Thursday, January 8

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines January 08, 2009 ~

Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel
Several rockets have been fired into northern Israel from neighbouring Lebanon, Israeli police say. Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said the rockets fell around the town of Nahariya, about 8km south of the Lebanese border, early on Thursday. The attacks came after Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, warned that "all possibilities" are open against Israel as he gave a speech condemning Israel's offensive in Gaza and voicing support for Hamas.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091855216577820.html

Abbas says hopes Lebanon rocket incident isolated

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped rockets fired from Lebanon to strike northern Israel on Thursday was an isolated incident and would not exacerbate the current conflict.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10273494.html

Israel given offensive extension
Israel was given eight days to continue its attack on Gaza, according to a peace plan proposed on Wednesday, which Tel Aviv praised but stopped short of endorsing.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10273418.html


US rearming Israel from Greece?
On Dec. 31, the US Military Sealift Command published a solicitation for bids from shipping companies to ship two boats, each containing 168 TEU's (twenty-foot equivalent container units) of ammunition, from Greece to Israel. That's a considerable amount of ammunition. Its type was not stated. If the international community is serious about a ceasefire this must involve credible efforts to impose an arms embargo on both sides until the ceasefire is concluded. US arms shipments to Israel are sent (free of cost to Israel) for the express purpose of "self defense." There is no way Israel's current war against Gaza could be described as self-defense without a truly Orwellian effort to bend the meaning of the term completely out of any logic or acceptability.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003311.html


Israel threatens to bomb Al-Shefa hospital
The Israeli occupation army that launches a monstrous military aggression on Gaza Strip has threatened to reduce Al-Shefa hospital to rubbles, alleging that Hamas leaders were hiding inside it.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7qLH7kOUD%2bHWDD2BCzibTi2JOT8IBDY7Ggc%2bBki%2f%2fIVHnwntbRAVZQ13h87m2PzXb2W2XGsqwN99mvaZeA1%2b9y865q%2bwzuMHjklE2Nnv6inI%3d

Thousands of people flee their homes in southern Gaza after threats by the army
Thousands of Palestinian residents from the southern Gaza strip city of Rafah were forced to flee their homes on Wednesday after threats by the Israeli army of shelling them.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58359


IOF warplanes blast tens of Palestinian homes along borders with Egypt

Israeli warplanes on Wednesday blasted dozens of Palestinian civilian homes in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, along the borders with Egypt displacing thousands of inhabitants, eyewitnesses reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7szgJJxHO3AgYq9dftaSzw7eG5GKKgrYxVnUCPmOeEmXpf8L%2fdLZZT4jLIu3E%2f65L6FC8NyFkzcIvhGsb9%2fT4y8T%2bcFrfjjd9kJnkPYHjOlM%3d

Israeli troops kill U.N. truck driver at Gaza crossing
JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers opened fire Thursday on a truck attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Gaza Strip, killing one United Nations-contracted driver and seriously wounding another, U.N. officials said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/59250.html

UN agency says suspends Gaza operations over Israeli fire
A United Nations aid agency said on Thursday it suspended its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the risk posed by Israeli forces in the territory.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L8615674.htm

"Bring it on": UN demands Israel provide proof of claims gunmen were in school
The UN is demanding that Israel provide evidence for its claims that Palestinian gunmen fired on Israeli forces from a UN school compound in northern Gaza before an Israeli artillery attack that killed more than 40 Palestinian civilians. "We have nothing to hide," UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness told CNN on Wednesday. "Bring it on. We want to see the evidence. We want to clear any suspicion."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34744

Fighters, women and a UN driver among the latest victims
Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians this afternoon including fleeing women, resistance fighters near a mosque and a United Nations employee. Since Saturday, 27 December, Israeli forces have killed at least 710 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4437&Itemid=1

Israeli air strike kills father and sons in Gaza, death toll climbs to 701

A Palestinian father and his three sons were killed in when an Israeli fighter targeted their vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Lahia, witnesses and Palestinian medical sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=39725


Witnesses: Resumed airstrikes on Gaza kill 3 children
Palestinian medical sources said that right after the three-hour ceasefire was over on Wednesday afternoon, Israeli warplanes struck three different targets in northern and central Gaza Strip, adding that three children were killed. Residents in eastern Jabalia refugee camp said that an Israeli tank fired a shell at a house, where three children from the Abed Rabbo family were killed, adding they are aged 2, 4 and 6 years old.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/08/content_10620858.htm

Cast Lead: 14 children killed in attack on UNRWA school
On 6 January, 14 children were killed in the targeting of Al-Fakhora UNRWA school in Jabalia camp. The school was used as shelter by families who had fled their homes in north Gaza.
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=928&CategoryId=1

12th day under attack: death toll in Gaza reaches 700
Palestinian local sources in Gaza reported that the Israeli army has killed five Palestinian civilians on Wednesday evening.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58356


Children make up third of Gaza dead: medics
AFP - Almost a third of the 689 Palestinians killed in Israel's Gaza offensive are children, with most killed since the start of a ground offensive after a week of aerial bombardment, medics said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastgazaconflicttollcivilians_newsmlmmd


Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family
Some of the Samouni family died from shrapnel wounds and others from being crushed by falling masonry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4143303/Israel-strike-kills-up-to-60-members-of-one-family.html

Israeli forces holding at least 500 Palestinians in camps in Gaza Strip
The Israeli military imposed four detention camps in the Gaza Strip where they are holding at least 500 Palestinians. At the site of the former settlement of Netzarim is one camp, with a second in the north's Beit Hanoun, another in Bani Suheila in the south and a four near the Karni Crossing.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4436&Itemid=1

At Least 19 Pal Resistance Rockets Pound Settlements
For the 13th consecutive day, The Color Red alert sounds across the occupied territories followed by a rocket explosion proving that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza has never lost momentum although the Palestinian deaths have reached more than 700 martyrs including 225 children and 98 women, and more than 3100 injured since Israel's Gaza massacre started on December 27. At least ninteen Palestinian rockets have been fired at the Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Four Israelis were wounded by mortar shell in western Negev, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=69552&language=en


IDF officer killed during battle with Hamas militants in Gaza
An Israel Defense Forces officer was killed and another soldier was lightly wounded on Thursday during a gunbattle with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053805.html

4 IDF soldiers wounded when Gaza mortar shell strikes Negev
Two IDF troops were moderately wounded Thursday morning, and another two sustained light wounds when Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of 12 rockets and mortar shells at the western Negev.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053878.html

Israeli police say Palestinian killed trying to set gas station alight
AFP - A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday by Israeli police as he was trying to set fire to a petrol station at a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, police said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090108/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazawestbank_newsmlmmd


Red Cross: Israel breaking int'l law, letting children starve in Gaza
Relief workers said they found four starving children sitting next to their dead mothers and other corpses in a house in a part of Gaza City bombed by Israeli forces, the Red Cross said on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053877.html


Amnesty International: Israel using Palestinians as human shields
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Amnesty International said on Wednesday that both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters were endangering the lives of Palestinian civilians–including by using them as human shields and by battling in densely populated residential areas.
"Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground-floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program director.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34733


Israel continues to target Palestinian medics in Gaza
A Palestinian medic, traveling with two international Human Rights Activists, has been shot by Israeli forces in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. Red Crescent medic, Hassan al-Attal, was shot through the thigh while collecting a civilian killed by Israeli fire from Zemmo, east of Jabaliya refugee camp.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/click-the-star-to-watch-this-topic-israel-continues-to-target-palestinian-medics-in-gaza/

Petition: IDF targets ambulances

Human rights groups petition High Court , say IDF preventing medical teams from assisting Gazans hurt in strikes.
OPT/Gaza: Palestinian Red Crescent Society endures enormous strain
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7N3LPA?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Food, medicine, blankets and trauma therapists headed for Gaza
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7N3NZJ?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


OPT: Gaza Palestinians rush for food during bombing lull
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/YSAR-7N3LUP?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Gaza short of food
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10135.shtml

By comparison

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/by-comparison-thanks-michele-who.html

Eyewitness accounts/testimonials
B'Tselem: Testimony: Abu Dahruj family flees from bombing
http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/20090103_Abu_Dahruj_family_flees_home_in_center_of_Gaza.asp

B'Tselem: Testimony: Parents and two toddlers flee from place to place
http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/20090103_A_Nabahin_family_flees_from_house_to_house.asp

B'Tselem: Testimony: Wakes up in hospital and learns his children were killed

http://www.btselem.org/english/testimonies/20081228_three_children_killed_in_bombing_of_al_absi_home.asp


B'Tselem: Wounded Gazans trapped in shelled buildings
http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/20090106.asp

Videos from al-Shifa hospital
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/videos-from-al-shifa-hospital/

Listen to the victims: More Children Killed In Israel's Attack On Gaza
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21673.htm


CNN: In Gaza, living with anger and fear
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/cnn-in-gaza-living-with-anger-and-fear/

In the Shadow of Gaza
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/in-the-shadow-of-gaza/

A dad, a refugee and a reporter in Gaza

I was outside trying to fix my car radio on a calm, sunny day around 11:30am. It was 27 December 2008. Suddenly there were loud booms overhead. Pillars of smoke began rising up in the sky. The main thing I cared about at that moment were my four children, particularly, my two-year-old son Muhammad who always follows me around when I am off work on weekends. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10133.shtml


Testimony: "I fear nothing now"

Nael Shaeth, 40, a father of four, talked to IRIN by telephone from his home in al-Naser neighborhood, 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://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10137.shtml


Tales from Gaza III: "I am Still Alive"
"I was working at the [Kamal Edwan] Hospital here in Jabalia, when the ambulances arrived with the dead and injured from Al-Fakhoura school. Most of the dead were women and children, and most of the survivors had terrible shrapnel wounds. We had to turn the maternity ward into a surgical theatre so that we could try to save more lives."
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article773


Inside Gaza: An Eyewitness Report

WHEN I got there, the gates of Beit Hanoun hospital were shut, with teenage men hanging off them. The mass of people striving to get inside was a sign that there had been an attack. Inside the gates, the hospital was full. Parents, wives, cousins, emotionally frayed and overwhelmed, were leaning over injured loved ones. The Israeli Apache helicopter had attacked at 3.15pm. Witnesses said that two missiles had been fired into the street in Hay al Amel, east Beit Hanoun, close to the border with Israel. With rumours of an imminent invasion this empty scrubland is rapidly becoming a no-man's land which people cross quickly, fearing attack by Israeli jets.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/20192

AP Gaza reporter finds hometown in rubble

I live alone in my office. My wife and two young children moved in with her father after our apartment was shattered. The neighborhood mosque, where I have prayed since I was a child, had its roof blown off. All the government buildings on my beat have been obliterated. After days of Israeli shelling, the city and life I have known no longer exist.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jsMyKBzwJoyVjuASkcjQfxSy3FvQD95IGBU80


The Demolition of Rafah

Jenny Linnel a British ISM volunteer in Rafah said following escalated Israeli attacks in Rafah, "Shortly before midnight on the 6th of January, missiles began raining down on Rafah in one of the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the current atrocities began. Continuous sorties pounded the southern Gaza city for over 12 hours. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged, especially in the neighbourhoods along the border with Egypt."
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/the-demolition-of-rafah/


Babies cling to life in stricken hospital
Even with the glimmer of hope that a ceasefire may finally be under negotiation, the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital remains desperate, with more than 70 life-support patients now precariously dependent on generators because the main power supply has been down for five days.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/babies-cling-to-life-in-stricken-hospital-1232056.html


Kids' plight: Wet beds, recurring nightmares

Medical officials in Gaza said that children are the worst affected since the Israeli assault began, amid warnings that the bombardment and the continuing blockade could spur a new generation to embrace violence.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10273328.html


Ambulance trip from Gaza a harrowing ordeal
RAFAH, Egypt — It's a 2½-hour journey that should take 30 minutes. A hair-raising sprint on dirt roads through bombed-out cities and military checkpoints, all while coping with the ever-present threat of gunfire or a stray bomb.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-01-07-gazamedics_N.htm

Anger and aid as Israeli offensive in Gaza rolls on

AFP - Protests and aid drives took place from Kano to Karachi as Israel briefly silenced its guns Wednesday, while European Jews announced their own rallies to support the Jewish state's offensive on Gaza.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaworlddemos_newsmlmmd


Civilians unable to escape brunt of Gaza offensive: UN

AFP - Civilians, many of them children, "bear the brunt of the violence" in Israel's Gaza offensive and have no to place to flee, a senior UN official said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazahumanitarianun_newsmlmmd


Red Cross Reports Grisly Find in Gaza
JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had found at least 15 bodies and several children -- emaciated but alive -- in a row of shattered houses in the Gaza Strip and accused the Israeli military of preventing ambulances from reaching the site for four days.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010700791.html?hpid=topnews


Israel May Face Charges for War Crimes
"The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45321

The Israeli army injures five Palestinians near Ramallah
The Israeli army injured five Palestinian youth from the village of Nil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Rammallah, on Wednesday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58358


Israel justifies killing Palestinians by claiming it doesn't target civilians, kills 3 during "lull"
Feelings were further provoked today at the official Israeli statement regarding the bombing of the United Nations school in Jabaliya Refugee Camp and the targeting of several other UN schools. No apology necessary for the killing of 46 Palestinians taking refuge at UNRWA schools, was the Israeli line on Wednesday. "We are screaming into the wind," were the words of a Gaza father speaking to PNN.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4430&Itemid=1

Gaza invasion: latest news
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jan/08/gaza-israel

The victims
At Age 14, She Died of Fear
Al Quds Newspaper, January 4, 2009 - In a phone conversation today, from Gaza the Latin Patriarchate Church priest, Father Manaweil Musallam, clearly shaken, said, "her name is Christine, a tenth grade student. Her father is a doctor and she lived near the YMCA in Al-Remal area [in Gaza]. She died of fear. Since the war started she felt apprehensive of the danger. She suffered from neurotic disorder and a hysteric situation just as many children are suffering. On Friday, during the shooting of F-16 missiles, she fell on the ground due to the dreadful sound. Her father tried to help, but he couldn't. Then he held her in his arms hoping to rescue her in the hospital, but she died before reaching there."
http://gazasiege.blogspot.com/2009/01/at-age-14-she-died-of-fear.html

Videos
of the attacks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-roundup
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21678.htm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/123138629871.htm

Pictures of the carnage
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/01/07/photo-of-the-day/
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=50118
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/gaza-news-round-up.html


Truce
Palestinian groups: Egypt's Gaza ceasefire plan not valid
Groups based in Syria, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, see 'no valid basis in the Egyptian plan for a solution to the crisis' since it is 'a threat to the resistance and the Palestinian cause'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3653035,00.html


Fayyad signals PA's support for Egyptian ceasefire plan

Ramallah – Ma'an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) signaled its support for an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad, said the Egyptian plan is logical and practical. According to Fayyad, the plan calls for an end to the Israeli assault and lifting the siege of the Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34760

Ahmed Yousef: Hamas welcomes the Franco-Egyptian initiative to end fighting in Gaza
Ahmed Yousef: We want a ceasefire agreement to end the suffering caused by the present violence and Israel's economic blockade of Gaza.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-hamas

Arab and international reactions
Report: Mutiny in Egyptian Camp over Gaza Offensive
The Qatari "Arab" newspaper said that Egyptian security officers disobeyed orders in protest at the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
The daily quoted the Egyptian "Sawt el-Umma" Arabic for the "Voice of the Nation" weekly that members of the Egyptian security apparatus in the Nasser Central Security camp refused orders to take guard shifts at the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza.
The daily said that the officers demanded their command to go to Gaza to defend it, not to ban Gazans from entering Egypt, stressing Interior Ministry services detained three of the officers and sent another group to provisional arrest for allegedly leading the mutiny.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=69613&language=en

Dr. Abu Al-Fotouh: Egypt blocks Arab doctors from helping Gaza doctors
Dr. Abdelmoneim Abu Al-Fotouh, the secretary-general of the union of Arab doctors, denounced the Egyptian authorities for blocking Arab medical teams from extending a helping hand to Gaza doctors.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

UNHCR: Egypt did not respond to our call to allow in fleeing Gazans
The UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said that it had not received any response from Egypt to its call on the neighboring countries of Gaza to allow in civilians fleeing the war on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/


Saudis say no to sit-ins supporting Palestinians
JEDDAH // The Saudi government has turned down a request for peaceful sit-ins throughout the kingdom, dealing a blow to activists who were hoping to show their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The denial of the request coincided with the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Sheikh Saleh Al Luhaidan, issuing a religious edict that condemns public protest, describing them as a "moral corruption".
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090108/FOREIGN/794061246/1002/rss


Saudi FM rules out using oil as weapon in Gaza conflict

AFP - Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal on Wednesday ruled out the use of oil as a weapon by Arab states to secure an end to the 12-day Israeli military onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazasaudioil_newsmlmmd

Al Maliki denounces Israel crime in Gaza
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki denounced the "major crime" Israel is committing in Gaza urging Arab countries to stop any secret or declared contacts with this brutal regime.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-26396-Al-Maliki-denounces-Israel-crime-in-Gaza.html


Hamas executes 'collaborators', restricts Fatah movement
An official in the Hamas-run Interior Ministry told Haaretz that the steps were taken only against Fatah members who expressed "happiness" at the aerial attack and even "distributed candy" in the streets as it began. An independent source corroborated Hamas' account.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053825.html


Injured Fatah veterans rooting against Hamas

"I'm happy to see them eradicated," he said, blaming Hamas for the carnage and destruction now taking place in Gaza. Mahmoud as-Shatat, 23, a former student leader for Fatah, agrees. "Hamas consider us infidels," he said. "They brutalized us, their own people. I have no sympathy for them."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090107.wgazafatah07/BNStory/International


Hamas: We will not recognize Abbas as president after 9 January

The Hamas Movement on Wednesday reiterated its rejection of extending the tenure of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas after it expires on 9/1/2009.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Vatican cardinal calls Gaza "big concentration camp"

Pope Benedict's point man for justice and peace issues on Wednesday issued the Vatican's toughest criticism of Israel since the latest Mideast crisis began, calling Gaza a "big concentration camp".
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L7220014.htm

Ecuador seeks probe into Israeli 'terrorism'
Ecuadorian lawmakers say Israeli policies in Gaza amount to "crimes against humanity" and must be stopped by an international probe.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=80922&sectionid=351020706


A statement from the Bishop of Jerusalem
Suheil Dawani: The Anglican hospital in Gaza is stretched to breaking point.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jan/08/gaza-anglican-dawani-bishop

New US Congress expected to consider resolution backing Operation Cast Lead
Several US House leaders are also expected to sponsor a nonbinding resolution backing Israel in its battle with Hamas as one of their first pieces of business.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1231167285420

Ban Ki-moon avoids condemning Israel over massacre in UNRWA school
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations has deliberately avoided issuing a condemnation of the Israeli army bombing of an UNRWA school in Gaza city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/


Media Bias
Arab media portray Palestinians as courageous victims (also see below)
Reporting from Cairo and Beirut -- Face splotched in blood, eyes closed, mouth aslant, the child seems to be slumbering, but she is dead. The only part of her you see is her head tilting in ash and rubble above the caption, "A day of massacres in Gaza."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-arab-media8-2009jan08,0,6231812.story?track=rss

Angry Arab commentary: And why is the White Man the judge of what is balanced and objective? And Jeffrey Fleishman thinks that he can present US media coverage as model of "balanced coverage"? And do you notice the new trick of Western media? They write the most hostile articles against Arabs, and they attach the name of a token Arab (a stringer) in order to lend legitimacy by borrowing the native informant.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/white-man-judgeth.html

Major networks keep anchors home for Gaza story
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC, CBS and NBC haven't sent their top news anchors to the Middle East to cover Israel's conflict with Hamas. That stands in contrast to 2006, when each network sent their biggest names overseas to cover Israel's war with Hezbollah.
The networks said their decisions weren't economic, despite tough budget times that have caused them to retrench in overseas coverage. Rather, they cited a busy news period and restrictions placed by Israel on access to the fighting. CNN sent Anderson Cooper to Israel, but he returned Wednesday partly because of those restrictions.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7dyEbkKg0vVC9zgNtCkZXUp7IJQD95IIJOO0

Watching the War on BBC
On February 29 last year the BBC's website reported deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatening a 'holocaust' on Gaza. Headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'" the story would undergo nine revisions in the next twelve hours. Before the day was over, the headline would read "Gaza militants 'risking disaster'". (The story has since been revised again with an exculpatory note added soft-pedalling Vilnai's comments). An Israeli threatening 'holocaust' may be unpalatable to those who routinely invoke its spectre to deflect criticism from the Jewish State's criminal behaviour. With the 'holocaust' reference redacted, the new headline shifts culpability neatly into the hands of 'Gaza militants' instead.
http://www.counterpunch.org/idrees01072009.html


Peter Preston: The US media should speak out on the conflict in Gaza
Forget, alas, all the usual stuff about fairness, balance and freedom of independent thought. Merely follow Editor and Publisher magazine's own accounting for the first eight media days of Gaza warfare. Coverage: "Largely one-sided, with little editorialising or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions." And: "Most notably, the New York Times produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere)."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-america-media

Fox News inside communication: fair and balanced
As we hand off the updating of the Gaza story into this evening, please make SURE we keep at least these three grafs in our updating story: Hamas, whose charter specifically calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdon and the European Union and is banned in Jordan.

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/fox-news-inside-communication-fair-and.html

Massacre of children? What massacre of children?
Steven Erlanger writes a tribute to the Israeli terrorist army here. And while the entire world acknowledged that Israeli terrorists committed a massacre at a school, Erlanger is not sure: "While accounts of exactly what happened were unclear on Tuesday night." Unclear to whom? To you, Mr. Erlanger? Do you think that the accounts are clear to those who died? Or to their parents? Or are accounts foggy in their minds too?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/massacre-of-children-what-massacre-of.html


Israeli victims are...shocked. SHOCKED

Taghreed El-Khodary is back (with a chaperone). She reports on the horrors that the Palestinians are inflicting on poor Israelis: "The Israeli military reported on Wednesday that a rocket fired from Gaza landed in a yard in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and nine people were treated for shock. Three other rockets landed elsewhere." If the Palestinians have the luxury of being treated for "shock", how many would be treated? What an insult. What a racist insult.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/israeli-victims-victims-areshocked.html

Those poor killers
Who can accuse the New York Times of insensitivity? Look at this picture. I mean, the New York Times is really concerned over the exhaustion that those killers may feel as they go about their business of butchering Palestinian children: "Soldiers rested on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza during the three-hour cease-fire on Wednesday", said the caption. Pictures like that cause Michale Lerner and Nation Magazine to write their articles about the "anguish" of Israeli terrorist soldiers. (AlJazeera is reporting that half of 700 Palestinians killed are children).
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/those-poor-killers.html


Why Israeli academics are part of the military apparatus

Here is another confirmation that Israeli academics are mere tools in the hands of the Israeli war machine: ""We are trying to coordinate everything that has to do with the image and content of what we are doing and to make sure that whoever goes on the air, whether a minister or professor or ex-ambassador, knows what he is saying," said Aviv Shir-On, deputy director general for media in the Foreign Ministry. "We have talking points and we try to disseminate our ideas and message."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-israeli-academics-are-part-of.html


Joe the Plumber to cover Gaza op
Ohio resident made famous by McCain campaign heads to Israel to 'let average Joes tell their story' about fight against Hamas.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3652495,00.html


Solidarity

Oakland Education Association Condemns Israeli Assault On Gaza And Role Of US Government
The Oakland Education Association which represents the teachers in Oakland, California has passed a strong resolution protesting the Israeli attack on the people of Gaza and the role of the US in supporting these assaults. Oakland Education Association Condemns Israeli Assault On Gaza And Role Of US Government. The OEA unreservedly condemn the murderous Israeli assault on Gaza, their deliberate targeting of the civilian population, including schools and hospitals, and Israels ongoing collective punishment of the Palestinian people which has been carried out with the strong support of the U.S. government. We support the Right to Return and call for the establishment of a bi-national secular state in Israel-Palestine. In line with this motion, we encourage teachers to open their classrooms to discussion and teaching on the crisis in Gaza.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/07/18559409.php

Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer faces Gaza protest while playing in New Zealand

Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer, 22, was subject to a small but noisy protest over her country's invasion of Gaza when she played a quarter-final match at the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053793.html


Shi'ites and Sunnis find common cause
From Gaza to Kabul, signs are growing that common ground created by the Israeli offensive in Gaza may yet bridge Islam's age-old divide between Sunnis and Shi'ites. At the root of the unexpected new alliance is Shi'ite Iran's support of Sunni militants like Hamas, and its status as the recognized champion in the Muslim world for Palestine.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KA09Ak02.html


Tulkarem: 3,000 protest the annihilation of Gaza
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1813.shtml


Bethlehem demonstrators rally for Gaza at Nativity Square
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34753


Israeli soldiers fire tear gas at Bil'in women's protest
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34758


Of sowing and harvests: Subcomandante Marcos' speech on Gaza
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/of-sowing-and-harvests-subcomandante.html

Al-Jazeera Video: Breaking the siege on Gaza - Jan7 09
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/al-jazeera-video-breaking-siege-on-gaza.html

1500 West Bank medics march in support of Gaza counterparts
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=34759


Free Gaza Movement: We are coming back, and we are putting Israel on notice
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/free-gaza-movement-we-are-coming-back-and-we-are-putting-israel-on-notice/


Petition against massacres on Gaza
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/petition-against-massacres-on-gaza/


Hundreds of thousands of Syrians protest Israel offensive
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Syria/10273473.html


Jailed Hamas members condemn Israeli assault on Gaza
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34721


Journalists demonstrate in Ramallah, condemn Gaza attacks
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34722


Palestinian Prisoners' Society announces Thursday strikes
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34726


Tulkarem launches aid and solidarity campaign for Gaza
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34728


In Lebanon, this year's Ashura
procession turned into a massive show of support for
the Palestinians in Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7816675.stm


Video: Hezbollah leader condemns Israel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jan/07/ashura-hizbullah


Saturday 10 January:
International Day of Mobilization against
Israeli Attacks on Gaza
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1516/104/


Women in Nablus take stand against
ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/women-in
-nablus-take-stand-against-ongoing-israeli-attacks-on-gaza/


Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/canada070109.html


Thousdands of Lebaneses,
Palestinians rally agaisnt Israeli aggression on Gaza
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/07/content_10620829.htm


Sudanese demonstrators threaten attacks on Westerners: US
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*h
ttp://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/pl_afp/mideastconflictgazasudanus_newsmlmmd


Eight cities hold vigil for Gaza
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10273426.html


Australian Jews protest against Israel's action
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/05/1231003936981.html


Israel's Gaza War Prompts Rallies in Belgium
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=69317&language=en


World Protests Israeli Ground Offensive in Gaza
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=69146&language=en


LA Jews for Peace
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/01/
on-italian-yahoo-these-young-keffiyeh-jews-are-la-jews-for-pe
ace-and-staged-a-demo-outside-the-israeli-consulate-there-t.html


Jews call on Israeli soldiers to stop war crimes
http://www.ajjp.org/campaigns/signStatement.php?cid=15

Hamas appreciates Venezuelan

president's expulsion of Israeli ambassador
Hamas on Wednesday said it greatly appreciated the "courageous" step of president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who expelled the Israeli ambassador to Caracas in protest over the Israeli massacres in Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Od87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7vBQHbdb0Z2mntMwsyzUTr3mg8sIJR
B7ACaKPqnrtI6IgRYrpraRteZYdpnKfc13MlosJnZKV%2fu51DyU8ZBlYT%2b
kJ037PszzawKn%2bx6KWoFA%3d

PNA official says damages to Gaza fighting at $2 bln
A senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) official said on Wednesday that the estimation of losses in the Gaza Strip due to the current Israeli offensive on the enclave have reached 2 billion U.S. dollars.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/08/content_10620888.htm


Opinion/Commentary/Analysis

Former Amb. Martin Indyk vs.
Author Norman Finkelstein: A Debate on Israel's
Assault on Gaza and the US Role in the Conflict
The Israeli assault on Gaza is entering its thirteenth day. Some 700 Palestinians have been killed, with many thousands more wounded, and a humanitarian crisis is mounting. Ten Israelis have died, four by "friendly fire." A ceasefire has not been reached, and the offensive continues. We host a debate between Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton administration, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, and Norman Finkelstein, author of several books, including The Holocaust Industry, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Beyond Chutzpah.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/8/former_amb_martin_indyk_vs_author


For Disappointed Palestinians,
Arab Inaction Trumps Arab Words/ Despite
Arab Outrage, European Union Far Outpaces
Arab States in U.N. Aid
More than a week of acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza has bolstered a persisting Palestinian suspicion: While Arab states talk much of their support for the cause, they have taken little action. So far, as Palestinians see it, both Arab states and non-state actors like Hezbollah have failed to respond concretely in their time of crisis.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6598917&page=1


Holocaust Denied
"When the truth is replaced by silence," the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, "the silence is a lie." It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on al-Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia's incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why.
http://www.antiwar.com/pilger/?articleid=14015

Ian Williams: What the shelling of
Gaza schools means for the UN's relationship with Israel
As well as the untimely and tragic end of over 40 Palestinian civilians, the Israeli shelling of UN schools in Gaza could be taken as a final farewell salute to the honeymoon between Ban Ki-moon and Israel. Ban came into office with somewhat limited appreciation of the Middle East, and seemed to take much of his attitude second-hand from Washington. But his own deep sense of ethics and growing experience of Israeli duplicity and obduracy could be plotted on the rising curve of indignation in his public statements. Israel has been provided with the exact coordinates of all UN agency installations in the strip. So are those who fired the shots incompetent, ruthless or undisciplined and vindictive?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jan/08/un-school-gaza-israel


The Israel rules
America's support of the Gaza attack proves once again that our mythical image of Israel has blinded us to its faults -- a myopia with devastating consequences for both countries.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2009/01/06/gaza_war/


"Weapons And Iran Trained Fighters" Smuggled Into Gaza
(RBN) - Hamas is smuggling ballistic missiles of possibly intercontinental range into Gaza. Through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border high capacity missiles are entering Gaza and are now readied to hit targets in central Europe and possibly even the United States. Due to high tech developments, stolen by Chinese spies from defense laboratories in western countries, these missile - while small - are capable of reaching extraordinary distances.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/01/weapons-and-iran-trained-fighters-smuggled-into-gaza.html


Simon Tisdall: At last, France and others are

filling the diplomatic vacuum in the present Gaza conflict
Much sneering criticism has been aimed at French president Nicolas Sarkozy over his one-man-show Middle East peacemaking efforts. And it's true that the Elysee's hyperactive tenant has a well-developed tendency to hog the limelight. But Sarkozy's accelerated form of supercharged mediation – it might be termed space shuttle diplomacy – appears finally to be producing some results as details emerged today (weds) of a tentative Gaza ceasefire plan. Both Israel and Hamas are reacting positively so far.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-sarkozy-hamas-israel


Jonathan Cook, "Israel's Aim: To Regain Control of the Rafah Border"
After the withdrawal, Israel hoped the steel wall along the Rafah border and its oversight of the crossing point into Egypt would ensure that nothing went in or out without its approval. However, a small private industry of tunneling under the wall quickly burgeoned, becoming a lifeline for ordinary Gazans and a route for smuggling in weapons for Hamas.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cook070109.html


If its reckless military action in Gaza causes a

break with Turkey, Israel will pay a high price of regional isolation
Bülent Kenes: If its reckless military action in Gaza causes a break with Turkey, Israel will pay a high price in terms of regional isolation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/08/israel-gaza-turkey


The Middle East's Rogue Regime
A striking feature of the War in Gaza is the extraordinary immunity Israel has enjoyed to strike and kill at will. Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, leading members of the Israeli government, have not hesitated to resort to mass murder. Yet, no one has been able to stop them. To all appearances, Israel is a rogue regime, spinning out of control. Unrestrained by the rules of international legality, and indifferent to the most elementary considerations of morality, Israel is bombing into the stone age a besieged, battered and largely defenseless Arab society of 1.5 million people. At the time of writing, it had killed at least 437 people, wounded more than 2,300, and flattened every building in sight. The final casualties will undoubtedly be higher.
http://www.agenceglobal.com/article.asp?id=1856


Bombing to make the Gaza prison even more secure for Israel
It is a gross misunderstanding of what is unfolding in Gaza to believe Israel's motives are capricious. The politicians and generals have been preparing for this attack for many months, possibly years -- a fact alone that suggests they have bigger objectives than commonly assumed. Israel seized this particular moment -- with western politicians dozing through the holidays and a changeover of administrations in Washington -- because it ensured the longest period to implement its plan without diplomatic interference. Jonathan Cook comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10132.shtml

Israel's 'colonial tactics' decried
Azmi Bishara, an Arab-Israeli analyst and former member of the Israeli parliament, has lashed out at the Israeli media campaign being run alongside its war on Gaza that criminalises the victims and victimises the coloniser.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200916191833159347.html

Blood on our hands
Shulamit Aloni amazed by public's ability to get caught up in wave of patriotic zeal over Gaza op.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3650771,00.html


Gaza: "If Not EU, Who?"
Jerusalem/Brussels: The collapse of the weak ceasefire in December and the return to all-out conflict between Israel and Gaza under Hamas has tempted many to say, "here we go again", with comparisons to the summer 2006 Israel-Lebanon war flowing freely from the keyboards of commentators everywhere.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5850&rss=1


What Kind of Security Will This
Barbarism Bring Israel?, By SAREE MAKDISI
Israel has killed and wounded almost four thousand men, women and children so far in its assault on Gaza; it has entombed whole families together in the ruins of their homes. As I write these words, news is breaking that Israeli bombs have killed at least 40 civilians huddling in a UN school which they mistakenly thought would be safer than the homes from which Israel's relentless barrage—and its deliberately terrorizing "warning" leaflets and prerecorded phone calls—had already driven them. (I still have one of the leaflets the Israelis dropped on besieged Beirut in 1982 and the language is exactly the same—"flee, flee for your lives!"). Mosques, schools, houses, apartment buildings, have all been brought down on the heads of those inside.
http://www.counterpunch.org/makdisi01072009.html


Philip Slater: A Message to Israel:
Time to Stop Playing the Victim Role
I can understand that after centuries of persecution it's satisfying for a Jewish state to be the aggressor for a change, but there's a codicil that goes with that role. You don't get to act like a victim any more. "Poor little Israel" just sounds silly when you're the dominant power in the Middle East. When you've invaded several of your neighbors, bombed and defeated them in combat, occupied their land, and taken their homes away from them, it's time to stop acting oppressed. Yes, Arab states deny your right to exist, threaten to drive you into the sea, and all the rest of their futile, helpless rhetoric. The fact is, you have the upper hand and they don't. You have sophisticated arms and they don't. You have nuclear weapons and they don't. So stop pretending to be pathetic. It doesn't play well in Peoria.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/a-message-to-israel-time_b_155978.html


What is New About Gaza?
Ever since Israel's withdrawal of its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 it has slowly turned that territory into a besieged ghetto. All land, sea and air access in and out of Gaza was and is controlled and the amount of supplies in and out have been reduced over time. In this process the governments of the United States and Egypt cooperated. Washington commenced a financial stranglehold on the Hamas controlled territory and Egypt sealed up Gaza's Western border.
http://www.counterpunch.org/davidson01072009.html


The Only Exit from Gaza is Death
Gresham's Law briefly states "Bad money drives out good money." A corollary has: "Bad news analysis drives out good news analysis." Reports and dialogues on the events in Gaza give the impression that a mighty Hamas has wantonly attacked Israel, pulverized its southern cities with missiles and a patient Israel ran out of patience and finally retaliated.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/the-only-exit-from-gaza-is-death/


Seumas Milne: Israel and the west

will pay a price for Gaza's bloodbath
Over the last 12 days, Israel has inflicted a bloodbath on the Gaza Strip that matches the darkest days of the Iraq war. Backed to the hilt by the US author of that catastrophe, it has killed more than 650 people in less than a fortnight, including at least 200 children, and wounded three thousand. Yesterday, after killing 50 civilians in UN schools sheltering refugees - "C'est la guerre", the Israeli minister Meir Shitreet told the BBC when asked about the atrocities - the Israeli government agreed a three-hour daily lull in the carnage for "humanitarian purposes", as diplomatic manoeuvring intensified over a possible ceasefire deal. All this at the cost of only 10 Israeli dead, six of them soldiers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/08/gaza-israel-hamas-us


One last roll of the dice, By Gideon Levy
The intoxicating sensation of this move is known to every gambler: Just one more roll of the dice, another hand, another spin of the roulette wheel, and we will be winners. At a time when there is talk about an Israeli agreement to the French-Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire, air force aircraft dropped fliers over Rafah, in which the civilians were called to evacuate their homes before yet another air attack.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053588.html

Gaza: The Problem and How the West Makes it Worse

Although as a news hound, I am glued to the minutiae, the developments and steps unfolding around this massacre and conflict in Gaza, it is important to keep my eye on the big picture as well. Hamas, and the Israeli discourse about Hamas, are not occurring in some ahistorical vacuum -- as much as western news outlets and Israeli talking heads would like you to believe.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/gaza-problem-and-how-west-makes-it.html


Picking Up The Pieces In Gaza
Eventually it will come to that of course. When this latest festival of death is over, when Israeli politicians decide that the status quo in Gaza has been suitably altered, when enough 'militants' have died to make the whole operation 'worthwhile'. Who knows? Perhaps Israel will even manage to force regime change in Gaza and oust the Hamas government, although it seems unlikely. Similar tactics (and by that I mean mass murder of civilians in the hope that they will turn on their leaders) have failed utterly in the past to produce the desired results – think Lebanon 2006 or Operation Defensive Shield, 2002. Neither Arafat nor the Hezbollah suffered any diminishment in their popularity on these occasions – rather the reverse in fact.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21671.htm


Disarming Palestine
Those of us who originate from that unholy land, are gripped by helplessness, disgust and depression during those recurring depredations inflicted on the Palestinians, as they are now in Gaza, whose inhabitants had been systematically starved and reduced to misery for years. It's as if the most insightful, humane reflection, all the rationality and political analysis, is inadequate to explain the horrors that unfold with awful predictability.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14618


Ex-Communicated: Enclosure Landscapes in Palestine

For centuries, the landscape in historic Palestine was dominated by agriculture, in an organic relationship between agrarian villages such as Husan and nearby croplands of farmers from the town. The Palestinians managed to create an agrarian landscape ideally suited to an arid, challenging topography. Far from a desert, however, the Palestinian landscape in places such as Jayyous has a verdant character. In most places, the olive, however, still predominates, both on the landscape and as a way of life.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/fields070109.html

Tariq Ramadan - In the Name of the Palestinians

Startling—and stomach turning : where Palestinians are involved, memory and sense of proportion fail us. The Jewish conscience, justifiably, has long called upon the world's powers and upon their citizens to remain vigilant, never to forget -in the name of "the duty of memory"- the atrocities, massacres and genocides of the past. But where the State of Israel is involved, we are expected to set all sense of proportion aside, to leap to conclusions. Suddenly, it would be assumed that these are two equally powerful belligerents. After a six-month ceasefire, one of the two parties to the conflict (the Palestinians) is said to have broken the truce by unleashing its rockets. The victim of aggression (Israel) is acting solely in self-defense—if we are to believe the version sold to the world by Israel, and relayed by complacent and complicit Western media with the full support of the Bush administration and of many European governments. The bravest among them can barely bring themselves to point out Israel's "disproportionate" reaction. What courage !
http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article10489


Obama's 'Hope'less Response to the War on Gaza
Bush gave up golf after America's invasion of Iraq. "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he told Americans. "I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal." Last week, as war broke out in Gaza, President-elect Obama was seen playing golf with friends near his multi-million dollar rented holiday home. So much for change you can believe in.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ahmed-shihabeldin/obamas-hopeless-response_b_155820.html


Obama's Silence
The silence, Obama must know, is extremely costly. As the bombs fall on Gaza children and civilians, his credibility comes under greater question. The bright promise of moral leadership is sullied and squandered, along with the potential of America's ability to be an even-handed diplomatic mediator. As January 20 approaches, he will have to make a lonely decision, the first of many, to remember his 2007 words about Palestinian suffering and his campaign pledge to talk unconditionally with adversaries.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/obamas-silence_b_156036.html


Reportedly, two-time loser to be given a third chance to fail by Obama

Dennis Ross who was a dead-hand on the wheel as peacemaker in the Clinton the first Bushjr term. His chief accomplishment the Hebron agreement--enough said.
http://bostonuniversity.blogspot.com/2009/01/reportedly-two-time-loser-to-be-given.html


Bend Over Professor Dershowitz
"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 Cong
Share:

0 Have Your Say!:

Post a Comment