Responding to media reports that Israel had bombed a UN school serving as a refuge for Palestinian civilians, Congressman Dennis Kucinich is calling for a Congressional report on Israel's possibly illegal misuse of US weapons. His letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice follows.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/
Gaza hospital appeals to the world to supply its morgues with fridge units
The Shifa hospital in Gaza city has appealed to the concerned international parties to supply the hospital with morgue fridge units after all its units were crammed with the growing number of bodies.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
ISRAEL-OPT: Aid workers' movements in Gaza severely restricted
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has over 10,000 staff in Gaza, but their deployment has been severely restricted due to Israeli bombing and tank shelling, UNRWA spokesman Sami Mshasha said.
http://www.irinnews.org/
'Define e. J'lem Arabs as Palestinians'
To keep Israel - not including Judea and Samaria - Jewish, democratic and economically viable, the state should redefine about a quarter of a million Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem as Palestinians, not Israelis.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
660 people killed in Gaza and more 2,750 wounded since the beginning of the Israeli operations. UN schools targeted
Ramallah, 07-01-09: For the 12th consecutive day, Israel continued its attacks on the Gaza Strip. By air, by land and by sea the Gazans are attacked and besieged. At least 660 people have been reportedly killed (including more than 215 children and 89 women), and more than 2,750 have sustained heavy injuries (including more than 650 children and 270 women). At least 17 families were reportedly struck, killing fathers, mothers and children.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Palestinians mourn 42 people killed an Israeli strike, Israeli troops resume targeting paramedics
Thousands of Palestinians participated on Wednesday in the funeral of 42 Palestinian were killed last night in an air strike launched by Israeli jet fighters in the refugee camp of Jabalia north of Gaza.
http://english.ramattan.net/
24 confirmed killed after morning airstrikes in Gaza
Twenty-four Palestinians have been confirmed dead on Wednesday morning in an Israeli bombing targeting the northern Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
135 Palestinians massacred on Tuesday
The ongoing Israeli occupation holocaust in the Gaza Strip has so far claimed the lives of 660 Palestinians, including 215 children and 89 women in addition to 2950 wounded.
http://www.palestine-info.co.u
Fourth youth killed by Israeli army in West Bank
Mofid Saleh Walwil, a 20 year old resident of Qalqiliya, was killed by Israeli forces at approximately 1pm on Sunday 4th December, making him the fourth Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in the past week.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Israeli forces leave destruction and death in Abasan, 12 youth die in Egyptian hospitals
Israeli ground forces withdrew from parts of the southern Gaza Strip today. After an incursion by tens of military vehicles that began on Tuesday, the army left the eastern Khan Younis town of Abasan in shambles. Area sources report that the Israeli incursion caused "great devastation in civilian facilities and residential houses, as well as a number of dead and wounded."
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Five injured as Israeli forces fire on West Bank demonstration against Gaza killings
Five Palestinians were injured when Israeli troops opened fire on a demonstration against the Israeli invasion of Gaza in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, northwest of Ramallah, in the West Bank on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli troops seize Palestinian youth in Hebron
Israeli troops assaulted and seized a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank city of Hebron, accusing him of holding a knife.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hamas executes 6 suspected collaborators
Among the alleged collaborators were three brothers, one of whom attempted before his arrest to swallow a cell phone's SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, which is believed to have documented his conversations with Israeli security officials.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israeli leaders to debate "final" Gaza push
JERUSALEM, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Israeli leaders will debate on Wednesday whether to order their armed forces to storm into the Gaza Strip's urban centres, the planned culmination of an 11-day-old offensive, political sources said.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Israel trying to delay UN Security Council meeting
Jerusalem making diplomatic efforts to postpone meeting and prevent further international pressure on Israel to stop fighting in Gaza. Meanwhile Olmert, Livni continue to promote US-led initiative for truce.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip
The way events played out yesterday did not stir the political leadership into thinking of stopping the ground offensive and moving toward a cease-fire. On the contrary, Israel is moving toward a decision to occupy the whole Gaza Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
UN official says Gaza school was clearly marked
A U.N. official in Gaza said a school where dozens of Palestinians were killed by tank shells on Tuesday was clearly marked with a U.N. flag and its location had been reported to Israeli authorities.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Threats to Gaza sewage put 10,000 lives at risk: World Bank
AFP - Ten thousand people risk drowning in septic waste as Gaza's sewage system is threatened by Israeli bombardment and the inability to operate pumps, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
_newsmlmmd
Official: Israel turns back Jordanian blood truck
Israel has turned back a Jordanian truck carrying blood unit for Gazans, an official from the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) was quoted by local daily The Jordan Times on Wednesday as saying.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Ging: One million Palestinians in Gaza without electricity
John Ging, the director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, has called on Israel, Palestinian factions and European leaders to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
2 journalists arrested by Israeli police for reporting on ground offensive
Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner advocacy group in Jerusalem, is reporting that two journalists were arrested by Israel [statement here] in Jerusalem Tuesday for illegal reporting on the ground offensive. "They have been accused of reporting on Israel's ground assault before the Israeli military spokesman had released the news. As a result, Mohammad [Sarhan] and Khader [Shahin] have both been charged with 'breaching the media code of ethics'."
http://www.philipweiss.org/
-reporting-on-ground-
UNICEF: Aggression on Gaza taking its toll on women and children
A UNICEF statement on the crisis in Gaza was issued on Monday warning that the Israeli invasion of Gaza was taking its toll on the children in the Strip, who are almost half the population.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Eyewitnesses/Testimonials
Video: As I ran I saw three of my children. All dead.
http://www.
Witnesses to Israel's war crimes
http://electronicintifada.net/
Catholic pastor in Gaza: 'We are living like animals'
National Catholic Reporter says the pastor of the Catholic parish in Gaza City has described Gaza as "drowning in blood," with hospitals overflowed with the wounded. "What you see on television cannot be compared to what is happening," he was quoted as saying in a message to participants in a Jerusalem Mass for peace. He continued: "We are living like animals in Gaza. We cry and nobody hears us. I am asking God for mercy and pray that the light of Christianity continues to shine in Gaza."
http://religionblog.
Voices from the front line in Palestine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Nael, "I fear nothing now"
It was not possible to get a photo of Nael for this article. This image shows damage from previous Israeli airstrikes in Gaza (file photo)
DUBAI, Nael Shaeth, 40, a father of four, talked to IRIN by telephone from his home in Al-Naser neighbourhood, central Gaza, about the challenges faced by people who have been trapped in their homes since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began on 27 December.
http://www.irinnews.org/
I will tell you how Arafa died
A good, kind, brave and very funny man was killed on 4 January as he loaded the body of a young civilian killed by the Israeli occupation forces into an ambulance. Emergency medical workers, Arafa Hani Abed al-Dayem (35), and Alaa Ossama Sarhan (21), answered the call to retrieve two friends: Thaer Abed Hammad (19), who was wounded, and his friend Ali (19), who was killed while fleeing shelling by Israeli tanks. Eva Bartlett writes from the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Witnesses to Israel's war crimes
Israel claims to have attacked 1,000 of what it calls "Hamas targets." Independent media, UN aid officials and human rights organizations have documented that most of these attacks struck private homes, mosques, universities, schools, government buildings, police stations and charities. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Two schools housing refugees shelled in bloodied Gaza
Air raids continued to target dozens of houses and border areas. Last night air raids targeted repeatedly targeted security installations that had been targeted during the past days. At the same time, artillery shells and missiles destroyed dozens of homes, wiping out entire families and seriously raising civilian casualties.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Gaza's day of carnage - 40 dead as Israelis bomb two UN schools
Israel's assault on Gaza has exacted the bloodiest toll of civilian lives yet, when the bombing of UN schools being used as refugee centres and of housing killed more than 50 people, including an entire family of seven young children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Homeless and terrified, 15,000 seek refuge in UN schools
More than 15,000 Gazans are sheltering in UN schools because they have been forced to flee their homes in the face of the Israeli air and ground offensive, or even ordered out by Israeli troops. The UN has opened 27 of its schools as shelters, most in the northern town of Jabaliya, where food, blankets and counselling are being provided.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Shell-shocked children who are drawn into the cult of the martyr
The bombing, shelling and shooting will stop one day. The electricity and water will be restored. And the windows of the Mousa family's flat, every one of them blown out by Israeli air force strikes on the Palestinian president's palace next door, will be replaced.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israel attacks schools, ambulances
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - At least 42 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City were killed Tuesday afternoon after two Israeli tank shells exploded outside the school. Hundreds of terrified Palestinians, desperately trying to escape the bombing, had sought shelter there assuming that a clearly marked school would not be targeted. Palestinian sources reported that the school was one of 26 residential buildings hit Tuesday.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Massacre of innocents as UN school is shelled
Hundreds of Palestinians had fled their homes for the refuge of the al-Fakhoura school, hoping the blue and white flag of the UN flying over the impromptu shelter would protect them from the Israeli onslaught. The UN had even given the Israeli army the co-ordinates for the building to spare it from the shells and air strikes raining down on the Gaza strip. But yesterday afternoon tank shells exploded outside the school, sending shrapnel into the crowds, killing at least 40 and wounding another 55.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
-is-shelled-1230045.html
Arab and International reaction to the crimes against Gazans
Report: US officers deployed along Egypt-Rafah border
London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reports that American Engineering Corps' officers have been stationed at Egypt's border with Strip in order to unearth smugglers' tunnels in area.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
The view from Ramallah / An Intifada in its infancy?
The stores were all shuttered, the streets virtually empty and every corner was guarded by police officers and soldiers deployed by the colonial force, eying small groups of Arab youth while scratching at their batons, machine guns ready. A demonstration of schoolgirls surrounded by riot police decried the massacre and the closed tourist shops screamed loudly for resistance and non-cooperation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis: Fatah, Hamas face internal divisions
The Israeli assault on Gaza has deepened the tensions between Hamas and the ruling Fatah party of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. But the attack also has revealed fractures within each party, divisions that complicate efforts to negotiate a cease-fire.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
Deepening Israeli assault on Hamas divides Arab world
The Christian Science Monitor - Israel pressed deeper into Gaza Tuesday in its assault on Hamas. As the battle grew deadlier, calls for a cease-fire mounted as did outrage at Israel after two strikes outside United Nations schools killed at least 34 Gaza civilians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/
Iraq's Sadr urges reprisals against US over Gaza raids
AFP - The Shiite radical movement of Moqtada al-Sadr, which fought two wars with US troops in 2004, threatened on Wednesday to resume attacks on American targets inside Iraq over Washington's support for the Israeli assault on Gaza.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Turkish PM: Israel's Gaza offensive 'savagery'
Erdogan says history will judge Israeli leaders for black stains they are leaving on humanity.
http://www.middle-east-online.
Ecuador accuses Israel of crimes against humanity
'World is horrified by Israeli military offensive against Palestinian people,' says country's legislative commission.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador
Venezuela has expelled the Israeli ambassador to the Latin American country in protest at the ongoing onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.
Venezuelan President Chavez: Gaza operation is a Palestinian 'holocaust'
Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian "holocaust."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel mulling expulsion of Venezuelan ambassador
Israel is considering on Wednesday to expel the Venezuelan ambassador in response to Venezuela's expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Nasrallah Speech
Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out at some Arab leaders who are still having normal ties with Israel at a time more than 680 people killed in Gaza and advised them to follow the path of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who expelled the Israeli Ambassador in protest at the Israeli aggression on Gaza. "In front of the Zionist entity that is based on spilling the blood of the innocent and committing massacres, the least thing to do is not to give legitimacy to this entity regardless of the sacrifices. The guardians of the Zionist entity want us to give Israel legitimacy, but the vast majority rejects this. What is taking place today in Gaza, should be a strong motive to reject giving legitimacy to this entity. Not acknowledging Israel, rejecting normalization with it is the least than can be done. Yesterday Chavez expelled the Israeli Ambassador and he set an example for all those who are still receiving Israeli Ambassadors. Some Arab leaders are requested to learn how to reject normalization with this entity. I assure you that the peoples of our nation will punish those leaders for their crimes. They ought to help the resistance instead of pressuring it."
http://almanar.com.lb/
Saudi tabloid shows mourning Israeli reservists...
http://friday-lunch-club.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Blair
Having done the diplomatic groundwork for Israel's assault on Gaza, the quartet's Middle East envoy now talks of ceasefire. The appointment of Tony Blair as George Bush's Middle East peace envoy – well, technically, the US-UN-EU-Russian Quartet's representative – was a masterful stroke of postmodern irony. And his interview on Tuesday morning's BBC Today programme was a reminder of just how spectacularly unsuited for such a role he really is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Obama vows 'plenty' to say on Mideast after swearing-in
US president-elect Barack Obama Tuesday vowed to speak out about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once he takes office, but insisted until then only President George W. Bush speaks for the US. "After January 20 I am going to have plenty to say about the issue and I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign, that ... at the beginning of our administration, we are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict that existed in the Middle East," he told reporters.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/
Obama breaks silence on Gaza, voices concern
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, breaking his silence about the Gaza war, expressed deep concern on Tuesday about the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and in Israel.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Truce
PRC in Gaza: Three-hour lull a trap for Palestinian fighters
A key armed resistance group in the Gaza Strip has rejected Israel's announcement of a unilateral three-hour ceasefire as an attempt to deceive Palestinian fighters into letting their guard down.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Mubarak tables ceasefire plan, demands stop of resistance rocket attacks first
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday suggested in the presence of his French counterpart a cease-fire initiative and called on the Palestinian resistance to stop its rocket attacks first.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egypt and France propose plan to end Gaza conflict
AP - A cease-fire initiative Tuesday to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in Hamas-rule Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up on the proposal.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
As truce efforts grow, Israel mulls expanding Gaza ground op
Israel's political leadership will meet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning to discuss expanding the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at a time when most of the aims of the operation have been met.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel: We'll accept Gaza truce if it stops Hamas terror
The Prime Minister's bureau on Wednesday issued a statement that said the office is ready to discuss recent offers made by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas leader: We reject a permanent truce with Israel
The deputy head of Hamas's political bureau on Wednesday said his group is studying peace initiatives to end the violence in Gaza Strip but rejects permanent truce with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
US backs Egypt ceasefire plan
The US secretary of state has expressed support for a joint French-Egyptian plan aimed at implementing an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Video of Israeli crimes
Al-Jazeera Video: Israel's attack on UN-run school in Gaza - 07 Jan 09
http://palestinianpundit.
Video: Aid worker in Gaza
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Doctor Decries Israeli Attacks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
To Israel with love
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Pictures of the slaughter of Palestinian children (warning very graphic)
http://news.search.yahoo.com/
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
http://jewssansfrontieres.
http://
Solidarity
Ten of thousands attend funeral of 45 killed at UN school
Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended a funeral procession 45 civilians who were killed on Tuesday when Israeli artillery shelled a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Legal demonstration against Olmert after bombing of UN school
Lawyers dressed in black robes flew black flags over banners in Hebrew reading, "Our will is stronger than Livni and Barak who are trading in the blood of children and women in Gaza." Tens of attorneys from the Galilee, the Triangle and Jerusalem demonstrated in front of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's West Jerusalem office yesterday.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Ontario union wants ban on Israeli academics
"The Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees announced yesterday it would propose, in a meeting next month, "a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities," if they do not explicitly condemn Israeli action in Gaza."
http://www.theglobeandmail.
Spirit of solidarity sidelines Palestinian split
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel's offensive on Gaza appears to be creating a mood of unity on the streets of the West Bank that the leaders of hostile Palestinian factions have been unable to obtain in months of negotiation.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
Turkey-Israel basketball game canned after pro-Gaza protesters storm court
A basketball game between a Turkish and an Israeli team was suspended on Tuesday after Turkish fans erupted in protests against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Turkish media reported. A referee suspended the game between Turk Telekom and Bnei Hasharon, part of a European basketball championship, and ordered the players back to the dressing room after hundreds of Turkish fans began chanting "Israel, killers!" in an Ankara sports centre, SkyTurk broadcaster reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Feuding Iraqi opponents united by Gaza onslaught
Iraqis feel closer to one another, overcoming deep sectarian sentiment in the face of Israeli aggression in Gaza.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/
Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest at Israel's Gaza offensive
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Jayyous rises up in support of Gaza
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
"Let Gaza Live! Stop the U.S./Israeli War against the Palestinian People"
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Columbus marches for Gaza
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
Solidarity in Ireland
http://palestinianpundit.
(Arabic) A Lebanese woman goes to Gaza in solidarity and refuses to leave
http://el-marada.net/ar/index.
Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Commentary
Objectives bigger than commonly assumed
Nazareth, Israel // There are two persistent myths about the aim of Israel's onslaught on Gaza: the first that it is an entirely defensive move, a way to end the rocket fire of Hamas; and the second that it is designed to restore the army's credibility after its failure to cow Hizbollah in 2006. No doubt the Israeli army has been itching to repair its battered image, and for sure the rocket attacks from Gaza create domestic pressures that are only too clear to an Israeli government about to face an election.
http://www.jkcook.net/
Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza?
Why are we so indifferent to the death and destruction in Gaza? The major news outlets meekly accepted Israel's banning of journalists from entering Gaza as an excuse for downplaying collateral civilian casualties, our president-elect, Barack Obama, has had little to say about an invasion that will much complicate his future Mideast peace efforts, and most commentators easily rationalize Israel's many-more-eyes-for-an-eye killings.
http://www.truthdig.com/
Obama's warning to Israel
Israel's governing "troika" met yesterday in order to find a way out of the conundrum Israel finds itself in, following the bombing of the school in Jabalya, where dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed. The character of the meeting had already been marked by the warning Israel received from U.S. president-elect, Barack Obama, who broke his silence on the fighting in Gaza and made it clear that he will have a great deal more to say after his inauguration.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
ANALYSIS / The unspoken goal of bringing down Hamas in Gaza
This morning the Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza Strip approaches a critical juncture: To be − deeper in, at a higher cost − or not to be. The operation in its current format has exhausted itself. There is no point in pursuing it. The choice now is between going forward, at a price Israeli society is understandably reluctant to pay, or stopping, completing the mission in place and undertaking a unilateral withdrawal without waiting for the false hope of an agreement without Hamas' participation. Additional achievements cannot be expected without further efforts that could prove too late and too great.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Deborah Orr: There wouldn't have been Gaza rockets without the blockade
Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy, reckons that a ceasefire in Gaza could be negotiated very soon, provided that the tunnels from Egypt that provide the territory with, among other things, smuggled weapons, are closed off. It's a shame that he did not express his ambitions in another way. Perhaps a ceasefire could be negotiated very soon if legitimate channels for the import of all goods except arms into Gaza were opened up.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
-have-been-gaza-rockets-
What was Israel supposed do?
1. Not break the cease-fire in the first place. Yes, I understand their frustration with the tunnels, which are used not only to smuggle in food, medicine and goods, but also to smuggle in weapons. But those weapons were not being used until Israel started bombing the tunnels.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Nick Clegg: We must stop arming Israel
The world watched in horror yesterday as the conflict in Gaza claimed its latest innocent victims in the rubble of a UN school. Any hopes of reconciliation are being snuffed out as anger spills into protests around the world. The past two weeks have been a telling indictment of the international community. We have an outgoing US president sanctioning Israel's military response and an aching silence from the president-elect. We have a European Union encumbered by clumsy decision-making and confused messages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Ground Assault against Gaza: Israeli Leaders will have to Give Account of their Crimes
Following years of an inhumane siege, after a week of air bombings that resulted in the death of 450 people and injury of approximately 1,000 more, the Israeli army sent grounds troops into the Gaza Strip. This crime was known ahead of time, and the fact that we could not stop it heightens our anger.
http://www.alternativenews.
No shelter
In the weeks before Israel attacked Hamas, senior Israeli officials calculated that they had bought themselves time for a prolonged demolition job in Gaza. Only two factors, they reasoned, could stop the clock. The first would be a shell dropping on a civilian mass shelter, a repetition of the bombing of the UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, in 1996, when more than 100 lost their lives. The second would be the international outrage which grew from it. Yesterday the horror of Qana was revisited on Gaza. Three shells exploded outside a United Nations school in Jabalya refugee camp, where more than 300 Palestinians had sought refuge. Over 40 died and 55 were injured. It was waiting to happen. The question is whether the international community will now call time on Israel's offensive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza
A few days ago, Physicians for Human Rights began soliciting $700,000 in donations for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli humanitarian organization also provided a detailed list of the medical equipment Gaza lacks, including portable monitors, respirators, ultrasound and X-ray machines, wheelchairs, needles, dressings, catheters, oxygen, medical gases, endo-tracheal tubes, screws and plates for shattered limbs, and surgical gloves. According to PHR, Gaza also has a severe shortage of intensive-care beds, which cost about $50,000 apiece. Moreover, many Palestinian ambulances are out of commission.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask
So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised?
http://www.independent.co.uk/
-the-west-so-much-we-will-ask-
Israel's fabricated rocket crisis
We have heard, and we will continue to hear, a droning litany of "Qassams! Qassams! Qassams!" The repetition will be difficult to resist, but for all of us who remember the reiterated US lies about Iraq of 2002-2003, whether with pride for our skepticism or shame for our credulity, a good first step might be for us to think "WMDs!" every time they say "Qassams!" Like the US Coalition of the Willing, Israel's Operation Cast Lead has not let the absence of actual provocation get in the way of a good bloodbath. Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker analyze for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israel's Propaganda Mainstay, Sderot, is a Lie
Sderot, the Israeli township on which Hamas rockets have been 'raining down', is the main plank of the Israelis' attempt to justify the bloodshed they have inflicted on the people of Gaza. They use it ad nauseam to brainwash the media and their own people. They have studiously counted and broadcast the number of erratic, home-made Qassam rockets coming into Israel, without ever admitting to the huge number of missiles, bombs and shells that Israel's high-tech military fires into Gaza with much more deadly effect.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Simon Tisdall: Behind the bluster, Israel needs a bail-out. Could Gaza become an international protectorate?
Israel's defiance of international opinion in refusing to countenance a ceasefire in Gaza contrasts sharply with its growing need for international assistance to extricate itself. Even if the Israeli forces break Hamas's grip on power, officials admit any such "victory" may be temporary and will bring more difficulties in its wake. Behind the bombs and bitter-end bluster, Israel's private message is: help wanted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Max Blumenthal, "Why Aren't More Americans Dancing To Israel's Tune?"
But while Israel's PR machine cranked its Mighty Wurlitzer to full blast, drowning out all opposing voices with its droning sound, a surprisingly substantial portion of the American public decided to dance to its own tune. According to a December 31 Rasmussen poll (so far the only measure of US opinion on the Gaza assault), while Americans remained overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, they were split almost evenly on the question of whether Israel should attack Gaza -- 44% in favor of the assault and 41% against it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The Gaza Bloodbath
In a rare moment of honesty, the New York Times divulged the real motive behind the bombardment and invasion of Gaza. In Ethan Bronner's article, "Israel Weighs Goal: Ending Hamas Rule, Rocket fire, or Both", Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said, "We need to reach a situation in which we do not allow Hamas to govern. That is the most important thing. If the war ends in a draw, as expected, and Israel refrains from reoccupying Gaza, Hamas will gain diplomatic recognition...No matter what you call it, Hamas will obtain legitimacy."
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Should Israel Talk to Hamas?
It is so elemental a question, yet one rarely mentioned in the mainline press. Hamas has been demonized so thoroughly and with so little genuine reason that its situation provides prima facie evidence for the immense reach of the Israel lobby.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Have Bush and the Neocons Ruined it for the Israelis?
The Israeli propaganda blitz around their attack on Gaza has been greeted with uncharacteristic skepticism by the American public and even by some of the mainstream US press. Even the Jewish American community is uneasy about this one, in a way perhaps unparalelled since the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon and siege of Beirut. Jews for Peace in Los Angeles are actively protesting the Gaza atrocities, and newspaper articles from around the US on local protests held this weekend often mention mixed Arab-American and Jewish-American rallies.
http://www.
Better than words
"Nikola Solic's photograph in your edition of January 2nd is equally striking, and will surely be remembered as an iconic image of the tragedy that is Gaza 2009. The image is of a group of young, clearly well-off Israelis, five females and one male, surveying from a hilltop distance an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip. One young woman is laughing heartily; another gazes languidly into the distance, and has a mobile phone glued to her ear; another, armed with binoculars, is looking, presumably, at a scene of devastation. An extraordinary photograph that narrates, even better than words can do, the attitudes of a nation. - Yours, etc,"
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Where would you go?
If your unbelievably small and overcrowded land was being terrorized, pulverized by bombs from the world's 4th largest military, and your borders were closed; if your house was not safe, mosque (church) not safe, school not safe, street not safe, UN refugee camp not safe…Where would you go, run, hide?
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
What If Israel Was the Victim?
What if the roles of Israel, Gaza, and members of the international community in the ongoing conflict were reversed? How would Americans and their government respond? Gaza's offensive against Israel continued today, sharply escalating with a ground incursion that cut off the southern part of Israel from the north.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
Origins of Terrorism in the Middle East
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Israeli terrorism and Arab reactions
People in the US don't understand. Our TV screens are not like yours. Your TV screens are reporting the death of the Bush family cat, and our Arab TV screens are showing images of splattered body parts of children all over Gaza. And then Americans wonder why Arabs don't condemn suicide bombings by some Palestinian groups (although some Arabs condemn killings of civilians anywhere). Do you see why? They don't see you condemn the killing and butchery of their children when the Israeli military engages in terrorism on a scale far larger than all the suicide bombings of Hamas in its history. Israeli terrorists killed more in this week than years of suicide bombings. And Palestinians don't see you noticing their victims, and yet you have the audacity of asking them to adhere to your racist standards and only noticing the victims that you deem more precious than the Palestinian victims? If I hear one more American liberal saying: why can't the Palestinians feel for Israeli victims, I may toss obscenities at you.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Palestinians Will Never Forget
How can anyone watching Gaza burn escape the bitter realization that history repeats itself? Many have compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid South Africa. But not in their cruelest hour did the Apartheid regime wreak such wanton murder and destruction. Let us stop mincing words. What is happening to Palestinians now whispers of Warsaw and Lodz.
Schools, universities, mosques, police stations, homes, water treatment plants, factories, and anything that supports civil society, including the only mental health clinic in Gaza, have been blown to rubble from planes that rain death from clear skies without any resistance, because Palestinians have no opposing air force.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
Lucky my parents aren't alive to see this, By Amira Hass
What luck my parents are dead. Back in 1982 they could not stand the noise of the Israeli jet fighters flying over the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The shriek of a plane horrified them in their house in Tel Aviv. We don't have to see it to know, they said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Sharansky Softens Up Public for Israel's Genocide at UNWRA Schools
Photo of a boy whose family sought refuge in a UN school. Notice how poor most of the people are that Israel likes to kill. Oh, I forgot, they're doing this for humanitarian reasons. They also favor killing poets and intellectuals. Reuters, Comment left on a Wall Street Journal forum in response to an op-ed by Russian immigrant to Palestine, Natan Sharansky, most likely to lay the groundwork for Israel's genocidal bombing of two UNWRA schools. No guarantee that it will be published. The astute Annie of Annie's letters pointed out the the op-ed appeared just before the bombing of the Palestinians' places of refuge.
http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/
Israel's Monopoly on Psychological Suffering
Based on the tallies currently being produced by Israeli towns located in the haphazard line of Qassam rocket fire, it appears that the bulk of Israel's civilian casualties in its war on Gaza will once again be shock related.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
The History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing
I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The project started many years ago. Its seed can be traced to the basic fallacy of the Zionist movement, which set out to establish a Jewish-national state in a location already inhabited by another nation. Under these conditions, one has, at most, a moral right to strive for a bi-national state; establishing a national state implies, more or less by definition, ethnic cleansing of the previous inhabitants.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Israel's New War Ethic
Watching Israeli public television (Channel 1) these days can be an unsettling experience, and lately I've abstained from the practice. But after being stuck for seventy-two hours with our two young children inside a Beer-Sheva apartment, the spouse and I decided to visit my mother, who lives up north, so that our children could play outside far away from the rockets. My mother, like most Israelis, is a devout news consumer, and last night I decided to keep her company in front of the TV.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
"By choice they made themselves immune"
Israel's disregard for Palestinian life in Gaza today is, in short, a direct extension of its disregard for Palestinian life since 1948, and what is happening in Gaza today is the continuation of what happened six decades ago. Eighty percent of the people crammed into Gaza's hovels and shanties are refugees or the descendants of refugees that armed Zionist gangs, which eventually coalesced into the infant Israeli army, terrorized from their homes elsewhere in southwestern Palestine in 1948. Sari Makdisi comments for EI.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israel is Immune From Criticism
The state of Israel has descended – plummeted – to one of the lowest levels of conscious barbarity that is currently evident in this horrible world. Any nation that has behaved towards a subject people, as Israel has to Palestinians, is worthy only of utter contempt. On Sunday January 4 I heard a rabbi on the BBC's morning religious program saying that he supported Israel's air strikes on Gaza. A man of God actually endorsed the killing of hundreds of people. To say that I was – and am – aghast at the sentiment expressed is to put it very mildly. This religious leader, a person supposed to spread and preach tolerance, patience, charity and peace, was supporting war crimes of immense gravity. His approval of the killing of Arabs was blood-chilling.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Is Israeli Policy Crazy?
The "Israeli model" has long been held up by hawks in the United States as the gold standard for dealing with adversarial nation-states, guerrillas, and terrorists. The storyline goes that Israel is a small country surrounded by aggressive enemies that use unfair measures (including terrorism) to try to wipe it off the face of the map. Therefore, the thinking in Israel is that to survive, the Israelis must use disproportionate tactics to show how tough they are to instill fear in their vicious enemies. This paradigm, practiced by Israel since its inception in 1948, has been tactically sound and strategically disastrous.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Proportionality and Collective Punishment
For the sake of argument, let us ignore how many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli weaponry. Let's take them out of the equation completely. Also, let us assume that Hamas completely terrorizes the one million Israelis we hear are within the radius of their rockets. Yes, do ignore for just this second that Hamas rockets are sporadic and have inflicted a level of damage and death incomparable to what we are witnessing in Gaza.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
The Real News: Historical Amnesia and Gaza
Several days into Israel's military operation in Gaza, The Real News speaks to Phyllis Bennis about the conflict.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Patricia DeGennaro: Is Mayor Bloomberg Running for President of Israel?
Mayor Bloomberg's rush to travel to Israel in a show of solidarity makes one wonder if he has decided to leave the US and run for president over there. After all he has hopped political parties, why not countries? He and many other US leaders are showing unconditional support of Israel's military actions despite their knowledge about the brutality of war. You would think after a lifetime of hostilities in Israel and the US's Iraq debacle both would be doing everything in their power to think beyond it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Alan Dershowitz Runs for President of Israel
"Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah. Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's illegal actions." -- US Congressman Dennis Kucinich, 12/29/08
http://palestinechronicle.com/
David Cesarani: Defiance has much to tell us about Israeli belligerence today
On Tuesday night, the film Defiance premiered in London. With Holocaust Memorial Day looming, there could not be a better time for a movie about Jewish partisans defending their people against the Germans and their collaborators in occupied Russia. But with the casualties among Palestinian civilians mounting horrifically as a result of the Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip, the film inevitably raises more contemporary questions about Jews and warfare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The BBC: Eyeless in Gaza
To establish evidence of the BBC's journalistic malpractice one often has to do no more than pick a random sample of news related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict currently on its website. In a time of conflict BBC's coverage invariably tends to the Israeli perspective, and nowhere is this reflected more than in the semantics and framing of its reportage. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad analyzes for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Taghreed El-Khodary: "independent" but with ties to Israeli propaganda
From now on, you should be identified as "independent journalist" who parrots Israeli propaganda claims in every article she writes. So Taghreed: you found a way to report on the civlian deaths, but then heap insults on them after they die. Congratulations.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Rachel Maddow
Now Rachel Maddow is an intelligent woman. Today, while mentioning in passing that Israeli terrorists bombed school children--and she said without indignation because you are not permitted in the US media to show indignation--, she added that "It has been reported that Israel acted in self-defense." Could you not at least cringe, when saying that, Rachel? Not for me, but for the families of those children.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Barry Yourgrau: Israel: Fist in the Brain
Today Israeli shells massacre women and children taking refuge at a U.N. school. Ah, how unfortunate. Last night a Scandinavian doctor at a Gaza hospital talks of hell. "They are bombing one and a half million people in a cage." Ah, how these doctors do exaggerate.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Jon Stewart on Gaza
http://www.hulu.com/watch/
Gaza is Still Waiting on Obama
"If missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that", said Barack Obama when visiting the Israeli town of Sderot last July. He visited the city that was under Qassam rocket fire from Gaza for some seven years, during his campaign to the US Presidency. He gave his statement at the local police station where hundreds of Qassams were put on display. He visited a local family whose house suffered a Qassam hit, he met Osher, a child who lost his leg from such an attack, he received an 'I Love Sderot' T-shirt from the city Mayor, and also a piece of Qassam rocket as a keepsake by the Israeli police. He did everything right. He smiled when he needed to smile, and sobered when seriousness and determination were needed. But he did not mention Gaza.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Cartoons
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
Tuesday: 13 Iraqis Killed, 25 Wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/
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www.TheHeadlines.org
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