Gaza Is Our Guernica

By Joseph E. Fasciani

In 1937 Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, a mural, as the center piece for the Spanish Pavilion of the World's Fair in Paris. It is a bitter irony that Guernica, the most lasting monument of the exposition, is the Twentieth century's most enduring symbol of the horror of war and the inhumane use of technology. It is a portent for the terrors of the next decade. the painting is based on the events of April 27, 1937, when the German air force, in support of the fascist forces led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, carried out a bombing raid on the Basque village of Guernica in northern Spain.

At the time such a massive bombing campaign was unprecedented. The hamlet was pounded with high-explosives and incendiary bombs for over three hours. The non-combatents townspeople included women and children were indiscriminately cut-down as they fled their crumbling buildings. The town of Guernica burned for three days leaving sixteen hundred civilians killed or wounded in its smoldering remains.

The fascist planners of the bombing campaign knew that Guernica had no strategic value as a military target, but it was a cultural and religious center for Basque identity. The devastation was intended to terrorize the population and break the spirit of the Basque resistance. In effect it was intended to "shock and awe" the Basque into submission. The bombing on Guernica was a sensation in the world press [ for such display of slaughter of civilians has never been seen in modern times]. The Times of London called it the arch-symbol of Fascist barbarity.

Let us substitute Gaza for Guernica and Palestinian for Basque and see the eerie parallels:

The Fascist Israeli planners of the bombing campaign knew that Gaza had no strategic value as a military target, but it was a cultural and religious center for Palestinian identity. The devastation was intended to terrorize the population and break the spirit of the Palestinians into submission.

That this massacre is made by the same people who scream "Holocaust!" about themselves is of course the supreme irony.

Now that the murderers of defenseless women and children are strangely transposed from the old black and white movie documentaries of the Nazis destroying Guernica or taking the Warsaw Ghetto have morphed into full-color TV journalist documentaries Israel's Defense Forces [IDF] taking Gaza, exactly as was done to them about seventy years ago.

The formerly abused become the present abuser and use the same barbaric tactics par excellent: enclose the victims, cut off food, water, and fuel; bomb ans shell one and all, set them fleeing in vain. Then move in and use all the newest weapons to maximize their deaths.