[Peace-discuss] Obama says Israel has "right to defend itself"

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

The child-killer in the White House says (at an iftar dinner in the White House, no less) that Israel has the right to kill children in Gaza because Hamas has fired rockets into Israel. The current Israeli attack has killed almost 200 Palestinians; no Israelis have died. 

Israel has suffered a total of 29 fatalities in over ten years of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. Phan Nguyen has compiled a list of the deaths (including two from unexploded ordnance) as a resource for journalists and analysts who seek to describe the threat level from the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel's last attack on Gaza [was] the eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012. Hamas hadn’t fired a single rocket since, and had largely suppressed fire by smaller jihadi groups. Rocket firings, averaging 240 per month in 2007, dropped to five per month in 2013.

But the formation last month of the Unity government by agreement of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas (on conditions set out by the US and EU) confronted the Israeli government with the danger that peace might break out. They promoted the "war" to prevent that dire possibility. 

But the Palestinians have no air force, no navy and no army. There is not war in Gaza, but rather the slaughter of a captive people in an occupied territory, for which Israel is responsible. Cf. the German attack on the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. 

Israel's murders in Gaza would not be possible without the support - military, financial, diplomatic, and political - provided by the United States government. And the American people allow the Obama administration to continue that support.  Those children's blood is on our hands. 

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