We are now making our way towards the climactic Full Moon of January tenth.
Our much-beloved Obama is focusing heatedly on the economy right now, harried the while by the embarrassment of his lone Latino cabinet member being caught up in a (dare we say it?) less-than-shocking pay-to-play scandal. In between these troubles he has been embellishing his photo-op standing with domestic tableaux surrounding the move from Chicago to Washington.
In regards to the global unanimity demanding that Israel end its seige on Gaza, from which the United States has been the lone dissenter, the President-elect has been as silent as the tomb.
A few things have changed in Palestine since the lunar cycle began (see New Moon post). There is a ground force in Gaza City now, bombing to smithereens the densely packed walled-in compounds into which the million-and-a-half people of this narrow strip of land are crowded. Half the population is children. Phosphorous and depleted uranium munitions are being deployed by warplanes and gunboats.
Such an impressive arsenel for a dinky little country like Israel. It’s almost as if they had the key to the Pentagon.
Israel does indeed have that key, as well as an unconditional green light from a US legislature which winks at UN sanctions against these weapons. This past September, our much-welcomed Democratic Congress — remember, the one we voted in on a peace ticket? — approved a request from the Israeli army for the very same types of weaponry that caused such a furor among international observers when Uncle Sam started using them in Iraq: the kind that promise radioactive poisoning of land and water for centuries to come. These are now dropping upon housing projects — twenty children died yesterday alone — as well as upon hospitals and universities (hitting the centers of education first is apparently a strategic part of the plan). The total death toll was 453 as of last night, with 2500+ wounded.
Israel has now won. That is, it has won the prize for war crimes. It has surpassed every other nation in the world in legally determined crimes-against-humanity violations, by any measure of international conventions — from Nuremburg to Geneva. So long as Daddy WarBucks, the USA, keeps giving it unconditional support, Israel can target civilian centers, use deprivation of food as a weapon, outlaw international journalists and the Red Cross, continue to commit any abrogation of international law it wants — crimes it would never in a million years get away with unless the world’s only hyperpower had its back.
The siege on Gaza has been in the planning stages for six months. Israel made no secret of its preparations, staging urban-warfare practice sessions in a mock-up Gaza City this past October. Does anyone imagine that our good congressfolk had no idea why these weapons were being requested? Do any of us believe that our extremely well-briefed president-to-be, the Senator from Illinois, was ignorant of its purpose when he voted to allow the shipment in September of the monster bomb GU395 to Israel?
The Full Moon this weekend will bring the onslaught to a head. The Saturn-Uranus opposition, which can be interpreted as The People of the world vs. its governments, peaks again February 5th. The Full Moon a few days later is an Eclipse (Feb 9th, at 21 Leo/Aquarius). Will the millions of ordinary citizens around the world who have demonstrated in the streets rise to tens of millions? Will Israel raise the ante higher, carrying out the first ethnic cleansing campaign in history to reap the rewards of full collaboration with the United States?
Like a flashing arrow on the highway, the timing of this episode — at the Plutonian New Moon just as the year began — markers it as the place humanity is supposed to be looking for lessons. Though American public opinion remains mired in distortions as the US media continues to conceal, downplay or twist the facts beyond all recognition, everywhere else in the world the outrage against the US-Israel program is building. Even in this country we are seeing signs of a force that looks to be stronger than the slickest propaganda machine.
It is the force of Pluto and Mars uncovering decay that must be exposed in order to be buried; using as its agent the energy of Uranus opposing Saturn: the power of people waking up.
