I was most surprised to find there was a gentle culture in Gaza. It had five zoos.  The Gaza City Zoo had some 200 animals, including 2 lions.  But during the Christmas 2008 invasion, Israel's Defense Forces are said to have shot most of the animals, though they deny it. Other animals starved and ate each other because zoo attendants were not allowed by the IDF to go to work. After the invaders left, I was pleased and surprised to learn the new Hamas government had rebuilt much of the Zoo, nursed the lions back to health. It was a place where Gazans could take their children and show them a glimmer of a normal peaceful life. The Zoo represents infrastructure. Israel represents a culture of death. What has happened to the lions now that Israel has again invaded Gaza city?

One pattern for Israel's genocide seems to be Stalin's starvation of the Ukraine in the 1930s. The Bolsheviks wanted the land for collective farms; the farmers wanted to keep their lands. Joseph Stalin simply destroyed the food and animals in Ukraine. The winter did the rest.

Israel's method seems all too clear: total elimination of clean water and sewage treatments and restriction of electricity, food, medical services, and communication with the outside world. Gazans will be left to disease outbreaks (some of which might be induced) starvation, and despair. How do I know this is Israel's plan? Because political leaders want it, they are doing it, and have been following it in perfect context since at least 2002, when I was there.

On July 29, Israel shelled the fuel tanks at Gaza’s only electricity plant forcing it to shut down in sweltering heat. The Washington post reported "The attack left the Palestinian territory’s 1.8 million residents with no electricity or running water and opened the possibility of an even graver humanitarian crisis." It further quoted said Jamal Dardasawi, a spokesman for Gaza’s electricity distribution department: “The missile which targeted the power plant actually targeted 1.8 million Palestinians...They have caused a catastrophic humanitarian situation.”

Gary Anderson, a veteran hydrologist who worked as a contractor on various United Nations water projects for Gaza and elsewhere in the middle east territories, explained the Gaza water situation. He said Israel is deliberately draining Gaza of water, using slant wells drilled along Gaza's eastern border to slowly dehydrate the land. When water is extracted faster than it can be replenished naturally, sea water enters the aquifer from the Mediterranean. Gaza water is already desperately short for its large population, and much of what is available is unfit to drink, says Anderson, referring to UN sources.

Israel's excuse for the Gaza Genocide is the big rocket lie promulgated over the five years since Israel last entered Gaza at Christmas 2008, with Operation Cast Lead. Israel's current excuse for mass extermination is the alleged 1000 to 2000 rockets from Gaza in the last 60 days since Israel began conditioning the world with its desire to destroy Hamas. Israel needed an excuse. Hamas' rockets are Israel's excuse. The fact that the rockets rarely hit anything or anybody and do not normally explode, is irrelevant to Israel so long as Israel can convince the West otherwise.

The hidden truth is that the Philistines have no rocket program that has or could ever seriously damage Israel.  The Gaza rocket stories (sometimes magnified into "missiles") are an enormous lie started in Tel Aviv, spread in U.S. media every day, and used to justify the land invasion Israel has now started. Hamas's alleged rocket power is but one example of press duplicity in covering Israel's so-called conflict with Gaza.  The technique is professional confusion. The US media sometimes reports the facts, at least the most obvious ones, but does it in such a confused way that the readers never figure out that Israel, not Hamas, is the aggressor.  The media tells us both side are bombing the other, Hamas with rockets (which the media sometimes calls "missiles") and that Israel is fighting back with bombs (that are in fact weapons of mass destruction, guided missiles).  We also hear the killing ratio but only if we keep track and add the daily numbers. The ratio was, on day 24, 1359 Palestinians killed, compared to 2 Israeli civilians killed, one Asian laborer, and some 50 or more armed IDS invaders.  But we are never given a hint as to why the ratio is always about the same, year after year, invasion after invasion.

A case in point is Bloomberg News, owned by Michael Bloomberg, the former Governor of New York. Bloomberg News owns Business Week Magazine, so it knows how to write, edit, and print facts that can be understood, but it published two stories about the same events on July 11th and 14th that arrived at totally different conclusions, without any explanation of what we are supposed to believe.  The July 11th story contains some simple facts that might cause the reader to sympathize with the Philistines, but the facts are presented in a very confusing way and are not understandable at first glance. I will paraphrase and simplify, and you are free to check me out:

Now for the confusing part: on July 14, Bloomberg published another story that presented entirely different set of facts: Israel Extends Gaza Air Strikes, Downs Palestinian Drone, by Calev Ben-David and Amy Teibel Jul 14, 2014,  which states: "While Israeli homes and vehicles have been struck by  more than 1,000 rockets fired since July 8, a missile defense system has intercepted about 200 headed for built-up areas, the military said.  A tourist died of a heart attack during an air raid, rescue services said."

Not only did the number of missiles from Gaza almost double in three days, which is unlikely, but the story clearly states that "Israeli Homes and vehicles have been struck by more than 1000 rockets."  Remember that the July 11th story told us of the first casualty at the Ashdod gas station, one Israeli wounded, and no other damage was reported from the 550 rockets from Gaza. Why doesn't Bloomberg tell us which of their stories is a lie, both can not be true!  Better yet, why not publish only the truth? In fact, there have been no published evidence nor even a reports we can find of any Israeli houses being struck. The Hamas racket are almost worthless, non-guided, hand pointed projectiles. Everyone knows this except those who depend upon the US media. The American public has no chance of figuring out who the aggressor is. The media gives the impression we are listening to an fairly matched, bare knuckles boxing match between ugly Hamas and pretty Israel.  Militarily, it is more like a 200 pound 6-2 adult in the rig with a 90 pound, 5 foot, 11 year old, who has shackles on his legs so he can't run. The people of Gaza have no modern weapons and no place to hide.  But we are not allowed to know any of this from Bloomberg or any network media. The mainstream media is culpable in the genocide we now witness.

Sderot, where most of the Gaza rockets are alleged to have fallen, is an Israeli town literally on the northeast border of Gaza, no more than a half mile away from its East fence. Sderot residents drink water pumped from under Gaza.  Sderot is the only city that can be constantly reached by most of the primitive home-made protest-rockets Gazans make in their alleys and basements. Most Gaza rockets have been pointed at Sderot, but few come close as witnessed by this Global Watch photo series showing  Israelis frequently bring chairs to Sderot and sit on a hill overlooking Gaza to "cheer each explosion". They watch Israel destroy the big refugee camp called Jibalyia, and once beautiful old Gaza City from lounge chairs, a ghoulish fire works display featuring real dead victims. And Israelis picnic at the place where the rockets are supposed to be most "deadly". So much for Israeli's fear of rockets.

Ashdod is an ancient, biblical Philistine town a little north of Sderot on the road to Tel Aviv.  Occasionally rockets are said to reach Ashdod. The rockets are unguided, often launched by hand with no mechanism to aim them at all. So if Gaza's first casualty was a man at a gas station in Ashdod about a week after Israel started killing Philistines, why has the international press coverage branded Gaza a serial killer guilty of war crimes?

Simply stated, Israel's war policy runs on a high-octane lies, some told by Benjamin Netanyahu and repeated by our press. But lies about the Philistines imaginary war machine would not be believed were it not for the complicity of the US media, which allows and spreads every lie, as Bloomberg did.

The US Government is still covering for Israel, pretending Gaza is a military threat, and that Hamas, the only vestige of Government left there, is a world terrorist organization that needs to be deposed. The media and the US government know full well that the chances of any Israeli being injured or killed by a Gaza rocket is about as being injured by a foul ball at a baseball game. This is a fact known for at least a dozen years. Palestinian peace organizations report that in over 12 years there have been only 11 Israeli deaths from rocket fire from Gaza, while several thousands of Philistines have been killed in raids on Gaza during the same years. Media reports would have us believe the opposite is true.

Israel May Fake Rocket Attacks

Some of Israel's death from rockets reports are suspect.  I recall a story in Haaretz several years ago to the effect that 4 Arab construction workers, Bedouin Israeli citizens living in Israel, were killed by one exploding Gaza rocket that happened to hit their work site. But Gaza rockets rarely explode, they normally have to hit something that will spark and burn, like a gas pump.  I wonder, would Israel be above killing a few of its Arab, Israeli residents and blaming it on Gazans?  They have no conscience about killing Gaza Arabs, why not kill 4 Israeli Arabs with one of Israel's ultra modern, American made, always hit what aimed at and always explode, guided bombs?  Who would know, I cannot go there to find out, and Arab Bedouins would not be believed if they dared to complain. Yet this one incident represents 35% of all reported "Israeli" deaths from Hamas over 12 years! How convenient.

The Philistines in Gaza are basically unarmed prisoners inside a "big jail."  Shireen from Gaza told me this in our 2002 interview, shown in Christian Zionism, The Tragedy and the Turning. Rockets are inmates' protests, by half-starved prisoners who are doing the equivalent of throwing their food and furniture at their jailer. Kids in the streets of the West Bank towns throw rocks. But Gaza kids can not throw rocks out of the Gaza Jail, so when they grow up, some of them manufacture primitive rockets made from old sewer pipe and the like, and direct them toward Sderot and Ashdod at night, and the Israelis twist these nearly harmless rocket attacks into an excuse for committing war crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The Jailers respond periodically by killing a few hundred of the prisoners. not to stop rockets, but to keep the jail house revolt going. This has been going on for the last 12 years since  I visited Gaza in the spring of 2002, and photographed part of an air raid that killed 4 Gazans and wounded about 40, film found in minute 25 of Christian Zionism, the Tragedy and the Turning.

The present raid on Gaza is much more than "collective punishment" against the rock throwers and rocket makers. It is a program to destroy the last vestige of infrastructure needed to sustain life in Philistine Gaza, so hunger, dehydration and disease will take their toll, and all who can leave will leave or face slow death.

Even official Israeli military sources must come clean once in a while and admit that Gazans are unarmed and have no 21st century means of defending themselves from attack, and they have even less offensive capability.  It is time our national media tells the truth at least as much as Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post. And, if American Christians do not oppose the extermination of the Philistines, why would we expect Israelis to rein in Netanyahu?

The Gaza Genocide will not be stopped by the US Congress nor the mainline media, both of which support the Israeli lobby.  The Military-Industrial-Banking Complex that profits from war, will hardly use its lobby to stop genocide, and the President will slip out of office without preventing it.

However, America's 350,000 religious congregations have both the reason to care about the Philistines, and the ability to know the truth about Gaza through countless mission operations in the Middle East and the Holy Land.  Christ Followers have reason to know, or they can find out. The movement to save the Philistines is growing. Christ Follower say they are committed to opposing evil acts, and are commanded to love their brothers and to be peacemakers.  There are no exceptions in Jesus words.  Followers have no moral excuse not to act.  May they take their responsibility before God.

(1) Michael Ben-Ari, Knesset, Knesset member: “There are no innocents in Gaza … mow them (all) down”. And other prominent Israelis: "Five Israeli Quotes on the Gaza Conflict You'll Wish Were False," Davide Mastracci, The World Post (A Partnership of the Huffington Post, 11/20/2012: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davide-mastracci/israel-gaza-quotes_b_2162796.html

(2) Avigdor Lieberman: Perhaps the most telling indicator of how radically racist Israel has become is the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs since reappointed by Benjamin Netanyahu.  Lieberman has had had numerous offices, a member of the Knesset and as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.

Lieberman: On May 4 he called also for the execution of elected Israeli Arab members of the Knesset for talking to elected members of the Hamas-led Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Four days later American The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed grave concern over his insightful statements.

When he served as minister of transport in a previous government, Lieberman called for all Palestinian prisoners, now more than ten thousand, held by the Israeli occupation authorities to be drowned in the Dead Sea and offered to provide the buses, Haaretz reported on July 11, 2002.

In 2002, Lieberman declared, "I would not hesitate to send the Israeli army into all of Area A [the area of the West Bank ostensibly under Palestinian Authority control] for 48 hours. Destroy the foundation of all the authority's military infrastructure ... not leave one stone on another. Destroy everything." He also suggested to the Israeli cabinet that the air force systematically bomb all the commercial centers, gas stations and banks in the occupied territories. He is on record also to call for the ethnic cleansing of 1.2 million Israeli Arabs by stripping them of their citizenship and transferring them to a canonized Palestinian Authority (PA) without consulting their or consent.(The Independent, March 7, 2002)

"Erdogan [Turkish Prime Minister] accuses Israel of attempting a 'systematic genocide'[of Palestinians in Gaza]," Jerusalem Post, July 18, 2014: http://www.jpost.com/International/Erdogan-accuses-Israel-of-attempting-a-systematic-genocide-363347

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said “Israel is not only invading Palestine but also he [Lieberman] is saying that Palestinian people need to be evacuated or exiled. If this, or Israel’s air-strikes, which have killed children in Gaza, are not sabotage, then what is?”

"Israeli Terror: The 'Final Solution' to the Palestine Question," Prof. James Petras, Global Research, Nov. 28, 2012: http://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-terror-the-final-solution-to-the-palestine-question/5313258?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israeli-terror-the-final-solution-to-the-palestine-question

"A Decisive conclusion is necessary," Gilad Sharon, The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 18, 2012:  http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/A-decisive-conclusion-is-necessary

To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Amy Teibel, Ben Holland

Tragedy and Turning   http://whtt.org/christian-zionism/

Why this author uses Arabic term "Philistine": http://whtt.org/why-use-the-arabic-word-philistine/

"Israel's incremental Genocide in the Gaza ghetto," Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, July 13, 2014: http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghetto/13562

"Israel firing experimental weapons at Gaza’s civilians, say doctors," Rania Khalek, Electronic Intifada, July 15, 2014: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-firing-experimental-weapons-gazas-civilians-say-doctors

"'Sderot cinema': Israelis watch bombings," stuff.co.nz, 7/16/2014:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/10273167/Sderot-cinema-Israelis-watch-bombings

"Knesset Members' Solution for Gaza," Richard Forer Blog, July 18, 2014: http://www.richardforer.com/2014/07/knesset-members-solution-for-gaza/

"Israel steps up bombardment of Gaza; territory's only power plant struck," Washington Post, 7/29/2014: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-steps-up-bombardement-of-gaza-netanyahu-warns-of-long-conflict/2014/07/29/ac4ca0ae-16e3-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html