LPAC 25 Gennaio 2009

As the horrors of the destruction by the Israeli government in Gaza continue to be uncovered--with TV footage of entire neighborhoods levelled to piles of rubble--one of the "elders" of U.S.-Israeli relations, historian Henry Siegman, a Rabbi, who served as a U.S. Army Chaplain in the Korean War, wrote a profound commentary for the upcoming Jan. 29th edition of the London Review of Books.

Siegman, the former director of the American Jewish Congress, has been very active since the U.S. election, pulling together working groups involving senior figures like Gen. Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, both of whom have been advisors to President Obama during the campaign and transition. In early October, Siegman participated in a conference in London with Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal to try to reopen and bring to fruition the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. Siegman supports a sovereign Palestinian state--to be made the highest priority by the U.S.; a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace agreement; and immediately moving on the Israel-Syria track.

In his article, "Gaza: The Lies of War," Siegman spells out the same point that Lyndon LaRouche described from the very beginning of the Gaza Operation Cast Lead, when LaRouche said it may be the greatest strategic blunder every made by Israel, possibly even an "existential blunder."

Siegman blasts the lying, and writes, "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 defense but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network."

No! says Siegman, who already told the CFR in 2006 that Hamas could participate in, and deliver a peace agreement. The truth is the 2008 truce "was seriously violated on 4 November, when the IDF entered Gaza and killed six members of Hamas. Hamas responded by launching Qassam rockets and Grad missiles. Even so, it offered to extend the truce, but only on condition that Israel ended its blockade. Israel refused. It could have met its obligation to protect its citizens by agreeing to ease the blockade, but it didn't even try."

The best thing about this article is that Siegman does not limit his commentary to the events since Dec. 19 when the hudna ended, nor to the six month truce--it is far more complicated.

He even goes back to the history of liberation movements writing, "Israel's government would like the world to believe that Hamas launched his Qassam rockets because that is what terrorists do ....  In fact, Hamas is no more a `terror organization' (Israel's preferred term) than the Zionist movement was during its struggle for a Jewish Homeland." Quoting author Benny Morris, author of "Righteous Victims," "it was the Irgun that first targeted civilians."

This is not the only commentary of this sort now coming out around the world, there is more to come as the investigations of the use of phosphorous bombs and the targetting of civilians is further uncovered.

As LaRouche reiterated in his January 22nd webcast, this is all a consequence of continuing to tolerate the empire's Sykes-Picot agreement.

Source > LPAC | January 23, 2009