THE BIGGER THEY ARE THE HARDER THEY FALL

By Norman Finkelstein

My Catbird Seat

November 22, 2012

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Israel has just suffered a historic defeat.

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ED Noor: It is so wonderful to see joy on these faces, however short lived it may or may not be. One never knows when dealing with the Israeli entity just quite what to expect.

 

Chanting victory slogans and shouting “the resistance has triumphed,”jubilant residents flooded the streets of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday nightto express their joy over the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal, which cameinto effect at 21:00 (1900 GMT), AFP reported.

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One only had to watch the international news coverage.

BBC persisted in its typically awful reportage on the Israel-Palestine conflict during Israel’s latest rampage.  

But tonight it had to acknowledge that the people of Gaza were out in the streets celebrating.  

It desperately sought some “balance” by positing that “some people in Israel are probably also celebrating.”  

Fat chance.

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CNN aired Christiane Amanpour “exclusive” interview with Khaled Meshal.

Despite, or perhaps because of, her silly histrionics (“What do you want?” she tearfully pleaded), Meshal came across as remarkably articulate.

It could not have failed to register even on the terrifyingly stupid Abu Abbas that the PA Comedy Hour will soon be cancelled.  

Meshal also explicitly endorsed a settlement on the June 1967 border, which won’t please the BDS/One-State cultists.

CNN then televised the Israeli news conference of Netanyahu, Lieberman and Barak. 
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They looked like three sixth-graders called down to the Principal’s Office, counting the minutes until the humiliation was over.

ED Noor: One bully looks smug and worried; the other just plain mad like now he has to pull the wings off every butterfly he can find. Or stuff strings of firecrackers into frogs.... that is the expression of a frustrated pathological bully. And, dream of dreams, perhaps this is the face of a man who has suffered a loss big enough to cost him the coming elections?

Israel suffered a double defeat.  

Its announced goal when it went into Gaza was to restore its “deterrence capacity.”  

But at the end of the day its deterrence capacity had been drastically reduced:

The once mighty Israeli army that caused the whole Arab/Muslim world to tremble could not even defeat the impoverished and weaponless tiny enclave of Gaza.

Israel demanded an unconditional and unilateral secession of Hamas “rocket” attacks.

But Israel had to accept a mutual ceasefire.  It also had to make promises regarding the siege of Gaza.  

It is highly improbable that anything will come of these Israeli promises, but still, Israel could not unilaterally impose its will.

Let it, finally, be said:

In praise of the ever-martyred but ever-heroic and ever-renascent people of Gaza.

May they live to see the full brightness of dawn.
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Ed. note : One thing to do is get this Gaza ad in every newspaper in the US!

Source: http://ifamericansknew.org/images/GazaAd-lr.jpg

For further details on the ceasefire, click here.

Analysis of Norman Finkelstein on Gaza:

From My Catbird Seat commentator Rex W

On the first day, why should one feel nervous over this apparent backdown by the world's most arrogant nation?

With the slippery Clinton, one has to consider everything imaginable. Sadly for Palestine, or should one say for any other country other than Israel, she is an almost  predictable can of worms so when she receives advice, that is assuming she listens to anyone but Netanyahu, if it is not what she/he  wants to hear, then it would probably be discarded in double quick time. But not today. In this case, the game is not over, mark these words. She never has been of any value to the US since her appointment. She is less so now. You cannot have a Secretary of State so closely aligned to another foreign state that she loses all her objectivity, therefore credibility.

One can imagine the reaction almost everywhere around the world when it was announced that Ms Clinton was on her way to help with a ceasefire. “Oh no, not her again’ would be a fair assessment of the response.  Her appointment was just another mistake by Obama  as with Rahm Emanuel, IDF member, Israeli passport holder.  Obama has made many. The worst one, or so it seems, is ‘requesting’ the resignation of the CIA Chief,  apparently on the ‘orders’ of the Zionist Cantor, still posing as an elected American Congressman, for something as trivial as a romantic affair. A sledgehammer decision on a minor and very common activity in the US. I am sure that Kennedy,Clinton, Johnson, Gingrich and who knows how many others, would also have  agreed with that..

Eric Cantor of course, will decide the next CIA Chief who will be a Zionist, giving Israel control of government intelligence. No such thing then as any israeli spy going to prison like Pollard. He will be reinstated as a patriot, for israel, that is.. Same thing really.  Let's face it. Unless Obama rids himself of Clinton's  presence in his inner circle, nothing will improve.

There is little point in having an empty-suited President (four years of do-nothing policies) AND a Zionist fellow-traveler making foreign policy on behalf of the whole USA. But then, having said that, who really seems to care? It’s pretty much  ‘more of the same’ with 48 months to go. You can get used to almost anything. But let there be no confusion in relation to the ceasefire. It had nothing to do with Clinton. What it has to do with was Morsi, the US plans to get him into their sphere of influence and try, I say try and make him another Mubarak. Not much chance of that in the short term, however.  

Morsi must  feel that he has a mandate from his people to be independent and decisive. He knows also that the US can be a force for the redevelopment of his country.  It is always an objective of the US to buy support, such is their thinking by using the well-honed philosophy of ‘if  they won’t join us, hit  them with sanctions’ simply  brought on and agreed to in the UN with the help of the outdated US veto. After all, this just-finished military activity was really a result of the US veto being used to negate all the Resolutions against Israel over decades. Any school child  knows that. Hard thing to live with if it was any other country but America. Standard practice there. The end justifies the means.

However, the US has now created a monster which is now controlling them.

So as with all the other Middle Eastern countries, many now having gone through their  ‘democratic’ reformations and all that means is that, they are all  needed by the US to stabilize not their own countries based on any altruism or any generosity of spirit, but for the interests of the US. A fertile ground for the outdated foreign policy dictates starting with the early US colonial wars and the following 200, some still in train. Still using  the guise of “democracy”. Now that is a tired old whore.. What a record.

Trying hard to outdo the British. Well, the US has done it. After WWI, the British, in their favour, relinquished their empire, albeit not too willingly, but bit by bit and maintained democracy at home.. The US, on the other hand,  is expanding its empire through military hegemony even in 2012 and slowly, ever so slowly losing their democracy at home. (eroding The Constitution, The Patriot Act, giving the PAC’s the final vote, money)  and on it goes. I would guess that it was the need for Egypt to be an acceptable neighbour that won the day for Israel coupled with Morsi’s apparent  new found strength and his outspoken support of Hamas. That’s what did it and if it is true, than we are thankful for that. More strength to Mr.Morsi. But what did Clinton / Obama give in return? We’ll know soon enough. After all, it is psychotic Israel we are dealing with here, not any normal country. .