The eyes of Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC, John Bryson Chane, were opened to Israel’s persecution of Palestinians by his recent trip to Palestine. In a recent sermon he called on “politicians seeking the highest office in [our] land” to find the courage to “speak out and condemn violations of human rights and religious freedom denied to Palestinian Christians and Muslims” by the state of Israel.
In 2006, the US insisted that the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank hold free elections. When free elections were held, Hamas won. This was unacceptable to the Americans and Israelis. After unheeded warnings to the Gazans to rid themselves of Hamas and accept a puppet government, Israel has decided to destroy the freely elected government with violence.
For the US and UK governments, Israel can do no wrong. Israel doesn’t have to stop withholding food, medicine, water, and energy, but Hamas must stop firing off rockets, rockets that are mainly a protest for the ghetto life that Israel imposes on Gazans, and which for the most part are ineffectual as far as claiming Israeli casualties. In violation of international law, Israel can continue to drive West Bank Palestinians off their lands and out of their villages and give the stolen properties to “settlers.”
In his 2005 Nobel Lecture, British playwright Harold Pinter held the United States and [Britain] accountable for “the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. … How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?”
Pinter’s question can also be asked of Israel.
[Excerpt of an article by Paul Craig Roberts, former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury]
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Even conscientious Israelis acknowledge that the Hamas “rocket rationale” is fraudulent.
Jerusalem Post writer Larry Derfner has noted, “The [Palestinian] Kassam [rockets] have terrorized the 25,000 people in Sderot and its environs, but have caused very, very few deaths or serious wounds.
"By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans, locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled their economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands of them ...”
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