Violence leads to violence

A reaction was inevitable. Predictable.

Since the Palestinian people democratically elected to have Hamas as their leadership, the US and Israel have orchestrated a vicious and inhumane campaign against them.

It was best described by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, who said, earlier this year. 'The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.'

In other words, we set out to starve the Palestinians into submission.

To further this aim the Israelis closed the Karni crossing, cutting off the ability for the Gaza Strip to trade, and the US and EU stopped all aid to the Palestinians leading to shortages of food that Human Rights organisations said would lead to a humanitarian disaster on the scale of Kosovo.

All of this took place because the US insisted that Hamas, who have been operating a ceasefire towards Israel for the past sixteen months, recognised Israel's "right to exist". A right that no other country has ever demanded.

To further pressure the Palestinians, who's newly elected government offered a deal of quiet for quiet to the Israelis, Israel's newly elected Kadina party commenced a campaign of relentless bombing of the Palestinians. Since the start of April, Israeli forces say they have fired more than 2,000 artillery shells into the northern Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, inevitably and predictably, the reaction to this abuse of the Palestinian people came in the form of a suicide bomb in Israel, carried out by Islamic Jihad, a particularly radical faction that is not part of the Hamas government.

Not that you would know any of this backstory were you to read today's New York Times.

No, no, no.

To read the New York Times, or to listen to the garbage emanating from the Bush administration, one would be forgiven for assuming that this barbaric act has come out of a vacuum, rather than being the foreseeable and predictable reaction to the administration's barbarous policy.

The only hint the New York Times gives to the backstory that led to yesterday's tragedy is to say:

The new Palestinian government has been in office less than three weeks, but it faces urgent problems. The United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group and are refusing to deal with any of its members, inside or outside the government.

Which, whilst factually correct, does not adequately describe our campaign to starve the Palestinians, and makes no mention at all of Israel's relentless bombing.

The Israelis, who know this atrocity was carried out by Islamic Jihad, nevertheless seized the opportunity to lay the blame at Hamas' door.

Israel said it held the Hamas-led government ultimately responsible. "They are responsible because their leaders are encouraging these attacks," said Gideon Meir, a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "It doesn't matter which group did this; it all comes from the same school of terrorism."

The White House chipped in, "The burden of responsibility for preventing terrorist attacks such as this one rests with the Palestinian Authority," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan.

It is no wonder that most Americans have such a one sided view of events in the Middle East when one of it's most prestigious newspapers and, indeed, their own government, set out to misrepresent events on this scale, and then to lay the blame for these events falsely at the door of their opponents, in order that they may continue to carry out a policy that has already proven disastrous.

The Hamas government have said that they are ready to discuss a two state solution; it is high time for Israel and the US to take them at their word and engage in negotiations, rather than the present policy of starving and bombing the Palestinians in the hope that Hamas will go away.

We are, supposedly, exporting democracy. Let us embrace the Palestinian people's democratically elected leaders, the people who the Palestinians think best represent their needs and their interests, and engage with them.

The Bush administrations insistence on fashioning reality to their liking, rather than accepting reality as it actually exists, has one again led to bloodshed.

There is a genuine chance for peace in the Middle East, probably the best chance in any of our lifetimes, and it should be seized.

Unlike the previous Palestinian Authority led by Arafat, with Hamas in power, Israel and the US have the unique opportunity to negotiate with the organ grinder rather than the monkey.

The US must decide whether it seeks to facilitate peace in the region, or whether it wishes to aid the Israelis to grab land by allowing the Kadina Party to unilaterally establish Israel's borders.

The latter will result in years of ongoing bloodshed, the former may finally put an end to sixty years of war and bring Israel into the fold of the international community by finally embracing UN resolution 242.

The offer of peace is on the table. If the US is a genuine friend of Israel, she would stop perpetuating lies and urge the Israelis to acccept the offer.

To do anything less, is to ask for more of the same. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians deserve better.

Tags: Israel, Palestine, suicide, bombing, bomb, violence, Hamas, Kadina, Party,