WikiLeaks’ cables on U.S.-Israeli communications revealed that the United States misrepresented the democratically-elected Hamas in Gaza, which led to the Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip, says former CIA political analyst and author Kathleen Christison.
Christison told Press TV’s U.S. Desk that “the cable reports that there’s a lot of pressure on Israel to respond to Hamas attacks. This itself is a misrepresentation because Hamas is not the one party who broke the ceasefire.”
“It was Israel who violated the ceasefire which the U.S. embassy does not report [in the cables],” she said, adding, “And then it gives a recommendation …it said the U.S. government start with putting the blame on Hamas for the illegitimacy of its rule in Gaza… Hamas was elected in a democratic election and had a right to rule in Gaza.”
She went on to say that Hamas responded to Israel “after Israel had violated the ceasefire. And these U.S. cables make absolutely no nod to the fact that the Israelis provoked the entire thing.”
Tel Aviv staged an all-out war on the densely populated coastal sliver three days before the turn of 2009. Twenty-two days of land, sea and air strikes left more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 300 children, dead and nearly 5,000 more injured.
The offensive leveled 4,000 houses in the blockaded territory and devastated a large portion of infrastructure. The war also saw targeting of UN-run schools and centers by Israeli army forces.
More than 50,000 people were displaced as a result of the three-week war.
A fact-finding commission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to probe the deadly offensive found the Israeli army guilty of numerous war crimes.
Tel Aviv also used internationally banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs, against the Gazans during the three-week war.
WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange in 2006 with the motto of “keep governments open.” It describes its objectives as bringing “important news and information to the public.”
The site claims it has released more than 1.2 million documents so far and is preparing to release more than two million other documents.
WikiLeaks’ most important release is arguably a video showing U.S. troops aboard a helicopter opening fire on unarmed Iraqi civilians — including Reuters cameramen.
In a 2009 Computer World interview, Assange claimed to be in possession of “5GB from Bank of America” documents to be released in 2011.
In December 2010, Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, told The Andrew Marr Show on the BBC, that WikiLeaks had information that it considers to be a “thermo-nuclear device” which it would release if the organization needs to defend itself.
WikiLeaks says it has some 250,000 more U.S. diplomatic cables to release.
WikiLeaks has so far only made public around 2,000 of the cables in its possession, in cooperation with publications El Pais, The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde and Der Spiegel.
RG/SM/HSH

January 21, 2011 
































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