Planned Palestinian Chaos

The tragic news from Palestine is being delivered by mainstream media without factual accuracy, so readers must be mindful that relevant information is being withheld from public consumption.

In January an election took place in Palestine at the insistence of the US and Israel, which, according to international observers, was incredibly democratic and fair. To the dismay of both the US and Israel, Hamas was the clear winner carrying a majority of the seats in the Palestinian Parliament, and who immediately suggested they were willing to renew the unilateral one year truce with Israel. Israel and the US however, teamed up to punish the Palestinian people for voting the "wrong way”. Israel began by withholding tax revenue legally belonging to Palestinians, which constitutes thievery, while the US announced a policy of preventing any aid to Palestine and a policy of starvation. Both the US and Israel had underestimated the political strength of Hamas, and were now determined to bring about the downfall of the newly elected government. Both major powers calculated that without any government infrastructure, in one of the most oppressed regions of the world, public unrest and strife would lead to the collapse of the Hamas government. The policy of starvation and deprivation by Israel and the US did not work. The US then ratcheted up its attempt to foment civil unrest by giving military aid and training to the party that had lost the election (Abbas and Fattah). Despite the rhetoric about spreading democracy in the Middle east, when democracy prevailed the US and Israel did their best to overthrow the democratically elected government.

Both Israel and the US argue their actions are justified because Hamas refuses to accept the existence of Israel; however Israel has never recognized the legal right of Palestine’s existence. Hamas and Israel are strangely enough locked into the same untenable position with respect to recognition of one another. For Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist would infer that Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian lands is legal. If your neighbor illegally took part of your property you would be foolish to recognize his right to do so.
Meanwhile Israel cannot recognize the legal right of Palestine to “exist”, for that would imply that Palestine would have legal recourse to the illegal confiscation of Palestinian lands.

Israel then unilaterally arrested leaders of the elected Hamas government (imagine Russia arresting members of the US Congress) and imprisoned elected officials. Over 30 Hamas leaders were arrested, including the Prime Minister of Education, members of the Parliament, and mayors of four towns. Last month Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya in Gaza, killing seven members of his family causing Palestinian rage. By denying any money to the Palestinian people, by arresting leaders of the newly elected government, by supplying the losers of the January elections with weapons, money, and military training, by attempting to assassinate elected politicians, the US and Israel created the "perfect storm" for civil war in Palestine. Now both the US and Israel sit back and watch Palestinians kill one another. Causing civil war and unrest represents a short term victory for the US and Israel, but will undoubtedly have long term “blowback” consequences.

Hugo Chavez and US hypocrisy

The US government, mainstream media, and big oil, (who sleep in the same bed) have done their best to demonize Hugo Chavez, the outspoken leader of Venezuela. Chavez threw big oil companies out of Venezuela and nationalized the nation's oil because foreign oil companies were raping the oil resources. He argued that oil proceeds should be used to help the poor and has attempted to redistribute wealth by providing the poor with free food, medicine, and education, paying for his social programs with oil money. Additionally this past winter he offered oil to the poor in the US at discount prices. Meanwhile Exxon-Mobil earns mind boggling profits of one hundred million dollars per day. What has Exxon-Mobil done for you? Who then, would you like to see end up with your gas money; the poor or Exxon-Mobil?
President Bush is indignant because Chavez would not renew the broadcast license of a TV station that participated in an attempt to overthrow him, and some US politicians are highly critical calling it an infringement of the right of free press and refer to Chavez as a dictator, forgetting he has faced the people five times in elections.
We can only speculate as to what Bush would do if CBS participated in an attempt to overthrow his administration. We know what he has done to news outlets that do not give the slant he wants. In November of 2001 the US dropped a 500 pound bomb on the Al-Jazeera news station in Kabul, bombed their office in Baghdad in 2003, and imprisoned numerous reporters with one still being held at Guantanamo because we did not like what they were broadcasting. We also know through leaked British memos, that Bush wanted to bomb their main headquarters in Qatar but Tony Blair talked him out of it. None of this bothered the ardent free speech advocates who are so critical of Chavez. I am confused; do you call this "double standard" or "hypocrisy", or both?