Afrosphere Bloggers Urge End to Israel's Attacks on Gaza Strip

For Immediate Release

Contact: Atty. Francis L. Holland
AfroSpear Member
http://francislholland.blogspot.com
http://democratic-afrosphere.blogspot.com
55 (73) 9992-4127

Afrosphere Bloggers Urging Israel To
End Attacks On the Gaza Strip

It's being reported all over the world that Israel, with US support, is dropping white phosphorous bombs on the Gaza Strip - the same kind of incendiary skin-burning cluster bombs that Israel previously used in Lebanon and that the US used in Falujah, Iraq. African American Political Pundit attacks "the slaughter of children and women in Gaza," while Jack and Jill Politics says, referring to Israel,

We could solve a lot of things if we did one thing: cut off the funding to our 51st State. Then, maybe they’d be in the mood to listen to reason.

The Afrosphere's Black Agenda Report says,

Israel's aerial blitzkrieg and long-standing blockade of 1.5 million people is a crime against humanity for which its sponsor and champion, the United States, is equally guilty.

The Black Politics on the Web Afrosphere blogs says,

Israel has launched the deadliest bombing campaign against Palestinians in decades . . .

The outrages of Israel in Gaza are well-documented.

Human Rights Watch said Sunday that Israel's military has fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.

( . . . )

Israel used white phosphorus in its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The U.S. military in Iraq used the incendiary during a November 2004 operation against insurgents in the city of Fallujah.

An AP photographer and a TV crew based in Gaza visited Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Sunday and recorded images of several burn patients. Yahoo News via Associated Press

The national newspaper O Globo from Brasilia reports that:

The United States is contracting a merchant ship to carry hundreds of tons of arms from Greece to Israel this month, according to documents divulged two nights ago, that cite dangerous materials, such as explosives and detonators . . .The Pentagon denied that these arms are related to the current Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The request for arms was made [by Israel] on December 31 (the offensive began on December 27) so that the first shipment would arrive before the 25th of January and the second before the end of this month. The shipment is to be effectuated by a German transporter, which would not reply to questions. The ship orginated in North Carolina and the documents stipulate that the ship must be capable of carrying 2.6 million kilos [5.2 million pounds] of explosive liquid.

President George W. Bush's position on Israel's offensive has been that "Israel has the right to defend itself." The President of "change", Barack Obama, has so far changed nothing in terms of the US's unbridled support for Israel's military incursions into the Gaza Strip:

President-Elect Barack Obama has stayed largely silent concerning the conflict in Gaza. Whether any "change" in the American stance towards the Palestinians and Israelis begins under his administration is still highly unlikely. He himself has repeated the apologist and open-ended statement that Israel has the right to defend itself, yet the American's do not have the political will to define exactly what that entails.

At the moment Israel interprets it to mean that they can take military action, whenever, wherever and by whichever means they find suitable. Obama should help to craft some tangible guidelines for what "the defense of Israel" actually means if he hopes to make any leeway with the Arab and Muslim world. Real Clear World Blog

The United States has got to change its policy toward Israel, stop providing munitions for the complete destruction of Lebanon and now the Gaza Strip, and make it clear to Israel that there are strict limits to the US public's willingness to see Israel cluster-bomb its neighbors in the name of self-defense.

In fact, based on the US provision of intelligence and munitions to Israel on an annual basis and specifically during this war, I believe that Israel is enthusiastically doing America's bidding. It's got to stop, before seemingly powerless Palestinians turn their attacks outside the Israel/Palestinian conflict and begin killing Jews and Americans at random wherever they find us.

I, personally, am disgusted and furious over Israel's apparent determination to annihilate Palestine, and I am equally disgusted that our incoming "change" president seems no different from George W. Bush in his tacit support for Israel's outrages.

What's the purpose of the urgent US shipment of explosives to Israel? It makes the United States complicit in and supportive of the destruction of Palestine, and this has got to stop. President-elect Obama has got to stop parroting the US's pro-Israel party line with respect to this conflict, or he will fail to bridge the animosities of the past and merely preside over them, as have presidents of the Democratic and Republic parties of previous generations.

As Aaron David Miller said in Newsweek recently,

Don't get me wrong. Barack Obama—as every other U.S. president before him—will protect the special relationship with Israel. But the days of America's exclusive ties to Israel may be coming to an end. Despite efforts to sound reassuring during the campaign, the new administration will have to be tough, much tougher than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush were, if it's serious about Arab-Israeli peacemaking. Newsweek

I am not anti-Semitic and I am not anti-American. It is not anti-Semitic or anti-American to demand that Israel stay within its national borders and stop dropping white phosphorous and other vile explosives on Palestine, with the support of the US Government.

The above afrosphere blogs and more are clearly expressing a preference for food over phosphorous and peace in Palestine rather than war.

Contact: Atty. Francis L. Holland
AfroSpear Member
http://francislholland.blogspot.com
http://democratic-afrosphere.blogspot.com
55 (73) 9992-4127

References:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=white+phosphorus

http://africanamericanpoliticalpundit.com/frontPage.do;jsessionid=6D2FE1A53CD78EFD777F1D978068C8E4

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1106542/Gazas-darkest-day-40-die-Israel-bombs-safe-haven-UN-school.html

http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2008/12/our-51st-state-gaza/

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=956&Itemid=1

http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2008/12/30/former-ga-congresswoman-cynthia-mckinney-travels-with-gaza-protest-boat-into-lebanon/

http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/noblat/post.asp?t=eua-levam-armas-israel-em-meio-crise&cod_post=152686

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/05/bush-on-gaza-fighting-isr_n_155282.html?page=8

http://www.newsweek.com/id/177716