There is a prolific and plethora of evidence of Israel’s systematic  and carefully executed plan to annihilate the Palestinian people, reminiscent of the Holocaust committed against the Jews, but yet, the world not only remains silent, but seems to acquiesce every nail that is being driven into the coffin of the downtrodden people of Palestine.

The United States and other Western countries are either oblivious or unmindful of what is going on against the Palestinians, but are more concerned about imposing sanctions on other countries which refuse to bow to U.S pressure.

There are many in the western world who only give lip service to democracy and the rule of law, yet seem to adumbrate a policy that reminds one of the European view in history that did not even regard women as human beings and did not have the right to vote. They are now seeking to replicate that repugnant system in the Middle East generally where Arabs are not regarded as humans, or if they are, they are the scum of the earth and not worthy of living as some film makers have depicted in many of their movies.

One cannot only blame Israel for what it is doing; carrying out a policy of genocide, expansionism, land grab, torture, starvation, etc, because some of the Arab leaders are nothing short of despots, dictators and indeed animals in human form whose future is questionable.

They are, in my book, a pack of cowards, spineless individuals who cannot or refuse to see further than the tip of their noses and have sold out their brethren for a few dollars. One can only wonder which Quran they are following, maybe the ones they have written to ensure the status quo.

No where is there any evidence that Arab leaders, apart from spouting fanciful clichés and meaningless words amounting to philosophical claptrap, have taken any steps to put a halt to this abominable situation.

If there are 1.5 billion Muslims (the figure is closure to 2.5 Billion) then they have an economic clout which can be used to successfully challenge the status quo.  Make no bones about it, all the Arab countries put together cannot defeat that country, and when we talk about Israel, we have to recognize the close bond and blind support which the United States provides.

What the Muslims have done with a type of approach is clearly demonstrated in Denmark where a boycott of Danish products has that country reeling to the extent that it is now taking steps to woo the Muslims. I wonder what would happen if the entire Muslim and Arab world were to decide to implement a boycott of Israel.  Actually this is wishful thinking as the only thing the Muslim and Arab world would ever agree on is to continue their policy of inconsistency.

And apart from these condemnations, one must also look at what is taking place within Israel where many oppose what is taking place in Gaza and the West Bank.

An estimated 550 Israeli reserves are continuing their refusal to fight for the continued occupation of Arab land. Guy Grossman, a second lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces reserves has joined a group ‘Courage to Refuse’ charged that Israel has “stirred a cauldron of uncompromising hatred, which is gradually turning potential neighbors and partners into more relentless foes. This war is unwinnable, eventually we will withdraw and the Palestinians will have their state”,

He and the others have said: “We hereby declared that we shall not continue to fight this war of the settlements. We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people” Israel’s first Prime Minister Ben Gurion must be turning in his grave when one remembers his farewell speech in 1963 “our army possess a love for mankind” and “our vision is one of justice and peace”

With condemnation from all quarters and from all sources, Israel has refused to recognize any of them and continues its policy of expansionism and genocide. Maybe one has to reflect on what former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: “We control America and America knows it” Sharon’s on going health condition is top secret, perhaps only matched by Israel’s top secret Nuclear Program.

Not that it matters to Israel, but some of the latest condemnation have come from Paul Findley, a former Congressman who said: “We are in a deep hole because we are so biased in favor of Israel and the whole world knows it and is astounded by it.  They cannot comprehend why America with its great cherished traditions, would close its eyes to the dreadful punishment that we have enabled Israel to inflict on a virtually defenseless people”.

Francois Boyle, Professor of International Law who spoke with a top lawyer of the Israeli  Defense Force remarked: “I told him that :it is clear you people are inflicting more and more crimes on the Palestinians, exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews”. His response was “Military Necessity.”

And Richard Curtis, career US foreign service officer stated: “Anyone who lived in the Middle East for some time will begin to see the other side.”

Eugene Bird, former U.S. Foreign Service Officer said “Israel through the lobby are really running US foreign Policy.”

Israel should end the blockade of Gaza, cease evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, and ensure that the rights of children are respected and that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment are promptly investigated and perpetrators prosecuted, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an annual "report.

"In particular, the Government of Israel should allow unimpeded access to Gaza for humanitarian aid and the non-humanitarian goods needed for the reconstruction of properties and infrastructure,” he writes in the report to the General Assembly on the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

"Israel should also address effectively and immediately the water, sanitation and environmental crisis in Gaza,” he stressed, citing the devastating damage stemming from Israel’s military action against Hamas  last winter and its blockade of many materials other than foodstuffs, medical supplies, stationery and some industrial or electrical appliances.

"Those heavy import restrictions, coupled with a near total prohibition on exports, have had a devastating effect on the Gaza economy. The blockade has also severely impaired the realization of a wide range of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights.”

Mr. Ban says the reported ill-treatment of children includes beatings, being forced to stand or sit for long periods in extremely painful and harmful positions, in most cases with hands tied together and eyes blindfolded, threats of sexual abuse and hooding the head and face in a sack.

He cites one case documented by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights  in which a 14-year-old-boy from the village of Qatanna was arrested in March by soldiers after other children had thrown stones at an army vehicle. While being transferred to an Israeli military camp, soldiers slapped him several times, handcuffed and blindfolded him.

     The boy stated that the handcuffs were too tight and caused him great pain and that the blindfold may have been coated in tear gas since his eyes were burning the entire time. After repeated appeals at the police station, a soldier noted the boy’s hands were turning blue and took off his handcuffs and blindfold. He was then subjected to interrogation for four hours, during which an interrogator beat his face and ears with the back of his hand, approximately 40 times.

“All parties to the conflict should abide scrupulously by their obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Mr. Ban writes in an overall recommendation, calling for all allegations to be investigated by credible, independent and transparent accountability mechanisms. “Equally crucial is upholding the right of victims to reparation.”

On the West Bank, he reiterates that the wall which Israel says it is building to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers and other attacks, should be dismantled where it is in occupied territory, in accordance with an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice.

Meanwhile the White House expressed dismay at Israel's plan to build 900 new housing units in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The plan will significantly expand the neighborhood where 40,000 Israelis already live in the form of 4-5 bedroom apartments to lure relatively well-off residents. 

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement, "We are dismayed - at the Jerusalem Planning Committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed." Gibbs also addressed other hot topic issues related to housing and said, "The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. Our position is clear: the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties."

In an interview with Fox News, President Obama remarked that Israel's decision to build the new housing units in Gilo complicates his Administration's efforts to re-launch peace talks and "embitters the Palestinians." The President also noted that additional settlement building does not make Israel safer because decisions like this make it harder to achieve peace in the region. 

Palestinian Authority negotiator, Saeb Erekat said, "We condemn this in the strongest possible terms…It shows that it is meaningless to resume negotiations when this goes on."

Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that he is willing to show "restraint" of construction in the West Bank to facilitate the relaunch of negotiations with the Palestinians, but will not accept any restriction on building in East Jerusalem. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli government in recent days has been scrambling for yet another distraction to offer to the beleaguered Palestinian Authority President: an interim accord that would include a Palestinian state with provisional borders. This way he'll have a quasi-state with temporary borders to show for all the endless negotiations. Is this a brilliant idea or another ruse?

Israel should also issue viable zoning plans and a less cumbersome process for issuing building permits in a non-discriminatory manner for all in East Jerusalem and other places in the West Bank. “Until such time, the evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes should cease,” Mr. Ban stresses. “Victims of forced evictions should also be afforded the possibility of effective redress. Punitive demolitions should cease immediately.”

In East Jerusalem alone from January to July 2009 at least 194 persons were forcibly displaced as a result of home demolitions. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian  in August cited “conservative estimates” of more than 1,500 pending demolition orders in East Jerusalem.

Some neighborhoods face the prospects of mass demolitions. In the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, some 90 houses are threatened, potentially displacing about 1,000 people. In Sheik Jarrah, an area in central East Jerusalem, 475 residents could face potential eviction as the ownership of their homes is contested by Israeli settlers.

At the heart of the Israel/Palestine conflict lies the question of land and who rules it. The collision of Jewish nationalist colonisation and Palestian nationalism, both laying claim to the same territory, forms the basis of this long conflict, deepened by the tragedies of the Holocaust and of the dispossession and occupation of Palestine. The United Nations partition of the land in 1947, an effort to resolve the two claims simultaneously, did not result in a lasting settlement.

Since the war of 1967, Palestinians have come to accept the reality of Israel within the 1948 boundaries. The land dispute has increasingly focused on Israel's occupation of the remaining territories -- the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. UN Resolutions 242 and 338 stipulate that Israel must withdraw completely from these territories. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip on 12 September 2005, but continues to build many Jewish settlements in the other territories, actions deemed illegal by virtually all other states. The Oslo Accords (1993) and the Road Map (2003) have failed to reach a land agreement between the parties or to bring Israeli withdrawal.

Since 2002, the Israeli government has been building a "security fence" that winds deep into Palestinian territory, claiming the barrier would keep Palestinian suicide bombers from striking Israeli citizens. But this separation wall is a major de facto annexation of Palestinian territories. By building the wall and increasing settlement expansion, Israel retains control over important Palestinian economic areas, agricultural grounds and natural resources like water. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's West Bank barrier violates international law, but the unequal struggle over the land of Palestine continues.

Maps

A growing number of Israelis are moving to settlements in the West Bank out of economic rather than ideological reasons. The suburbanite lifestyle and affordable real estate are attracting middle-class families priced out of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These families are contributing to the growth of West Bank settlements, making the prospect of a two-state solution increasingly unlikely. For the self proclaimed "new settlers," there is no risk in investing in a home on disputed territory, since the peace process will not lead anywhere anytime soon. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Radicalized young Israeli settlers are establishing illegal outposts ever deeper inside the West Bank, meeting only half-hearted opposition from the Israeli government. Constantly evacuated and rebuilt, these new outposts are drawing attention away from the much greater problem of the illegal settlements. The Israeli government, which has failed to take action against these settlements, is deliberately using the outposts to steer the debate away from the issue. (Spiegel Online International)

The Israeli peace organization Peace Now says that Israel is planning to build at least 73,000 new homes in the occupied West bank. The Israeli government has approved the construction of 15,000 housing units and 58,000 units are pending, Israel has been actively expanding in the occupied territories since 1967. Although, these settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and disrupt the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, there are more than 400,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (BBC)

A report by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem argues that Israel uses violence against Palestinians to block access to Palestinian land around Israeli settlements. Because of Israel's actions, Palestinian landowners loose money. Israel promotes the establishment and the expansion of settlements, although this is illegal under international law.

It is necessary for the world to understand that under the 2008 Road Map - the basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks - Israel must halt all settlement activities in Palestinian territory. However, Israeli settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank have actually increased in 2008. According to this BBC article, Israeli authorities also continue to order the demolition of Palestinian homes and restrict Palestinians' access to water for drinking and irrigation in the Jordan Valley. The UN, together with the UK and the US, urges Israel to freeze all settlement activity in order to advance the peace process.

Israel's blockade of fuel supplies to Gaza prevents UN agencies from delivering humanitarian assistance to Gaza, according to the BBC. The report states that Israel has prevented the delivery of petrol to Gaza since March 18, for months now. UN Assistant Secretary General Angela Kane says that if Israel does not reinstate supplies of the fuel, the UN will reduce sewage disposal services, close hospitals and stop food assistance to 650,000 refugees in the territory.

To add pressure on the defenseless Palestinian people, The Israeli military is banning Palestinians from traveling on Route 443 in the West Bank for "security reasons." Israel originally justified the legality of building highway 443 by claiming it would address the needs of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory. Forty thousand Israeli commuters now use the road daily. The New York Times notes that Israel continues to build illegal settlement in the West Bank, and that the barring of Palestinian access to transport constitutes a policy of "apartheid."

One wonders what has resulted from the order of the Israeli Supreme Court  for Israel to tear down part of the West Bank Barrier which seeps into 10 percent of that area.

In addition there is irrefutable evidence that Israel continues to flout International  and U.N. resolutions and continues its policy of brutality, expansionism, hostility, land grab, repression, terrorism, the use of cluster bombs. F-15’s and helicopter gun-ships as the policy of genocide continues unabated.

Repeating the holocaust which the Nazis did to the Jews is now a foregone conclusion with the Palestinians being the target.

One cannot say for sure whether this is what is being accepted by the United States and the Western nations. Only time will tell.