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Gazans brace for more hardship as lockdown sets in
In the Shaata refugee camp in Gaza City the already weary residents,
most of whom survive on UN food aid, braced for even more hardship.
"I have eight children, and me and my wife make 10. We will die of hunger.
There is no work, nothing," says Hamidu, 40, a mechanic in the camp who
declined to give his last name. "Every week since Hamas took over the
situation has gotten worse. But the blockade is not against Fatah or
Hamas, it is against the entire Palestinian people."
Economic warfare in Gaza
No more lies or twisted tongues. Israel is saying at last what,
in the past, it always refused to acknowledge: its war is against
the Palestinian population. In their response to the petition
[of human rights organizations against cuts in the supply of
electricity and gasoline to Gaza], Dana Briskman and Gilad
Shirman from the State Attorney's Office announced openly,
without blinking an eye, that the cuts' main purpose is to exert
pressure on the economy as a way of influencing Hamas. Thus
the State clamps the arteries of life for 1.5 million Gazans and
describes its action as an economic war. In both cases, Gaza
and Lebanon, Israel has made indiscriminate war from the air
on civilians while hesitating to commit ground forces.
In both it has sought to destroy the economic infrastructure and
reduce the civilian population to primitive conditions. By harming
them, it was thought, you could get them to pressure their leaders
and thus make political gains. This notion proved false in Lebanon,
as in Gaza .
Gaza's power plant shuts down as Israel blocks
fuel and food shipments for third day
The Gaza Strip's power plant will shut down by 8:00pm on Sunday
because it no longer has the fuel needed to keep running. One
of the plant's two electricity-generating turbines had already
shut down by noon. This will drastically reduce output to 25 or
30 megawatts, down from the 65 megawatts the plant produces
under normal conditions. By Sunday evening the plant will shut
down completely, leaving large swaths of the Gaza Strip in darkness.
"[This] will affect not only the electrical system but the water supply,
and the entire infrastructure in Gaza – everything," said Omar Kittaneh,
the head of the Palestine Energy Authority in Ramallah.
Gaza power cuts leave people cold literally, metaphorically
"We had electricity for only two hours during the day yesterday,"
said Um Sultan, from Beach (Shati) refugee camp. "We can't afford
to buy gas heaters, or even gas," the widowed mother of five said.
"We try using blankets to keep warm, but we don't have enough
blankets." "It feels so weird that in the 21st century. We are going
backwards and have to buy candles for light," Rania lamented. One
person was even more blunt when talking about the overall
situation in Gaza and specifically the impact of the fuel cuts:
"I want to run away from this madness. And I know many others
who want to leave as well."
Cancer patient from Jabalia becomes 72nd
victim of Israeli siege of Gaza
Eighteen-year-old cancer patient Mahmoud Hussein died
on Saturday after Israeli authorities denied him permission
to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, Palestinian
medical sources said. Hussein's family said that they
applied three times for a travel permit to take their son
for treatment not available inside Gaza. They said the
Strip's hospitals are not sufficiently equipped to treat cancer.
State to review 2007 assassinations in Gaza, West Bank
The government is working on guidelines for establishing
committees to review army assassinations in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip that killed civilians in the past year. However,
the State Prosecutor's Office and Military Advocate General
recently rejected a demand that the Military Police launch
criminal investigations into six assassinations in Gaza, between
March 2006 and May 2007, in which 35 Palestinian civilians
were killed, including many children. [However] the IDF agreed
to review the assassination of Salah Shehadeh, in July 2002.
Shehadeh was killed by a one-ton bomb dropped on an
apartment building in Gaza, along with 14 civilians.
In Gaza, life destroyed by the Qassams
In the small house behind the orange grove, Khadra Wahdan,
52, was making pita when she suddenly spotted the militants.
It was not the first time they had fired Qassams from the fields
around the house, but they had never come so close before.
She ran out to tell them to leave. "What are you doing here?
Go away! There are children in the house!" she yelled. At that
moment, an Israeli shell exploded at the entrance to the house.
Khadra died instantly, as did a 15-year-old boy who was
collecting firewood in the groves. The militants were unharmed
and fled. The shell was filled with hundreds of sharp pellets to
maximize damage. She was killed the same day as Bush and
Olmert were making their lofty speeches about the imminent peace.
Al Qassam Brigades: 160 projectiles
fired from Gaza since Tuesday
Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, say they
have launched 160 homemade projectiles and 100 mortar
shells at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip since an
Israeli incursion last Tuesday that killed 19 people, including
13 Al-Qassam Brigades fighters. They said they fired 66
projectiles at the town of Sderot alone. The Israeli government
has repeatedly stated that stopping projectile attacks is the main
goal of its ongoing military assault on the Gaza Strip. At least
38 Palestinians have been killed there since last Monday.
Clueless in Gaza
The Israeli public deserves a clear answer from its
leaders to one fundamental question: What's the objective
Israel aspires to achieve in the current Gaza Strip confrontation?
We need to understand why we are shooting, how much we are
shooting, and who are we shooting at. When Hamas was almost
down to its knees last month, pleading for a ceasefire, defense
officials convinced us this was precisely the time to continue
hitting it, and as usual they explained that calm would provide
the group with precious time to prepare and arm itself for conflict.
One cannot kill 18 Gazans in air strikes and then express stunned
lamentations after Hamas renews its impressive launching capability.
Israeli Internal Security Minister Dichter:
We must stop attacks from Gaza at all cost
Dichter expressed a harsh reality to PM Ehud Olmert
Sunday, warning that "without military deterrence in Gaza,
Sderot could very well collapse." He added that
"the government must instruct the IDF to eliminate the rocket
fire from Gaza entirely. These attacks need not be minimized
or managed, but stopped completely irrespective of the cost
to the Palestinians." Barak referred to Dichter's statements as
"panic-driven talk the likes of which I had never heard in the
government before," and assured the cabinet ministers that
"we are taking the right action in Gaza. We will resolve the
Qassam situation just as we have dealt with suicide bombings
in the past. We are impacting the overall quality of life in
Gaza and destroying the terror infrastructure."
Sderot: besieged and abandoned
As the cauldron that is Gaza bubbles over with rage,
Sderot finds itself in the firing line time and again, resulting in
a city under siege and its people feeling utterly abandoned by
their government and army. When I last visited Sderot, I was
struck by the near-deserted streets, the empty malls and cafes,
and the air of impending doom that hung over the city like a
cloud. Today was no different, except that this time the
sense of despondency and dejection in the residents I met was
far more acute than a couple of months ago.
Haaretz editorial: At the gates of Gaza
Fifty years have gone by since Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan
eulogized Roi Rotberg of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, who was murdered
by Palestinian infiltrators. The eulogy is still relevant. "How
can we complain about Gaza's hatred toward us?" said Dayan.
"For eight years, they have been sitting in refugee camps while
right in front of them we are turning the land and villages of their
forefathers into our home." Since then, not much has been done
to diminish the hatred. . . .
Not on the itinerary
Accurately or not, the president's visit to Israel was
interpreted as signalling a green light to an Israeli military escalation
in the Gaza Strip. That is certainly what has happened in the last
days with a Palestinian death toll of at least 25 and a barrage of
rockets on the Israeli town of Sderot and neighbouring communities
in response. The brakes that exist on a further deterioration in Gaza,
and perhaps an extensive Israeli ground operation, are being generated
locally out of a concern on both sides that escalation will achieve little.
There is no visible Washington foot on that brake, and if anything it
hovers closer to the accelerator.
Short Reuters video: Children's protest in Gaza
Jan 20 - Children in Gaza march through the streets
to protest against Israel closing the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian children in Gaza City use their bodies as
placards, burnt Israeli and U.S. flags and stuck up posters
to protest against Israel's closure of the coastal territory,
which may lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas says willing to apologize for
seizing Gaza, during dialogue
RAMALLAH, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hamas is ready to apologize
to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement for
taking over the Gaza Strip by force, but only after dialogue with
Fatahis resumed, a Hamas spokesman said Sunday.
"We are ready to make an apology over taking control of the
Gaza Strip as President Abbas demands, but this should be made
on the table of dialogue," Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said.
Taha stressed that his movement will keep rejecting conditions
that Abbas outlined before any resumption of Hamas-Fatah dialogue.
Palestinian woman returned
immediately to jail after delivering baby
A Palestinian female detainee gave birth to a baby boy at a late
night hour on Friday in the Israeli hospital of Meir Kfar Sava under
strict security measures that blocked presence of any of her relatives.
IOF soldiers arrested Fatima Al-Zak, 40, while in the company of her
niece Rawda Habib, 30, who is also a mother of four children and
who was also arrested along with Zak. The IOF charged both
with planning to launch an attack and were subjected to cruel
interrogation, humiliation and torture. They were held in Sharon
jail without trial since 20/5/2007 . Meanwhile, a Palestinian prisoner
Allam Atari lost one of his eyes in occupation jails
due to medical neglect.
Israel arrests six
Palestinians in West Bank
on Saturday night, Palestinian security sources said on Sunday.
Four detainees, including three teenagers, were
arrested in Jenin during overnight raids at the houses.
The other two people were detained by Israeli troops
who rolled into the holy city of Bethlehem. Israeli radio
reported that the detainees were wanted by Israel, adding
that the Israeli police arrested 650 Palestinians this week
for intruding inside Israel without permission. Separately,
Hamas movement said security forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah
movement arrested four Hamas members in the West Bank.
Three were arrested in Tulkarem and a fourth in Jenin.
Seven injured as settlers attack
Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron
Four Palestinian women, two children and a human rights
activist were injured on Saturday evening at the southern
West Bank city of Hebron after they were assaulted by
Israeli settlers from the Qiryat Arba colony. Bassam Al-Ja'bari, a
local resident, told Ma'an's, "The settlers attacked us and beat
a human rights activist, Isa Amr, who works for the Israeli
humanitarian organization B'Tselem. Then the soldiers
arrested him and took him to unknown destination."
Hilltop [settler] youth say they no longer
believe in 'the rule of heretics'
The past three weeks have further exacerbated the recourse
to isolation and feelings of alienation from the institutions
of the state, which part of the National-Religious youth have
felt ever since the evacuation of Gush Katif [in 2005], and all
the more forcefully following the major clash over Amona,
some two years ago.
Qalqilia police arrest gang of
'olive tree thieves'
Police in the West Bank City of Qalqilia say the have arrested
a gang of local Palestinians for uprooting ancient olive trees
from Palestinian land and selling them to Israeli settlers.
Qalqilia Police Chief Khalil Hassan said that the Israeli
settlers then re-plant the trees in their own fields, claiming
that they belonged to their Jewish ancestors. Muayyad
Abbas, the director of the CID in Qalqilia, said police were
alerted to the gang's activities by an informant. He said the
gang was in possession of olive trees when they were arrested.
Quds Brigades fighters exchange fire with
invading forces in Qabatiya near Jenin
Fighters of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing if the Islamic J
ihad, exchanged fire on Sunday at dawn, with Israeli forces
invading Qabatia town, near the northern West Bank city
of Jenin . [Walid Obeidi, 41, a senior leader of the Brigades
in the West Bank and the top senior leader on the Israeli
wanted list was killed in clashes in Qabatiya last Wednesday.]
Three-way checkmate
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gone from a violent,
intractable, clear-cut duel to a violent, intractable, three-
way chess match. Israel, the Palestinian Authority and
Hamas each fear that the other two will reach a deal at its
expense. And each is determined to prevent that outcome.
The truth is, none of these two-way deals is likely to succeed.
In tandem, no two parties are capable enough to deliver. Any
one party is potent enough to be a spoiler.
The height of Meshal's flames
The person who currently controls the height of the flames
and holds the monopoly on continuing the peace process is
Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political leader based in Damascus.
The illusion that negotiations about the West Bank may proceed
while Gaza burns is gradually collapsing. Can a situation be
imagined in which Abbas signs an agreement, even a shelf
agreement, while a war is being waged against half his kingdom
and a merciless blockade is in place against a million and a half
Palestinians? Not only can Abbas not conduct negotiations
under these circumstances, the Arab countries understand that
as long as there is no peace between Abbas and Meshal, no
Arab initiative will help.
The Real World: Lieberman out, Olmert next?
– by Ariel Cohen
Ehud Olmert's final hour as prime minister is getting a lot
closer. Taking 11 Knesset seats with him, Lieberman shrank
Olmert's coalition from a respectable 78 to 67, with 11 seats
of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas Party still at stake. Olmert
now will depend on his ability to replace Israel Beiteinu with
two diametrically opposed smaller parties: the ultra-Orthodox
United Torah Judaism and the leftist secularist Meretz. However,
both of these groups are split as to whether to support of the
embattled prime minister. But Olmert's troubles don't end with
the smaller parties. His own party, Kadima (Forward), is
brewing with discontent. . .
Saudi prince: If Israel quits Arab land,
it could join the Arab world
A senior Saudi royal has offered Israel a vision of broad
cooperation with the Arab world and people-to-people
contacts if it signs a peace treaty and withdraws from all
occupied Arab territories. In an interview with Reuters,
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to the United
States and Britain and adviser to King Abdullah, said
Israel and the Arabs could cooperate in many areas
including water, agriculture, science and education.
Orthodox Christians mark Jesus' Jordan
River baptism in an Israeli 'closed military zone'
The event marked the Feast of the Epiphany, when Jesus
began his public ministry by receiving baptism from John
the Baptist. The monastery and the riverside site where the
baptism is believed to have taken place are located in what
has been a closed Israeli military zone since the September
2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. Visitors are only
allowed in on special occasions, under heavy security. A
similar ceremony was held on the east side of the river, in
what is Jordanian territory, where several thousand
people also gathered.
Bush's remarks on refugees
spark outcry in Jordan
Bush's suggestion that the refugees be compensated for
their properties instead of allowing them to return to
their homes in Israel also drew sharp reactions from
the refugees themselves and from members of the
Amman-based Palestine National Council (PNC),
an equivalent to a Palestinian Parliament-in-exile.
"Bush's proposal is tantamount to a new Balfour
Declaration," PNC Deputy Speaker Tayseer Qubaa told Arab News.
Desert Mirage: What was the bombing
of Syria all about?
According to an investigation by B. Michael on the
Israeli website Ynet.news.com, Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad likely told the truth when he said
the raid hit an "unused military building" and blew
up "nothing of consequence." The evidence for
a "reactor" at Dewar az Zawr is thin. Michaels
concludes the attack was all about politics.
The use and abuse of Martin Luther
King Jr. by Israel's apologists
Finding direct and published utterances by Dr. King about
the modern Middle East and Zionism is extremely rare.
A cursory review of dozens of books on and by the
civil rights leader turned up nothing. Nonetheless,
defenders of Israel often refer to a letter by Dr. King.
This letter is reprinted in full on many web pages and in
print. In 2003 CAMERA, a rabidly pro-Israeli organization,
published a statement declaring that the letter
was 'apparently' a hoax.
Barack Obama and Israel
The ascent of Barack Obama from state senator in Illinois to
a leading contender for the Presidential nomination in the span
of just a few years is remarkable. Especially in light of a noticeably
unremarkable record. However, in one area of foreign policy that
concerns millions of Americans, he does have a record and it is
a particularly troubling one. One seemingly consistent them
running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with
aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates.
Repeat : How Barack Obama learned
to love Israel by Ali Abunimah
Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him
about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab
-American community events in Chicago including a
May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said
was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully
ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser
hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that
occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism
of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But Obama's gradual shift
into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he
planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene.
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