Michael Warschawski: The Butchers Olmert and Barak and International Responsibility

[Roberto Vignoli <rvignoli at gmail.com>]

The Butchers Olmert and Barak and International Responsibility
Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Tuesday, 04 March 2008

More than 100 Gazans were massacred by Israeli shelling and bombardments 
in the last few of days and the list grows every hour. In comparison to 
the murderous Olmert-Barak team, Ariel Sharon looks like a disciple of 
Mahatma Gandhi: the massacre of Jenin that provoked a huge international 
outrage in 2002, had far less victims measured next to the present 
Israeli aggression against Gaza. Nevertheless, the reaction of the 
international community is significantly milder than it was six years ago.

Why?

This question should be at the heart of the reflection of the 
international solidarity movement and, more generally, of the global 
resistance.

For, the Israeli war crimes are possible only because, in the last six 
to seven years, the international community has stopped putting any kind 
of pressure on the Israeli government; in fact, it is supporting it. 
This has not always been the case, at least with most of the European 
states, which used to oppose the "global-non-ending-preemptive-war" 
strategy of the US neoconservative administration, and to defend a 
strategy of global stability instead of the politics of global-chaos of 
Bush and his gang.

The rise of European neo-conservatism (French President Nicolas Sarkozy 
is an example of this phenomenon) is a new challenge for the solidarity 
movement, and more generally, for the anti-globalization movement 
throughout the world: the global-war strategy is no longer the monopoly 
of the US administration (supported by a few other countries, like Great 
Britain), but of the "international community" as such.

This is definitely a change that the Global Resistance should take into 
consideration very seriously: there is a world war and everyone is now 
part of it. Over and against an "international community" aligned with 
Washington’s global war, a united international anti-war movement is 
becoming a burning priority.

What does this have to do with Gaza? Because today, Gaza is the 
frontline of the resistance to that offensive. If Gaza surrenders, 
Washington and Tel Aviv will feel free to launch a second round in 
Lebanon and to attack Iran. They know well that Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, 
Iraq and Afghanistan are different battles in one and the same war, and 
they are concentrating their forces in order to bring the surrender of 
Gaza, its people and its elected leadership. That understanding should 
penetrate the Global movement too, and bring it to one conclusion: the 
Palestinians of Gaza are fighting not only for their own rights and 
dignity, but for the freedom of all the peoples of the world; they are 
resisting the united leaders of Empire leaders and their attempt to 
transform the peoples of our planet into their slaves, including the 
working people in the industrialized metropoles.

No one in our camp, the camp of worldwide resistance to Empire, has the 
right to run away from the duty of total solidarity with the Resistance 
of Gaza, under the pretext of disliking the leadership that the 
Palestinian people of Gaza have chosen. The same should be said about 
the people of Iran.

At the core of the solidarity campaign with Gaza, one must call for a 
blockade on Israel as long as the blockade on Gaza is not lifted. An 
economic, political and cultural boycott of a state which has put 
itself, by its war crimes, outside the civilized world: until the bloody 
attacks on Gaza are not stopped and the siege lifted, the duty of decent 
people is to say, loud and clear: No relations whatsoever with the 
criminal State of Israel!