From: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs [mailto:info@wrmea.com]
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 1:25 PM
Subject: Finkelstein Provides Evidence of Israeli War Crimes
ACTION ALERT
April 7, 2011
Contact: news_editor@wrmea.com
Finkelstein Provides Evidence of Israeli War Crimes
The old Richard Goldstone found evidence that Israel committed war
crimes in Gaza; the new Richard Goldstone suggests it didn't.
Here's the evidence.
crimes in Gaza; the new Richard Goldstone suggests it didn't.
Here's the evidence.
Decide for yourself where is the truth.
An expanded and revised edition of Norman Finkelstein's This Time We
Went Too Far, releasing later this month, refutes Richard Goldstone's
recent recantation of his report on Gaza.
This significantly revised and expanded edition is the only
comprehensive book-length study of the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of
Gaza and its consequences. It is based on thousands of passages of
human rights reports as well as the statements of Israeli soldiers
and Israeli officials. It covers the full documentary record—
including all the official Israeli reports and investigations—right
up until Dec. 31, 2010.
In light of Richard Goldstone's recent recantation of the report he
authored on the Gaza invasion, Finkelstein's book provides a unique
vantage point for judging whether the original report, or Goldstone's
current position, is more credible.
The best way to order the Norman Finkelstein's new book is through
the website: http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/this-time-revised/
Paperback is $15 and e-Book is $10. An excellent companion volume,
The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the
Gaza Conflict, edited by Adam Horowitz, Lizzy Ratner and Philip
Weiss, is available for $11.25 through the AET Book Club.
Here is an excerpt from the epilogue of This Time We Went Too Far:
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The massive destruction Israel inflicted on Gaza during the 2008-9
invasion was designed in part to exacerbate the effects of an illegal
blockade that had already wreaked havoc for some three years. "I
fully expected to see serious damage, but I have to say I was really
shocked when I saw the extent and precision of the destruction," the
World Food Program director for the Gaza Strip observed after the
assault. "It was precisely the strategic economic areas that Gaza
depends on to relieve its dependency on aid that were wiped out." The
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted critical civilian infrastructure
such as the only operative flourmill and nearly all of the cement
factories so that Gaza would be evermore dependent on Israeli whim
for staples and would not be able to rebuild after a ceasefire went
into effect.
A year and a half after the Gaza invasion, major humanitarian and
human rights organizations uniformly attested that the people of Gaza
continued to suffer a humanitarian crisis on account of the Israeli
blockade: "Contrary to what the Israeli government states, the
humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza is only a fraction of what is
needed to answer the enormous needs of an exhausted people" (Oxfam);
"The blockade . . . has severely damaged the economy, leaving 70 to
80 percent of Gazans in poverty" (Human Rights Watch); "Israel is
blocking vital medical supplies from entering the Gaza Strip" (World
Health Organization); "The closure is having a devastating impact on
the 1.5 million people living in Gaza" (International Committee of
the Red Cross).
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was nonetheless emphatic that there
was "no humanitarian crisis" and "no lack of medicines or other
essential items" in Gaza.
"We mustn't tire of reminding others," Parisian media philosopher
Bernard- Henri Lévy chimed in, that "the blockade concerns only arms
and the material needed to manufacture them." Mocking claims of a
humanitarian crisis Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gestured to
Gaza's "sparkling new shopping mall…new Olympic-sized swimming pool…
five-star hotels and restaurants." Israel circulated photographs of
these lavish scenes on the Internet. It is true that tiny pockets of
prosperity have flourished in the Strip. Harvard political economist
Sara Roy noted the emergence of an economic stratum that had "grown
extremely wealthy from the black-market economy," and the "almost
perverse consumerism in restaurants and shops that are the domain of
the wealthy." But for students of the Nazi holocaust such a
juxtaposition, however repellent, should hardly surprise. Thus, a
survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto recalled:
The sword of the Nazi extermination policy hung over all Jews
equally. But a social differentiation arose in the ghetto, setting
apart substantial groups who had the means even under those infernal
conditions to lead a comparatively full, well-fed life and enjoy some
kinds of pleasures. On the same streets where daily you could see
scenes of horrors, amid the swarms of tubercular children dying like
flies . . . , you would come upon stores full of fine foods,
restaurants and cafés, which served the most expensive dishes and
drinks. . . . The clientele of these places consisted principally of
Jewish Gestapo agents, Jewish police officials, rich merchants who
did business with the Germans, smugglers, dealers in foreign exchange
and similar kinds of people.
He went on to note that "the Nazis made moving pictures of such
festive orgies to show the 'world' how well the Jews lived in the
ghetto.
"Regrettably the ensuing debate on whether Israel had put Gazans on a
"starvation" or "starvation plus" regimen shifted attention away from
and obscured the more fundamental point: What right did Israel have
to put the people of Gaza on any diet?
It was also lamentable how even the sternest critics of the blockade
nevertheless seconded Israel's right to prevent weapons from reaching
Gaza. Even if one accepts the highly debatable contention that, after
acquiescing in the international consensus for resolving the
conflict, Palestinians still do not have the right of armed
resistance to end the occupation, the fact remains that, as Amnesty
International has urged (if on different grounds), an arms embargo
should be imposed on both Hamas and Israel. It is a curious
conception of justice that would deny the victims the means to resist
even as they support the legally mandated norms for achieving peace,
but allow the perpetrators to replenish their arsenal of repression
even as they reject these norms and ride roughshod over them.
###
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, PO Box 53062,
Washington DC 20009. Phone: (202) 939-6050, Fax: (202) 265-4574, Toll
Free: (800) 368-5788, www.wrmea.com Published by the American
Educational Trust, a non-profit foundation incorporated in
Washington, DC to provide the American public with balanced and
accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern
states. Material from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
may be printed with out charge with attribution to the Washington
Report on Middle East
An expanded and revised edition of Norman Finkelstein's This Time We
Went Too Far, releasing later this month, refutes Richard Goldstone's
recent recantation of his report on Gaza.
This significantly revised and expanded edition is the only
comprehensive book-length study of the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of
Gaza and its consequences. It is based on thousands of passages of
human rights reports as well as the statements of Israeli soldiers
and Israeli officials. It covers the full documentary record—
including all the official Israeli reports and investigations—right
up until Dec. 31, 2010.
In light of Richard Goldstone's recent recantation of the report he
authored on the Gaza invasion, Finkelstein's book provides a unique
vantage point for judging whether the original report, or Goldstone's
current position, is more credible.
The best way to order the Norman Finkelstein's new book is through
the website: http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/this-time-revised/
Paperback is $15 and e-Book is $10. An excellent companion volume,
The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the
Gaza Conflict, edited by Adam Horowitz, Lizzy Ratner and Philip
Weiss, is available for $11.25 through the AET Book Club.
Here is an excerpt from the epilogue of This Time We Went Too Far:
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The massive destruction Israel inflicted on Gaza during the 2008-9
invasion was designed in part to exacerbate the effects of an illegal
blockade that had already wreaked havoc for some three years. "I
fully expected to see serious damage, but I have to say I was really
shocked when I saw the extent and precision of the destruction," the
World Food Program director for the Gaza Strip observed after the
assault. "It was precisely the strategic economic areas that Gaza
depends on to relieve its dependency on aid that were wiped out." The
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted critical civilian infrastructure
such as the only operative flourmill and nearly all of the cement
factories so that Gaza would be evermore dependent on Israeli whim
for staples and would not be able to rebuild after a ceasefire went
into effect.
A year and a half after the Gaza invasion, major humanitarian and
human rights organizations uniformly attested that the people of Gaza
continued to suffer a humanitarian crisis on account of the Israeli
blockade: "Contrary to what the Israeli government states, the
humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza is only a fraction of what is
needed to answer the enormous needs of an exhausted people" (Oxfam);
"The blockade . . . has severely damaged the economy, leaving 70 to
80 percent of Gazans in poverty" (Human Rights Watch); "Israel is
blocking vital medical supplies from entering the Gaza Strip" (World
Health Organization); "The closure is having a devastating impact on
the 1.5 million people living in Gaza" (International Committee of
the Red Cross).
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was nonetheless emphatic that there
was "no humanitarian crisis" and "no lack of medicines or other
essential items" in Gaza.
"We mustn't tire of reminding others," Parisian media philosopher
Bernard- Henri Lévy chimed in, that "the blockade concerns only arms
and the material needed to manufacture them." Mocking claims of a
humanitarian crisis Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gestured to
Gaza's "sparkling new shopping mall…new Olympic-sized swimming pool…
five-star hotels and restaurants." Israel circulated photographs of
these lavish scenes on the Internet. It is true that tiny pockets of
prosperity have flourished in the Strip. Harvard political economist
Sara Roy noted the emergence of an economic stratum that had "grown
extremely wealthy from the black-market economy," and the "almost
perverse consumerism in restaurants and shops that are the domain of
the wealthy." But for students of the Nazi holocaust such a
juxtaposition, however repellent, should hardly surprise. Thus, a
survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto recalled:
The sword of the Nazi extermination policy hung over all Jews
equally. But a social differentiation arose in the ghetto, setting
apart substantial groups who had the means even under those infernal
conditions to lead a comparatively full, well-fed life and enjoy some
kinds of pleasures. On the same streets where daily you could see
scenes of horrors, amid the swarms of tubercular children dying like
flies . . . , you would come upon stores full of fine foods,
restaurants and cafés, which served the most expensive dishes and
drinks. . . . The clientele of these places consisted principally of
Jewish Gestapo agents, Jewish police officials, rich merchants who
did business with the Germans, smugglers, dealers in foreign exchange
and similar kinds of people.
He went on to note that "the Nazis made moving pictures of such
festive orgies to show the 'world' how well the Jews lived in the
ghetto.
"Regrettably the ensuing debate on whether Israel had put Gazans on a
"starvation" or "starvation plus" regimen shifted attention away from
and obscured the more fundamental point: What right did Israel have
to put the people of Gaza on any diet?
It was also lamentable how even the sternest critics of the blockade
nevertheless seconded Israel's right to prevent weapons from reaching
Gaza. Even if one accepts the highly debatable contention that, after
acquiescing in the international consensus for resolving the
conflict, Palestinians still do not have the right of armed
resistance to end the occupation, the fact remains that, as Amnesty
International has urged (if on different grounds), an arms embargo
should be imposed on both Hamas and Israel. It is a curious
conception of justice that would deny the victims the means to resist
even as they support the legally mandated norms for achieving peace,
but allow the perpetrators to replenish their arsenal of repression
even as they reject these norms and ride roughshod over them.
###
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, PO Box 53062,
Washington DC 20009. Phone: (202) 939-6050, Fax: (202) 265-4574, Toll
Free: (800) 368-5788, www.wrmea.com Published by the American
Educational Trust, a non-profit foundation incorporated in
Washington, DC to provide the American public with balanced and
accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern
states. Material from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
may be printed with out charge with attribution to the Washington
Report on Middle East
+++
Peace.
Michael Santomauro
@ 917-974-6367
What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?
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