by Peter A. Belmont / 2011-02-16
© 2011 Peter Belmont

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I address myself to wavering Zionists.

If you were never a Zionist, you probably don’t need to read this. If you are a passionate, a convinced, Zionist, read it if you dare (you might begin to waver!).

But if you are a person (and you don’t need to be Jewish) who has thought in a sort of uncritical, uninformed way that Israel must be OK because, well, you know, Jews are such nice people, and, because, well, you know, the Holocaust, and because, well, you know, the near-lock-step support for Israel in the USA’s main stream media (“MSM”) and among the USA’s political and punditocracy classes, then it may be time for a 100,000 mile oil change in your engine of political analysis.

Zionism is a disease. If you suffer from it, then, as a first step, try to assess just how bad a disease it is.

The wake-up signals are too well-known for anyone alive above the neck to have missed. There is the entire horrible history of Israel’s attack and destructive military action against Gaza 2008-2009 see here ( and here) which resulted in the allegations of war-crimes against Israel (and against Hamas) of the Goldstone Report. There is also the wholly unjustified attack by Israeli armed forces against the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara, in international waters, in which, among other things, 9 people were killed, some “execution style” (see here and here), by the Israeli troops.


The horrors[1] now being inflicted by Israel inside Israeli-controlled territory (Israel itself, Gaza, and the West Bank)—and what Israel’s friends are doing to delegitimize justifiable criticism of Israel’s brutalities—is so horrific that if, somewhere out there, there is a (formerly convinced) Zionist who has begun to receive “vibes” that all may not be Kosher in Israel, he or she will have no easy way out of innocence.

You really cannot dip your toe into Israel’s massive violations of Palestinian (and Israeli Jewish!) human rights without getting wet up to your eyebrows..

As Uri Avnery said, The boss has gone crazy.

In this war, politicians and generals have repeatedly quoted the words: “The boss has gone mad!” originally shouted by vegetable vendors in the market, in the sense of “The boss has gone crazy and is selling the tomatoes at a loss!” But in the course of time the jest has turned into a deadly doctrine that often appears in Israeli public discourse: in order to deter our enemies, we must behave like madmen, go on the rampage, kill and destroy mercilessly.

120. As regards these settlements, the Court notes that Article 49, paragraph 6, of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” That provision prohibits not only deportations or forced transfers of population such as those carried out during the Second World War, but also any measures taken by an occupying Power in order to organize or encourage transfers of parts of its own population into the occupied territory.

In this respect, the information provided to the Court shows that, since 1977, Israel has conducted a policy and developed practices involving the establishment of Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, contrary to the terms of Article 49, paragraph 6, just cited.

The Security Council has thus taken the view that such policy and practices “have no legal validity”. It has also called upon “Israel, as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously” by the Fourth Geneva Convention and:

”to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories” (resolution 446 (1979) of 22 March 1979).

The Council reaffirmed its position in resolutions 452 (1979) of 20 July 1979 and 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980. Indeed, in the latter case it described “Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in [the occupied] territories” as a “flagrant violation” of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Court concludes that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law.

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