Tzipi Livni shrugged off the criticism of Israel’s bombing of structures near the Islamic College in Gaza, being heard throughout the academic world.

As easily as she dismisses criticism of the destruction of a Palestinian school, she also dismisses the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinian right of return, international calls to stop settlement building and Olmert’s call for return to 1967 borders. And the above shrug was followed by this swift kick:

…”here we have departments of life sciences, while for them it is the department of death sciences.” [source]

You can see for yourself Israel’s (supported by America’s) “life sciences” in action in the Gaza Strip right now - white phosporus! depleted uranium! hellfire missiles! Here’s to “life sciences” and the culture of life - Israeli-style! All that Hamas knows and values is death, right? That’s what we’re told. Charles Krauthammer informs us: “For Hamas, the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians. The religion of Jew-murder and self-martyrdom is ubiquitous.” And, from Barry Rubin: “Israel uses its time not only for military preparations but to educate its children, build its infrastructure, raise its living standards. Hamas doesn’t. ‘We believe in death,’ Hamas says, ‘You believe in life.’” So here’s to life! Here come Israel’s F-16s and drones and helicopters and warships and tanks to free the Gazans from their elected government and to free the Israelis from the rightful residents of Eretz Yisrael. LeChaim!

Israel’s foreign minister called the Gaza operation “a necessary war on terror” adding that “We don’t sign agreements with terror; we fight terror,” during a news conference Monday afternoon in Jerusalem. [source]

But you are terror. You are using your power to try to terrorize civilians into changing who they support politically. You are sending them the message that they are only allowed to support who you support - agents of Israel who will sell out their own people to give Israel time to continue creating new “facts on the ground” so that no real two-state solution is possible and Palestinians are forced into one of two options: continue to resist and die or give up and go away.

Israel’s foreign ministry quoted Livni as having said in a statement during a trip to Paris that “there is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce.” [source]

Perhaps she thinks there are no humans in the Strip. Everyone else knows there has been a great humanitarian crisis there for some time, with mothers forced to forage for grass for their families to eat due to Israel’s chokehold, and that crisis is worsening exponentially during this latest assault by Israel. This cannot be hidden by any amount of denials or dismissive shrugs.

Amid the diplomatic efforts, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, insisted Monday that Israel was “not only defending its right to defend itself” but was also waging a regional campaign “against extremism and terror.” [source]

So…Israel is carrying out “Operation Cast Lead” to defend its right to defend itself (i.e. its infamous right to exist as a murdering, thieving, racist, apartheid state) and it is using extremism and terror to fight extremism and terror. Even though they say their goal is to stop rocket attacks from Gaza they also admit they cannot stop them militarily; although they must admit they are not actually defending themselves because what they are doing will not improve their security they are still defending their right to do what they are doing even though what they are doing doesn’t do any good and actually makes things worse for everyone. This is insanity. And even though they claim these “rights” for themselves they deny that Palestinians have the same rights to exist and to defend themselves and to do what they are doing even though it doesn’t do any good. Israel’s very existance disproves its right to exist as it is. It is self-defeating and self-defeated. It has denied its own imagined rights by denying those exact same rights of others and it has nullified any supposed fight against extremism and terror by using extremism and terror, not only now but from the very beginning of its establishment.

“Israel is part of the free world and fights extremism and terrorism. Hamas is not,” she said…. “These are the days when every individual in the region and in the world has to choose a side, ” Livni said. [source]

Israel keeps trying to draw a line between Hamas and Gazans, saying they are not targeting or fighting Gazans, only Hamas, even though Hamas was democratically elected to power. I guess they also have not been starving Gazans, only starving Hamas, and they have not been strangling the economic development of Gazans, only the development of Hamas (even before Hamas came to power). Israel (and its US) will not allow Gaza to be part of the free world, with or without Hamas.

Wait a moment. “Free world”? There is no “free world.” We are all captive, just like Gazans, we just don’t see it yet because we haven’t reached the same crisis point, but we are. This should be a huge wake up call for all of us. This is our destiny. Tzipi said it herself, and Bush has said it before her. Everyone has to choose a side now. “You’re either with us or your with the terrorists.” What they don’t tell you, what you have to see for yourself and you should be able to see for yourself by now is who the real “terrorists” are and who the real “us” is.

Israel also tries to draw a line between itself and Hamas - we are legimate, they are not; our fight is legitimate, theirs is not; our weapons are legitimate, theirs are not; our taking prisoners is legitimate, theirs is not; our terrorism is legitimate, theirs is not. Somebody call “bullshit” already.

Here is what Israel’s attitudes and actions lead to (bearing in mind that this all started with it’s campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians so that it could have its “democratic” of-the-Jews, by-the-Jews and for-the-Jews state on Palestinian land):

“We salute the resistence men,” al-Zahar said in a televised address from an undisclosed location in Gaza.

“They [Israeli forces] shelled everyone in Gaza … they shelled children and hospitals and mosques and in doing so, they gave us legitimacy to strike them in the same way,” he said. [source]

He was right to salute the resistence men, but he was wrong that what Israel has done gives Gazans (or anyone) legitimacy to do the same. It is sorely tempting to think so, but it isn’t true. If you become the enemy you are fighting, even in mirror image, then you have lost. We are not merely fighting specific people for a specific piece land, we are fighting for justice, we are fighting against oppression. If we fight injustice with injustice then only injustice and the unjust win; if we fight terror with terror then only terror and terrorists win.

Israel is claiming that they have the right to kill civilians by virtue of the fact that they do not target civilians. What?! And would we do the same? Freedom fighters, we must not fall into the trap that has been laid for us and similarly claim that we have the right to target their civilians because they kill ours. If we do, there will be no “side” for anyone to “choose”, anyone who support the rights of Palestinians and of all oppressed people in the world. If both sides become the same, fighting for the same thing in the same way and for the same reasons, all is lost. We must maintain our ideals and our integrity no matter what. The Global War OF Terror which terrorist nations invoke to destroy all resistence to their hegemony is defeated by our siding with truth and justice, God willing. That is the side we must be on, no matter what illusion of power and success the terrorists may enjoy meanwhile. We are not terrorists and we cannot allow them to turn us into terrorists. Our battle is greater than that. Our battle is against that.

It is too bad for Tzipi Livni that she has made the wrong choice, that she has chosen to supoort and encourage the terrorist actions of a terrorist state. Our governments and militaries and corporations are proving again and again that they are headed by sociopaths, psychopaths and terrorists who have no conscience, who get where they are because they are not afraid to do “whatever it takes“.

Livni added that “facing the Hamas terror that Israel is fighting, and with the moderates in the region, Israel wants to hold a dialogue. In order for there to be a political horizon here, we must fight the terror.” In response Blair [responding with a great one-liner of his own] said, “Peace can come only when there is quiet in the region, and we will do whatever it takes to bring this quiet.” [source]

Whatever it takes. Even genocide. Whatever it takes. As long as that doesn’t involve granting Palestinians the same rights as Israelis - the right to exist, the right of self-defense, the right of real sovereignty, the right of return. Whatever it takes is only good for Israel and whoever else the US and UK grant permission; it does not apply to the struggle of Palestinians or Iraqis or Afghanis or Pakistanis. They are required to play by entirely different rules and are held to entirely different standards.

The more our mealy-mouthed leaders talk, the more many of us may want to throw more than just our shoes at their heads. Well, they are right about one thing. A line has clearly been drawn and we do have a choice to make. Where will we stand? On the side of the oppressors or the side of those who fight oppression? Is it not time for a Global Intifada? Is it not past time? The sham Global War On Terror and its “more of the same” pseudo-justifications repeated ad nauseum demand it. Want some real change? Our leaders have proven they can’t and won’t bring it. They don’t want it. It is up to those of us who do to try.

Rise up. Shake them off. Do what’s right.

God willing.

~Salmah Umm Zainab