Who Benefits from Israeli Occupation?

Have we forgotten Gaza?

Chris Hedges spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel's murderous destruction and genocide of the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank. Listen to him and read an excerpt from an article posted earlier in this blog.

Erdogan: the new hero of Islamic world

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stirred up international appreciation after he courageously blasted the Tel Aviv leaders for the bloody massacre of the peace activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla convoy of humanitarian aids which was heading towards the besieged Gaza strip to break the three-year-long blockade of the war-stricken enclave.

The beleaguered Gaza strip has been grappling with deteriorating economic and social situation over the past three years and needs urgent humanitarian aids to be disentangled from the growing crisis it’s facing. More than 80% of the Gaza strip’s 1.5m population lives under poverty threshold. The unemployment rate of the enclave hit 41.3% in 2008. According to the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP), some 70 percent of Gaza’s population is food insecure and the vast majority is dependent on assistance from the United Nations to cover its basic needs.

According to the World Health Organization, 98 percent of industrial operations in Gaza have been shut down and there are acute shortages of fuel, cash, cooking gas and other basic supplies due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave since 2007.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza in the late 2008 and early 2009 led to the destruction of more than 7,500 Palestinian homes and displacement of some 3,500 families; however, Tel Aviv’s prevention of the entry of infrastructural and building materials have impeded the reconstruction of the ruined homes and those 3,500 families are still living without any shelter and protection.

According to the Gaza-based freelance journalist and photographer Sameh Habeeb, the Israeli forces launched a massive attack on Gaza’s infrastructures in June 2006 after an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was incarcerated by Hamas. Shalit is the only Israeli prisoner being kept in the jails of Palestinian authorities while the Israeli regime is keeping 7,383 Palestinian prisoners, 340 of whom are Children.

Habeeb reported that the key bridge linking the southern and northern areas of Gaza was totally devastated during the Israeli assault. The sole power plant of the Gaza strip was also destroyed after the Israeli military raided the city with heavy F16 squadrons. The only key motorway of Gaza, Salah El-Din was another vital construction in Gaza which the Israeli forces destroyed altogether. Although the Japanese government had proposed a plan to reconstruct the motorway, Israel never allowed this.

So far, all the international efforts to reconstruct Gaza and renovate its dilapidated infrastructures have been hindered by Tel Aviv. The majority of Gazans are deprived of sanitation, electricity, proper education, pure water and sufficient foodstuff.

Turkish Prime Minister had previously complained that Israel did not allow the entry of construction materials in the Gaza strip to accelerate the renovation process.

“This construction is still not allowed [by Israel]. Turkey is not allowed to build schools, houses, hospitals. The Israelis allow food and medicine to pass, but not the rest,” he had told the Philadelphia Inquirer in a 2009 interview.

As a harbinger of political transformations and ideological revolution in Turkey, the Prime Minister Recept Tayyip Erdogan who rose to power by the virtue of AK Party’s Muslim backgrounds has set off serious efforts over the past years to champion the cause of Palestinian people. He has become an outspoken critic of the Israeli regime and lambasted Tel Aviv on various occasions. In 2009, he inspired widespread global admirations after he walked out of a televised debate with the Israeli President on the sidelines of the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In a reference to the tragic massacre of the Palestinian citizens in the Gaza war, Erdogan told the Israeli President that he is “killing people” and then stormed out of the debate in presence of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, blaming the debate moderator’s refusal to allow him reply the fallacious statements made by Shimon Peres.

Canceling his visit to the Latin America in the wake of recent incidents in the Gaza strip, Erdogan stated before the Turkey’s parliament that Israel should be severely punished for its vicious massacre of the peace activists in the international waters: “The bloody massacre of Israel, committed against ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, is a massacre deserving every kind of curse and condemnation.”

Trying to appeal to the Jewish minority of Turkey, Erdogan implied that his country’s response to such violent acts would be hard-hitting and decisive: “Turkey’s friendship is valuable; on the other hand, its enmity is violent. No one should test Turkey’s patience. The Turkish nation has always been in a historical friendship and collaboration with Jewish people. Here Jewish people understands who is the true culprit of these events.”

However, Erdogan’s message to Israel was unambiguous and clear: “A bloody regime, now in power in “Israel”, must be surely punished. Even pirates and bandits do not touch unarmed people, children, elders, and they did it. And these people try without shame to justify themselves.”

Turkey which has cancelled its recent joint military exercise with Israel is the only Muslim state which maintains full diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv. The parliamentarians of the country have called on the government to take practical steps to narrow its ties with the Zionist regime and, the government equally seems to be inclined to the restriction of ties; however, it seems that tourism and financial transaction with Israel which benefit Turkey monetarily are the only reasons which impede the way of Ankara’s detachment from Tel Aviv.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Israeli citizens comprise more than 2.1% of the 20 million tourists who visit the country annually.

However, Mr. Erdogan who has determinedly warned Israel that it might lose one of its most important friends in the Middle East is gaining a growing popularity in the Muslim world due to his recent categorical statements about the Israeli regime. Reuters published a report on June 2, titled “Israel tension boosts Turkey’s popularity with Arabs” in which the rising esteem of Turkish Prime Minister has been discussed. The report reads: “Already popular for championing the Palestinian cause, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has further enhanced his status through calls for the Jewish state to be punished for the sea raid. The U.N. Security Council has condemned the deaths.”

Anyway, it seems that Israel, as a globally hated regime, brings popularity and reputation to whoever contests its unilateral, hypocritical and atrocious policies and actions.

Kourosh Ziabari is Iranian media correspondent, freelance journalist and the author of Book 7+1. He is a 

contributing writer for websites and magazines in the Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. . Currently, he works for the Foreign Policy Journal as a media correspondent. He is a member of Tlaxcala Translators Network for Linguistic Diversity and World Student Community for Sustainable Development. Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist and media correspondent. He has interviewed political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky, member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke, Australian politician Ian Cohen, member of German Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council advisor Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner Ernst Zündel, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated journalist Eric Margolis, former assistant of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud and the former President of the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sid Ganis.

Credit: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/07/erdogan-the-new-hero-of-islamic-world/

Video - Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out

Destination: Jerusalem

by: Haris Mumtaz

The night was shimmering up in the sky and within the silence of words coming out the noise of bombings and explosions. Children stressed, demented under the safety of their shelters while their parents are either resisting on the streets of Gaza or sitting alongside their families wondering which house is next in line of existent fire that will cover their fate for good and cure them out of their misery. Struggling with their faith which leads them to the state of optimism seeing that there is nothing they can see now except for ruins of human flesh and construction concrete on the streets and a coward enemy who is technologically advance to such extent that he is not daring enough to meet the innocent in a battle field face to face. Palestine is under attack yet again by the imposters and the attempt is only to kill the innocent, destroy the possession of Muslim targets with no military strategic importance or rules of engagement.

ALLAH (SWT) has created mankind in the notion of peace and the brutality of this world makes him anxious and he feels like asking what is going on? Imagine the generations growing up in the violence of Israel-Palestine conflict, children who opened their eyes in the family of martyrs, studied in the school hit by phosphorus bombs and unpredictable attacks from Israeli forces, playing with their friends in the streets thinking that they might not see them tomorrow, the feeling of being helpless in the state of continues terror agonies them, that conflicts with their true meaning of existence of peace and from the outbreak of this immature stress, their mental reflexes generates a streak of brutal questions for which they need an answer.

What is wrong with the world we live in?

Why this is happening to us?

When this war will end?

This is one of those night in Gaza when a child who lived his pithy life under the shadow of unknown terror of evil and he is asking his mother about this evil world with less empathy of reality knowing that her mother will save this extended flesh of her womb and take him out of this mental dilemma of his childhood.

Mother on the other hand has nothing to offer but hope while she is worried about her husband, father or brother maybe who is fighting with just bare stones in their hands and courage in their hearts. She has nothing to say except for what her mother told her when she was a child and she was in this exact state of fear of unknown. She will tell him exactly what the mothers of Palestinian families are telling their children for the last three generations and they still believe that this is true because this is the only glimpse of hope they are sharing for last 50 years or so. She will tell him about a land far away from here and their people who share our pain and anger because they know we are in trouble and they know that we are waiting for them. She is blind with her logic because she doesn’t know anything about this land whether the country still exist or not, she is far away from world media, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News that gives her hope or manipulate her passion of that country. She is blind by the light of her faith and she considers this her responsibility to pass this hope to the next generation like mothers of Palestine are doing the same for last 50 years and now is the time when her son, scared and mystified asking her for hope … and she answers.

“Don’t worry my son; ALLAH (SWT) is on our side not with the enemy. Soon our brothers from Pakistan, a country far away from here will come and they will fight with our enemies and they will end this war for us … so my son don’t worry and pray to ALLAH (SWT) to send our brothers soon because they will come for sure.”

Tears were coming out of her eyes while talking … and the hope continues …

This is not a self-generated fiction; this was actually narrated to a Pakistani by a Turkish female journalist who dedicated 20 years of her life for this cause and according to her, this is the story of almost every other home in Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem, as they are waiting not for Arabs, Turks, or some British American task force from UN to help them. They are waiting for the brothers of Pakistan.

For a moment, by knowing this frantic wish from our mothers and being a Pakistani makes me angry not on Israel but on me, my nation, whole muslim Ummah on what we are doing. This is not just one case where Pakistan or people of Pakistan are the center of attraction for the Muslim World where they present us as a real threat to Israeli Zionist or I must say the “center of horror”. You will be amazed to know that Syrian children often threatens their Jewish school, college fellows about Pakistan army and air force that they will come for the ultimate battle and crush you and your illegitimate country under their shoe. Every Syrian knows that Pakistani air force pilots have 100% success rate against Israeli jets, for info read Pakistan forces role in “Six Day War – 1967” and “Yom Kippur War – 1973”. They strive for respect and honor because a brethren country has nuclear bomb which they like to call “Islamic Bomb” because it’s for the protection of Ummah. Whenever Muslim leaders talk about reviving Islam and Caliphate, their plans can’t progress without our country. These are facts, these are the bites of reality which we have failed to realize and even if we do, we have failed to realize their significance.

Coming back to my anger … “what we are doing”? I have no answer to this except for some cause and effect theories, some metaphorical philosophies, and a corrupt system in place with corrupt puppets which is intact and in place no matter how bad its reputation and implementation is. We are reconciling the list of crooked politicians by giving threats that they should resign or their projectile will soon diminish over the NRO instead the price of their crimes should be more than that. We are living in the state of disarray and terror, hoping that someday these suicide bombings will stop and our protectors will protects us while the protectors are only concerned about the aftermath of their policies and implementation because they knew that their puppet show will soon end. To be honest, we are doing nothing… anything at all, not because we don’t have the understanding, strength, and nerve to fight this so called political and social disorder in our country. This is because our vision has weakened to such extent that we are dependable on country’s main stream media, left-wing politicians, who are yelling over the polices of government but instead they just being aggravate by that fact that they didn’t get the opportunity to act in this puppet show and they have failed to put their hand on the bigger profit. We are not seeing the bigger picture.

And somewhere in the Middle East, a mother is crying for our help, children are waiting for their angels from the east, generations and nations who’s got nothing but hope from the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) about the army of Khurasan that will rise from the east and will be the divine force of ALLAH (SWT). ALLAH (SWT) has given you a choice to be a part of this army and what we are doing is just blaming the non-existent factors of the world like UN, NATO, SCO, EU, OIC and others waiting for peace through these forums knowing that these factors are in place for chaos and revolt rather than World Peace. The second conqueror of Jerusalem Salah-ud-din Ayubi once said that, “I don’t know if Islam spreads over the vigor of the sword, what I know is to defend Islam, you need one” yet our hands are empty filled with justifications and reasoning that alone we can’t do anything, alone we are nothing. Optimism beings with a spectacle, dreams are always personal, your belief is your own faith yet you are dependent on others for the fulfillment of your desires.

Fate wont change its pattern, what’s written will remain on track, what’s about to happen will happen, the prophesies of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will come true whether you believe it with your heart or whether you are in a debate over the interpretation of commentary of Quran and Sunnah trying to prove everyone wrong, the fate has been written and now ALLAH (SWT) is waiting for your free-will to ignite, the virtuous flames of faith and love for ALLAH (SWT) and his beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), so that he can decide your fate according to your free-will. Now its up to you to decide that you want to keep on blaming the puppets of our government or ruin them, you want to join hands for some left-wing right-wing political party to struggle for this system of shirk or you want to destroy it. You want to fill your pockets with fake paperless currency or you want to confront the rulers of the world possessing 70% of the total gold on the world.

The time has come to initiate the final battle from Pakistan and take it to Jerusalem, and this time ALLAH (SWT) is asking us what should be written in your fate and awaiting our response.

Meri Zindagi Ka Maqsad Teray Deen ki Sarfarazi

Main Is liay Musalmaan mai is liay Namazi

The army of khurasan will rise amongst you, it’s your decision that you want to become a part of it or not. It’s your decision that your want to march towards the parliament house, Supreme Court for protest or your destination is far beyond that. Your destination is Jerusalem, where people are waiting for their brothers from Pakistan who’ll come for their help and will take them out of their misery. For a moment, just come out of the web of your materialism, your job, your family, your wealth, your profession, your circle, your possessions, your life and think about it, don’t your want to fight against the Israeli occupation, don’t you want to liberate the holy land, and don’t you want to submit to ALLAH (SWT) in Al-Aqsa Mosque without any fear of anything. I don’t know about you but this is what I feel, this is what I live for and this is what ill die for. For me, my destination is Jerusalem.