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Weekend Edition August 22-24, 2014<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/gaza-changed-everything/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/gaza-changed-everything/</a><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><big><b><big><big>Things Cannot Stay
the Same after Israeli Genocide in Gaza</big></big></b></big></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Gaza Changed Everything</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by RAMZY BAROUD</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>After every bloody episode of violence perpetrated by Israel,
media spin doctors are often deployed with one grand mission:
to absolve Israel of any responsibility in their acts of
carnage.</p>
<p>Not only do these apologists demonize Palestinians, but
anyone who dares to take a stand on their behalf. The main
staple of this Israeli strategy has been blaming the victim.
Such a tactic is nothing new in the way the so-called
“Arab-Israeli conflict” has been presented in Western media,
whose narrative has been <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.610116"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.haaretz.com']);"
target="_blank">much closer to that of Israeli official and
media discourses</a> than that of Palestinians. This
continued despite the decades-long military occupation,
successive wars, and countless massacres.</p>
<p>Specifically, since the Israeli siege on Gaza, following the
democratic elections that brought Hamas to power in January
2006, Israel needed all of its hasbara savvy, alongside that
of its backers in western countries to explain why a
population has been brutalized for making a democratic choice.
The sheer amount of deception involved in the cleverly knitted
story which purposely mixed between Hamas and al-Qaeda (as
they once did between late Yasser Arafat and Hitler), among
other ruses was a new low, even by Israel’s own standards.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/11/guardian-publisher-defends-anti-hamas-advert-decision"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);"
target="_blank">While the media demonized Hamas</a>, the
resistance and all the other “bad” Palestinians who voted for
the movement, it intentionally ignored the fascism that was
taking over Israeli society.</p>
<p>For the bad – as in “radical,” “extremist,” anti-peace –
Palestinian to exist, they have to be juxtaposed with the good
Palestinian, represented in Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and any faction, person or leader willing to,
practically speaking, co-exist with the Israeli occupation.
The PA went even further, by cooperating with Israel to ensure
the demise of the Palestinian “radicals,” as in those who
insist on resisting the occupation.</p>
<p>Thanks to the PA, the price for the Israeli occupation has
never been so cheap. Despite repeated attempts at
re-activating the so-called peace process, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu always found a way to torpedo such
efforts, even those promoted by his closest allies in
Washington. “Peace” is a major risk for Netanyahu, whose
government is <a
href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/will-israel-go-fascist/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theamericanconservative.com']);"
target="_blank">sustained by Jewish nationalists and
extremists</a>, who feel no particular need to end their
colonization of the West Bank. Abbas had done a great deal to
ensure that Israel feels no pressure to negotiate. Every
attempt at resistance, even by standing peacefully with
placards and banners in Ramallah’s al-Manara Square was
crushed; often brutally.</p>
<p>Gaza, however, remained an exception. Israel’s brutality
there has reached unprecedented levels, especially after
Israel’s Cast Lead Operation, which killed and wounded
thousands. Many predicted that the crimes in Gaza would turn
the tide against Israel, but they didn’t. Israeli influence
over the media was still tight enough that somehow they
managed to, at least, neutralize the impact of Cast Lead. The
advent of the Arab Spring and the devaluing of human life, as
happened in Syria, Libya and Egypt, somehow buried the Israeli
crimes in Gaza; however temporarily.</p>
<p>But Israel’s latest war on Gaza <a
href="http://rt.com/op-edge/178932-genocide-israel-ethnic-cleansing/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://rt.com']);"
target="_blank">mounted to a genocide</a>. Israel’s argument
that it was “defending itself” was no longer a sufficient
excuse. No amount of hasbara was enough to explain the burying
alive of entire families, the summary execution of civilians,
the pulverizing of entire neighborhoods, the gunning down of
fleeing children playing at the beach during a deceptive
moment of “lull,” the destruction of dozens of mosques and
churches, the killing of civilians hiding in UN schools-turned
temporary shelters.</p>
<p>It was particularly embarrassing for Israel, but also
telling, that the Gaza resistance, which stood alone, <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/gaza/11028696/Israel-mulls-Gaza-tunnel-detection-system-as-truce-talks-continue.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.telegraph.co.uk']);"
target="_blank">fighting tens of thousands of well-armed
invaders from tunnels</a>, killed 64 Israelis. All but three
were soldiers, mostly killed inside Gaza.</p>
<p>As the world was awakened to the level of devastation created
by Israel in Gaza, many also became aware that such wrath is
not independent from the <a
href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-gaza-has-revealed/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theamericanconservative.com']);"
target="_blank">fascism that has gripped Israeli society for
years</a>. In Israel, there is no longer room for dissent,
and those in the highest positions of power, are the ones who
openly and freely preach genocide.</p>
<p>In <a
href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-gaza-has-revealed/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theamericanconservative.com']);"
target="_blank">his excellent article in the American
Conservative</a> on August 06, Scott McConnell, wrote, “All
societies have their hate groups and extremists, but nowhere
in the democratic world are they nearer to the center of power
than Israel.” He elaborated, “In the 1980s Meir Kahane had a
small following in Israel, but his pro-ethnic cleansing party
was made illegal. Now Kahanists are in the center of the
country’s ruling ideology.”</p>
<p>This was discussed in <a
href="http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-07-21/calls-for-genocide-enter-israeli-mainstream/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jonathan-cook.net']);"
target="_blank">context of statements made by Moshe Feiglin</a>,
deputy speaker of the Knesset and a “top player in Israel’s
ruling Likud Party.” Fieglin called for Palestinians from Gaza
to be resettled in concentration camps, and all of Hamas and
its supporters to be “annihilated.” Who can now, with a good
conscience, protest those who infuse the Nazi analogy to what
is happening in Palestine?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in this age of social media, where mainstream news
networks no longer have complete command over the narrative,
no self-respecting intellectual, journalist, official or any
citizen with a conscience can <a
href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/hamas-didnt-kidnap-the-israeli-teens-after-all.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://nymag.com']);"
target="_blank">plead ignorance</a> and stand on the fence
of neutrality.</p>
<p>Gaza has indeed changed everything. Israel’s criminality and
fascism should no longer be open for vibrant media debates,
but it must be acknowledged as an uncontested fact. Our
language, as in our perception, must also change to
accommodate this uncontested reality.</p>
<p>To end the Israeli genocide and occupation, the wheel of
continuous action must turn and keep on turning. Those who
support Israel must be exposed, and those who facilitate the
Israeli occupation and sustain its war machine are partakers
in the war crimes committed daily in Gaza and the rest of
Palestine. They must be boycotted. The Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) movement must grow and serve as the main
platform for international solidarity.</p>
<p>Time for clever words and no action are long gone, and those
who remain “soft” on Israel, for whatever reason, have no
place in what is becoming a global movement with
uncompromising demands: end the occupation, punish its
sustainers, halt ethnic cleaning and genocide, end the siege,
and <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-palestinians-consider-joining-icc-to-prosecute-israelis-for-war-crimes-9662806.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.independent.co.uk']);"
target="_blank">bring Israeli and other culprits to the
international criminal court</a> for their massive war
crimes and crimes against humanity.</p>
<p><i><strong>Ramzy Baroud</strong> is a PhD scholar in People’s
History at the University of Exeter. He is the Managing
Editor of Middle East Eye. Baroud is an
internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an
author and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest
book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story
(Pluto Press, London).</i></p>
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