I haven't written about the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but not because I haven't been following it. I've been to two demonstrations and followed the daily news updates when I can. But there's only so much I can take. Nothing makes me feel more powerless than the news that the Israelis are at it again: bombing, shelling and shooting their captives. Today it was 40 murdered at a school sheltering refugees. It will be something else tomorrow.



Other people have spoken coherently about Israel's agenda. Chris McGeal writes in the Guardian on how the invasion - and the media strategy - have been planned for months. Al-Jazeera reports the farce of portraying two equal sides, when in reality, as Avi Shlaim writes, the Israeli Goliath is crushing the Palestinian David. Bashir Abu-Manneh, writing for the Socialist Project, situates the invasion as the latest bloody salvo in a long campaign, stretching back to the establishment of the Israeli colonial project in 1948. I won't try to duplicate their words. I'd simply add that I blogged about Israeli hypocrisy on Hamas three years ago (links in the sidebar), and I think the analysis holds. Hamas has to answer for all their actions; Israel and the occupation slip from view.

The barbarity of the state of Israel's racist, murderous existence rarely shocks me. But the bloody ferocity of the Israeli Defence Force is a reminder that 'our' interests in the Levant do not come cheaply.


Or the present, for that matter - from Matzpen, about Israeli anti-Zionists

Slogans don't count for much in times like these, but for what it's worth: occupation is a crime; free, free Palestine.

Labels: Israel, Nakba, occupation, Zionism