<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[What if the world community reacted to Israel&#8217;s Gaza attack like it did Libya? How the 2008/09 Gaza “war” should’ve&nbsp;happened]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="post_text">March 29, 2011 | Kabobfest</div>
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<p><a href="http://www.kabobfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/operation-cast-lead.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-13125" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.kabobfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/operation-cast-lead-235x300.jpg" alt="" width="235" height="300" /></a></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Operation Cast Lead</p>
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<p>It’s Saturday, December 27, 2008. Dozens of families gather together  in Gaza City to celebrate the graduation of hundreds of prospective  police cadets. Suddenly, the ceremony is interrupted by several  explosions. Chaos ensues as men, women, and children are strewn about  the now-destroyed police academy. As medics rush to the scene to provide  immediate medical care to hundreds of wounded Palestinians, Israel  continues to bombard “strategic” Hamas locations, most of which are  located in the Gaza Strip’s most densely-populated cities.</p>
<p>While rumors circulated of a pending Israeli ground invasion, the body count for December 27th, 2008 surpassed 220 – the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/world/middleeast/28mideast.html">highest one-day death toll</a> between Israelis and Palestinians in decades. Horrified by Israel’s  barbaric attack, the United Nations Security Council convenes an  emergency meeting on December 28th, 2008. Soon, talks of a “no-fly zone”  over Israel dominate the public discourse.</p>
<p>While the Security Council convenes, Secretary of State Condoleezza  Rice hosts a press conference where she pulls no punches in revealing  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the genocidal maniac that he is. During  the televised speech, Rice states, “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/clinton-gadhafi-unchecked-will-commit-unspeakable-atrocities-world-will-not-sit-idly-by/2011/03/19/ABSiTnv_story.html">We have every reason to fear that left unchecked, Olmert would commit unspeakable atrocities.</a>”  She doesn’t stop there. In an unprecedented show of solidarity with the  Palestinians, Rice warns, “Further delay will only put more civilians  at risk. So let me be very clear on the position of the United States:  We will support an international coalition as it takes all necessary  measures to enforce the no-fly zone and protect Palestinian  civilians…and we will use our unique capabilities to prevent further  bloodshed.”</p>
<p>Condoleezza Rice’s strong stance against Israel’s Operation Cast Lead  did not come as a surprise to many throughout the international  community. Lacking airplanes, tanks, artillery, and other forms of  advanced weaponry, the Palestinians in Gaza stood no chance against  Israel’s military might. Somebody had to protect them.</p>
<p>As soon as Rice finished her press conference, more horrifying news  emerged from the Gaza Strip. Ehud Olmert had bombed every inch of the  Gaza-Egypt border, destroying Gaza’s last-remaining connection to the  outside world. Worse, as the Islamic University in Gaza City was reduced  to rubble, hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored forces gathered on  Israel’s border with Gaza. Olmert did not just want to pummel the Gaza  Strip from the sky; he clearly wanted send a message to all Palestinians  that Israel’s will cannot be resisted.</p>
<p>Realizing that they were running out of time as the body count  continued to grow, the UN Security Council voted to impose a “no-fly  zone” over the Gaza Strip on December 29th, 2008, and appointed a  coalition to enforce the international body’s decision. In accordance  with UN Resolution 1948, France, Britain, and the United States assumed  leadership over the coalition and immediately began shooting Israeli  planes out of the sky.</p>
<p>As American, British, and French fighter jets incapacitated Israel’s  air force, representatives from Hamas, the Popular Front for the  Liberation of Palestine, and the civil authorities convened a meeting in  Khan Younis. There, they <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/world/africa/02libya.html?_r=1">debated</a> the pros and cons of the UN Security Council’s interference in the  conflict. Some felt that there was a distinction between foreign  intervention, which they were all emphatically against, and the UN  Security Council’s imposition of a no-fly zone. Others, however, saw no  distinction between the two, and argued that any form of foreign  military support would have disastrous consequences.</p>
<p>Despite having reached a consensus at the conclusion of the meeting –  that no foreign troops would be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip under  any circumstances – one question still lingered: why, after having  virtually ignored the Palestinians’ plight for decades, did the UN  Security Council care so much about the Palestinians now?</p>
<p>On January 3rd, 2009, Israel abandoned its air attack and initiated a  brutal ground invasion. 11 people, including a young girl, were killed  when Israeli forces destroyed a mosque in Beit Lahiya. Despite the UN  Security Council’s demand that Israel immediately cease all military  operations in the territory, Israel pressed forward. On January 10th,  2009, after the death toll had surpassed 800 and after the goals of the  US-led coalition became less and less clear, NATO <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/africa/26libya.html">assumed</a> control over the operation.</p>
<p>No sooner had NATO made the decision to intervene did Israel put the  nail in its own coffin. On January 11th, 2009 video footage proved that  Israel was using illegal phosphorous munitions against unarmed  Palestinian civilians. Furious over Israel’s malicious disregard for  international law and Palestinian life, NATO forces bombed Israel’s  Ashdod and Eilat naval bases. Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Ehud  Olmert gave a televised speech declaring that NATO’s attack on Israel  represented the international community’s betrayal of the Jewish people.</p>
<p>Unfazed by Olmert’s ad hominem attacks, NATO threatened to bomb more  military facilities if Israel did not immediately withdraw its troops  from the Gaza Strip, lift the siege on the territory, and compensate  those Palestinians that lost loved ones and were displaced internally as  a result of the conflict. Realizing that his options were limited,  Olmert acquiesced and ended Operation Cast Lead. The siege on the Gaza  Strip was lifted immediately, and the UN Security Council oversaw the  Gaza Strip’s reconstruction.</p>
<p>The fall-out from Olmert’s war on Gaza was nothing short of  monumental. Unable to recover from the ordeal, Olmert’s government  collapsed immediately, and the new government was forced to comply with <a href="http://domino.un.org/unispal.NSF/796f8bc05ec4f30885256cef0073cf3a/7d35e1f729df491c85256ee700686136">UN Security Council Resolution 242</a> under the threat of economic sanctions. Israel’s decades-long illegal  occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip ended, and illegal  settlements were dismantled under the watchful eye of UNIFIP (United  Nations Interim Force In Palestine). The apartheid wall was removed and a  new constitution guaranteeing the equal rights of all people living on  the historic land of Palestine was drafted and ratified.</p>
<p><em>Unfortunately, the international community’s actual reaction to Israel’s <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/015/2009/en">Operation Cast Lead massacre</a> was nothing short of spineless. Had the United States, Britain, and  France even attempted to stop Israel from murdering more than 1,400  people, mostly civilians, dozens, and maybe even hundreds, of lives  could have been saved. Instead, by interfering directly in Libya’s  uprising against Gaddafi under the (arguably legitimate) premise that  Libya’s civilians needed protection, the United Nations Security Council  and NATO revealed the double-standards that continue to define the  politics of international relations. In today’s world, a person is only  worth as much as her national identity. As a result, the world’s  superpowers enjoy sole discretion over how valuable a person’s life is,  and arbitrarily decide who is worth “saving” and who should be allowed  to die.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/03/how-the-200809-gaza-war-shouldve-happened.html">Source</a>.</p>
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<h2>Related</h2>
<p><strong>For all facts and news about the Cast Lead War on Gaza</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nevercastleadagain.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Never Cast Lead Again Memorial Site</a></li>
</ul>
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