Gaza and Israel

[Oscar]

Sent for publishing January 12, 2009

Gaza and Israel

To the Editor,

As I, along with other warmly dressed, well fed Canadians, filled our shopping carts in our local food store, scenes of the horror and destruction of lives and property in that little strip of land known as Gaza kept crossing my mind.

Gaza borders the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians, many are refugees from other parts of the region. 80 per cent of Gaza's working force is unemployed. There is a great deal of poverty and unrest in Gaza. This has prompted Ron Paul, who is a Republican and was a nominee in the recent presidential election, to make this statement about the attacks on Gaza in the House of Representatives: "But I am appalled by the long-standing Israeli blockade of Gaza,--a cruel act of war"

Most of us have seen the media pictures of the rockets being fired into Israel, and the indiscriminate disproportionate bombing, [as if any of this is humanely justified] of the urban areas of Gaza. To date, over 700 Palestinians have been killed, thousands have been injured including many civilians.

To understand the desperation and hopelessness of the Palestinian people of this region, historians tell us that the roots of the present strife began in the late 1800's, when Jewish travelers visited the biblical areas of the holy land, and romanticized about the eventual coming together of the widely dispersed Christian Zionists to the "promised land", which they deemed to be the will of Divine Providence.

The decline of the German Ottoman empire after WW1 saw Great Britain become the jurisdictional power of that region of the Middle East. With the help of Britain, Christian Zionist Theodor Herzl initiated and provided financial help in establishing Jewish settlements in the land that is now known as Israel since 1948. Naturally, many Palestinians resented the take-over.

In the Israel/ Palestine war of 1967, Israel also took over the West Bank from Jordon, and the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem from Egypt.

Christian Zionist's fundamentalists have a large supportive base in the USA. They have allied their religious beliefs of the End Times, i.e., Armageddon, to some of Israeli's political interests who share similar beliefs. This has worked well for the US administration, who has always viewed Israel as the primary base in their aggressive struggle to be the planet's undisputed world power. The US has invested heavily in making Israel the fourth largest military power in the world. Part of that plan was to maintain access to the largest oil resources in the Middle East..

About 20 per cent of the citizens of Israel oppose the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. The US and its allies have demanded that Palestinians unilaterally and without question recognize Israel as a sovereign state. However, Israel has never recognized the right of Palestinians to have a sovereign state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, or for that matter anywhere else in the region.

Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268,
Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1BO
Phone (306) 256 3638

[Oscar]

The Goldstone Report

November 17, 2009

To the Editor,

The following is a quote from General Smedley Butler [Ret. USMC, 1881-1940]: " I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession, I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspension while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service"

Earlier this year, South Africa's Ambassador to the United Nations [UN], Justice Richard Goldstone, a distinguished Jewish jurist, investigated and presented his report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict which included the 14 day Israeli invasion of Gaza early in 2009.

The result of that military exchange caused the death of 4 Israeli citizens, as well as some injuries caused by explosive rockets launched by Palestinians into southern Israel. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed while invading Gaza, 4 of the 9 died due to "friendly" fire. The number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military is estimated at around 1300, with approximately 1200 injured. There also was extensive property damage to civilian and public buildings in Gaza.

The ferocity of the Israeli attack on Gaza caused many observers to call for charges against Israel for war crimes. Israel has the world's 4th largest military force, while the Palestinians apparently have few
defensive weapons.

It is important that allegations for war crimes should not generally be levelled against civilians. They should be properly filed against the country's political leaders and their military officers.

The Goldstone report was rejected in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 344 to 36, while 22 representatives declined to vote. In the UN Assembly, the Goldstone Report was accepted by 114 countries, while 44 countries did not vote and 18 countries, including Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Israel, the US and Canada, rejected the report. It appears that Harper and company would like to be seen as part of the US.

The Ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, once stated: "Justice in the life of the state is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens". Coincidently, America's intellectual statesman, Noam Chomsky, speaking recently in London England, echoed Plato's wisdom but added that there is still the problem of eliminating the veto power, in particular of the US and Britain, on the Security Council of the United Nations.

Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1BO
Phone: (306) 256 3638