Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Depopulation, Destruction and Displacement of the Palestinian People

Al Nakba Redux

by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, January 21, 2009

"For Palestinians, the Nakba "Catastrophe" is their "Holocaust" six-month slaughter and displacement before and after the May 1948 establishment of Israel. In December 1947, Jews in Palestine numbered 600,000 compared to 1.3 million Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion ordered them removed and for "Every attack....to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion."

He meant depopulation, destruction, mass slaughter, displacement, and erasing a proud people's history. Palestine was to become Israel. Most of the job was completed, more in 1967, and thereafter incrementally until total dispossession is achieved. Gaza is the latest battleground. More ahead is planned. The struggle for liberation continues......

Looking Ahead

Editor Ali Abuninah of the Electronic Intifada reports that Israel's Gaza war failed to weaken Hamas and other resistance groups to clear the way for negotiating with its "chief Palestinian collaborator Mahmoud Abbas to manage Palestinians on (its) behalf until they (can) be forced out once and for all."

Regional dictators like Mubarak and the Saudi and Jordanian monarchies are on board "to demonstrate to their own people that resistance" is futile. "To win, Israel had to break Palestinian resistance. It failed....it galvanized and unified Palestinians like never before." Hamas and other resistance fought heroically for 23 days and stand ready to do it again.

"According to well-informed and credible sources, Israel did little harm to the modest but determined military capacity of the resistance. So Israel did what it does best: it massacred civilians" to get people to turn against their government. Instead, Palestinians and the Arab street are together against Israel.

"In popular esteem, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions (stand) alongside Hizbollah as effective bulwarks against Israeli and Western colonialism." Israel lost its legitimacy and can't win it by bombing and mass slaughter. It survives through violence, intimidation, and billions in US aid, but for how long.

Even the Wall Street Journal admits that Hamas gained support from the fighting. On January 20, correspondent Charles Levinson quoted Israeli Col. Shmuel Zakai saying that his country doesn't understand that winning hearts and minds is as important as battlefield victories. "We just keep creating bigger problems," he said. "Military power alone is not enough."

Palestinians remained steadfast through it all, and world public opinion now backs them and Hamas like never before. Yet their struggle for liberation persists - against America, the West, complicit Arab regimes, and racists like Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger who wants Gazans dumped in a Palestinian state in the Sinai......."

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