Hamas has right to resist occupation and military aggression.

in , ,  
Organized Rage

On Tuesday last the Israeli propaganda machine targeted the Western media with all of its might. Taken back by the international reactions to their military bombardment and continuing blockade of Gaza. The Israel politicos were advised by their hired US public relations gofers to hit the phones and tour the worlds TV studios and newspapers editorial offices.


Israeli spokespersons appeared on British TV screens speaking with English home counties accents, whilst in the US these apologists for murder had a home town US drawl. The purpose being to display to the viewers that the Israelis are just like them; and engaged in the same war on terror as their own governments. So far the general public is having none of it, but there has been a subtle change in the mass media’s coverage. For example the London Guardian down graded its coverage on Wednesday, relegating the news from Gaza to the bottom of its front page. Despite the Israeli attacks continuing overnight and creating more dead and injured in the process. To down ground the story just when pressure on the Israelis is needed tells one all you need to know about the great English liberal conscience.


The western media has also upgraded it coverage from within Israel, and it is now giving major coverage to the rockets the Gazan resistance movement is firing into Israel proper. As if there is any comparison between the occasional rocket and the current full scale Israeli military onslaught against the Gazan Palestinians.


According to the latest figures the Israeli armed forces has 5000,000 men and women under arms, Hamas has approx. 600-6000. Israel 3,501 tanks, Hamas 0. Combat aircraft, Israel 393, Hamas 0. Israeli defense budget, 9.5 Bn, Hamas total annual funding, 50 million for civilian and military projects. Israeli dead since bombardment began, military 0 civilians 5, Palestinian total, 408 dead, 44% of whom were women and children.


It is impossible not to believe this attack on Gaza is a war crime, due to the fact that Israel continues to occupy Palestinian territory and its total lack of proportionality. As to the rockets that have been fired from Gaza, a small Palestinian enclave, the borders of which Hamas has no control over. During the six months of the Hamas-Israeli ceasefire, not a single Israeli was killed by a rocket fired from within Gaza, thus making a nonsense of the Israeli pretext for the bombardment. But even if they had been and as tragic as this would have been for the individuals concerned and their families. Hamas and the Palestinian people under international law have every right to oppose by all means the Israel occupation of the West Bank and its closure of all crossing points into Gaza. The United Nations Charter is very clear on this, it states.


(UN Charter art. 51) (6). The right to resist finds application within the framework of the right of legitimate defense because "a state which forcibly subjugates a people to colonial or alien domination is committing an unlawful act as defined by international law, and the subject people, in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defense, may fight to defend and attain its right to self-determination."(7)


The way the western media are reporting this story is an absolute disgrace, not once to my knowledge have they began a report from the Israel-Palestinian (Gaza) border by telling there readers, listeners, and viewers that the Israeli government is refusing to allow them access to Gaza to report accurately and their exclusion amounts to nothing less than Israeli censorship of the Western media. If and when the western media report this, it is always as an after thought. If the Israelis continue to make it impossible for western journalists to do their jobs properly, they should refuse to report from within Israel, there should be no further reporting from Israeli cities hit by rockets fired from within Gaza. If the Israeli government wish to censor the Western media, that media should censor out the Israelis until they see reason. Myself I have stopped watching BBC, Sky and ITV news and rely on Al Jazeera TV. [English]
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Israel Attacks The United States

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Satire : Israel Attacks US

By Jerry Ghinelli

 -- The government of Israel today launched a massive air assault on suspected terrorist targets along major coastal cities in the United States of America. In an operation termed “Friendly Enemy,” hundreds of Israeli F-16 fighter jets streaked across the Atlantic in precise formation and fired surgical air strikes at alleged terrorist strongholds in densely populated Muslim communities all along the northeast corridor of the United States. The American-made Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets then continued south, inflicting massive destruction in densely populated Muslim communities along many southeastern US states as well.

Reaction to the attacks on the US was swift. President Bush and President-Elect Obama both appealed for restraint, but stated emphatically, “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

President Bush, who took an oath to defend the US and to preserve, protect and defend it against all foreign and domestic enemies, stated that the War on Terror must be fought anywhere and everywhere in the world, even on US soil, if necessary. “Our close relationship with Israel, our steadfast ally in the War on Terror, requires extraordinary sacrifices by the American people and requires exceptions to both US and international law,” said Bush.

President-Elect Barack Obama reiterated, “There is only one president at a time, and President [George] Bush speaks for the United States of America until January 20th…” Obama did, however, declare his “unconditional, unquestioning support of Israel's right to self-defense and to wage preemptive attacks whenever and wherever necessary to combat terrorism.” He said, “There will be no change in my administration when it comes to our unquestioning allegiance to the State of Israel…that is a promise you can [most certainly] believe in,” said Obama.

Earlier in the day, the US Senate had passed a nearly unanimous resolution supporting Israel. Even northeast Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Charles Schumer (NY), Joe Lieberman (CT) and John Kerry (MA), whose states were attacked, voted along with 93 other US Senators, backing Israel’s right to “self-defense.” Only Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold voted against the resolution. There were two absentees.

In an emergency special session of the US Senate, Hillary Clinton claimed there were terrorists hiding in US cities who had links to Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. Hillary Clinton, President-Elect Obama's incoming Secretary of State, who has been a staunch supporter of Israel during her tenure as senator from New York, pledged her continued unwavering and unquestioning support of Israel. America's position “[when it comes to Israel] is unchanging, our resolve unyielding, our stance non-negotiable,” she emphasized.

Vice-President Elect, Senator Joe Biden (DE), who is currently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also declared his unwavering support for the Jewish state. “You don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist,” Biden declared.

Barack Obama’s incoming Chief of Staff, former US Representative Rahm Emanuel, 5th Congressional District of Illinois, who has dual American and Israeli citizenship and is known as the Zionist pit bull, remained uncharacteristically silent. Embroiled in the Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich scandal, Emanuel refused to comment on the Israeli attacks on US cities. Blagojevich was arrested and charged with trying to sell President-Elect Obama’s vacated Illinois senate seat. Congressman Emanuel had made several “suggestions” on who the embattled Governor should appoint. Emanuel has not been charged with any wrongdoing at this time.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, key Democrats, most notably House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, harshly criticized the Bush administration for mismanaging the economy, ignoring the 2001 Bin Laden threats, and botching the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Now they are criticizing President Bush for not doing enough to investigate potential terrorist sanctuaries in US cities, thereby forcing the Israelis to act unilaterally.

The Israeli incursion was the first on American soil by a foreign government since the December 1941 incursion by the empire of Japan. But on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israeli jet fighters also attacked a neutral US Navy technical research ship named the USS Liberty, killing 34 crewmen and wounding 172 others. Israel later apologized for the incident, suggesting its forces had attacked the USS Liberty in error. The Israelis claimed it had misidentified the Liberty as an unknown destroyer. Surviving Liberty crewmen claim that the attack was deliberate and premeditated. Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty remains the only major maritime incident in American history not investigated by Congress.

Across the US, those Americans unaffected by the Israeli attacks were mainly concerned how this incident might affect the already fragile US economy. Most Americans continued their holiday vacations, largely unconcerned with the massive loss of life but quite concerned whether stricken areas might further impact the plummeting value of their homes.

The mainstream media, always cautious of being branded anti-Semitic and thus losing advertising revenue, especially during difficult economic times, repeatedly defended the Israeli attacks as proportionate and justified.

Any critics who called the Israeli incursion an attack on the US and demanded retribution were labeled anti-Semites and soft on terrorism.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni defended her country’s use of force. “There are no safe havens anywhere in the world when it comes to fighting terror,” said Livni. The American death toll is expected to be “only” in the hundreds, still far below the deaths that occurred on 9/11 by Islamic terrorists. Israeli pilots use only the finest precision weapons. Terrorists use crude devices like box-cutters, suicide vests and IEDs (Impoverished Explosive Devices). “We abhor the death of any innocent Americans killed by our precision air strikes, but you have to lay the blame on the terrorists who are hiding in these crowded American cities,” she rationalized.

Livni’s justification for the US incursion relied heavily on US Vice-President Richard “Dick” Cheney’s “1%” doctrine, which treats suspicions of terrorist involvement with a likelihood of even 1% as a certainty. “[If] we think, therefore there are,” she said philosophically.

The British and Canadian Prime Ministers, Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper respectively, also supported the Israeli incursion into the US. Both deeply regretted the loss of any innocent American lives. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the Israeli incursion “just and proportionate.” President Bush phoned Prime Minister Brown and thanked him for his support during this difficult time.

President Bush noted that the American casualties from the Israeli raids were not equal to those killed in terrorist attacks on 9/11. “There is no moral equivalence between those killed in self-defense by Israeli warriors fighting for a democratically elected government and those killed by rogue [Al-Qaeda] terrorists who hate the freedoms we enjoy,” Bush suggested.

Despite some minor collateral damage to some synagogues, traditional liberal Jewish-American leaders remained steadfast in their unwavering defense of Israel. There was far more criticism and debate of the Israeli attacks on the US in the Knesset and among the Israeli public than there was in the US Congress or the American Jewish community, respectively.

Those few critics of the incursion contend that all Americans are protected by American and international law, and the strikes against the US should be construed as war crimes. US law prohibits the use of American-made weapons to be used for offensive purposes. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey stated that the war on terror supersedes all constitutional guarantees, and international law does not apply to anyone engaging in or even thinking about engaging in terrorism. Israel’s actions were in self-defense, he added.

In the UN, a Security Council resolution introduced by France, condemning the Israeli attacks on the United States was vetoed by the United States.

Local hospitals overflowed with American survivors of the Israeli air strikes. This time, though, the victims asked not “why do they hate us?” but “why do we love them?”
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The Truth About Those Hamas Rockets

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Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq.

A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more credible excuse -- the Hamas rockets case -- as justification for its own murderous shock and awe in Gaza, a long-planned campaign perniciously aimed at ousting a “regime” that came to power via popular, democratic vote.

Yes, such rockets exist, but they’re little more than slingshots against Israel’s incredible military might, and they’re used out of desperation by Palestinians who’ve never been accorded the democratic space within which to gain redress of their eminently just grievances.
Israeli apologists have presented absurd propaganda about those devices.

We’ve been asked, for instance, what would we do if rockets were being launched on our homes in New York or Texas, from Canada or Mexico?

The proper answer is that, if those two nations had been unlawfully occupied or embargoed by the United States for 60 years of relentless oppression and repression, and if all attempts at peaceful change had been forcefully prevented or scuttled by the U.S., then such attacks would be an understandable, indeed a justifiable attempt at gaining intolerably deferred liberty.

Our appropriate response wouldn’t be to bomb the hell out of the nearest Canadian or Mexican city, but to collectively look into mirrors and earnestly ask ourselves, “What have we done wrong to incur their wrath?”

And then act to correct the situation.

Conscientious Israelis acknowledge that the Hamas rockets rationale is fraudulent. For instance, Jerusalem Post writer Larry Derfner has noted, “We don’t want to see how people in Gaza are living, we block it out of our minds -- which, I suppose, is natural for a society at war, but which also keeps that war going longer than it might if we would recognize that Gaza is getting so much the worst of it.

“The [Palestinian] Kassam [rockets] have terrorized the 25,000 people in Sderot and its environs, but have caused very, very few deaths or serious wounds. By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans, locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled their economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands of them . . .

“This is crazy. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East, but because we still think we’re the Jews of Europe in the 1930s, or the Israelites under Pharaoh, we spend a lot more time fighting our enemies than we might if we looked at the whole picture, not just our half of it . . .”

As Gazan hospitals and morgues fill beyond capacity because of an ongoing air assault that cruelly began at precisely the hour when countless children were heading home from school, we’re expected to believe that small craters mostly in empty Israeli fields constitute this terrible episode’s chief sin.

Bugs bothered by sporadically impacting, glorified fireworks cobbled together in backyard garages are ludicrously supposed to be the primary problem, not human limbs and lives shattered by the most destructive weapons that military science can produce!

At any point during the past six decades, Israel could have had peace, simply by assenting to the great moral imperative of our time, namely the Palestinians’ right to their own, unitary, sovereign homeland.

Something which Israel continues to resist tooth and nail.

Two years ago, in Southern Lebanon, Israel engaged in similar bombings in civilian areas. Then, too, it maintained that only “terrorist” targets were being hit. As impartial observers finally ascertained the truth, clear evidence of enormous civilian carnage surfaced.

The Israeli leadership lied then, and it’s lying now.

There’s a veritable holocaust occurring in densely packed Gaza. Think Guernica, or the Warsaw Ghetto, with all the searing irony that comparison involves.

Apart from being an ethical travesty offending all decent hearts, it’s an unpardonable outrage to especially Arab/Islamic peoples around the world.

Witness the angry demonstrations in cities across the planet.

It takes no extraordinary analytical prowess to appreciate that, when the White House ridiculously blames what’s currently happening on “thugs” in Gaza, and when moderate Arab states adopt an accommodationist position pleasing the U.S. and Israel, a profound Arab/Islamic radicalization billows and swells.

New Osama bin Ladens are being born as innocents in Gaza are getting ripped to death by American-made Hellfire missiles, dispatched toward fleshly targets by Israeli pilots.

In fact, the almost certain, counterproductive outcome of Israel’s action makes us necessarily suspect that secret motives mistakenly judged by Tel Aviv to be worth the risk are actually at play.

Three possibilities spring immediately to mind:

1) Obscenely using de facto genocide to give the present Israeli government a “tough” image before upcoming national elections.

2) Roping Barack Obama into a harder pro-Israeli stance than Tel Aviv fears he’d otherwise take.

3) Creating a manipulated, intensely propagandized situation that would enable a desired Israeli attack on Iran.

Whatever the most deeply hidden reality, Israel’s gargantuan crime must be universally condemned in the strongest possible terms . . . and halted at once!
Dennis Rahkonen of Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing progressive commentary with a Heartland perspective for various outlets since the ’60s.
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US Military Aid Underpins Gaza Offensive

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Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the US each year, much of it spent on American weaponry which US law says must only be used in self-defence.
But experts say there is little chance of cuts in aid to Israel despite its military operation in Gaza.
Jan 01, 2008
Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports.

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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines January 01, 2008 ~

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OPT: Protection of civilians weekly report 24 - 31 Dec 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7MUR5L?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
The first 187 names of those murdered in the ongoing Gaza massacre were released today
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/12/brothers-sisters-cousins-wives-husbands.html

Sixth day under attack: Death toll in Gaza reaches 412
Palestinian medical sources said that the Israeli Army continued its bombardment on the Gaza Strip today, calming the life of at least 15 Palestinians since this morning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58271
Israel kills senior Hamas figure
Nizar Rayyan killed with wife and three children in Israeli air attack.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2009/01/200911133527449783.html

A new bloody year in Gaza, Israeli air raids kill four people
As the new year starts, Israeli warplanes continued overnight attacking several parts of the Gaza Strip, killing four people, wounding a number others and devastating more buildings or homes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58267

Israeli Cabinet votes to resume heavy attacks on Gaza, fires at southern Strip
The Israeli Cabinet decided this afternoon to continue the major attacks on the Gaza Strip that has killed 391 Palestinians since Saturday. After the vote Israeli warplanes hit Khan Younis, killing two more. Later Wednesday night Israeli forces fired missiles at the southern Strip's Rafah. Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert chaired the meeting that included defense and foreign ministers Barak and Livni.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4364&Itemid=1
Report: 3 killed, 40 injured in Rafah strike
Air Force raid on house of leader of Hamas' military wing kills three neighbors, including one woman, local official says; Gaza death toll since start of IDF operation rises to 398.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3648470,00.html
Israeli shelling badly damages human rights offices
At about 1:50am Tuesday, 30 December 2008, Israeli F-16 fighter jets shelled a Palestinian police site in Gaza, which is 70 meters away from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme's (GCMHP) main building in Sheikh Ejleen on Gaza Beach. The shelling was part of the vicious military attacks that the Israeli army launched on Gaza starting 27 December 2008.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10072.shtml

'Eight civilians killed' in surgical strike on truck
An Israeli human rights group said yesterday it was investigating claims that an apparent surgical strike on a Hamas missile truck in Gaza, which is being publicised by Israel's armed forces on its website, is a case of mistaken targeting that has left eight civilians dead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/01/surgical-strike-israel-human-rights

Fatima Ba'lousha killed in Israeli airstrike on mosque near her home in Jabaliya
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34457

IDF bombs "terror" mosque
Gloves are off: Air Force razes Gaza Strip mosque used by Palestinian rocket cells targeting Israeli communities; several people reportedly hurt in strike. Army officials say rockets, explosives stored inside mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3648349,00.html

Gaza hospital director: Israel lying
Gaza doctors slam 'crazy' Shin Bet charges that hospitals in Strip used as Hamas hideouts.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3648421,00.html

Israel Bombs Refugee Camps - Do Americans Even Know What Refugees Are?
These maps combined show the areas hardest hit by Israel in Gaza (left) and Gaza's refugee camps (right, in red). There is a clear overlap. Refugees, a class of persons normally in need of the most protection, and in fact afforded special coverage under international law, are suffering the most in Israel's bombardment of Gaza. This is one enormous reason for the invalidity of any argument which assumes symmetry between Gaza (or Hamas) and Israel.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/12/israel-bombs-refugee-camps-do-americans.html
Russian intelligence: USA participating in Israeli war on Gaza
MOSCOW, (PIC)-- American aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea are assisting the Israeli occupation forces in the military campaign on Gaza Strip, a well informed source in the Russian intelligence said on Wednesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7%2fPvLv9a3JR99rFsRp%2fczpR%2bA%2fXdl%2bXY844Xx9UKVEhG6eerpKwVVBTHk%2bqsxDBDgFts60IOL1tYmhp5wQSXl0B1RYlELTdd7Yaq5E%2fEMwrk%3d

Fatah affiliates fire five more projectiles at Israeli targets
Fatah's armed wing claimed responsibility on Wednesday for firing five more projectiles toward the Israeli town of Sderot and the military post of Zekeim, it said in a statement. The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades said the projectile attacks were ongoing, and that fighters are working together in light of recent Israeli airstrikes.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34453

Ninety people arrested in East Jerusalem as Israeli police look to prevent protests of solidarity with Gaza through intimidation
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/12/31/ninety-people-arrested-in-east-jerusalem-as-israeli-police-look-to-prevent-protests-of-solidarity-with-gaza-through-intimidation/
The Israeli Army attacks Nili'n village and injures seven Palestinians
Israeli Army troops attacked the village of Nil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, on Thursday, and injured seven civilians, Palestinian sources reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58275

Israeli soldiers hurl tear gas canisters at Palestinian homes in Hebron "for fun"
Israeli soldiers hurled tear gas canisters at a Palestinian house in Hebron on Wednesday evening near the illegal Israeli Kiryat Arba settlement in the southern West Bank. Several members of one family suffered from teargas inhalation, said Farid Ar-Razim, who lives in the home targeted by soldiers, told Ma'an over the phone from the scene of the attacks.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34452

"If there is an Israeli invasion hospitals will collapse"
In Gaza's main hospital, the director's office is under virtual siege, according to an IRIN journalist in Gaza. Relatives of the injured are desperate to get their kin transferred to Egypt for emergency treatment. There is a fear here that the already overstretched healthcare system will collapse if Israel mounts a ground offensive into the tiny coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10083.shtml

Gaza's tunnel economy collapses in bombing raids
The Gaza Strip has lost its last lifeline after five days of Israeli bombing raids that destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels under the sandy border with Egypt. The passages did not just supply Hamas with arms, but brought in flour, fuel and baby milk.
http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=92697b820848e5a68fa15c64ade43836

Behind closed doors, U.S. seeks Israel exit strategy
Washington is worried that a prolonged campaign in the Gaza Strip could bolster the Palestinian Hamas movement. It wants Israel to set a timetable. Reporting from Washington -- While publicly declaring strong support for Israel, the Bush administration is increasingly nervous about the 4-day-old campaign in the Gaza Strip and is urging its ally to settle on a timetable and exit strategy, say foreign diplomats and Middle East experts close to the discussions.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/mideastemail/la-fg-us-gaza31-2008dec31,0,894502.story
Hamas says Israeli attacks must end before any truce talks
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday Israeli attacks on Gaza had to stop before any truce proposals could be considered. "First, the Zionist aggression must end without any conditions...Second the siege must be lifted and all the crossings must be opened because the siege is the source of all of Gaza's problems."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LV667018.htm

Hamas Ready to Halt Attacks if Siege Lifted: Russia
Hamas is ready to halt its attacks on Israel if the Zionist entity lifts its blockade of Gaza, Russia's foreign ministry announced on Wednesday. In a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, "voiced readiness to cease armed confrontation but on condition of the lifting of the blockade of Gaza," the ministry said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68773&language=en

Armed groups continue attacks against Israeli targets
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34464

Hamas Warns Settlers; Vows No Retreat No Surrender
Gaza resistance fighters have been firing deeper into the occupied territories in recent days and a spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas vowed on Tuesday rockets would be fired even further if Israel doesn't halt its savage attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza Strip.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68696&language=en
Haniyeh tells Palestinians "victory is near"
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sounded a defiant tone in a televised speech to Palestinians on Wednesday saying that the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip will win the fight against Israel. "We tell the Palestinian people in Gaza and everywhere that you will win, inevitably. Victory is near, God willing, and it is closer than people think," Haniyeh said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LV664801.htm

Livni tells French: Gaza truce would give Hamas legitimacy
"There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce," the Foreign Ministry quoted Livni as saying in a statement. "Israel has been supplying comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Strip ... and has even been stepping this up by the day."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051909.html

Barak: We Struck Hamas but It's Still Striking Back
Two Grad rockets fired by Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday scored a direct hit on an eight-floor building in the northern Negev city of Ashdod. The rockets caused a fire to erupt in the building. There were no physical injuries reported.
The strike on Ashdod was the twelvth rocket to hit the western Negev on Thursday. Eight Qassam rockets exploded in the Eshkol region over the course of the morning, and two Grad rockets hit the city of Beersheba.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68825&language=en

Palestinian demonstrator dies of wounds from clash with Israeli forces
A young man injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Na'lin died from his wounds Wednesday. Twenty-one-year-old Mohammed Said al-Khawaja was injured in protests that broke out following the first Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34454

33 Protesters Arrested at Pro-Gaza Rally in Cairo
Egyptian police arrested 33 people at a demonstration of around 3,000 people in central Cairo on Tuesday against Israel's continuing assault on the Gaza Strip, a security official said. The latest anti-Israeli protest was organized by Egyptian opposition parties outside the Journalists' Union. People who tried to demonstrate in neighboring streets were manhandled and arrested because "they risked obstructing traffic."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68780&language=en

Haniyeh calls for unity, dialogue in televised address
The de facto prime minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip promised Palestinians that peace will prevail in spite of the ongoing onslaught. The Hamas leader was speaking in a televised address from an undisclosed location. In the speech, Ismail Haniyeh wished Palestinian Christians a very Merry Christmas, congratulating them on the occasion of Jesus' birth and thanking them, "for your patience."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34475

Arabs draft UN resolution to halt Gaza attacks
AP - The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday night on an Arab request for a binding and enforceable resolution condemning Israel and halting its military attacks on Gaza.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_un_israel_palestinians
Pal. Factions Warn against Exploiting Gaza Massacre
Palestinian powers' alliance in Damascus on Tuesday discussed the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the massacres perpetrated by the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian civilians. Following the meeting, Secretary of the Palestinian factions Khaled Abdul-Majeed said in a statement that the Alliance underlined the necessity of activating movement along with the political, official and popular powers in order to stop this aggression and boost the struggle of the Palestinian people.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68697&language=en

Hamas accuses senior Abbas 'spies' of colluding with Israel
Hamas has accused senior aides of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, of spying for Israel, underscoring an intensification of Palestinian infighting even in the face of Israel's bombardments in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hamas-accuses-senior-abbas-spies-of-colluding-with-israel-1220045.html
Robert Fisk: The rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act
There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" – the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut – and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people? And now – after three decades of Hosni Mubarak – can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals – but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-rotten-state-of-egypt-is-too-powerless-and-corrupt-to-act-1220048.html

Egypt seen as complicit in Gaza assault
As the Palestinian death toll approaches 400, much of popular anger throughout the Arab world has been directed at Egypt -- seen by many as complicit in the Israeli campaign. "Israel would not have hit Gaza like this without a green light from Egypt," Hamdi Hassan, MP for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, told IPS. "The Egyptian government allowed this assault on Gaza in hopes of finishing off Hamas."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10084.shtml
European campaign: Cairo's refusal to open crossing stab in back of Palestinians
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza has expressed absolute dismay at Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's televised address on Tuesday in which he declared refusal to open the Rafah border terminal with Gaza despite the ongoing Israeli massacres.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7a5mU8Gd%2bCLwzWOgR91NA%2b7M0vZpmOzkzQ%2bOf%2fXIi7IxrwLihoxB%2fdkxVYuCQcAgRpIyZeJNZdzWi3DNuR2rp4jM0D0bRm1BvSgts%2fYgm0Gg%3d

Iran Gaza protesters, police scuffle at Jordan embassy
Iranian students scuffled with riot police near the Jordanian embassy on Thursday after some hardline groups threatened to seize the building in the latest protest linked to Israel's attacks in Gaza. Demonstrators demanded the mission's closure and pushed back police who had blocked the street leading to the embassy in Tehran, some of them briefly breaking through the cordon before being chased back.
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=15234
Gaza Assault Worsens Rift Between Palestinian Factions
Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip has exacerbated the deep divisions between Palestinians who want to make peace with Israel and those who support Hamas's militant struggle against the Jewish state.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1689383.htm

Report: Cairo refuses Qatari envoy; Tel Aviv welcomes
A Qatari aid plane landed in Tel Aviv to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli newspaper that claimed Egypt refused the same envoy on Wednesday. The Israeli daily Hebrew newspaper reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave the go-ahead for the plane full of aid from the Arab state of Qatar to land at Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday.
Qatar had previously attempted to deliver several tons of aid to Gaza by sea earlier in December, in the wake of the success of the Free Gaze Movement's blockade-breaking voyages to the besieged strip. Egypt had apparently refused to allow the Qatari plane to land in the Sinai, for undisclosed reasons.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34438
The Turkish option
The involvement of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in pushing a cease-fire indicates primarily the deep-seated differences between the Syria-Hamas-Iran axis and the Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Palestinian Authority axis. These two axes that now need an external mediator still cannot agree on Hamas' status.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051636.html

Sayyed Nasrallah: Palestinian Resistance Will Triumph
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah reiterated on Wednesday that the Israeli deadliest offensive against Gaza launched since Saturday was identical to what had taken place in Lebanon during the July 2006 war and expected that the Palestinian Resistance would achieve victory and Zionist entity would be defeated once again. His eminence stressed that the Palestinian Resistance was still tenacious and solid, pointing out that its base wasn't affect by the massacres committed until now.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68802&language=en

Lebanon in Mourning over Gaza, Condemns Israeli Op.
Unlike previous years, December 31, 2008, was not a day for celebrations in Lebanon. Indeed, the situation in Gaza and the Israeli deadly offensive against Palestinians that claimed the lives of over 390 people and injured more than 1750 others has imposed itself on Lebanese who observed a day of national mourning on Wednesday.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68769&language=en
Oxfam calls on EU to take larger role in demanding ceasefire
Oxfam called on the EU to take a more active role in preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In a statement from Oxfam International's Director Jeremy Hobbs the international agency asked the EU to "push Israel and Hamas to agree an immediate ceasefire." They insisted that "any agreement on improved humanitarian access must not be a fig leaf for lacklustre diplomatic efforts to bring the violence to an immediate end."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34459
UN official: Gaza people's suffering one of life and death
GENEVA, (PIC)-- The UN coordinator of humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian lands Maxwell Gaylard has warned that the situation in the Gaza Strip was one of life or death for many of its inhabitants.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7BpW8wmPQLSZwH6D%2f7lqWslFwH2GSQAPIJaTfBvE7e6XcX1HQQqnwktt0SNOzmMaxPZ%2byB0HSsZ71FHQFx3S%2fGx42BVUZ780Ee2RDZ2K5IqE%3d
Amnesty International: there are no safe places in Gaza
ImagePNN - Calls to the Israeli administration to lift the ban on humanitarian staff and journalists entering the Gaza Strip began well before the current air attacks, but since then they have increased. Amnesty International is among those expressing particular concern for children. In the first moments of the current attacks Israeli forces killed seven kids at a school for refugees.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4369&Itemid=1

British telecom firm severs ties with Israeli counterparts over Gaza
"We weren't expecting this from them and there was no prior warning. I don't intend to appeal to them or answer the letter." The email from FreedomCall said, "As a result of the Israeli government action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company." MobileMax, established in 2004, produces a program providing cellular phones with inexpensive international service.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3648346,00.html
Vice President of the European Parliament tells Hebronites to continue fighting for rights
Vice President of the European Parliament Luisa Morgantini went to Hebron on Wednesday with a delegation of Europeans to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack. The delegation was received by Hebron mayor Khalid Al-Useili and other members of the city's municipal council.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34455
Israel ordered to allow journalists into Gaza
Israel's Supreme Court ruled today that the Israeli government must allow journalists entry into Gaza to cover the ongoing conflict.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-ordered-to-allow-journalists-into-gaza-1219795.html

Jennifer Utz: Killing the Messenger: Targeting the Press in Gaza
Watch the broadcast media's live coverage of the current conflict in the Middle East, and you'll see correspondents doing stand-ups in Israeli cities like Jerusalem and Ashkelon. But virtually no reporters are actually on the front lines in Gaza.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-utz/killing-the-messenger-tar_b_154564.html

The New York Times on Gaza: El-Khodary strikes again
Today's article in the New York Times (front page), is quite revealing. It also has the byline of Bronner and El-Khodary. The first sentence of the article uses the term "punishing air attacks." One needs to look at that phrase. Who invented that? Which bureau of Israeli occupation's military or intelligence apparatus came out with that one? Punishing air strikes. Just ponder that one.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-york-times-on-gaza-el-khodary.html

Freedom of Speech Denied to Palestinian Citizens of Israel
Palestinian Israeli students at the Technion University in Haifa demonstrating this week against the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. More than ten public figures from Jaffa, both men and women, were taken on Tuesday for interrogation by the Israeli police and General Security Services (GSS). The interrogators were told they are suspected of inciting terrorism and throwing stones, one day after a legal demonstration that was held in Jaffa and ended peacefully.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1499/104/

The Children of Gaza and the Psychological Effects of Israeli Strikes
Gaza, Asharq Al-Awsat - Ghassan Al Neemat attempted in vain to calm his son, Ahmed, aged 6, in the middle of the night, and sought to convince him that it was safe to stay at home as the child was adamant that he and his parents should go to his aunt's house in nearby Barakat al Wazz.
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=15226
"The radio reported that my friend was under the rubble"
I was lying in my bedroom when the first strike happened, around 1:30 in the morning. A strike isn't just one explosion, it's a series of explosions. Boom, boom, boom, boom. The whole building shook. I woke up and went to the bathroom first, and within 30 seconds the second strike hit. F-16s were bombing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, about 500 meters away. I could hear glass shattering everywhere. Dr. Haider Eid reports from the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10088.shtml

Diane Tucker: In Gaza, A Doctor's Voice Tells of Shaking Houses, Breaking Windows
Four days after Israeli air attacks against the Gaza Strip began, hospitals are already overwhelmed by the influx of wounded patients. Medecins Sans Frontieres teams are now in Gaza helping to ease the hospitals' burdens. They brought with them a truckload of life-saving drugs and medical supplies -- there has been a shortage in Gaza for more than a year. Dr. A. A. (name withheld for security reasons) described the scene today in Shifa Hospital, the main hospital in the Gaza Strip...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/in-gaza-a-doctors-voice-t_b_154517.html

Anxiety keeps Palestinians glued to TV
Gazans everywhere are glued to the screen for hours a day as the Israeli attacks continue.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090101/FOREIGN/684808008/1002/rss

A horrible truth from the Al-Amal Orphan Society / A message from David Halpin
Mohammed El-Ewadi is a very calm, polite, shy, and clever boy. He is an orphan living at AL AMAL Orphanage in Gaza. Mohammed left the orphanage early in the morning, to his final exam at school. he was ready for his exam, and looking forward to the winter vacation, as he was planning to learn photography and computer drawing.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/01/01/a-horrible-truth-from-the-al-amal-orphan-society-a-message-from-david-halpin/
Hezbollah-like tactic used by Hamas against Israel
AP - Since taking control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has adopted the rocket tactics used by Lebanese Hezbollah, shifting away from its reliance on suicide bombers in attacks on Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_go_ot/us_hamas_rockets
"Peace process" blown to bits
CAIRO (IPS) - Formally, the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" appears set to continue, in line with the last United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution. But the chances of finding a resolution are virtually nil in light of Israel's new campaign against the Gaza Strip. "Even before Israel's latest bombardment of Gaza, the so-called peace process was dead," Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt's Islamist-leaning Labor Party (officially frozen since 2000), told IPS. On Saturday, 27 December, Israel began a series of punishing air strikes throughout the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, whose interior is controlled by Hamas.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10081.shtml

Donald Macintyre: Lessons of Lebanon return to haunt Israel
Although their proposals differ in detail, two of Israel's best-known writers, Amos Oz and David Grossman, have joined the calls for a ceasefire after several days of Israel's offensive.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/donald-macintyre/donald-macintyre-lessons-of-lebanon-return-to-haunt-israel-1220047.html

Mark Levine: To Succeed in Israel/Palestine Where Clinton Failed, Obama Needs a History Lesson
The renewed Israel-Hamas war in Gaza presents the incoming Obama Administration with its most difficult immediate foreign policy challenge. Yet it also offers Obama a well-timed opportunity to act on his promise to return to the aggressive Mideast diplomacy that characterized the final years of the Clinton Administration.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-levine/to-succeed-in-israelpales_b_154510.html
Gaza: the importance of the Bob Gates straddle
US foreign policy Yesterday, as I noted here, Condi Rice gave a degree to acquiescence to a much-needed statement calling for "an immediate and permanent ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas/Gaza, that had been jointly agreed upon by Ban Ki-moon, Bernard Kounchner, Rice, and Sergei Lavrov. Ban had apparently convened the conference call in which the four members of the Mideast "Quartet" all agreed on that position. Was Condi thereby representing the position of President Bush?
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003293.html

New birth pangs for the Middle East
No one can say with certainty what Israel's new aggression will unleash, but one can point to some likely outcomes. The attack on Gaza will not destroy Hamas, and even if Israel kills every person who ever supported Hamas, the attack will not end resistance. On the contrary, resistance will be strengthened throughout the region, undermining the notion that resistance is outdated or impossible and that the only remaining "strategic choice" for the Arabs is negotiation from a position of weakness. The Gaza attack will weaken and discredit even further the so-called "moderates" who did their best to extinguish any form of resistance and bet heavily on the failed peace process and its sponsors. Hasan Abu Nimah comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10082.shtml

Israel Over-Reaches
What a New Year dawns for the Palestinians of Gaza. More Gazans have been killed in just three days than the entire year of 1988, during the first Palestinian uprising., Death and destruction cloud history and context. Fact: Israel's punishment of Gaza predates the Hamas take-over in June 2007. It even predates the existence of Hamas., Israel's siege policies began to take shape back in 1988 when it imposed a "permit system" in Gaza. It introduced closures in 1991 and institutionalized them in 1993. It sealed Gaza off by an electronic wall in 1994. Israel's punishment before and since has included mass home demolitions, air raids, and "targeted assassinations" -- all illegal under international law.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/20100

Daniel Barenboim: Israel's security depends on wiser action
I have just three wishes for the coming year. The first is for the Israeli government to realise once and for all that the Middle East conflict cannot be solved by military means. The second is for Hamas to realise that its interests are not served by violence, and Israel is here to stay. And the third is for the world to acknowledge that this conflict is unlike any other in history. It is uniquely intricate and sensitive - a conflict between two peoples who are both deeply convinced of their right to live on the same very small piece of land. This is why neither diplomacy nor military action can resolve this conflict.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/01/israel-gaza-bombings-hamas

Wajahat Ali: Unfair and Unbalanced: The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis
Moral relativism, political double talk, and a military juggernaut blind to its violence against an occupied people highlight the most recent, tragic conflagration in Israel and Palestine. In justifying Israel's most brutal and bloody salvo against Gaza in decades - which has so far killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded more than 1800 - Israel's U.N. ambassador stated Israel rightfully defending itself from continued Hamas rocket attacks within her borders. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert forewarned the offensive "is liable to continue for some time" and Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared it as an "all-out war against Hamas and its branches."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wajahat-ali/unfair-and-unbalanced-the_b_154332.html

Adam Horowitz: Jews are Soul-Searching About Madoff -- What About Gaza?
There has been an unusual amount of introspection in the Jewish community this holiday season. Hanukkah was almost overshadowed by the Madoff scandal and the accompanying uproar about his impact on the Jewish community. The frenzy of handwringing and accusation culminated with the call for Madoff's excommunication from Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, of Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut, who stated in a passionate a letter to Malcolm Hoenlein that "never before has one man done such damage to individual Jews, Jewish organizations and Judaism itself." Hammerman was motivated by fears for the future of Judaism: "Our own children are watching us."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-horowitz/jews-are-soul-searching-a_b_154545.html

A Better World Must Start from Gaza
New Year Greetings and resolutions have become a meaningless custom of lip service while with every passing year the condition of humanity deteriorates from bad to worse. The international community has become insensitive to the sufferings of the downtrodden and have taken for granted the repetitive brutality and oppression conducted by certain regimes year after year on the innocent populace around the world.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14567
Gaza - Israel's Butchering Block
As usual, Israel, once again, demonstrated its blatant contempt to humanity and to all religions when its fourth most powerful army desecrated on Saturday December 27 the most Christian, Muslim and Jewish holiest religious holidays, and even their own supposed-to-be holy Sabbath, by spelling the blood of the weak, the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the desolate, and the two-years besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. So it's merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Hanukkha, and Shabat shalom.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14568
Thoughts on Gaza
As I sit and view the reports, photos and live videos streaming in from Gaza I find it impossible to make sense of it all. As a boy growing up in Israel and attending a regular public school, I remember being taught the story of Abraham, the patriarch arguing with God over the decision to destroy the city of Sodom...
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14569
Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza: President Bush's departing gift to Palestinians
There has been a virtually universal condemnation of Israeli massacre of unarmed Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza with the exception of Bush administration and Gordon Brown of Britain. As the US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped Saturday (December 27) over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing more than 200 persons, the Bush administration was one of the first to offer its support for Israel's attacks by blaming the victims for the massacre.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Israeli-massacre-of-Palest-by-Abdus-Sattar-Ghaza-081230-715.html

Letter to the American media
Dear Editor, Imagine if more than 63 thousand Americans were massacred in a couple of hours' campaign of F-16 bombing. This number represents (by way of percentage) the number of Palestinians killed by Israel when it launched its massive air strikes in Gaza on Saturday. A friend of mine in Gaza tells me that hundreds are still buried under the rubble and the toll of deaths could easily reach thousands. Already there are more than 1,700 injured with many in serious conditions.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/12/31/yousef-abudayyeh-open-letter-to-the-us-mass-media/
Cast Lead in the Foundry
A stopped clock, the saying goes, is right twice a day. The "senior Bush administration official" who chatted with the Washington Post on December 28 was right that Israel is "not trying to take over the Gaza Strip" with the massive assault launched the previous day, and correct that the Israelis are bombing now "because they want it to be over before the next administration comes in." That's twice, and so one must take this official's remaining reasoning -- that President-elect Barack Obama may not smile upon Israel's gross abuses of military power as the Bush administration has done -- with a grain of salt.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/20101

Gaza And The World
In times of crisis, most Arabs tune in to Aljazeera television. Sometimes it's comforting for the truth to be stated the way it is, with all of its gory and unsettling details, without blemishes and without censorship. When Israel carried out massive air strikes against Gaza on Saturday, December 27, terrorizing an already hostage and malnourished population, I too tuned in to Aljazeera.
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud311208.htm

God's Chariot
Since it was first produced in 1979, Israel's Merkava tank has gained a formidable reputation as one of the world's best-protected fighting machines. Yet, in the summer of 2006, Hezbollah guerrillas in Southern Lebanon shattered this image.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2007/07/2008525184556840741.html

Israel's 'victories' in Gaza come at a steep price
Cambridge, Mass. - I hear the voices of my friends in Gaza as clearly as if we were still on the phone; their agony echoes inside me. They weep and moan over the death of their children, some, little girls like mine, taken, their bodies burned and destroyed so senselessly. One Palestinian friend asked me, "Why did Israel attack when the children were leaving school and the women were in the markets?" There are reports that some parents cannot find their dead children and are desperately roaming overflowing hospitals.
As Jews celebrated the last night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights commemorating our resurgence as a people, I asked myself: How am I to celebrate my Jewishness while Palestinians are being killed?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p09s01-coop.html

Like in Lebanon, in Gaza Israel Blinked First
After six days of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reflected the confusion that the Israeli occupation army is passing through following the brave steadfastness of the Gazans, despite the high death toll among them that reached 400 martyrs till now, along with the missile system of the Palestinian resistance that has never stopped firing into the Israeli settlements.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68854&language=en

US Advises Citizens in Leb. to Avoid pro-Gaza Protests
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=68786&language=en
Solidarity
Palestinians vow solidarity with Gaza and continued resistance in 2009
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1808.shtml
NYC protests against Gaza attacks - slideshow
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=xrrpryh.5vor9wg1&x=0&y=-yvocyc&localeid=en_US
Zapatista's Festival of Dignified Rage condemns Israel's massacre against Palestine
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/12/festival-of-dignified-rage-condemns.html
"Demos for Gaza, Berlin, 27 and 29.12.08" (Videos)
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/germany311208.html
"Hope for Gaza Now! USA, 28-30.12.08" (Videos)
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/us311208.html
Candlelight vigil for Gaza held in Bethlehem
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/12/31/63232.html
200 protest Israel bombing Gaza in Salt Lake city
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_11345365
LABOR FOR PALESTINE: STOP ISRAEL'S MASSACRE IN GAZA AND END THE SIEGE NOW!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/LaborforPalestine1/
Action Alert: Twenty-Six Things to Help Gaza
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/01/01/action-alert-twenty-six-things-to-help-gaza/

Bush stance on cease-fire shows support for Israel
AP - By insisting that Hamas go first in any cease-fire with Israel, the Bush administration is sticking to its support for the Jewish state's right of self-defense while stopping short of encouraging an Israeli ground assault aimed at fully reoccupying the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_mideast
Nick Palmer: Israel's friends must say 'stop'
Nick Palmer: Sometimes friends need to tell you when you've gone too far. This is one of those times.
Thursday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded
Excerpt: At least nine Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded on the first day of complete Iraqi control of security. The country formally took control of the Green Zone and likewise the rest of Iraq during a ceremony today. Meanwhile, Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani issued a strongly worded statement blaming Arabs for the growing rift between the two ethnic groups.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13986


www.TheHeadlines.org
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DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE ISRAELI ASSAULT ON GAZA!

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*WHEN: 2pm on Saturday January 3rd, 2009
*WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto (buses leave Palestine House 1:15pm sharp)

Join in demonstrating against the latest Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.
At least 400 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1600 have been injured in the on-going assault on the Gaza Strip that began on Saturday.

This is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967. The numbers of dead are mounting, especially as the already limited medical supplies are running out due to the brutal siege of Gaza since 2005.

While the Western media reports that the raids targeted Hamas 'operatives,' the dead include women, children and men in all areas of life in Gaza. "Operation Cast Lead" has echoes of previous Israeli raids into Gaza that have been characterized by indiscriminate attacks on civilian population centers, mass detentions, violent house demolitions and other forms of collective punishment. Such actions need to be strongly and unconditionally condemned.

This attack comes just days after the so-called 'ceasefire' between Hamas and Israel expired. During this alleged ceasefire, Israel continued to impose its brutal siege on Gaza, restricting the flow of aid, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities of life into the territory. For the past two years Gaza has been undergoing the daily violence of a wide-ranging humanitarian catastrophe triggered by severely reduced access to energy, food, and medicines. In effect, Gaza is the world's largest open air prison. The UN and others in the international community condemned the humanitarian disaster created by Israel's siege during the time of this 'ceasefire'. Israel now claims that this operation is in response to Hamas refusing to renew this sham of a ceasefire. Once again, Israel is imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza for electing a Hamas government.

Organizers are particularly angered by the Canadian government's on-going support for the Israeli apartheid regime - including the intensification of bilateral military, political and economic links between Canada and Israel. These latest war crimes occur in the context of official Canadian complicity with and support for Israel's illegal siege and starvation of the civilian population in Gaza.

At this moment, we can only reaffirm our commitment in the strongest possible terms to continue mobilizing to respond to the call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to end Israeli Apartheid. As H.E. Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, President of the United Nations General Assembly state in a recent speech: "More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new
generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."

CONTACT:
Palestine House
info@palestinehouse.com

Demonstration Organized By:

Palestine House
Canadian Arab Federation
Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP)
Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
Muslim Association of Hamilton
International Jewish anti-Zionist Network – Toronto
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Muslim Unity
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Canadian Druze Society
Canadian Syrian Social Club
Al Huda
Islamic Relief
Steel Workers Union
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario)
Educators for Peace and Justice
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World must say “No” to Jewish Nazism before it is too late

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Written by Khalid Amayreh

The genocidal Israeli onslaught against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is strikingly similar to the German blitz in the initial stage of the Second World War. The pretexts are nearly the same and the behaviors of both Nazi and Israeli political and military leadership are nearly identical.

And as the German Nazis sought to justify their blitz against their neighbors to the east, using a plethora of carefully concocted lies and pretexts, Israel is doing virtually the same thing.

However, unlike the Nazis whose naked aggression was widely condemned around the world, the ongoing Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip is being condoned, even celebrated, by a huge media network throughout the western world from Sydney to Los Angeles.

Today, Israel is decapitating Gaza while claiming that it is only fighting Hamas. The Israeli air force is targeting and destroying schools, mosques, private homes, charities, public buildings, drug stores, colleges and universities, all under the false pretext of fighting Hamas.

This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against the Palestinian people as is obvious from the fact that the bulk of the victims are innocent civilians.

And like all criminals, Israel is resorting to the fabrication of lies and half-truths to justify its genocidal blitz against an essentially unprotected people.

Many, probably most Jews in Israel and around the world, are bragging about the “heroic” Israeli army and its “achievements” against Hamas. Some Jews have described the slaughter as the “best Hanukah present ever.”

Well, I don’t really see any heroism in using state-of-the-art machines of death, such as the F-16 warplanes, apache helicopters and laser-guided bunker buster bombs against a people who don’t posses an army or an air force or anti-aircraft defenses.
There is no heroism, but sheer cowardice, in launching these deadly bombs at unprotected civilian buildings just as there was no heroism in the targeting of unarmed civilians by the Nazi war machines.

For sure, even the weakest air-force in the world could bomb and destroy unprotected buildings and kill as many civilians as seen fit by morbid minds of Ehud Barak’s ilk.

In short, the Israeli onslaught against a people who don’t possess the means to defend themselves and can’t protect their children from Israeli brutality is an act of sheer cowardice. It can be compared with the Nazi SS strafing Jewish protesters with machine gunfire.

Israel and her mouthpieces in the West claim that Israeli army, a Jewish Wehrmacht by any standard of objective analysis, is merely reacting to Palestinian projectiles fired from Gaza onto Israeli settlements outside Gaza.

Well, this is only a pretext for two many reasons:

The so-called Qassam projectiles are symbolic and nearly innocuous weapons that make more noise than damage. During the past eight years, less than two dozen Israelis were killed by these projectiles. In the meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, mainly children and other innocent civilians, were annihilated by the indiscriminate Israeli death machine. These are war crimes because even in war, there is proportionality and using excessive force, mainly against civilians, in reaction to minor provocation puts Israel on equal footing with Nazi barbarianism.

There are those who would argue that Israel has the right and duty to defend its citizens. Well, this is not the real issue, because one could argue that even the worst state in the world has the right to defend its citizens.

But Israel has been savaging an entire people by imposing a Nazi-like siege upon them on no other account than to punish them for electing a government that both Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States, didn’t like.

In short, Israel has been effectively telling the Palestinians, in word as well as in deed, that they face two choices: Either to starve to death, or be exterminated by the Israeli war machine. In other words, the Palestinians must die if they resist and die if they don’t. This is while the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machine keeps telling the world that Israel is only fighting Hamas and defending its citizens.

Well, Hamas may not be completely blameless in a certain sense. However, it is imperative to remind the world that the Islamic movement repeatedly voiced its willingness to stop the firing of “all” projectiles from the Gaza Strip if only Israel would reciprocate and lift the Nazi-like siege.

And as we all know, Israel consistently refused, insisting rather arrogantly that it had the right to kill the Palestinians and invade their territories whenever it deemed fit.

Needless to say, this is exactly the same sort of arrogance, insolence and bellicosity that characterized Nazi behavior.

A few days ago, Israelis analysts described the genocidal onslaught against Gaza as the Israeli version of the American “shock- and –awe bombing” at the beginning of the American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Shock and awe against a thoroughly tormented and completely savaged people who have been through a hateful blockade, unprecedented in its cruelty and wickedness.

I can’t understand why Jews are behaving the way they are. Do the scenes of havoc and destruction and death in the streets and refugee camps of Gaza give them self-confidence? Do they enjoy watching Palestinian kids mutilated to smithereens by these hellish missiles launched at apartment buildings and homes from high altitude.?

Does it make them feel that they are finally defeating Hitler?

I am asking these questions because I have seen Jews dancing and celebrating rather joyfully the carnage in Gaza. Indeed, a fleeting glance at the Israeli media these days reveals a sick and cannibalistic society that is as bestial as Nazi Germany was during the holocaust.

Perhaps I am doing some injustice to the Germans. After all, the Germans were living under a hateful and tyrannical dictatorship that would have brutally crushed any protests by conscientious citizens.

But, unlike Nazi Germany, Israel claims to be “a light upon the nations,” “the only democracy in the Middle East” and a civilized western nation.

Well, if such is the behavior of “democratic” Israel, just imagine how the Jewish state would behave once the terrorist entity fell in the hands of manifestly fascist forces and parties.

I have repeatedly warned in my writings that Israel is capable of committing a genocide or a holocaust against the Palestinian people and other peoples of the Middle East.

My warnings are not empty propaganda aimed at besmirching Israel’s image. Likewise, they are not motivated by anti-Semitism or hatred for the Jewish people, many of whom I respect and admire.

But the shocking pornographic slaughter in Gaza should be viewed as a clarion vindication of my warnings. Israel simply represents the Nazis of our time.

I know that many people around the world, especially in the West, realize the veracity of the analogy deep in their hearts. But they are afraid to call the spade a spade lest they be tarnished and hounded and harassed by the powerful Jewish media which more or less controls the public discourse in many western nations.

But the timidity of these cowards will not help them. Today, the Palestinians are the victims. But, surely, tomorrow will bring with it more victims, and Europeans and Americans in particular will not be immune.

Their lives may not be under an immediate threat now. But their freedoms certainly are.

Let us remember on this somber occasion the words of Martin Niemoller who lamented the bankruptcy of German intellectuals in the few years preceding the Second World War.

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

For God’s sake, let us learn from history, because today’s Israel is strikingly similar to 1936’s Germany.Please, say No to Jewish Nazism before it is too late.

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