Eight days after the end of the ceasefire, over 150 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip have been killed by rocket attacks from Israeli F16 aircraft. Palestinian sources report severe damage to housing and infrastructure and heavy civilian casualties. Over 200 people were wounded in attacks that the BBC estimated were the heaviest since 2000. Many of the ‘non-civilian’ casualties were from the Gaza police force, whose commander was also killed. Avi Benayahu, an Israeli military spokesman boasted; "the operation against Hamas is only just beginning."
Israeli propaganda, as usual dutifully parroted by western media sources, claims this is only "retaliation" – due to the expiry of a six month Hamas truce on December 19, and subsequent rocket attacks on Israel. They fail to mention that before the Israeli Defence Force aerial onslaught began not a single Israeli casualty had occurred.
They also do not point out that the truce itself was not renewed in large measure because of Israeli intransigence, as evidenced by a massive tightening of the siege of Gaza from early November onwards. Nor do they point out that in the period of the "ceasefire" Israel has carried out several deadly air raids during this period.
The reason for Israel's onslaught has little or nothing to do with Hamas militancy. It has everything to do with an upcoming Israeli election in which all the main parties are trying to outdo one another in pledges to crush Hamas. On 24 December Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, a leadership candidate for her party Kadima in the February election, indicated that a major Israeli military operation in Gaza was at hand.
Speaking to a party meeting she emphasized the objective of the onslaught — the removal of the elected Hamas leadership in Gaza: "We left Gaza, but we didn't leave our fate and future with Hamas."
The inhumane blockade of Gaza by Israel has lasted nearly three years. The Israelis prevent much needed supplies and essentials from getting into the Gaza Strip. The affect of this has been rates of malnutrition similar to those of sub-Saharan Africa; in fact malnutrition now affects 75 per cent of Gazans. The infrastructure for 1.5 million people is in a state of complete collapse. Raw sewage runs in the streets. The only power plant was destroyed by Israeli jets. Oil supplies have been cut to a fraction of what is needed to sustain normal life.
Sonic booms associated with Israeli over-flights have caused widespread deafness among children. Gazans now require thousands of hearing aids. The majority of children in Gaza suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and even more severe mental problems are widespread.
In short. the people of Gaza are being subjected to a genocidal attack. Yet western governments make only the mildest of reproofs at such war crimes, always balancing them by condemnations of their victims for daring to resist.
It is an outrage too that the official labour movements in Europe and North America say little or nothing on the issue beyond obscene appeals to "both sides" to stop fighting and make "peace."
It is plain that it is Israel that is a ‘rogue state’. It attacks and terrorises an almost defenceless population with weapons of mass destruction, without even the flimsiest claim to the backing of ‘international law’. If such actions were undertaken by any other state, outside the G8 club, it would be subject to sanctions and threats of intervention. Yet the Zionist state’s manifest aim is to crush all resistance to its occupation of Palestinian land, ceaselessly increasing the West Bank areas stolen by its settlers, and to fragment the remaining Palestinian population, making the hope of a Palestinian state into a nightmare of a series of open air prison camps, surrounded and patrolled by the Israeli Defence Force.
Yet Israel is not a rogue state if by this it is meant that that it acts out of some inner madness. Despite all the calls from Bush – and Obama too – for a peace deal, Israel is doing a vital job for US imperialism and its European allies in the Middle East. That is why they do not seriously condemn it. It is why they do not stop it, however brutal its action. Since Israel is totally dependent on US and European subvention they could do so instantaneously if they so wished. Why? Because it is an instrument for dividing and weakening the entire Arab world for the purpose of exploiting its oil reserves.
Around the world all progressive forces should protest the murderous Israeli attacks on Gaza, demanding their immediate cessation and the unconditional lifting of the siege of its people. Food, fuel, medical supplies and communications must be restored at once. Around the world Israel embassies and institutions of western governments which aid and abet such murderous actions should be targeted for mass demonstrations and pickets. Workers in transport and communications should impose a total embargo until these demands are met.
Please read the League's new action programme for the liberation of Palestine below: