Not that a reality check would make much difference - restating Ismail Haniyeh’s affirmation that "armed resistance is our strategic option..." as a determination to "...use any kind of violence and terrorist attacks to wipe Israel from the map" sees the dummy trying to be the ventriloquist, and flies in the face of the facts. Firstly, because the right to resist occupation is a right guaranteed to ALL occupied populations by Article 1(4) of Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions, and secondly, because the principle of self determination itself provides that where forcible action has been taken to suppress that right, force may be used in order achieve self determination.

Contrary to the spin our wooden friend put on it, Ismail Haniyeh’s statement outlined an available strategy for Palestinian self-determination which is in accordance with international law. Like an out-of-control top, the wooden dummy twisted the statement in a superb display of hypocrisy, in its resolve to demonise Hamas as a terrorist organisation - which predictably surfaced a few paragraphs - and nose-lengths - later.

At the risk of knocking on wood, I suggest the dummy, or better still, the ventriloquist languishing in a very fragile glasshouse, looks at the history of both the founding of the State of Israel, and its terrorist record, before throwing stones.

As Alan Hart pointed out in 2010,
"Zionism’s assertion that Israel was given its birth certificate and thus legitimacy by the UN General Assembly partition resolution of 29 November 1947 is pure propaganda nonsense". [1]

He noted that while the UN General Assembly did pass a resolution to partition Palestine and create two states, it was only a non-binding proposal ie it could have no effect, and would not become binding, until and unless it was approved by the Security Council. However, the partition proposal never went to the Security Council, thus it was 'vitiated’ (became invalid) and went back to the General Assembly for more discussion. "It was while the General Assembly was debating what do that Israel unilaterally declared itself to be in existence - actually in defiance of the will of the organised international community," writes Hart.

He concludes that "...Israel, which came into being mainly as a consequence of Zionist terrorism and pre-planned ethnic cleansing, had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist unless ….. unless it was recognised and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved."

Aha! We find the real reason wood-head has a big problem with Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel – because without it, Israel has no legitimacy, never has had, and as long as Hamas is around, never WILL have.

And if that rather glaring example of Israel’s lack of legitimacy is not enough, there is more – Israel’s admission to the United Nations in 1948 was on the explicit condition that it respect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as embodied in UN resolutions 181 (which gave international legitimacy to two states in Palestine) and 194 (the right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees) — both of which Israel continues to violate. (hmmm, surely that also renders Israel’s 'conditional’ UN membership invalid? Illegitimate, perhaps?)

It is not only Hamas that has problems with Israel’s lack of legitimacy, but a considerable body of worldwide opinion.

As for violence and terrorism, our nameless (and now apparently stateless) ventriloquist should consult the words of Holocaust survivor and then-Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, the late Israel Shahak, who said:

"There is nothing new in the fact that Israel is a terrorist state, which, almost from its inception, has used its intelligence service (the Mossad) to assassinate people on foreign soil with any violence or terror it considers necessary for its ends."

Ismail Zayed lists several such examples, following that quote. [2]

"Terrorism" he says, "has been the hallmark of Israeli leaders, including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, and others. The massacres, including Deir Yassin, Doueima, Safsaf, Tantura, amongst scores of others, and war crimes that they have orchestrated, would take volumes to relate."

His documentation reveals that Israel holds the record for several 'firsts’ in terrorism - the first act of air piracy in the history of civil aviation, (a civilian Syrian airliner forced down in Tel Aviv in 1954), the first act of shooting down a civilian flight (a Libyan airliner shot down by Israeli jet fighters over Sinai in February 1973, on the orders of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, killing 107 of its passengers and its entire French crew), and the first murder by letter bomb, carried by Yitzhak Shamir's Stern terrorist gang, killing British student Rex Farran in England in May 1948.

Even the United States, Israel’s poodle, has not been spared - in 1954 in what became known as the Lavon Affair, Israeli secret agents bombed the U.S. diplomatic centres in Cairo and Alexandria in an attempt to put the blame on the Egyptians. In June 1967, Israeli forces attacked the U.S. spy ship USS Liberty, and strafed rescue boats, killing 35 and injuring 170 U.S. servicemen, in an attempt to conceal its own secret communications - and again tried to blame it on the Egyptians. (The U.S. Congress still continues to refuse to hold an inquiry into this crime.)

Nor has the Zionist terror machine hesitated to kill its own. In 1940, Menachem Begin's Irgun Zwei Leumi terrorist gang bombed the ship Patria in Haifa harbor, killing 240 Jewish refugees, (while blaming the British) and in 1950-1951, Israeli agents tossed hand grenades into the crowded Massauda Shem-Tov synagogue in Iraq, causing numerous deaths, in order to blame it on the Iraqis and encourage reluctant Iraqi Jews to emigrate to Israel.

Every resistance group in the Arab world rolled together would be hard-pushed to beat Israel’s record..

Going on to quote a few figures from Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades’ website, and ignoring the numerous other sources of data that explicitly condemn the disproportionate killing of Palestinians by Israel compared to the killing of Israelis by Palestinians, the ratio of which rose from 100:1 in 2009 to 180:1 in 2011 (one Israeli death to 180 Palestinian deaths [3]) is as suspiciously selective as describing Hamas as "...an internationally recognized terrorist organization." The countries that so designate it are Israel, Canada, the United States, and the 27 countries of the European Union, totalling 30 – hardly a majority of the 195+ countries of the world that constitute the international community.

The fact is, that while Hamas has publicly declared its commitment to peaceful resistance, and is widely acknowledged, even in the Israeli press, to have observed the ceasefire and stopped firing rockets at Israel, Israel continues to commit land, sea and air incursions into Gaza almost daily, carrying out extrajudicial killings of alleged (but acknowledged as non-Hamas) militants, as well as killing and injuring civilians, while continuing to beat the drums of war. [4]

As Gaza’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh travels internationally meeting with heads of state in the region (they must have a different list to our wooden friend), Ma’an news agency reported on New Year’s Day:

"...Hamas is now committed to prioritizing nonviolent resistance in all its activities. This position is translated on the ground in Gaza by the movement refraining from launching missiles towards Israel and in arresting or otherwise preventing any individual or group from doing so...Politically the Hamas movement is slowly removing all the issues that caused it international isolation." [5]

It seems the dummy can not only not identify or speak for itself, nor can it apparently read – including its own press – which might have kept its nose a few inches shorter. Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz on the same day:

"Instead of encouraging moderation, whether genuine or imaginary, whether strategic or tactical, Israel is rushing to nip it in the bud. .. If it's "no" to the Palestinian Authority and "no" to Hamas, "no" to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and "no" to Khaled Meshal, "no" to Europe and also "no" to the United States, who are we saying "yes" to? And above all, where are we headed? The writing is clearly on the wall..." [6] Wake up, woody.

As to the question "why does Scoop disseminate such material, isn’t this photo essay anything else but a pro-Hamas propaganda exercise?" – SCOOP is an independent news service presenting information from a multiplicity of sources and perspectives, including that of this faceless and nameless minion of the Zionist state. One could equally ask, does SCOOP’s publication of this whining attempt at spin-doctoring constitute a pro-Zionist propaganda exercise?

No, the very suggestion is about as insulting and unwelcome to us as the clutch of nameless faceless Zionist Mossad agents, who came to New Zealand to steal the identities of dead New Zealand children, and obtain passports in their names with which to carry out terrorist murders and assassinations in other countries.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister might have his own personal reasons for choosing to forget such behaviour and welcome a Zionist embassy in New Zealand, but most other New Zealanders have long memories, and a strong commitment to social and political justice, human rights, and the right to self-determination. We have repeatedly shown our willingness to take a stand - against apartheid, against nuclear power and weaponry, and against breaches of national and international laws, conventions, and treaties.

Our own Treaty of Waitangi is a case in point – we determinedly overcame ingrained racism, colonialism, and illegitimacy in our quest as a nation to create a fair and just society based on international law and human rights.

Now it is Israel’s turn. It is way past time to stop whingeing, and start reading – given the current lack of imagination, a good place to start their 2012 New Year resolutions would be with this list borrowed from the United Nations Security Council - all of the resolutions directly critical of Israel for violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions, international terrorism, and other violations of international law. [7]

Imagine!! TWO legitimate states instead of none – now THAT would be something worth writing about.

[1] http://www.countercurrents.org/hart050410.htm
[2] http://www.fromoccupiedpalestineorg/node/23
[3] http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3228-israel-killed-180-palestinians-including-21-children-in-2011
[4] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/28/israel-gaza-offensive-sooner-later
[5] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449254
[6] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israeli-war-drums-ignore-hamas-move-for-change-1.404822
[7] http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/27/rogue-state-israeli-violations-of-u-n-security-council-resolutions/0/

ENDS

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