiniones de la Evaluación de Inteligencia Nacional. Varios analistas de política exterior acusaron a Bush de tergiversar la verdad. Joseph Cirincione, del Fondo Ploughshares, dijo: “Irán nunca dijo que quería un arma nuclear por ningún motivo. Simplemente no es cierto”. La ex funcionaria del Departamento de Estado Suzanne Maloney afirmó: “El gobierno iraní siempre ha dicho que no quiere un arma nuclear”. Mientras tanto, el Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos exhortó a las instituciones financieras internacionales a que se abstengan de hacer negocios con prácticamente todos los bancos iraníes. El Financial Times describió esta acción como el mayor intento del gobierno de Bush por aislar económicamente a Teherán.

24 de marzo de 2008

Cheney On Two-Thirds Of The American Public Opposing The Iraq War: ‘So?’

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, ABC’s Good Morning America aired an interview with Vice President Cheney on the war. During the segment, Cheney flatly told White House correspondent Martha Raddatz that he doesn’t care about the American public’s views on the war:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

17 de marzo de 2008

Bush “envidia” a soldados estadounidenses en Afganistán

El Presidente Bush le dijo a soldados estadounidenses en Afganistán que sentía “un poco de envidia” de ellos. En una videoconferencia la semana pasada, Bush afirmó: “Si fuera un poco más joven y no tuviera este trabajo, creo que sería una experiencia maravillosa estar en la línea de combate para ayudar a que esta joven democracia tenga éxito”.
Bush continuó diciendo: “Debe ser emocionante para ustedes... de algún modo romántico, de algún modo, ya saben, enfrentar el peligro. Ustedes realmente están haciendo historia, gracias”.

13 de marzo de 2008

Bush: Atacar Irak “siempre será la decisión correcta”

La semana que viene se cumplirá el quinto aniversario de la invasión estadounidense a Irak. En el primero de varios discursos programados para coincidir con dicho aniversario, el Presidente Bush dijo que su decisión de invadir siempre será la decisión correcta.

El Presidente Bush dijo: “La decisión de sacar a Saddam Hussein fue la decisión correcta al comienzo de mi mandato, es la decisión correcta en este momento de mi mandato y siempre será la decisión correcta”.

Bush hizo estos comentarios ante una conferencia de las Emisoras Religiosas Nacionales en Nashville, Tennessee.

12 de marzo de 2008

Estudio exhaustivo no halló pruebas de vínculos entre Saddam Hussein y Bin Laden

En otra noticia de Irak, un nuevo estudio del Pentágono no halló pruebas de que existiera vinculación entre Saddam Hussein y Osama Bin Laden. El estudio analizó cientos de miles de documentos iraquíes obtenidos durante la invasión estadounidense en Irak. En septiembre de 2002, el entonces Secretario de Defensa Donald Rumsfeld dijo que el gobierno de Bush tenía pruebas “fehacientes” de cooperación entre Al Qaeda e Irak.

Exhaustive Review Finds No Saddam-bin Laden Ties

In other Iraq news, a new Pentagon review has found no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The study analyzed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi documents captured following the US invasion of Iraq. In September 2002, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Bush administration had “bulletproof” evidence of cooperation between al-Qaeda and Iraq.

7 de marzo de 2008

La Situación humanitaria en Gaza es la peor desde 1967

Una coalición de grupos de derechos humanos dice que la situación humanitaria de Gaza ahora es la peor que se ha vivido desde 1967. Amnistía Internacional, Save the Children, Care International y Christian Aid se unieron para criticar el bloqueo israelí de Gaza, al que calificaron como un castigo colectivo ilegal que no brinda seguridad. Más de 1.1 millones de residentes de Gaza ahora dependen de la ayuda alimentaria.
Geoffrey Dennis, de Care International, dijo: “A menos que el bloqueo termine ahora, será imposible sacar a Gaza del desastre y cualquier esperanza de lograr la paz en la región se desvanecerá”.
Desde la semana pasada las fuerzas israelíes mataron a más de 120 palestinos en Gaza. Durante el mismo período de tiempo murieron cuatro israelíes.

A DEFEATED POLICY, NOT A DEFEATED PEOPLE

By Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 7 March 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9381.shtml

Compared with the international silence that surrounded
Israel's recent massacres of Palestinian civilians in the
Occupied Gaza Strip, condemnation and condolences for the
victims of the shooting attack that killed eight students
at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem has been swift.

"I have just spoken with [Israeli] Prime Minister [Ehud]
Olmert to extend my deepest condolences to the victims,
their families, and to the people of Israel," US President
George W. Bush said. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
added his "condemnation" and "condolences," as did EU High
Representative Javier Solana.

The day before the Jerusalem attack, Amira Abu 'Aser was
buried in Gaza. She had lived just 20 days on this earth
before being shot in the head by Israeli occupation forces
who attacked the house of friends she and her family were
visiting. Needless to say, she had not been firing rockets
at Sderot when she was killed. One of the house's
inhabitants was found the next day, shot dead and his head
crushed by an army jeep, an apparent victim of an
extrajudicial murder by Israeli forces.
(http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9375.shtml)

But confirming their status in the eyes of the
"international community" as less than complete human
beings, neither Amira's killing, nor any of the dozens of
Palestinian civilian victims of Israel's onslaught in Gaza
have merited condemnation or condolences.

The fallacy that lies behind the differential concern for
the lives of innocent Israelis and Palestinians is that
the massacre in Jerusalem and the massacres in Gaza can be
separated. Israeli deaths are "terrorism," while
Palestinian deaths are merely an unfortunate consequence
of the fight against "terrorism." But the two are
intricately linked, and what happened in Jerusalem is a
direct consequence of what Israel has been doing to the
Palestinians for decades.

Let me be clear that the killing of civilians, Israeli or
Palestinian, is wrong, repugnant, and cannot bring this
one-hundred-year war caused by the Zionist colonization of
Palestine to an end. There will be an Israeli propaganda
effort -- as always -- to present Palestinian violence as
being simply motivated by hatred, and divorced from the
context of brutal occupation that Palestinians live under.
What greater proof could you need than an attack on
religious students, devoting their life to the study of
the Torah?

We cannot expect much analysis in the media of why the
Mercaz HaRav yeshiva might have been chosen as a target.
Was it mere coincidence that the school, named for Rabbi
Abraham Isaac Kook, and led after his death by his son
Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, is the ideological cradle of the
militant, Jewish supremacist settler movement Gush Emunim?

Unlike other sects in Israel which sought exemption of
their students from military service, Gush Emunim
encouraged its followers to join the army and become the
armed wing of religious nationalist Zionism. Gush Emunim
settlers, many of them, like Moshe Levinger, graduates of
Mercaz HaRav, founded the most extreme and racist
settlements in the Occupied West Bank, including the
notorious colonies in and near Hebron whose inhabitants
have made life miserable for Palestinians in the city and
forced many of them out of their homes. It is the militant
settlers of Gush Emunim who still honor Baruch Goldstein
who murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in February 1994.
It is in Hebron that the Gush Emunim settlers spray "Arabs
to the gas chambers" on Palestinian houses.

It is possible that the Mercaz HaRav gunman did not know
or care about any of this, that any target he could
identify as Israeli would have satisfied his desire to
exact revenge.

In 2002, Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon declared that
"the Palestinians must be made to understand in the
deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a
defeated people." This would be achieved by the massive
and constant application of force until they got the
message. The same philosophy was elaborated in 2004 by
Professor Arnon Soffer, one of the architects, with former
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, of the 2005 Gaza
"disengagement."

Soffer, an avid supporter of turning Gaza into a
hermetically-sealed pen for unwanted Palestinians,
explained that if Palestinians fire a single rocket over
the fence into Israel, "we will fire 10 in response. And
women and children will be killed, and houses will be
destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian
mothers won't allow their husbands to shoot Qassams
[rockets], because they will know what's waiting for
them."

Soffer predicted that in a few years' time, "when 2.5
million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be
a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger
animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane
fundamentalist Islam." With Palestinians closed in, "The
pressure at the border will be awful," Soffer predicted.
"It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain
alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day,
every day."

To be fair, Soffer did display a human side: "The only
thing that concerns me is how to ensure that the boys and
men who are going to have to do the killing will be able
to return home to their families and be normal human
beings" ("It's the demography, stupid," The Jerusalem
Post, 21 May 2004).

For decades Israel has been exercizing with
ever-escalating brutality this deliberate strategy to
crush through force and starvation a civilian population
in rebellion against colonial rule. To Israel's vexation,
the Palestinians are not playing their part. After sixty
years of expulsions, massacres, assassinations of their
leaders, colonization, torture, and mass imprisonment, the
Palestinians have utterly failed to understand that they
are a "defeated people."

The vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza and the West
Bank endure unprecedented oppression by the Israeli army
and settlers without resorting to violence in response,
but they maintain an inextinguishable determination to
endure until they regain their rights. If the methods the
Palestinian resistance has sometimes used are
reprehensible, they have also been typical for
anti-colonial resistance movements throughout time, as
William Polk shows in his book Violent Politics: A History
of Insurgency, Terrorism and Guerilla War from the
American Revolution to Iraq, and Robert Pape demonstrated
through his study of suicide bombing in Dying to Win.

Is it not time for the rest of the world to step in and
force Israel at last to understand the same thing, so that
the senseless bloodshed can finally stop and all the
people of the country -- Israelis and Palestinians -- can
begin to imagine a future other than an endless parade of
funerals?

--
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is
author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the
Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

1 de marzo de 2008

Estados Unidos despliega buques de guerra cerca de la costa libanesa

En otras noticias del Medio Oriente, Estados Unidos desplegó tres buques de guerra, entre ellos el USS Cole, cerca de las costas de Líbano. Las autoridades estadounidenses dicen que los buques fueron enviados para apoyar la “estabilidad regional” en medio del actual estancamiento político interno de Líbano.

Iraquíes protestan contra ataque estadounidense

En Irak, cientos de manifestantes salieron a las calles de Bagdad el jueves para protestar por un ataque estadounidense contra un barrio sunita. Dos mujeres fueron arrestadas cuando soldados estadounidenses ingresaron a sus hogares.
Una residente de Bagdad dijo: “Condenamos las acciones de las fuerzas estadounidenses. Irrumpieron en hogares a medianoche, haciendo explotar las puertas y los techos de las casas. Casas de familias pacíficas. Los atacaron porque si, y arrestaron a mujeres. Ellos dicen que creen en la democracia, entonces ¿por qué hicieron esto?”.

Ministro israelí amenaza a Gaza con “holocausto”

En Israel y los Territorios Ocupados, al menos dieciocho palestinos han muerto en los incesantes ataques israelíes contra la Franja de Gaza. Entre los palestinos que fallecieron el jueves se encontraban cuatro jóvenes que fueron bombardeados mientras jugaban al fútbol. El más joven tenía tan sólo ocho años. Otro niño palestino fue asesinado junto a dos civiles adultos. Las autoridades palestinas dicen que también murieron al menos nueve militantes palestinos. Al menos 31 palestinos, entre ellos nueve niños, han perecido en los últimos dos días de ataques israelíes. Israel dice que está respondiendo a los ataques con cohetes palestinos. El jueves se lanzaron 45 cohetes desde Gaza. Un israelí falleció esta semana en la localidad de Sderot, marcando la decimotercera muerte de un israelí por causa de los cohetes palestinos en los últimos siete años. Una joven de 17 años resultó levemente herida el jueves, cuando se lanzaron cohetes palestinos contra la localidad israelí de Ashkelon. El Ministro de Defensa de Israel, Ehud Barak, está advirtiendo sobre una posible invasión israelí a gran escala de Gaza. En lo que podría ser algo sin precedentes para un funcionario israelí, el Viceministro de Defensa, Matan Vilnai, amenazó con un “holocausto” en Gaza si continúan los ataques con cohetes. Vilnai dijo: “Cuanto más se intensifique el fuego de cohetes Qassam y cuanto más alcance tengan estos cohetes, mayor será el holocausto que [los palestinos] provocarán sobre ellos mismos, porque utilizaremos todas nuestras fuerzas para defendernos”. Una encuesta de opinión realizada esta semana indica que el 64% de los israelíes están a favor de un cese del fuego con Hamas, el porcentaje más elevado hasta la fecha. Hamas ha presentando varias propuestas para una tregua, pero el gobierno israelí las ha rechazado.

Israeli minister threatens "holocaust" as public demand ceasefire talks

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 29 February 2008


Israeli officials began damage limitation efforts after the country's deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a "holocaust."

The comments came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for a barrage of rockets fired by resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip which killed one Israeli in the town of Sderot on Wednesday, 27 February. Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, said the rockets were in retaliation for the extrajudicial execution of five Hamas members carried out by Israel on Wednesday morning. Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians since the US-sponsored Annapolis peace summit last November. In the same period, five Israelis have been killed by Palestinians.

Speaking to Israeli army radio today, Vilnai said, "the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."

A report on the BBC News website headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'" noted that the word "holocaust" -- shoah in Hebrew -- is "a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II."

The BBC later reported that "many of Mr. Vilnai's colleagues have quickly distanced themselves from his comments and also tried to downplay them saying he did not mean genocide." An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, claimed that Vilnai used the word "in the sense of a disaster or a catastrophe, and not in the sense of a holocaust."

The attempt to limit the damage of Vilnai's comments is not surprising. It was recently revealed how another Israeli official, Major-General Doron Almog, narrowly escaped arrest at London's Heathrow airport in September 2005, in connection with allegations of war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. British police feared a gunfight if they attempted to board the El Al civilian aircraft on which Almog had arrived and on which he hid until he fled the United Kingdom back to Israel as a fugitive from justice.

Incitement to genocide is a punishable crime under the international Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948 after the Nazi holocaust.

"The 8 Stages of Genocide," written by Greg Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, sets out a number of warning signs of an impending genocide, which include "dehumanization" of potential victim groups and preparation, whereby potential victims "are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved." [1]

Vilnai's holocaust threat, however much Israeli officials attempt to qualify it, fits into a consistent pattern of belligerent statements and actions by Israeli officials. Israel has attempted to isolate the population of Gaza, deliberately restricting essential supplies, such as food, medicines and energy, a policy endorsed by the Israeli high court but condemned by international officials as illegal collective punishment.

As The Electronic Intifada has previously reported, dehumanizing statements by Israeli political and religious leaders directed at Palestinians are common (see "Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide," The Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2007 and "Dehumanizing the Palestinians," Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 21 September 2007)

On 28 February, Vilnai's colleagues added their own inflammatory statements. Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit stated that Israel should "hit everything that moves" in Gaza "with weapons and ammunition," adding, "I don't think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us."

And today, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party said that Israel should invade Gaza to "topple the Hamas terror regime" and that Israeli forces, which now enforce the occupation of Gaza from the periphery and air, should prepare to remain in the interior of the territory "for years."

While Israeli leaders escalate the violence and threats, some other top officials and a vast majority of the Israeli public support direct talks with Hamas to achieve a mutual ceasefire, something Hamas has repeatedly offered for months.

"Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with
the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive
soldier Gilad Shalit," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on 27 February citing a Tel Aviv University poll. The report noted that half of Likud supporters and large majorities of Kadima and Labor party voters support such talks and only 28 percent of Israelis still oppose them.

Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, leader of the left-Zionist Meretz-Yahad party, called for an agreed ceasefire with Hamas, noting that "there have been at least two requests from Hamas, via a third party, to accept a cease-fire," Haaretz reported on 29 February. Israel's public security minister, Avi Dichter, visiting Sderot the previous day, criticized Israel's military escalation, saying, "Whoever talks about entering and occupying the Gaza Strip, these are populist ideas which I don't connect to, and in my opinion, no intelligent person does either." And, in an interview with the American magazine Mother Jones, published on 19 February, the former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Efraim Halevy, repeated calls for Israel and the US to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas. Dismissing lurid rhetoric about the group, Halevy stated that "Hamas is not al-Qaida," and "is not subservient to Tehran."

The question remains as to why when the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians, some senior Israeli officials, and Hamas leaders are all talking about a ceasefire, the Israeli government refuses to accept one and the US refuses to call for one. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has blamed the escalating bloodshed entirely on Hamas, and has failed to call for a ceasefire. This echoes her support for Israel's merciless 2006 bombardment of Lebanon which she notoriously celebrated as being "the birth pangs of a new Middle East."

The Palestinian and Israeli populations are exhausted by the relentless bloodshed, however unequal its toll. They are paying the price of a failed policy, pushed by Washington and its local clients, which attempts to demonize, isolate and destroy any movement that resists the order that the United States seeks to impose on the region.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).