by Stephen Lendman

Israel is attacking defenseless Palestinians with lethal force and vicious propaganda - reflecting state terror fueled by longstanding racist hate, wanting maximum land for Jews only, and having Palestinians confined to isolated ghettoized bantustans, deprived of all rights and resources.

Israeli and Western media support this hideous agenda, long ago abandoning any sense of objectively, siding now with Netanyahu and likeminded fascists, terrorizing Palestinians unaccountably. Palestinian lives, safety, rights and welfare don’t matter. For nearly 70 years, Israel has waged a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing against millions of defenseless people, notably since occupation in June 1967.

Palestinian resistance groups for long denied justice and its legitimate Hamas government are called terrorists, irresponsibly blamed for premeditated Israeli violence and chaos - precipitated this time by soldiers and police rampaging through the Al Aqsa Mosque multiple times, attacking worshipers, letting radicalized settlers enter the compound where they don’t belong, a deliberate provocation to incite violence, then blame Palestinians like always for state terror.

The religious and social service Islamic Movement in Israel (IM) is justifiably anti-Zionist - like millions of people worldwide, including Jews and non-Jews alike.

Its origins date from Mandatory Palestine. Its more recent movement was founded in 1971, focusing mainly on providing social services. Its northern branch justifiably opposed Oslo, a Palestinian Versailles.

On Sunday, Netanyahu and his security ministers discussed banning the group, designating it a terrorist organization - Israel’s typical response to anyone opposing its apartheid ruthlessness.

Shin Bet officials accused IM and Hamas of fueling (Israeli perpetrated) violence. Netanyahu blamed Hamas, IM, the PA, and “several countries in the region (Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon his targets) for “wild and mendacious incitement.”

Last week, IM’s northern branch leader Sheikh Raed Salah vowed to respond to “continued Israeli (Temple Mount) escalation” and state-sponsored violence.

Earlier, Israel imprisoned Salah several times, irresponsibly accused of terrorism, incitement to violence and racism.

Ministers also approved harsher crackdowns on legitimate Palestinian resistance, thousands of soldiers and police licensed to use live fire, including against peaceful demonstrators.

State-sponsored violence rages out-of-control. Netanyahu’s solution to calming things is more of it. Israel uses allegations of Palestinian stabbing attempts and incidents (many fabricated) as justification for indiscriminate security force terror against defenseless people, deliberatively provoking retaliation, blaming victims for its crimes.

Palestinians (mostly children, youths and women) are being executive in cold blood, the world community virtually silent, Washington partnering with Israeli high crimes, longterm complicity between two rogue states.

Stop The Wall (STW) coordinator Jamal Juma highlighted the struggle against Israeli-imposed apartheid, far worse than South Africa’s version, police state viciousness on steroids.

Since Israeli-instigated violence began, multiple daily incidents “evoked images of the First Intifada,” Juma explained, adding:

Daily events include “(b)urning (tires) in the streets, youths wrapped in Palestinian scarves throwing stones, and Israeli military confronting them with tear gas, sound grenades and live ammunition.”

“Entire Palestinian villages are under siege. Clashes are spreading like wild fire across Jerusalem and Palestinian areas on both side of the Green Line.”

“The root causes for this rebellion are the same as ever: the Israeli regime of occupation, apartheid and colonialism makes Palestinians’ lives unbearable.”

“However, there are fundamental differences between now and then, and the actions of Israel’s new settler militia will determine when, not if, a full scale Intifada will explode.”

Radicalized settlers are well-armed and organized, their rampaging fully supported by Israeli fascists. They attack Palestinians daily - at home, on streets, in their fields, free to commit violence, vandalism, even murder with impunity.

They’re licensed to wage all-out war on defenseless Palestinians, part of Israel’s longstanding state terror policy. Its aim: slow-motion genocide to achieve maximum Jews and minimum Arabs, incorporating all valued parts of Judea and Samaria into Israel exclusively for Jews, especially East Jerusalem.

Longstanding Israeli collaborator Mahmoud Abbas and other PA officials are part of the problem, not the solution. Young Palestinians especially despise them, their anger and frustration directed at them as well as Israel, partners in human rights abuses.

Long-festering intolerable conditions foster resistance, the only way possible for change. It’s too early to know if a third intifada began. Key is whether Palestinian energy has leadership and endurance, including a sustained willingness to die for freedom.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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