Israeli clinic closes after treating five Palestinians
More than 5,000 Palestinians were wounded during Israel's 22-day military offensive
The original purpose of the clinic, according to press releases, was to provide emergency care and evacuate those needing further care to hospitals in Israel.
Gynaecologists, paediatricians, general practitioners and trauma specialists were available at the clinic, which was operated by the Health Ministry and Mada (Israel’s national emergency, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service).
Foreign press and aid workers said the clinic was merely a publicity stunt. Scores of journalists were invited to its opening day.
In his 30 January 2009 post, “Increasing even-handedness in the Middle East”, Glenn Greenwald wrote:
Obama’s decision to name George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy (as opposed to, say, the hopelessly biased Dennis Ross) may turn out to be one of the most significant steps he will take. Consider the reaction that decision has generated.
Stephen Sniegoski considered the reaction generated and reaches different conclusions that ring truer than Greenwald’s confabulations.
Greenwald continues:
On PBS’s News Hour this week, Jimmy Carter (who, with his success at forging an Israel-Egypt peace agreement, probably did more for Israel’s security than any foreign leader in the last century) said that Obama’s “choice of an envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is absolutely superb, and it shows that he’s going to take a more balanced position between the Israelis and their neighbors.”
Carter guaranteed U.S. coercion and bribery would sustain an Egyptian dictatorship that serves at the whim of Israeli-U.S. governments. Jimmy’s success enables the oppression of Palestinians, Egyptians, and a global consumer/workforce that funds the colonial enterprising and murderous expansion of it.
Greenwald continues:
J Street’s Executive Director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, “enthusiastically” praised the selection of Mitchell, saying that it “signals the President’s serious intention to inject new thinking and fresh perspectives into America’s efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The “J” in J Street must stand for “joke” in the context this group represents a new vehicle that is changing the landscape of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process”.
The jokers, like Mitchell, support freezing the expansion of illegal settlements but not returning the land and its resources to Palestinians. They’d also deny Palestinian sovereignty by installing an international force to control borders and ensure the prisoners remain unarmed. Same old hand, new players.
Lanny Davis, Clinton retread, quintessential liar, bigot and racist, delivered a performance on Washington Journal, Saturday 31 January 2009, that is vintage Clinton-era and a bellwether of things to come in the wake of its resurrection.
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