Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines January 20, 2009 ~

Egyptian blogs: Tents in desert reveal Israeli plan to transfer Gazans to Egypt

After flattening many parts of Gaza with aerial bombardment and ground artillery, Israel may be planning to transfer the now homeless refugees to Egypt, where hundreds of tents have been set up near Rafah. One local blogger said that a soldier told him there are many more tents being prepared, as well.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58551

Reports and testimonials of the attacks

Civilian deaths higher than reported, ban lifted on limited amount of supplies. Palestinian rescue teams recovered more bodies from the rubble of Gaza yesterday bringing the death toll to 1,310. The number rose again today to 1,313 with the death of two children and another man. Of the Palestinians killed during the major Israeli attacks 40 percent were women and children.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4582&Itemid=1

Two Palestinian children die in explosion of Israeli army ordnance

Two Palestinian children were killed on Tuesday in the explosion of unexploded ordnance left over by the IOF in Zaitun suburb east of Gaza city, medical sources reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7khoEnz%2bgcbhwFggSIYtrejZKEfCAswkIwi2MAyD0jbSaX%2f9jFcTNnoOzu2BWg%2f%2fe5f3usCEuuSJKfhcyx%2beVTLoJh%2b3%2fAiWJdrafgGWJz6I%3d

IOF gunboats shell Gaza coasts

Israel's gunboats on Tuesday fired a number of shells at the coast of Gaza city and its northern areas while its army tanks advanced into eastern Khan Younis, to the south of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7FJ6RSC1cLgxj4TY2DUWMlznoR70rBpNXFXoQzklC9zs7mSYLZGsIFV%2bXVBK1jgWVMnoa%2fiYLVPWvghxCor0QYZFiJwFtfjvK3ilAyFBYS%2bE%3d

95 Palestinian fighters killed in Gaza war

From the 1194 Gazans officially registered as killed in Israeli attacks from December 27 to January 17, a whopping 1099 were civilians, the Gaza-based Palestinian center for human rights reported on Sunday.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=82939&sectionid=351020202

Outcry over weapons used in Gaza

Medics working in the Gaza Strip have condemned Israel's use of suspected "new weapons" that inflict horrific injuries they say most surgeons will not have seen before.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200911916132228885.html

Israel use of white phosphorus in Gaza 'undeniable': Amnesty

AFP - Israel's use of white phosphorus -- banned under international law for use near civilians -- during the Gaza offensive was "clear and undeniable," Amnesty International said on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaamnestyweapons

Arab states say Israel used ammo in Gaza that contained depleted uranium

Arab nations accused Israel on Monday of blasting Gaza with ammunition containing depleted uranium, and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate reports that traces of it had been found in victims of the shelling. In a letter on behalf of Arab ambassadors accredited in Austria, Saudi ambassador Prince Mansour Al-Saud expressed "our deep concern regarding the information. . . that traces of depleted uranium have been found in Palestinian victims."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056824.html

Video: White phosphorus in Gaza: the victims

Ayman al Najar, 13, tells how he lost his sister, his grandfather and cousin in a bomb attack and how his wounds still will not heal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jan/19/gaza-phosphorus-victim

Paralyzed by an Israeli bullet, one teenager seeks relief for Gaza

Ramallah – Ma'an – At least three bullets were fired into the teenager's body, two that went straight through his torso and into his spine, and another in his lung. And doctors now say Jamal Mohammed Judeh, 18, will be pushed around in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Israeli soldiers fired at him during a demonstration in Ramallah two years ago.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=35115

Amid dust and death, the Samouni family's story speaks for the terror of war

"They left behind their own unique detritus: bullet casings, roasted peanuts...But most disturbing of all was the graffiti they daubed on the walls of the ground floor... Some was in Hebrew, but much was naively written in English: "Arabs need 2 die", "Die you all", "Make war not peace", "1 is down, 999,999 to go", and scrawled on an image of a gravestone the words: "Arabs 1948-2009."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/gaza-israel-samouni-family

Gazans return to mourn their dead and salvage their lives

On a stretch of sand between flattened buildings, the stricken Samouni family were yesterday erecting the mourning tent for 22 of their relatives whose decomposed bodies had been dragged from the rubble a fortnight after being killed by Israeli shelling.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gazans-return-to-mourn-their-dead-and-salvage-their-lives-1451409.html

Children's pysche shaped by conflict

With the guns falling silent in Gaza, stabilising the war-ravaged territory will require more than just stemming the flow of weapons to Hamas - Israel must also find a way to do something for the Palestinians who live there.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10276816.html

Gazans count human cost of war

The first Anwar Khalil Baalousha knew of the tragedy was when a water tank in his house exploded. "I used to count my children when we went out," he says. "Now I don't need to"

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87757812-e658-11dd-8e4f-0000779fd2ac.html

Gaza 'looks like earthquake zone'

Parts of Gaza are said to look like a quake zone as the number of people made homeless by the war is put at 50,000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7838618.stm

Campfires flicker in annihilated Gaza garden suburb

The destruction is total, as if a terrible earthquake had struck. But this was no natural disaster. Once there were citrus orchards and olive groves here, locals say, big homes with courtyards and scratching chickens.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LJ70633.htm

Gaza: now and then

Schools, hospitals, UN compounds and thousands of homes came under attack from Israeli forces. The Palestinian Authority puts the cost of damage to infrastructure at $476m (£328m).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/jan/19/gaza-israelandthepalestinians

Israel's claim to warn civilians about military strikes rings hollow

The call came at 8pm, in unaccented Arabic, to a foreign resident of the seafront neighbourhood of Ain Mreisse, on the other side of the city from the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut. The voice was friendly, even though the words were not. "Beware of Hezbollah," it said. "Beware of Hamas. Think of yourselves. Don't give your support to these groups. You know what the results would be." And then it signed off, in case the listener had any doubt. "This is the State of Israel!"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/19/middleeast-israelandthepalestinians

Report From Gaza: Strongest Weapon of All

Dr. Atallah Tarazi, a General Surgeon at Gaza City's Shifaa Hospital, invited us to meet him in his home, in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital. Early in the morning, today, he and his family returned to their home after having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so fierce that they feared for their lives. "Believe me, when I would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I prayed all the way," said Dr. Tarazi, "because the Israelis would shoot anyone on the roads at night."
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14712

Givati commander: IDF fire wasn't excessive

Colonel Ilan Malka addressed his brigade's activity in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, says 'we can clearly say we defeated Hamas'. Entire bunkers found under beds in Strip's houses, he adds - IDF holds fire and starts concluding operation. Givati Brigade Commander Colonel Ilan Malka said Monday that "there was not excessive use of fire" during the Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658531,00.html

Livni makes light of Gaza civilian casualty

"We had to carry out this operation. I am at peace with the fact that we did it," she said referring to a three-week long offensive against the Gaza Strip which killed at least 1,300 Palestinians, including more than 400 children.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=82972&sectionid=351020202

Travel advisory issued for top IDF officers

State expresses concern over international human rights groups' intention to file war crimes charges against military personnel with The Hague, local European courts; says officers planning to travel must contact Judge Advocate General's Office first - IDF officers intending to travel to Europe, whether for business or pleasure, have been advised to contact the Judge Advocate General's Office prior to leaving Israel; and some may be instructed not to leave the country.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658823,00.html

Destruction and frustration in Gaza

Fatima Minzaman sat in the dirt next to a crooked mountain of concrete - the five-story apartment building that used to be home to the 67-year-old woman.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7839029.stm

Gaza Doctor Receives Angry Reception at Press Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh_F0p8Jcrc

Follow-up: Israeli TV airs Gaza doctor's pleas after children killed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpaIlC3FI88&feature=related

Settler seriously hurt in West Bank shooting attack near Ramallah

A 34-year-old resident of the West Bank settlement of Kochav Hashahar was seriously wounded yesterday evening when a gunman opened fire on his car on the highway near the settlement. Moshe Avitan, who was driving at the time, suffered wounds to his face from the shooting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056941.html

OCHA on Gaza, last days

Gaza - Christopher Gunness of the United Nations says, "Where you have a direct hit on an UNRWA school where about 1,600 people had taken refuge, where the Israeli army knows the coordinates and knows who's there, where this comes as the latest in a catalogue of direct and indirect attacks on UNRWA facilities, there have to be investigations to establish whether war crimes have been committed. "Gunness is a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4573&Itemid=31

UN: Hundreds of millions needed for Gaza aid
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid will be needed immediately to help Gaza's 1.4 million people and billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered buildings and infrastructure, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ggx20Jphx9jggAgKjud--KzFfZxQD95QJ4BO0

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - The future of Gaza - 19 Jan 09
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLpLA74R7r0

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5z9JQ5oGaI

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel's scorched earth policy - 20 Jan 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkALYeBtdVs

Al-Jazeera Video: Gaza's destruction revealed - 20 Jan 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaoIEWPRQhI

Amnesty International team reports from the rubble of Gaza

The Amnesty international fact-finding team that arrived in Gaza City on Saturday, has continued to collect evidence of the extent of destruction in the area. In a post on Amnesty International's Livewire blog, the team described how "previously busy neighbourhoods have been flattened into moonscapes," and "how there is no camera lens wide enough to embrace the sheer dimensions of the devastation."
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/amnesty-international-team-reports-from-rubble-gaza-20090120

250 Palestinians recently taken from Gaza held under interrogation

At least 250 people were arrested during the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Legislative Council member working on the issue of political prisoners, Issa Qaraqa' reported today that 250 more Palestinians are being held in the prisons of the Naqab Desert. "Conditions are extremely harsh," Qaraqa' confirmed on Tuesday.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4583&Itemid=1

Report: Israel sent police unit to Gaza to free captured soldier

A highly trained Israeli police unit was in the Gaza Strip for the duration of Operation Cast Lead, according to Hebrew-language newspaper Ma'ariv. According to the report, the unit had been trained in anti-terrorism and hostage-release tactics.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35134

Pictures of the destruction
Gaza Images: Beit Lahiya UN School

http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/gaza-images-beit-lahiya-un-school.html

Results of Israeli war on Gaza
Another War, Another Defeat, By John J. Mearsheimer

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don't believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win. The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to restore Israel's deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the Lebanon fiasco, by Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability to halt Iran's nuclear program.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/jan/26/00006/

Why Israel won't survive

Israel, its true nature as failed, brutal colonial project laid bare in Gaza, is extremely vulnerable to such a campaign. Little noticed amidst the carnage in Gaza, Israel took another momentous step towards formal apartheid when the Knesset elections committee voted to ban Arab parties from participating in upcoming elections. Zionism, an ideology of racial supremacy, extremism and hate, is a dying project, in retreat and failing to find new recruits. With enough pressure, and relatively quickly, Israelis too would likely produce their own de Klerk ready to negotiate a way out. Every new massacre makes it harder, but a de-zionized, decolonized, reintegrated Palestine affording equal rights to all who live in it, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and return for refugees is not a utopian dream.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10215.shtml

Resistance rejects international Gaza force

CAIRO (IPS) - Since the outset of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, calls have been renewed for an "international force" to protect the civilian population. But Palestinian resistance factions, chief among them Hamas, reject the idea outright. "The resistance will not accept international forces [in the Gaza Strip]," Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas's Damascus-based political bureau said recently on Syrian state television. "We know that such forces would only serve Israel and its occupation."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10217.shtml

Gazans do not blame Hamas

"People are extremely angry and the level of hate against Israel is very high. I have lived and worked in Gaza for many years and I have never seen such hatred from the population," said Qleibo. Gazans are not blaming Hamas, contrary to Israel's wishes. "People laugh at Israel's claims that this was a war against the Islamic resistance organization and not one aimed at civilians."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10219.shtml

Hamas fighters seek to restore order in Gaza Strip

AP - Uniformed Hamas security teams emerged on Gaza City's streets Monday as leaders of the Islamic militant group vowed to restore order in the shattered Palestinian territory after a three-week pummeling by the Israeli military.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Gaza has exposed the Arab leaders to fury and contempt

It was Monday, so it had to be Kuwait. And there they were, 17 leaders and five senior representatives of all 22 members of the Arab League, gathered to discuss the impact of the global economic crisis, though the original agenda was hijacked by the end of Israel's devastating three-week onslaught against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-israel-kuwait

"Gaza War Divides Arab Governments From People"

Street protests against Israel's assault on Gaza continue to be held almost daily. The anger has not ended with the ceasefire called. In Cairo, and in many Arab capitals, much of the anger is directed at the Egyptian regime, seen by critics as complicit in the Israeli campaign. "The escalation of popular protests across the country indicates unprecedented levels of popular outrage over both Israel's aggression and Egypt's official position," Ibrahim Mansour, political analyst and managing editor-in-chief of independent daily Al-Dustour told IPS.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45460

Palestinian communities in Europe slam Maleki for criticizing the resistance

The association of Palestinian communities and institutions in Europe strongly denounced foreign minister in Ramallah government Riyadh Al-Maleki's statements in which he held the Palestinian resistance responsible for the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip during an interview with an Israeli journalist. In a statement received by the PIC, Radi Al-Shuaibi, the secretary-general of the association, said that such statements justify and give a cover for Israel's brutal and barbaric aggression on Gaza, noting that the Israeli aggression received international condemnation. In another context, a large number of Yemeni school students and participants who attended a ceremony in support of Gaza organized by the Kanaan society (headed by a nephew of the Yemeni president) chanted slogans against ex-PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and some of his security officials.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s72w2%2bXV81YTQNvJS4Vx65tu4mq4tYL0TaDc2HBg0M7Mpt%2fIsq5JhO7gc2Fak1CsTgNlePRXZY2GgaWuMv0k%2fHGxaXnZi73EYXRI1dhq6Dinw%3d

Report: EU to lift sanctions on Hamas if Palestinian unity gov't formed

If a Palestinian unity government is established, Europe would be willing to recognize the Palestinian leadership, and would consequently lift the sanctions it imposed on Hamas, sources in the entourage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy told France 2 television on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056821.html

Robert Fisk: Posturing and laughter as victims rot

The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Olmert was roaring with laughter. Silvio Berlusconi, arms on the back of Olmert's shoulders, was also joshing and roaring – with laughter, not grief – and on Olmert's right was Nicolas Sarkozy of France wearing his stupidest of smiles. Only Chancellor Merkel appeared to understand the moral collapse. No smiles from Germany.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-posturing-and-laughter-as-victims-rot-1451410.html

Gaza operation weakens Palestinian Authority

The assault left the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank looking ineffective and marginalized, and support for its peace talks with Israel seems weaker than ever. With Israel and Hamas both claiming victory in the Gaza Strip, there is one clear loser: the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, which desperately wants a peace accord with Israel and a unified Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-losers-gaza20-2009jan20,0,4040235.story?track=rss

Mahmoud Abbas seen as big loser after fight between Israel and Hamas

Palestinian Authority leader is now battling for relevance.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-gaza-west-bank_greenbergjan20,0,1595186.story

Palestinian president calls for unity government

KUWAIT (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas urged feuding Palestinian factions on Monday to form a unity government to pave the way for elections after Israel's Gaza offensive killed 1,300 people and split the Arab world. "What is required, if we were to agree ... is a national unity government that undertakes ... lifting the blockade (of Gaza), opening the crossings, reconstruction and holding simultaneous presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said, calling for reconciliation talks to begin immediately in Egypt.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37536520090119

Israel pinning hopes for Hamas deal in Gaza on Egypt intel chief

European leaders have flocked to Israel in support of the Israeli declared cease-fire that Hamas signed onto in a dramatic announcement a day later.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056991.html

Mahmoud Abbas seen as big loser after fight between Israel and Hamas

Palestinian Authority leader is now battling for relevance.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-gaza-west-bank_greenbergjan20,0,1595186.story

Arab leaders remain 'in disarray' on Gaza war

AFP - Arab leaders remained at odds on the Gaza war on Tuesday after an economic summit in Kuwait at which they failed to set up a fund for the reconstruction of the battered Palestinian enclave.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090120/wl_afp/mideastconflictgazaarabeconomysummitfund

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Thousands march to celebrate victory against IOF invasion

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to celebrate victory despite the vast destruction inflicted by the Israeli occupation forces' war machine.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7okeo9fFKKm2ya%2b%2bV4I78jeTsoAsvTRHa%2bsCsOhID8SCP3e2uS42JDqlBYX53lO%2fZpHVp%2fiBLMcMTtbhYLoPDdOUecSdDLiQ9MvfCRjFioWo%3d

Resistance factions: Abbas is not legitimate

Palestinian resistance factions on Monday issued a statement rejecting the Arab League's invitation to Mahmoud Abbas, the ex-PA chief, to represent the Palestinian people at the Arab summit in Kuwait.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7bVEdhfit96AcbkEQzTEiGgDQX6l%2b6pvCsOuaDBHPrgFbVR3pEfOSP08oHdoRlVWonO7FtSDlwBts9UPjFnb8V6M6VQMFySZk2s5oxcAFPr8%3d

Sayyed Nasrallah Congratulates Pal. Resistance on Victory

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah congratulated the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas on the victory it has achieved againt the Zionist brutal aggression in the Gaza Strip. According to a statement released by Hamas, Sayyed Nasrallah praised, during a phone call he made with Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshaal, the Palestinian nation's sacrifices.

http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=70929&language=en

"Olmert Privately Proposed Division of J'lem to Arab Leaders"

Israeli daily Haaretz published it its edition Tuesday a report saying the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert privately proposed the division of occupied Jerusalem to the Arab leaders.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=70860&language=en

U.S. involvement
Ex-Senator Considered as Envoy to Mideast

The appointment of Mr. Mitchell, a seasoned and well-regarded negotiator, would signal that President-elect Barack Obama was attaching a high priority to the Middle East and the current Gaza crisis from his first days in office. Obama transition officials declined to comment on Mr. Mitchell, but David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's senior adviser, told CNN on Sunday that Mr. Obama would move quickly to address the instability in the Middle East and hoped that the new cease-fires in Gaza would last.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/washington/19diplo.html

Who Runs America?

The worst of all the barbarians who are killing children and their mothers and fathers in Gaza are the Israeli pilots who mercilessly bomb houses occupied by terrified families. And they are staunchly supported by the House of Representatives of the United States of America.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley01162009.html

The Democrats on Israel: A Brief Oral History

"Israel has commendably made strenuous efforts to minimize harm to civilians, while Hamas has needlessly imperiled innocent Palestinians in Gaza by conducting its military operations from within heavily populated civilian areas." -- Jerrold "Progressive" Nadler, DEMOCRAT, January 9, 2009.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kojeve190109.html

Media, media bias and propaganda
They Lob Chutzpah Bombs Too

A funny little essay in a local newspaper came to my attention this morning. During an email discussion over the events and motives in the Gaza crisis, a friend of mine forwarded part of an op-ed piece that appeared in this week's Sun Sentinel, a daily newspaper in Fort Lauderdale. I immediately thought it sounded a little too familiar. Sure, Israeli officials and other apologists are serving the same talking points across all the television networks and in print media, but this sounded like more than just simple rehash, so I plugged the quote into a search engine. Jackpot!
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/01/04/they-lob-chutzpah-bombs-too/

PMO acted alone in barring foreign reporters from Gaza

The prohibition on the entry of foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip, which ended on Sunday, came from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, according to official documents obtained by Haaretz. According to the document, the Defense Ministry and the IDF had removed their objections to the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza more than a week ago, meaning the Prime Minister's Office had been the sole entity barring them from the Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056956.html

Social networking Web site links Israeli, Gaza journalists during wartime

The Gaza Strip may have been closed to coverage by Israeli and foreign media representatives but the connections between them and their colleagues in the Gaza Strip have not been severed. In recent weeks, the social networking site Frames of Reality - whose members are mainly photographers from both sides - turned into a central and important means of communication. With the use of the site, the photographers have been exchanging pictures that they shot over the past three weeks, each photographer in his or her close surroundings, and discussing professional matters against the background of the military campaign.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056811.html

Abdur-Rahim Fuqara' on the Daily Show

I received many emails complaining about Abdur-Rahim Fuqara''s appearance on the Daily Show. He is the bureau chief for AlJazeera (Arabic). I must agree with the criticisms, `Abdur-Rahim. I saw it and you were so careful to not antogonize any supporter of Israel among the viewers. You even managed to praise Israel's handling of the bureau: and your statement that Israel is the only state that did not close down your bureau in the Middle East is blatantly false. You also went out of your ways to say: well, there are those and then there are the others, as if the vicitms of Gaza constitute a mere another point of view. You presented Arab outrage at the horros of Gaza as a matter of political bias. I have always wondered: why do Arabs when they get into the national mainstream or the limelight or a moment of national exposure get so timid and afraid? I never uderstood that. See for yourselves

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http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/abdur-rahim-fuqara-on-daily-show.html

Solidarity/Protests
'I felt it was my duty to protest'

The Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, tells Chris Arnot that speaking out for the Palestinians turned him into a pariah.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/20/interview-ilan-pappe-historian

Thousands attend Anti-Israel march to protest against Israeli invasion of Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of people marched on the city roads in Karachi on Sunday to protest against Israeli invasion of Gaza, and killing of innocent Palestinians, especially women and children.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7hCQ0I88W45AbLECfHBXklA4KjeAU2iQqIK%2b4ud2OG1z7xlUOcFlhlBVmguAL9fR3%2batGSG1V90vUJuQEr9lgrFfhsRj7PLfMKCn5%2fB1i35Q%3d

Solidarity with Gaza: Just the Beginning

The incessant sound of typing over the many laptops around me became the background theme sound of my life for the past two and a half weeks. Since Israel's latest assault on Gaza that began on December 27, my social circle of journalists and activists have besieged ourselves (no pun intended) in a friend's basement to write articles, coordinate with other groups, take interviews, and discuss strategies for raising awareness and taking action.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14706

Reservist arrested for refusing to take part in Gaza op

Engineering Corps lieutenant arrested for going AWAL, says Israel failed to explore all other possibilities before resorting to violence. 'Bombing Gaza won't bring security to Israel's southern region,' says another refusenik.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658996,00.html

"Continuing Gaza Protests, as Seen on Al Jazeera" (Videos)

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/gaza190109.html

Noam Chomsky On Gaza

Fatah by now is more or less functioning as Israel's police force in the West Bank. But the West Bank is only part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21788.htm

Chomsky: "Exterminate all the Brutes": Gaza Jan 19,2009

http://www.chomsky.info/articles

Chomsky: Undermining Gaza. With Sameer Dossani. January 16, 2009

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20090116.htm

Noam Chomsky Public Forum on Gaza. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. January 13, 2008

http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPage.do?ToId=28315

At the top of Mount Chutzpah

Avner Shalev, the director of Yad Vashem criticizes the protesters against the Gaza massacre for using signed and slogans comparing Israeli soldiers to German troops, the Gaza Strip to the Auschwitz death camp and the Jewish Star of David to the Nazi swastika...
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/01/at-top-of-mount-chutzpah.html

West Bank and Israel and other news
School teacher detained by Israeli troops, curfew imposed on northern village

Jenin – Ma'an – Israeli troops detained a school teacher south of Jenin on Tuesday, then imposed a curfew on the village and blocked all roads in and out of the area.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35129

Lieberman to Arab MK: We'll deal with you like we dealt with Hamas

Heated confrontation breaks out at Supreme Court after Arab parties appeal decision to bar them from running in upcoming Knesset elections. MK El-Sana tells Yisrael Beiteinu chairman, 'You're a new immigrant and inciter.' Lieberman replies, 'You're a terrorist representing terrorists'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3659122,00.html

Israel-Turkey diplomatic spat worsens, despite end of Gaza fighting

The crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey, which began when the Gaza operation began three weeks ago, is getting worse. A political source in Jerusalem said that the head of the political-security bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, refused to meet with Ahmet Davutoglu, the senior foreign policy adviser to Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while the two were in Cairo last week.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056938.html

A 'Police State' Celebrates

JERUSALEM, Jan 19(IPS) - The Israeli government is stepping up efforts to suppress dissent and crush resistance in the streets. Police have been videotaping the demonstrations and subsequently arresting protesters in large numbers. According to Israeli police reports, at least 763 Israeli citizens, the majority of them Palestinian and 244 under 18 years old, have been arrested, imprisoned or detained for participating in such demonstrations. Most have been held and then released, but at least 30 of those arrested over the past three weeks are still being held in prison.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45462

The Israeli military kidnaps seven Palestinian civilians from several parts of the West Bank

Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli Army has kidnapped seven Palestinian civilians during morning and pre dawn invasions, targeting several West Bank cities and towns on Monday.
http://imemc.org/article/58538

Gaza Conflict Angers, Alienates Israel's Arab Citizens

UMM AL-FAHM, Israel -- Three weeks of bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip and a crackdown on dissent inside Israel have fueled slow-burning anger among members of Israel's Arab minority and will continue to sow division despite the tenuous cease-fire that went into effect Sunday, Arab citizens and their leaders say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011902608.html?wprss=rss_world%2Fmideast

Israeli Arabs Recoil at Attacks on Gaza as Allegiance to Their Country Is Strained

UMM AL FAHM, Israel — Gleaming branches of McDonalds's and Pizza Hut greet shoppers at a new mall in this populous Arab town in northern Israel that is usually associated with poverty, overcrowding and conservative Islam. Over the past week, a large television in the Pizza Hut was tuned to Al Jazeera, showing live scenes of horror from a hospital in Gaza as Israel pursued its campaign against Hamas. "Did you see the boy who was blinded?" asked Abd al-Munim Mahameed, 37, the manager of a men's clothing store. "The pictures are appalling. The whole Israeli government should be put on trial."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/world/middleeast/20arabs.html?ref=world

Human Rights Watch and the "pro-Israel donors"

Mouin Rabbani sent me this (I cite with his permission): "This is a very interesting press release, As'ad: HRW once again accuses Hamas of indiscriminate attacks, but for the first time in its history does not denounce such attacks by Hamas as war crimes. The reason is so transparently obvious: the same press release accuses Israel of "indiscriminate attacks", so, ipso facto, such attacks are not a war crime. That pernicious moron Roth really thinks no one will notice. If Israeli tanks had rolled into Gaza City and been welcomed with rice and flowers by their collaborators, HRW would probably issue an urgent press release denouncing Palestinians as war criminals since neither rice kernels nor flower petals are precision-guided projectiles, and launching them from urban areas constitutes human shielding..." Mouin followed up with this...
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/human-rights-watch-and-pro-israel.html

(article from 2005) Gaza's ancient history uncovered

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4365440.stm

Op-ed
"Gazans won't maybe die in airstrikes anymore but may still starve to death due to the ongoing siege"

Ramallah, 20-01-09: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, spoke out against the faulty unilateral ceasefire declared by Israel. "What ceasefire?" he asked, "Israel is still reportedly bombarding Palestinians from the sea, and though the troops have been moving back, they are not gone and retain the permission to instigate more violence at will."
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article795

Ben White: Targeting civilians was a deliberate part of Operation Cast Lead

The scale of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, and the almost daily reports of war crimes over the last three weeks, has drawn criticism from even longstanding friends and sympathisers. Despite the Israeli government's long-planned and comprehensive PR campaign, hundreds of dead children is a hard sell. As a former Israeli government press adviser put it, in a wonderful bit of unintentional irony, "When you have a Palestinian kid facing an Israeli tank, how do you explain that the tank is actually David and the kid is Goliath?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-israelandthepalestinians

Gaza reconstruction: 'If we do not destroy we cannot rebuild'

The ruinous war over Gaza is over. Gaza and its 1.5 million people have borne the brunt of Israel's disproportionate, reckless and massive use of fire power which killed more than 1300 people most of them civilians and injured thousands. Homes, schools, government buildings, mosques whole quarters were razed down by Israeli troops as the influential and most powerful world leaders pondered on who was right or wrong and who was to blame.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2009-01-19\kurd.htm

Algeria, Elections and Gaza

In Algeria, as elsewhere throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, Israel's brutal war on Gaza clarified once again the great distance between ordinary citizens and their respective political regimes. Daily media images of savage attacks and Palestinian bloodshed deeply resonate emotionally with Algerians proud of their country's victorious war of national liberation against the French. This empathetic agony, Arab regimes' failure strongly to respond and the Algerian government's continued ban of unauthorized demonstrations were sure provocations for dramatic political expression.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/20310

From Lebanon to Gaza: Israel's Déjà Vu

From a historical perspective, it's almost eerie to watch the events in Gaza unfold today as they closely mirror the patterns, motives, and propaganda that led to Israel's 1982 "Operation Peace for Galilee" invasion of southern Lebanon. A careful student of history and the ongoing crisis will find that all rhetoric and politics aside, Israel's motivations and aims haven't fundamentally changed over the past several decades.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14708

Akiva Eldar / As Obama is sworn in, Israelis and Palestinians will be thinking 'no we can't'

The swearing-in of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States takes me back to another presidential ceremony, one that moved millions of people, especially Israelis and Palestinians, whose war-torn hearts were filled with hope for better days. The ceremony on the lawn of the White House more than 15 years ago was my first assignment as Haaretz correspondent to Washington. The beads of perspiration mixed with tears when, with an embarrassed look, prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, briefly hesitating, shook the hand of Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat. President Bill Clinton, who had arrived at the White House less than nine months before the signing of the Oslo Accords, looked on with a face that glowed with joy and satisfaction.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056944.html

Hosing Obama Israeli Style

The last time the US restrained Israel in its never-ending wars of aggression was when President Eisenhower pulled the plug on the Anglo-French-Israeli effort to grab the Suez Canal in 1956. Since then, we have not even chastised Israel when its actions hurt the United States. During the 6-Day war in 1967, for example, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy signals intelligence ship, in international waters, and murdered over 30 American sailors. The Israelis, of course, claimed it was an accident -- but the Israeli claim was at least questionable, to put it charitably, because the Israeli fighter bombers made multiple attack passes, before Israeli gunboats machine gunned survivors in the water. Moreover, festooned with antennas, the Liberty had a very distinctive profile and was flying a huge American flag. Yet the US Congress never held an inquiry into Israel's culpability (the only time in our history Congress failed investigate the root causes of a Naval disaster) and the DoD inquiry was as a disgraceful white wash.
http://www.counterpunch.com/spinney01202009.html

Israel's right to defend itself

The logic goes as follows: Israel has the right to occupy Palestinian land, lay siege to Palestinian populations in Bantustans surrounded by an apartheid wall, starve the population, cut them off from fuel and electricity, uproot their trees and crops, and launch periodic raids and targeted assassinations against them and their elected leadership, and if this population resists these massive Israeli attacks against their lives and the fabric of their society and Israel responds by slaughtering them en masse, Israel would simply be "defending" itself as it must and should. Joseph Massad comments for EI.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10221.shtml

The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty

The increasingly forceful tone of statements critical of Israel issuing from certain European Union governments during the current Gaza crisis, plus the news that Israel has decided to send ministers on a tour of six insufficiently docile European countries as a kind of propaganda "blitzkrieg", should not lull us into assuming that the EU will maintain a strong stand against Israeli state terrorism once there is a ceasefire.
http://www.counterpunch.com/deane01202009.html

Why I am in Gaza

Lots of people have asked me why I chose to leave my children and travel to Gaza in the middle of a war. If you knew three year old Omar it might be easier to understand. Omar is the youngest child in the family of Abu Yusif, one of our host families during our time in Gaza. Yesterday Omar's family was able to return to their real home for the first time since the bombing started. Omar proudly packed up a plastic bag of clothes to bring back to the family's temporary housing. He repacked it three times to get it just right. Then he brought it to me to tie the bag. Omar's father, Abu Yusif, spent the day working on the house, repairing shattered windows and a section of one wall.
http://www.counterpunch.com/stewart01202009.html

Israel's Doctrine of Destruction

In the last days before Israel imposed a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza to avoid embarrassing the incoming Obama administration, it upped its assault, driving troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment and creating thousands more displaced people. Israel's military strategy in Gaza, even in what its officials were calling the "final act", followed a blueprint laid down during the Lebanon war more than two years ago.
http://www.counterpunch.com/cook01202009.html

Qassams Are Road Flares

The Zionist (American and Israeli) governments are no longer afraid for the world to see their true natures, that of heartless inhuman beasts, who treat Gaza not only as a prison-state, but also as the world's largest closed laboratory.
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/qassams-are-road-flares/

While Israeli children return to school, kids in Gaza sift through rubble to find bodies of friends

Israeli media reported Monday that Israeli children from the town of Sderot have returned to school and normalcy. Meanwhile, children in every part of the Gaza Strip are either bleeding in overcrowded hospitals or sifting through the rubble of what used to be their schools, mosques and homes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58552

Iraq
Monday: 1 US Soldier, 5 Iraqis Killed; 21 Iraqis Wounded

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=14099

U.S. occupation force soldier killed in Iraq

An American occupation force soldier was killed by a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Monday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/19/content_10684360.htm

Remembering Iraq (Dec 19 - Jan 18)

Well over 175 people have died in Iraq over the past month (in addition to any casualties resulting from military operations). That number pales in comparison to the dead in Gaza, but it is a clear sign that the beleaguered nation still has a long way to go. For the sixth year in a row, Iraq was the deadliest country for journalists in 2008.

The ongoing occupation may be the root cause of most of the violence, but the occupying forces are not directly responsible for most of it - they are not the perpetrators.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/remembering-iraq-dec-19-jan-18.html

Obama to discuss Iraq troop drawdown on Wednesday

Reuters - Barack Obama on Wednesday will meet top defense and military officials for the first time as president to discuss the possibility of accelerating the drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq, officials said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090120/pl_nm/us_obama_iraq_afghan

Bye bye war criminal
Bush Protest: Shoes Thrown At White House (PHOTOS)

President Bush was given an Iraqi-journalist-style sendoff on his last full day in office Monday, as tourists and demonstrators lobbed shoes, pumps, boots, sandals and Crocs from Pennsylvania Avenue onto the White House lawn.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/19/bush-protest-shoes-thrown_n_159223.html

A Shoe For Bush

A Shoe For Bush Oakland-based Courage to Resist, which supports military service objectors, held a "Throw-a-Shoe at Bush!" event at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on Sunday, January 18.
http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=968bbdaa2cd70f4d469aa44d0257a9df

www.TheHeadlines.org