The Growing Graveyard in Gaza

In that small strip of land called Gaza, it has become the problem of the living to bury the dead. Dying is such a regular occurrence that outstrips birthing and aging, and the Palestinians have run out of graveyards. Those buried by the rubble from the bombs and big guns of Israeli tanks may be retained where they perished. And if the Jewish State offensive continues, the entire Gaza may become a graveyard - not only of the mangled bodies of civilians, but also of the dreams of young Palestinians for a better existence and a place to call their homeland.

As of the 12th of January, 971 Gazans have been killed - one third of them children. Those that will eventually perish from diseases, wounds, and starvation brought on by the humanitarian crisis now engulfing the area, have yet to be factored in. The latest is that Israeli bombs have struck a United Nations aid storage facility, aggravating the already volatile and inadequate aid supply in the city. Israel has also struck the office facilities used by foreign journalists. Both bombs have been confirmed to contain phosphorous - a fact Israel has consistently denied.

Israel's claim of self-defense is not all that plausible. Prior to its recent barrage in Gaza, it has not suffered an armed attack, which in the UN Charter preserves the right of a state to retaliate. What Israel has initiated is a war of aggression. Since the rocket attacks versus Israel in 2002 commenced, about two dozen Israelis have perished. These attacks by Hamas may be considered war crimes; yet in the same period, Israel's retaliatory strikes have killed 2,700 Palestinians.

In June 2008, both sides agreed to a 6-month truce which neither party fully complied with. Hamas fired rockets into Israel after the Jewish State killed or seized Hamas members in the West Bank, and Israel's refusal to ease the blockade that effectively starved and suffocated Gaza. Israel then broke the truce in November 2008 and killed a Palestinian. The resulting Hamas rockets killed no one - but Israel then killed 5 more Palestinians. The current conflict was thus initiated by Israel's violation of the truce - and it cannot claim self-defense against this escalation because it was provoked by its own abuse.

This armed attack by Israel, unjustified as self-defense, is a war of aggression; and definitely a war crime. And although it has withdrawn its soldiers and settlers in Gaza since 2005, Israel continues to strictly control the coast, borders and airspace, making the Jewish State an occupying power with the legal obligation to protect the civilian population. Hamas can be charged for its violative tactic of using civilians and governmental facilities as shields in launching attacks on Israel, but it is not as serious as Israel's crime of launcing a war of aggression against the civilian population.

The idea that the constant battering of the Palestinians will soften them and accept the peace Israel wants to impose on its own terms, is unrealistic. It will only fuel hardened hatred and rage against them. The statements by Condi Rice and George Bush admonishing Hamas to desist from firing rockets is a subtle way of projecting that Hamas is the aggressor. It is both laughable and incredible, since Israeli tanks are inside Gaza bombarding the city to rubble, its planes dropping bombs, while its ships blasting at Gaza from the coast - yet no admonishing is given to Israel. The lopsided statements have resurfaced America's ugly and obnoxious image in the Middle East.

Talks of a truce have been initiated, but the latest bombardment that burned the food, medicine, fuel, and water supplies of the UN to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, puts into question Israel's idea of peace. It may be that Israel's concept of peace is an exact copy of America's pacification campaign in the old west against the native Americans - that peace, as a goal of the Jewish State means no Palestinian left standing alive - either by bullets, bombs, disease, starvation, or intolerable misery. And that no possible regeneration will ever take place. Gaza will then be recorded and renowned in history as the graveyard of Palestinians, and the burial site of their dreams of a Palestinian State.

Haaaarrrrrrwwwwwk...Twoooooooph...Ting!

Source: Johann Hari, The True Story Behind the War is not the One Israel isTelling
George E. Bisharat, Israel is Committing War Crimes
news.bbc.co.uk

The Financial Fiefdom of the Future

Arguably the most modern metropolis being built in the world, Dubai has the distinction of being referred to as the "City of the Future". The bold initiatives undertaken by the United Arab Emirates cannot merely be regarded as a fancy for modern structures nor a penchant for expensive technological wizardry, but a predetermined vision and a calculated objective that will raise the former Bedouin tribes of the Arabian desert to the top of the global economy's center of power. The City's pace of development and base of business is positioned to wrest the dominance and influence from New York City as the financial capital of the world.

Its recent unveiling of a Dynamic Architecture concept has attracted attention and interest all over the globe, where the biggest and most profitable companies on the planet can be enticed to relocate. If the concept is successfully executed, it will herald Dubai's technological leadership in construction, the forceful driving force behind economic growth. It will also make the city the first established site where modern construction technology was applied, obtained from a Florence based architect, David Fisher; ironically, the same place where the Renaissance originated which benefited the west, but now supports the Middle East.

The "future of architecture" is being built in the city of the future. The brick-on-brick method used for 4,000 years will be obsolete, and this pre-fabricated, independently rotating-floors edifice of 80 stories, will have environmentally cleaner methods that use a third of the manpower for these types of buildings; and will produce more than its required energy from an alternative source. This structure, and others like it that would follow after its completion in 2010, will make New York City look "Old World". Museums, sports arenas, cultural venues, transportation and communications, can all be built in a planned city that was in the drawing boards since the late 70's. With its flooding subways, bursting sewer pipes, decrepit buildings and bridges, that need several years and billions of dollars to put in shape for current use, New York would seem third world in comparison to Dubai, which has engineered the city for a vision 50 years hence.

Apart from the physical appearance of modernity and old world charm, the success of the Emirates in shifting the global base of trade and commerce to Dubai would have far reaching political and economic implications. Those holding the purse hold the power, and the shift in economic power from New York to Dubai will mean a transfer of power from the Jews to the Arabs. Policies regarding the State of Israel and the State of Palestine would be impacted severely. Interest rates will be higher for the US and business growth and development would be affected. Political divisions in America may grow deeper and wider owing to the Israeli concerns, and governance may be more difficult than it already is.

As the world looks in awe at the Dynamic Architecture concept in Dubai, it should also critically examine the seemimgly isolated and independent moves being created and initiated all over the world that is concerned with Middle East relations, Policies on the Gaza Strip, Global Investments, Foreign Debts, Military Deployment and Weapons Development, Global Trade and Commerce Agreements, Currency Movements, Technological Development and Applications, Genetically Modified Organisms in Food, Pharmaceutical Drugs, Disease Prevention, among others. All these areas and more, and what is currently started in each, will play a significant role in balancing or preventing this shift in power. If conflict arises, these will be used in ways unrelated to anything humanitarian, as history has proven.

Before mankind even blinks after a first glance at this marvelous structure, it should look behind itself, and guard its rear at any man-made catastrophe that may be engendered by those who cannot accept that power has changed hands.

Haaaarrrrwwwwwk...Twoooooooph...Ting!