Pariah! Israel Ignores Security Council Ceasefire Resolution
by C. L. Cook
 Former Bush point man at the United Nations, John Bolton famously opined that, ten-stories from the U. N. building in New York could go without effecting that organization's global effectiveness. Today, Israel is proving Bolton more conservative than even he could imagine.
Following yesterday's United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling on Israel to cease its bombardment of Gaza's civilians and allow aid to pass its concrete and razor wire barriers to the starving Palestinians trapped beneath the rain of death and destruction, Israel has effectively told the world: "Get Stuffed!"
Whilst even its most ardent supporters in Washington waiver, (an abstention at the UNSC being the most Israel could achieve from the U.S. yesterday) the bombing continued overnight and into the day over Gaza. With an apparent thumb in the eye to the entire world, the Israeli military has yet to slow the onslaught, in fact escalating its campaign and targeting journalists and what U.N. operations remain there. The U.N. suspended its humanitarian operations in Gaza Thursday following the killing of a truck driver and the wounding of two others delivering food aid. The U.N. says they had supplied coordinates of all their operations in Gaza to the Israeli military in vain hopes they would not be targeted.
Racing to reach the 1000 killed outright mark in captive Gaza, the IDF seems grimly determined to make of Operation Cast Lead an intransigent tread mark scarring permanently the people of remnant Palestine, a gaping milestone in the long trudge to justice for life there these past sixty years. Already as the dead count at least 800 souls, mostly civilians, Israel's damage is called "unprecedented" in that long benighted land.
But can Israel's behaviour become more barbaric yet?
Repugnant Israel has indeed apparently taken its criminality further yet with the reintroduction of a new and terrible weapon it is deploying again against the prison-population in Palestine. Late in 2006, Israel was reported to be using so-called Dense Inert Metal Explosives, (DIME) weapons against the population of Gaza. This weapon developed by the United States is described as an "LCD" or Low Collateral Damage armament, perfect for aerial delivery into densely populated areas like Gaza. The key to the weapon's effectiveness is its small size, capable of delivery from "aerial drones," and its intense but localized effects. James Brooks described the weapon's design and effects in a 2006 article for Media Monitors Network.
"DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated "micro-shrapnel" of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).[4-11]"
In his article, Brooks posits Israel was then using Gaza as a testing ground for the weapon, the effects of which Palestinian medical staff described at the time.
"The first reports about "Israel's new weapon" came from Dr Joma Al-Saqqa, chief of the emergency unit at Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa. Dr. Al-Saqqa said that Israel was using "a new chemical weapon" and its siege was "a live exercise on a new ammunition that, so far, has resulted in killing 50 Palestinians and injuring 200." He observed that, "despite the damage in internal soft tissue in the bodies of injured people, the fragments were not detected by X-ray. In other words, they had disappeared or dissolved inside the body."[13]
"There were usually entry and exit wounds," Dr. Al-Saqqa reported. "When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was difficult to determine." A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality. "The effects of the weapon seemed radioactive." [14][15]
According to Palestine News Network, Dr. Al-Saqqa "confirmed that there were dozens of wounded legs and arms. Many of them had been burned from the inside, and distorted to the point that they cannot return to life again."[16]
"When the shrapnel hit[s] the body, it causes very strong burns that destroy the tissues around the bones; it burns and destroys internal organs, like the liver, kidneys, and the spleen and other organs and makes saving the wounded almost impossible. As a surgeon, I have seen thousands of wounds during the Intifada, but nothing was like this weapon."[17] However, Dr. Al-Saqqa could not analyze the chemistry of the bizarre
wounds. On the first day of the siege, June 27, Israel had conveniently
destroyed Gaza's only criminal laboratory. [18]"
"Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) is uniquely suited for Low Collateral Damage. It produces lower pressure but increased impulse in the near field. Far Field damage is reduced (no frags/ impulse rolloff). The lethal footprint can be tuned to precision footprint. Strike Weapon Scaling Tests were completed in August of 2004), and full-scale Mk-82 tests were in the planning stage as of early 2005. DARPA funded RPG defense system feasibility tests in January 2005, which were successful.
Additional Small Diameter Bomb funding would allow the facilities to continue development of a Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) using the Dense Inert Metal Explosive technology integrated into SDB I. With lawmakers' approval, the dollars would allow AFRL to "continue to mature FLM technology. The armament center would integrate the technology with the SDB I baseline model within the advanced technology demonstration construct and demonstrates utility through a flight test program.
AFRL is currently utilizing high-fidelity physics-based simulations to aid in the design and testing of low-collateral-damage (LCD) munitions. LCD munitions will benefit the warfighter during urban conflicts where standard munitions would inflict unacceptable collateral damage levels. AFRL partnered with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to employ a physics-based code in the design and evaluation of the munitions, which are based on a dense inert metal explosive (DIME) technology. The code requires a DIME-specific multiphase flow capability to accurately simulate the DIME-type munitions. The laboratory is continually validating this new capability as the program progresses."
In this latest outrage against humanity, Israel has been documented deploying White Phosphorus weapons, Depleted Uranium, and this latest DIME horror, war crimes all. For its part, the Israeli government says it will not cease the killing because Hamas would "not respect a ceasefire." State and corporate media feature the Israeli government line, reporting the primitive Hamas "rocket attacks" against Israel as both justification for Israel's overwhelming onslaught, and as an equivalent crime in this "war."
"Clearly the situation is dire, and demands immediate action." - Barak Obama
Meanwhile, as millions around the world are planning and attending demonstrations for peace, and denouncing Israel's actions as genocidal, incoming president Barak Obama has remained silent on the crisis, instead using a press conference today to denounce Iran as a credible threat to the security of the United States. The above quote is Obama's response not to the disaster in Gaza, but to the widely reported American economic turndown.
The president-elect's silence on Gaza is followed in both houses of congress, with the Senate and House of Representatives passing motions in support of Israel's actions.
|
