"Israeli Air Strikes On Gaza Is Terrorism"

President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an "act of terror" and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.

Bush chose his weekly taped radio address to speak for the first time about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades. It began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks.

"The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected," Bush said. "Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end."

More than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the latest offensive. The U.N. estimated Friday that a quarter of the Palestinians killed were civilians. In their waning days in power, Bush and Rice have been working the phones with world allies.

Bush offered no criticism of Israel, depicting the country's air assaults as a response to the attacks on its people. The White House will not comment on whether it views the Israeli response as proportionate or not to the scope of rockets attacks on Israel.

"This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction," Bush said.

The president said Hamas ultimately ended the latest cease-fire on Dec. 19 and "soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas."

Bush expressed deep concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. U.N. officials say Gaza's 1.5 million residents face an alarming situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with hospitals overcrowded and both fuel and food supplies growing scarce.

"By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people," Bush said. "America has helped by providing tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and this week we contributed an additional $85 million through the United Nations. We have consistently called on all in the region to ensure that assistance reaches those in need."

The White House has cautiously said Israel must be mindful of the toll its military strikes will have on civilians. Here, too, Bush blamed Hamas for hiding within the civilian population. "Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days," he said.

International calls for a cease-fire have been growing. Bush promised to stay engaged with U.S. partners in the Middle East and Europe and keep Obama updated. Obama is receiving the same intelligence reports on Gaza that Bush is.

Rice has spoken to both Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, about the situation at least once in the last week. Obama and Clinton have remained mum out of deference to Bush, who still has 18 days in office.

An Israeli airstrike has killed a top Hamas leader in Gaza.

An Israeli warplane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of Nizar Rayan. The blast is believed to have instantly killed Rayan, all 4 of his wives and 9 of his 12 children. Five other people were also killed.

Rayan was a professor of Islamic law and was known for personally participating in clashes with Israeli forces. He's also believed to have sent 1 of his sons on a 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israelis. Residents said he openly went to a nearby mosque Thursday morning to pray.

Once again, Israel seeks to defend the indefensible in an attempt to cloak its crimes against humanity with the mantle of self-defense. As its American-manufactured bombs and missiles pound a virtually unarmed starving population, Israeli officials appear on just about every satellite news network singing from the same propagandist song sheet.

It's all the fault of the terror organization Hamas which refused to renew the cease-fire, We have a duty to protect our citizens in the south from rockets and mortars. I've heard several saying "When we pulled out of Gaza we hoped Palestinians would forge a functioning territory but instead they chose terror." In answer to questions concerning so many civilian deaths, they all insist that Israel is carrying out surgical strikes against terror infrastructure or they will excuse Israel's bombardment of homes with civilians are hiding launchers in their houses.

Let's dissect these fabricated Israeli arguments.

First, whatever one thinks of Hamas and it ideology, it was elected to office in free and internationally-monitored elections that were forced upon the Palestinian people by Washington as part of the Bush administration's quest to democratize the Middle East.

Then, after congratulating the Palestinians on their new democracy, the US-led international community promptly condemned the new leadership as terrorist and threw its support behind Fatah, which was ordered to turn against Hamas. This divisive strategy worked to the extent Hamas was driven to Gaza where it has since struggled against all odds to provide its citizens with the barest minimum required to sustain life.

Those representatives of Israel who say since their country's pullout there was no obstacle to Gaza becoming a flourishing enclave are disingenuous when Gaza's borders are sealed and the people have no control over their coastline or airspace.

Even when the Fatah-controlled Palestinian National Authority managed Gaza, Israel did everything it could to destroy infrastructure including a $75 million airport built with donations from the EU, Japan and Morocco. And during this current round of attacks, ministries, government buildings, police stations and a police academy were bombed which does not support Israel’s supposed wish to see a functioning Gaza.

While it is true that Hamas refused to extend the cease-fire, what incentive does it have to do so while Israel is waging a war of attrition on the people in its care? It seems residents of Gaza must choose to die slowly from starvation and lack of medicines or at the hands of the Israeli war machine. Secondly, Israel is, indeed, duty-bound to protect its citizens but just look at the numbers. Very few crude homemade rockets have resulted in casualties. I believe only one Israeli has died during this current onslaught that has robbed the lives of over 320 Palestinians and wounded up to 1,000, not including those still buried beneath rubble. Once more, Israel's response has been disproportionate just as it was in 2006 when it slaughtered 1,200 Lebanese civilians in answer to Hezbollah's kidnapping of IDF soldiers.

Third, when it comes to Gaza, said to be one of the most densely populated areas of the world, there is no such thing as a surgical strike. Moreover, over half of Gaza's population are children under 18. Even the smartest smart bombs could not cherry-pick between resistance fighters and innocents in such a packed environment. The Israeli government knows this and doesn't care a jot, which translates to willful collective punishment, illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

But like its Washington master (or is it the other way around?) Israel is not constrained by international law or the Geneva Conventions that also require an occupying nation to provide for the well-being of people under its occupation and to respect their dignity. As the willful killing continues, Israel merrily ignores pleas from France, Russia, the UN, the EU and Britain to end the violence. Why should it do otherwise when it has proved time and time again that it is a law unto itself and immune from international punishment?

Unsurprisingly, the only message from the US to Israel is try to avoid civilian casualties, which is nothing more than lip service to international humanitarian sensitivities. In effect, the Bush administration has blessed this, by many accounts, long planned operation, cynically timed to begin during a political vacuum in Washington and close to upcoming elections when candidates need to prove they're tough to win votes. Tragically, there may be much worse to come. Israeli government officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has warned the offensive could be widened as tanks line up on the border with Gaza and 6,500 IDF reservists are on standby.

     Two wrongs never make a right. Hamas's acts of terrorism in the mortar attacks on Israel does not justify, by any moral standard, the air strikes on Gaza, the most reprehensible being dropping a one ton bomb on an occupied family dwelling. Fighter jets have no place in urban warfare because even with so called "precision bombing" civilian casualties are inevitable. President Bush is disgusting in his defense of Israel's terrorist air strikes on the civilian population of Gaza. President Elect Barack Obama is disgusting in his refusal to comment on Israel's actions, despite being given up to the minute intelligence briefings on Israel's actions. (Funny that Obama doesn't have a problem with commenting on the economy or Illinois politics) Fighting terrorism with terrorism only creates more terrorism, as I see it.

tags: gaza  israel  war on terror  war  warpeace  middle east  bush  barack obama  gaza air strikes  politics  

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