Hollow Israeli Sorrow Over Palestinian Baby Immolated by Settlers

by Stephen Lendman

Israeli officials throughout its history consistently showed contempt for Palestinian rights - from Ben-Gurion to Allon to Meir to Begin to Rabin to Peres to Sharon to Netanyahu and others, an array of rogue leaders, not a democrat in the bunch.

All believed in affording rights solely to Jews. None supported fundamental fairness. All committed high crimes against defenseless Palestinians - from Ben-Gurion's Nakba to Netanyahu's Protective Edge along with decades of racist persecution from 1948 through today - horrific barbarism against an entire population, flagrantly violating international law unaccountably.

Netanyahu's "shock" over 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha's immolation by settlers belies his reign of terror on Palestine, his genocidal Gaza war last summer, his daily persecution of millions of Palestinian victims, his contempt for the rule of law.

IDF spokesman Moti Amoz ludicrously said "I cannot recall such a serious incident in the past few years."

What about deliberately targeting Gazan civilians during Operation Protective Edge, murdering scores of entire families in cold blood, reducing residential communities to rubble, ordering soldiers to shoot to kill all Palestinians in sight - including women, young children, infants as they slept, the elderly and infirm.

What about attacking refugee camps, UN safe havens, hospitals, schools, mosques, residential homes and numerous other civilian targets unrelated to military necessity.

What about teaching young Jewish children to hate Arabs - manipulating their minds when they're too young to understand.

What about a nation facing no threats mobilized for war at all times. What about soldiers rampaging daily through Palestinian communities, breaking into homes pre-dawn, terrorizing families, traumatizing children, vandalizing property, making lawless arrests followed by brutal interrogations amounting to torture, then detention without right to counsel or family contacts for days or weeks, including for devastated young children.

What about a racist rogue terror state exceeding South African apartheid viciousness. What about Palestine a virtual free-fire zone - soldiers and other security forces brutalizing and killing with impunity.

Opposition Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog called baby Ali's immolation "terror of the worst kind." What about Israeli mass murder last summer for 51 horrifying days, affecting 1.8 million trapped Gazans.

Israel is its own worst enemy. An accompanying article said regular settler crimes are a microcosm of issues of far greater consequence - reflected in daily state sponsored terrorism against millions of defenseless Palestinians.

They're persecuted, beaten, and murdered for protesting peacefully for rights everyone deserves. They're targeted for the crime of "fishing." They're shot tilling their fields.

Young children are terrorized at home, at play or coming from or going to school. They're arrested and now face up to 20 years in prison for the crime of stone-throwing. They're killed or wounded by trigger-happy soldiers with impunity.

International leaders able to intervene responsibly yawn and do nothing - endorsing Israeli atrocities by silence or inaction.

Nations mobilized for war at all times, waging them constantly, persecuting their own people and others, showing contempt for rule of law principles, and serving its privileged few at the expense of all others are doomed to fail.

America and Israel are Exhibits A and B - partners in horrific crimes of war and against humanity. Their day of reckoning awaits.

The late Chalmers Johnson warned about "the sorrows of empire," a culture of corruption and militarism, endless wars of aggression called humanitarian ones, collapse of constitutional governance, a nation run by criminals posing as democrats, a phony war on terror not ending in our lifetime.

An unavoidable day of reckoning awaits. Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance and punisher of hubris and arrogance in Greek mythology is among us, he said.

She's unseen, patiently stalking our way of life, awaiting the moment to make her presence known. Johnson compared her to Wagner's Brunnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen. 

Unlike Nemesis, she collects heroes, not fools and hypocrites. They both announce their presence the same way: "Only the doomed see" them, unable to escape their sting.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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