Le Monde Diplomatique:

The 1949 Geneva Conventions state, in article 54 of their additional protocol: “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited”. It is also “prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”. That means that the Israeli army’s latest offensive in the occupied territories amounts to war crimes; it includes the blockade of the civilian population and their collective punishment, the bombing of Gaza’s $150m power station, depriving 750,000 Palestinians of electricity in the intense summer heat, and the kidnapping on the West Bank of 64 members of the political wing of Hamas, including eight cabinet ministers and 22 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On 5 July the Israeli government said it would expand its military operation in Gaza.

Israel has violated another principle of international law in this offensive: proportionality. Article 51 of the protocol forbids “an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” Can saving one soldier’s life justify destruction on this scale?

Israel & America are the two countries which I intensely dislike on the world’s stage right now. Individuals from each country are no more likely to be personable, or arseholes, than individuals from any other country, including my own, but both governments are scum.

The U.S. under Bush bleats long and loud about spreading “freedom and democracy”, all the while dismantling protections from government intrustion at home and abroad, and demonstrating with their every action that democracy doesn’t mean ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’, it means ‘whatever government will best serve the will of the US’. So much for the Founding Fathers and their vaunted Constitution.

As for Israel, their government’s actions are disgraceful and bring shame on their nation. The state of Israel certainly has a right to exist and its citizens have a right not to be subjected to rocket attack and suicide bombings, but equally the state of Palestine has a right to exist, and the Palestinians also have a right not to have Israeli snipers killing their children, Israeli helicopter gunships firing missiles into apartment blocks and Israeli artillery shells killing families at the beach.

What is doubly depressing about Israel’s conduct is that it is a nation whose very existence is a direct result of the persecution of Jews throughout Europe, culminating in the Holocaust, yet the descendants of those very same persecutees now spend their days, either directly (as government or military officials) or indirectly (by electing said government) persecuting and subjugating millions of Palestinians. How can a population for whom being victims of persecution is such a recent, vivid memory, and part of their psyche, turn around and allow their government to engage in essentially the very same behaviour?