I sent Noam Chomsky my recent article in The Nation about Gaza and his personal response (published with permission) is below:
Harsh punishment of Gaza took place long before their preemptive coup in 07, in fact was announced and implemented immediately after the Jan 06 election, both by the US and Israel (with the EU tagging along in their usual cowardly fashion). By spring 06 Israel had already even cut off the tiny flow of drinkable water to the strip and by June-July 06 the attacks and siege were violent and destructive. The 07 coup is a pretext, and they know perfectly well it was in response to the planned Dahlan coup that the US-Israel were preparing. Also, though human rights groups and others did condemn the ferocity of the Israeli attack (“disproportionate”), those are not the terms they use when some enemy state carries out aggression, and few if any would say — or even comprehend — that the Israeli attack hadn’t even the slightest credible pretext. A remarkable illustration of the imperial mentality at work.
To say that the world community has failed to deliver is an understatement. The US has always been directly involved in the siege and military attacks, and the EU tags along. Who else could deliver?