21 June 2006

Apartheid Israeli Terrorists Kill More Children; Al-Aksa Declares War

Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday morning, Israeli collaborator Mahmoud Abbas lamented the Palestinian Resistance tactic of launching rockets into Zionist controlled Palestine, arguing that it gives Apartheid Israel an adequate pretext for ignoring the non-existent 'peace process.'

This is, of course, a silly argument since it implies that Apartheid Israel ever adhered to the agreement, which it did not. Instead, after Oslo the Zionist campaign of ethnic cleansing and land theft actually accelerated.

In an act of willful self-delusion, Abbas simply ignores the obvious fact that atrocities committed against the Palestinian people continue unabated. On Tuesday, only hours after Abbas's statement, Middle East Online reported:
An Israeli air strike targeting Palestinian militants killed three children in Gaza Tuesday, only hours after Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas demanded that militants end rocket attacks on Israel or be responsible for reprisals.

Fourteen other people were wounded in the strike, including five children, while the two men said to be members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades escaped from the car targeted by the strike, Palestinian sources said...

Palestinian medics identified the three children killed as Mohammed Jamal Roqa, aged five, a six-year-old girl, Sania al-Sharif, and a 16-year-old boy, Bilal al-Hissi.
The Jerusalem Post adds some details to the attack:
Senior Aksa Brigades operatives Amad Abu Hamed, who was the target of the attack, evaded the strike by jumping out of the way in the last minute. Still, he was lightly wounded in the attack. The IDF said that the targeted cell was responsible for launching three rockets at Sderot earlier in the day.
The al-Aska Martyrs Brigades promptely issued a communique saying that Apartheid Israel's failed assassination attempt would have severe consequences. Yaakov Katz's report in the Post continues:
In response to the strike, al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades declared war against Sderot, urging its operatives to launch rockets at the city.

"The reprisal is coming soon," said Abu Qussa, spokesman the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades. Abu Qussa said the revenge attacks could be anywhere and called on other militants to strike as well...

"We will strike against the enemy everywhere," an Aksa Brigades flier read, "The Palestinian organizations must increase the attacks against the occupiers and declare war on Sderot and the other Zionist settlements."
The declaration of war on the Sderot Bedwetters by al-Aska, an organization nominally under Fatah control, marks an important sea-change in the trajectory of the Palestinian resistance struggle. If they can reach a common understanding with Hamas and other political organizations that centers around unity to and resistance against the Apartheid Occupation, they further isolate Abbas's clique and stand to overcome the Machiavellian maneuvering by Apartheid Israel and its allies to foment a sectarian civil war in Occupied Palestine much like the one being engineered in Iraq.

As we discussed last week, the only tactical shift available to Apartheid Israel is to escalate the level of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. But this strategy, too, stands to backfire when it crystalizes rage against the occupier. And with this latest massacre, Apartheid Israel seems to have done precisely that.