[Marxism] "Slaughter From the Sky: The Gaza War in the Context of Other Colonialist Military Campaigns", by Shmuel Shamir

[Lüko Willms]

"Slaughter From the Sky: The Gaza War in the Context of Other Colonialist 
Military Campaigns", by Shmuel Shamir

I found this interesting article on the Website of the Israeli "Alternative 
Information Forum" (where Michel Warshawsky is one of the main 
supporters), but it was originally published on "Hagada Hismalit - the Left 
Radical Forum". 
> <http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1535/381/>
> 
<http://www.hagada.org.il/eng/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=254
>

Let me quote the first paragraph of the article: 

----- quote ------------------

At the beginning of the attack on Gaza, Ehud Barak struck a pose reminiscent 
of Julius Caesar when he proclaimed that a decision had been made, and that 
"the fighting has begun." The obvious question is what war exactly? In order 
for a war to take place, two sides are needed, but here in Gaza there are no 
two sides. On the one side is the [Israeli] Air Force, equipped with the best 
fighter aircraft-supplied by its "friend" the United States. On the other side, 
there are completely defenseless people, who face terrifying fire falling on 
them from the skies. Do we know of a war in which there is only one fighter? 
According to these basic assumptions, the fighting announced by the Israeli 
Defense Minister Barak is not a war, but a hunt. Hunting people who lack the 
capacity for basic self-defense, who are then butchered from the sky. Duck 
hunting. I remember the films we used to watch, in which two opponents had 
a sword fight. When one of them, always the bad one, dropped his sword, his 
opponent would return the sword so as not to kill a defenseless person. This 
is how it is in the movies. In today's reality, one side stands without a sword, 
and faces an enemy armed from head to foot, and we call this "fighting." The 
"war" in Gaza in our times is not a war, but a slaughter.

---------- unquote -----------

Shamir recalls a theme our beloved moderator is very familiar with: 

----- quote ---------------
This topic is discussed by the author and researcher Sven Lindqvist in his 
book "Exterminate all the Brutes: One Man's Odyssey into the Heart of 
Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide" which was published 15 
years ago in English. Lindqvist researched European colonialism in Africa at 
the end of the 19th century. If we wish to better understand colonial 
oppression and its methods employed these days toward the Palestinian 
people in Gaza, it is helpful to read this book.  
----------- unquote -------

Read the article in full at
> 
<http://www.hagada.org.il/eng/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=254
>
or
> <http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1535/381/>


Comradely yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
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