Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?


Despite the avalanche of propaganda from Western media outlets, not least the disgraceful coverage by our own BBC, attempts to paint Palestinians on the Gaza strip as aggressors and terrorists are failing. Instead, growing revulsion at Israel’s continuing bombardment of the most densely-populated area on earth is almost palpable. Good and long overdue. However, an insidious and dangerous alternative philosophy is emerging, one that, in its own way, is just as damaging to the besieged and beleaguered Palestinians as the unashamed brutality and war crimes of the rogue terrorist state of Israel.

Liberal pacifists are the new enemy of Palestine. Those who, while opposing Israel’s state terror, are just as quick to apportion equal blame to the Palestinian cause. “Oh, both sides should stop the violence,” these worthies cry. On the hard left, too, there are those who say Hamas are terrorists and that socialists should have no truck with ‘clerical fascists.’

Such views are unacceptable and unwittingly or not, place the supporters of such sentiments firmly in the imperialist camp and render them apologists for continuing Zionist slaughter.

Violence does not exist in a vacuum. It is not an abstract, moral question. One should not allow pro-Israeli propaganda to neuter our critical faculties and turn us into political Quakers. The fact is that violence is neither objectively good nor bad; as with most things in life, context is everything. So let’s look at that context…

The occupants of the Gaza strip exist in a precarious world of poverty and squalor. As previously mentioned, it is the most densely-populated region on the face of the planet. Food and adequate medical provision is in dangerously short supply and in every way the contrast between Gaza and its ‘neighbour,’ Israel, could not be more stark.

Israel, by contrast, has one of the strongest economies in the region and affords its citizens the highest average standard of living to be found anywhere in the Middle East. Its continuing control of the Palestinian borders and air space, an arrangement that denies the Palestinians even the most basic provisions for a minimum standard of dignified living, means this disparity will only increase and, of course, with it growing anger and opposition toward Israel.

In terms of Hamas’ legitimacy, here Western hypocrisy is clearly visible. At the last election, Hamas won seventy-two of the available 132 seats. Over 44% of the total. And on a turnout of 75%. By any criteria that is a mandate and a half and one that would have Western leaders weeping with gratitude should they ever be the recipients of such electoral largesse. Contrast that with Cameron’s 32% share of the vote, on a 65% turnout and his insistence that Hamas is illegitimate and will not be recognised by the UK is hypocrisy of the rankest kind.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should morph into uncritical cheer-leaders for Hamas but, and it’s a huge but, the arrogant Western mindset that says we know best and we can and should dictate how other nations run their affairs comes to the fore and is evident in the criticism many level at Hamas. The fact remains; Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Palestinians. Get used to it.

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Regarding violence, the question is so simple that one wonders how so many can fail to draw the correct conclusions. There is the violence of the oppressor and there is the violence of the oppressed. The former is immoral and illegitimate while the latter is not only moral and legitimate but unavoidable and necessary. Self-defence is never an offence. Unless, that is, we are to see an entire region of people ethnically cleansed because, and make no mistake, that is the only conclusion if the occupants of Gaza lay down what paltry arms they have and submit to Israel.

The huge arsenal and troops that Israel has its disposal, and the pitiful, largely homemade, ordnance available to the Palestinians render the balance of forces grotesquely unequal. As the latest death-toll makes clear: 690 dead Palestinians, the majority of whom are civilians, including many children, compared to 32 dead Israeli soldiers and 3 civilian casualties. Add to that the support, arms and funding Israel receives from Washington, London and elsewhere, and one can only feel humbled at the continuing resistance of the Palestinian people.

We should not need to spell out the respective moral justifications for each side’s actions. There can be no question that Israel has neither moral right nor even bourgeois international law on its side. It continues to operate with arrogance and impunity, ignoring, to date, 62 UN resolutions (compare that with Iraq’s flouting of just 2 and look what happened there…) and, ignoring borders, the law, the sovereignty of other nations and all accepted norms of diplomacy, it dispatches its intelligence operatives to anywhere it damn well pleases to murder and assassinate at will. How dare anyone decry reactive, defensive Palestinian violence and hold it the equal of Israel’s?

Even a ceasefire offers the Palestinians little hope. A cease-fire means only a Palestinian ceasefire while Israel returns to the day-to-day business of illegal occupation, beating, shooting and illegally imprisoning defenceless Palestinians. While the so-called international community looks the other way.

The residents, or rather prisoners, of the Gaza strip are waging a life and death struggle that transcends even national liberation; they are concerned with simply survival. In such a case there is no ‘plague on both your houses’ option available. There is no moral equivalency between the world’s 4th most-mighty military power invading and then subjugating a poverty-stricken oppressed people who are desperately fighting for their lives and the very existence of the miserable 32-mile strip of open-air prison they call home.

There is no quandary, no grey area and no ambiguity; Israel is the aggressor. The Palestinians are the victims. We should unconditionally, unquestioningly and unequivocally support their resistance and right to defend themselves in any fashion they see fit. Rockets into Israel are the legitimate and just resistance of a desperate people. Israeli airstrikes are the brutality of the invader and, quite probably, war crimes.

We are told Hamas uses human shields and hides its weaponry in schools, hospitals and the like. If true, and only the most foolish should accept unquestioningly that it is true, such sanctimonious outrage ignores two crucial facts: firstly, given the enormous population-density of Gaza, virtually anywhere Hamas hide their rockets is technically a civilian area. There is no space, no room for it be otherwise. Secondly, such biased reporting ignores the huge popular support Hamas enjoys on the ground, with many civilians eager to lend assistance to its Al-Qassam Brigades. As well they might. Who else speaks for the Palestinians? What other nations stand with the oppressed of Gaza? Which world superpower bankrolls and arms their fighters as the US does for Israel?

If ever a cause was noble, just and heroic, it is that of the Palestinians.

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image descriptionCOMMENTS

Brandon French 4:44 am, 25-Jul-2014

We should all form International Brigades to fight for Palestinian liberty!

myleftboot 8:08 am, 25-Jul-2014

Poking a tiger with a stick cause it ate your cow is a legitimate act of resistance, but it is pretty ducking stupid. Also, a rocket is by no stretch of the imagination a defensive weapon

Josh 9:28 am, 25-Jul-2014

A home made rocket is quite analogous to a stick in the context of a fight against a well funded modern military power like Israel. What would you consider a "defensive weapon"? Maybe a nuclear deterrent? or a vastly expensive Iron Dome system? How cruel of Hamas to skimp on such necessities!

Scravaldio 11:37 am, 25-Jul-2014

The Quakers have been working for years to help find a solution in the middle east and our philisophy of no violence whatever the reason should be adopted by everyone so back off from the quakers. I think your article has missed the point for the isarali agression completly. Israel is in the middle of an energy crisis and 4 billion dollars worth of natural gas has been discovered off the coast of gaza. hamas refuses to give this gas to israel and as the legtimate political entitity of gaza they have that right. Now israel will simply take it and in order to do that they need to crush hamas. What is going on has nothing to do with religion or politics it is down to money and more money. Oh yeah and if your british like me then you can be really ashamed because it is the British gas group who will benefit when the Isralis finally kill every man woman and child in gaza. So proud to be british and Tony blair negioated the deal, peace envoy my arse. I actually agree that no one should criticise a resisitance movement for resisting, but advocating violence is stupid and if Hamas did stop fireing rockets then israel really would have no excuse so hamas's policy is self defeating. I know i sound like a typical quaker but if hamas was to become completly non violent and simply protested peacefully the Isralis would have to pull out. i am not saying this would be easy but ghandi proved that in the face tryanny you must start a new currency outside of violence becuase it is all that tryanical power understands.

Scravaldio 11:42 am, 25-Jul-2014

Oh one more thing the whole human shields story is complete rubbish. When you two million people trapped in just over hundread square miles then human shield starts to be "well were the hell else am i supposed to put them?" There are only civilian areas in gaza, trust me it is packed beyond anything you could imagine so human shields is really a weak and desperate attempt to dis credit a legitimate political and resistance movement.

Harry 12:18 pm, 25-Jul-2014

Which is the very point I make towards the end of the article, Scravaldio.

tfp 1:45 pm, 25-Jul-2014

A good read, cheers.

Jay shah 10:19 pm, 25-Jul-2014

A very good read. To those political quakers, particularly those airing if Hamas stopped firing firecrackers oh I mean rockets Israel would stop...1. Israel has been massacring Palestine way before Hamas...2. Lest we forget Israel with the support of its puppet USA funded Hamas as a legitimate forcee fight against Fata....

Harry 8:30 pm, 26-Jul-2014

Indeed. One of Israel and the USA's more laughable misjudgements. Or maybe it was hubris. Hamas was delighted to take the cash, fully intending to bite the hands that fed them. And, oh boy, did they...

Ploff Meister 9:14 am, 28-Jul-2014

Why don't Israel simply become non-violent instead? We've been oppressing the Palestinians since we carved up their land after WWII and still we say to them, calm down, be patient, you'll get your turn in a minute, when we've taken everything worth taking from the earth and the sea. And then we act surprised when one of them thinks, Nah, I'm not having this, this is wrong...

DJB1968 2:44 pm, 29-Jul-2014

"There is the violence of the oppressor and there is the violence of the oppressed. The former is immoral and illegitimate while the latter is not only moral and legitimate but unavoidable and necessary." But who gets to decide who qualifies as "oppressed"? You'll find plenty of minority groups in the UK who consider themselves oppressed, from militant Islamists to neo-Nazi wingnuts. And by the above argument presumably you're good with (e.g.) the provisional IRA blowing up kids on a crowded Warrington street? - Not only not only moral and legitimate but unavoidable and necessary?

Simom Ross 4:18 pm, 30-Jul-2014

I have seen this go on for 50 years , the Palestinians don’t want peace, they have had more then ample opportunities to do something with their lives but instead of running their own land , declaring a state , setting up government and working towards a resolution they prefer to fight Israel over a war the Arabs started 50 years ago and lost. They keep bitching about land they lost 50 years ago and call it “occupied’ It’ not “occupied” ITS LOST. You don't see Mexico shooting rockets over the border because of Texans building houses in Texas do you. They have squandered billions on their “cause”. They have ruined their homes, their lives and the lives and futures of their children for a lost cause, instead of moving on and living they teach their children how to hate and kill. I have NO sympathy for them any more. If they insist on continuing to persist in antagonizing their adversary to their own detriment and ruin then so be it. Let them live or die in the bed THEY have made for themselves. If they put half as much effort, time and money into kicking out Hamas and running their own territory peacefully, with all the money they have been given they’d be more then prosperous, but they are too blinded by hate and revenge.

Simom Ross 6:16 pm, 30-Jul-2014

And honestly Harry, as a member of a subjugated race, you really should know your history better. You folks have done bugger all since Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, when you Scott's finally realised it was much more in your interests to work with England rather then fight against it. Are the Israeli's in the right ? No fucking, might doesn't equal right, but might does decide history. Only fools disagree with that Simon

DJB1968 3:02 pm, 1-Aug-2014

BTW the pic under the 'Rockets into Israel' headline above actually shows an Israeli 'Iron Dome' missile not a Palestinian rocket. One other thing: surely the Americans are the key to ending the current horror. The Israelis can't carry on the slaughter if the US withdraw military, financial and political support. It's pretty unlikely, but clearly they could apply a hell of a lot more pressure on Israel if they had the will (rather than just restocking their ammunition, which they did earlier this week).

2starsonmeshirt 4:25 pm, 1-Aug-2014

"but might does decide history" you think so Simon. Better tell the British after Suez, the Yanks after Korea and Vietnam, the Russians after Afghanistan, the French in Vietnam. All "superpowers" with atomic weapons and all since the end of WW2 Suppose according to your reckoning that makes me a fool. Not sure where it leaves you though!

DG 4:03 pm, 3-Aug-2014

Rogue terrorist state of Israel?? You are completely off your trolley! How can you wax lyrical about Israel being so aggressive...yeah they're no angels but Jesus look at their neighbors! Not one broadcaster showing Hamas fighters?? And as for Israel having one of the strongest economies...that's because they work hard for it and constantly develop new technology unlike their neighbors But I'm sure you can twist that into them robbing the Palestinians of their land.. Even though when the Jews started coming back to Israel it was a compete baron desert shit tip..which the kibbutz movement completely turned around! You need stop 'being fashionable' and blaming Israel and look who's constantly provoking them!

Soupastar 4:55 pm, 19-Aug-2014

I can see Israel's POV: Every country within 500 miles of Israel wants to destroy it. Israel's enemies are hydra-like in their determination to vanquish Israel by any means possible. So, I can fully understand that Israel adopts a vigorous approach to defence. Didn't this latest conflict arise because Hamas killed 3 Israeli teenagers? And one reason that less Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets is that every Israeli apartment has a safe room in which families shelter when the air-raid warnings sound. It's all very groovy to support the underdog but let's not forget that the underdog in this case - Hamas - is a throughly nasty piece of work.

Harry 7:51 pm, 20-Aug-2014

Hamas did *not* kill those teenagers. Something Israel has not only admitted it knew but admitted it knew *prior* to bombing the living shit out of a trapped and imprisoned civilian population. It was a despicable and cynical excuse to justify the latest Zionist outrage. Hamas, for all its faults, is the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people and is an expression of the desperation, frustration and anger that the people feel at the previous PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority's acquiescence to increasing Zionist land-grabbing and apartheid. However bad Hamas might be, Israel bears 100% responsibility for bringing it into existence. Give the Palestinians their state, lift the blockade and Hamas ceases its resistance. Simple, really...

Soupastar 2:03 pm, 2-Sep-2014

It seems unclear whether Hamas were responsible or not: Saleh Arouri, the group’s exiled West Bank leader, has admitted that Hamas were responsible. Other Hamas sources deny it. I have not read anything that suggests that Israel "knew" Hamas were not responsible prior to the Israeli bombing programme. I have read that Israeli govt "knew" that the boys were dead shortly after they disappeared but continued to suggest that they may still be alive in order to beef up support from the Jewish diaspora. As such, the facts are not as black and white as your response above would indicate. Unless you have other sources, of course... Finally, yes, it would be much simpler if Palestinians had their own state.

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