5 Jan 2009 03:51 AM CST. First published on January 1 2009

[Translated by Diego Traversa and revised by Mary Rizzo for www.tlaxcala.es]

Like any fact risking being spread to the extent of undermining world peace, it’s necessary to see who should be considered accountable for what’s happening in Palestine.

In fact, the western media accept all too easily, for reasons that cannot be analyzed here, the Israeli version according to which the operation “Cast Lead” is supposed to be nothing but a retaliation against Hamas launching several dozen rockets towards Israeli-populated areas close to the Gaza Strip.

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We watch in horror as Israel unleashes yet another war on the dispossessed and weak. Hundreds are killed (mostly police and civilians, not trained militants), thousands are injured, and a million and a half are terrorized, punished for defying the will of their besiegers and refusing to submit. Again the media colludes and sells a barbaric aggression on a basically defenseless and deprived population as a war between two sides, mystifying fundamental inequalities of power through words like ‘disproportionate response’ and ‘ceasefire.’

Again ‘shock and awe’ is bandied about as military currency, as if it worked the first time round in Iraq, or the second in Lebanon 2006. Again we hear a cocksure military commander say that the targeted area will be sent back decades in time, as if Israel has complete control over historical temporality: ‘In attacking Hamas’ regime in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces will try to ‘send Gaza decades into the past’ in terms of weapon capabilities while achieving ‘the maximum number of enemy casualties and keeping Israel Defense Forces casualties at a minimum,’ GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said.’[1]
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