Monday, November 19, 2012

The Four Guilty Parties Behind Israel’s Attack

By Jonathan Cook

".......Also, it should be remembered that Israel’s belligerence toward Gaza, and the easing of domestic pressure on Israel to negotiate with Hamas or reach a ceasefire, has largely been made possible because Obama forced U.S. taxpayers to massively subsidize Israel’s rocket-interception system, Iron Dome, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Iron Dome is being used to shoot down rockets out of Gaza that might otherwise have landed in built-up areas of Israel. Israel and the White House have therefore been able to sell U.S. munificence on the interception of rockets as a humanitarian gesture.

But the reality is that Iron Dome has swung Israel’s cost-benefit calculus sharply in favor of greater aggression because it is has increased Israel’s sense of impunity. Whatever Hamas’s ability to smuggle into Gaza more sophisticated weaponry, Israel believes it can neutralize that threat using interception systems.
Far from being a humanitarian measure, Iron Dome has simply served to ensure that Gaza will continue to suffer a far larger burden of deaths and injuries in confrontations with Israel and that such confrontations will continue to occur regularly.

Here are the four main culprits. They should be held responsible for the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis in the days and, if Israel expands its operation, weeks ahead."

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