European Bombs Hit Gaza
To me, to keep holding under the circumstances the medal of honor that gave me the State of Israel will be an insult.—Henk Zanoli
Complicating Europe in the Gaza War, Israel disclosed that it used NATO weapons to attack Gaza while fighting the USA over the supply of Hellfire missiles. On the same day, August 15, a Dutch citizen returned to Israel his Righteous Among the Nations medal, after Zion killed his family in Gaza.
Zanoli Strikes Zion
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Yesterday, August 14, the Israeli Ambassador in The Hague got a bulky email. The delivery was delayed due an additional security check imposed by the medal that filled the envelope. Shin Beth secret police personnel are in charge of such odd tasks. A metal detector was not very helpful in this case; showing his courage, the surprised civil servant discovered that the suspected bomb had been coined in Israel. “A sign of thanks from the People of Israel,” the Hebrew on the medal stated. “Hey, Uzi,” he shouted to his hiding colleague, “this bomb is ours!” |
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Henk Zanoli
Man of Heart and Honor
A letter written by a Dutch lawyer named Henk Zanoli explained that he was rejecting the honor given to him and his mother Johanna in 2011 by the State of Israel.
In 1943, his mother had asked him to pick in Amsterdam a Jewish boy named Elchanan Pinto and bring him to their village, Eemnes, near Utrecht.
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Zanoli Family, 1942, from the Righteous Among the Nations archives. Henk stands on the right.
The boy survived the war and in 2011 arranged the award given to his saviors at the Israeli Embassy. Beyond saving the boy, at least three members of the Zanoli family had died resisting the Nazi occupation.
Angelic (I apologize for any unintentional errors in the transliteration of names from Hebrew, Dutch readers are invited to correct me) is the daughter of Johanna’s granddaughter. A Dutch diplomat, she met Ismail Ziada at the Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. They got married in the late 1990’s and live since then in Oman with their three children. Angelic works there at the Dutch Embassy.
Ismail was born in al-Burej Refugee Camp in Gaza to a family that escaped Faluja. Their village was destroyed; the city of Kiryat Gat occupies now lands partially owned by the Ziada family.
Henk Zanoli became in such a way a member of the extended Ziada family.
On July 20, Ismail Ziada was speaking via internet with his family in Gaza, when he was told “something happened” and the link was lost. Later he found that the home in Gaza had been bombed by Israel. Six members of his family had been murdered.
This is not a unique case, BeTzelem, an Israeli human rights organization, identified at least sixty families assassinated in a similar fashion. 214 Out of the 458 killed in these attacks were children and babies.
The European link is what makes this event unique. After the event had become public, the IDF Spokesman refused to comment on the issue. His boss does not allow him to say “The IDF is the real social-nazionalist.”
“To me, to keep holding under the circumstances the medal of honor that gave me the State of Israel will be an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who endangered her life and the lives of her children in the struggle against oppression and for saving of human lives. It will also be an insult towards those in my family who four generations afterwards, six members of their family were killed by the State of Israel.”
Henk lost his Righteous Among the Nations medal, but won a better one, a spiritual medal that does not depend neither on the Politics of Genocide nor the Business of War. May his family know neither pain nor tears.
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Zanoli’s relatives home in al-Burej, Gaza, after Israeli bombing
Europe Strikes Gaza
To my horror, Bolivian police uniforms resemble the ones used by the IDF. The fact that one can hardly walk one block without being reminded that this is a police state does not make things better. Inexplicably, the insignia of the Bolivian army includes a Star of David. This is nothing but institutional harassment.
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IDF Shooting an 81mm Mortar on Gaza, by Reuters
The Untold History of the United States
Those who had seen IDF soldiers in the uniform used within military bases or while in action know that they appear in two main colors and models. The olive-green clothes are standard for the “green,” the ground forces. The turquoise uniforms with the wide pockets are called American uniforms and are seldom seen.
The standard uniform does not allow moving around with the hands in the pockets while the American one features more advanced leisure-technology.
American equipment reaches IDF soldiers via NATO, which keeps several warehouses within IDF facilities. Weapons, ammunitions, uniforms and other items are stored for the case that the Western Army is deployed in the Middle East. There is an understanding that in the case of emergency, Israel will take the items for the IDF.
The locations are a well-kept secret. I saw two such bases. In both cases, my host had asked “Do you know what this is?” and answered without waiting “It belongs to NATO.” Probably a third one exists; veteran readers know that in this page are hints of what cannot be said.
Every few years, items are refreshed. Old uniforms are not sent to Langley’s Laundromat; instead they are given to the IDF, where soldiers fight for the right to put hands in the pockets while walking.
In recent days, President Obama and PM Netanyahu are carrying a quite vocal struggle on Hellfire missiles for the IAF Apache helicopters.
The USA wants to delay the sale of offensive weapons while Israel targets civilians. Now that Zanoli returned his medal, Israel wants to speed up its massacres and requests more missiles.
This is an irrelevant fight. Nobody forces Israel to destroy Gaza with American helicopters. It has plenty of other bombs that can achieve the same destruction. Despite that, the topic is prominently featured from the Wall Street Journal to Haaretz.
Due to the sensitivity of the topic let me be doctrinaire, and emphasize external details. On August 14, WSJ published an article entitled “White House Now Scrutinizing Israeli Requests for Ammunition.“
The most-shocking paragraph in an otherwise boring piece claimed: “On July 20, Israel’s defense ministry asked the U.S. military for a range of munitions, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds, which were already kept stored at a pre-positioned weapons stockpile in Israel.”
The topic was confirmed today by Israeli portal walla! Both sources report that despite the political fight, the military echelons are cooperating as usual, and the request was answered positively “via military-channels,” walla! expanded.
WSJ added that the mortars reached the IDF on July 30, the day when the UN school was bombed by Israel. Was the crime committed with mortars supplied by NATO?
To Mr. Zanoli horror, his taxes are paying for the assassination of his relatives in Gaza.
IAF Apache with 8 Hellfire Missiles. Except for the pilot, everything is American. Who is attacking Gaza? |
Mr. Roi Tov is one of the frequent contributors for The 4th Media.
http://www.roitov.com/articles/tefen.htm