TEHRAN - Noam Chomsky, a widely known intellectual and political activist, says an immediate punishment of Palestinians started “for the crime of not following orders” by Israel and U.S.

In an interview with the Mehr News Agency, Chomsky said, “Savage punishment of Palestinians by the U.S.-Israeli alliance” should come to an end.
Following is the text of the interview:
The major crisis in Gaza started immediately after Hamas won a free and fair election. The West, which despises democracy unless it comes out ""the right way"", immediately turned to punishment of the people for the crime of not following orders, Israel and the U.S. in the lead, Europe following timidly along as usual. The crisis has continued to escalate, and of course it is tied to U.S.-Israeli takever of whatever is of value in the West Bank, often with considerable violence.
The Annapolis conference was a joke in poor taste. It had almost nothing to do with Israel-Palestine. It was an effort by Bush and Rice to line up the ""moderate"" Arab states -- that is, the extreme fundamentalist tyrannies that are expected to follow orders -- in an anti-Iran alliance. That's why it was held in Annapolis.
There should be efforts by the Islamic states, and everyone else, to put an end to the savage punishment of Palestinians by the U.S.-Israeli alliance