John Prescott anti-Israel in the Daily Mirror - Poll

[benshi]

John Prescott wrote an article in the Daily Mirror in which he condemns Israel's actions as you will see in the article below.
If like me you are disgusted and incensed by this article please follow the link to the poll and register your disagreement. When I voted earlier this evening only 54% disagreed.  Every vote is crucial !

John Prescott: Israel's bombardment of Gaza is a war crime - and it must end

Jul 26, 2014 17:23
Opinion
by JohnPrescott

The former Deputy Prime Minister says the reaction to Hamas' rockets is brutally disproportionate and grossly indiscriminate


Imagine a country claiming the lives of nearly three times as many as were lost in the MH17 plane tragedy in less than three weeks.

A nation which blasted a hospital, shelled and killed children from a gunboat as they played football on the beach and was responsible for 1,000 deaths, at least 165 of them children, in just two weeks.

Surely it would be branded a pariah state, condemned by the United Nations, the US and the UK. The calls for regime change would be ­deafening.

But these howls of protest are muted. The condemnation softened.

For this is Israel.

Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trots out the same excuses. Hamas “militants” in Gaza fired their rockets first. Israel has a right to defend itself. It needs to protect its citizens.

And he’s right on all three counts – but as always with Israel this is not the full story. The military action supposedly targeting Hamas is so brutally disproportionate and so grossly indiscriminate that it makes it impossible not to view Israel’s actions as war crimes.

Those who live in Gaza are kept like prisoners behind walls and fences, unable to escape the bombings, and an Israeli economic blockade has forced Palestinians into poverty.

Israel’s Iron Dome defence system easily intercepts missiles launched from Gaza. Three Israeli citizens have died from these ­primitive rockets, with 32 soldiers killed fighting Hamas.

Compare that to the toll in Gaza. Of the 1,000-plus to die, more than 80 per cent were ­civilians, mostly women and children.

But who is to say some of the other 20 per cent weren’t ­innocent too? Israel brands them terrorists but it is acting as judge, jury and ­executioner in the ­concentration camp that is Gaza.

And Israel flouts international law by continuing to build illegal Jewish settlements. Why? Because it knows it can get away with it.

What happened to the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis is appalling. But you would think those atrocities would give Israelis a unique sense of perspective and empathy with the victims of a ghetto.

Netanyahu says the Israeli Defense Forces phone Gaza civilians to warn them to move out when missile attacks are expected. They even send smaller missiles to “roof knock” ahead of the big bomb that’s to follow.

But where can these people escape to? They’re hemmed in to a densely populated strip of land by the sea with no means of escape. When Israel is blasting hospitals and even UN schools acting as ­shelters, where exactly is it safe to flee to?

Hamas is wrong to continue its rocket attacks and must ­recognise ­Israel’s right to exist. But as Channel 4’s Jon Snow said this week: “If you strangle a people, deny them supply for years, extreme reaction is inevitable.”

Israel’s attacks will not solve this dispute. They will just create another ­generation of hate-filled Palestinians determined to fight against the ­injustice of being occupied.

All the while, we in the West stand back and hope for a ceasefire. But at least Ed Miliband has stood up to condemn Israel’s invasion while Cameron sits on the fence. That’s true leadership from Ed.

We must force Israel to end the blockade on Gaza to ensure free and unfettered access for humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials.

There must be a freeze on illegal settlement growth to let talks start. We should support a phased approach to end the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem within a reasonable timeframe.

The EU should play a bigger role in supporting ­mediation and push for ­sanctions for non-compliance.

The lack of a two-state solution is a running sore that continues to inflame the passions not just of ­Palestinians and Muslims, but all fair-minded people around the world.

We cannot be a silent witness to this carnage one minute longer. The world must force Israel and Hamas to stop this endless cycle of death.

[charmbrights]

Benshi, can you tell me where the quoted "international law" so often cited a) is codified, and b) is created by whom?

Or can anyone else?

And please do not tell me that the United nations creates it, as that is clearly non-democratic as it is the same number of votes in the General Assembly for India and for Luxembourg which clearly is an imbalance of representation by a factor of well over two and a half thousand.

Jul 31, 2014 18:17:16 GMT benshi said:

John Prescott wrote an article in the Daily Mirror in which he condemns Israel's actions as you will see in the article below.
If like me you are disgusted and incensed by this article please follow the link to the poll and register your disagreement. When I voted earlier this evening only 54% disagreed.  Every vote is crucial !

John Prescott: Israel's bombardment of Gaza is a war crime - and it must end

Jul 26, 2014 17:23
Opinion
by JohnPrescott

The former Deputy Prime Minister says the reaction to Hamas' rockets is brutally disproportionate and grossly indiscriminate


...

And Israel flouts international law by continuing to build illegal Jewish settlements. Why? Because it knows it can get away with it.

...

[benshi]

I believe Charm the "international law" he is referring to is the UN Security Council Resolution 242.


The Meaning of UN Security Council Resolution 242


The drafters of the resolution, however, understood that Israel will never have secure and defensible borders if it was forced to withdraw from the territory it captured in 1967 and omitted that requirement.

[Teddy Bear]

And please do not tell me that the United nations creates it, as that is clearly non-democratic as it is the same number of votes in the General Assembly for India and for Luxembourg which clearly is an imbalance of representation by a factor of well over two and a half thousand.

In the same way that the BBC 'interprets' the 'truths' of the various topics where we note its consistent agenda, so the nations of the world interpret this resolution because they see it in their own interest to sacrifice one small nation to appease the Muslim ones.

[Teddy Bear]

Benshi you will be pleased to note that the Mirror poll is now closed. It ended with 59% disagreeing with Prescott's statements.

Jeremy Havardi at the Commentator picked apart what Prescott was grandstanding about.

Lord "No Brain" piles in against Israel
Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott used to be known as "Two-Jags", in reference to his penchant for fast cars while presenting himself as a working class hero. Now it's "No-Brain" Prescott with mindless and vile invective against Israel

A great deal of bile has been heaped on Israel during the last three weeks of the Gaza offensive. We have witnessed the usual torrent of hypocrisy, double standards and delegitimisation in The Guardian, The Independent, the BBC, Channel 4 News and a variety of other outlets.

The Daily Mirror too has entered the hall of infamy.

In a recent opinion piece in that paper, former Deputy Prime Minister and now Lord John Prescott has launched a withering condemnation of Israel's actions in Gaza, using the kind of language unworthy of a senior British politician.

He slams Operation Protective Edge as a 'war crime', and demands that it 'must end'. He engages his readers in a 'thought' experiment:

'Imagine a country claiming the lives of nearly three times as many as were lost in the MH17 plane tragedy in less than three weeks. A nation which blasted a hospital, shelled and killed children from a gunboat as they played football on the beach and was responsible for 1,000 deaths, at least 165 of them children, in just two weeks'. Such a country would be 'branded a pariah state, condemned by the United Nations, the US and the UK'.

Of course, the scenes of civilian suffering in Gaza are heartrending. Who does not feel pity for the child victims of this war, and for the innocents losing their homes and livelihoods? That much is not at issue.

But it is intellectually disingenuous to deny Hamas' role in causing such extensive death and damage. As Prescott accepts, Hamas terrorists chose to initiate this war with a heavily armed neighbour by firing a vast arsenal of rockets indiscriminately into Israel's main cities.

Millions of Israeli civilians have been forced into bomb shelters in terror, day after day, hour after hour. Such rocket fire with no military objective is a war crime, pure and simple.

That Israel has an Iron Dome system which 'easily intercepts missiles launched from Gaza' is beside the point. It is not up to Israel to decide how Hamas spends its money. Hamas could choose to build bomb shelters and a civilian defence infrastructure for its people. Instead, it has invested in rockets and tunnels of death. Perhaps John Prescott could take Ismail Haniyeh to task on this.

Then there is ample evidence, including that provided by Hamas spokesmen, of how the terrorists have repeatedly used their population as human shields, both to protect their weapons and to score a PR victory when civilians are killed.

Rockets have been stored and fired from schools, hospitals and residential neighbourhoods. That is another blatant war crime. If Navi Pillay can accept this, so can John Prescott.

Prescott gets to the nub of his argument by condemning Israel's actions as 'so brutally disproportionate and so grossly indiscriminate' that it becomes impossible not to view them as 'war crimes'. He adds: 'Of the 1,000-plus to die, more than 80 per cent were ­civilians, mostly women and children.'

Firstly, these casualty figures are highly contentious and rely on a disputed view of how to count civilians in this war zone. It would be far wiser to await an unbiased verdict once this conflict is over.

Secondly, the Israeli operations are hardly indiscriminate when the IAF has used surgical strikes to target military infrastructure and when multiple warnings are given to Gaza's residents prior to attacks. Prescott clearly implies that Israel has intentionally or recklessly killed civilians. But in the fog of war, operational errors can occur too, and it is wrongheaded to ignore this.

Yet thirdly, on no reading of international law is the inadvertent killing of civilians in Gaza an automatic breach of the laws of war. The rule on proportionality states that while no country is obliged to avoid killing any civilians in war, the loss of civilian life must not be "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated."

Given that Israel's basic objective is to destroy the vast apparatus of terror in Gaza, the force used hardly appears excessive. According to Colonel Richard Kemp, the IDF has behaved in 'exemplary fashion' during Operation Protective Edge and no other army could be doing more to reduce civilian casualties. He should know, having spent 30 years in combat zones and having commanded British forces in Afghanistan.

But Prescott does not take a rational perspective on this issue. At one point, he describes Gaza as a 'concentration camp' and says that the atrocities suffered by the Jews in WW2 ought to give Israelis 'a unique sense of perspective and empathy with the victims of a ghetto'.

Why is a British politician making such a vile comparison between Nazi Germany and Israel? His government rightly introduced Holocaust Memorial Day to remind the world of the horrific Nazi genocide. Yet here is the former Deputy Prime Minister abusing the memory of the Holocaust, hurling it back at its victims in order to score cheap political points. It is a deplorable tactic.

If Mr Prescott wants to see the relevance of Nazism here, perhaps he should take a look at the odious Hamas Charter. Lest we forget, this document commits the fanatical Islamists to an unending war against Israel and to slaughtering Jews everywhere, while scorning the peace process as unIslamic. Yet the Charter does not merit a comment in his piece.

To be fair, Prescott does acknowledge Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas terror and he condemns the firing of rockets. But this counts for nothing when he blames Israel for the terrorism. He quotes Channel 4’s Jon Snow: “If you strangle a people, deny them supply for years, extreme reaction is inevitable". In other words, the blockade is the reason why Hamas terrorises Israelis.

But the blockade was not imposed on Gaza when Israel left the enclave in 2005. It was imposed, both by Egypt and Israel, only later when Hamas violently seized control of the Strip and continued to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli communities. If the blockade was removed, Hamas would import even more sophisticated Iranian weaponry, guaranteeing further rounds of bloodshed in the future.

Prescott calls for 'free and unfettered access for humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials'. But while humanitarian aid is essential, and is provided, reconstruction materials include cement, the very material used to build the Hamas tunnels. So, while a long term plan for economic development in Gaza is welcome, it would be hard to implement with Hamas in power.

The worst thing about Prescott's diatribe is its manifest hypocrisy. He was a key figure in the Labour government's decision to launch the 2003 war in Iraq. He will know that a vastly larger number of Iraqi combatants were killed compared to British troops. He will also know that tens of thousands of civilians died in this war, many the (accidental) victims of coalition action.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of this conflict, who is he to lecture Israel on taking military action? Did he condemn the 'disproportionate' casualty count in Iraq or accuse the British army of war crimes when civilians were inadvertently attacked, in some cases because they were used as human shields? It is appalling that he can have such a moral blind spot.

Unlike his former boss, Tony Blair, John Prescott shows that he barely understands the dynamics of the Middle East conflict. Yet he does demonstrate that the demonisation of Israel, far from being a fringe phenomenon, is firmly part of the political mainstream.

Jeremy Havardi is a journalist and the author of two books, Falling to Pieces, and The Greatest Briton

[Teddy Bear]

While the Mirror poll has ended there is an online petition for the UN to investigate Hamas for war crimes.

It requires 15,000 signatures to be submitted and at present it already has 13,785, requiring only 1,215 more.
Breitbart London has more on it here and the following is the text to be submitted to the UN.

Petitioning United Nations Human Rights Council Urgently investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law by Hamas in Gaza

Petition by
Eylon Aslan-Levy
London, United Kingdom

Hamas is an internationally recognised terrorist organisation, which is launching missile attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilians and endangering the lives of innocent Palestinians. We call on the UN Human Rights Council to urgently investigate the serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Hamas, including:

1. Indiscriminately firing missiles at Israel, with the intention to cause maximum death and devastation. These missiles have killed, traumatised and terrorised Israelis. Residents of southern Israel have only 15 seconds to find shelter each time. Hamas has deliberately aimed missiles at an international airport and nuclear installation. Many missiles have fallen inside Gaza, even destroying UN facilities; a rocket strike on an electricity cable cut off power to thousands of Gazans. The Palestinian delegate to the Human Rights Council has said that "each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity".

2. Using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas has urged Palestinians to scale rooftops, forcing Israel to abort strikes on military targets, and has ordered civilians not to evacuate fighting zones when Israel has urged them to leave for their own safety. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, has said that Hamas's strategy is "to force the IDF to kill innocent civilians" as a cynical means of creating international pressure against Israel to stop defending itself.

3. Hijacking civilian infrastructure for terrorist purposes. Hamas has been firing rockets from inside densely populated civilian areas, which UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has called "unacceptable". Hamas has hidden missiles in civilian facilities, including schools run by UNRWA. Hamas is using the Shifa Hospital as its military headquarters. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said: "We condemn the use of civilian sites -- schools, hospitals and other civilian facilities -- for military purposes."

4. Infiltrating Israel through tunnels, intending to commit a massacre or abduct Israelis. Israel has narrowly averted several such infiltration attempts by gunmen, who have attempted to penetrate Israel in order to perpetrate a massive terrorist atrocity in border villages and kibbutzim.

5. Diverting humanitarian aid for military purposes. Hamas has diverted hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete that entered Gaza for civilian purposes, to build a vast network of underground tunnels and missile silos instead of meeting the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian population.

6. Using ambulances for military purposes. Hamas has used humanitarian vehicles to carry out military acts and disguise combatants as civilians.

7. Employing child soldiers as suicide bombers. Israeli troops are reported to have been attacked by children as young as 13 wearing explosive belts.

8. Stopping Palestinians from reaching urgent medical assistance. Hamas has prevented civilians from reaching the field hospital that Israel set up at the Erez Crossing to treat injured Palestinians, and it has even fired missiles on this hospital to frustrate attempts to treat them.

Hamas has shown utter contempt and disregard for human life, both Israeli and Palestinian. The UN Human Rights Council must investigate without delay and hold Hamas accountable for its actions in violation of international law.

[charmbrights]

Aug 1, 2014 22:09:59 GMT benshi said:

I believe Charm the "international law" he is referring to is the UN Security Council Resolution 242.

...

All the pro-Arab arguments refer to 242. Why does no one refer to UN Security Council Resolution 73 which was based on the agreed borders of the new state of Israel?

[Teddy Bear]

Aug 3, 2014 11:14:04 GMT charmbrights said:

Why does no one refer to UN Security Council Resolution 73 which was based on the agreed borders of the new state of Israel?

That's a bit like asking the BBC why no climate scientists deny the climate change agenda usually presented by them. There are plenty that do, but if the truth would get in the way of the propaganda they want to pursue, it won't be heard.

Fact is, the surrounding Arab nations preferred to wipe Israel completely off the map and force the Jews into the sea than accept this resolution.
Israeli War of Independence

[benshi]

I endorse Teddy's comments Charm, why indeed. The proposal was accepted by the Jewish public and the Jewish agency despite it's limitations but rejected by Arab leaders and governments who didn't want Israel to exist.