A Palestinian Perspective

The Washington Note has a commentary by Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative and a strong advocate of non-violent responses to Israeli occupation.

Here are some excerpts from the commentary:

Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.

1. Israelis have claimed to have ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

2. Israel claims that Hamas violated the cease-fire and pulled out of it unilaterally.

3. Israel claims to be pursuing peace with 'peaceful Palestinians'.

4. Israel is acting in self-defense.

5. Israel claims to have struck military targets only.

6. Israel claims that it is attacking Hamas and not the Palestinian people.

7. Israel claims that Palestinians are the source of violence.

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We all know the truth: the suspension of the electioneering is exactly that - electioneering.

Like John McCain's suspension of his presidential campaign to return to Washington to 'deal with' the financial crisis, this act is little more than a publicity stunt.

The candidates have to appear 'tough enough to lead', and there is seemingly no better way of doing that than bathing in Palestinian blood.

In the end, this will in no way improve the security of the average Israeli; in fact it can be expected to get much worse in the coming days as the massacre could presumably provoke a new generation of suicide bombers.

It will not undermine Hamas either, and it will not result in the three fools, Barack, Livni and Olmert, looking 'tough'. Their misguided political venture will likely blow up in their faces as did the brutally similar 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

In closing, there is another reason - beyond the internal politics of Israel - why this attack has been allowed to occur: the complicity and silence of the international community.

Israel cannot and would not act against the will of its economic allies in Europe or its military allies in the US. Israel may be pulling the trigger ending hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives this week, but it is the apathy of the world and the inhumane tolerance of Palestinian suffering which allows this to occur.

'The evil only exists because the good remain silent'

From Occupied Palestine. . .

-- Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi

Judging by what's been happening to the people of Gaza over the last few years since Israel "left" Gaza, I think that many of Barghouti's claims hold a lot of water.