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¿Realiza Israel un nuevo “experimento” con seres humanos en Gaza?

Nazanin Armanian
www.publico.es / 300717

Imagínense un campo de concentración con dos millones de personas, sin posibilidad de salir. Piensen en unos carceleros que entre otros objetivos estudian el comportamiento humano en situaciones al límite y para ello recurren al uso cotidiano del terror, la tortura y aislamientos durante un largo periodo de tiempo; privación de alimentos y medicamentos; derruir las viviendas (teniendo en cuenta que el ser humano es madriguera), destruir el resultado de su durísimo trabajo (aplicando una ‘ecocidia’ sistemática y arrancando unos 2.000.000 de árboles frutales después de golpear y asesinar a decenas de mujeres y hombres campesinos); impedir que reciban agua y luz suficientes, que trabajen, que tengan ocio, que se relajen sometiéndoles a diferentes grados de estrés; lanzarles toneladas de bombas, misiles y sustancias químicas como el fósforo blanco, no sólo para eliminar la población sobrante del campo, sino también para analizar el estado de shock y el complejo sentimiento de dolor y sufrimiento de los supervivientes al ver con impotencia el cuerpo destrozado de sus hijos, de sus seres queridos delante de sus ojos.

A estos experimentos iniciados hace 10 años en Gaza, como en un macabro reality show, los israelíes han añadido uno nueva prueba: simular la Edad de Piedra, cortándoles las horas de electricidad de 7 a 2,5 horas al día, para ver cómo conservarán los bancos de sangre o como se mantendrán con vida los recién nacidos en las incubadoras, los enfermos de cáncer o los pacientes en diálisis; cómo aguantarán el calor asfixiantes de este verano sin ventiladores o conservarán los alimentos sin nevera, o cómo depurarán el agua para lavarse, cocinar, regar sus cultivos, etc.
Los destartalados generadores de los hospitales no han podido salvar la vida de una veintena de pacientes, entre ellos Yara, una bebé de tres años. La única planta de energía de Gaza cerró en abril por falta de combustible, y desde entonces, Israel se ha convertido en su proveedor de electricidad.

Pero Tel Aviv, aunque es el principal responsable de esta tragedia, no es el único. La nueva medida ha sido solicitada por la Autoridad Palestina (AP) que así pretende castigar a Hamas por el impago de las facturas de luz de Gaza. El castigo colectivo está a la orden del día… Aquí hay un pulso entre la burguesía palestina por el poder a expensas de millones de compatriotas desharrapados: se trata de la lucha de clase en el medio de un movimiento nacional de liberación contra el colonialismo israelí. [¿cómo se “come” esto?]

Para no olvidar los orígenes de la crisis

El bloqueo significa que los soldados de ocupación impidieran a Rula Ashtiya, a punto de dar a luz, y su marido el paso para llegar a un ambulatorio. Dio a luz tirada en el suelo y ante las miradas indecentes de aquellos hombres armados. El bebé murió y sólo entonces le dejaron ir a pie al hospital en Nablus, con su hijo muerto en los brazos. Esta es la punta de Iceberg de la brutalidad del bloque, de los inhumanos métodos utilizados por el régimen israelí, que al puro estilo del Estado Islámico, lava el cerebro de sus soldaditos de 18 años, convirtiéndolos en monstruos.

Los objetivos de Israel

Israel, un pequeño punto en el mapa que, para ser una potencia regional hegemónica, además de las armas y el dinero que recibe de los aliados occidentales, necesita territorio, petróleo y agua, y estos elementos están en las tierras vecinas. De hecho, Israel ha sido el principal ganador de las guerras de EEUU contra Irak, Libia y Siria y las sanciones y amenazas que sufre Irán. Ahora pretende matar lentamente a los olvidados palestinos de Gaza, para quienes el debate ha dejado de ser “un estado o dos”, sino cómo conseguir agua y pan.

El proyecto de gran Israel pretende “fabricar” palestinos enfermos, mutilados, analfabetos, incapaces en el presente y futuro a proteger sus derechos sobre su tierra. Acosando a la población, Israel pretende forzar a los líderes palestinos a la rendición total por las buenas, si no, provocar una Intifada, y conseguirla por la guerra. La tentación de quedarse con el gas de Gaza en el Mediterráneo y trazar el gaseoducto para el 2025 es irresistible: de allí, en parte, el silencio cómplice de Bruselas.

Aunque sea un Estado de apartheid, ninguna potencia le trata a Israel como a un “paria” ¡Hasta se le considera un estado democrático a pesar de ser regido por los intereses de un grupo religioso-étnico con una ideología arcaica! Si a veces Occidente le critica por los asentamientos, se debe a una estrategia de distracción con el fin de no exigirle la desocupación o el levantamiento del bloqueo. Es lo que Obama hizo antes de marcharse, mientras se negaba a exigir a Israel a cumplir la legalidad internacional y le asignaba una ayuda militar valorada por 38.000 millones de dólares.

Tiempos atrás, los presidentes de EEUU que temían un acercamiento de los árabes a la Unión Soviética se imponían a un Israel desbocado: en 1956 después de la crisis de Suez, Dwight Eisenhower amenazó a su pequeño aliado con castigos económicos si no se retiraba del Sinaí; Gerard Ford en 1975 se negó a proporcionar más armas al Estado judío hasta completar su salida del territorio egipcio; Carter en 1977 le exigió evacuar El Líbano, y acudir a Camp David, si quería más bombas y misiles.
Hoy Israel no está bajo ninguna presión, y salvo que las estrellas se alinearan para que se formara a nivel internacional un movimiento progresista que pare los pies a los pequeños y grandes países imperialistas, poco se puede hacer, incluso para salvarle de sí mismo y hacerle entender la lógica de los vasos comunicantes. Para Netanyahu el costo de un acuerdo de paz es mucho mayor que mantener la situación actual, debido a la oposición de los ultra ortodoxos y colonos judíos y una creciente presencia de la extrema derecha religiosa en el seno del ejército.

Matar por el bloqueo no escandaliza a la opinión pública mundial, todo lo contrario: puede presionar a los regímenes árabes, incluyendo Arabia Saudí, para un acercamiento a Israel para ‘solucionar el conflicto’.

En las próximas semanas la tensión puede convertirse en conflicto, cuando Israel empiece las excavaciones alrededor de la Franja de Gaza para crear una barrera subterránea y evitar que Hamas construya túneles transfronterizos. Obviamente, Israel está provocando una nueva Intifada, mientras Hamas espera un milagro que rehabilite su legitimidad.

No hay un conflicto israelo-palestino, sino una política sionista diseñada para acabar con una población desarmada y secuestrada. Los partidos políticos y movimiento sociales progresistas deben incluir en su agenda política el objetivo de poner fin al bloqueo a Gaza.

Propuso Ayelet Shaked, la diputada israelí, “matar a todas las madres palestinas para que dejen de parir  ‘pequeñas serpientes’”, ignorando que las ‘soluciones finales’ finalmente estallan en la cara de sus ideólogos.


Ignatius Loyola

Ignatius Loyola, Mystic, Educator, Preacher,
and Founder of the Jesuits
31 July 1556

In^igo de Recalde de Loyola, youngest of thirteen (one of my sources says eleven) children of Don Beltran Ya'n^ez de Loyola and Maria Sa'enz de Licona y Balda, was born in 1491 in the family castle in the Basque province of Gu'ipozcoa, in northeastern Spain, near the French border. (In the preceding sentence, "n^" is used to denote "n" with a tilde over it, and is pronounced "ny" in Spanish and, I assume, in Basque, though this is just a guess--Basque has no known connection with any other language.) As befitted a boy from an aristocratic family, he spent some time as a page at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Spain. Here, by his later testimony, he was involved in gambling, wenching, and duelling. He got into trouble with the law, but escaped punishment because he was technically a cleric. (This does not mean that he was destined for the priesthood. In those days someone becoming a priest went through seven steps: doorkeeper, reader, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. The first four were called Minor Orders, and did not involve any serious commitment, but they did make one technically a cleric, which was useful if one got arrested for anything less than murder or treason. Probably many young noblemen took the first step simply as a precaution. Later the law extended the definition of "cleric" to anyone who could read. See the BIO notes on Thomas a Becket, 29 December.) He then entered military service, but fought in only one major battle, the defense of Pamplona against the French in 1521. The professional solders knew that their position was indefensible, and proposed to surrender. Inigo (or Ignatius, to give him the Latin form of his name) had visions of military glory, and urged his comrades to fight. He was promptly hit in the leg by a cannon ball, the town surrendered anyway, and the French sent him home on a stretcher.

The leg was badly set, and did not heal properly. It had to be rebroken and reset, and again it healed crookedly and let him with a permanent limp. Meanwhile, he was bedridden for many months, and spent the time reading. He asked for tales of knightly adventure, but instead was given a Life of Christ, written by a Carthusian monk. He read it, and his life was transformed. He went on pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar, and then spent about a year at Manresa near Montserrat first working as a nurse and orderly in a hospital there, and then retiring to a cave to live as a hermit and study The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, a book urging the Christian to take Christ as example, and seek daily to follow in His footsteps. It is probably during this year that he wrote hisSpiritual Exercises, a manual of Christian prayer and meditation. He directs the reader to begin with an event in the life of Christ, and to imagine the scene in detail, to replay the episode in his mind like a movie script, and to try to feel as if he had himself witnessed the event, and then to use this experience as a motive for love, gratitude, and dedication to the service of God. The book is available today in hardcover and paperback. It has been much used by Christians of all varieties--John Wesley was enthusiastic about it. Ignatius then made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see with his own eyes the scenes of Our Lord's life and death. He wanted to stay and preach to the muslims, but the Franciscans stationed there advised him that he needed an education in order to preach effectively.

Back in Spain, he spent ten years (1524-1534) getting an education at Barcelona, Alcala', Salamanca, and Paris, beginning by going to elementary school to learn Latin grammar, and ending with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris. In Salamanca, he often preached to groups of people assembled by chance; but in those days a layman undertaking to preach on his own, without a license or supervision, was automatically suspected of heresy. Ignatius was twice imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition and questioned about his beliefs, an experience that made a deep impression on him. (He was finally acquitted, but forbidden to discuss religious matters for three years.) Today, his followers are aggressively proud of the fact that no member of their order has ever sat on an Inquisitorial tribunal. (It is possible that Ignatius already had doubts about the Inquisition. He was a Basque, and I am told that the Inquisition was never active in Biscay because the Basques, although thoroughly orthodox Christians, would not tolerate it.) In 1534, he and six fellow students formed a group who vowed to travel to Jerusalem and there preach the Gospel to the moslems. (The most famous of the six is Francis Xavier, who went to India and China as a missionary, and who is commemorated on 3 December.) This group later took the name, "The Society of Jesus," and were nicknamed "the Jesuits" by outsiders, a nickname that stuck.

In 1537 the Jesuits (now ten in number) gathered in Venice and (having found that renewed war in Palestine made journeying there impossible) offered their services to Pope Paul III. Ignatius and some of the others were ordained to the priesthood, and they were assigned various tasks. In 1540 they became a formal organization, with the usual monastic vows, plus a fourth vow of personal obedience to the Pope. In order to have more time for preaching and study the order abolished the practice (followed by almost all previous orders) of reciting the monastic Hours in community. Its chief goals were: 

(a) renewal of the Roman Catholic Church through extensive education and the encouragement of frequent use of the sacraments,
(b) extensive missionary work in non-Christian countries, and
(c) a suitable response to the growing challenge of Protestantism.

In the remaining fifteen years of his life, Ignatius supervised the Jesuits from Rome and saw the order grow from ten men to a thousand. It was always active in missions, and became deeply involved in education, and in counselling those with difficult decisions to make, particularly rulers. The Order undertook to win back to the Roman obedience those areas that had recently become Protestant. Ignatius counselled his Jesuits (technically neither monks nor friars, but priests regular) to proceed with charity and moderation, "without hard words or contempt for people's errors." He died suddenly on 31 July 1556. 

His writing include the following prayer:

     Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
     to give, and not to count the cost,
     to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
     to toil, and not to seek for rest,
     to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
     save that of knowing that we do thy will.


The biographies were written by James Kiefer

Joseph of Arimathaea, 31 JULY NT


The Gospels tell us (M 27:57-61; P 15:42-47; L 23:50-56; J 19:38-42) that after the death of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathaea, wealthy, a member of the Council, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and buried it with honor in the tomb he had intended for himself. This is our only information about him from writers of his own century.

Later tradition has embellished this account. (If not interested in folklore, skip to the closing prayer.) It is said that Joseph was a distant relative of the family of Jesus; that he derived his wealth from tin mines in Cornwall, which he visited from time to time; and that Jesus as a teen-ager accompanied Joseph on one such visit. This is the background of the poem "Jerusalem," by William Blake, which begins:

    And did those feet in ancient time
      Walk upon England's mountains green?
    And was the holy Lamb of God
      On England's pleasant pastures seen?
    And did the countenance divine
      Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
    And was Jerusalem builded here
      Among those dark satanic mills?

    Bring me my bow of burning gold!
      Bring me my arrows of desire!
    Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
      Bring me my chariot of fire!
    I will not cease from mental fight,
      Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
    Till we have built Jerusalem
      In England's green and pleasant land.

                        -- William Blake (1757-1827)

After the Crucifixion, we are told, Joseph returned to Cornwall, bringing the chalice of the Last Supper, known as the Holy Grail. Reaching Glastonbury, he planted his staff, which took root and blossomed into a thorn tree. The Grail was hidden, and part of the great national epic ("the matter of Britain") deals with the unsuccessful quest of the knights of King Arthur to find the Grail. The Thorn Tree remained at Glastonbury, flowering every year on Christmas day, and King Charles I baited the Roman Catholic chaplain of his queen by pointing out that, although Pope Gregory had proclaimed a reform of the calendar, the Glastonbury Thorn ignored the Pope's decree and continued to blossom on Christmas Day according to the Old Calendar. The Thorn was cut down by one of Cromwell's soldiers on the grounds that it was a relic of superstition, and it is said that as it fell, its thorns blinded the axeman in one eye. A tree allegedly grown from a cutting from the original Thorn survives today in Glastonbury (and trees propagated from it stand on the grounds of the Cathedral in Washington, DC, and presumably elsewhere) and leaves from it are sold in all the tourist shops in Glastonbury.

Has the Glastonbury legend any basis at all in history? Two facts and some speculations follow:
Tin, an essential ingrediant of bronze, was highly valued in ancient times, and Phoenician ships imported tin from Cornwall. It is a pretty safe guess that in the first century the investors who owned shares in the Cornwall tin trade included at least a few Jewish Christians.

Christianity gained a foothold in Britain very early, probably earlier than in Gaul. It may have been brought there by the traffic of the Cornwall tin trade. If so, then the early British Christians would have a tradition that they had been evangelised by a wealthy Jewish Christian. If they had forgotten his name, it would be natural to consult the Scriptures to see what mention was made of early wealthy Jewish converts. Joseph and Barnabas are almost the only ones named, and much of the life of Barnabas is already accounted for by the book of Acts, which makes him an unsatisfactory candidate. Hence, those who do not like to be vague would say, not, "We were evangelised by some wealthy Jewish Christian whose name we have forgotten," but, "We were evangelised by Joseph of Arimathaea."

Why spend time on any of the above? Because the folk-tales of a community are part of the heritage of a community. Someone wishing to understand the United States will be well advised to familiarize himself with the stories of George Washington's cherry tree and Paul Revere's ride, although he ought not to confuse them with history.


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Willliam Wilberforce, Renewer of Society, 30 July 1833


William Wilberforce was born in 1759 and served in Parliament from 1780 to 1825. A turning point in his religious life was a tour of Europe. In the luggage of a travelling companion he saw a copy of William Law's book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. He asked his friend, "What is this?" and received the answer, "One of the best books ever written." The two of them agreed to read it together on the journey, and Wilberforce embarked on a lifelong program of setting aside Sundays and an interval each morning on arising for prayer and religious reading. He considered his options, including the clergy, and was persuaded by Christian friends that his calling was to serve God through politics. He was a major supporter of programs for popular education, overseas missions, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty. He is best known, however, for his untiring commitment to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. He introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of Commons in 1788, in a three-and-a-half hour oration that concluded: "Sir, when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct, what is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!"

The motion was defeated. Wilberforce brought it up again every year for eighteen years, until the slave trade was finally abolished on 25 March 1806. He continued the campaign against slavery itself, and the bill for the abolition of all slavery in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the British West Indies, were set free.

The biographies were written by James Kiefer