BY JAMES PETRAS
Bulatlat.com

“Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”(General Moshe Dayan, Former Israeli Defense Minister)

“Army Chief Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-story buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired at Haifa.” (Israeli Army Radio, July 24,2006)

“I think it’s important that we not fall into the trap of moral equivalency here. What Hezbollah has done is kidnap Israeli soldiers and rain rockets and mortar shells on Israeli civilians. What Israel has done in response is act in self-defense.” (US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton)

“Israeli leaders could be charged with war crimes.” (Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, July 2006)

“The Third World War…has already started. What we’re seeing today in the Middle East is a chapter of it.” (Daniel Gillerman, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, July 2006)

“Israel is the biggest threat to peace in the eyes of most Europeans.” (Poll conducted by the European Union in early 2006)

Kristalnacht, the 1939 Nazi assault on Jewish homes, stores and persons in “reprisal” for a Jew killing a German Embassy officer, was a garden party compared to the Jewish State’s ongoing destruction of Lebanon. The Nazi “reprisal” led to the killing of several Jews and property damage in the millions of dollars. Israel’s murder and destruction toll now includes over 400 Lebanese civilians dead, thousands maimed, 750,000 (some say 900,000) refugees, hundreds of destroyed apartment buildings, thousands of homes, schools, factories, aqueducts, water and sewage treatment facilities, churches and mosques, radio and television stations, all the major bridges and highways, the airports and ports – in fact anything and anybody standing, hiding or fleeing for safety.

Israel’s deliberate “total blockade” in addition to its carpet-bombing has created a humanitarian catastrophe for 2.5 million Lebanese, including the 750,000 refugees. According to the Financial Times, “The humanitarian situation has been made worse by an Israeli sea and air blockade and the targeting of roads and bridges that hinder the distribution of aid, both to the refugees and to the people who have stayed behind.” (Financial Times July 25, 2006 p.3) Refugees tell of days of Israeli shelling, shortages of water and food, power outages and cut phone lines. Even more sinister many refugees “recount how they were first told by Israel to leave, only to be hit by Israeli shelling on the road to safety” (Financial Times ibid)

All the major Jewish organizations in the US, Europe and Canada pledge fealty to the Israeli state and endorse its crimes against humanity as do all the mass media; they influence or control the US Congress, executive branch and trade union confederations in the US. The “Big Lie” of Israeli “reprisals” has been repeated so often in the media and in official circles that it is taken as an accepted fact. If we return to the “ancient history” of July 12, 2006, we discover that Hezbollah attacked an Israeli Army post on the border with Lebanon – a military target with no civilian significance. Immediately after this localized military incident, Prime Minister Olmert ordered massive bombing of Beirut and civilian targets throughout Lebanon. After Israel’s carpet-bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout Lebanon, Hezbollah responded on July 14, 2006 by “declaring war” on Israel, namely bombing Israeli cities. On July 14, 2006 the Jewish Lobby propaganda and power machine went into action criticizing Bush over his concern for the Lebanese client regime, which the White House had so laboriously put in place (Forward July 14, 2006).

Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, sharply attacked Bush for asking Tel Aviv to show restraint and not undermine Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora. The Conference of the Major American Jewish Organizations put its 52 groups into action. Bush quickly backtracked and forgot about his Lebanese client. Israel and the “52 Groups” pushed the US to supply more five-ton bombs for its bombers to drop on a defenseless country without a functioning air force. The leading ideologues of the Jewish Lobby pushed for the US to bomb Iran and Syria, the “hand behind Hezbollah” – hoping to start Israeli Ambassador Gillerman’s World War Three.

The unanimity of the major Jewish organizations support for Israeli ethnocide extends to the “peace time” Israeli peace organizations and progressives like Amos Oz, who calls on Israel’s peace organizations to close ranks behind the butchers of Beirut in the name of the “defense” of Israel.

As Washington rushes a new supply of five-ton bombs and “precision missiles,” there can be no doubt that the Israeli leaders’ destruction of the civilian homes, apartments and infrastructure is a precisely calculated target (BBC News July 23, 2006). As precision-guided missiles are playing a key part in Israel’s military strategy, it is clear that the repeated bombing of refugee caravans and ambulances on the highways, hospitals, mosques and the Muslim and Christian sectors of Beirut and other cities are an integral part of that strategy.

Professor Juan Cole argues persuasively that the war on Lebanon was planned for at least a year, citing the presentations by senior Israeli army officers to Washington think-tanks, diplomats and journalists outlining the coming invasion (www.juancole.com July 23, 2006).

The Israeli pretext of rescuing two captured soldiers is laughable given the instant massive offensive and the sustained destruction of all of Lebanon, including large areas of central and northern Lebanon where there are few if any Hezbollah.

It ill behooves us to ignore the recent historical context for the Israeli bombing and wanton murder of Lebanese. For several years the Jewish Lobby has pressured the White House and Congress to disarm and destroy Hezbollah; to accomplish that goal it was necessary to change the correlation of forces in Lebanon by forcing the Syrians out – which was successfully accomplished through the assassination of a prominent Lebanese politician (Hariri) then pinning the murder on Syrian intelligence – though no proof was ever presented and perjured testimony, later retracted, was the sole evidence. Subsequent to Syria’s departure, a Lebanese assassin in the pay of the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was captured by the anti-Syrian Lebanese police, and admitted to committing numerous bombing assassinations on Lebanese citizens targeted by the Israelis.

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