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"and he stood steadfast before Goliath."
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Palestine Monitor 1/31/2009
     When I was asked about Palestinian identity, one idea kept coming to mind. I wondered how this idea would translate into English, and I was told that it would be steadfastness.” I looked up "steadfast" in the dictionary: “Marked by firm determination or resolution - not shakeable - of firm convictions and strong resolve; of unbendable perseverance and unwavering loyalty.”
     It is pretty close to what I had in mind, but somewhat incomplete - it is hard to capture an entire people in a word. Steadfastness refers only to our Palestinian character of never - ever - giving in. It refers to our standing up to overwhelming odds time and again without a single friend in our corner. It is about our being beaten and abused in every way known to humanity, only to get back up with our heads held high.
     This is impressive; but if steadfastness were understood only in this way, it could easily be exchanged for a different, less appealing word: stubbornness.
     Not giving up, in and of itself, is not an admirable quality. After all, the rather unsavoury and racist group of Hebron’s Tel Rumeidan settlers could also be described as steadfast. After all, they too display “unwavering loyalty” or “firm convictions,” and they seemingly “never give up.” more.. e-mail

Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of the Israeli State
Joshua Holland, MIFTAH 1/31/2009
     What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same "children of Israel" described in the Old Testament?
     And what if most modern Israelis aren’t descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn’t "return" to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?
     What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora -- the story recounted at Passover tables by Jews around the world every year detailing the ancient Jews’ exile from Judea, the years spent wandering through the desert, their escape from the Pharaoh’s clutches -- is all wrong?
     That’s the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year. After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated into a dozen languages and will be published in the United States this year by Verso. more.. e-mail

They Shoot Children from Womb to Cradle to Grave
Mohamed Khodr, Palestine Think Tank 1/31/2009
     Political cartoon by Carlos Latuff
     "There are only two powers in the world…the sword of the oppressor and the spirit of the oppressed. In the long run, the sword is always defeated by the spirit." - Napoleon Bonaparte
     "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." –Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.
     "May the Holy Name visit retribution on the Arabs’ heads, and cause their seed to be lost, and annihilate them, and cause them to be vanquished and cause them to be cast from the world. It is forbidden to be merciful to them, you must give them missiles, with relish - annihilate them. Evil ones, damnable ones."– Ultra-Orthodox Shas Party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in a sermon discussing Passover and God’s wrath at Israel’s enemies, 8 April 2001. Some months ago he distinguished himself by describing Arabs as "snakes" whom "God regrets having created".... – Professor Arnold Toynbee, famed British Historian, in "A Study of HIstory" more.. e-mail

The BBC’s Warped impartiality
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     The BBC wouldn’t help the Gaza Appeal because doing so might jeopardise the public’s confidence in the BBC’s impartiality.
     That’s laughable. Everyone I know has written several times to the BBC complaining about its glaring lack of impartiality when reporting the Palestine-Israel conflict. Some feel obliged to protest on a daily basis.
     So brazen is the British Broadcasting Corporation’s eagerness to "fudge it" for Israel that it is widely known here as the Zionist Broadcasting Corporation - the ZBC or Zee-Bee-Cee.
     The BBC delights in finding Palestinian spokesmen who lack media skills and whose speech is difficult to understand, while always wheeling in trained and polished Israeli PR people. The Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor is given plenty of air time but we rarely hear from his Palestinian opposite number, Professor Hassassian.
     Professional liars like Mark Regev with his ’friendly’ Australian accent are given a free ride by BBC presenters and interviewers, who are so poorly briefed -- having no doubt swallowed the disinformation that’s pumped out through Israel’s London embassy - that the most outrageous untruths and distortions go unchallenged. more.. e-mail

’Myth of Exile’: Justifying Slaughter in Gaza
Janine Roberts, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     The ’myth of an exile’ is ’taught to members of the Israeli armed forces.’
     Many have been appalled by the seemingly mindless orgy of destruction of families, children, homes, streets, shops and orchards in Gaza carried out by the Israeli armed forces.It left me wanting to know what has happened to make ordinary well-educated Israelis think that it is morally right to do this to their comparatively unarmed neighbors?
     I perhaps stumbled on part of the answer in the bookstore at Tel Aviv airport on a recent visit to Israel.A map on display marked all the land from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea as Israel: there was no West Bank, no Gaza Strip. A travel book I admired for its photos of a beautiful land also described it all as Israel. Jericho was in Israel it stated, although deep inside the West Bank.
     If this bookstore is as typical as I suspect, then most Israelis are convinced they already own the lands now occupied by Palestinians. It is as if they see them, not as a sovereign people, but as a host of unwelcome and unruly tenants squatting Jewish lands.If this is so, then I thought there is little hope for a "Two State" solution. more.. e-mail

War on Gaza: Israeli Action, Not Reaction
Nicola Nasser - Bir Zeit, The West Bank, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     Stubbornly insisting on getting the carriage before the horse as the approach to a ’durable and sustainable’ ceasefire in Gaza Strip, U.S. and European diplomacy in particular is building on an Israeli misleading premise that the 22 -- day military operation, dubbed ’Cast Lead,’ against the Palestinian Gaza Strip was a reaction and not a premeditated long planned scheme that found in the change of guards in Washington D.C. an excellent timing. It was ’not simply a reaction,’ but ’a calculation,’ Daniel Klaidman wrote in Newsweek on January 10.
     U.S. and European diplomats are reiterating the Israeli propaganda justification: "What would any normal country do if they were threatened by rocket fire? They would act." U.S. President Barak Obama was the last western leader to uphold this Israeli claim. "But Israel is not a normal country, it is an occupying country," former Palestinian - Israeli member of Knesset Azmi Bishara said. Moreover what country would tolerate an eight -- year siege and not consider it an act of war without any national reaction? Why should western diplomacy judge Palestinians in Gaza as universally abnormal. more.. e-mail

Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum
William A. Cook, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     C-Span provided Americans a chance to view a World Economic Forum debate on Peace in the Mid-East on the 29th from Davos, Switzerland. Americans rarely have an opportunity to view a civilized debate on the crisis in Palestine, but to witness the anger of Israel’s representative at the Forum, President Shimon Peres, was unique indeed.
     Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented a carefully detailed analysis of the lead up to and the consequences of the Israeli invasion of Gaza followed by a second logically stated argument against the Israeli government’s action by Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League. Both men presented their arguments in a calm and deliberate manner that gave strength and credibility to their presentations. However, President Peres squirmed uncomfortably in his chair as he listened to these arguments and to the audience’s positive reaction to them.
     In his response, Peres launched into a passionate defense of the Israeli state’s invasion pointing to three primary points that justified the attack. more.. e-mail

Try Israeli War Criminals, in Israel
Uri Avnery – Israel, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     ’My list of suspects includes politicians, soldiers, rabbis and lawyers.’
     A Spanish judge has instituted a judicial inquiry against seven Israeli political and military personalities on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case: the 2002 dropping of a one ton bomb on the home of Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Apart from the intended victim, 14 people, most of them children, were killed.
     For those who have forgotten: the then commander of the Israeli Air Force, Dan Halutz, was asked at the time what he feels when he drops a bomb on a residential building. His unforgettable answer: "A slight bump to the wing." When we in Gush Shalom accused him of a war crime, he demanded that we be put on trial for high treason. He was joined by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who accused us of wanting to "turn over Israeli army officers to the enemy". The Attorney General notified us officially that he did not intend to open an investigation against those responsible for the bombing. more.. e-mail

Every family has a story, here are some of them
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/30/2009
     There are many stories. Each account -- each murdered individual, each wounded person, each burned-out and broken house, each shattered window, trashed kitchen, strewn item of clothing, bedroom turned upside down, bullet and shelling hole in walls, offensive Israeli army graffiti -- is important.
     I start to tell the stories of Ezbet Abbed Rabu, eastern Jabaliya, where homes off the main north south road, Salah al-Din, were penetrated by bullets, bombs and/or soldiers. If they weren’t destroyed, they were occupied or shot up. Or occupied and then destroyed. The army was creative in their destruction, in their defacing of property, in their insults. Creative in the ways they could shit in rooms and save their shit for cupboards and unexpected places. Actually, their creativity wasn’t so broad. The rest was routine: ransack the house from top to bottom. Turn over or break every clothing cupboard, kitchen shelf, television, computer, window pane and water tank.
     The first house I visited was that of my dear friends, who we’d stayed with in the evenings before the land invasion began, with whom we had huddled in their basement as the random crashes of missiles pulverized around the neighborhood. I worried non-stop about the father. After seeing he was still alive, I’d done the tour, from the bottom up. The safe-haven ground floor room was the least affected: disheveled, piles of earth at bases of windows where it had rushed in with a later bombing which caved the hillside behind, mattresses turned over and items strewn. This room was the cleanest, least damaged. more.. e-mail

Israel Faces the Gaza Aftermath
Dan Lieberman, International Middle East Media Center News 1/30/2009
     From self-deception to self-destruction
     Digging through the pulverized ruins of Gaza revealed the extent of damage to the Palestinian community.
     Still not revealed are exact reasons for Israel’s attack, its sudden willingness to halt the damage and what awaits a shaken Middle East in the future. Clues that contradict the given reason for the attack - rockets hitting Israeli soil – are: (1) rockets have been hitting southern Israel since 2002, (2) the initial rocket barrage caused no casualties, and (3) the intensive emphasis on the rocket attacks as the reason for Israel’s overly aggressive counterpunch, with almost all Israelis and foreign newspapers reciting that theme, seemed too arranged, more like concerted propaganda, and an attempt to divert attention from more valid explanations.
     Regardless of the conflicting views of events, an inevitable drift to war was set in ... more.. e-mail

The new siege mechanism
Nicola Nasser, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/29/2009
     Some within the pro-US Palestinian establishment, to Israel’s manifest interest, are seeking to condition aid to Gaza on their reassertion of power in the coastal Strip.
     The rebuilding of Gaza has become the latest siege weapon. The Israeli occupation, the US that had backed its offensive, and the EU which did nothing to stop it are conspiring to turn the reconstruction process into a means to produce a suitable "peace partner" while the Arab summit in Kuwait hopes to use it to bring about Palestinian reconciliation. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) government is urging all parties and others to look to it as the sole channel for administering the construction process on the grounds that it is the government formed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation that is recognised as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Soon we will see that freezing reconstruction will become the tool of all those parties for extracting from the resistance what they have been unable to gain from three weeks of warfare and the long blockade that preceded it.
     Israel, the occupying power, is determined to keep a tight grip on the reconstruction process, which is why it sustained its closure of the border crossing following its "unilateral" ceasefire. Indeed, this is why it declared the ceasefire unilaterally: it did not want to be bound by any agreement -- the Egyptian initiative or any other framework -- that would oblige it to lift the embargo, if only partially, in order to facilitate reconstruction. Tel Aviv has also been seeking to obtain "guarantees" from international agencies such as UNWRA. On 19 January Reuters reported that Western diplomats revealed that Israel had asked the UN and other agencies to submit itemised lists of the goods, equipment and staff that they intend to send into Gaza, whether for urgent relief or for the more long-term reconstruction process.... more.. e-mail

Victims twice over
Azmi Ashour, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/29/2009
     Once again, the Palestinians find themselves pawns of regional power struggles while brutalised by a barbaric Israel.
     Developments in the Middle East bring to the fore many contradictions, ambiguities and falsehoods. Events in Gaza, today, throw into relief the fact that some of the world’s commonly held perceptions on the Palestinian- Israeli conflict are founded on little more than skewed facts and myths. Foremost among these misperceptions is Israel’s peaceful intent. Israel has routinely snubbed sincere peace initiatives to end the conflict, preferring instead to manage the conflict in its own relentless way, which depends heavily on aggression, killing and destruction, along with economic siege, all given a veneer of legitimacy for domestic and foreign consumption. Consequently, the other side must be forever vigilant in order to forestall an attack that could happen at any moment on such feeble pretexts as "self-defence" cited by Israel and those who have vested interests in its policies. Which leads us to the question as to whether the universally acknowledged right to self-defence is one that is denied to the Palestinians.
     As events in Lebanon in 2006 and these weeks in Gaza testify, violence on the part of the resistance has always been in response to Israeli violence. After more than 50 years of being on the receiving end of the Israeli creed of employing brute force, the Palestinians have developed a kind of immunity to fear or surrender. Over time, the Palestinians have evolved the ability to choose the most appropriate means to contend with Israel’s powerful and advanced military machine.... more.. e-mail

The silence of the jurists
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 2/1/2009
     One silence, of all the shameful silences, has thus far roared especially loud - the silence of the jurists. The 41,000 attorneys in the state of Israel are entrusted with protecting its image as a lawful state, and this large and grand army has once again strayed from its function. There is a deep suspicion throughout the world that Israel carried out a series of war crimes, and the jurists of our country are holding their peace.
     Where, for instance, is Aharon Barak when we really need him? Where are his colleagues, the former justices of the Supreme Court, who knew very well how to raise their voices when Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann threatened to harm the apple of their eye, and who now hide in their cowardly silence?
     Where is Mishael Cheshin, who threatened to cut off the hand of anyone who raises it against the Supreme Court no less, and now, with a heavy shadow being cast before us, does not say a word? Do they not know that disproportionately harming a civilian population, supply convoys and medical crews, the use of white phosphorus in the midst of population centers and indiscriminate bombings are considered war crimes? What is their response to their enraged colleagues around the world? Are they convinced that Israel carried out these crimes or not? In both instances, their voice is vital and their silence is abominable. more.. e-mail

Pearls of Gaza – A Poem
Andrea Lamb, Palestine Chronicle 1/31/2009
     To the Pearls of Gaza – the Palestinians
     Imprisoned, trapped as Gazan sand
     In clammed tight shells --
     oppression and death --
     life seeks life, and struggles for breath.
     These Sands resist apartheid hells.
    
     Hideous torment-- burns, white blasts,
     Transfigures single grains to strength
     thru pain, the strength that strengthens
     forms these jewels with will
     to live yet death to face,
     These lustrous Pearls of Gaza.... more.. e-mail

My terror as a human shield: The story of Majdi Abed Rabbo
Donald Macintyre in Jabalya, Gaza, The Independent 1/30/2009
     As battle raged in Gaza, Israeli soldiers forced Majdi Abed Rabbo to risk his life as a go-between in the hunt for three Hamas fighters. This is his story...
     After yet another fierce, 45-minute gun battle, Majdi Abed Rabbo was ordered once again to negotiate his perilous way across the already badly-damaged roof of his house, through the jagged gap in the wall and slowly down the stairs towards the first-floor apartment in the rubble-strewn house next door. Not knowing if the men were dead or alive, he shouted for the second time that day: "I’m Majdi. Don’t be afraid."
     All three men – with Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, wearing camouflage and headbands bearing the insignia of the Izzedine el Qassam brigades – were still alive, though one was badly injured and persuaded Mr Abed Rabbo to tighten the improvised bandage round his right arm. The youngest – perhaps 21 – was taking cover behind fallen masonry from where he could see the Israeli troops who had sent the visitor. Nervously, Mr Abed Rabbo told them: "They sent me back so I can take your weapons. They told me you are dead." It was the youngest who replied defiantly: "Tell the officer, ’If you’re a man come up here’."
     When the soldiers had arrived at about 10am, Mr Abed Rabbo, 40, had no inkling that over the next 24 hours he would make four heart-stopping trips, shuttling across increasingly dangerous terrain between the Israeli forces and the three besieged but determined Hamas militants who had become his unwelcome next-door neighbours. He would recall every detail of an episode which, in the telling, resembles the more melodramatic kind of war movie, but which was all too real for a man who by the end had lost his house and thought (wrongly) that his wife and children were dead. He had also witnessed at too close quarters the last stand of the men from the Qassam brigades in the face of relentless Israeli ground attacks and Apache helicopter fire. more.. e-mail

Palestinian orgs. call for boycott and end of Gaza siege
Press release, Palestinian NGO Network, Electronic Intifada 1/29/2009
     The following position paper was issued on 28 January 2009 by the Palestinian NGO Network:
     On 27 December 2008, Israeli occupying forces launched a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip from the sea, land and air. For 22 days the Israeli military indiscriminately shelled homes, mosques and schools, leaving no area of Gazan society untouched. During Israel’s barbaric military campaign, approximately 1,300 Palestinians were killed. According to Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, almost four of every five persons killed was a civilian. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than one of every three fatalities was a child. Practices and tactics adopted by the Israeli military during its offensive, which included bombing and shelling densely populated areas, strongly indicate that civilians were deliberately targeted.
     The goal of the Israeli military was clearly to leave an indelible imprint in the minds of the Palestinians, both the current and future generations -- an image of unprecedented destruction -- in the hope of erasing the memory of resistance and struggle amongst the people of Gaza. In doing so Israel would be free to impose its goals, and instill a culture of obedience, and compliance with the occupying power. more.. e-mail

Siege against ‘Azzun Atmeh tightened as 75 residents are further isolated
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Stop The Wall 1/29/2009
     Occupation forces have intensified the closure of ‘Azzun Atmeh, reinforcing the Wall on the southern edge of the village. At least 75 residents are isolated to the east, in addition to agricultural land and structures. Soldiers have also been impeding the movement of isolated residents through the access gates, putting additional strain on the already encircled village.
     On 25 January Occupation forces completed a fence, which extends across the southern side of the village, beginning from the Oranlit settlement and terminating at the settlement of Sha’are Tiqwa. Soldiers added barbed wire to the 5 km of fencing, erected military watchtowers and replaced the gate with a newer model. Land for this had been confiscated by military order November 2008.
     This procedure has heightened isolation of nine homes from the village, home to 75 persons, in addition to a number of workshops and farms. Isolated residents are forced to walk on foot for not less than 200 meters in order to enter or exit the village. They are prohibited from using cars and animals for transportation and are subjected two checks; once when entering the village from the south and once again if they wish to continue out of the village to other parts of the West Bank. more.. e-mail

Boycott the BBC
Terry Lacey, Palestine Chronicle 1/29/2009
     The decision of the BBC to refuse to broadcast a humanitarian appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) made of up British NGOs working in the Gaza Strip to help the wounded and homeless of Gaza is one of the most craven acts of political and legal cowardice in the history of British television broadcasting.
     In all my years as General Secretary of War on Want, as Chairman of the International Broadcasting Trust, as Patron of the One World Broadcasting Trust, and as a member of the previous Educational Advisory Committee of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, I never came across such a huge political misjudgement as that made by Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC. He must resign or the damage to the Corporation will be cumulative and global.
     During the Thatcher years when War on Want was in a constant battle with the Charity Commission on politics and charity law there was no parallel to this. more.. e-mail

The plowshare over the sword
Ilmas Futehally, Ha’aretz 1/30/2009
     Israel’s 22-day war against Hamas in Gaza was incredibly destructive. Any reader of the local or international press will by now have been inundated by horrific images of lost lives and physical destruction in Gaza, as well as crowded bomb shelters and terrified children in southern Israel. Yet there are broader, possibly more enduring costs to the conflict. Beyond the wartime impact on the Gazan economy in real terms is the long-term unrealized potential of both the Israeli and Palestinian economies. Just as the November Mumbai terror attacks destroyed human lives, while also erasing untold millions in future Indian tourism revenues, the Gazan war is another rung on the ladder of what has been a series of disappointments for anyone interested in the possibilities of a flourishing and vibrant economy in Israel-Palestine.
     Since the outbreak of the second intifada, in 2000, the conflict has destroyed a lot of regional economic productivity. There have been unquantifiable Palestinian losses due to closures, checkpoints and power blackouts, but the larger trends are also disturbing, according to our research at the Strategic Foresight Group.
     In 1998, 673,662 Palestinians were considered to be officially poor, according to a per capita poverty line of $2.40 per day; in 2005, that figure stood at 1,307,355, nearly double - a significant jump, even taking into account the high Palestinian population growth rate. As a result of Israeli military operations between 2000 and 2006, there was an estimated loss of $42,846,895 in Gazan agricultural productivity, due to the destruction of land, trees, vegetables and greenhouses, based on the value of the ruined agriculture.... more.. e-mail

U.N. Debates Duty to Halt War Crimes, Genocide
Nergui Manalsuren, Inter Press Service 1/30/2009
     UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 (IPS) - After the recent turmoil in Gaza, ongoing mass killings in Darfur, and the failure to timely intervene to aid survivors of last year’s Cyclone Nargis in Burma, civil society groups are calling on U.N. member states to fully commit to the so-called "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) concept.
     R2P was adopted at the U.N. World Summit in 2005 and gives the international community the authority - in principle - to take "collective action", including force, when national governments fail to protect the most vulnerable from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
     The new International Coalition on the Responsibility to Protect was launched Wednesday at U.N. headquarters, and includes the East African Law Society (Tanzania), the West African Civil Society Institute (Ghana), the International Refugees Rights Initiative (Uganda), Initiatives for International Dialogue (Philippines), Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales (Argentina), and Human Rights Watch and Oxfam International.
     All share the belief that R2P has the potential to become a powerful new tool for averting humanitarian disasters, especially when there is a concerted effort between governments and civil society. more.. e-mail

Stop the deceit and whitewashing
Haaretz Editorial, Ha’aretz 1/30/2009
     Almost four years after attorney Talia Sasson published a report exposing the cooperation, by commission and omission, of successive Israeli governments in the establishment of dozens of settlement outposts, an internal defense document reveals that even settlements deemed legal by Israel are in part, and sometimes in large part, effectively illegal outposts.
     The Defense Ministry’s database documents illegal construction in more than 30 settlements, including such veteran settlements as Ofra, Elon Moreh and Beit El. Worse, the document - which is being revealed today for the first time in an article by Uri Blau in Haaretz Magazine (in Hebrew) - details a scandalous amount of land theft by the "legal" settlements. Schools, synagogues and even police stations have been built on private Palestinian land. more.. e-mail

A suffocating consensus of self-congratulation
Seth Freedman, The Guardian 1/29/2009
     According to the constitution of the World Jewish Congress, the association’s purpose is to "foster the unity, and represent the interests, of the Jewish people"; a weighty mantle to assume, especially given the sheer diversity of the various strands of world Jewry. Despite all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the WJC’s 13th Plenary Assembly in Jerusalem, it was clear that the body had no chance of living up to such lofty expectations, precisely because of the make-up of the delegates and their failure to adhere to their own code of practice.
     Instead of staying "politically non-partisan and represent[ing] the plurality of the Jewish people", the gathering was simply an opportunity for out-and-out posturing, from the top down. Ron Lauder, scion of the cosmetics family and WJC president, made it his mission from the off to express unambiguous support for the Israeli government, an example repeatedly followed by the rest of the delegates.
     While the WJC is a fairly toothless and unrepresentative organisation, the high profile of its leadership means it has the pulling power to attract guests from the uppermost echelons of Israeli politics. Thus, in the space of eight hours, delegates were treated to live performances by the cream of Israeli politics: Shimon Peres, Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, all appearing before an adoring crowd of disciples. more.. e-mail

Gaza, the Reckoning Day
Sameh M. Brill, Palestine Think Tank 1/29/2009
     Soon after we had seen a unilateral ceasefire from Israel followed by the withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) after a 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip, we hear the usual two sides of the story, from both Israel and Hamas, each one claiming that Victory was on its Side and all goals were achieved. Either by "Eliminating Hamas Infrastructures and putting an end to the weapon smuggling through underground tunnels" or by "Showing that Hamas Militants stood still facing the state-of-the-Art destructive ’American-made’ technology by the hands of the Zionists" and how it was able with it’s humble capabilities to push IDF back with bare hands renewing the memory of Israel Defeat in the minds of those who witnessed the Lebanon War in 2006.
     Whether Hamas or Israel won, it would matter no more. After all, thousands of Civilians have paid the price in this war, fed their innocent blood to the barrels of the Israeli machine guns and the Zionist bloodthirsty grenades and missiles.
     While War Crimes were committed in Gaza, Countries were silently watching it on the media screens and when they decided to act positively towards this horrible situation, they decided to watch some more. Each country (whether, Arab or non-Arab) carrying its hidden agenda, shutting every spokesmen’s mouth from speaking out the truth supporting the weak Gazans. more.. e-mail

Need, not politics
Jane Cocking, Oxfam, The Guardian 1/29/2009
     The political aspects to the conflict in Gaza, as elsewhere, must not stop aid reaching those who need it.
     The bitter row over the aid agencies’ appeal for Gaza has at its heart the assumption that the conflict in the Middle East is unique amongst humanitarian emergencies.
     The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unusually "political", the argument runs, so doing aid work in Gaza is difficult and contentious, unlike helping the victims of a tsunami, a famine or a war in a despotic African country.
     Yes, it is more political than many emergencies, but it’s a matter of degree. All conflicts are intensely political in their own way. The questions that divide the Israelis, Palestinians and their supporters – who started it? Who’s at fault? Whose suffering counts for more? Who’s fighting dirty? – are asked in every conflict. When Israel and Palestine clash, British people understand and care about the answers. They are far less engaged when the CNDP and the FDLR fight in the Congo.
     Oxfam deals with complex, violent political situations every single day, from Afghanistan to Darfur to Colombia. The difficult politics of Sudan or Zimbabwe don’t stop the delivery of aid in those countries, and for 60 years Oxfam has learned to respond impartially to humanitarian emergencies in very difficult circumstances, based on need. more.. e-mail

Waltz with history
Tom Segev, Ha’aretz 1/29/2009
     The film "Waltz with Bashir" belongs to the kvetch genre: "Oy, how traumatic that massacre in Sabra and Chatila was for us." The Jewish Agency is afraid that the tender soul of American Jewry might be hurt by the film and therefore it is offering them psychological relief on the Internet (jewishculture.org).
     It is not clear what the Agency sees as the main problem: Is it the psychological difficulty of remaining "pro-Israel" after watching the film, or is it that viewers will not remain "pro-Israel"? Whatever the case may be, a single solution has been found for both these problems: to disassociate the film from the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to transfer it to the most distant possible realms, as though it were just a work of art.
     This is not a "pro-Israel" film and it is not an "anti-Israel" film, the Web site reassures us: "Life in modern Israel is far more complicated than ’good or bad.’" The site proposes discussions in forums that resemble support groups, and instructs their moderators to avoid making any binding statements: "Don’t expect to know the ’answers’; in fact, don’t expect there to be ’right answers’ at all!" In other words, it is an absolute no-no to criticize anything that was done under the aegis of Israel, even if it is a crime against humanity. more.. e-mail

The Myth of Disengagement
Abu Yusef from Occupied Palestine, Palestine Monitor 1/29/2009
     "˜Gaza is a prison; and Israel seems to have thrown away the key." - John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
     In 2004, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced to the world his plan to unilaterally "˜disengage" from the 37 year occupation of the Gaza Strip.
     According to Sharon, protecting the small number of Israeli settlers within one of the world’s most densely populated and hostile environments was becoming far more trouble than it was worth.
     Underneath this seemingly pragmatic discourse though was the growing belief/fear inside of Israel over the explosion of the ‘demographic bomb’ in historical Palestine – in which Palestinians would soon outnumber their Jewish counterparts leading to charges of Apartheid. By ‘disengaging’ or supposedly ‘de-occupying’ the Gaza Strip, Israel was able to cleanly shave off nearly 1.4 million Palestinians from under its perceived control.
     Sharon’s decision led to the breakdown of Likud’s coalition and eventually the Likud party itself. Sharon forged on by picking up rare support from the Israeli left and forming the more centrist Kadima party to carry out his unilateral plan under a new governing coalition. more.. e-mail

Were chickens firing rockets?
Sameh A. Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/29/2009
     Israel’s devastating war on Gaza claimed the lives of more than 1,335 persons and left at least 5,500 other wounded. In addition tens of thousands of utilities, houses, businesses, and factories were partially or totally destroyed. The war caused psychological damage for thousands of people especially children. I reported on the war daily and my focus was on the human toll. However, I recently came across a story that changed my focus completely a revealed to me the true nature of Israel’s soldiers and their intent in invading Gaza.
     Since the ceasefire was enacted, I have toured throughout Gaza to document some stories and accounts. Although I wrote many articles, I decided to focus on the untold stories of the war: the brutal massacre of thousands of chickens.
     On 5 January, many Israeli tanks, troops and bulldozers advanced into the al-Zeitoun neighborhood south east of Gaza City. In this area, called al-Samouni, Israel killed 49 members of the Samouni family, after soldiers ordered them to gather into a single home, which was shelled several hours later. more.. e-mail

Jesus in Gaza – A Poem
The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature a new poem, Palestine Chronicle 1/29/2009
     I met Jesus in Gaza last night
     Nailed to a concrete wall
     Impaled by shrapnel
     Through hands and feet
     Wearing a crown of barbed wire
     And a countenance of sorrow
     At his feet
     A bloodied child
     Frozen
     Still
     Cold
     Tattered were her clothes
     Ugly were her wounds
     I wept for her
     He wept for us.... more.. e-mail

The South at war -- in Gaza
Facing South 1/7/2009
     Israel’s military campaign in Gaza -- which has led to a death toll of 595 civilians, including 130 children under age 16 -- may seem a world away to many Southerners. But in reality, people in Southern states -- especially Florida and Texas -- have a very direct link to the bloody conflict, since many of the weapons being used by Israel are made there.
     It’s no secret that the U.S. is the largest provider of military aid to Israel. As a December 2008 report by the New America Foundation documented, Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. security assistance since the 1970s, a trend that will continue:
     [D]uring [the Bush administration] Israel has received over $21 billion in security assistance funding, an average of more than $2.7 billion a year (see table 15). Beginning with the FY2010 budget, to be introduced in February 2009, Israel is slated to receive an increase in security assistance of up to $3 billion a year over a ten-year period.
     Much of this money comes back to the U.S., because Israel turns around and uses it to buy arms from U.S companies. And a number of the weapons being used by Israel in its latest offensive can be traced back to the South, especially Florida and Texas.... more.. e-mail

Aid reaching Gaza, but is it enough?
Pablo de Soto/IRIN, IRIN - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1/29/2009
     RAMALLAH, 28 January 2009 (IRIN) - Israel says 453 trucks entered Gaza 18-23 January, but only about half of them carried humanitarian aid - not nearly enough for 1.5 million Gazans, say UN agencies and international aid groups.
     "The donors and the general public have mobilised from all over the world but the aid is stuck outside Gaza,"� said John Ging, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza.
     Of the 100-120 trucks permitted to enter per day, some 37-40 are for UNRWA, about half are for commercial goods such as meat and nappies, and the remainder are for other aid agencies, said Ging, who pointed out that before June 2007 Israel permitted 500-600 trucks to enter daily.
     Food in Gaza is still scarce due to price increases and the lack of currency, and the destruction of farmland is exacerbating food shortages, , according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Apart from the tunnels from Egypt, there are no other ways of getting food or other goods into Gaza.
     There are five crossings into Gaza - four from Israel and one from Egypt. However, none are open in a regular or consistent way, and relatively little aid is getting through. -- See also: Latest UN field update from Gaza more.. e-mail

Uprooted lives
Ewa Jasiewicz - Jabaliya, Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/28/2009
     Yesterday saw the first canvas tents go up in the Gaza strip to house internally displaced people. The UN estimates 50,000 people have been made homeless due to the bombing and bulldozing of homes and properties by Israeli occupation forces in Israel’s 21 day offensive in the Gaza Strip. The displacement is just meters in the case of many families who don’t want to move far from their ancestral land, and have opted to move into tents on the site of their destroyed houses.
     People have lost more than their homes here. Entire families, living on family land, handed down throughout generations, have had their protection, life’s investment, and community networks literally crushed. The Al Eer family, living on land close to the border in’Izbat ’Abed Rabbu had eleven homes reduced to rubble, and had five members dragged out from under one home. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, medical crews found Ibrahim Mohammed al-’Err, 11; Rakan Mohammed al-’Err, 4; Fidaa’ Mohammed al-’Err, 17; Iman Nember al-’Err, 27; and Mohammed Mousa al-’Err, 48 in the early hours of Sunday 18th January. Ibrahim al-Err, standing in the ruins of his home told me his family left their home on January 7th, after being told by Israeli Occupation Forces to get out. The family was told to leave immediately by loudhailers perched on tanks. ’We saw 10s of tanks, they were everywhere, we didn’t even have five minutes, we didn’t have time to take our belongings’. Nasser al-Err, 40, living close by explained, ’My sons left without their shoes, I had 5-6000 Dinars at home -- I don’t know where it is or how to reach it. My son is disabled, where will he go?’ more.. e-mail

Israeli strikes leave Blair project with major repairs
Donald MacIntyre in Gaza, The Independent 1/28/2009
     One of Tony Blair’s flagship projects as international Middle East envoy -- and one of his most concrete achievements to date -- was emergency work on a sewage plant in northern Gaza to stop it overflowing and endangering the lives of some 10,000 people.
     Now, it has emerged that Israeli forces severely damaged parts of the plant during their 22-day offensive and the project -- which was due for completion at the end of this week -- has been delayed for two months, with repairs expected to cost $200,000 (£140,000).
     Although the damage to Mr Blair’s project close to the border with Israel in northern Gaza is modest compared with the overall destruction across the Strip and a Gazan death toll put by the Palestinian Ministry of Health at more than 1,200, it has considerable political and diplomatic significance. It is virtually the only major development aid project which has been allowed to go ahead since Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza 18 months ago.
     Mr Blair, who has already raised the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, had worked intensively to secure Israeli approval for vital components to be brought into Gaza for the works despite Israel’s 18-month-long economic siege. The bulk of the North Gaza emergency sewage treatment project was due for completion in early January and the rest by the end of this week but it is now unlikely to be completed until March at the earliest. more.. e-mail

BBC and Transformation of Suffering into Propaganda
Sarah Gillepsie - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/28/2009
     ’What impartiality requires is not that everyone receive equal treatment, but rather that everyone be treated as an equal.’ Ronald Dworkin Taking Rights Seriously. Harvard University Press. 1977, p. 227).
     BBC director general Mark Thomson can not screen footage of Palestinian suffering in Gaza without compromising his cooperation’s impartiality. At the heart of his obfuscation lays a belief that Palestinian pain is not an objective reality. It is, at best, a subjective possibility, one loaded with the potential to burst into a subversive, destabilizing force.
     For activists and supporters who are frequently asked why they devote more energy to Palestine than Darfur or the Congo (the implication being of course that they are anti-Semites) Mark Thomson provides the most succinct answer. For Thomson has no problem whatsoever screening Disaster Emergency Committee films on behalf of Darfur and the Congo. The suffering endured by people in these regions is endorsed by the BBC as a universally acknowledged fact. Screening footage of the humanitarian disaster in Palestine though, sabotages Sky and the BBC’s obligation to be ’balanced.’ If this was indeed a war, and not genocidal attack, then the BBC could counter their depictions of carnage in Gaza with images of the horrors endured in Sderot. But this is of course impossible. The visual impact of a damaged kitchen doesn’t quite cut it next to the apocalyptic hell hole that is Gaza. more.. e-mail

Winning and Losing in Gaza
Richard Falk, Middle East Online 1/28/2009
     Now that there is a cease-fire in Gaza, questions are emerging about what Israel has achieved. Of course, the lopsided casualty figures and Israel’s military dominance certainly make it the battlefield winner. But such a "mission accomplished" assessment is as misleading in occupied Palestine as it was in Iraq. Although Hamas could not come close to matching Israel’s armed might, it may have won a major battle for Palestinian hearts and minds. Reports from the West Bank, Gaza and the Palestinian diaspora suggest widespread anger at the Palestinian Authority for its passivity and a rise in support for Hamas, even among secular Palestinians -- in appreciation of its determined resistance to the brutality of the Israeli occupation and military operations. If Hamas becomes the dominant political force in all of occupied Palestine when the next elections are held, Israel will be the loser.
     The scorecard is also complicated on the diplomatic front. Perhaps Israel’s military display will have some inhibiting effects on its opponents, but the extreme one-sidedness of the struggle evoked widespread protests and some negative diplomatic repercussions. Qatar and Mauritania, among the few states in the region that had accepted Israel, broke relations, and the European Union has suspended moves to improve Israel’s status as a trading partner. The Turkish prime minister even suggested expelling Israel from the United Nations. more.. e-mail

Israel Violated Cease-fire 7 Times, No Media Reports
Haitham Sabbah, Palestine Think Tank 1/28/2009
     US Media Misreport Latest Gaza Violence
     (Political cartoon by Carlos Latuff )
     Please phone and ask for correction!
     American media are reporting violence that took place along the Gaza-Israel border on January 27th as, in the words of CNN, "the first incidents of violence since last week’s Mideast cease-fire," telling the public that Palestinians broke the ceasefire. [1]
     The reality, however, is that Israel had already violated the cease-fire at least 7 times, the Israeli military killing 2 Palestinian civilians and injuring at least 5, at least one of them a child:
     * Israeli forces killed a Palestinian farmer in Khuza’a east of Khan Yunis on Jan 18
     * Israeli forces killed a Palestinian farmer east of Jabalia on Jan 19
     * Israeli naval gunboats shelled the Gaza coast line, causing damage to civilian structures on Jan 21
     * Israeli troops shot and injured a child east of Gaza City on Jan 22
     * Israeli gunboat fire injured 4-7 Palestinian fishermen on Jan 22
     * Israeli shelling set a Palestinian house on fire on Jan 22
     * Israeli tanks fired on the border town of Al Faraheen, causing damage to homes and farms on Jan 24
     This list does not include two Palestinian children who were killed on January 20th by unexploded ordnance left from Israel’s 22-day assault on Gaza.[2] (Additional details about the above cease-fire breaches and citations can be found in the timeline below...) -- See also: A FLYER about this can be downloaded here more.. e-mail

The shortcut to peace
Hasan Abu Nimah, Electronic Intifada 1/28/2009
     Because it is generally accepted by the so-called "international community" that Hamas is a major threat to Israel, and therefore to world peace and security, France has dispatched a frigate to participate in a new blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Sunday Times reported that United States naval ships hunting pirates in the Gulf of Aden have been instructed to track down Iranian arms shipments (25 January). Many other European states offered their navies to assist. Indeed, United Nations Security Council resolution 1860 emphasized the need to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition.
     Unfortunately not one European country offered to send its navy to render humanitarian assistance to the thousands of injured, hungry, cold and homeless people in Gaza rendered so as a result of Israel’s attack. Perhaps helping children dying from white phosphorus burns, or just lack of clean water, would be seen as supporting "terrorism."
     The perverse assumption behind all the offers of help to Israel seems to be that Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza fired rockets at Israel merely because rockets were available. Therefore, the logic goes, peace would prevail if the supply of rockets were curtailed. more.. e-mail

Prominent Palestinian figures appeal for national unity
Various Undersigned, Ma’an News Agency 1/28/2009
     A number of Palestinian leaders on Tuesday signed a letter in Ramallah demanding reconciliation between competing factions.
     The text of the letter, as well as its signatories, is as follows:
     Appeal for Unity
     January 26, 2009
     The Palestinian people today are faced with dangerous conditions.
     There is a deterioration in conditions following the recent barbaric aggression on Gaza Strip, which has local, Arab, regional and international ramifications, along with the positions and measures that endanger the safety and unity of the Palestinian territories and other measures that jeopardize the representation and independence of the Palestinian people’s decision, and work underway to prepare the grounds for passing schemes that Israel has aimed to impose on our people through increasing colonialism schemes, denying the Palestinian people their rights and through steps aimed to realize the Zionist dream.
     In face of this dangerous picture, there is a need to adopt a clear position based on the pillars of the higher national interests that should rise high above all other individual, tribal and partisan interests. more.. e-mail

’Five Minutes’ With the PA Interrogators
Khalid Amayreh – The West Bank, Palestine Chronicle 1/28/2009
     When the Beirut-based Al-Quds satellite television interviewed me last week on the recent genocidal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, it never occurred to me that the few sound bites I uttered would land me in a slimy prison cell at the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Preventive Security Apparatus (PSA) in Hebron.
     During that interview, I was asked why the American-backed regime in Ramallah was not allowing large protests in solidarity with the Gaza Strip. I answered that the PA didn’t want things to get out of control and that it didn’t wish to antagonize Israel.
     Interestingly, Israel itself had allowed a massive demonstration against the war on Gaza to take place in the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin where as many as 150,000 people, including some Jewish peace activists, took to the streets to protest the nauseating killings and bombings of civilian targets all over the coastal enclave.
     I further pointed out that Israel didn’t really respect the PA and was effectively treating it as a subservient entity serving Israeli interests. more.. e-mail

Gaza prisoners held in harsh and humiliating conditions
Press release, Israeli human rights organizations, Electronic Intifada 1/28/2009
     This morning seven Israeli human rights organizations appealed to the Military Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblit, and to Attorney General Meni Mazuz concerning the appalling conditions in which Palestinians arrested during the fighting in Gaza were held, and the humiliating and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected from the time of their arrest until their transfer to the custody of the Israel Prison Service.
     The complaint, written by Attorneys Bana Shoughry-Badarne, from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Lila Margalit, from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Abeer Jubran-Dakuar, from Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, was submitted on behalf of those organizations and on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, B’Tselem, Yesh Din and Adalah.It is based on statements collected from detainees by lawyers from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, as well as on testimony given to Hamoked: the Center for the Defense of the Individual. more.. e-mail

VIDEO - Ali Abunimah discusses Obama’s presidency with 'progressives'
Video, GRITtv, Electronic Intifada 1/28/2009
     From closing Guantanamo to lifting the gag rule Bush era policies are coming to an end. But is it a new era of progressive government?
     Katrina vanden Heuvel editor and publisher of The Nation, Mark Green President of Air America Radio and the author of Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, Andrea Batista Schlesinger Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute, and Ali Abunimah Co-Founder of The Electronic Intifada and the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse discuss Obama’s first week in office and whether a new era of government has been inaugurated.
     They spoke on the program GRITtv hosted by Laura Flander more.. e-mail

Mitchell’s Mission: Saving the Two-State Solution
Nadia Hijab, Middle East Online 1/28/2009
     Despite George Mitchell’s vaunted abilities and the aggressive backing of the US administration, it may be too late for two states. It is not Israel’s survival that is at risk but rather its survival as a Jewish state.
     US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been tasked to listen and to help shore up the Israel-Hamas ceasefire during his week-long visit.
     But the signs point to a more ambitious agenda ahead: Saving the two-state solution. Its impending demise has focused the minds of those in Washington determined to save Israel from itself. They are reframing the conflict: A Palestinian state is now crucial to Israel’s survival.
     The reframing is potently illustrated by Sunday’s CBS 60 Minutes segment “Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?” Using strong images and language rare in the mainstream media, the respected CBS correspondent Bob Simon painted an unflattering portrait of messianic Israeli settlers and a sympathetic one of Palestinians losing land and rights. more.. e-mail

Paying Lip Service to Unity
Joharah Baker, MIFTAH 1/28/2009
     In the end, they all say the right words. From President Mahmoud Abbas down to Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and all the lesser ranking minions in between, they never forget to mention Palestinian national unity. It is the Holy Grail of Palestinian politics and all those who fail to embrace these words are immediately branded as unpatriotic, a sell out to the noble cause.
     Still, there is something horribly wrong, even when the phrase "national unity" is espoused by our leaders as the ultimate goal. Not only are the calls for national unity half-baked these days, they usually come with a huge "but". The aftermath of the latest disaster that befell the Gaza Strip is ample evidence of just how much trouble we are really in.
     While the split between Hamas and Fateh is nothing new, one would think the atrocities of Gaza and the obvious suffering of our people there would have, if nothing else, brought us together. Israel claimed its "war" was on Hamas, not the citizens of Gaza. But when the missiles fell and the phosphorus bombs rained down on the crowded Strip, all Palestinians were targets, not just members of the Islamic movement.
     Since Israel’s occupying army, our common enemy, made no discrimination amongst us, shouldn’t we at least allow ourselves the same courtesy? more.. e-mail

Italian singer revives Arabic poetry
Rasha Khayat - BONN, Germany, Middle East Online 1/28/2009
     The Arab rule of early medieval southern Europe left behind significant traces. Spain and Portugal, in particular, show Arabic and Moorish influences on language, art and architecture. Yet the effects of Arab rule on the art and culture of the Mediterranean island of Sicily have been little explored.
     Around 829, however, when a fleet from Kairouan in North Africa, led by the commander Asad ibn al-Furat, landed on the island and captured it from the Byzantines, Sicily entered a golden age. Irrigation systems and land reforms, as well as the rise of cities like Palermo, Syracuse and Marsala as the most important in the Mediterranean realm, are among the achievements of almost 300 years of Arab rule in Sicily. Alongside architecture and agriculture, the occupying forces also spawned new literature.
     Berlin-based Italian singer, Etta Scollo, says she stumbled upon the book, Anthologia die Poeti Arabi di Sicilia, by accident in a Bologna library several years ago. The anthology is a collection of poetry and divans written between the 9th and 12th centuries in Sicily, translated into Italian by contemporary poets. more.. e-mail

Alternative Birthing Methods for the New Middle East
Belén Fernández, Palestine Chronicle 1/27/2009
     ’Birth pangs can sometimes occur in the form of aerial bombardments.’
     Israel’s recent holiday assault on the Gaza Strip provoked no dearth of flashbacks in the international press to the summer 2006 assault on Lebanon. The flashbacks, it seems, were triggered not only by indiscriminate bombing and civilian casualties but by other factors as well, such as endorsement of bombing and casualties by the US Senate and tautological clarifications by Condoleezza Rice that the aim of total destruction was to prevent a return to the status quo ante. In contrast with her performance during the Lebanese debacle, however, Rice refrained from characterizing as "birth pangs of a new Middle East" what happened when the Gazan status quo ante attempted to remain the status quo; she conserved additional energy by abstaining from physical contact with the afflicted region.
     I explored Rice’s newfound succinctness during a visit to the website of the US State Department a few days prior to the inauguration of Barack Obama. A superficial comparison of the transcripts of two press briefings -- "Special Briefing on Travel to the Middle East and Europe" of 21 July 2006 and "Situation in Gaza" of 2 January 2009 - confirmed a loss of oratory motivation on the part of the outgoing Secretary. Despite similar passages rejecting ceasefires on the basis that they might not hold for eternity and condemning respective status quos ante for illegal behavior like abducting Israeli soldiers and winning elections, the discourse on Lebanon is far more effective in its metaphorical elaboration, which centers around the two concepts of feet and birth pangs. more.. e-mail

Worse than an Earthquake: Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on the Destruction in Gaza
Democracy Now! 1/27/2009
     Listen - Watch - Read
     AMY GOODMAN: How long were you in Gaza, and how did you get in?
     KATHY KELLY: We were there, Audrey Stewart and I, for a total of six days, and we had entered after going back up to Cairo and getting an official-stamped letter. You had to swear before the United States embassy in Cairo that you were going in on your own responsibility.
     AMY GOODMAN: And what did you see? Where did you go?
     KATHY KELLY: We went to Rafah, and we were very fortunate. A family that had fled from their own home and was living in a home that was lent to them in-laws invited us to stay with them. And we were immediately outside the area where people were told to evacuate. And so, we timed it. Every eleven minutes, there would be a huge bomb thudding down on the neighborhood. This was very close to where the tunnel industry had been in full activity prior to the December 27th attacks.
     And so, we heard many of the bombs falling, we heard Apache helicopters firing, and then traveled with young people, students, up to Gaza City after the ceasefire was in place and the roads had been cleared and could see just how stunned the students were at the extent of the devastation. And then, from there, we visited inside the hospital, the burn unit, in a major—Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and then went up to Beit Lahiya and Audrey over to Tufa to further see the extent of the damage. more.. e-mail

Palestinian economy: Foundation of a state or common burden?
Sami Halabi, Electronic Intifada 1/27/2009
     The consequences of Israel’s recent war on Gaza are evident to anyone with a television or Internet access. Recurrent images of civilians dying or injured in Gaza’s hospitals, smoke bellowing from distant buildings on the horizon and diplomats the world over shuttling from one photo-op to another will, in all likelihood, be duly recorded as merely another chapter of Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli occupation. Those of us who live outside of Palestine can only imagine the horrors that have befallen the Palestinians in Gaza over the last few weeks. However, when the dust settles, the Palestinian people will have to deal with getting back to whatever sense of normalcy they can muster in the face of the whimsical dictates of their occupiers.
     Perhaps the most nuanced aspect of Palestinian suffering that goes more or less unnoticed is the abominable state of the Palestinian economy. The systemic and perpetual economic hindrances imposed upon the Palestinian economy by the Israeli occupation are viewed by most experts to be the primary impediment to allowing the Palestinian economy to reach its full potential. The World Bank has identified three principal "paralytic effects" of Israeli policies on the Palestinian economy: access to economies of scale, access to natural resources and access to an investment horizon. It also cited physical impediments -- road blocks, closures, earth mounds and the ongoing construction of the wall on West Bank land, the route of which was deemed illegal in an advisory opinion made by the International Court of Justice in 2004 -- as a "paralysis confronting the Palestinian economy." more.. e-mail

Obstacles to Aid: PARC’s Resolve is Unwavering
Gen Sanders - Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine Chronicle 1/27/2009
     ’The farmers are poor people but they give what they can, without a second thought.’
     Delivering the most extreme blow to Gaza since 1967, Israel’s 22-day "Operation Cast-Lead" killed over 1,300 people, 895 of which were civilians (OCHA, January 24-26, 2009), left almost 5,000 people injured, caused a colossal amount of damage to every thinkable type of public and private infrastructure, and is responsible for an extraordinary amount of human suffering which appears to have no end.
     The assault has undeniably left a humanitarian crisis in its wake. As people begin picking up the pieces of their shattered lives (and homes), urgently required aid has finally started to trickle in - albeit very slowly. When it comes to the unreasonable inefficiency of getting vital aid through Israeli checkpoints and border crossings, as well as its tenuous safety when it finally gets there, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) could tell you a story, or two.
     On the 28th of December 2009, the second day of Israel’s appalling assault on Gaza, PARC called an urgent meeting for all active Palestinian NGOs to discuss a possible intervention plan. A popular relief campaign was agreed upon and agricultural committees in rural areas immediately began collecting donations from rural farmers in the West Bank. Saleem Abu Ghazaleh, the Director of the Fair Trade Department of PARC, choked back emotion as he explained "the farmers are very poor people but they give what they can, without a second thought, in order to help." Indeed, when Gaza bleeds, the West Bank grieves, as evidenced by the massive demonstrations of solidarity since the assault began. more.. e-mail

In Gaza, food doesn’t taste different, no matter who brings it
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 1/27/2009
     The true damage in Gaza is hard to evaluate. It is impossible to put a price on the human life that has been lost, however it is possible to try to calculate the damage to the infrastructure of Gaza. Naturally the people, 80% of whom already relied on international aid before Operation Cast Lead started, cannot afford to rebuild their country. Therefore once again they must rely on the complicated process of waiting for the international community to act and come to their rescue.
     The Palestinian Statistical Authority estimates that there is $1.9 billion of damage due to Operation Cast Lead . This includes the price of the destroyed infrastructure, the cost of clearing away the debris, as well as the cost to the ongoing economic activity in the strip.
     4,100 homes, 25 schools and hospitals, two bridges, 1500 factories and shops, 20 ambulances and numerous government offices and buildings were destroyed. 10 water and sewage arteries and 10 electricity-generating stations were also destroyed. Around 50km of paved roads need rebuilding. The estimate does not take into account the damage to streets inside Gaza neighbourhoods. 80% of all agricultural properties have also been destroyed. This includes all buildings upon the land as well as crops that had been planted. more.. e-mail

The War to End All Wars
Frank Barat - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/27/2009
     ’Go tell Gazans, Iraqis or Afghans that we are good people, doing this for them.’
     We have in the last few days entered in a fascinating debate regarding the legality of Israel’s war against the people of Gaza. Fascinating because the debate has not been about the morality of a war which in roughly a month saw over 1300 people including many women and children (men have been completely ignored in all those statistics, implying that all men in Gaza were in some way terrorists and part of Hamas) die but about the legality of this onslaught and the weapons used by Israel.
     Our usual TV Middle East "experts" have for now been replaced by International law and Human rights lawyers and by weapon specialists.
     Is the use of white phosphorus weapons legal in the Gaza situation? What about the alleged use of DIME bombs and flechette shells? Are cluster bombs being used and is this in compliance with international law?
     A lengthy debate normally follows, focusing on very obscure details of international law and many loopholes in the Geneva conventions, laws of war, UN charters and other institutions. more.. e-mail

Stripping Palestinians of Their Right to Self-defence
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/27/2009
     Livni dining with EU officials in Jerusalem. (MaanImages/file) A pre-meditated and carefully planned slaughter binge resulting in 1330 dead, 5450 wounded and the whole place reduced to rubble; and what did the European Union’s 27 foreign ministers just do?
     They sat down to dinner in Brussels with Tzipi Livni.
     This must have come as a slap in the face for the millions of justice-loving EU citizens who were expecting to see Ms. Livni arrested for crimes against humanity the minute she set foot outside Israel.
     All is forgiven. Right now Israel’s helpmates in Europe are lining up to pay with our tax money for the humanitarian mess and the economic wreckage, and to offer Israel the services of EU member states in helping to turn the screw yet again in the subjugation of a people Israel has terrorized, abused and dispossessed for 60 years.
     Never mind that the EU has spent billions over the years on infrastructure projects in Gaza, only to see them wantonly smashed by Israel’s military. more.. e-mail

National Palestinian Unity to Isolate the Traitors
Khalid Amayreh, Palestine Think Tank 1/27/2009
     The meeting in Cairo on Monday 26 January, between a Hamas representative and Fatah leader Azzam al Ahmed is a glimmer of hope for millions of Palestinians and their allies who are hoping and praying for a speedy end of the enduring rift between the two biggest political camps in the Palestinian arena.
     Though symbolic and procedural in nature, the meeting shows that the problems between the two sides can be overcome if both sides display good-will and especially if the Ramallah regime ends its ignominious subservience to Israel and the United States.
     Needless to say, the rift has wreaked havoc on the reputation of the just Palestinian cause and caused many bleeding wounds to our people, the scars of which will take a long time to heal.
     However, we are still one people, feeling the same pain, languishing under the same hateful occupation, and harboring the same hopes for freedom and justice.
     But in order to reach a lasting national harmony, we need to be honest and frank, and refrain from trying to negate the other side.  This is so because neither Hamas nor Fatah will go away or evaporate into nonexistence. more.. e-mail

Fuelling the Cycle of Hate
Neve Gordon and Yigal Bronner, Palestine Chronicle 1/27/2009
     ’Hatred is the great winner of this war. It has helped mobilise racist mobs.’
     Israeli soccer matches were suspended during the assault on Gaza. When the games resumed last week, the fans had come up with a new chant: "Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?" sang the crowd. "Because all the children were gunned down!" came the answer.
     Aside from its sheer barbarism, this chant reflects the widespread belief among Israeli Jews that Israel scored an impressive victory in Gaza -- a victory measured, not least, by the death toll.
     Israeli pilots and tank commanders could not really discriminate between the adults and the children who hid in their homes or huddled in the UNRWA shelters, and yet they chose to press the trigger. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the lethal onslaught left 1,314 Palestinians dead, of which 412 -- or nearly one third of all of the casualties -- were children.
     This latest assault underscores that Israel, not unlike Hamas, readily resorts to violence and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants (only the weapons at Israel’s disposal are much more lethal). No matter how many times the Israeli government tries to blame Hamas for the latest Palestinian civilian deaths it simply cannot explain away the body count, especially that of the children. In addition to the dead, 1,855 Palestinian children were wounded, and tens of thousands of others have likely been traumatised, many of them for life. more.. e-mail

George Mitchell and the Middle East
Gerry Adams, The Guardian 1/27/2009
     In the crowds of Washington’s Union Station last week, I bumped into George Mitchell. We were both in the city for Barack Obama’s inauguration, but at that point there was only speculation that George might be made US special envoy for the Middle East – it wasn’t until I returned to Ireland that the appointment was confirmed.
     President Obama in his inaugural address signalled a new direction for US foreign policy. The posting of George Mitchell and the referencing of his very significant role in the Irish peace process hint at a more focused engagement by the US in seeking to secure a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian people.
     But as George and I both know from our separate but related experience in Northern Ireland, making peace is a difficult, exhausting and, at times, hugely frustrating process.
     George Mitchell had been a very successful and influential Senate majority leader for the Democrats. He was known as someone who could broker a deal between opposing groups.
     ...In a peace process, the goal must be an inclusive agreement that is acceptable to all sides, is doable, deliverable and sustainable. That means enemies and opponents creating space for each other. It means engaging in real conversations and seeking real solutions. It means accepting that dialogue is crucial and that means recognising the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own leaders, their own representatives.
     The Israeli government and other governments have to talk to Hamas. more.. e-mail

International Court for Israeli War Criminals
Ali Alebadi, Middle East Online 1/27/2009
     From 1917 (British Balfour Declaration) until this moment, no other nation on planet earth has ever been subjected to so many atrocities on daily basis like the Palestinian nation.
     Q - Is it possible to bring Israeli war criminals to the international justice?
     A - Are you kidding me? On which planet do you think you are?
     In retrospect at the major events of the last hundred years, the following horrendous fact becomes very clear: from 1917 (British Balfour Declaration) until this moment, no other nation on planet earth has ever been subjected to so many atrocities on daily basis like the Palestinian nation. Paradoxically, even the European Jews themselves whose sons are ruling Israel today suffered only temporarily on the hands of Nazi authorities in Germany from 1935 to 1945, i.e. before and during the WW II.
     Unfortunately, the recent 22-day Israeli massacres in Gaza strip from December 27, 2008 to January 17, 2009 may not be the last one. Despite the hermitic Israeli measures to prevent Western journalists from entering Gaza during the onslaught, using video footages, Webcams, voice-over-Internet massages, blog diaries, cell phones, and testimonies of some UN employees and Red Cross physicians, Palestinians managed to document and break up this extremely violent siege against Gaza.
     Some people may argue that Israel is the only superpower in Arabic-Islamic region (Middle East), and USA is the ultimate superpower on earth. So far, no one could take any Israeli war criminals to a foreign court simply because they enjoy the unconditional protection of Americans. That is true. more.. e-mail

Refugees to prime minister: End military siege of our camp
Open letter, Residents of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, Electronic Intifada 1/27/2009
     While Lebanese officials were publicly denouncing Israel’s war on the Palestinians of Gaza, the Lebanese cabinet was busy making sure the Palestinians of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon never recover from the war waged on their community more than a year ago. For more than three months, the Lebanese army fought the Fatah al-Islam group that had infiltrated the camp. On 16 January 2009, the cabinet approved a decision to build a naval base in the area. The decision was met with stern opposition by the people of Nahr al-Bared who wrote a letter of protest addressed to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and his ministers. The letter was published in two major Lebanese newspapers, As-Safir and Al-Akhbar, but has triggered little follow-up reaction in the press so far.
     Al-Akhbar’s Ghassan Saoud says the people in the camp these days are weary of criticizing the Lebanese army out loud but more convinced than ever that there is no will to rebuild the camp and properly resettle its inhabitants. According to Saoud, people point to four developments that seem to dim any chances of full reconstruction and rehabilitation of the camp: the continued lack of adequate financial funds for reconstruction; the call by most officials with the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) for people to "get used to" the contemporary homes currently set up in the camp; the distribution of returned refugees into isolated spots in the camp that prevents the revival of a closely-knit community; and the continued siege of the camp by the Lebanese army that suffocates the prospects of economic revival. The decision to build a base can only exacerbate the last condition. The letter is clear about the detrimental effect of such a siege. more.. e-mail

Arabs at the Brink
Robert Dreyfuss, Middle East Online 1/27/2009
     Anger is boiling over in the Middle East over Gaza, and the result of the war has been to boost radicalism throughout the region, to strengthen the terrorist-inclined fanatics of Hamas, and to enhance the muscle of terrorist-inclined Israelis, including far-right parties such as Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and, of course, Likud’s bombastic Benjamin Netanyahu.
     You probably didn’t know that the reason the Bush administration, in its last days, reversed course on Gaza is because they feared that US embassies in the Middle East might be stormed by angry crowds if they did nothing. You’ll remember that, after weeks of supporting Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the United States suddenly reversed course and allowed the UN Security Council to pass a unanimous resolution demanding a ceasefire. (The United States didn’t vote yes, but it abstained -- rather than threatening its oft-used veto.)
     Speaking on January 14 at the New America Foundation, the outgoing US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilizad said explicitly that the United States feared a violent explosion in the region, including the seizure of US embassies by angry mobs, if the United States continued to block action by the UN. A central concern, said Khalilzad, is that mosque leaders all over the Middle East would mobilize the anger and direct it against the United States. more.. e-mail

Names and Photos of Israeli War Criminals in Gaza
Kawther Salam, Palestine Think Tank 1/27/2009
     I have decided to publish some names and photos of the Israeli military personnel who participated in the so-called “Operation Cast Lead”, the offensive launched by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip between 27 December and 18 January 2009. The names of these criminals called my attention since the first day of their criminal attack against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza. I consider each person who took part in this IOF and each one whose name appears in this report as a war criminal who should be requested by an international court of justice, just like all other war criminals who were persecuted before…
     The Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is conniving with others the war crimes committed in Gaza. These others are Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and his cabinet of criminals, and the military counterpart, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit. Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi is equally involved in the war crimes in Gaza. The Attorney General of Israel asked his military counterpart to open a quick investigation among the military as an “alternative” measure to hinder potentially “hundreds” of international lawsuits against Israeli officials alleging war crimes against the Gaza population during the operation has been widely anticipated. There is growing concern in the offices of the Israeli justice and war ministries because they expect a massive wave of lawsuits for human rights violations against Israeli officers and politicians. more.. e-mail

The Ordeals of Gaza
Charles Glass, NormanFinkelstein.com 1/22/2009
     Lecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London
     Israeli military spokesmen, justifying their army’s assault on the Gaza Strip, said the war was about Sderot. In a way, they were right. It is about Sderot. In 1948, where Sderot houses Israeli Jews today, there was a village called Najd – Arabic for a high plateau. It was home to about seven hundred people, most of them small farmers. Two days before the declaration of the State of Israel – that is, on May 13th – Haganah forces expelled the inhabitants.
     Eventually, these people – as the Egyptian Army that invaded Palestine a few days later gradually lost ground to the new Israeli Army – found refuge in the Gaza Strip.
     In 1949, Israel defined its first borders through a series of truce accords with its neighbours. To Egypt, it offered to absorb the Gaza Strip into Israel. At the time, Israeli leaders were under the impression that there were about 100,000 Palestinian Arab refugees in Gaza. I quote now from an excellent book, 1949: The First Israelis (Henry Holt, NY, 1986), by the Israeli historian Tom Segev:
     "Moshe Sharett told the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset that the government hoped to obtain “considerable advantages” from the annexation of the Strip, such as the additional territory, the removal of the Egyptian presence from Israel’s border to the other side of the Sinai desert, and the elimination of the possibility that the Strip would be annexed by Jordan, or anyone else. When the government had agreed to annex it, it figured that the Strip’s total population numbered no more than 180,000; later it turned out the figure was 310,000, 230,000 of whom were refugees. At that point Sharett suggested that there should be no more talk about the Gaza Strip." (page 30) more.. e-mail

Ceasefire Broken From Day One
Eva Bartlett, Inter Press Service 1/27/2009
     GAZA CITY, Jan 26 (IPS) - At 7.30 am Jan. 22, five days after Israeli authorities declared a ’ceasefire’ following their 22-day air, land and sea bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israeli gunboats renewed shelling off the Gaza city coast, injuring at least six, including four children.
     Mu’awiyah Hassanain, director of Ambulance and Emergency Services, reported more shelling in the north-western coastal area As Sudaniya the same morning. Five fishermen were injured in the attacks, he said.
     About 9.45 am that morning in Sheyjaiee district to the east of Gaza city, seven-year-old Ahmed Hassanian was outside his house with friends when Israeli soldiers fired from the eastern border. A bullet lodged in his brain, causing brain haemorrhage. Dr. Fawzi Nablusi, director of the ICU at Shifa hospital, says the boy is not expected to survive.
     Three Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire and 15 injured, including the ten injured Jan. 22, according to both Mu’awiyah Hassanain and Dr. Hassan Khalaf.
     Hours after the ceasefire was said to have come into effect Jan. 18, Israeli warplanes flew extremely low over areas of Gaza. Drones capable both of photographing and of dropping targeted missiles continued to circle overhead. At 8.30 am Jan. 18, one of these drones dropped two missiles in the Amal area east of Beit Hanoun, killing 11-year-old Angham Ra’fat al-Masri and injuring her mother. more.. e-mail

'May God take revenge on those who did this!'
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/26/2009
     Samira Qishta, a mother of 12, rushed to her house in the al-Brazil housing project of Rafah City, right after the Israeli army declared a halt to its attacks on the coastal region on 18 January.
     "My God, what has happened? was it an earthquake? I cant believe my eyes!" This was Samira’s reaction when she saw her devastated house.
     The three-week-long Israeli war on Gaza has ceased, yet the repercussions may be felt for years to come. There are thousands of grieving families, thousands of homes have been reduced to rubble and much of the infrastructure has been destroyed. The scale of the destruction caused by round-the-clock bombardment can be seen in Rafah City, on the Gaza-Egypt border.
     Inspecting the ruins that used to be her family home, Samira exclaimed, "May God take revenge on both Arabs and Israelis, for what they did to my house."
     "We have nothing to do with underground tunnels, as you see, our house is located more than 300 meters away from the Philadelphi Route [the name Israel gave to the border zone]," Samira says while inspecting the debris-covered sofa and broken window of her living room. more.. e-mail

'Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be'
Sumia Ibrahim writing from the United States, Electronic Intifada 1/26/2009
     I have never seen my grandmother without a large medallion hanging from her neck. As a child, I stared at the pendant’s engraving of a gold-domed structure, watched the turquoise walls glimmer as they caught light from the piercing Iraqi sun. When I asked Tata what the pendant depicted, she replied, "The place where I’m from." I thought of it as a palace towering in a far, mythic land, like the great emerald castle of Oz.
     I later understood that it was the Dome of the Rock, located at the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. The city, a religious and at times economic and cultural hub of a predominately Arab Palestine for nearly 1,200 years, has been in modern times, hotly contested with the establishment of the State of Israel on Palestinian soil in 1948. With the birth of the Zionist state, came the destruction of Palestinian society, and Tata was forced to flee her home along with more than 700,000 other Palestinians. When I finally understood the pendant’s historical context, I realized that for Tata, it symbolized a land that she treasured but could not return to, an emblem of both beauty and tragedy. more.. e-mail

Israel Killed Everything but the Will to Resist
Stephen Lendman – Chicago, Palestine Chronicle 1/26/2009
     ’Israel expects a wave of war crimes lawsuits and is reacting.’ (AP) "’Freedom or death’, is the popular Palestinian mantra," wrote Palestine Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Ramzy Baroud in his January 22 article titled "Breaking Gaza’s Will: Israel’s Enduring Fantasy."
     Three weeks of Israeli terror caused about 1400 deaths, over 5500 injured (many seriously), vast destruction throughout Gaza, and Physicians for Human Rights warning that large numbers of wounded may die because hospitals are overloaded and lack basic supplies. Yet Palestinians endure. Their spirit is unbowed and unbroken. Hamas is more popular than ever, and world outrage sustains them.
     Middle East analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies believes Israel blundered badly. On January 9, he asked:
     "The War in Gaza - Tactical Gains, Strategic Defeat?" In spite of all the IDF’s might "The fact remains that the growing human tragedy in Gaza is steadily raising more serious questions as to whether the kind of tactical gains that Israel now reports are worth the suffering involved." more.. e-mail

Israel Faces the Gaza Aftermath
Dan Lieberman, Palestine Chronicle 1/26/2009
     ’The attack on Gaza cannot remain an isolated incident that slowly fades into history.’
     Digging through the pulverized ruins of Gaza revealed the extent of damage to the Palestinian community. Still not revealed are exact reasons for Israel’s attack, its sudden willingness to halt the damage and what awaits a shaken Middle East in the future.
     Clues that contradict the given reason for the attack - rockets hitting Israeli soil -- are: (1) rockets have been hitting southern Israel since 2002, (2) the initial rocket barrage caused no casualties, and (3) the intensive emphasis on the rocket attacks as the reason for Israel’s overly aggressive counterpunch, with almost all Israelis and foreign newspapers reciting that theme, seemed too arranged, more like concerted propaganda, and an attempt to divert attention from more valid explanations.
     Regardless of the conflicting views of events, an inevitable drift to war was set in motion for one overriding reason; Israel, International institutions and western nations refused to talk with Hamas. more.. e-mail

Unexploded bombs hold more deaths
Erin Cunningham, Electronic Intifada 1/26/2009
     GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - At first the 44 children that live in the Zani family home in Beit Hanoun were wary of the unexploded F-16 rocket whose tail has protruded menacingly from their garden since it landed in the first week of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Now, they have grown used to it -- playing excitedly near it and even building fires next to it, a relative says.
     "What else are we supposed to do?" asks Mohamed Zani, father of 18 of the children living at the Zani home. "This is our situation, and we have to live with it."
     Zani says he has been calling Gaza’s civil defense force, which was targeted in the invasion and is now located at a makeshift headquarters in the al-Shifa hospital, to remove the missile.
     But the Gaza administration simply does not have the funds, equipment or know-how to discharge the weapons. "I don’t know who else to call," Zani said. "It seems that nobody is able to help us."
     While the major actions of Israel’s 22-day "Operation Cast Lead," which saw both air bombardment and a substantial ground invasion, have been halted, an unknown number of unexploded munitions threaten to set off another wave of maiming and killing in the impoverished Palestinian territory. more.. e-mail

Martyrs vs. Traitors Myth Gains Currency in Gaza War’s Wake
Hussein Ibish, MIFTAH 1/26/2009
     The conflict in Gaza has the potential of becoming a transformative political event in the Middle East that allows Islamists to capture the Arab political imagination for at least a generation. Along with familiar appeals to religious and cultural "authenticity," and dubious claims regarding good governance and democracy, Islamists are beginning to consolidate an exclusive claim to the most powerful Arab political symbols: Palestine and nationalism.
     Few observers in the West evince a full understanding of the unprecedented cultural and political impact of Israel’s attack on Gaza. The extraordinarily high civilian death toll and perceived helplessness of the victims, combined with atrocities such as the reported massacres at a UN school, and Israel’s apparent use of phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas, paint the most enraging images Arab television audiences have witnessed.
     Although Arab public opinion has been aroused by several other conflicts in recent decades, until now no hegemonic narrative has given coherent shape and political focus to this anger. During the Gaza war, we seem to have been witnessing the consolidation in most Arab media and political discourse of a coherent narrative that contains a prescription and a diagnosis: the Martyrs versus the Traitors. more.. e-mail

The Uncultured Wars – Book Review
Jim Miles, Palestine Chronicle 1/26/2009
     ’The Uncultured Wars comprises an excellent series of thought provoking essays.’
     The Uncultured Wars -- Arabs, Muslims, and the Poverty of Liberal Thought. Steven Salaita. Zed Books, New York, 2008.
     "The Uncultured Wars" comprises an excellent series of thought provoking essays, the excellence deriving from their ability to provoke thought that should be one of the hallmarks of academic works. As such Steven Salaita writes as an advocate of a position rather than pretending dispassionate objectivity, or "myth of disinterest" in Salaita’s own words. I will return to that idea later as for my own personal interests it is contained in one of his more interesting essays. Generally, these essays are well constructed, leading the reader to consider how subtle and yet how obvious racism is in the U.S., Arab/Muslim racism in particular.
     Salaita’s introduction discusses the medium of the essay as a format to represent ideas and helps define what I have always thought, but perhaps not with the same clarity: "’most newspaper columnists are corporate exhibitionists, not essayists. Or, to be fair, most of them are simply bad essayists." Salaita’s essays are mostly highly academic, using language that would be difficult for many readers, yet I would estimate that the targeted audience is that of academia, the liberal press, and others that are -- or should be -- discussing the ideas of liberal thought within the context of racism, terrorism, culture, and morality. Whether they would recognize themselves within that context is open to their own interpretations. more.. e-mail

Book review: 'Cycles of violence,' US media and Palestine
Shervan Sardar, Electronic Intifada 1/26/2009
     In a brilliant new book, Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Marda Dunsky analyzes the politics, culture and theory of coverage of the conflict in the United States.Dunsky, a former Arab affairs reporter for The Jerusalem Post and editor at the national/foreign desk of The Chicago Tribune, examines a wide array of news reports from television and print media, focusing on the recent history of the conflict from the Camp David peace talks in the summer of 2000 to the April 2004 meeting between then US President George W. Bush and then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The time frame was chosen because it allows an opportunity to examine what could be a typical pattern in the conflict -- beginning with intensive negotiations between the parties, followed by an escalation of violence, and then initial efforts to renew diplomacy.
     Pens and Swords argues that "mainstream reporting of the conflict itself rarely goes much beyond superficial details of failed diplomatic initiatives and intercommunal violence in the field -- leaving the American public without important contextual information about why the conflict remains so intractable." Dunsky presents a detailed content analysis of media reports in order to demonstrate "how, time and again, the media bypass important contextual aspects of organic issues, such as the US role in the peace process, the Palestinian refugee question, and Israeli settlements." The study is driven by the central conviction "that if Americans had a fuller contextual understanding of the key issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via the mainstream media, they would be better equipped to challenge US Mideast policy." more.. e-mail

The Indian example
Radhika Sainath, Electronic Intifada 1/26/2009
     In Gaza, Palestinians have once again been blamed for their own deaths. The British made a similar argument 151 years ago when they killed thousands of Indian civilians -- 1,200 in a single village -- in response to the largest anti-colonial uprising of the 19th century. If Israel truly desires peace with the Palestinians and safety for its citizens, it should look back to one of the greatest, and misunderstood, independence movements in history.
     Most people believe India won its independence from the British exclusively through Gandhi’s famous strategy of nonviolence. They’re wrong; armed resistance has deep roots in India. During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, also known as the First War of Independence, Hindus and Muslims serving in the infantry for the British East Indian Company revolted against the British Empire, killing British officers and civilians alike. While the majority of these cavalrymen were Hindu, Muslims also partook in the rebellion. These Muslim fighters called themselves "jihadis" and even "suicide ghazis."
     The British quashed the revolt, but for the next 90 years Indian violence, even terrorism, in response continued. In the early 20th century, Indian militants, frustrated with the Congress party -- the party of Gandhi and Nehru -- regularly resorted to acts of violence to overthrow the British. Official government reports note 210 "revolutionary outrages" and at least 1,000 "terrorists" involved in more than 101 attempted attacks between 1906 and 1917 in the state of Bengal alone (see Peter Heehs, "Terrorism in India During the Freedom Struggle," The Historian, 22 March 1993). One young revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, later referred to as "Shaheed" Bhagat Singh, bombed the Legislative Assembly in 1929. more.. e-mail

Gaza mourns, as does the West Bank
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 1/26/2009
     As the situation deteriorated in Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank came out in force to demonstrate and show solidarity with the people. However even peaceful demonstrations can result in death here. 6 protesters, mainly teenagers, were shot dead by Israel whilst they raged their war against Hamas in Gaza.
     These protesters weren’t overtly political. These protesters weren’t necessarily Hamas. However in a country torn apart by war and occupation everybody becomes politicised. Everyone becomes a legitimate target in the eyes of Israel. These teenagers were guilty of little more than raising their hands in defiance. Some may have picked up stones. They were never a true threat though to the biggest recipient of U.S military aid in the world.
     Their stories went greatly unreported as the world’s eyes focused upon Gaza. Their deaths are now remembered only through the peeling martyr posters pinned against walls of the towns within which they lived, and sadly died. Many never got the chance to leave due to the restrictions of the occupation. They will be remembered as martyrs. A small part of the greater struggle for a free Palestinian state. Here is all we know about them... more.. e-mail

Obama, Israel, and the Ideology of Difference
Roger H. Lieberman, Palestine Chronicle 1/26/2009
     Few American presidents have entered office with more daunting challenges to overcome, at home and abroad, than those Barack Obama now faces.
     Internationally, President Obama must facilitate the withdrawal of US troops and mercenaries from Iraq; avoid further escalation of the war in Afghanistan; resolve America’s diplomatic feud with Iran over its nuclear program; and stop the downward spiral of US-Russian relations toward the precipice of a new Cold War (or worse).
     Domestically, he must reverse the rapid deterioration of the US economy -- a deterioration brought on by years of bad credit and neglect of civic infrastructure. It is doubtful whether Obama can make substantive progress on any of these matters unless he is first willing and able to take on the overriding moral challenge of his presidency: ending Israel’s ruthless, illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and reconfiguring America’s diplomatic and military role in the region. Alas, it is even more doubtful whether he is prepared to put principles over political expedience in order to achieve a just peace in the Holy Land. more.. e-mail

The Palestinian Zionist
Mohannad El-Khairy, Palestine Chronicle 1/26/2009
     Picture this scene.
     A demonstration somewhere in the West Bank against occupation and Apartheid. The red, green, black and white colors flying in unison above the heads of hundreds gathered for a cause, as the heavily equipped riot-police form a barricade in a soul-less, mechanistic order, the chanting slogans for justice, freedom, and peace become louder as emotions run high; and frustrations run even higher. Then, suddenly, the beatings begin.
     You would expect the attackers to be from the so-called Israeli Defense Forces. Alas, ladies and gentlemen, you would be mistaken. Welcome everyone to the Palestinian Zionist.
     I am fully aware of what such a term implies. And it is implying what it says it implies. Yes, the Palestinian Zionist does exist and in his most elaborate characteristic comes in the form of a President. President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is run by Palestinian Zionists. Their operations are supported by Palestinian Zionists. Their policies aim to promote more Palestinian Zionists. more.. e-mail

Operation Cast Ballot
Tom Streithorst, The American Conservative 1/26/2009
     The political calculation behind Olmert’s war
     According to the Israeli media, four days before Gaza was attacked, Hamas offered to extend the ceasefire and end all rocket fire into southern Israel. In return, they asked for a lifting of the blockade choking Gaza and an extension of the ceasefire to the West Bank—reasonable enough demands. But the Israeli cabinet rejected the offer and decided to go to war.
     Let us not forget who broke the ceasefire. Until Nov. 4, when the Israelis sent in commandos and killed six Palestinian militants near Khan Yunis, for the most part the ceasefire held. During the six-month truce, despite the Israeli stranglehold on Gaza’s borders, not one Israeli died or was wounded from rocket attacks.
     After the Israeli incursion in early November, retaliatory rocket fire naturally ratcheted up, providing the provocation that led to the Israeli invasion. Since the beginning of the Israeli bombing, four Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket fire, four more than died during the previous six months. More rockets have been fired out of Gaza just about every day since the war began than during the entire six months of the truce. It seems that if the Israeli goal was to protect their citizens, they aren’t going about it very well.
     I would suggest, from personal experience, that protecting the citizens of Sderot might not be the main motivation of the Israeli government. more.. e-mail

An assault on the peace process
Donald Macintyre, The Independent 1/26/2009
     Israeli forces used aerial bombing, tank shelling and armoured bulldozers to eliminate the productive capacity of some of Gaza’s most important manufacturing plants during their 22 days of military action in the Gaza Strip. The attacks – like those which destroyed at least 4,000 homes, left some residential areas resembling an earthquake zone and more than 50,000 people in temporary shelters at their peak – destroyed or severely damaged 219 factories, Palestinian industrialists say.
     Leaders of Gaza’s business community – who have long stayed aloof from the different Palestinian political factions – say that much of the 3 per cent of industry still operating after the 18-month shutdown caused by Israel’s economic siege has now been destroyed.
     Chris Gunness, chief spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said that widespread destruction of "civilian economic infrastructure" was a strike "at the heart of the peace process" because "economic stability is an essential component of a durable peace."
     While the main impact of the destruction is likely to be on the already politically fraught prospects of medium to long-term reconstruction in Gaza, it it is unlikely to make efforts to help its many stricken and displaced residents any easier. It is those humanitarian relief efforts for which the main British aid agencies are appealing for help in the advertisement so far barred by the BBC. Meanwhile, the UNRWA is separately pressing donors for $345m for immediate repairs to homes still standing and to its own damaged premises. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Lies
Henry Siegman, London Review of Books 1/24/2009
     Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.
     I am not aware of a single major American newspaper, radio station or TV channel whose coverage of the assault on Gaza questions this version of events. Criticism of Israel’s actions, if any (and there has been none from the Bush administration), has focused instead on whether the IDF’s carnage is proportional to the threat it sought to counter, and whether it is taking adequate measures to prevent civilian casualties.
     Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further. This was confirmed not only by every neutral international observer and NGO on the scene but by Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division.... more.. e-mail

’The Incendiary IDF’
Kenneth Roth, Palestine Chronicle 1/24/2009
     ’Part of the problem was the IDF’s expansive definition of a military target.’
     Throughout the recent war in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) insisted that it took extraordinary care to spare civilians. But it then prevented journalists and human rights monitors from entering Gaza during the conflict to independently verify this claim.
     Now that Human Rights Watch and other observers have been let in, it has become clear that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were not the only casualties of the fighting. So was the credibility of the IDF.
     Part of the problem was the IDF’s expansive definition of a military target. It attacked a range of civilian facilities, from government offices to police stations, on the theory that they all provided at least indirect support to Hamas militants. But by that theory, Hamas would have been entitled to target virtually any government building in Israel on the ground that its office workers indirectly supported the IDF. That would make a mockery of the distinction between civilians and combatants that lies at the heart of the laws of war, which require direct support to military activity before civilians become legitimate military targets. Behind the unsupportable legal claim seemed to lie a determination to make Gazans suffer for the presence of Hamas--a prohibited purpose for using military force. more.. e-mail

Eyewitness in Gaza: Yesterday and Tomorrow
Ewa Jasiewicz – Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/24/2009
     We’re like trees, we have our roots and they allow us to grow, little by little, we grow up and then they cut us down. But, whatever they throw at us, whatever they do to us, we are still here and we will still be here – Om Bassim, Jabaliya Camp, January 2009.
     ’Our Home’
     At the beginning of this war, when the bombs first started falling intensively, I remember lying on a mattress, late at night, I don’t remember where, maybe in Beit Hanoun hospital, maybe in Beit Lahiya. As I slipped into sleep, I could hear explosions, thuds, one after the other, some near, some distant, some to our east, to our west, again and again. In my semi-consciousness I felt they were all going off in my house, in my home, that the bombs were exploding in different rooms, upstairs, downstairs, next door, under me, over me. I didn’t feel fear, I felt a closeness, a holding together. Maybe it was a consequence of Gaza being an incarcerated space, a walled camp, so small and close-knit, a prison, but also, a house, a home, with families in every part, every corner, every room, a community of relatives from north to south, every explosion and massacre felt acutely, felt intimately as if it had happened to ones own family, in the home, this home. more.. e-mail

Gaza Needs Many Years to Heal
Dr. Mona El-Farra, Palestine Chronicle 1/24/2009
     ’I want to thank you all for your solidarity as well as for your practical support.’
     I am still in Cairo. With a sad heart I am watching home from a distance. The hardest days were when I went to the Rafah Crossing point. I was only one kilometer away from Gaza, but could not enter. I was told that as a Palestinian with dual nationality, I can get in but not out.
     While at the border I was greatly touched by the expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people. I met doctors from Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and many other countries who came to help the people of Gaza in defiance of Israel’s savage attacks on children, women, and men. We must all work on continuing and expanding these solidarity efforts on different levels. We cannot let Israel get away with its crimes against humanity in Gaza.
     I want to thank you all for your solidarity as well as for your practical support. Whether you donated one pound or thousands of pounds, your support and your continuous protests let the people of Gaza feel that they are not alone and will never be forgotten. more.. e-mail

’Crime of crimes’
Amira Howeidy, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/22/2009
     Former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Fouad Riad, tells Amira Howeidy that Israel is guilty of genocide in its 22-day war on Gaza
     Never before in the 60-year-old history of Israel has it been the subject of such intense and vigorous condemnation for what it has been doing since coming into existence: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. While most critics point an accusing finger at its "war crimes" alone, some, like ex-judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Fouad Riad, have the courage to brush diplomatic language aside and call things by their name.
     "What Israel did in Gaza is genocide," Riad tells Al-Ahram Weekly. It "deliberately killed Palestinian children" with the aim of exterminating the population, he says.
     Riad served on the ICTY in The Hague for seven years. In February 2001, Riad and others judged that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre committed in the former Yugoslavia was "genocide". Nothing in the language of international law matches the magnitude of genocide, which is considered the "crime of crimes". It is the most extreme consequence of racial discrimination and ethnic hatred.
     The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of a number of acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. more.. e-mail

The horrors of Israel’s peace
Samera Esmeir, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/22/2009
     By war and by peace, Israel aims to destroy the Palestinians, physically and psychologically.
     Three weeks after the war on Gaza, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire but refused to terminate its so-called defensive operations. In response, Hamas declared a ceasefire for one week, until the withdrawal of Israeli troops has been completed. For many in the West, the ceasefire might seem like an occasion to celebrate, for the cessation of military hostilities on both sides will perhaps renew the peace process. But there are reasons to be critical of this ceasefire, since it continues the situation in which Israel acts unilaterally. What we are actually witnessing is a new phase of the catastrophe in Gaza. While the characteristics of this phase are not yet known, Israel’s violence has become ever more evident. And perhaps this is why Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not mention the word "peace" once in the speech he gave to announce the ceasefire. The "peace process" might soon be revealed as the other side of the coin to war -- its continuation by other means -- that simultaneously feeds it.
     There are at least two lessons to be gleaned from the war on Gaza. The first is to consider how both war-making and unilateral ceasefires constitute strategies for the extension of Israel’s power over the Palestinian population in Gaza, as well as for the transformation of that population. Israel unilaterally demands peaceful co- existence with the Palestinians who must resign themselves to imprisonment, or otherwise threatens them with -- and practices -- the destruction of their lives. The Palestinians have two "choices" in the Israeli script: obedience or annihilation.... more.. e-mail

Vista of endless ruin
Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/22/2009
     With Israel’s guns temporarily silent, Gazans are seeing the full scale of destruction and death Israel visited upon them.
     Gently, two rescue workers pick up the debris, revealing a human body. They ask a third worker to come help them lift the body, now decomposed and liable to come apart. They walk a few steps before the corpse disintegrates. Each worker is now holding a piece of a cadaver. Other workers are still sifting through the rubble of the Al-Samouni family home, southwest of the neighbourhood of Zeitoun in Gaza. The house was shelled on the third day of Israel’s ground offensive, with more than 100 people inside. Dozens were killed or wounded.
     Workers salvaged 15 bodies within five hours. Other bodies had been found immediately after the bombing, but the full search had to wait until the Israelis pulled out. According to Palestinian medical sources, nearly 100 were killed in the Al-Samouni house and nearby buildings.
     At one site after another, civil defence and rescue teams are helped by hundreds of volunteers. Often they extract bodies that have decomposed after days under the rubble -- bodies that have to be handled carefully and with bare hands. Walking from one site to the other, you cannot help but feel the tragedy unfolding as survivors return to their homes, looking beneath the rubble for family and friends. Some pause and look upwards to heaven, tears streaming down their cheeks. Others cry out, unable to contain their grief. more.. e-mail

Interview with Adam Shapiro, co-founder of the ISM
Interviewed by Kourosh Ziabari, Palestine Think Tank 1/24/2009
     Adam Shapiro, the symbol of a courageous, pure peace advocate, has long been under fire for his unconditional and categorical criticism of Israeli occupying state.
     Born in 1972, the perseverant and steadfast anti-Zionist campaigner and co-founder of International Solidarity Movement vigorously makes efforts to broadcast the voice of subjugated and downtrodden nation of Palestine.
     Following his meeting with Yasser Arafat in his Mukataa (government center) in Ramallah while it was besieged during the March 2002 Israeli military operation in the West Bank and Gaza, Adam Shapiro attained an international popularity and was put under the spotlight of Zionist media thereafter.
     Despite enduring a stack of insults and invectives from the side of Zionist campaign in the past years, Adam Shapiro neither has relinquished nor alleviated his stance so far; rather intensified his anti-Zionist statements in the particular situations such as the horrendous 22 days of Israeli incursion into Gaza.
     This interview has been done in the midst of Israeli genocide in Gaza as it’s apparent in some points of the conversation; nevertheless, it contains some informative and revealing information which are prone to be read and reflected thoughtfully. more.. e-mail

Obama’s Inauspicious Beginning
Khalid Amayreh, Palestine Think Tank 1/25/2009
     With George Bush now dumped into the dustbin of history, millions of people around the world are hoping that the new American president Barak H. Obama will make a genuine departure from the conspicuously criminal policies that characterized his predecessor’s gloomy era.
     Undoubtedly, Bush excelled in the perpetration of evil. He murdered, killed, deceived and lied, thinking he was doing a great service to America and the world.
     His era was drenched with blood, mostly the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, killed unjustly under the misleading rubric of "the war on terror."�
     In Palestine, and only three weeks before his unmissed departure, Bush gave the Zio-Nazi state of Israel carte blanche to commit a real genocide in Gaza in which thousands of helpless civilians were brutally massacred and maimed while thousands of homes and other buildings were utterly destroyed.
     And instead of urging Israel to stop the pornographic bloodletting against the captive and virtually defenseless people of Gaza, Bush behaved gleefully and gloatingly, invoking the mendacious mantra that "Israel has the right to defend itself". more.. e-mail

Details on the Arrest of Khalid Amayreh
Sherine Bahaa, Palestine Think Tank 1/25/2009
     KHALED AMAYREH, the Al-Ahram Weekly correspondent in the West Bank was arrested Sunday evening by the Preventive Security Forces (PSF) in Hebron. He was released after two days. Amayreh, 52, lives in Dura, 12 miles southwest of Hebron and has worked as the Weekly correspondent since 1997, as well as for a number of other media outlets.
     He has a BA in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois. For a long time, he suffered, as do all Palestinians in the occupied territories, being confined by the occupation to his home village.
     Not long ago, he was prohibited by Israeli forces from leaving Hebron at an Israeli checkpoint, detained and released only after being threatened for his courageous articles documenting Israeli crimes in the Weekly.
     Surprisingly though, this time, Amayreh was not arrested by the Israelis, he was detained by the PSF; the PA police apparatus. This was the fourth time that Amayreh was arrested by the PSF. But this time why was he arrested? He was not in a demonstration, nor was he smuggling weapons to his fellow Palestinians being killed by Israelis on a daily basis. more.. e-mail

On The Wrong Side Of History
Uri Avnery, International Middle East Media Center News 1/25/2009
     OF ALL the beautiful phrases in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, these are the words that stuck in my mind: "You are on the wrong side of history."
     He was talking about the tyrannical regimes of the world. But we, too, should ponder these words
     In the last few days I have heard a lot of declarations from Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert. And every time, these eight words came back to haunt me: "You are on the wrong side of history!"
     Obama was speaking as a man of the 21st century. Our leaders speak the language of the 19th century. They resemble the dinosaurs which once terrorized their neighborhood and were quite unaware of the fact that their time had already passed.
     During the rousing celebrations, again and again the multicolored patchwork of the new president’s family was mentioned.
     All the preceding 43 presidents were white Protestants, except John Kennedy, who was a white Catholic. 38 of them were the descendants of immigrants from the British isles. Of the other five, three were of Dutch ancestry (Theodor and Franklin D. Roosevelt , as well as Martin van Buren) and two of German descent (Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower). more.. e-mail

Child casualties of Israel’s war on Gaza
Rory McCarthy, The Guardian 1/23/2009
     Stories of 10 of the 280 or more children who died during the three-week military operation.
     Abdul Rahim Abu Halima, 14, was killed when his home was hit by an Israeli white phosphorus artillery shell in Atatra, in north-eastern Gaza, on 4 January. He died along with two of his brothers, Zayed, eight, and Hamza, six, his sister Shahed, who was 15-months-old, and their father, Saad Allah, 45, who was sheltering them in his arms in the hallway when the shell struck. The inside walls of the house are still blackened and pieces of shrapnel and shell casing are spread across the hallway beneath a gaping hole in the roof. "He was a very active boy, a little bit nervous sometimes, but he was good at football," said his brother Mahmoud, 20. "He played with the neighbours and was in a team at school. We shared a room together and he was always trying to get me out of there. I loved him so very much. He was a wonderful boy."
     Mohammad Abu Halima, 16, a cousin of Abdul Rahim, was shot dead by Israeli troops as he tried to take his injured relatives from the burning house in Atatra to hospital on 4 January. He was in the house next door when the shell struck and ran to try to help another cousin, Matar, loading up the injured on the back of a tractor. Both boys were killed. "He was still at school," said his father, Hikmat, 42. "He wanted to go abroad after school to study at university. He was a quiet boy, very obedient and did whatever I asked him." Many of the houses in Atatra were left burnt out or destroyed. "They came in here as if they were fighting a country like America," said Mohammad’s aunt, Suhaida. 40. "But we’re not fighters, just civilians. We’re only Gaza." more.. e-mail

Growing concern over Israel’s weapons use
Donald Macintyre in Atatra, northern Gaza Strip, The Independent 1/23/2009
     Whether from delayed shock or not, Mahmoud abu Kalima was almost dispassionate as he pointed to the hole in the roof made by the artillery shelling which killed his father and burned to death his baby sister and three of his younger brothers. He had been next door and had come running when he heard the first explosion. "I started to go upstairs shouting ’mama, mama’,".he said. "But she was already coming down. She was burning. All her clothes were on fire. I put my jacket on her. She told me: ’go and get your father, he is hurt."
     The sight that greeted Mahmoud, 20, is one which will presumably haunt him for the rest of his life. The rest of his family had been eating lunch in one of the rooms but when they first heard shooting had moved - fatally - into the hallway for safety. The corpse of his 45 year old tenant farmer father Sadallah, directly hit from a shell - one of three all the family say arrived in quick succession - was, Mahmoud said, “stuck together” with the bodies his three still smouldering sons, Abed, 14, Zaid,10 and Hamza,8 seemingly having hugged them to him in his last seconds. His 15 month old sister Shahed was lying separately after, in the words of her severely burned mother Sabah, also 45, she “melted away” as the missiles struck while she was being breast-fed.
     If the investigation which the Israeli military announced this week into the use of white phosphorous is serious, it will have to examine the events at the Abu Kalima house here in this semi-rural suburb of of Beit Lahiya, among many other locations. It’s unlikely to dwell for long on the fact that the war saw the first use of artillery in Gaza since late 2006. more.. e-mail

So far Obama’s missed the point on Gaza
Robert Fisk, The Independent, Palestine News Network 1/23/2009
     It would have helped if Obama had the courage to talk about what everyone in the Middle East was talking about. No, it wasn’t the US withdrawal from Iraq. They knew about that. They expected the beginning of the end of Guantanamo and the probable appointment of George Mitchell as a Middle East envoy was the least that was expected. Of course, Obama did refer to "slaughtered innocents", but these were not quite the "slaughtered innocents" the Arabs had in mind.
     There was the phone call yesterday to Mahmoud Abbas. Maybe Obama thinks he's the leader of the Palestinians, but as every Arab knows, except perhaps Mr Abbas, he is the leader of a ghost government, a near-corpse only kept alive with the blood transfusion of international support and the "full partnership" Obama has apparently offered him, whatever "full" means. And it was no surprise to anyone that Obama also made the obligatory call to the Israelis.
     But for the people of the Middle East, the absence of the word "Gaza" – indeed, the word "Israel" as well – was the dark shadow over Obama's inaugural address. Didn't he care? Was he frightened? Did Obama's young speech-writer not realise that talking about black rights – why a black man's father might not have been served in a restaurant 60 years ago – would concentrate Arab minds on the fate of a people who gained the vote only three years ago but were then punished because they voted for the wrong people? It wasn't a question of the elephant in the china shop. It was the sheer amount of corpses heaped up on the floor of the china shop. more.. e-mail

Prosecute Israeli War Criminals
Justin Theriault, International Middle East Media Center News 1/23/2009
     The war crimes that Israel has committed throughout its three-week, all out military air, ground and sea assault on the Gaza Strip must be prosecuted; citizens of all nations must demand justice for Palestinians. The Israeli offensive has momentarily come to a halt, but Israel’s illegal occupation and blockade of Gaza continues, with no sign of it being lifted any time in the near future, especially considering Hamas has retained control over Gaza.
     The momentum of support that has been garnered among people in all parts of the world that have come together in solidarity with the Palestinians – the citizens of the world that support and respect human rights – must not come to a stop at this crucial point in time. Now is the time to come together to change the course of history by effectively prosecuting the Israeli leadership responsible for the war crimes carried out by all elements of the Israeli “Defense” Forces, or at the very least, making an official charge in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.
     Iran’s Press TV reported that UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, has stated that Israel’s actions against the civilians of Gaza are reminiscent of "the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto." Falk also stated, "there could have been temporary provision at least made for children, disabled, sick civilians to leave, even if where they left to was southern Israel." more.. e-mail

Ritual Murder in Gaza
Paul J. Balles, Middle East Online 1/23/2009
     Many people around the world, especially Arabs, have been looking to the Obama administration, hoping that his call for change will extend to fairness for Palestinians. They might as well hope for rain in the middle of the Arabian Desert in July.
     The United Nations says some 50,800 Palestinians are now homeless and 400,000 are without running water.
     Israel, in a disgustingly conciliatory mood, says it will allow 143 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into Gaza, plus 60,000 litres of fuel.
     Disgustingly conciliatory because they kept aid from getting to the needy long before the latest conflict and all during it. Instead of starving Gaza into submission, Israel decided to slaughter as many as their US-supplied sophisticated armaments could manage.
     The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports 1,314 Palestinians were killed during the conflict, including more than 400 children. More than 5,000 people were injured, nearly 2,000 of them children.
     All of 13 Israelis were killed in what Israel consistently calls self-defence. Nine of those were military, four of whom were killed by friendly fire. When Israel called a ceasefire on Saturday [17 January], it brazenly announced it had met its war aims.
     Hamas declared a "great victory" over Israel when it announced its own truce. Was that Israel’s aim? Or did it include the disappearance of entire neighbourhoods as reported by BBC’s Christian Fraser? more.. e-mail

The self-defence defence
Rachel Shabi, The Guardian 1/23/2009
     Wartime in Israel is effectively a totalitarian blackout: objectors are denounced as traitors and suppressed or sidelined, while the media almost entirely ignores the consequences of Israeli military actions. This is partly down to self-censorship and partly down to the codes of a military censor.
     But now that Israelis can ask themselves all those difficult questions that were zealously avoided during the past three weeks, will they?
     From the initial reactions this week, it doesn’t look like it. In the past few days, radio commentators have been debating the wisdom of a military ban on soldiers discussing battleground details. Their concern is: if soldiers don’t speak up about the Hamas horrors they faced in Gaza, how will the world remain convinced that the Israeli assault was necessary?
     This has been a central theme of the war in Gaza: not that hundreds of innocent people were killed, not that over 5,000 were horribly injured and not the sky-high human and monetary cost of wrecking homes or razing infrastructure. Even as Palestinian bodies are still being pulled out from the rubble in Gaza, one prominent facet of Israel’s internal discussion is how to keep the Western world resolute in the belief that it was all justified – and just. more.. e-mail

Why I’m boycotting Israeli produce
Joanna Blythman, The Guardian 1/23/2009
     If you’re not in the habit of checking the country of origin on fruit and vegetables to minimise food miles, you may not have noticed just how much Israeli produce is in our shops and supermarkets. At the moment, there are piles of new potatoes (though it’s hard to see why anyone with a scrap of environmental awareness would buy these when our indigenous main crop spuds are still firm and abundant), and that’s just for starters.
     If you go out today and buy avocadoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, Medjoul dates, sharon fruit (persimmons), chillies, oranges, pomegranates, grapefruit or fresh herbs, it’s extremely likely that they will be Israeli. Most of this produce carries country of origin labelling or is branded as Carmel, Bio-Top or Jaffa. In the herb category, there’s room - intentional or otherwise - for confusion. Increasingly your dill, tarragon or basil may be labelled as ’West Bank’. This is not a Palestinian alternative to the Israeli option; it comes from Israeli settlements in Palestine’s occupied territories.
     Israel’s agricultural exporting company, Carmel Agrexco, is one of the biggest suppliers of fresh produce to the UK. As the company puts it... more.. e-mail

A decisive loss for Israel
Mousa Abu Marzook, Electronic Intifada 1/23/2009
     Israel’s objectives from the war on Gaza were set long before its launch: to remove the Hamas movement and government, achieve the reinstallation of the Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Gaza, and end the armed resistance. Two other objectives were not announced. First, restore the Israeli public’s wavering confidence in its armed forces after its defeat by Hizballah in 2006. Second, boost the coalition government in the coming elections.
     Accordingly, we declare that Israel lost, and lost decisively. What did it achieve? The killing of large numbers of civilians, children and women, and the destruction of homes, ministry buildings and other infrastructure with the most advanced United States weapons and other internationally banned chemical and phosphorous elements. Almost 2,000 children were killed and injured in desperate pursuit of political goals. Many international organizations called these attacks war crimes, yet barely a word of denunciation was uttered by any western leader. What message does the European Union mean to send Palestinians by its shameful silence on these crimes, when it speaks incessantly on human rights? more.. e-mail

’I Will Never Walk Again’
Ola Attallah, Palestine Chronicle 1/23/2009
     Guns might have gone silent, bodies buried, rubbles lifted, but Israel’s 22-day onslaught is leaving many Gazans with life-long scars, both physical and psychological.
     "I will never walk again," Ruba Hamid, 8, said from her bed in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
     Her tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched on TV the many young children whose legs have been blown out in Israeli bombing.
     "I will never play again," Ruba said before she stopped talking abruptly as her voice chocked with deep emotion.
     Ruba’s legs were amputated after being shattered by Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip.
     According to medics, thousands of Gazans, many of them children, had their bodies shredded and their limbs amputated due to the severe damage caused by Israeli shells and shrapnel.
     "Most of the cases coming here were suffering from amputated limbs, four of them in some cases," doctor Mo’aweya Hasanein, chief of ambulance and emergency in Gaza, told IOL.
     He estimates around 14 percent of the 5000 people injured in Gaza have become disabled for life.
     "And the numbers keep rising, every day some one is losing an eye, an arm or a leg." more.. e-mail

With staggering irony, Israel is staking a claim on Gaza’s reconstruction
Dr. Saeb Shaath, Palestine News Network 1/23/2009
     Welcome to the Jungle
     What does Israel want more than Palestinians Blood?
     After all the killing and destruction of its genocidal war on Gaza, blood-drenched Israel still wants to control the air that Gazans breathe; to control what they eat and drink; to control what materials they may use to rebuild with their flattened suburbs.
     With staggering irony, Israel is staking a claim on Gaza’s reconstruction, aiming to dictate where, when, and how it will be done -- and by whom!
     Speaking to Reuters news agency, Western diplomats have said that: ’Israel has asked the United Nations, and other aid groups, to provide a detailed list of goods, equipment and personnel that they want to bring into the Gaza Strip ’ to meet immediate needs for rebuilding’. Israel, meanwhile, has told the aid groups that it ’would consider expanding the list of materials authorized to enter the Gaza Strip’. Under current restrictions, Israel does not allow the transport of cement and steel into Gaza - in case the Palestinians use it to build ‘bunkers’.
     Hello people of the world - what is going on here? more.. e-mail

Gaza’s Pastor Speak Out
Middle East Online 1/22/2009
     If the world grants the Palestinian people their human rights there will surely be peace in the Middle East, says Pastor Manuel Musallam.
     From the Church of God in Gaza:
     Peace and blessings upon you, as we pray to God to lift man’s anger and shower Gaza with his mercy and kindness.
     Gaza was suffering prior to the war, it suffered during the war and it will continue to suffer after the war.
     Hundreds of people have been killed and many more injured in the Israeli invasion. Our people have endured the bombing of their homes, their crops have been destroyed, they have lost everything and many are now homeless. We have endured phosphorus bombs which have caused horrific burns, mainly to civilians. Like the early Christians our people are living through a time of great persecution, a persecution which we must record for future generations as a statement of their faith, hope and love.
     Many families fled to United Nations (UNRWA) schools where they thought they would be safe. But with 50-60 people to a room, no electricity, water, bedding or food and nowhere to wash, living conditions are terrible.
     Emergency aid has not yet arrived at the Church and because they are too frightened to venture onto the streets our people cannot reach the warehouses which hold Red Cross and UNRWA relief supplies. We trust in God but appeal to the whole world and in particular the Church to help Gaza. Your prayers and your kindness will be our salvation. more.. e-mail

Ignoring the roots of conflict
Dalila Mahdawi, Electronic Intifada 1/22/2009
     My uncle, aunt and cousins in Gaza have not showered for more than two weeks now. I make a point of this because Samuel Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as "Joe the Plumber" who was propelled into the limelight for questioning then US President-elect Barack Obama, has become a so-called "war correspondent" in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Talking to The Guardian from his new beat, he spoke with sympathy about how difficult life must be for Sderot’s residents. "The people of Sderot can’t do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in. I’m sure they’re taking quick showers. I know I would."
     I wonder what Wurzelbacher would make, then, of the "day to day" lives of the people in Gaza, whose water tanks have run dry, who have no electricity, and where many are struggling to pay for flour, the price of which has jumped to around 160 shekels (around $40) a sack due to the recent onslaught. I wonder, too, what Wurzelbacher would think of my uncle’s recent argument with his wife about the family’s sleeping arrangements. When Israel began its latest military campaign on 27 December, my aunt had wanted everyone to sleep in one room so they could all die together if the house was struck. However, my uncle meanwhile thought they should spread out to increase the chance of someone surviving. more.. e-mail

Gaza, Greece and the Meaning of Solidarity
Noah Cohen, Palestine Think Tank 1/22/2009
     As news came out recently that the United States would be sending a new shipment of bombs to "Israel" from the Greek port of Astakos at some point between the middle and end of January, Palestinians sent out an urgent call to organizers in Greece to stop the shipment. Within a day, several organizations and individuals in Greece responded to the call. Perhaps most significant in the current context was that of the Greek Anti-authoritarian Movement, centrally involved in weeks of rebellion against the repressive forces of their own government:
     "The Anti-authoritarian Movement calls for a Pan-hellenic gathering on Thursday, Jan. 15th at Astakos at 1:00 p.m. to block the departure of boats with American weapons which are destined for Israel.
     DON’T LET THE CARGO OF AMERICAN WEAPONS LEAVE THE PORT
     SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
     RESISTANCE TO GLOBALIZED STATE TERRORISM…"
     As pressure began from below, even members of the parliamentary left began to raise questions. On January 12th, the "US" announced that it had canceled the shipment of arms through Astakos because of "concerns" expressed by the Greek government. more.. e-mail

Breaking Gaza’s Will: Israel’s Enduring Fantasy
Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 1/22/2009
     My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.
     I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail.
     All the photos I received spoke of the reality that is Gaza today - homes, schools and civilian infrastructure bombed beyond description. All the faces were either of dead or dying people.
     I paused as I reached a horrifying photo in the slideshow of a young boy and his sister huddled on a single hospital trolley waiting to be identified and buried. Their faces were darkened as if they were charcoal and their lifeless eyes were still widened with the horror that they experienced as they were burned slowly by a white phosphorus shell.
     It was just then that Sammy walked into my room snooping around for a missing toy. "What is this, daddy?" he inquired. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Message
Ilan Pappe, Palestine News Network 1/23/2009
     In 2004, the Israeli army began building a dummy Arab city in the Negev desert. It’s the size of a real city, with streets (all of them given names), mosques, public buildings and cars. Built at a cost of $45 million, this phantom city became a dummy Gaza in the winter of 2006, after Hizbullah fought Israel to a draw in the north, so that the IDF could prepare to fight a ‘better war’ against Hamas in the south.
     When the Israeli Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz visited the site after the Lebanon war, he told the press that soldiers ‘were preparing for the scenario that will unfold in the dense neighbourhood of Gaza City’. A week into the bombardment of Gaza, Ehud Barak attended a rehearsal for the ground war. Foreign television crews filmed him as he watched ground troops conquer the dummy city, storming the empty houses and no doubt killing the ‘terrorists’ hiding in them.
     ‘Gaza is the problem,’ Levy Eshkol, then prime minister of Israel, said in June 1967. ‘I was there in 1956 and saw venomous snakes walking in the street. We should settle some of them in the Sinai, and hopefully the others will immigrate.’ Eshkol was discussing the fate of the newly occupied territories: he and his cabinet wanted the Gaza Strip, but not the people living in it.
     Israelis often refer to Gaza as ‘Me’arat Nachashim’, a snake pit. Before the first intifada, when the Strip provided Tel Aviv with people to wash their dishes and clean their streets, Gazans were depicted more humanely. The ‘honeymoon’ ended during their first intifada, after a series of incidents in which a few of these employees stabbed their employers. The religious fervour that was said to have inspired these isolated attacks generated a wave of Islamophobic feeling in Israel, which led to the first enclosure of Gaza and the construction of an electric fence around it. Even after the 1993 Oslo Accords, Gaza remained sealed off from Israel, and was used merely as a pool of cheap labour; throughout the 1990s, ‘peace’ for Gaza meant its gradual transformation into a ghetto. more.. e-mail

Sharpeville 1960, Gaza 2009
Dr. Haidar Eid, Electronic Intifada 1/22/2009
     "Where can I bring him a father from? Where can I bring him a mother from? You tell me!"
     These are the desperate words of Subhi Samuni to Al-Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent. Subhi lost 17 members of his immediate family, including the parents of his seven-year-old grandson. Shockingly, even as I write this article, corpses of the Samuni family are still being retrieved from under the rubble -- 15 days after the Israeli occupation forces shelled the two houses. The Israeli army locked 120 members of the family in one house for 12 hours before they shelled it.
     Subhi’s words echo the harsh reality of all Palestinians in Gaza: alone, abandoned, hunted down, brutalized, and, like Subhi’s grandson, orphaned. Twenty-two days of savage butchery took the lives of more than 1,300 Palestinians, at least 85 percent of them civilians, including 434 children, 104 women, 16 medics, four journalists, five foreigners, and 105 elderly people.
     What can one say to comfort a man who has the harrowing task of having to bury his entire family, including his wife, his sons, his daughters and his grandchildren? Tell us and we will relay your words to Uncle Subhi because his loss has made our words of condolences meaningless to our ears. more.. e-mail

US academics: join us in boycott call
Appeal, USCACBI, Electronic Intifada 1/22/2009
     Mission statement
     Responding to the CALL of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are a US campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
     In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and
     Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and
     Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and
     In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions... -- See also: US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and Boycott Israel more.. e-mail

Why American academics must join boycott of Israel
Rania Masri and Marcy Newman, Electronic Intifada 1/18/2009
     On Friday 16 January, Israeli occupation forces bombed the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine (UTA), in Gaza, during their indiscriminate, willful destruction of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.
     The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) noted that "the UTA, together with other Gaza-based civil society organizations, called on 15 January for a wide campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in response to its well-documented, premeditated war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli bombing of UTA’s headquarters occurred on the exact following day, 16 January."
     On 28 December, Israel had already bombed the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), with American-made F-16s destroying six buildings including research laboratories and a women’s dormitory. IUG, like all Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has no political affiliation. Like the rest of the society, the faculty and students are a composite of various political factions ranging from Communist to Islamist to unaffiliated. IUG is a flagship university, one with connections to the United States; Americans have taught at the university as Fulbrighters, and professors from the university have been Fulbrighters in the US. more.. e-mail

Why the Gaza disaster is not 3 weeks old and has not stopped along with the bombs
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 1/22/2009
     Following the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza that started late December 2008, the eyes of the world have been opened to the reality of the daily lives of the people of Gaza; or the reality that the media has agreed to disclose.
     People’s knowledge on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict varies and fluctuates regarding the political tendencies of the individual, the geographical location of where they and the type of media exposure they receive.
     Though the media throughout the world eventually picked up the story of the ongoing slaughter of Gaza and the cost to Palestinian women, children and infrastructure, there was important background and context information that was hardly mentioned during the climax of a war.
     “Why rocket are still fired on Israel?” was a recurring question we received at Palestine Monitor.
     Although nothing can ever justify aggression, the use of violence and the loss of civilian life, there are facts that have to be emphasized on why combatants were still targeting Israel after the so-called Israeli disengagement from the Strip in 2005.
     Yesterday, in a conference on media bias by IPCRI, we heard a journalist from the Jerusalem Post assuming that the main cause that lead to bias in the Israeli public opinion, and in the newspapers that were feeding that same opinion, was that Israelis strongly believe in the ‘disengagement’ of 2005 and assume that Israel has not exerted any control on the Strip since then. For the majority of them, he said, “and I myself was among those, this was a unilateral war, resulting from 8 years of unilateral aggression by Hamas on Israel.”
     But Gaza’s misery did not start 3 weeks ago; and it has certainly not ended following the ceasefire. more.. e-mail

Starve Them; Shoot Them; then Give Them Cancer
James Brooks, Vermonters for a Just Peace, Palestine Monitor 1/22/2009
     An Inquiry into Israel’s use of DIME weaponry in of the Gaza Strip - At the end of 2006, James Brooks from Vermonters for a Just Peace published a three part expose into Israel’s suspected use of a previously unseen weapon, DIME Bombs, on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Suspicions have arisen once more as Doctors continue to report the "˜strange and incurable wounds’ they are encountering following the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
     US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza? The DIME Bomb: Yet another genotoxic weapon
     It’s been almost five months since the first report that Israeli drone aircraft have been dropping a “mystery weapon” on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since then, news media around the world have run stories depicting the strange and “horrific” wounds inflicted by the new bomb. The international press has spoken with Palestinian doctors and medics who say Israel’s new device is a kind of chemical weapon that has significantly increased the fatality rate among the victims of Israeli attacks. [1][2]
     In mid-October, Italian investigators reported forensic evidence that suggests the new weapon may also represent the near future of US “counterinsurgency warfare”. Combined with photographs of the victims and testimony from attending doctors, this evidence points to the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). [3]
     DIME is an LCD (“low collateral damage”) weapon developed at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Publicly, it is slated for initial deployment in 2008. DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic). [4-11] -- See also: Israel's Weapons in Gaza more.. e-mail

Did Obama Set-up Mitchell to Fail in the Middle East?
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, Palestine Chronicle 1/22/2009
     George Mitchell, now a special envoy to the Middle East. (AP/file) In naming George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East, President Obama unfortunately made statements indicating no departure from the failing policies of previous administrations.
     In particular Obama emphasized Israel’s right to "defend itself", never once mentioned things like the occupation or International law, attacked Hamas (a duly elected movement that represents a significant portion of the Palestinian people), supported the strangulation of Gaza, demanded no resistance from an occupied people, and supported the Israeli occupiers in their violence that most recently killed over 400 children.
     This logic has been tried before including under the "aggressive diplomacy" of Bill Clinton and has yielded only a strengthening of Hamas, weakening of Fatah, continued Israeli colonization on Palestinian lands, and setting the stage for future conflicts. Further, such approach is even more untenable now after the setback of the June 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon and the current war on Gaza. more.. e-mail

Worse than an earthquake
Kathy Kelly writing from Rafah, occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/22/2009
     "And really we don’t know enough about the kinds of weapons that have been used against Gaza."
     Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza’s coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists, pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark contrast to the street below, Israel’s ultra-modern unmanned surveillance planes crisscross the skies. F-16s and helicopters can also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles, bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks, are scattered on the ground.
     Workers have cleared most of the roads. Now, they are removing massive piles of wreckage and debris, much as people do following an earthquake.
     "Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake," said a doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. "We feel very frustrated," he continued. "The West, Europe and the US watched this killing go on for 22 days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die.There was no safe place in Gaza." more.. e-mail

Alarm spreads over use of lethal new weapons
Erin Cunningham, Electronic Intifada 1/22/2009
     GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Eighteen-year-old Mona al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realized it was gone -- completely severed by the weapon that hit her.
     Mona is one of the many patients among the 5,500 injured that have international and Palestinian doctors baffled by the type of weaponry used in the Israeli operation. High-profile human rights organizations like Amnesty International are accusing Israel of war crimes.
     Mona’s doctors at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital found no shrapnel in her leg, and it looked as though it had been "sliced right off with a knife."
     "We are not sure exactly what type of weapon can manage to do that immediately and so cleanly," said Dr. Sobhi Skaik, consultant surgeon general at al-Shifa hospital. "What is happening is frightening. It’s possible the Israeli army was using Gaza to experiment militarily." more.. e-mail

Israel Killed the Prospects of Peace
Hasan Afif El-Hasan, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     There is no winner in Gaza, but the big losers are Israelis who supported the massacres. It is very troubling and sad that more than 80% of the Israeli public supports, with no reservation, their government’s aggression against the Palestinians that murdered more than 400 children and 300 mothers in Gaza! A vast majority of the Israelis supported their military actions that have been described by the Red Cross, the UN human rights organizations and Amnesty International as war crimes and breaches of the Geneva Convention. These include "bulldozing houses with civilian families inside, killing civilians who were raising white flags attempting to escape the bombed war zone, opening fire on ambulances trying to reach the injured and firing white phosphorus shells and dime bombs on crowded civilian residential areas". The architects of these massacres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, gained popularity among the Israelis, and some demanded that the military should hit the Palestinians even harder.
     The Israelis have become brainwashed sheep dancing to their sadistic and psychopath masters’ biddings, exactly like the Germans who supported the Nazi genocide in Auschwitz and Dachau. The main Israelis’ argument against the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank or the refugee camps or in Israel proper is that “the Palestinians are not Jews”, the same like the Nazis’ argument against the Jews that “they were not Germans”. The Israelis’ sense of arrogance and supremacy was expressed by Ehud Barak description of Israel as “a villa in the middle of a jungle”, a civilized nation surrounded by savages (Arabs!). more.. e-mail

Al Nakba Redux
Stephen Lendman – Chicago, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     ’Because of the siege, conditions (in Gaza) were dire before December 27.’
     For Palestinians, the Nakba ’Catastrophe’ is their ’Holocaust’ six-month slaughter and displacement before and after the May 1948 establishment of Israel. In December 1947, Jews in Palestine numbered 600,000 compared to 1.3 million Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion ordered them removed and for "Every attack....to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion."
     He meant depopulation, destruction, mass slaughter, displacement, and erasing a proud people’s history. Palestine was to become Israel. Most of the job was completed, more in 1967, and thereafter incrementally until total dispossession is achieved. Gaza is the latest battleground. More ahead is planned. The struggle for liberation continues.
     In all respects, Gaza’s situation is dysfunctional and calamitous. Consider the dire medical state alone.
     The UK Lancet Medical Journal on Gaza
     The prestigious Lancet issued the following statement:
     "We find it hard to believe that an otherwise internationally respected, democratic nation can sanction such large and indiscriminate human atrocities in a territory already under land and sea blockade. The heavy loss of civilian life and destruction of Gaza’s health system is unjustified and disproportional .. The collective punishment of Gazans is placing horrific and immediate burdens of injury and trauma on innocent civilians." These acts are lawless, and we deplore "the silence of national medical associations and professional bodies worldwide....Their leaders....are complicit in a preventable tragedy" with potential long lasting consequences. -- See also: The pychological effects on children in Gaza more.. e-mail

PM Brown, Here is My Shopping List – Satire
Gilad Atzmon - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     Gordon Brown the British PM has managed to come up yesterday with one of his most immoral and irresponsible announcements so far. In his desperate attempt to appease notorious Israeli war criminal leadership, Brown pleaded to redeploy the British Navy in the region. "We’ll send Royal Navy to help fight (weapon) smuggling," said the British PM.
     Mr PM, can’t you see for yourself the total carnage inflicted on the innocent Palestinian civilians by the IDF? Didn’t you follow, like the rest of us, the horrendous indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians perpetrated by the Israel army while being almost fully supported by the Israeli Jewish population? Did you also manage to miss the repeated Israeli usage of unconventional weapons against innocent civilians? Did you fail to learn about the repeated reports of Israeli bombardments of UN refugee centres?
     PM Brown, in case you do not realise, the Palestinian people urgently need weapons to defend themselves against one of the strongest armies in the world. It is the Palestinian people who need protection against one of the most immoral military powers in the history of humanity. For the last three weeks the Palestinian people needed the Royal Navy to intervene and protect them from indiscriminate shelling by the Israeli Navy. The Palestinian people needed the Royal Navy to impose a siege on Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat ports to make it impossible for America to supply Israel with weapon through the sea.The Palestinian people needed the British aircraft carriers to be deployed in the region so they could deter the IAF from dropping one-tonne bombs on innocent civilians. more.. e-mail

Hamas Fights on Uneven Battlefield
Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service 1/23/2009
     UNITED NATIONS, Jan 22 (IPS) - In the 1967 movie classic the "Battle of Algiers", which recreated Algeria’s war of independence against France, a handcuffed and shackled insurgent leader, Ben M’Hidi, is brought before a group of highly-partisan French journalists for intense interrogation.
     One of the journalists asks M’Hidi: "Don’t you think it is a bit cowardly to use women’s handbags and baskets to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people [in cafes and night clubs.
     Responding with equal bluntness, the Algerian insurgent retorts: "And doesn’t it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on unarmed villages on a thousand times more innocent victims.
     Of course, if we had your fighter planes, it would be a lot easier for us," he adds. "Give us your bombers, and you can have our handbags and baskets."
     Like the Algerian insurgents, Hamas militants were not fighting on a level battle field - as the Israeli military unleashed its massive firepower on a virtually defenceless population in Gaza, killing over 1,300 Palestinians in the 22-day conflict.
     "Perhaps it would be interesting to see the roles reversed: the Palestinians with American fighter planes and battle tanks and the Israelis with homemade rockets," says one Arab diplomat, striking a parallel with the Algerian insurgency. more.. e-mail

Israel behaves like Nazis
Samer Jaber and Justin Theriault, International Middle East Media Center News 1/22/2009
     Once again, the Israelis are behaving like Nazis.
     The research that has been compiled (including research that has been undertaken by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (IICC)) to find evidence to prove that Hamas was using ambulances and other civilian infrastructure in their resistance operations, effectively using the Gazan population as "human shields", has zero credibility and no basis in reality, whatsoever.
     In the Israeli Lebanese war of 2006, Israel had made the same baseless claims; parroting in Western media sources, especially Canadian and American, that Hezbollah was using Lebanese civilians as human shields.Unfortunately for Israel, at least two independent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and B’Tselem (an Israeli organization), conducted independent investigations in Southern Lebanon to assess Israel’s claims in this regard.
     Many analysts are now concluding that Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure were purposefully targeted by the Israeli Army, Navy and Air Force; just as Lebanese civilians and Lebanese infrastructure was purposefully targeted in 2006. The evidence to support this claim is mounting by the day. It curious that Western media outlets will plaster Israel’s baseless claims all over the television during times of war, but when independent human rights organization prove that Israel is engaging in war time propaganda to shield criticism of their war crimes, Western media remains silent. more.. e-mail

Woe to the victors
Meron Benvenisti, Ha’aretz 1/22/2009
     The masterminds of Operation Cast Lead sought to characterize it in two contradictory terms: "the landlord has gone insane" and is retaliating with unbridled savagery; and "controlled rage," or a rational military operation that is aimed at deterring the other side. Alongside these two concepts can be added another: a repeated reflexive, instinctive response by a supplanting immigrant society.
     David Day, one of the most prominent scholars who has researched the process by which immigrant societies take control of indigenous populations, writes: "Such ruthless reactions to any sign of resistance from indigenous people has the effect of emphasizing in the minds of both the conquerors and the conquered the scale and completeness of the conquest and the uselessness of further resistance, although in the long term such worthlessness might undermine the moral claim of the supplanting society to the possession of the newly won territory."
     Indeed, there are many historical precedents in which the violent behavior of indigenous peoples against their dispossession has been used as a pretext for their expulsion and to justify a disproportionate military response, all under the guise of "a war on terror" whose goal is to break their spirit and usurp their land. An odious scent of imperialistic mildew wafts from the Gazan operation as well as similar operations that have been launched in the past. more.. e-mail

Deadly Gas in Gaza
Mohannad El-Khairy, Palestine Chronicle 1/22/2009
     ’Hamas’ election victory complicated matters for BG and its partners.’
     As the ongoing massacre in Gaza accomplishes nothing more than a rising toll of over a thousand dead and five thousand injured Palestinians, world leaders scramble like head-less chickens to find ways to achieve a cease-fire, instead of stripping the Apartheid State of Israel (ASI) from its membership at the UN and declaring it an outlaw state.
     News media around the world carry daily coverage of the carnage, inviting ’experts in the field’ from both the Palestinian and Israeli perspectives.
     Yet I haven’t seen a single network expose the ASI’s long term motives behind its attacks: Gaza’s natural gas reserves.
     The current societal framework is in fact manufactured in a way that seldom enables the people to be empowered with information. Only when the exciting stuff emerges on television does everyone’s attention become so dedicated to the tube. In modern history however, wars are usually preceded by the eerie smells of reticent business deals gone bad. Quiet arrangements made by the Corprotocracy [the corporate-political class] that the masses are usually unaware of. -- See also: Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields more.. e-mail

Alastair Crooke Interview: Gaza conflict ’remains unsettled’
Al Jazeera 1/23/2009
     Hamas and Israel are observing separate ceasefires after a 22-day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
     Alastair Crooke, founder of the Conflicts Forum think-tank, shares his thoughts on the conflict, the region and what Obama might bring to the mix.
     Al Jazeera: Can Israel be said to have achieved its aims through its offensive on Gaza?
     As time goes on, it will become more and more clear that Israel has not achieved the aims that it set for itself. The intended aim - that by an overwhelming show of force it would make people both docile and deterred - has not been achieved.
     The core of the conflict itself – the rockets and the issue of the opening of the crossings [into Gaza] – remains completely unsettled. And Israel has not defeated Hamas in a military sense, despite massive destruction of property and people’s lives.
     Inside Israel, there was enormous support for this operation. It wasn’t the same with the Jewish community outside Israel, where we have seen very clear differences of opinion about it, but in Israel there was a strong sense of the righteousness of what was being done in Gaza. more.. e-mail

The pychological effects on children in Gaza
Hatem Shurrab, The Lancet 1/21/2009
     Hatem Shurrab, an aid worker with Islamic Relief based in Gaza, discusses the psychological effects of recent events that he has witnessed in children.
     Finally there is a ceasefire. Finally life in Gaza can begin to return to normal. Looking out of my window I can see scenes that would be normal in any other city, but that have been missing from Gaza for three weeks. Small things we all take for granted; the sound of traffic, children playing in the streets and people shopping for food. The sights and sounds of normal life.
     But things in Gaza aren’t normal. Everywhere you look you can see the devastating impact of the conflict; the death, the destruction and the grief. But some wounds you cannot see. The psychological wounds inflicted upon to the people of Gaza are not immediately visible but are there to see if you look closely.
     Today I visited Al-Faluja school which is sheltering some of the estimated 100,000 people who have been forced from their homes since the fighting started. The conditions in temporary shelters such as this are very difficult. There is little food and water, and people often have no way to keep warm during the cold winter nights.
     This school came under attack during the conflict, and the effects of this are still being felt. At the school I met 11-year-old Yasmin. As I was talking to her she hit another child and started a fight with a boy the same age as she was. I was shocked and saddened to see such young children behaving like this. When I spoke to her father he explained that three weeks ago she was calm and innocent, but is now aggressive and angry. -- See also: Maternal health in Gaza and An interview with a doctor at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza more.. e-mail

Profound psychological damage in Gaza
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/21/2009
     The streets leading from the seriously-damaged Wafa rehabilitation center in Shejaiyeh were filled with black filth smelling of sewage. The hospital -- attacked on 12 January with a chemical bomb that may well have been white phosphorus and which set fire to the roof, and whose four different buildings were shelled intensely on 15 January -- is trying to rebuild and reopen, as is the shelled, burned, seriously-damaged al-Quds hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City.
     Even today, after mentioning to the Canadian TV crew accompanying me that fire blobs had burned up ’til yesterday, we found still more blobs spread out, smoldering and willingly breaking into white smoking fires anew. I have seen this often enough now. They were impressed by it, by the fact that it’s now eight days after the fire and the blobs are still simmering, smoldering, ready to flame up.
     The Red Crescent team of the north of Gaza had gathered at the Ezbet Abed Rabu station, to cut swathes of transparent plastic into lengths to be further cut to fit glass-less windows, blown out in the bombings on and around the houses. This is the first step in providing some immediate relief from the cold. For the homeless, however, I don’t know what will be offered, or if tents are available. more.. e-mail

Up to 200 still missing under Gaza’s rubble
Erin Cunningham, Electronic Intifada 1/21/2009
     GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - A pillow, a belt, a child’s school bag and pages of a torn copy of the Quran lie in the wreckage of the al-Daa family home in al-Zeitoun, a neighborhood of Gaza City. Twenty-four members of the family were killed when an F-16 fighter jet dropped a bomb on their house. Nine bodies still lie under what is now just a massive pancake of concrete, metal wires and death.
     "There were no Hamas fighters here," said Zohair al-Raay, a neighbor of the al-Daa family. "Where are the weapons? Where are the missiles? The al-Daa family had nothing to do with that."
     Eyad al-Daa, father of 32, was found clutching three small children in the stairwell.
     As the ceasefire continues to hold, the sheer scale of the destruction in the Gaza Strip is finally emerging. The deadly, three-week assault by Israel has been devastating.
     Generations of families are vanished, and entire villages now destroyed. Many of the dead are still buried beneath the rubble, their neighbors and relatives left with no way to retrieve them.
     In one of the most harrowing incidents, 35 members of the Samuni family were killed in al-Zeitoun by an F-16. The surviving members dug the bodies out on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire. more.. e-mail

Gaza Rises from Ashes
Ola Attallah – Gaza City, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     It was very early in the morning, but Samir was already working hard to remove the rubble from outside his clothes store in Gaza.
     But for his surprise, minutes after opening the store, he had the first customer of the day show up.
     "Gaza, reeling under destruction and pain, is still alive," Samir told IslamOnline.net.
     Across the coastal enclave, devastated by 22 days of massive Israeli air, land and sea bombing, people are quickly picking up what’s left of their lives.
     Just like Samir, Hamed came out with his wooden carriage laden with fresh vegetables and fruits, not expecting to find buyers.
     In just one hour, everything was sold.
     People, imprisoned for three weeks inside their own homes by the Israeli bombing, were thirsty and hungry for life.
     A few meters away, kids were out in force playing football amid the rubbles of their homes and schools.
     "Come on, let’s play," Marawan, a 10-year-old, told his friends.
     "The warplanes are gone." more.. e-mail

Israel’s right to defend itself
Joseph Massad, Electronic Intifada 1/20/2009
     Common Western political wisdom has it that when Western countries support Israeli military action against Arab countries or the Palestinian people, they do so because they support Israel’s right to defend itself against its enemies.
     This has always been established wisdom in Israel itself, even before the colonial settlement was established, wherein its predatory army is ironically named the Israel Defense Forces, not unlike the South African apartheid army, which was also known as the South African Defense Forces. This defensive nomenclature is hardly exclusive to Israel and South Africa, as many countries rushed after World War II to rename their Ministries of "War" as Ministries of "Defense." Still, Israel’s allegedly defensive actions define every single war the colonial settlement has ever engaged in, even and especially when it starts these wars, which it has done in all cases except in 1973.
     Thus the war of 1948 which Zionist militias started against the Palestinian people on 30 November 1947, a day after a Western-controlled United Nations General Assembly issued the Partition Plan, is presented as "defensive," as was its expulsion of about 400,000 Palestinians before 15 May 1948, i.e. before the day on which three Arab armies (the Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi armies) invaded the area that became Israel (Lebanon hardly had an army to invade with and hardly managed to retrieve two Lebanese villages that Israel had occupied, and Jordanian forces only entered the areas designated by the UN plan for the Palestinian state, and East Jerusalem which was projected to fall under UN jurisdiction). more.. e-mail

Self-defence is no defence
Michael Paulin, The Guardian 1/21/2009
     As more testimony emerges from the ruins of Gaza, evidence is stacking up that Israel has a war crimes case to answer
     Under Article 51 of the UN Charter, a state can take military action without the prior authorisation of the Security Council if it is acting in self-defence. Yet, as CNN has reported, it was Israel – and not Hamas fighters – that broke the ceasefire. On the November 4 2008, Israel shelled the villages of Wadi al-Salqa and al-Qarara, killing six Hamas activists.
     It is true that Israel has suffered from Hamas rocket attacks. Insofar as these attacks indiscriminately target civilian areas, Hamas would be guilty of war crimes under the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Yet, in the past eight years, Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza have killed around 20 people in southern Israel. Israel’s response is neither necessary nor proportionate.
     At the time of writing, after 23 days of bombardment, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, including 410 children and 104 women, while 5,300 are seriously injured, of whom 1,855 are children and 795 women. Israel has shelled three clearly marked UN schools, the existence and GPS coordinates of which Israel had been repeatedly notified. Israel has shelled the headquarters of UNRWA, the UN’s relief agency (which is responsible with providing aid to 750,000 Palestinians), and it has shelled and bombed hospitals, ambulances, and medical personnel. In typical Israeli fashion, it has bulldozed homes without warning in an attempt to bury the inhabitants alive. Recent UN human rights reports expose that the Israeli army has deliberately used white phosphorus on civilians, which is prohibited "in all circumstances" under Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons, and evidence has emerged that Israeli snipers have deliberately targeted civilians. more.. e-mail

View from Ramallah / Israeli refuseniks confront the IDF, from Ni’lin to Tel Aviv
Jesse Rosenfeld, Ha’aretz 1/22/2009
     I had just returned to Tel Aviv from a demonstration in the West Bank village of Ni’lin last July, when I caught word that the Israeli military had shot 11-year old Ahmad Musa in the head during a protest against the separation wall. Twenty minutes later, three Israeli anarchists and I were speeding back to the West Bank to see what had happened.
     Soon we were again in the West Bank, where Israeli suburban-like settlements interrupt Palestinian farmland and villages. Apart from the occasional phone call by the activists to spread the word, we drove mostly in a stifling silence of despair.
     As we were waved through a military checkpoint by an Israeli soldier with an M16 dangling carelessly around her neck, activist Yonatan Pollack kicked the glove compartment. "Fucking child killers," he spat out.
     On November 7, Haaretz reported that the army had requested that the Shin Bet - Israel’s domestic spy network and internal security service - provide information on left-wing Israeli activists traveling to the West Bank. more.. e-mail

Investigate now
Haaretz Editorial, Ha’aretz 1/22/2009
     In the aftermath of the war, the questions arise. Now, as the last IDF soldiers leave the Gaza Strip and the plumes of smoke and dust dissipate over the ruins, the picture of the war starts becoming clearer.
     The first wave of international journalists has already succeeded in entering Gaza through Rafah, despite the outrageous closure which Israel has imposed on coverage of the events. They are already reporting on the sites they are witnessing for the most important global media outlets. International aid organizations have also started investigating what transpired on the streets of Gaza.
     The questions are plentiful and troubling: the mass killing of civilians, among them 300 children and 100 women; the shooting at medical crews; the use of illegal munitions against a civilian population, including white phosphorus shells; the prevention of the evacuation of wounded; bombing and shelling of schools, hospitals, supply convoys and a UN facility. These questions cannot remain unanswered. The suspicion that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza is liable to cause it great damage. more.. e-mail

Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 1/22/2009
     On the morrow of the return of the last Israeli soldier from Gaza, we can determine with certainty that they had all gone out there in vain. This war ended in utter failure for Israel.
     This goes beyond the profound moral failure, which is a grave matter in itself, but pertains to its inability to reach its stated goals. In other words, the grief is not complemented by failure. We have gained nothing in this war save hundreds of graves, some of them very small, thousands of maimed people, much destruction and the besmirching of Israel’s image.
     What seemed like a predestined loss to only a handful of people at the onset of the war will gradually emerge as such to many others, once the victorious trumpeting subsides.
     The initial objective of the war was to put an end to the firing of Qassam rockets. This did not cease until the war’s last day. It was only achieved after a cease-fire had already been arranged. Defense officials estimate that Hamas still has 1,000 rockets.
     The war’s second objective, the prevention of smuggling, was not met either. The head of the Shin Bet security service has estimated that smuggling will be renewed within two months. more.. e-mail

Teaching the piano to sing in Nablus
Noam Ben Ze'ev, Ha’aretz 1/22/2009
     NABLUS - An improvised road block. An armored jeep to the right. An armed soldier making circles in the air with his finger. These were the first sights that greeted the conductor, pianist and world-renowned musicologist Joshua Rifkin on his sortie to the West Bank last Shabbat. The soldier’s finger was pointing downward, and car after car that approached him turned around accordingly, heading back the way it had come. There was no entry to the small village on the outskirts of Nablus, through which all travelers must pass, on the only road leading from Jerusalem to the city’s main checkpoint.
     There is no way past the soldier, and no talking to him either, but we have to reach Nablus. Rifkin has been planning this visit for three months, so I motion to the soldier from a distance, from inside the car, asking that I be allowed to come closer, to speak to him. "Yalla, get lost. I’ve had enough of your nonsense," he shouts at us, angrily gesturing at us in response.
     What can we do? Others who have been turned and have gathered on the slope of the road in front of the road block in semi-despair, offer their advice. A taxi driver from the village offers to drive us around the village on a dirt road, for NIS 70. We go with him, zigzagging along a winding, hilly, bumpy road riddled with potholes, and suddenly the impromptu road block is behind us, and we are on the main road to the city. more.. e-mail

Israel and the white heat of justice
John Palmer, The Guardian 1/21/2009
     A political solution for Gaza must not preclude the investigation of war crimes, including Israel’s use of white phosphorus.
     Amnesty International has now joined the United Nations and Human Rights Watch in accusing the Israeli government of breaking international law outlawing the use of white phosphorus shells in the middle of highly populated areas of Gaza. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, has condemned Israeli attacks on UN humanitarian centres in Gaza as "outrageous" and has called for an independent, international inquiry.
     Meanwhile a senior minister in the Israeli government has been quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as saying that when the full extent of the destruction brought on Gaza becomes known "I will not be taking my holidays in Amsterdam". This possibly "humorous" observation referred to the possibility that leaders of the Israeli government may yet be arraigned before the International Criminal Court in The Hague – or a similar tribunal - to answer charges of war crimes.
     Indeed some 300 human rights organisations have already prepared an initial 37-page dossier to be presented to the court. At the same time, in a move which could be equally damaging to the international standing of the Israeli government, a number of United Nations humanitarian agencies have insisted that there must be an independent, internationally approved, legal inquiry into the prima facie evidence of crimes committed. It is clear now that Israeli shelling and missile attacks – including those on UN facilities used as shelters for civilians during the war – have taken many hundreds of innocent civilian lives. more.. e-mail

Message from the Church of God in Gaza
Fr Manuel Mussallam - Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     Note: A message has arrived from courageous and widely admired pastor of the Catholic Church in Gaza, Fr Manuel Mussallam, written on 20 January, speaking of the plight of his community in the wake of the Israelis’ vicious assault. Here is what this veteran of the long struggle says.
     From the Church of God in Gaza: Peace and blessings upon you, as we pray to God to lift man’s anger and shower Gaza with his mercy and kindness.
     Gaza was suffering prior to the war, it suffered during the war and it will continue to suffer after the war.
     Hundreds of people have been killed and many more injured in the Israeli invasion. Our people have endured the bombing of their homes, their crops have been destroyed, they have lost everything and many are now homeless. We have endured phosphorus bombs which have caused horrific burns, mainly to civilians. Like the early Christians our people are living through a time of great persecution, a persecution which we must record for future generations as a statement of their faith, hope and love.
     Many families fled to United Nations (UNRWA) schools where they thought they would be safe. But with 50-60 people to a room, no electricity, water, bedding or food and nowhere to wash, living conditions are terrible.
     Emergency aid has not yet arrived at the Church and because they are too frightened to venture onto the streets our people cannot reach the warehouses which hold Red Cross and UNRWA relief supplies. We trust in God but appeal to the whole world and in particular the Church to help Gaza. Your prayers and your kindness will be our salvation. more.. e-mail

Worse Than an Earthquake
Kathy Kelly – Rafah, Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2009
     Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza’s coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists, pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark contrast to the street below, Israel’s ultra modern unmanned surveillance planes criss-cross the skies. F16s and helicopters can also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles, bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks, are scattered on the ground.
     Workers have cleared most of the roads. Now, they are removing massive piles of wreckage and debris, much as people do following an earthquake.
     “Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake,” said a doctor at the Shifaa hospital in Gaza. “We feel very frustrated,” he continued. “The West, Europe and the U.S., watched this killing go on for 22 days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die. There was no safe place in Gaza.”
     He and his colleagues are visibly exhausted, following weeks of work in the Intensive Care and Emergency Room departments at a hospital that received many more patients than they could help. “Patients died on the floor of the operating room because we had only six operating rooms,” said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan, M.D, an ICU doctor who grew up in Chicago. “And really we don’t know enough about the kinds of weapons that have been used against Gaza.” more.. e-mail

How Israel drowns dissent
Seth Freedman, The Guardian 1/21/2009
     Firefighters turned their hoses on a peaceful anti-war protester last week. Their attitude reflects a worrying shift in public opinion
     Last week, at the height of Operation Cast Lead, a group of Israeli firemen threw their hats into the political ring, albeit in somewhat undiplomatic and uncivilised fashion. During a peaceful anti-war vigil outside a Tel Aviv air force base, several members of the fire brigade turned on one protester, drenching her relentlessly with water from their hoses, before approaching her and ordering her into the station in order to "give us all head".
     Their actions were, while wholly illegal, none the less emblematic of a massive shift in Israeli public opinion over the last few years, according to Sharon Dolev, the woman on the receiving end of the assault. A veteran activist, Dolev has suffered a great deal during her 20 years of campaigning in the Israeli peace camp ("death threats, being shot with rubber bullets, hate mail, beatings"), but said that this incident was "the first time that the establishment felt safe in [taking action such as this]".
     "It used to be a big deal if bus drivers criticised protests and vigils in public," she recalls, "since as employees of the state, they were not allowed to express political opinions in uniform." Now, however, the firemen felt so secure of escaping punishment that they even bombarded her with firecrackers during the attack, telling her "now you know what it’s like to live in Sderot". more.. e-mail

In Gaza, love is the strongest weapon
Kathy Kelly writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/21/2009
     18 January 2009 Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah were finally able to get eight hours of sleep uninterrupted by F-16s and Apache helicopters attacking them.
     Audrey Stewart, a human rights worker, and I stayed with Abu Yusif and his family, all of whom had fled their home closer to the border and were staying in a home loaned by Abu Yusif’s brother-in-law, who is out of the country.
     The family arose this morning after a comparatively restful slumber.
     For the first time in three weeks, they weren’t attacked by bombs throughout the night. This morning, while his wife Umm Yusif prepared breakfast, Abu Yusif and the children nestled together, on a mat, lining the wall. Abu Yusif had a son under each arm, while the youngest son playfully circled his siblings and then fell into his father’s lap. Umm Yusif prepared a mixture of date preserves and pine nuts, served with warm bread, cheese and spices. Her daughter smiled in contentment, while her nephew, her husband and a close family friend talked about the news. more.. e-mail

PM Gordon Brown, Here Is My Shopping List
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank 1/20/2009
     Gordon Brown the British PM has managed to come up yesterday with one of his most immoral and irresponsible announcements so far. In his desperate attempt to appease notorious Israeli war criminal leadership, Brown pleaded to redeploy the British Navy in the region. “We’ll send Royal Navy to help fight (weapon) smuggling,” said the British PM.
     Mr PM, can’t you see for yourself the total carnage inflicted on the innocent Palestinian civilians by the IDF? Didn’t you follow, like the rest of us, the horrendous indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians perpetrated by the Israel army while being fully supported by the Israeli Jewish population? Did you also manage to miss the repeated Israeli usage of unconventional weapons against innocent civilians? Did you fail to learn about the repeating reports of Israeli bombardments of UN refugee centres?
     PM Brown, in case you do not realise, the Palestinian people urgently need weapons to defend themselves against one of the strongest armies in the world. It is the Palestinian people who need protection against one of the most immoral military powers in the history of humanity. For the last three weeks the Palestinian people needed the Royal Navy to intervene and protect them from indiscriminate shelling by the Israeli Navy. The Palestinian people needed the Royal Navy to impose a siege on Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat ports to make it impossible for America to supply Israel with weapon through the sea. The Palestinian people needed the British aircraft carriers to be deployed in the region so they could deter the IAF from dropping one-tonne bombs on innocent civilians. more.. e-mail

This Violence in Gaza Has Killed the Moderates
The National - Editorial, MIFTAH 1/20/2009
     After three weeks of bloodshed in the Gaza Strip a ceasefire is finally forthcoming, yet there is little to celebrate. Over 1,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the bombardment of densely populated urban areas. Much of Gaza’s infrastructure, already depleted after six months of crippling economic blockade, is demolished or non-functioning. And this ceasefire contains nothing that ensures that the violence will not resume in the immediate future. For, despite international efforts to impose a bilateral ceasefire on Hamas and Israel, little progress was made. Instead Israel has decided to halt its assault under what it terms a “unilateral ceasefire”, but the move amounts to little more than a face-saving measure.
     It had been hypothesised that Israel’s invasion would end before the inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday to avoid alienating its staunchest ally, the United States, but few realised just how cynically Israel would adhere to that deadline. It was always thought that the attempts to cripple Hamas amounted to little more than a public-relations campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections in February, and the triumphalist rhetoric of the Kadima leadership illustrates the accuracy of that belief. The party, which suffered a severe blow to its credibility with the disastrous conclusion of the 2006 war in Lebanon, has enjoyed a resurgence in support for its actions in Gaza. Tzipi Livni, Kadima’s main prime ministerial candidate, has been eager to capitalise on the invasion to improve her standing against her chief opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu. more.. e-mail

Sacrosanct State and Complacent West
Jeremy Salt – Ankara, Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     Attack on UN school in Gaza. Merkel: ’Thousands of (Israelis) are living in fear.’
     ’Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.’ -- Barrack Obama
     ’I’ve been to Gilo and seen the security fence protecting Israeli families from attacks in their own homes.’ -- Hillary Clinton
     ’When I heard about the rocket fire at Israel I felt it was a danger to Italy and to the entire West.’ -- Silvio Berlusconi
     ’While we speak here today thousands of people are living in fear and dread of missile attacks and acts of terror by Hamas.’ -- Angela Merkel
     These quotes are chosen at random from a script written in the theatre of the absurd known as ’the west’. Does Barrack Obama, the Harvard law graduate, not know that Jerusalem is an occupied city? Does Hillary Clinton not know that the Israeli ’families’ living at Gilo have built their homes on land belonging to someone else? Does Silvio Berlusconi seriously regard Hamas rocket attacks as a threat to Italy and even the ’entire West’? Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton were speaking at the AIPAC conference in Washington last June, Angela Merkel in the Knesset in March and Silvio Berlusconi at Sharm al Shaikh this week.He and other European ’leaders’, as they are called, Merkel,Sarkozy and Gordon Brown among them, had gathered in Egypt to ’discuss’ Gaza with Husni Mubarak andMahmud Abbas, i.e to tell them what their part would be in the European plan to bring peace to Gaza. more.. e-mail

In Memory of Martin Luther King
Yousef Abudayyeh, Palestine Think Tank 1/20/2009
     Today, as the Palestinian people continue to search for their dead in the Gaza Strip and bury their scorched children, mothers, and fathers, the United States as whole, the very custodian of Zionist bigotry and colonial malice, is recognizing a champion of civil rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  This is a man that the US imprisoned, beat, accused of treason, and ridiculed before it celebrated, and only after he was assassinated.   He is a preacher of a people whose churches were firebombed and burned to the ground, just like Palestinian mosques and churches; and against whom the US segregated, on whom it set vicious dogs, beat with batons, rifles and fire hoses.  This is a people whose leadership and everyday activists in the struggle for equality were shot at, assassinated, and indeed, lynched by mindless mobs supported by public policy. They are a people whose history is relegated to the margins, whose art and cultural expressions robbed by others, whose youth remain subject to the combined brutalities of poverty, wretch racism, and police powers.
     In the context of the amplified suffering of the past 23 days and in recognition of the proud resilience of the Palestinian people, sadly yet proudly, the likeness to the Palestinian struggle is enormous.  Be it African American or Palestinian, geography is perhaps the only difference. more.. e-mail

Audio: Abunimah, Finkelstein, Mearsheimer discuss Israel’s attacks on Gaza
Audio, Electronic Intifada 1/21/2009
     On Saturday, 27 December 2008, Israel began its onslaught against the 1.5 million besieged and imprisoned Palestinians in the Gaza Strip -- one of the most densely populated areas in the world. One week later, on 3 January, Israel began its ground invasion. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on 17 January, 22 days after the attacks began. The attacks have been the deadliest since Israel’s occupation of Gaza in 1967, with more than 1,300 Palestinians killed and thousands injured by intense bombardment from air, land and sea.
     On 8 January, a panel featuring the following speakers was held at the University of Chicago to discuss the the reasons and ramifications of the recent attacks on Gaza and the larger Palestinian-Israeli conflict:
     John J. Mearsheimer is the Wendell Harrison Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and the co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, a New York Times Best Seller.
     Ali Abunimah is a writer, commentator, and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, and co-founder of The Electronic Intifada.
     Norman G. Finkelstein is a scholar of political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is the author of five books including Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, and most recently, Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history. -- See also: Download [MP4 - 26.1 MB] more.. e-mail

Photostory: Israel attacks UN school in Gaza
UNRWA photographer Iyad El-Baba, Electronic Intifada 1/20/2009
     On 17 January 2009, Israeli forces bombed a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. Around 1,600 Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, mostly families including young children, sought refuge at the school to escape Israeli air strikes that were targeting homes in densely populated areas. At least two children were killed in the attack and another dozen wounded by the white phosphorus bombs fired at the school.
     The bombing was not an isolated incident of Israel targeting UN institutions and personnel since it launched a military siege against the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008. At least 43 civilians were massacred on 6 January as they took shelter at the al-Fakhoura school in Jabaliya refugee camp. UN personnel have been shot and killed as they attempted to conduct relief operations in the Gaza Strip. Tons of desperately needed aid were destroyed on 15 January when Israeli forces shelled the UNRWA warehouse in Gaza City with what is suspected to be white phosphorous. more.. e-mail

’Legal’ weapons also kill
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/21/2009
     The weapons and ammunition that killed the brothers Kassab and Ibrahim Shurab, aged 28 and 17, were legal. But apart from the weapons and ammunition, was there anything legal about killing them?
     On Friday, January 16, the two were driving with their father Mohammed, 64, in a red Land Rover from the family’s farm near the Green Line to their home in Khan Yunis. The father drove, Kassab sat in the passenger seat and Ibrahim sat in the back. The temporary cease-fire, allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, was held between 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. that day.
     They came to one Israel Defense Forces inspection point in the area and were allowed to continue. At about 1 P.M. they reached the Abu Zaidan supermarket in the Al-Foukhari neighborhood. An adjacent building had been converted into an IDF outpost. Soldiers moved in, turning the tenants into prisoners in their own homes.
     Suddenly intensive fire opened on the Land Rover from the army outpost, about 30 to 50 meters away, according to the father’s estimate. Kassab was hit in the chest, came out of the sport utility vehicle (SUV), collapsed and died. Ibrahim jumped out and was hit in the leg by the fire, which did not stop. He tried to call for help on his mobile phone but a soldier shouted at him not to call and swore at him in Arabic, the father told Tom, a member of Physicians for Human Rights, hours later. The father’s hand was injured in the fire. He managed to drag his living son to a nearby wall and telephoned home, the Red Crescent, journalists and even his son in the United States. He saw a tank, saw Israeli soldiers coming and going, he told Tom. more.. e-mail

Gaza and the Franco-Egyptian Proposal
Dr. Elias Akleh, Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     The Israeli attack on Gaza had exposed the treacherous role the Egyptian Mubarak’s regime had been playing, since he received presidency, in the Arab/Israeli conflict and in the Palestinian/Palestinian division. During the attack Mubarak’s regime tried to portray itself as an honest mediator between Israel and Hamas, while, in reality, it was playing the role of an Israeli proxy negotiator, who was trying to impose Israeli conditions on Hamas government. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Tsibi Livni, had hinted to this when she stated that the negotiations through Egypt were not with Hamas but against it.
     Few days before the Israeli onslaught on Gaza Tsibi Livni traveled to Egypt to coordinate with the Egyptian regime its role in the Israeli onslaught against Gaza. The Egyptian role was to keep Rafah Crossing closed against all fleeing Palestinians to safety in Egyptian territory, and against the flow of all kinds of aid into Gaza. Egyptian regime would, later, exonerate itself through an Egyptian/Israeli already-agreed upon ceasefire agreement.
     The assumption was that the massive Israeli onslaught against Gaza would destroy Hamas government within a week, after which Palestinians would run to Egypt asking for mediation with Israel. Egypt had in the past played the role of mediator between Palestinians and Israel. Egyptian regime would “negotiate” a ceasefire and the “return” of the Palestinian security forces to Gaza, under the leadership of Mohamad Dahlan, in return for withdrawal of Israeli army from Gaza and for humanitarian aid. more.. e-mail

The Post-Gaza Political Battle
Rami G. Khouri, Middle East Online 1/20/2009
     BEIRUT -- The distressed state of the Arab world was on full display last week on two fronts: The massive Arab emotional reaction against Israel’s ferocious attack on Gaza, and the slightly ridiculous holding of three separate Arab summit meetings -- with not a single practical result expected from any of them. The deeper reality that plagues the Arab world is that the average Arab citizen faces an unsatisfying choice between a brand of Islamist-nationalist military resistance that triggers enormous Israeli attacks and Arab death and destruction, and a brand of Arab autocratic governance that breeds mediocrity, corruption and perpetual vulnerability and dependence.
     The choice is stark: Hamas or Fateh in Palestine; Hizbullah or Hariri in Lebanon; Mubarak & Son or Muslim Brothers in Egypt -- and the list continues through every Arab country. The slow gravitation and polarization of the modern Arab state system over the past three generations into two broad camps of status quo conservatives and resistance fighters is more apparent than ever, and equally frustrating.
     The powerful Islamist-nationalist resistance and social-political movements that have come into being in recent decades are first and foremost a response to the poor performance and low credibility of the power elite that has dominated the modern Arab world. Movements like Hamas and Hizbullah have gained additional strength and legitimacy from fighting the Israeli occupation, which the established Arab power structure has not done very well in most cases, despite half a dozen wars since 1948. more.. e-mail

A Memorandum of Understanding to Kill More Palestinians
Dr. Akram Habeeb, Palestine Think Tank 1/20/2009
     As an Americanist and a Palestinian  intellectual who is not affiliated to any political party in Palestine, I feel that I have to stand up and speak out. I have to speak about the faulty policy which feeds the spirit of hatred and resentment. Almost every man, woman and child in the world knows that the American policy in the Middle East during  the two terms of Bush's  Administration is distinguished by being biased and double standards.  Very few, however, are easily deceived by the glittering rhetoric made by some American politicians, particularly, the most articulate outgoing Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice! Dr. Rice was very smart when she declared at the outset of the most brutal Israeli war on Gaza that it was the Palestinian side which is held responsible for violating the six-month  truce. She was even smarter when she concluded her career by signing an MOU, which is completely in favor of the Israelis. It is an MOU which further tightens the siege on Gaza and allows Israel to posses more American WMD to kill more Palestinians.
     The most disturbing statement about the situation in Gaza was made by Dr. Rice was when she declared that it was the Palestinian side who violated the truce and subsequently is responsible for what is happening in Gaza. Such a statement is easy to be made by Dr. Rice whose accomplishments in America's foreign policy were spectacular. more.. e-mail

Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis
Ben White, The Guardian 1/20/2009
     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?"
     Despite a mass of evidence that includes Israel’s targets in Operation Cast Lead, public remarks by Israeli leaders over some time, and the ceasefire manoeuvring of this last weekend, much of the analysis offered by politicians or commentators has been disappointingly limited, and characterised by false assumptions, or misplaced emphases, about Israel’s motivations.
     First, to what this war on Gaza is not about: it’s not about the rockets. During the truce last year, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was reduced by 97%, with the few projectiles that were fired coming from non-Hamas groups opposed to the agreement. Despite this success in vastly improving the security of Israelis in the south, Israel did everything it could to undermine the calm, and provoke Hamas into a conflict. more.. e-mail

This time, we found a willing ear
Tania Hary, Ran Yaron and Libby Friedlander, Jerusalem Post 1/20/2009
     On the day we arrived in Washington D.C. - representatives of Israeli human rights organizations in town to brief decision-makers on the situation in Gaza - three simultaneous events were taking place: 1) readers of The Washington Post were waking up to a front page story describing the discovery of four small Gazan children stranded for days next to their dead mothers, prompting an unprecedented statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross that in this instance the IDF failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law; 2) the Red Cross and UNRWA were debating the halt of services in Gaza following several incidents in which their workers were attacked presumably by the IDF; and 3) the US House and Senate were expected to near-unanimously pass a resolution declaring their unwavering support for Israel and its military action in the Gaza Strip.
     More than 100 individuals packed into room 2200 of the Rayburn House Office Building to hear from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement about the devastating impact of the military operation and 18 months of closure of the Gaza Strip. Perhaps they were also there to somehow understand how the three parallel events noted above could possibly be taking place all at once. more.. e-mail

Posturing and laughter as victims rot
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/20/2009
     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.
     Europe laughs while Palestinians mourn their dead. No wonder that in the streets of Beirut, shops were doing a flourishing trade in Palestinian scarves and flags. Even some of Palestine’s most serious enemies in Lebanon wore the Palestinian keffiyeh in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Over and over again, Al-Jazeera television strapped headlines on to their news reports of Palestinians carrying the decomposing corpses of their dead: "More than 1,300 dead in Gaza, 400 of them women and children – Israeli dead in the war 13, three of them civilians." That, too, said it all. more.. e-mail

Not to Remain Silent
Jim Miles - Canada, Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     ’My emotions start from full cynicism and despair about the situation.’
     I write simply not to remain silent in the face of U.S. and Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population in general, and the Gaza population in particular.
     Where to start? There are so many other writers and spokespersons appearing regularly on the internet alternate media that speak clearly, passionately, and knowledgeably about the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. On the regular media, the corporate controlled agenda continues its endless reiterations of the Israeli line that their purpose militarily is to stop Hamas’ rockets, a position so grievously out of context and so contrary to the obvious war crimes being committed against the people of Gaza. The governments of the west, part and parcel of the same agenda, proffer up political platitudes about regretting civilian casualties, about proportionality, about the right of Israel to defend itself. The reports themselves disingenuously seek "balance" by equating the ineffective and feeble rocket attacks with the thunderous bombardment of U.S. Hellfire missiles fired from U.S. helicopters and war planes, the use of phosphorous bombs, cluster bombs, and other modern creations of "precision" warfare. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Doctrine of Destruction
Jonathan Cook - Nazareth, Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     Donors are reportedly tired of funding Gaza Projects to see them destroyed. (UNRWA) 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.
     Then, Israel destroyed much of Lebanon’s infrastructure in a month of intensive air strikes. Even in the war’s last few hours, as a ceasefire was being finalised, Israel fired more than a million cluster bombs over south Lebanon, apparently in the hope that the area could be made as uninhabitable as possible.
     Similarly, Israel’s destruction of Gaza continued with unrelenting vigour to the very last moment, even though according to reports in the Israeli media the air force exhausted what it called its "bank of Hamas targets" in the first few days of fighting. more.. e-mail

A child full of light will never see again
Sameh A. Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/20/2009
     As a Gazan journalist who is devastated by the holocaust the Israel army is perpetrating against us, I find myself at loss. The list of horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians is endless and the crimes are countless.
     Should I write about the 45 evacuees who were massacred in their refuge at the United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school? Should I write about the most horrifying crime when Red Cross personnel found four starving children who had spent four days with the dead bodies of their mothers and other relatives in the ruins of a house in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood.
     Should I talk about the mass killing of the al-Dayaa family when 15 family members were killed when a "smart" bomb gently hit their five-story building.
     What about the sadistic crime when the father of the al-Samuni family was executed before his wife and children? Or the carnage committed against the extended al-Samuni family when 29 members of the clan were concentrated in one house which was bombed and collapsed on top of them, killing them all? more.. e-mail

Outrage and Impotence as Gaza Burned
Chris Gelken, Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     ’The UN is deeply implicated in the violations of rights of the Palestinians.’ (UNRWA) United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon expressed his "outrage" and the President of the General Assembly, Miquel d’Escoto Brockmann, accused Israel of violating international law.
     "Gaza is ablaze," he told the UN General Assembly, "it has been turned into a burning hell."
     The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Professor Richard Falk, characterized the Israel offensive as containing "severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law."
     But an outspoken US lawyer isn’t overly impressed with the indignant words of Ban, Brockmann, or Falk.
     "Saying is one thing," according to international attorney Francis A. Boyle, "doing is another."
     He accused the UN creating the problem in the first place by what he described as the "illegal" partitioning of the Palestine Mandate that led to a massive displacement of the indigenous Arab population. more.. e-mail

Gotterdammerung and Other Poems
Palestine Chronicle 1/20/2009
     The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature these short poems contributed by Pina Piccolo, Frieda Groffy and Vi Ransel
     For Mahmoud Darwish, whispering his soul over Gaza
     You were taken by a merciful death, Mahmoud
     Lest phosphorous devour your heart
     A chorus of stones answered
     As the Strip lay awash in wrath
     And a swallow looked and wept
     As the bricks came unwrapped
     And the song of ages drowned
     The knocks of unmanned flight
     As a tribe of pigeons cooed a baby alone
     To sleep through the night
     And the ghosts of the olive groves bereft of poet
     Sang the Buraq back to life. [end]

It takes two to ceasefire
Daoud Kuttab, Palestine News Network 1/19/2009
     Ramallah - The decision by the Israeli cabinet to declare a unilateral ceasefire lacks three basic components: a partner, a monitor and a political process.
     Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is famous for his saying that when talking about peace negotiations, it takes two to tango. The same principle applies to the cessation of violence. Israel might think that since it began the attack on its own, it can end it on its own. But the "durable and lasting" ceasefire that the White House has called for requires an Arab partner which has the ability to make it work. Israel’s blind refusal to recognize Hamas has forced it to carry out the unusual step of declaring a unilateral ceasefire with the hope that others can help encourage Hamas to abide by it. The Islamic movement says it is not bound by an agreement which does not include it. Egyptian officials have been saying that both sides need face saving. Incentive is needed to help each down from the tree upon which it has climbed.
     Lasting ceasefire agreements also require monitoring. In the past the Egyptian government has sponsored a tahdiya [truce] between Israel and Hamas, but this six-month truce has been regularly violated by Israel and Hamas. Israel refused to open the borders or stop its assassinations of Hamas leaders. The armed wing of Hamas, claiming their actions were in response to assassination, also fired their Qassam projectiles into Israel as did armed wings of other parties. After time it becomes useless to try and figure out who started attacking. With the international press left out, the current Israeli declaration leaves out this important monitoring component, and in that it allows the Israelis to write the narrative they want. more.. e-mail

Gaza Carnage in Context; Timeline
Stephen Lendman – Chicago, Palestine Chronicle 1/19/2009
     ’Israel defiled the rule of law, abused its neighbors (and) committed genocide.’
     World outrage continues over Israeli war crimes and Washington’s complicity. Gazans are now immortalized. Hamas is more popular than ever and remains resolute despite everything the IDF threw against it.
     Democrats and Republicans share equal guilt. They fund Israeli state terror, are partnered in its aggression, and have collaboratively planned, supported, and/or agreed to it for the past 41 years. Continuity under Obama is assured. The current Gaza carnage is the worst since 1967. In spite of its "unilateral" ceasefire, sporadic Israeli attacks continue. The IDF merely redeployed. Gaza remains under siege, and human suffering is overwhelming and unrelieved.
     Since December 27, Israel conducted terror bombings, tank and naval vessel shellings, and assault troop slaughter on the ground. Illegal weapons were used. Neighborhoods are burning and in ruins. Horrific wounds are reported. Civilians were willfully massacred. They comprise 80-90% of the casualties according to human rights organizations and medical authority reports. All 1.5 million Gazans were targeted. They still are. There’s no place anywhere to hide. more.. e-mail

After Sderot, Will President Barak Obama Visit Gaza?
Sami Jamil Jadallah, Palestine Think Tank 1/18/2009
     Candidate Barack Obama visited the southern Israeli city of Sderot to express his support to the town’s people. Sderot has been marketed by the powerful Jewish media machine in the US as suffering a great deal from Hamas’ ballistic and nuclear missiles. I wonder if President Obama will make a similar visit and see for himself what America’s real missiles, real jets and real bombs and rockets did to Gaza and the people of Gaza. Candidate Obama on his visit to Sderot was reaching low to win A few more Jewish votes. Would President Obama reach as high and reach the hundreds of millions around the world who condemned the war crimes committed in Gaza?
     Candidate Obama expressed great support for the residents of Sderot and appreciated that the people could not have peaceful nights and could not enjoy quiet dinners with wine and music. Now that Israel has leveled Gaza, destroying its entire infrastructure, killed more than a thousand and injured several thousands and made homeless hundreds of thousands, using the latest weapons American could muster. Would President Obama visit Gaza to express his support for the hundreds of thousands of the people and visit the graves of all of the children and women deliberately killed by Israel? Witness devastation and total destruction, victims of a criminal partnership between Israel and the US. During his visit to Sderot, candidate Obama was accompanied by Israel’s Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and Avi Dichter. Perhaps President Obama will be accompanied during his tour of Gaza by the parents of all those who lost their loved ones, by the doctors who treated the tens of thousands, by the UN relief workers who witnessed the cold blooded murder of women and children as they sought shelter. more.. e-mail

From Gaza to Obama
Al Jazeera 1/20/2009
     On January 20th Barack Obama takes office as the 44th president of the United States, amidst turmoil in the Middle East following Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has left more than 1,200 Palestinians dead.
     Al Jazeera spoke to three Palestinians living in Gaza about their experiences during the Gaza offensive, how their life has been affected and what the new US president should do to bring about peace.
     Mohammed al-Sharif, Gaza City, works for Palestinian NGO: White phosphorous bombs have been dropped close to our house. You name it - everything you have seen on the TV we went through.
     Two weeks ago, we removed the panes of glass from our windows as we were scared it would shatter in our faces.
     We have been sleeping in one corner of the house away from the windows and trying to put our six-month-old daughter between us to keep her safe.
     We have only left the house to go to the supermarket to buy basic necessities.
     We have spent a lot of time on the telephone calling friends to see if they are still OK.
     You only get electricity for two hours a day and after a while you feel like you are very isolated.
     Let’s hope the new president will take more time to spend more time to understand the reality of the Israel-Arab struggle.
     He should not take only the Israeli point of view. he has to understand you cannot punish the Palestinian people for making a choice. I am not pro-Hamas, but Hamas won the election, a legal election. more.. e-mail

Now we’ve all seen through the Israeli government’s excuses
Mark Steel, The Independent 1/21/2009
     The worrying part about whether the ceasefire in Gaza can hold together will be whether the international community can stop the flow of arms to the terrorists. Because Israel’s getting their planes and tanks and missiles from somewhere and until this supply is cut off there’s every chance it could start up again.
     The disregard for life from these terrorists and their supporters is shocking. For example Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, wrote that the purpose of the Israeli attack must be to "inflict a heavy death toll and heavy pain on the Gaza population".
     Replace "Gaza" with "western", and that could have been written by al-Qa’ida. Maybe this is the problem: the Israelis are writing their policies by downloading statements from an Islamic Jihad website and just changing the place names. Also, if the Israelis think the Hamas rockets are as lethal as they say, why don’t they swap their F-16 fighters and Apachehelicopters for a few of them?
     These things are capable of terrorising a whole nation for years apparently, yet the Israelis have neglected to buy any, wasting their money on gunboats and stuff. Given that their annual arms budget is $7.2bn plus $2.2 bn in "aid", they’d save enough to buy a selection of banks in every country in the world. more.. e-mail

So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn’t it time for a war crimes tribunal?
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/19/2009
     Mr Ban said it would not be up to him to launch a war crimes tribunal. It was pathetic.
     It’s a wrap, a doddle, an Israeli ceasefire just in time for Barack Obama to have a squeaky-clean inauguration with all the world looking at the streets of Washington rather than the rubble of Gaza. Condi and Ms Livni thought their new arms-monitoring agreement – reached without a single Arab being involved – would work. Ban Ki-moon welcomed the unilateral truce. The great and the good gathered for a Sharm el-Sheikh summit. Only Hamas itself was not consulted. Which led, of course, to a few wrinkles in the plan. First, before declaring its own ceasefire, Hamas fired off more rockets at Israel, proving that Israel’s primary war aim – to stop the missiles – had failed. Then Cairo shrugged off the deal because no one was going to set up electronic surveillance equipment on Egyptian soil. And not one European leader travelling to the region suggested the survivors might be helped if Israel, the EU and the US ended the food and fuel siege of Gaza.
     After killing hundreds of women and children, Israel was the good guy again, by declaring a unilateral ceasefire that Hamas was certain to break. But Obama will be smiling on Tuesday. Was not this the reason, after all, why Israel suddenly wanted a truce?
     Egypt’s objections may be theatre – the US spent £18m last year training Egyptian security men to stop arms smuggling into Gaza and since the US bails out Egypt’s economy, ignores the corruption of its regime and goes on backing Hosni Mubarak, there’s sure to be a "compromise" very soon. more.. e-mail

Gaza: The Beginning of the End of Israel?
Alex Whisson, Palestine Chronicle 1/19/2009
     There is a global call to begin a campaign of Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions. (EPA) Through its criminal actions of the past three weeks, Israel must surely have succeeded only in digging its own grave. And no decent-minded person will shed a tear at its funeral.
     It’s truly astonishing the way it only takes a handful of five-second ’soundbites’ to reduce a complex story of injustice to a monstrous lie, but that is precisely what the leaders of the Israeli state and apologists for its cause have been doing - very effectively one must say - for the last sixty years.
     Empty platitudes and bald assertions by pro-Israel propagandists have dominated what passes for debate on the conflict for far too long. Some of the claims made by Tel Aviv and its virtual army of court scribes, often mistakenly referred to as journalists, are so utterly preposterous they wouldn’t look out of place in a Monty Python sketch if they weren’t so deadly serious.Take for instance the endlessly repeated mantra that Israel, a nuclear-armed state bristling with F-16’s, Merkava tanks and Apache helicopter gunships, must defend itself from the existential threat posed by home-made rockets that carry 4 kilograms of explosives and are in fact little more than glorified firecrackers.Claims such as these, the balsa wood struts that hold together the Potemkin village image Israel presents to the world, are now beginning to collapse before our eyes. more.. e-mail

Israel’s friends cannot justify this slaughter
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent 1/19/2009
     On Saturday night, I was at the BBC to discuss the Sunday papers on their TV news channel. Optimism was up. Israel was about to halt its assault on Gaza. Be thankful for miserable mercies. Easier said than felt.
     For the trapped people of Gaza, this respite will bring some relief. It will not, cannot curb their grief and outrage after what was done to them while the West stood still. First systematically starved, the population was denied escape and more than 1,200 were slaughtered like animals in an abattoir.
     A writer of Muslim origin accusing Israel of crimes against Palestinians is always provocative. But race and religion are red herrings. Palestine is a political cause. Some of its most articulate voices – Edward Said, Hanan Ashrawi – have been Christian. Yes, true, Hamas represents an Islamicisation of the conflict, something I abhor, but the injustices suffered by Palestine go back way before Hamas.
     I have always defended Israel’s right to be but cannot extend unconditional support and immunity from censure in perpetuity. Nor can countless, conscientious Jewish men and women who publicly condemn Israel’s abominations. The Israeli academic Oren Yiftachel, who has long defended Palestine, has said his country: "Turned Gaza into a massive prison and is choosing to prolong the cycle of state terror and prison resistance that goes with that." In other words, Israel wants to keep the conflict alive. more.. e-mail

Report From Gaza: Strongest Weapon of All
Kathy Kelly - Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/19/2009
     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.”
     He has been practicing medicine as a General Surgeon all of his adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such terrible and ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when he and a surgical team tried to help numerous patients with broken limbs, shrapnel wounds, and severe burns. Neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, orthopedic and general surgeons worked together on patients, as a team, trying to save them, but there were many that they couldn’t save. He described patients with shrapnel wounds in their eyes, faces, chests, and abdomens, patients whose legs were amputated above the lower limbs. Most, he said, were civilians.
     “These are strange ways of destroying the human body,” said Dr. Tarazi. “Please, come tomorrow to the Burn Unit, and you will see patients suffering from the use of white phosphorous.” more.. e-mail

Gazans do not blame Hamas
Mel Frykberg, Electronic Intifada 1/19/2009
     RAMALLAH (IPS) - Humanitarian aid is being rushed into Gaza as Israel and Egypt open their borders temporarily to allow convoys of aid to pass through.
     While Israeli drones circle the skies above, Hamas security men are back on the streets attempting to restore some semblance of law and order. Policemen are directing traffic. Several looters have been arrested.
     Gazans who survived the battering inflicted by Israel’s 22-day military campaign, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, are venturing out and trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.
     "People are feeling dazed and confused. Many are desperately trying to contact family members and friends on the few remaining phone lines that operate to see if they are still alive or if they are injured," Abdallah al-Agha from Khan Younis in the south of Gaza told IPS.
     "Others are leaving UN shelters for the first time in days to see if and what remains of their homes," added al-Agha.
     Elena Qleibo, a Gaza-based aid worker from Oxfam and an ex-Costa Rican ambassador to Israel, said parts of Gaza resembled an apocalypse.
     "The destruction wrought on Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, and the Zeitoun suburb in eastern Gaza city is immense," Qleibo told IPS. "The sewage is flowing in the streets. Electricity pylons, water and sewage works, municipal and medical buildings, and homes have been leveled." more.. e-mail

Amid dust and death, a family’s story speaks for the terror of war
Rory McCarthy in Zeitoun, The Guardian 1/19/2009
     48 members of the Samouni family were killed in one day when Israel’s battle with Hamas suddenly centred on their homes
     Helmi Samouni knelt yesterday on the floor of the bedroom he once shared with his wife and their five-month old son, scraping his fingers through a thick layer of ash and broken glass looking for mementoes of their life together. "I found a ring. I might find more," he said.
     His wife Maha and their child Muhammad were killed in the second week of Israel’s 22-day war in Gaza when they were shelled by Israeli forces as they took shelter nearby along with dozens of relatives. In total 48 people from one family are now known to have died that Monday morning, 5 January, in Zeitoun, on the southern outskirts of Gaza City.
     Of all the horrors visited on the civilians of Gaza in this war the fate of the Samounis, a family of farmers who lived close together in simple breeze-block homes, was perhaps the gravest.
     Around a dozen homes in this small area were destroyed, no more than piles of rubble in the sand yesterday. Helmi Samouni’s two-storey house was one of the few left standing, despite the gaping hole from a large tank shell that pierced his blackened bedroom wall. During the invasion it had been taken over by Israeli soldiers, who wrecked the furniture and set up sand-bagged shooting positions throughout. more.. e-mail

Israel’s disconnect
Julie Flint, The Guardian 1/19/2009
     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!"
     We do indeed know what the results would be. In 2006, more than 1,000 people died in Lebanon, the vast majority of them civilians, when Israel launched air and artillery attacks against targets including Beirut airport, bridges and highways, and established an air, land and sea blockade following Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers from the Israeli side of the border. War crimes were committed and there has been no accountability, making the next war that much easier. In Gaza so far, more than 1,200 Palestinians have died (and 13 Israelis), the vast majority of whom were non-combatants. A quarter were children, straining even Israel’s definition of "terrorist" as, according to its own experts, it expands the definition of "legitimate target" and, in so doing, narrows the definition of "collateral damage". more.. e-mail

Israel’s Propaganda War - Part 2
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 1/19/2009
     As the conflict in Gaza winds down, Israel’s toughest battle is just beginning—the battle against the media. Not literally of course, although the IDF did a great job of targeting many media and broadcasting centers in Gaza during its offensive, along with killing several journalists in the process. But now that the ceasefire has taken effect, Israel is focused on making sure the world sees the conflict from their point of view—and they have taken a ‘grass roots’ approach to their image problem.
     One of the new techniques the Ministry of Information is using is recruiting people via mass-emails to become “media volunteers” for Israel and sending text messages to journalists covering the conflict offering to help them cover the war, from Israel’s point of view of course.
     Around the world, many people have been spammed by Israel with this email:
     Dear friends,
     We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it’s a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment. more.. e-mail

Solidarity with Gaza: Just the Beginning
Hammam Farah – Toronto, Palestine Chronicle 1/19/2009
     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.
     Already, the bone chilling, cold streets of Toronto have seen several mass demonstrations of solidarity with the people of Gaza and anger at an Israeli government that is increasingly being recognized as one of apartheid and racial exclusion. For our Palestinian people back home, the struggle consists of continued steadfastness and resistance.For us in the Diaspora, it’s about education, solidarity, and the promotion of the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid and its institutions. For both those in Palestine and outside, the long-term goal is the ending of Israeli apartheid, and the immediate goal is breaking the world’s silence over the two-year-old inhuman siege on Gaza and its culmination with this massive assault that has so far taken the lives of over a thousand people today. more.. e-mail

On the blogs: Gaza assesses the devastation
Matthew Weaver, The Guardian 1/19/2009
     As Israeli troops returned from the frontline smiling with relief, the ceasefire has given the people of Gaza their first chance to assess the devastation of the 22-day conflict.
     One volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, Eva Bartlett, writes: "Today was the first day that medics and journalists were able to reach areas occupied by the invading Israeli troops.
     "For some the anguish is immense: pulverised homes, killed family members, corpses unretrieved, sanctimony and all that is sacred defiled. For others, the suffering is in the tragedy of shattered dreams, of every personal item destroyed or lost. While the bombs may have stopped, for now, the terror remains. F-16s still flew low, terrifyingly low, today, so loud, so unpredictable. No one here has any reason to believe any words Israeli leaders proclaim. Only reason to believe in the worst."
     Throughout the conflict, Laila El Haddad, blogging from America, has been providing daily updates from her father in Gaza.
     "There is an unfamiliar stillness in Gaza today," he told her.
     She quotes him saying: "They destroyed anything in their path – people, buildings, streets … nothing was left untouched. It is calm, for now. We sleep, for now. But the siege continues. And make no mistake, Gaza will rise." more.. e-mail

The real damage in Gaza
Anas Altikriti, The Guardian 1/19/2009
     When a rabbi burns his Israeli passport in protest against the attacks that have killed more than 1,200 Gazans, the vast majority civilians, and injured more than 5,000, and a veteran Jewish Labour MP compares Israeli actions and statements to those of the Nazis, one cannot fail but take notice. When prominent members of Britain’s Jewish community make an impassioned appeal to Israel to stop its onslaught against the beleaguered Strip and its people, while another letter signed by dozens of Jewish figures from all corners of British society condemns the Israeli attacks, stating that the images reminded them of the siege of the Warsaw ghettos, it’s almost as if a radical narrative shift has been set in motion.
     For years, decades even, those who have criticised Israel have been accused of antisemitism. If those doing the criticising happened to be Jewish themselves, they would be branded self-hating Jews. One way or another, there was no way for anyone to criticise Israel and its expansionist and illegal policies without being denounced for being racist and a bigot of sorts. However, rather than time playing in favour of Israel by cementing its authority and false claims over the occupied territories, more and more people are turning against it. more.. e-mail

Families flee to school refuges
Eman Mohammed writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/19/2009
     15 January 2009
     "I could not leave my house, it’s too priceless to me -- it’s home! Although I could hear the missiles hitting the house next door, kids in the family were frightened and wouldn’t stop crying. Still we managed to hold on until they destroyed our cousin Sadlah Matar Abu Halemeh’s causing the death of his nine-member family. All were killed and no one survived -- then we decided to leave!"
     These were the words of Naima Abu Halemeh who moved into the al-Shati school in Gaza City after her husband, Zhaar, and son, Muhammad, were injured while they were trying to evacuate their house in Beit Lahia’s al-Siafa neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip. She quickly dried her teary eyes when her cousin, Eid, said that "we won’t cry because we will be back soon there soon. We just feared for the lives of our kids; it’s not much better over here, more than 30 members of my family sleep in the classroom which we used as a bedroom when we moved in the school." While he boiled water, he added, "we couldn’t get a bath for eight days! Can you believe how miserable our lives have become? My son Muhammad always wets his bed at night, but I can’t help him. What can I say -- don’t be scared? I’m scared myself!" more.. e-mail

This Unilateral Cease-Fire is no Cease-Fire at all
Abu Yusef from occupied Palestine, Palestine Monitor 1/19/2009
     What has been sold to the international community as a show of Israeli mercy - in the form of a ceasefire - is only one more political ploy by Israel’s soon-to-be-criminally-indicted leadership.
     The other night, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the nation and world. It was the moment that the embattled politician had been waiting since arriving in office: Victory.
     After so many corruption charges had been laid upon his door and after being saddled with the blame of the military failure in Lebanon in 2006, Ehud probably did not think he was ever going to deliver any news to the Israeli public that he could be proud of.
     He took to the stage as if he had finally won his first Emmy - eager to recount his military success, announce a unilateral ceasing of hostilities, and thank his many supporters – including outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whom he quite recently insulted.
     Israel has won. We are united and We are powerful. We have achieved our objectives. Blah. Blah. Blah.
     But one should look a little closer at what is being called a ceasefire, and why it has been declared before they judge whether it was either wise or merciful. more.. e-mail

A letter to the 82% of Israelis who think that Israel has 'not gone too far' in Gaza
Uschi Samawi, International Middle East Media Center News 1/19/2009
     When I was a child, growing up in Austria, I often heard the excuse "we did not know - wir haben es nicht gewusst - what terrible things were done to the Jews". I am well aware that the public in Israel and the US is not always fully informed of the atrocities their governments commit in their name. For all those who read this, you will no longer have that excuse.
     I would ask you to answer my question: Did Jews not use violence and terrorism when they were fighting to gain independence? Did you already forget? Did Jews not use car bombs or place bombs in crowded market places? Did they not blow up civilians in a hotel?
     The suicide bombings are often depicted as "the root of the problem". Did you forget that they did not start until after a Jewish settler from America walked into the Hebron Mosque - a place also holy to Jews - and murdered 29 Palestinians in cold blood? Or that your "moral" army - who was manning the entrance in force and searches every Palestinian in detail before allowing him to enter - let an armed-to-the-teeth settler walk in unhindered? Or that they did not intervene when he started shooting Palestinians - on their knees, in prayer? more.. e-mail

The Crippling Arab Cold War
Patrick Seale, Middle East Online 1/19/2009
     The total inability of the Arabs to respond effectively -- in word or deed, whether diplomatically or militarily -- to Israel’s devastating war on Gaza has revealed what was known but rarely admitted, namely that Arab leaders hate and fear each other more than they hate and fear Israel.
     In these terrible weeks of carnage, the world has witnessed the crippling effects of the Arab Cold War. Gaza has burned, but Arab leaders, so deep are their mutual antagonisms, have been incapable even of convening an official summit meeting.
     Arab diplomats, interviewed for this article, speak despairingly of the “end of the Arab regional order.” Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the so-called ‘moderates’, find it more urgent to fight their ‘radical’ rivals for regional leadership, than to join forces with them in confronting Israel.
     Even when their vital interests are at stake -- even when Israel slaughters Palestinians to the outrage of Arab and Muslim opinion -- Arab leaders have proved unable to deliver a common message, let alone resort to the kind of aggressive international diplomacy which the situation so obviously calls for. more.. e-mail

Sacrificing Gaza to revive Israel’s Labor party
Smadar Lavie, Electronic Intifada 1/19/2009
     On 27 December 2008, Israel initiated yet another heinous carnage of the Palestinian people because of its democratically elected Hamas government. It did so with the silent encouragement of the US, the European Union and their Arab subcontractors, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. I have spent the past few weeks talking on Skype with friends in Ashdod, an Israeli town about 30 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip. Several times, they have had to seek safety from the rockets by fleeing to Jerusalem. The background noise to our conversations has been the sophisticated newspeak oozing from the Israeli TV.
     How cynical are Israeli politicians that they have chosen to sacrifice the lives of innocent Gazan families to seek political advantage in the elections that will happen on 10 February. Not only has the Israeli regime sent its military machine to commit genocide in Gaza, it has also endangered the lives of its own citizens and soldiers. This, without even once trying to negotiate in good faith with the elected government of the Palestinian people. more.. e-mail

Why Israel won’t survive
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada 1/19/2009
     The merciless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has stopped -- for now -- but the death toll keeps rising as more bodies are pulled from carpet- bombed neighborhoods.
     What Israel perpetrated in Gaza, starting at 11:30am on 27 December 2008, will remain forever engraved in history and memory. Tel al-Hawa, Hayy al-Zeitoun, Khuzaa and other sites of Israeli massacres will join a long mournful list that includes Deir Yasin, Qibya, Kufr Qasim, Sabra and Shatila, Qana, and Jenin.
     Once again, Israel demonstrated that it possesses the power and the lack of moral restraint necessary to commit atrocities against a population of destitute refugees it has caged and starved.
     The dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has escalated to the point where Israel can with full self- righteousness bomb their homes, places of worship, schools, universities, factories, fishing boats, police stations -- in short everything that sustains civilized and orderly life -- and claim it is conducting a war against terrorism. more.. e-mail

Unilateral People – Poems
Palestine Chronicle 1/19/2009
     The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature these short poems contributed by Alex Cave, Rafiq Kathwari, Gilad Atzmon, and Ata Hindi.
     In Gaza, Mothers Cry
     By Alex Cave
     Bombs fall every day
     Tear apart the people’s homes --
     And the mothers cry.
    
     Weeping Ev’Ry night;
     Nightmares, children terrified --
     And their mothers cry.
    
     Stench of burning flesh.
     Because of white phosphorous --
     All the mothers cry.
    
     And the schools are gone.
     Children will not learn to read --
     So the mothers cry.
    
     Now the food is gone
     And the stores can get no more --
     And the mothers cry.... more.. e-mail

Gaza’s artists under fire
Maymanah Farhat, Electronic Intifada 1/18/2009
     "I am working under the voices of fire, Israeli warplanes ... I still breathe, take some pictures everyday" - Shareef Sarhan, Palestinian artist, 12 January 2009
     Israel’s vicious attack on Gaza has already claimed more than 1,200 lives and has injured thousands while destroying the infrastructure of the tiny coastal territory, including the handful of nonprofit venues that make cultural life possible. Even before the invasion, the combination of 41 years of Israeli occupation, frequent military incursions and attacks, infighting among Palestinian factions, and a dwindling economy created a difficult, if not impossible, environment to sustain an art scene. Yet, with the determination that has defined Palestinian art for decades, artists in Gaza have continued to create and organize, including establishing artistic associations and collectives and organizing frequent exhibitions both at home and abroad. A look at some of Gaza’s seminal artists reveals an artistic tradition that has survived years of conflict while contributing greatly to Arab culture.
     Born in Lydda in 1930 and forced to live in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in 1948, Ismail Shammout was one of Palestine’s leading modernist painters. He organized his first exhibition in Khan Younis in 1953 and lived in exile throughout most of his career, residing in Kuwait, Jordan, and Lebanon with his wife and colleague, Palestinian painter Tamam al-Akhal. Often incorporating local folklore and history in portraits of women and children amidst scenes of expulsion and conflict, his monumental compositions and expressionist style became an important part of Palestinian visual culture, influencing generations of artists seeking to articulate their collective narrative. In addition to creating an impressive body of work and exhibiting across the region, Shammout produced Art in Palestine (1989), one of the first English-language texts on Palestinian art. more.. e-mail

Gaza was demolished in three weeks. Rebuilding it will take years
Patrick Cockburn in Jerusalem, The Independent 1/20/2009
     The rebuilding of Gaza after the Israeli bombardment already faces unique problems and is likely to be the most difficult reconstruction project in the world. This is because of the sheer scale of the devastation, the economic siege of the Palestinian enclave by Israel and Egypt, and the attempt to exclude Hamas, the elected rulers of Gaza, from any role in the rebuilding.
     The difficulties are all the greater because of the destruction of much of the tunnel system linking Gaza to Egypt. Israeli and European leaders talk of the tunnel system – by one estimate there are 1,100 of them – as if it was exclusively devoted to supplying weapons and ammunition to Hamas. In reality, "the tunnel economy" has been the way in which food, fuel and everything else has reached Gaza since Israel and Egypt sealed off the Strip 18 months ago, when Hamas drove out the rival Palestinian faction Fatah in 2007. Military supplies were always a very small part of Gaza’s imports through the tunnels.
     "Everything from Viagra to diesel entered Gaza through the tunnels," said one source. At one point before the Israeli attack, the price of petrol went down in Gaza because a pipeline had been threaded through one of the tunnels, all of which are privately dug and owned. Cooking-gas bottles are in short supply because they previously came in through tunnels that are now closed. more.. e-mail

Gazans say IDF troops ignored their white flags
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/20/2009
     Gaza residents are claiming that some Palestinians killed during the three weeks of fighting were waving white flags at the time they were shot. Four of them were members of the A-Najar family of the village of Khuza’a, east of Khan Yunis.
     Statements attesting to the circumstances surrounding their deaths was provided to the B’Tselem human rights organization and Haaretz over the telephone.
     On the night between January 12-13, Israel Defense Forces soldiers entered Khuza’a, which is only a few hundred meters from the border with Israel. A few hours of shelling caused fires, which residents attempted to put out, Monir A-Najar told Haaretz yesterday.
     At around 5 A.M., the tanks started to enter the town’s eastern sections. Thick smoke prevented residents from seeing what was happening, and they only heard sounds of the destruction of houses, shooting and shelling. The residents of the houses, adults and children, climbed out on the roofs of their houses on their own and for about an hour stood and waved white flags. Helicopters fired at them "in order to scare them, not to injure them," said Monir A-Najar. -- See also: VIDEO - Shocking evidence of Israeli phosphorus use in Gaza emerges and Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village more.. e-mail

A return to square one
Alastair Crooke, The Guardian 1/19/2009
     On Saturday evening, Israel announced not a ceasefire - in the sense of an agreement between the parties to end a conflict - but a decision that its forces will unilaterally halt their fire. It said it would await the Hamas response, any timetable for a withdrawal of Israeli forces being contingent on an end to rocket fire from Gaza.
     Yesterday, the resistance movements in Gaza, including Hamas, unilaterally announced a cessation of military action for one week, by the end of which time they demand that all Israeli forces should have departed Gaza. Implicit in this initiative is the threat that, were they to fail to leave within seven days, Hamas and the other groups would resume the firing of rockets into Israel.
     At one level, this unilateralist outcome resolves none of the core problems that were at the source of the conflict in the first place. Hamas remains in control in Gaza; its military capacity has not been substantially degraded: 40 missiles were fired at Israel on Saturday, and at least a further 16 were launched before Hamas announced the ceasefire yesterday. And nothing has been settled in terms of the opening of the crossings from Israel into Gaza, or in respect of the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. The release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli captive, has not advanced. more.. e-mail

A pointless war has led to a moral defeat for Israel
Editorial, The Observer, The Guardian 1/18/2009
     In historical terms, it is impossible to separate Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza from the long narrative of conflict and mutual grievance in the region.
     In geographic terms, the war over a tiny plot of land cannot be detached from the wider involvement and strategic interests of other countries: Syria, Egypt, the US, Iran.
     All of which makes it difficult to judge where - even if a unilateral Israeli ceasefire holds - the war really begins and ends.
     That fact alone explains why the operation represents a defeat for Israel, as was always likely to be the outcome. The notion that the country’s security problems can be resolved by the unilateral use of extreme force is a persistent delusion among Israeli politicians. In this case, the problem was perceived to be Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel; the solution was judged to be a war against Hamas. That analysis did not allow for the vital, humane recognition that, in densely populated Gaza, an all-out war against Hamas is, by necessity, an attack on the civilian population.
     Even on its own terms, the campaign has failed. Israeli authorities will insist that they have limited the ability of Hamas to launch rocket attacks. But the ostensible war aim was destroying that capability completely. more.. e-mail

Rafah, a landscape scarred by Israel’s war
Donald Macintyre, The Independent 1/19/2009
     The southernmost city in Gaza has suffered mightily at Israeli hands in recent years, but Donald Macintyre was not ready for what he found there
     Even in the darkness, we could see the piles of rubble: one had been the police station, destroyed in the heavy bombing on the first day of Israel’s offensive, killing 22 Hamas policemen; another pile accounted for the houses that had been destroyed around Muntasa, a favoured children’s play area and park which the Israelis say militants had used for firing rockets -- residents deny the claim. The park is no more, a field of smashed masonry and concrete.
     Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, probably suffered more than any other from the eight long years of conflict before the start of Operation Cast Lead but even on the short journey here from the Egyptian border, some of the new devastation visited on the area and its inhabitants was evident. The Hamas mayor of Rafah had been building a new house for himself; it had been pulverised and lay in ruins.
     Earlier, as we entered Gaza from Egypt – among the first Western journalists to do so – the red lights of Palestinian ambulances flashing against a darkening sky as medics unloaded the wounded at the border were the first real sign of the war that had raged for three weeks. A boy, perhaps 15 years old, was delicately lifted from one ambulance to another, the medics struggling to prevent the drips attached to him from tangling. more.. e-mail

As troops leave, 95 bodies discovered in rubble, thousands throng to streets
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/19/2009
     Tens of thousands of people thronged through Gaza’s streets yesterday morning. Many left their relatives’ houses and the schools where they had been staying for the last two or three weeks, after having been forced to flee the bombing of their homes and neighborhoods and the Israel Defense Forces’ advance. They came out to check whether their homes were still standing, or to try to save something from among the rubble of those houses that were destroyed.
     Others came out to examine the damage and discovered that entire residential neighborhoods had been wiped out. "We were cut off, without electricity and television. Contrary to people living in the West Bank and elsewhere around the world, who were able to watch the news, we did not see the pictures broadcast from other places. We only knew about the damage nearby, around us, in our houses," said one resident of Tel al-Hawa, the Gaza neighborhood the IDF took control of last Thursday.
     Residents crowded the streets yesterday despite fears that the IDF would shell and bomb them again, although Israel had announced a unilateral cease-fire. After several hours of quiet, they began to feel somewhat relieved about no longer hearing any explosions or ambulance sirens - sounds that have been haunting them for the last three weeks. But the scale of the destruction, which is still hard to fathom, left them in shock. more.. e-mail

Mubarak juggles
Zvi Bar'el, Ha’aretz 1/19/2009
     The ruling party in Egypt issued two unprecedented directives yesterday. The first to the Information Ministry, instructing it to order the Television and Radio Authority not to broadcast Palestinian national songs and "to make do with low-key songs." The second to the Education Ministry telling it to ban national songs from being played in schools, and to avoid all songs on Pan-Arabism and jihad in the coming days. When the Gaza Strip chafes against Egypt and fiery sparks fly, the well-being, security and honor of Egyptians takes priority before Gaza and the Arab world. This is the policy of President Hosni Mubarak, who is not deterred even by the rift with the Arab world that he ostensibly created.
     In coordination with Saudi Arabia, Mubarak decided not to send a representative to, and certainly not to participate in, the Arab summit being held Friday in Doha. He insists that he will not open the Rafah crossing except on the basis of the 2005 agreements, which Egypt did not sign. Through his information minister, he is guiding the Egyptian press to carry on with its attacks on Hamas - even after the cease-fire was struck. Meanwhile, he is planning the kind of a border area that will involve cooperation with the international community but will exclude foreign troops on Egyptian soil. It is a matter of historical honor and national pride. more.. e-mail

Gaza: War, from a distance
Jon Snow, The Independent 1/19/2009
     There have been two versions of the assault on Gaza played out over the past three weeks. One is the moderated account aired in the West; the other is the unexpurgated account of civilian deaths filmed in vivid close-up inside Gaza.
     Has the Western account, restricted by the Israeli ban on journalists in the conflict zone, been so reduced as to dull the scale of protest? Has the volume of images of death injury and destruction played and replayed in the Arab media served to radicalise and enrage the Islamic world still further? Thus creating a gulf so unbridgeable that it defeated even the passage of a unanimous UN call for a ceasefire? I want to take you on a personal journey that I made to the region last week.
     I am standing on the so-called "hill of shame" – a strange bump of terrain with three trees on top and a cascade of camera’s tents and television dishes pouring down the other side. This is as close as the world’s media has come to the Israeli invasion of Gaza. I have been unable to clarify whose "shame" the hill celebrates. Is it the stream of ordinary Israelis who come to cheer the booms of Israeli bombs and shells and the plumes of resulting smoke? Is it the shame of reporters stymied in their attempts to reach Gaza? Either way it has made me think again about war reporting. more.. e-mail

Night terror: on the phone with Tel Al Hawa
Ali Samoudi, Palestine News Network 1/18/2009
     Jenin -- He spent the whole night on the phone. Yasser was speaking to his sister Aml in the Gaza Strip. He was trying to calm her during the worst Thursday/Friday in her neighborhood.
     Aml is married to a Gaza resident and the family was trapped in their home in the Tel Al Hawa neighborhood for two nights with tanks rumbling outside, massive explosions, and missiles raining from the skies.
     "I wished to die every moment because of the terror," Yasser described his feeling while speaking to his sister. "I could hear her children, their cries, and the Israeli shelling was so loud and my sister was screaming ’they are burning everything.’ We expected death. She said, ’The missiles are falling all around us.’"
     Israeli forces fired into hundreds of homes and buildings in southern Gaza City’s Tel Al Hawa neighborhood, including a hospital and the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
     Despite the sorrow and pain Yasser insisted on keeping the line open with his sister and her family. Weeping bitterly he said he thought that these were their last moments together. “There is nothing more difficult that the inability of one human to help another. I could not assist my sister, only to pray that she would survive each hour that passes. My sister was crying. ‘The house is shaking Yasser!’ She said, ‘A shell just landed on the house of our neighbor, Abu Sami, and destroyed it. We don’t know the fate of the family because the aircraft is continuing the shelling and the tank fire and missiles aren’t stopping. Anything that moves has a death sentence.’ There is no charge or reason to target homes, to keep shelling homes and shops and the property of the people.&rdquo. more.. e-mail

White phosphorus: 'The patient came back smoking'
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/18/2009
     It’s hard to believe it can get worse, but daily it does.
     Last week, I saw the white phosphorus clouds doctors have written about and condemned. From a tall Gaza City building, the panoramic view showed a spreading stream of poison, on eastern Gaza.
     The chemical burns deeply, to the bone, experts say. It is considered illegal warfare, not to be used in civilian areas. Yet the accounts grow of its use: heavy use in the Khosar region, east of Khan Younis, and in the northwest of Gaza, and in eastern Jabaliya, Sheik Zayid, Sheik Rajleen, al-Zaitoun, everywhere. The United Nations headquarters housing hundreds of fleeing Palestinians which was bombed on 15 January was hit with white phosphorus.
     "Five days ago, in Jabaliya, I saw an abnormal material: white dust, spread out in spinning circles which spread the dust further. From inside there was something falling down which looked like snow. It covered a large area, over many houses," Maher al-Madhouan, head of the physiotherapy department in Sheik Radwan hospital, told me last week.
     At al-Shifa hospital, Dr. Nafez Abu Shabaan, Head of the burn department, told me they’ve received some burn cases unlike anything they’ve ever seen. "We’re not familiar with phosphorous burns, but some patients have very deep burns, very strange burns." He cites the case of a patient sent for a brain scan who three hours later, still alive, "came back smoking". more.. e-mail

Surviving in the 'Palestinian Wing'
Dina Makram-Ebeid writing from Cairo, Egypt, Electronic Intifada 1/18/2009
     Seeing Hedaya slowly regain her smile and her strength is so comforting. At every visit, her beautiful facial features appear more visible and distinct. Um Nayef, her elder sister who accompanied her from Gaza to Cairo, in turn embraces me warmly when I come in and with the Palestinian dialect says ishtanalik, we miss you. I grin and hug her back. We sit down, share a few jokes about Hedaya’s health and exchange hellos with whoever is in the room. There are always visitors at Maahad Nasser Hospital coming to wish the injured well, ask about their families and provide assistance.
     Almost a week ago when I first visited Hedaya, or Um Muhammad as she prefers to be called, her screams were so loud, I could hear them from the other end of the "Palestinian Wing" -- as they now call that part of the hospital. Having just gone out of the operation room, Um Muhammad’s tears were incessant, her face looked pale, almost green and she was in such pain that she kept calling the nurses over and over and they in turn kept turning her down, repeating that this kind of pain was inevitable following an operation. Next to Hedaya’s bed, Um Nayef, whom I’ve come to know later as a strong and cheerful woman, stood visibly shaken and unable to hold her tears. more.. e-mail

Our victory and our defeat
Yossi Sarid, Ha’aretz 1/18/2009
     Have we not exerted ourselves enough in the past three weeks to have staged a winning image, that final picture that will brand itself on our consciousness and souls, as though done with phosphorous?
     That final picture has arrived and it is of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish and his six daughters, three of whom were killed and three others wounded. One was killed while cooking, another was reading a book and the third was sleeping. The rest are "battling for their lives." It seems that Arab propaganda has no limits. You see the picture but do not hear the voice, that of a father mourning the fate of his daughters who are no longer. Yesterday al-Aish searched for an explanation. "Why were they killed?" he asked. "Maybe [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak will explain, or [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert or [Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni?"
     Contrary to the announcement made by the government and Israel Defense Forces spokesman, the third phase of the Gaza operation has very much begun. In recent days it has become apparent, based on the outcome, that its spearhead has been directed at hospitals, schools and children who had not taken cover. Phase three is a success, as is the entire war. more.. e-mail

The Pilot Plays Computer Games over Gaza
Mats Svensson, Palestine Chronicle 1/18/2009
     The book with the title Khirbet Khizeh begins with the words, "True, it all happened a long time ago, but it has haunted me ever since." Already in 1949 Yizhar Smilansky wrote this masterpiece which was just recently translated into English.
     An early winter morning Israeli soldiers from three companies lie in the outskirts of the small fictive village Khirbet Khizeh. In their binoculars they can from a distance observe what is happening in the village. They see the young and the old in the village preparing themselves for a day’s work. They look down at the village that they will soon take over, see the old woman that they will expel, the houses they will demolish, the plantations they will destroy and the well they will blow up.
     When the author begins to write he has not yet decided what he wants to say or how he will say it. He knows that he can no longer hold back what he has experienced but is unsure of whether he is capable of being honest, if he will be able to tell the story. He knows that the most difficult in life is to be true. Does he have the ability to tell and will anyone subsequently have the ability to read what he has written? more.. e-mail

No honeymoons in Gaza
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/17/2009
     16 January 2009, 5:11pm Wael Selmi displayed a surprising kindness and welcome -- you are welcome any time -- given that his life’s work had just been leveled by the invading Israeli army. Even more surprising, given that the brothers’ furniture factory in northern Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli army four years ago, causing $300,000 in damage and losses. They’d had it just two years at the time. Along with that ruined factory, the family owns agricultural land which they cannot access near the Erez crossing.
     At 4am on 13 January, two Israeli F-16 warplane missiles destroyed the sea-side Jazeera hotel and the next door Shihab hotel, leaving the Jazeera, in particular, skeletal, with entrails of concrete and wiring dangling from ceiling to floor, and with other random survivors testifying what had been: matching, semi-intact chairs clustered in a corner, marbled stairs and tiled walls. One of the 14 employees, while describing the building beneath the wreckage, detailed the losses: $28,000 for the 160 kilowatt generator, $25,000 for the electricity regulator, and the other losses amounting to $1.3 million in damage, with another $600,000 in unpaid debts. more.. e-mail

Punishing the Palestinians
Ralph Nader, Palestine Chronicle 1/17/2009
     What is going on in Gaza is what Bill Moyers called it earlier this month: ’state terrorism.’
     In the long sixty-year tortured history of the Palestinian expulsion from their lands, Congress has maintained that it is always the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and now Hamas who are to blame for all hostilities and their consequences with the Israeli government.
     The latest illustration of this Washington puppet show, backed by the most modern weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars annually sent to Israel, was the grotesquely one-sided Resolutions whisked through the Senate and the House of Representatives.
     While a massive bombing and invasion of Gaza was underway, the resolution blaming Hamas for all the civilian casualties and devastation—99% of it inflicted on Palestinians—zoomed through the Senate by voice vote and through the House by a vote of 390 to 5 with 22 legislators voting present.
     There is more dissent against this destruction of Gaza among the Israeli people, the Knesset, the Israeli media, and Jewish-Americans than among the dittoheads on Capitol Hill. more.. e-mail

Israel, Palestine, and a Personal Conflict
Rowan Wolf, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     Israel supporter: ’They are forcing us to kill their children.’ (Photo: via Google/file) I come from a varied background which has taken me on a winding a somewhat tortuous trail throughout my life. There are a series of threads that tie me to Judaism and hence Israel, and to the Palestinians.
     I come from what is sometimes referred to as "humble" beginnings. In my case I was the only child (as far as I know) of mixed race parents who lived in poverty in the inner city of Kansas City. At the age of 7 (after my father was imprisoned, and my mother "remarried") I was removed from my mother’s custody and put within the "tender care" of the Jackson County Juvenile Justice department. After almost a year in confinement at the downtown facility I was sent out into foster homes.
     Throughout my early life I was steeped in a variety of Christian denominations, and dutifully baptized in each along the way - Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist.
     I was also a child from the inner city of Kansas City dumped into a generally middle class world which glaringly contrasted and conflicted with my beginnings. I was deeply aware of the inequalities evident between these worlds, and the prejudice of the middle class towards the poor. I bore the insults and assaults from foster parents, other children, and other children’s parents. That disgust that often bordered on hatred that was directed at me marked me deeply. It was a clear and conscious choice on my part to fight for social justice. It started early - by the time I was 10 - and continues to this day. more.. e-mail

Gaza, A New Middle East Indeed
Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Think Tank 1/16/2009
     As Israel unleashed its military fury against Lebanon for several weeks in July-August 2006, it had one major objective: to permanently "˜extract’ Hezbollah from the South as a fighting force, and to undermine it as a rising political movement, capable of disrupting, if not overshadowing the "˜friendly’ and "˜moderate’ political regime in Beirut.
     As Israeli bombs fell, and with them hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and much of the country’s infrastructure, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sprung into action. She too had one major objective: to delay a ceasefire, which the rest of the international community, save the US and Britain, desperately demanded. Rice, who is merely, but faithfully reiterating the Bush Administration’s policy, hoped that the Israeli bombs would succeed in achieving what her government’s grand policies failed to achieve, namely a New Middle East.
     In a friendly meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, on July 25, 2006, Rice eagerly, although rashly wished to interpret to equally eager journalists the political promise that lies within the Israeli onslaught. "As we deal with the current circumstances, we need always to be cognizant of and looking to what kind of Middle East we are trying to build. It is time for a new Middle East," she said. Olmert nodded. more.. e-mail

Families targeted
Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/15/2009
     Israel is using weapons of mass destruction to take out ordinary families in Gaza, reports Clockwise from top: Palestinians mourn the death of one of their relatives, killed during the Israeli strikes, at the local cemetery in Gaza City; Palestinian families leave their houses in Rafah after the Israeli army warned residents to leave the area; a Palestinian woman walks amidst the debris of destroyed buildings; Palestinian men pull a man injured in the Zeitoun district following Israeli strikes Arafat Al-Samuni lives on the eastern border of the Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City. He was recently startled by a loud knock at his door and didn’t open it at first because he and his family were too scared. The sound of explosions filled the air and the walls of his home had been shaking ever since the Israeli army had begun its land offensive. Yet the knocking persisted, and Al-Samuni had no choice but to open the door. He had thought that occupation soldiers had been knocking, but was surprised to find dozens of his relatives -- men, women and children -- shouting at him to get down to the storage space on the ground floor as ordered by the Israeli soldiers who had raided the area. The soldiers had asked all the families in the area, including Al-Samuni’s, to gather in his house.
     The men, women and children stayed in the storeroom for three days without food or water. During the afternoon of the fourth day, two of the men decided to leave the house to bring water and some food for the children who were weak with hunger. They returned an hour later and as the children were eating the bread and cheese they had brought an Israeli tank fired shells at the house, directed at the ground floor storeroom. Dozens of family members were killed or injured, while two men who were unharmed fled through the door that had burst open from the impact, leaving to bring an ambulance. Israeli occupation soldiers were watching and demanded that the men strip naked before allowing them to leave. They eventually ran off to get emergency relief teams to rescue the injured, but when the ambulance finally arrived, the soldiers shot at them and didn’t allow them to remove the wounded for another three hours. more.. e-mail

’Tungsten bombs’ leave Israel’s victims with mystery wounds
Raymond Whitaker, The Independent 1/18/2009
     Israel facing demands for war crimes investigations
     ...Although Mr Olmert’s announcement was only a first step towards halting the conflict in Gaza, the UN is not the only international body insisting that inquiries must be held as soon as possible into the tactics and weapons used by Israel. Erik Fosse, a Norwegian doctor who worked in Gaza’s hospitals during the conflict, said that Israel was using so-called Dime (dense inert metal explosive) bombs designed to produce an intense explosion in a small space. The bombs are packed with tungsten powder, which has the effect of shrapnel but often dissolves in human tissue, making it difficult to discover the cause of injuries.
     Dr Fosse said he had seen a number of patients with extensive injuries to their lower bodies. "It was as if they had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wounds," he said. "Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before." However, the injuries matched photographs and descriptions in medical literature of the effects of Dime bombs.
     "All the patients I saw had been hit by bombs fired from unmanned drones," said Dr Fosse, head of the Norwegian Aid Committee. "The bomb hit the ground near them and exploded." His colleague, Mads Gilbert, accused Israel of using the territory as a testing ground for a new, "extremely nasty" type of explosive. "This is a new generation of small explosive that detonates with extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10 metres," he said.
     According to military databases, Dime bombs are intended for use where conventional weapons might kill or injure bystanders – to kill combatants in a house, for example, without harming people next door. Instead of being made from metal, which sprays shrapnel across a wide area, the casing is carbon fibre. Part of the motive for developing the bombs was to replace the use of depleted uranium, but Dr Fosse said the cancer risk from tungsten powde was well known. "These patients should be followed up to see if there are any carcinogenic effects," he said. more.. e-mail

UN school attacked; civilians left to bleed to death
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/17/2009
     The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has further escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip at the start of the fourth week of its war on the Strip. According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring, the IOF has continued to destroy homes on their residents. For the third time, the IOF attacked an UNRWA [the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees] shelter, killing two displaced children and injuring at least 15 people.
     Al Mezan Center’s monitoring also indicates that the IOF has continued to restrict ambulances’ access to injured people, despite the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross, causing them to bleed to death. Field information shows that the IOF has killed at least 1,191 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. This includes at least 272 children and 85 women. The number of casualties is expected to be higher, since Al Mezan only reports on the cases which it has been able to verify. Moreover, 3,953 people have been injured, including at least 849 children and 481 women.
     Since 1pm yesterday, the IOF has launched hundreds of attacks across the Gaza Strip. The following section provides some of the most deadly attacks, which resulted with death and destruction in all of Gaza’s five districts. more.. e-mail

Fears Raised over Use of Chemical Weapons [January 11 – January 17]
MIFTAH, MIFTAH 1/17/2009
     Israel’s assault on Gaza entered its third week today, January 17, as the death toll reached a staggering 1,200 dead. Amongst the dead, 410 were children, while some 5,300 Palestinians have been wounded. The Israeli death toll remains at 13, ten of whom were soldiers.
     More fears were raised this week regarding Israel’s use of chemical weapons in Gaza. As of now, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it is using phosphorus shells. However, on January 13, the Palestinian Network of Non Governmental Organizations (PNGO) demanded an urgent international investigation into allegations that Israel used internationally prohibited weapons against Palestinians in Gaza. Based on the reports of Palestinian and foreign doctors working in Gaza hospitals, PNGO has concluded that new Israeli weapons are causing burns that can reach to the bones of the victims. PNGO also said that another type of unidentified weapon fires smoke and noxious gases that cause breathing difficulties, particularly in children. Just days later, on January 15, Chris Gunness, an UNRWA official in Gaza, claimed that Israeli jets had fired unknown chemical weapons on an UNRWA compound in Gaza. Three Palestinians were injured. At the time, about 700 displaced Palestinians were inside the building when it was targeted by Israel’s air force. Gunness explained, “[The chemical compound] looks like phosphorus, it smells like phosphorus and it burns like phosphorus.” The UN building continued to burn into the late afternoon. “I don’t know why they [Israel] would do this,” Gunness continued. “We had guarantees.” more.. e-mail

Tel Al-Hawa: The invasion and then after
Ma’an News Agency 1/17/2009
     Witnesses also reported that Israeli soldiers invaded residential buildings, ordering locals to leave. Hundreds fled to other parts of the city. Fadel Al-Batran and his 19-year-old daughter Hanin were gunned down as they fled their home.
     Gaza – Ma’an – The embers of Tel Al-Hawa continue to burn. The smoke from the fire and concrete dust cloud the air, and carry the thick smell of burning and rotting bodies.
     This street, up until Thursday was one of the most luxurious streets in Gaza City, built by the Palestinian Authority in the late 1990s.
     Rather than flowers, glittering glass and stone a walk through Tel Al-Hawa two days after the Israeli invasion into the area, burnt cars with burned bodies, half demolishedapartment towers and torn up roads are what greet passersby.The hospital is where most residents call home now.
     Ma’an visited the destroyed neighborhood, and asked about the burned car at the main street’s entrance. A former resident told reporters that the car was owned by Oday Salameh Haddad. He was in his car fleeing the area after hours of Israeli tank fire and troops running home to home. more.. e-mail

The Boss Has Gone Mad
Uri Avnery - Israel, Palestine Chronicle 1/17/2009
     ’It will become apparent that this war was sheer madness.’
     169 years before the Gaza War, Heinrich Heine wrote a premonitory poem of 12 lines, under the title ’To Edom’. The German-Jewish poet was talking about Germany, or perhaps all the nations of Christian Europe. This is what he wrote (in my rough translation):
     "For a thousand years and more / We have had an understanding / You allow me to breathe / I accept your crazy raging // Sometimes, when the days get darker / Strange moods come upon you / Tillyou decorate your claws / With the lifeblood from my veins // Now ourfriendship is firmer / Getting strongerby the day / Since the raging started in me / Daily more and more like you."
     Zionism, which arose some 50 years after this was written, is fully realizing this prophesy. We Israelis have become a nation like all nations, and the memory of the Holocaust causes us, from time to time, to behave like the worst of them. Only a few of us know this poem, but Israel as a whole lives it out. more.. e-mail

'Twenty years of a life erased'
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/16/2009
     Seven minutes January 15, 2009, 11:02 am When I’d met the extended Abed Rabu family, before the ground invasion began, they had just had their house bombed by an F-16. Their area has been occupied by Israeli tanks and soldiers since the ground invasion began. Medical workers cannot reach the injured there, and those who have managed to escape testify to imprisonment in their houses, abuse, point-blank shooting (to death), and a number of dead not yet known. It’s an area Israel views as strategic, lying just hundreds of meters from the eastern border to Israel, a key entry point for invading troops. Past invasions have meant entire families and neighbors being locked into a room of a house for a day or days. Supposition among journalists and those with two cents here is that Israel’s intense bombardment of, and destruction of houses in, the area is to both decimate any resistance and to create an alternate "road" for tanks and troops to roll in on, meaning houses in their path are leveled to the ground.
     That day, Abu Mahmoud Abed Rabu had related the events of his house demolition. "A person called me saying he was a spokesperson for the Israeli army and that we had seven minutes to leave the house before it was bombed. I begged for 10, told him seven wasn’t enough to collect possessions and get our children out safely. He said seven," Abed Rabu explained. His family made it out in time, avoiding the death sentence that has been given so many here, without warning. more.. e-mail

Israeli Aggressions: Worse is Yet to Come
Jeremy Salt – Ankara, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     ’Israel’s destructive path shows no signs of coming to end.’
     I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand and keep you, and I will establish you as a covenant of the people for a light unto the nations. -- Isaiah 42:6 If our dreams of Zionism are to end in the smoke of assassins’ pistols and our labours for its future to produce only a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past. -- Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons, November 17, 1944.
     Well, Winston, you were right, except the gangsters are armed now not just with pistols but nuclear weapons. Admittedly Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State to Egypt, assassinated in Cairo on November 6, 1944, only six days before you made these remarks about Zionism in the House of Commons, was your friend, so there was a very personal element in your anger. But, as you feared, Zionism did give birth to gangsters, generation after generation of them. Their ranks begin with David Ben-Gurion, who in 1948 superintendedthe ’flight’ of the Palestinians, the destruction of their villages and the theft of their property; Yitzhak Rabin, who obeyed his orders and ’cleaned’ large areas of Palestine of their inhabitants; Menahim Begin, who oversaw the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 and the massacre of villagers at Deir Yassin in 1948.... more.. e-mail

In Gaza: Killed by Israel, Eaten by Dogs
Ola Attallah – Gaza City, Palestine Chronicle 1/17/2009
     "Oh, God! I have never seen such a terrible scene," cried Kayed Abu Aukal.
     The emergency doctor could not believe himself seeing the remains of what was days back Shahd, a full-fleshed 4-year-old Palestinian girl.
     She died when an Israeli shell was fired at the backyard of her home in the Jabalya refugee camp northern Gaza strip, where she was playing.
     When her parents attempted to rush to the rescue of their kid, who fell to the ground amid a pool of her blood, rains of Israeli bullets kept them a distance.
     For the next five days Shahd’s which was left lying in the open left for dogs to tear out.
     "The dogs did leave one single part of the poor baby’s body intact," said a tearful Abu Aukal.
     "We have seen heart-breaking scenes over the past 18 days. We picked up children whose bodies were torn or burnt, but nothing like this."
     For five days Shahd’s brother, Matar, and cousin, Mohamed, tried in vain to reach her body. They were fired at by the Israeli occupation forces every time.
     Seeing the body of the little angel torn to piece by the assaulting dogs, the two made one final attempt, and it was their last.
     They were showered by Israeli bullets before they could reach Shahd’s body, joining a long list of more than 920 Palestinians killed by Israel since December 27. more.. e-mail

White phosphorous but no flag
Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/15/2009
     The Palestinians refuse to succumb to defeat in the face of flagrant Israeli war crimes.
     In an interview with Yediot Aharonot’ s online edition in Hebrew, Israeli Colonel Mikey Sharbit spoke of the "ferocious" resistance the Israeli occupation army has encountered in Gaza. Speaking from his hospital bed after being injured in northern Gaza Sharbit, who previously served as an artillery commander in the 2006 war on Lebanon, denounced the Israeli media’s disregard of the competence of Hamas’s fighters and the nature of the ground war the Israeli army has experienced in the past two weeks.
     "It’s a war of ghosts," he said. "We don’t see the fighters... they emerge as if from underground. We move on the ground with the feeling that beneath us an underground city of ghosts is moving too."
     Such statements illuminate the gap between what Israel’s political leaders are saying and what its military commanders are experiencing since the war started on 27 December. The latter insist that Hamas’s Ezzeddin Al-Qassam’s Brigades have not been affected and remain capable of pursuing the battle for the foreseeable future. Even Rony Daneyl, Israel’s Channel 2 pro-war military commentator, told audiences this week that he is prohibited by the army from referring to the problems it has encountered on the ground and which have deterred it from advancing almost three weeks after the start of the war and despite the hundreds of tons of missiles the Israeli air force has showered on the Palestinians. more.. e-mail

Hear the rumble?
Hassan Nafaa, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/15/2009
     In attacking Gaza Israel upset the regional equilibrium. The results are likely to be momentous.
     The birth of the Arab system is usually associated with the creation of the Arab League (AL), in 1945. But two earlier developments paved the way for the AL’s creation. One was that Egypt, acting as the key country in the region, had a clear vision of what it wanted to do and was ready to act on that vision when regional and international circumstances were right -- which is exactly what happened after the end of WWII. The other was that the conflict in Palestine had reached a point where most Arab countries recognised the danger posed by the creation of an independent Jewish state in their midst.
     Reeling from the protracted fighting of World War II, Britain gave its endorsement for any scheme promoting unity among the Arabs. The endorsement, which was made public in 1943, was aimed to deter Arab countries from siding with Germany. Egypt, at the time ruled by a Wafd government led by Mustafa El-Nahhas, saw its chance. Soon it opened bilateral and multilateral consultations with Arab countries in an effort to lay down the framework of a regional political structure. The AL came into being as a result. It wasn’t a first step towards federalism as many hoped but a congregation of seven semi-independent countries willing to pass resolutions by consensus, more of a political club than a blueprint for unity. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Gaza myths
Jonathan Cook in Nazareth, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/15/2009
     The media continues to parrot Israel-friendly half-truths about Gaza.
     We have all heard the shocking news from Gaza: nearly 1,000 dead after less than three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported another shocking statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured in Gaza, or the Strip’s entire population in fact. How is it possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by?
     The reason, I suspect, is that they are relying on the highly unreliable statistics provided by official Palestinian sources. From what I can gather, the Palestinian Health Ministry only records as wounded those Gazans who need to stay in hospital because of the severity of their injuries.
     That means they count only the more than 4,400 Gazans who have suffered the following types of injuries: severe burns from exploding Israeli phosphorus shells; shrapnel wounds from artillery rounds; broken or lost limbs from aerial bombardment; bullet wounds; physical trauma from falling building debris, and so on.
     But in fact there is another, far more reasonable standard for assessing those injured, one that provides the far higher total of 1.5 million Gazans. The measure I am referring to is the one employed by Israel. more.. e-mail

The plot against Gaza
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada 1/17/2009
     Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood.
     The most glaring evidence contradicting the Israeli casus belli is the six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that preceded the invasion. True, Hamas began firing its rockets as soon as the truce came to an end on 19 December, but Israel had offered plenty of provocation. Not least it broke the ceasefire by staging a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas members. Even more significantly, it maintained and tightened a blockade during the ceasefire period that was starving Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants of food, medicine and fuel. Hamas had expected the blockade lifted in return for an end to the rockets.
     A few days before Israel’s attack on Gaza, Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel’s domestic security service, the Shin Bet, noted Hamas’ commitment to the ceasefire and its motives in restarting the rocket fire. "Make no mistake, Hamas is interested in maintaining the truce," he told the cabinet. "It seeks to improve its conditions -- a removal of the blockade, receiving a commitment from Israel that it won’t attack and extending the lull to the Judea and Samaria area [the West Bank]." In other words, had Israel wanted calm, it could have avoided invading Gaza simply by renegotiating the truce on more reasonable terms. more.. e-mail

Can Abbas survive after Gaza war?
Al Jazeera 1/17/2009
     Mouin Rabbani, a contributing editor to the Middle East Report magazine, talks to Al Jazeera about what Israel’s war on Gaza means for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his Fatah faction, and what its wider repercussions may be.
     Q: If the Israeli bombardment stops, what will be the most prominent political battle for the Palestinians?
     The most difficult battle that is going to be waged within the Palestinian political system once this war subsides is going to be Mahmoud Abbas’s fight for political survival.
     He has been under tremendous pressure and growing widespread criticism all along for the absolute failure of each and every one of his strategies since he assumed the presidency in November 2004.
     Q: Does it matter if he is president or somebody else in the same mould as him?
     Many Palestinians increasingly say it does matter if he continues as president and that it is increasingly important to replace him with a leader who can, more authentically, represent his people.
     It is interesting that in the last 10 years Fatah, the movement which (despite the ascendency of Hamas) is the spinal chord of the Palestinian national movement, has become increasingly bitter and divided.
     [Fatah’s factions] have united only once in the past 10 years - that was in November 2004 to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as a successor to the late Yasser Afarat.
     Since then, they have been at war with each other. The movement is disintegrating. more.. e-mail

Can Hamas still walk tall in Gaza’s streets?
Peter Beaumont and Hazem Balousha, The Guardian 1/18/2009
     There is little left to see of the house that once belonged to Ayad Siam in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan district. There is a hole, 20ft deep and twice as broad, and a few slabs of concrete and a snarl of tangled pipes. The bodies have gone. They were the bodies of Ayad and his brother, Said Siam, Hamas’s 50-year-old minister of the interior, who was targeted in a joint operation last week by the Israeli air force and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.
     Across Gaza, Hamas personnel have been targeted and its strongholds bombed in an attempt to destroy the organisation’s infrastructure. But what, beyond death and destruction, has Israel achieved by its onslaught? And what, as Israel moves towards a unilateral ceasefire ahead of the inauguration of Barack Obama as US President on Tuesday, is left of Hamas?
     In the case of Said Siam and his Interior Ministry - once one of Hamas’s major centres of power - the assessment is simple to make. The four-storey Interior Ministry complex was flattened by a missile strike early in the campaign. Police stations and other facilities have also been destroyed. Scores, perhaps several hundred, of his men have died. And while buildings can be rebuilt, the death of Siam is something different.
     ....Wael Abd Latef, 38, a bookshop owner from the Tal el-Hawa district of Gaza City, was convinced that the long days of bombardment have had little effect on Hamas. He abandoned his house five days ago with the arrival of Israeli tanks, and on Friday returned to check his property. "It’s a war against the civilians. It’s not against Hamas," he said. "They think that it’s against Hamas, but it’s not. The situation is a disaster for Palestinian people, not Hamas. Israel started the war against Palestinians. They imposed sanctions on Palestinians. Hamas demands the world just leave the siege and break the blockade on Palestinians by opening the curtains. Hamas spent a long time helping the Palestinian people here and worked for its interests." more.. e-mail

Hamas Rising
Fawaz A. Gerges, Middle East Online 1/17/2009
     I have just returned from the Middle East and witnessed how Israel’s assault on Gaza is radicalizing mainstream Muslim opinion. Shown endlessly on Arab and Muslim television stations, the massive killing of civilians is fueling rage against Israel and its superpower patron, the United States, among mainstream and moderate voices who previously believed in co-existence with the Jewish state. Now, they are questioning their basic assumptions and raising doubts about Israel’s future integration into the region.
     Many professionals, both Christian and Muslim Arabs, previously critical of Hamas, are bitter about what they call Israel’s "barbaric conduct" against Palestinian noncombatants, particularly women and children. No one I have encountered believes Israel’s narrative that this is a war against Hamas, not the Palestinian people. A near consensus exists among Arabs and Muslims that Israel is battering the Palestinian population in an effort to force it to revolt against Hamas, just as it tried to force the Lebanese people to revolt against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. But Hezbollah weathered that Israeli storm, acquired a sturdier immune system and became the most powerful institution in Lebanon. In so doing it shattered Israeli deterrence, delivered a blow to US Mideast policy and expanded the influence of Iran, Hezbollah’s main supporter in the region. more.. e-mail

In Gaza Our Love for God is in ’Intensive Care’
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/17/2009
     Manuel Mussallam: ’Gaza is sinking in its own blood.’
     A very moving message from the elderly priest who leads the Christian community in Gaza, Fr Manuel Mussallam, has just arrived in my computer inbox.
     This remarkable and much-respected man of the Catholic church runs the best school in Gaza, where some 70% of the pupils are, believe it or not, Muslim. I was lucky enough to meet him in Gaza about a year ago when the situation was already dire.
     People ought to understand that the starvation, hardship and slaughter did not begin with the Israeli air offensive on 27 December. It had been going on since before the election of Hamas in early 2006 and the spiteful siege immediately imposed by Israel and the US and supported by Britain and the EU. Between 2005 and 2008 the Israelis killed nearly 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
     "From the valley of tears," says Fr Manuel in greeting, "from Gaza that is sinking in its own blood, the blood that has strangled the joy in the hearts of one and a half million inhabitants, I send you this message of faith and hope. But the message of love is imprisoned, choked in our throats as Christians. We do not venture to even say it to ourselves. more.. e-mail

Time for Israel to be put on trial
Elna Sondergaard, Electronic Intifada 1/17/2009
     The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility -- but they also constitute serious crimes under international law (e.g., war crimes and eventually crimes against humanity) in relation to which individuals should stand trial.
     The international community agreed to this principle of individual responsibility for international crimes in the wake of the Second World War; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes were considered totally unacceptable and individuals committing such crimes should be held accountable. The rational behind the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1945 was clear: without a trial, justice and peace would never prevail. This idea of individual accountability has subsequently been implemented in the case law of the ad-hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will develop it further in the future. more.. e-mail

Gaza: Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing
Caoimhe Butterly - Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     Children seeking refugee in a UN school in Gaza. (Aljazeera) The morgues of Gaza’s hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in. Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn have lost numerous family members and loved ones.
     Blood is everywhere. Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in: bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers, exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen as a victory over the predominance of death.
     The streets of Gaza are eerily silent- the pulsing life and rhythm of markets, children, fishermen walking down to the sea at dawn brutally stilled and replaced by an atmosphere of uncertainty, isolation and fear. The ever-present sounds of surveillance drones, F16s, tanks and Apaches are listened to acutely as residents try to guess where the next deadly strike will be- which house, school, clinic, mosque, governmental building or community centre will be hit next and how to move before it does. That there are no safe places- no refuge for vulnerable human bodies- is felt acutely. It is a devastating awareness for parents- that there is no way to keep their children safe. more.. e-mail

The Palestinians say: ’This is a war of extermination’
Ahdaf Soueif in Egypt, The Guardian 1/17/2009
     Everyone says something new is going on here; something different. The residents of Egyptian Rafah are used to the sounds of rockets and shells exploding on the other side of their border, but they’ve never heard the sounds they’ve been hearing over the last 20 days. Twenty-five miles further into Egypt the general hospital at el-Arish is used to receiving the Palestinian wounded. The staff have never seen injuries like these before. The hospital forecourt is swarming with ambulances, paramedics, press. The wounded are raced into casualty.
     The Palestinians are mostly silent; each man working out where he finds himself and what he’s going to do. Fearing for their wounded and fearing for those they’ve left behind, they are silent but unfailingly courteous.
     They try to answer questions. They must be exhausted? "The people of Gaza," they say (not "we"; they’re too proud for that), "the people of Gaza just wish for an hour’s sleep." The case you’re accompanying? "I’m here with my nephew. He’s 19. Shrapnel in his head. He was sitting with his friends. He’s a student. Architecture. The helicopter dropped a bomb and seven of the group were killed and six were injured. They found a boy’s hand on a 3rd floor balcony." more.. e-mail

How to sell ’ethical warfare’
Neve Gordon, The Guardian 1/16/2009
     One of my students was arrested yesterday and spent the night in a prison cell. R’s offence was protesting the Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins over 700 other Israelis who have been detained since the beginning of Israel’s ruthless war on Gaza: an estimated 230 of whom are still behind bars. Within the Israeli context, this strategy of quelling protest and stifling resistance is unprecedented, and it is quite disturbing that the international media has failed to comment on it.
     Simultaneously, the Israeli media has been towing the government line to such a degree that no criticism of the war has been voiced on any of the three local television stations. Indeed, the situation has become so absurd that reporters and anchors are currently less critical of the war than the military spokespeople. In the absence of any critical analysis, it is not so surprising that 78% of Israelis, or about 98% of all Jewish Israelis, support the war.
     But eliding critical voices is not the only way that public support has been secured. Support has also been manufactured through ostensibly logical argumentation. One of the ways the media, military and government have been convincing Israelis to rally behind the assault is by claiming that Israel is carrying out a moral military campaign against Hamas. The logic, as Eyal Weizman has cogently observed in his groundbreaking book Hollow Land, is one of restraint. more.. e-mail

Why Prevent Humanitarian Aid from Entering Gaza?
Steve Sosebee, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     As an American working for 20 years in the Gaza Strip, I feel overwhelming pain and sadness at the destruction being wrought on friends who have suffered so much there for so long. While all parties in this conflict — including our government — share responsibility for allowing this crisis to escalate, resulting in hundreds of innocent civilians injured and killed, those who have the task of healing the wounds of war in Gaza must focus on rebuilding once this bloodletting subsides.
     What has been underreported here is the fact that before the start of the Hamas’ rockets and the Israeli assault late last month, many international humanitarian organizations were prevented from providing aid in Gaza. For months, we’ve faced insurmountable obstacles in reaching civilians in Gaza. In my own experience, injured and sick children who had medical care arranged abroad were prevented from traveling by both the Israelis and the Egyptians, while volunteer doctors were denied access into Gaza to treat injured children.
     No one can excuse the immoral actions of the militants indiscriminately firing missiles into Israel. Neither is there justification for denying medical care for injured or sick children abroad, or preventing foreign volunteer doctors from obtaining permits to provide care there. more.. e-mail

Israeli Assault Injures 1.5 Million Gazans
Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     ’Talking of Gaza’s civilians, where did they all go?’
     By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after nearly three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by?
     The reason apparently is that they have been relying on the highly unreliable statistics provided by official Palestinian sources. It appears that the Palestinian health ministry only records as wounded those Gazans who need to stay in hospital because of the severity of their injuries.
     That means they only count the more than 4,500 Gazans who have suffered injuries such as severe burns from exploding Israeli phosphorus shells; shrapnel wounds from artillery rounds; broken or lost limbs from aerial bombardment; bullet wounds; physical trauma from falling building debris; and so on.
     But in fact there is another, far more reasonable standard for assessing those injured, one that provides the far higher total of 1.5 million Gazans – or every surviving Palestinian in Gaza. The measure I am referring to is the one employed by Israel. more.. e-mail

Gaza 2009: Betrayal Brought Us to This
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     ’Palestinians are still waiting for simple justice.’ (Save the Children) "What we have done is to start a running sore in the East, and no-one can tell how far that sore will extend."
     Twice running we have stood back and watched. Twice in two years - 2006 Lebanon and 2008/9 Gaza - the British government has done nothing to intervene and indicate to Israel in unmistaken terms that they go too far - well beyond what human decency allows and what we as a nation will stand for -- and that there are consequences.
     Those consequences should include a drastic downgrading of our relationship on all levels and an end to economic and military co-operation.
     If we had no leverage it would still be incumbent on us to initiate moves to uphold international law, human rights and UN resolutions, and to mobilise immediate relief for the civilian community even if we had to land it on Gaza’s beach. After all we - Britain - are the cause of the trouble. We - Britain -- sowed the seed and created the conditions for events that would lead to 60 years of dispossession and torment for the Palestinians and 60 years of brutal expansionism and colonization by the Israelis at their expense. more.. e-mail

Israeli war on Gaza: birth pangs of new Palestine
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya , Global Research, Palestine News Network 1/16/2009
     To truly understand the specific you must understand the general and to master knowledge of the general you must understand the specific.
     What is taking place in the Palestinian Territories is related to what is taking place across the Middle East and Central Asia, from Lebanon to Iraq and NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan, as part of a broader geo-strategic objective. All the events in the Middle East are part of a mammoth geo-political jigsaw puzzle; each piece only shows you one picture or a portion of the picture, but when you put all these pieces together you see the grand picture of things.
     For these reasons at times more than one event must be discussed to gain greater understanding of another event, but this at times comes at a risk of diverging or extending one's focus in different directions.
     The following text is based on several key sections of an earlier and broader text; this text is brief in form but comprehensive in its scope and more focused on the events in the Palestinian Territories and their role in the broader chain of regional events in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. more.. e-mail

Gaza: The Tip of an Iceberg
Francis Clark-Lowes, Palestine Think Tank 1/16/2009
     What is happening in Gaza today is the tip of an iceberg. That iceberg is the genocide of the Palestinian people. It is a slow genocide, just slow enough for the world to look the other way most of the time. Occasionally, as at present, it speeds up and we see its tip.
     Such genocides are a common accompaniment of exclusive colonial projects. The Spanish committed genocide against the Incas, the British committed genocide against the Aboriginal and Maori people, the Americans committed genocide against the Native Americans, the Belgians killed 10 million Congolese. Now the Jews are trying to wipe out the Palestinians.
     You may say that I should moderate my language and say only that we are witness to an unfortunate war in which people are getting killed. But this is part of an intentional war on the part of Israel, and, moreover, it clearly coincides with the international legal definition of genocide. Let us not, therefore mince our words. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Sins Will Come Back to Haunt the West
Aijaz Zaka Syed – Dubai, Palestine Chronicle 1/16/2009
     We have entered the third week of Israel’s war on Gaza. Pundits have said whatever needed to be said from the comfort and safety of their cocoons. In fact, we have all begun repeating ourselves as we struggle to capture the magnitude of the man-made tragedy that Gaza is over and over again.
     Hundreds of millions of agitated people have been on the streets worldwide for days -- from Los Angeles to London and from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur -- pleading with Israel to spare the people who have, God knows, suffered enough.
     But that doesn’t seem to have made any difference to the great State of Israel founded for and by the people who call themselves descendants of prophets and inheritors of divine scriptures.
     Israel continues to kill, kill and kill’like a killing machine without batting an eyelid and without the slightest hint of mercy or sympathy for its victims. more.. e-mail

When Israel Expelled Palestinians
Randall Kuhn, MIFTAH 1/15/2009
     "Think about what would happen if for seven years rockets had been fired at San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico." Within hours scores of American pundits and politicians had mimicked Barak’s comparisons almost verbatim. In fact, in this very paper on January 9 House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor ended an opinion piece by saying "America would never sit still if terrorists were lobbing missiles across our border into Texas or Montana." But let’s see if our political and pundit class can parrot this analogy.
     Think about what would happen if San Diego expelled most of its Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Native American population, about 48 percent of the total, and forcibly relocated them to Tijuana? Not just immigrants, but even those who have lived in this country for many generations. Not just the unemployed or the criminals or the America haters, but the school teachers, the small business owners, the soldiers, even the baseball players.
     What if we established government and faith-based agencies to help move white people into their former homes? And what if we razed hundreds of their homes in rural areas and, with the aid of charitable donations from people in the United States and abroad, planted forests on their former towns, creating nature preserves for whites to enjoy? Sounds pretty awful, huh? I may be called anti-Semitic for speaking this truth. Well, I’m Jewish and the scenario above is what many prominent Israeli scholars say happened when Israel expelled Palestinians from southern Israel and forced them into Gaza. But this analogy is just getting started. more.. e-mail

Gaza’s medics: 'They know they are going to die'
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/15/2009
     "If this thing doesn’t stop in another week, some of them will die. And they know it," Alberto said about the war on Gaza, as we looked at a photo I’d taken of Saber today. I’d thought the same thing earlier, when I said "yatiek al-afia" (have strength) to each medic climbing into their ambulances. They’d gotten "coordination" to go to one of the many areas within Gaza that the Israeli military has invaded, taken over, and prevented medics from reaching for nearly two weeks now. The coordination process is a joke, necessitating the Red Crescent to ask the Red Cross to ask for Israel’s permission to pick up those the Israeli army has killed or injured, or terrified into hiding in their homes, or even locked into their houses and abused, shot, or shelled, as with one testimony from Ezbet Abed Rabbo and another from the Zeitoun area.
     As we looked at photos of his four pretty little daughters, Saber -- tall, kind of goofy-friendly, and unquestionably dedicated to his task like the other medics and drivers -- didn’t let on that his home had been destroyed two days ago, during the evening. He showed me his prized girls, beaming with adoration, and a couple of random video clips about cobras, a snake fascination he seems to have. He was holding a bag and looked ready to go somewhere eventually, so I asked. "Home," he answered, but not to his house. He and family were staying with his sister since his house was hit four times by tank shells, ravaged and burned leaving nothing to return to, he told me matter-of-factly, no dramatzing. more.. e-mail

Gaza: A New Middle East Indeed
Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 1/15/2009
     As Israel unleashed its military fury against Lebanon for several weeks in July-August 2006, it had one major objective: to permanently ’extract’ Hezbollah from the South as a fighting force, and to undermine it as a rising political movement, capable of disrupting, if not overshadowing the ’friendly’ and ’moderate’ political regime in Beirut.
     As Israeli bombs fell, and with them hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and much of the country’s infrastructure, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sprung into action. She too had one major objective: to delay a ceasefire, which the rest of the international community, save the US and Britain, desperately demanded. Rice, who is merely, but faithfully reiterating the Bush Administration’s policy, hoped that the Israeli bombs would succeed in achieving what her government’s grand policies failed to achieve, namely a New Middle East.
     In a friendly meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, on July 25, 2006, Rice eagerly, although rashly wished to interpret to equally eager journalists the political promise that lies within the Israeli onslaught. "As we deal with the current circumstances, we need always to be cognizant of and looking to what kind of Middle East we are trying to build. It is time for a new Middle East," she said. Olmert nodded. more.. e-mail

Gaza orgs: Silence is complicity
Appeal, various undersigned, Electronic Intifada 1/15/2009
     With the death toll in Gaza growing hourly, silence is complicity. It is imperative for concerned citizens to demand that their governments take immediate action in order to stop Israeli genocide in Gaza.
     Write your representative today and deman
     That Israeli war criminals be brought before the International Criminal Court or a Special Tribunal for war crimes committed in Gaza. (Remind your representative that the investigation, prosecution or extradition of those responsible for war crimes is an obligation of all high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions.) That in response to Israel’s severe breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, your state terminate all favorable trade agreements and economic relations with Israel, including the EU Association Agreement which is conditional upon adherence to human rights and democratic principles.
     That your state cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.
     The current events in Gaza were predicated and advocated for by Israeli Professor Arnon Sofer, Head of the Israeli army’s National Defense College. more.. e-mail

Our Palestinian Future in Israel: How Long Can We Be Dehumanised in a Racist State?
Khalil Nakhleh, Palestine Think Tank 1/16/2009
     Every month or so I drive for three hours from Ramallah to my native village in Upper Galilee to hike in the olive orchards engulfing my village and to reminisce about my childhood. My village, which was perched alone on that hill under the cold drift from Mount Hermon, as I remember it, now is forced to share the surrounding hills with Jewish-only colonies. One morning, one of those Saturday hiking mornings, two Jewish colonists from a nearby colony passed me on their dirt bikes on their way to promenade in our olive orchards and hurled at me a soft and humane "boker tov"� (good morning), to which I responded, equally softly and humanely. They continued their ride, and I was forcefully left with my unanswered questions about the nature of our "living together."�
     On the face of it, the "boker tov"� greeting was natural and expected. But why did it upset me? Something did not settle well with me. By itself, it was a natural human greeting, but in an unnatural context and environment: these two men were there, on my land, only because they happened to be Jews (and, most likely, Zionists). Thus, they were rendered privileged to live in a subsidised house that was built for them on stolen Arab land, while people in my village are not even permitted to build or expand their houses on their very own land in order to meet the need of their extended families, only because they happened to be Palestinian Arabs. This is what did not settle well with me. Because, as they passed me on that October Saturday morning, we were not equal under this Zionist-Jewish system, nor did we have access to the same resources - economic, legal, political, etc. - in a place where I should have been "more equal"� and more privileged, having been born on this very land. My narrative has been undermined by force and mythology. more.. e-mail

Gaza invasion: Powered by the U.S.
Robert Bryce, Salon.com 1/16/2009
     Taxpayers are spending over $1 billion to send refined fuel to the Israeli military -- at a time when Israel doesn’t need it and America does.
     Jan. 16, 2009 | Israel’s current air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip has left about 1,000 Palestinians dead, including 400 women and children. Several thousand people have been wounded and dozens of buildings have been destroyed. An estimated 90,000 Gazans have abandoned their homes. Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which began more than two weeks ago, has been denounced by the Red Cross, multiple Arab and European countries, and agencies from the United Nations. Demonstrations in Pakistan and elsewhere have been held to denounce America’s support for Israel.
     It’s well known that the U.S. supplies the Israelis with much of their military hardware. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has provided about $53 billion in military aid to Israel. What’s not well known is that since 2004, U.S. taxpayers have paid to supply over 500 million gallons of refined oil products -- worth about $1.1 billion –- to the Israeli military. While a handful of countries get motor fuel from the U.S., they receive only a fraction of the fuel that Israel does -- fuel now being used by Israeli fighter jets, helicopters and tanks to battle Hamas.
     According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, between 2004 and 2007 the U.S. Defense Department gave $818 million worth of fuel to the Israeli military. The total amount was 479 million gallons, the equivalent of about 66 gallons per Israeli citizen. In 2008, an additional $280 million in fuel was given to the Israeli military, again at U.S. taxpayers’ expense. The U.S. has even paid the cost of shipping the fuel from U.S. refineries to ports in Israel. more.. e-mail

Trauma and terror in Gaza
Sami Abdel-Shafi, The Guardian 1/16/2009
     We who live in the shadow of death under the Israeli onslaught veer hour by hour from defiance to despair
     I never imagined I would, but now I know what it feels like to be stalked by death. Last week, I had just arrived for an engagement at a media building in Gaza City only to find the studio crew huddled in fear and peering out of the window. An Israeli rocket had just landed, killing four pedestrians close to where the car that drove me had turned just minutes prior. On Thursday night, media offices in that same building were rocketed by Israel’s air force.
     Later the same evening, I called on relatives who live about 100m from our house. On my way back, one of Israel’s angry jets, which have covered Gaza’s skies for more than 20 days now, seemed to release a bomb. Suddenly panicking, I let go of my torch and, unable to see anything in the dark, crouched on the sidewalk – even though I knew that would be no protection from an F-16’s bomb if it landed nearby. I was lucky; the bomb never came – it was just my anxiety.
     But for ordinary Gazans, this is a real fear; it is hard to take seriously Israel’s claims that it is not deliberately targeting civilians. I am still alive, but I feel I am losing hope. How can we rebuild the Gaza Strip once this all ends when we fear even to raise ours heads? more.. e-mail

Israel’s lab in Palestine
Mel Frykberg, Al-Ahram Weekly 4/26/2007
     Disturbing reports allege that Israel is using Gaza as a field to experiment its new lethal weapons
     Doctors in Gaza have been reporting strange wounds on the bodies of innocent bystanders and those targeted by drones. These wounds consist of many small holes, often invisible to X-rays, and burns caused by heat so intense that many cases have required amputation because of the extensive burning.
     Habas Al-Wahid, head of the emergency centre at the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza city told the journalists that the legs of the injured were sliced from their bodies "as if a saw was used to cut through the bone." But there was no evidence of ordinary metal shrapnel in or near the wounds.
     At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Juma Saka said that on examination of the wounds, the doctors had found a powder on the victim’s bodies and in their internal organs. Afterwards they removed the microscopic particles which turned out to be carbon and tungsten.
     "The powder was like microscopic shrapnel, and this is likely what caused the injuries," Saka said. Complicating the issue was the death of many patients several days afterwards, although they appeared to recover initially. Accusations that Israel is using Gaza and its inhabitants as a laboratory to test new military weapons, have been made from several quarters. more.. e-mail

Eighty-six percent of those killed in Gaza were civilians
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/14/2009
     The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip for the 19th day. Al Mezan Center’s monitoring revealed that the IOF has escalated its attacks on civilian targets. Until today, the vast majority of the casualties are non-combatants. Only 13.9 percent of the total casualties were fighters (137 men). According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring, as of 1pm today, the number of Palestinians killed by the IOF during Operation Cast Lead has risen to 979. Of those, 206 were children and 70 were women. Seven of the medical teams members and three journalists were also killed. Moreover, at least 3,527 have been injured, including 760 children and 448 women.
     Between 1pm yesterday and 1pm today, the IOF killed 47 Palestinians around the Gaza Strip. Fifteen of those were children and four were women. One hundred and forty-five people were admitted at hospital from injuries, including 32 children and 18 women.
     It should be noted that the number of casualties is expected to increase as the IOF continues its attacks. There are also many people who have not yet been identified or found, although survivors’ testimonies indicate that dozens are still under the rubble of their destroyed houses in areas under IOF control. more.. e-mail

The Power of Language, and Silence in Gaza
Timothy Seidel, Palestine Chronicle 1/15/2009
     ’U.S. complicity has never been more evident.’
     The Israeli offensive into Gaza continues this morning with devastating effects for Palestinians across the Gaza Strip. Say what you will, but the military strategy that has marked Israel’s "Operation Cast Lead," clearly only hurts Gaza’s civilian population.
     With much of the water supply and sewage system dependent on electricity, and the impact on hospitals and limited supplies, the damage to civilian infrastructure raises serious medical concerns and unmasks this campaign of collective punishment of the Palestinian people - a predictable and uncreative display of Israeli military might over and against 1.5 million poor Palestinians. These are actions clearly in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. And with more than a thousand Palestinians killed and the death toll rising, thousands wounded, Gaza’s children severely traumatized, and Gaza’s population without reliable electricity, the obvious disproportionality of the Israeli military response only underscores its unacceptability. more.. e-mail

Gaza diary: To die with hope
Mohammed Ali in Gaza City, Al Jazeera 1/15/2009
     As the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza continues to climb, Mohammed Ali, an advocacy and media researcher for Oxfam who lives in Gaza City, will be keeping a diary of his feelings and experiences.
     "If I die now, at least I’ll die with hope."
     This morning, I heard people chanting outside, I wondered what it was, and then, the lights came on - the electricity had come back on; hurrah!
     I immediately turned on the television, charged my phone, checked emails. For a moment, I felt somewhat liberated. These things that we often take for granted have become so precious of late.
     Solidarity and trust
     We have no clean water left. Our water tank is empty. My father could not turn away the increasing amount of people knocking at our door with empty jerry cans in hand. He did not realise how much water he had given out until it was too late.
     Shops are running out of clean water; we were not able to find any in our neighbourhood. We can use the untreated water but we should really boil it first to avoid getting sick, but we face another obstacle; we have very little gas left. more.. e-mail

It was like 'The Day After'
Dr. Asad Abu Sharekh writing from Gaza City, occupied Gaza, Electronic Intifada 1/15/2009
     The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari obtained the following testimony from Dr. Asad Abu Sharekh in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, which is receiving the brunt of Israel’s military force, via telephone with the assistance of IMEMC.org:
     Since last night from about 8pm until a little while ago, there have been heavy battles in Tal al-Hawa.
     They were hitting from the sea, from the air. Tanks were shooting. There were thick clouds of white phosphorus filling the area and filling up houses.
     They bombed the Red Crescent building and many cars in the street were destroyed. An apartment near me was hit and burned and one on the other side.
     A number of tall buildings were hit. All the windows and doors are broken and shattered. There were maybe 10 bombs falling every minute.
     It was like in that film The Day After [a 1983 movie depicting life immediately after a nuclear war].
     Israel used all its weapons. Apaches, F-16s, every F they have. Tanks seemed to be coming from every direction, even from the direction of the sea. more.. e-mail

Gazans tell of ordeal as war rages
Al Jazeera 1/15/2009
     With more than 1,000 Palestinians dead amid Israel’s war on Gaza - more than 300 of them children - Al Jazeera spoke to citizens of the territory struggling to surivive under the Israeli offensive.
     Moussa el-Haddad, a doctor at Shifa hospital in Gaza City
     "We hear screams over the radio from people injured in the streets asking for emergency help, but paramedics can’t reach them and, besides, the hospitals are overcrowded.
     Even those killed can’t be reached.
     I’m telling you, Gaza is on fire. Everyone on this piece of land is under attack. In this time and age, I can’t believe the world is watching and no one is doing anything.
     I don’t understand Ban Ki-moon is making trips from here to there. Why doesn’t he help stop this bloody war?"
     A mother who lost her only son
     "They [Israeli soldiers] opened fire at us.
     My son Faris was killed in my arms.
     I couldn’t have children for 21 years after marriage until God gave me this child." more.. e-mail

At the Bedside of a Badly Wounded Girl in Gaza
Yasser Ahmad and Jeffrey Fleishman, MIFTAH 1/15/2009
     Reporting from The Gaza Strip and Jerusalem -- She was a girl with cuts on her face, lying in a hospital bed near her mother.
     Hours earlier, before dawn in the Gaza Strip town of Khoza, the Israeli soldiers came and the firefights and shelling rattled and shook the darkness. Everyone without a gun scattered. Ambulances moved out to collect the wounded.
     Fourteen-year-old Alaa Khalid ran with her mother and brother to hide. There was a boom and she remembered nothing until she woke up in a bed at the Nasser Hospital. The doctors bandaged her face; but something else, something inside her, was wrong.
     The battle between Israeli forces and Hamas militants burned hard in Khoza. Alaa was not the only one who needed aid. There were splintered houses, other victims, those not swift enough.
     Some distance from Alaa’s hospital window, a woman lay dying in the street. As nurses tended to Alaa, an ambulance driver, Marwan abu Reida, rushed to save the woman. He was shot at, he said later, as he sped over the streets. more.. e-mail

My message to the West -- Israel must stop the slaughter
Ismail Haniyeh, The Independent 1/15/2009
     I write this article to Western readers across the social and political spectrum as the Israeli war machine continues to massacre my people in Gaza. To date, almost 1,000 have been killed, nearly half of whom are women and children. Last week’s bombing of the UNRWA (UN Relief Works Agency) school in the Jabalya refugee camp was one of the most despicable crimes imaginable, as hundreds of civilians had abandoned their homes and sought refuge with the international agency only to be mercilessly shelled and bombed by Israel. Forty-six children and women were killed in that heinous attack while scores were injured.
     Evidently, Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 did not end its occupation nor, as a result, its international obligations as an occupying power. It continued to control and dominate our borders by land, sea and air. Indeed the UN has confirmed that between 2005 and 2008, the Israeli army killed nearly 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children. For most of that period the border crossings have remained effectively closed, with only limited quantities of food, industrial fuel, animal feed and a few other essential items, allowed in. more.. e-mail

Israel fires on UN agency headquarters, civilians fleeing violence
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/15/2009
     1pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT) The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has seriously escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip since midnight yesterday, as it advanced into Tel al-Hawa neighborhood southern Gaza City, and heavily bombarded the neighborhoods of al-Shejaiya and al-Tuffah in the east of the City. Al Mezan Center’s monitoring indicates that about 70 percent of IOF’s attacks casualties of these attacks are from families who were hit inside their homes or as they left their homes to flee these areas. Most of the other victims were also civilians. According to the field reports of Al Mezan, out of the 48 casualties of these attacks, three were fighters. Entire families were killed from IOF’s artillery shelling.
     Between 1pm yesterday, Wednesday 14 January 2009, and 1pm today, Thursday 15 January 2009, the IOF killed 102 people in the Gaza Strip. Of them were 29 children and 11 women. Al Mezan’s monitoring also indicates that the IOF has killed 1,081 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. This includes at least 235 children and 81 women. The number of casualties is expected to be higher, since Al Mezan only reports on the cases which it has been able to verify. Moreover, 3,683 people have been injured, including at least 786 children and 460 women. more.. e-mail

All Of Our Humanity Is At Stake
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 1/15/2009
     The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has documented death and destruction across the Gaza Strip throughout the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip. Since December 27, 2008, the IOF have killed at least 983 Palestinians in Gaza. 85% of the victims are civilians, and 35% of them are children. In addition, more than four thousand Palestinians in Gaza have been maimed and injured by IOF. Thousands of civilian objects, including homes and schools have been destroyed. The UN estimates that 35,500 civilians are now being housed in shelters it is providing for internally displaced civilians across the Gaza Strip.
     As thousands of IOF surge into Gaza City amidst intense bombardment and shelling, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are now sheltering in homes, schools and other buildings, in fear for their lives. Reports indicate that the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Gaza city has been shelled, that Al Quds Hospital in Gaza city, which is within the compound of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is now on fire, and that IOF are also surrounding the
     Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza city. However, PCHR staff are unable to verify these reports as they too are now sheltering in their homes, and homes of friends and relatives in fear for their lives. more.. e-mail

Israeli forces use Palestinians as human shields
Abu al-Sous (Salah Mansour, Palestine News Network 1/15/2009
     During the Israeli war on Gaza, Western media propagated Israeli propaganda that the Palestinian resistance have been using their family members as human shields. Sadly, Israeli propaganda is often presented in Western media as facts, and the Israeli version has been accepted with little verification. The goal is simple: dehumanise the Palestinian by showing that he does not care about his family members, and once that is done it becomes much easier to accept him as a legitimist target.
     This dehumanizing campaign is as old as the Zionist movement; it was articulated by Golda Meir (a former Israeli Prime Minister) when she said: Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us. This racist and derogatory comment is often propagated in Western media without a second thought to its dehumanizing consequences. It paints the Arab as a sub-human creature, who has neither affection nor love towards his or her children. When I first heard this racist comment from an American, I felt as if he was telling me: "you are not much of a human as I".
     To this date, the Israel Occupation Army (IOF) still refuses to comply with orders from the Israeli Supreme Court to stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields (click here for a BBC article about this subject). If the IOF is a "professional army" as it claims and it treats Palestinians according to International Law, then. more.. e-mail

In the rockets’ red glare
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/15/2009
     The earth shaking under your feet, clouds of choking smoke, explosions like a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, mushroom clouds of pinkish-red smoke, suffocating gas, harsh burns on the skin, extraordinary maimed live and dead bodies. All of this is being caused by the bombs Israel is dropping on the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, according to reports and testimonies from there. Since the first day of the Israeli aerial attack, people have been giving exact descriptions of the side effects of the bombing, and claiming that Israel is using weapons and ammunition that they have not seen during the past eight years. Furthermore, the kinds of grave injuries doctors at hospitals in the Strip have reported are providing yet another explanation for the overwhelming dread inhabitants are experiencing in any case.
     It is precisely for this reason that Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch (HRW), has come to Israel. His mission: to examine whether the weapons that both sides are using are themselves legal and whether the use of them is legal. The American-born Garlasco has not been permitted to enter Gaza - as is also the case with people from other human rights organizations and foreign journalists. Therefore, he says, since he is unable to examine actual remnants of the explosives and see the wreckage with his own eyes, he can only guess or make assumptions in some cases. But even from afar, he has no doubt: Israel is using white phosphorus bombs. That was immediately clear to him while he stood last week on a hill facing the Gaza Strip and observed the Israel Defense Forces’ bombings for several hours.
     .....Gazans have noticed that there are bombs that produce mushroom clouds in various shades of red. Here, Garlasco admits, "I can only speculate. It looks like Israel is maybe using a new weapon that it was not using before: DIME - the dense inert metal explosive, consisting of 25 percent TNT and 75 percent tungsten, a heavy metal. You mix the two, in a fine grain, like pepper, and when the bomb hits the ground it aerosolizes. In less than a second, the mist dissipates and explodes." more.. e-mail

No Win for Israel on Any Front
Iqbal Jassat – South Africa, Palestine Chronicle 1/15/2009
     ’Lets end the Palestinian nightmare.’
     It’s pretty well known that the Israeli massacre of Palestinians could only happen with the complicit approval of leading actors on the international stage. These are not confined to the West only. Arab, Asian and African leaders are guilty too for having turned a blind eye to these atrocious killings of women, children, the elderly and the infirm.
     It’s expected that the Anglo/American axis will not only appear to be seemingly "helpless", but that their role in subverting the Palestinian freedom struggle as "terrorism", encourages these gut-wrenching massacres. Thus, the so-called legitimacy of America’s discredited "war on terror", which is being vigorously debated in various academic circles and policy research units, is the same kind of dubious "legitimacy" which Israel is clinging to. This proverbial clutching of straws does not bode well for the Olmert regime, for evidently, misguided policies such as these have placed Israel at the edge of the cliff.
     What does it mean? It implies that with the imminent failure of shot-gun practices of the type that has allowed the US and Israel to ignore, defy and manipulate International Conventions, coupled with the unprecedented global fury at Zionist violation of fundamental human rights, Israel is likely to implode. Such an internal implosion will result in the end of Israel as the world knows it. Already voices critical of Israeli state terrorism have grown louder within the colonial-settler state. And these voices belong to Jewish academics, journalists, activists and others. more.. e-mail

Israel Gives War Crimes a New Face
Joharah Baker, MIFTAH 1/14/2009
     Gaza hospitals have recently reported incoming patients with severe burns on their bodies, sometimes down to the bone.
     It is literally mindboggling for Palestinians to see how some people still need convincing that what Israel is perpetrating in the Gaza Strip is nothing short of war crimes. What more needs to happen for this to be an indisputable fact? It can’t be the death and injury of more civilians – dead mothers and children, young girls with their legs blown off, babies with bandaged heads and little boys with no eyes. No, the sheer number of civilian casualties over the past 19 days in Gaza cannot possibly need upping in order for the picture to be clearer than it already is. What seems inconceivable to many, this writer included, is why the term "war crimes" is not being used at every turn in describing Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
     Just so there is no confusion, a brief recap on what constitutes a war crime may be in order here.
     "According to the International Criminal Court, war crimes include grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of the laws and customs that can be applied in international armed conflict…when they are committed as part of a plan or policy or on a large scale." more.. e-mail

Israel bars Arab parties from election
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada 1/14/2009
     The only three Arab parties represented in the Israeli parliament vowed yesterday to fight a decision by the Central Elections Committee to bar them from running in next month’s general election.
     In an unprecedented move signaling a further breakdown in Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel, all the main Jewish parties voted on Monday for the blanket disqualification. Several committee members equated the Arab parties’ vocal support for the Gazan people with support for terrorism.
     The decision follows the arrest of at least 600 Arab demonstrators since the outbreak of the Gaza offensive and the interrogation by the secret police of dozens of Arab community leaders. The three parties -- the National Democratic Assembly, the United Arab List and the Renewal Movement -- have seven legislators out of a total of 120 in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
     The elections committee barred all three from putting up candidates for the 10 February election on the grounds that they had violated a 2002 law by refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and by supporting a terrorist organization. more.. e-mail

Apartheid Roads ’Promoting Settlements, Punishing Palestinians’
Ma'an Development Center, MIFTAH 1/15/2009
     Today Israeli-only roads across the West Bank have become a defining feature of the apartheid policies implemented by Israel in the Palestinian territories. In addition to violating Palestinians’ freedom of movement and access, with serious repercussions for health, education and livelihoods, the apartheid roads have consolidated and strengthened the presence of Israeli colonies across the West Bank, ensuring superior access for settlers at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians. The consequences include an inability to access core services and increased forced displacement pressures for Palestinians.
     The impact of the apartheid roads, however, extends beyond their humanitarian consequences as they destroy both the economic and political prospects of the Palestinian people.
     The territorial fragmentation created by the roads is according to UN OCHA, ‘at the root of the West Bank’s declining economy,’2 while their continued construction is making a just solution to the illegal occupation increasingly difficult to envisage. In fact, although Israel’s occupation policies have led to analogies being drawn with South African apartheid, as a number of commentators have noted, the presence of these roads represents a situation much worse than the apartheid in South Africa... -- See also: Full Report (PDF - 4 MB) more.. e-mail

The champions of missed opportunities
Avraham Burg, Ha’aretz 1/15/2009
     The day is approaching when we will long for these Hamasniks. One day we will wonder why we didn’t talk to these Hamas leaders. At the same time, we will be faced with much larger threats. It is clear to me that this is a bitter lesson of history.
     Sari Nusseibeh gives me a lesson on one chapter of history in his memoir, "Once Upon a Country." His life story, which is written with precise, even noble, elegance, is a mirror of our missed opportunities. It is a rebuttal of the patronizing Israeli assertion that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
     With a sharp pin, Nusseibeh bursts our balloon and says: Here are all the opportunities that the Israelis have missed. When that cursed war ended, the Six-Day War, we immediately expelled the supporters of the Jordanian king, and since then we have never stopped longing for them. We concocted local leaderships to avoid dealing with the nobility of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus, and how much do we today miss Faisal Husseini and other Palestinian leaders who have since come and gone? more.. e-mail

’A dark fog has enveloped us’
Paul Kaye, The Guardian 1/16/2009
     When a rocket killed his mother-in-law in Israel, actor Paul Kaye was appalled by the celebrations in Gaza. Six months on, he feels a different kind of despair.
     I had to hold my 17-year-old son down on the bed after he heard the news. His strength really shocked me. I was gripping his upper arms as tightly as I could to hold him flat on the bed, but he was spitting with rage, tears streaming down his face. I was shouting, "Stop! Please stop!" but he was pushing up at me hard, his face twisting like his body underneath me. He was fighting with everything he had in order to be able to get up, run down the stairs and get out of the house. All I knew at that moment was that I couldn’t let him leave. We were in his bedroom in London and I had just given him the news that his grandmother had been blown to pieces by a rocket in Israel. Jordy had lost his other grandmother five months earlier to cancer. This time there was someone to blame.
     Our pain and his rage opened a window up for me on to what is happening in Gaza. There are thousands and thousands of young men who have experienced - or are experiencing - that rage in Gaza and the West Bank, and their fathers and grandfathers have no doubt experienced it too. When I heard in the days that followed Shuli’s death that they handed out sweets in Gaza to celebrate the fact that the rocket had hit a target, I was appalled. Now with all I have seen over the last two weeks in Gaza, part of me feels: why wouldn’t they celebrate? more.. e-mail

PCHR Condemns IOF Use of Unidentified Incinerating Bombs Against Civilians, Causing Horrific Burns
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 1/14/2009
     Doctor: "We do not fully understand why some of the injured are bleeding internally, because we can find no X-ray evidence of foreign objects inside their bodies." - PCHR is gravely concerned that the IOF may be using white phosphorous against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip
     The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) utterly condemns the mass killing of civilians by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during its ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip. The current death toll stands at 983, including at least 673 civilians, of whom approximately 225 are children. In addition to the rising civilian death toll, the Centre is also gravely concerned about IOF use of unidentified incinerating bombs that are causing horrific burns to civilians across the Gaza Strip, and forcing doctors to perform amputations on some civilian victims. The Centre is demanding an immediate investigation into IOF use of these weapons by international health experts.
     Hospitals across the Gaza Strip have reported increasing numbers of civilians with serious burns being admitted for emergency treatment, and the scale of injuries indicates that IOF are using these unidentified incinerating bombs to target civilians across the Gaza Strip. For example, on 10 January, 2009, residents of Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis, reported being attacked by IOF artillery shells which exploded into flames, dispersing shrapnel and dense white smoke that caused skin burns, suffocation, spasms and fainting. At least one hundred local civilians were injured by this IOF attack, including medical personnel who arrived at the scene. Civilians were subsequently admitted to hospitals in Khan Yunis, suffering from breathing difficulties and severe pains in their eyes.
     As part of its ongoing investigation into the constituents, and effects, of these unidentified IOF weapons, PCHR has interviewed Dr Nafez Abu Shaban, Head of the Burns Unit at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. -- See also: Israel's Weapons in Gaza more.. e-mail

Gaza: the endless cycle of trauma
Sandy Tolan, Middle East historian, Al Jazeera 1/15/2009
     The Israeli bombs and rockets streaking through the skies of Gaza trace not only a path of death and terror for Palestinians in 2009, they also outline the smoke trails of traumas past, from the Nakba, or ’catastrophe,’ in 1948 to the 1967 war; from the Lebanon invasions, to the 2002 assault on Jenin. All are echoes of today’s calamity of US-made missiles and mortars raining down on Gazans.
     Watching history repeat itself is, of course, most horrifying for the people through whose roofs the missiles are falling, whose children are dying. For the outsider, peering in from a safe perch, it is merely surreal.
     We look on as Israel replays the tape-loop of its brutal and tragic follies. Israel has shown again and again that, rather than vanquishing its enemies, it makes new ones while strengthening old ones.
     Many commentators have invoked 2006 and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, when, in trying to destroy Hezbollah, it made it stronger. But this is only a relatively recent example.
     ’My enemy’s enemy’
     Consider early 1988, near the beginning of the First Intifada, when Israel, trying to weaken Yasser Arafat, the late PLO leader, invoked the ill-fated strategy known as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." more.. e-mail

War as child’s play
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 1/15/2009
     The fighting in Gaza is "war deluxe." Compared with previous wars, it is child’s play - pilots bombing unimpeded as if on practice runs, tank and artillery soldiers shelling houses and civilians from their armored vehicles, combat engineering troops destroying entire streets in their ominous protected vehicles without facing serious opposition. A large, broad army is fighting against a helpless population and a weak, ragged organization that has fled the conflict zones and is barely putting up a fight. All this must be said openly, before we begin exulting in our heroism and victory.
     This war is also child’s play because of its victims. About a third of those killed in Gaza have been children - 311, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 270 according to the B’Tselem human rights group - out of the 1,000 total killed as of yesterday. Around 1,550 of the 4,500 wounded have also been children according to figures from the UN, which says the number of children killed has tripled since the ground operation began.
     This is too large a proportion by any humanitarian or ethical standard.
     It is enough to look at the pictures coming from Shifa Hospital to see how many burned, bleeding and dying children now lie there. History has seen innumerable brutal wars take countless lives.
     But the horrifying proportion of this war, a third of the dead being children, has not been seen in recent memory. more.. e-mail

Covering for Israel, Concealing War Crimes
Stephen Lendman – Chicago, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     In his January 8 article, "Gaza Under Fire," John Pilger quotes the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko saying: "When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie." America’s dominant media suppress facts, sacrifice accuracy, and conceal the greater lie that:
     -- all Israeli aggression is collaboratively planned months in advance with Washington;
     -- American aid makes it possible - billions of dollars annually, the latest weapons and technology, and Security Council vetoes to assure no anti-Israeli resolutions with teeth are passed;
     -- six months of preparation preceded Israel’s terror bombings followed by invasion, occupation, and repeated war crimes on the ground;
     -- Hamas "rockets" were pretext (not cause) to abet Israel’s overall strategy - with initial measures planned years ago and implemented in steps; Gaza 2008 - 09 is the latest with much more to come unless stopped;
     -- grievous international law violations are being willfully committed;
     -- innocent men, women and children are slaughtered;
     -- civilians and legitimate resistance are called "terrorists;"
     -- basic infrastructure unrelated to defense is destroyed - government buildings, police stations, schools, mosques, private dwellings, TV stations, commercial structures, water mains, power facilities, fishing boats, vehicles, ambulances, medical facilities, UN relief ones, and visible civilian targets, even young children coming from and going to school.... more.. e-mail

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self-defence. It’s a war crime
Undersigned, The Times On Line, Palestine Monitor 1/14/2009
     Twenty-seven Academics and and Professors signed a petition, condemning Israel’bombardement on Gaza for "War crimes"
     Israel has sought to justify its military attacks on Gaza by stating that it amounts to an act of “self-defence” as recognised by Article 51, United Nations Charter. We categorically reject this contention.
     The rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas deplorable as they are, do not, in terms of scale and effect amount to an armed attack entitling Israel to rely on self-defence. Under international law self-defence is an act of last resort and is subject to the customary rules of proportionality and necessity.
     The killing of almost 800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and more than 3,000 injuries, accompanied by the destruction of schools, mosques, houses, UN compounds and government buildings, which Israel has a responsibility to protect under the Fourth Geneva Convention, is not commensurate to the deaths caused by Hamas rocket fire.
     For 18 months Israel had imposed an unlawful blockade on the coastal strip that brought Gazan society to the brink of collapse. In the three years after Israel’s redeployment from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. And yet in 2005-8, according to the UN, the Israeli army killed about 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children. Throughout this time the Gaza Strip remained occupied territory under international law because Israel maintained effective control over it. more.. e-mail

Cease Fire, Cease Siege
Kathy Kelly - Arish, Egypt, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     ’Trapped, isolated, hungry and desperate, Gazans endured economic warfare.’
     Yesterday, en route to the Rafah border crossing that leads into Gaza, our driver pointed to a long line of trucks laden with goods that are desperately needed in every area of Gaza. "You see," he said, "all of this is to help people." Generous people, around the world, want Gazans to have food, shelter, fuel, medicine and water while the Israeli military ruthlessly attacks their homes and neighborhoods. The aid shipments will surely save lives and ease affliction. Nevertheless, this relief will meet only a fraction of the need. What’s more, the Egyptian government’s recent decision to allow humanitarian goods into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, a border over which they have sovereign control, is a departure from the normal state of siege that Gazans have endured for most of the past sixteen months.
     A friend, Caoihme Butterly, who had lived in Gaza during the period when the borders were sealed, told me that the limited access to food drove up the prices for basic foods."A kilo of lentils cost $4.00, but the average person lived on less that $2.00 per day."Gazans don’t want to live on charity," said Caoihme, "but the humanitarian provisions become political. We were campaigning just to have the border open once a week, but we didn’t succeed." more.. e-mail

Those who want to bump off the witnesses of the slaughter
Pino Cabras – Megachip, Palestine Think Tank 1/14/2009
     The call is clear: to kill a group of people, with their first and last name, habits and ideas, political affiliations and pictures easily identifiable. They also demand informers’ cooperation so as to complete the list with addresses. The dossiers are openly addressed to the Israeli military so as to help them eliminate “dangerous” targets physically, unless others see to it first: the foes to be hit are western activists—health assistants and other volunteers—who work and are witnesses to what is unfolding in the Occupied Territories.
     You may read all this on a website, run by a group of extremists, a sort of American-Jewish Ku Klux Klan: Stop the ISM. It may be worth noting that an Italian, Vittorio Arrigoni, whose touching reports from Gaza we have read, is amongst those targeted.
     The person who runs the site is Lee Kaplan. He’s one of the many quasi-fascist instigators of the American far right underbelly, a medley that has recently taken root both amongst the Christian movements and the fringes of Jewish fundamentalism, now joined by an unusual anti-Islamic extremism. In the US, this linking between these two milieus has strengthened to the extent that Kaplan often hangs around the wannabe high society circles of the TV talk shows famous for their foaming at the mouth, on Fox News channel. more.. e-mail

Qana and Jabalya: Brothers in Blood
Rannie Amiri, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     Amnesty International said ’The IDF intentionally attacked the UN compound’ in Qana.
     Israel’s Jan. 6 attack on a United Nations-run girls elementary school sheltering more than 1,600 civilians in Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp was not the first time the country’s military targeted refugees it helped create. In April 1996, an eerily similar incident took place at a UN compound near the southern Lebanese village of Qana.
     Qana and Jabalya share a tragic history. They are the where the innocent were massacred, and the assumption the humanitarian auspices of the UN could protect non-combatants from Israeli shelling, shattered.
     Qana, 1996 The year was 1996 and Israel was only six weeks away from upcoming elections (sound familiar?). Prime Minister Shimon Peres was expecting a stiff challenge from Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu. At the time, Israel was occupying southern Lebanon. Along with its proxy militia, the South Lebanese Army, they continued to fruitlessly battle Hezbollah despite their repeated failure to eradicate the group’s resistance. As in all its military escapades, what Israel really needed to do was to provoke their enemy enough to elicit a significant response. That would then be used as pretext for initiating a full-scale assault. more.. e-mail

How Israel Gets Away With Murder
Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Palestine Think Tank 1/14/2009
     When Lord Derby asked Sir Lewis Namier, the great historian of Georgian England, why he, as a Jew, didn’t write Jewish history, Namier replied: "There is no modern Jewish history, only a Jewish martyrology, and that is not amusing enough for me." It might be said that the underlying purpose of the Zionist project – which Namier passionately supported – was to reject Jewish martyrology, and to turn the Jews from passive victims to active makers of their destiny.
     That has been accomplished to a fault, many would say as they watch the news from Gaza, where one image after another has caused deep revulsion. But then that rejection of martyrdom and victimhood may also explain what has puzzled as well as dismayed onlookers – the fact that Israel seems to be quite oblivious to international opinion.
     In Muslim countries there is, of course, intense hostility to Israel, which, in return, has long since followed the Latin principle oderint dum metuant towards her neighbours: Let them hate us, so long as they fear us. Since there’s no point in even trying to win their hearts and minds, they should be taught to respect brute force, a precept which, it should be admitted, has enjoyed considerable practical success. more.. e-mail

The Massacre in Gaza: Check the Facts
Max Kantar, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     ’A genuine massacre of ordinary, unarmed people has been taking place.’ (Reuters) Israel’s operative military policy in the Gaza Strip has been fairly consistent with its stated definition of what it considers to be legitimate military targets, which in practice has amounted to mass killings of innocent Palestinian civilians.
     Based on the overwhelming evidence available, one conclusion can be drawn regarding the nature of the US-backed Israeli attacks on Gaza: a genuine massacre of ordinary, unarmed people has been taking place for over two weeks.
     Here is just a small part of the documentary evidence to prove it.
     Targeting Civilian Police Stations and Officers - In the opening days of Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, its main targets were police stations and officers. For civilian police officers to be considered legitimate military targets, they must be directly engaged in hostilities, in this case, towards Israel. No evidence has been presented by Israel, or anyone else, that even reasonably suggests that the police officers in Gaza fall into this category. Therefore, the police officers that were targeted and murdered by Israel were clearly civilians: not lawful military targets. more.. e-mail

The Re-Possession of Gaza
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, Middle East Online 1/14/2009
     Israel is on its way to re-possessing the Gaza Strip, despite a UN Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and mounting international criticisms, and the Israeli army that initially claimed a modest goal of "a new agreement with Hamas" has now all but admitted that the intention of Operation Cast Lead is to "topple Hamas."
     "Gaza battle isn’t a one-time conflict, won’t end in accord," Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, has been quoted by Jerusalem Post, in rather sharp contrast to two weeks ago when Livni and other Israeli officials were quoted on the front pages of New York Time denying that their intention was to "reoccupy Gaza." Slowly but surely, as the Israeli army inches closer to its military objectives against Hamas, albeit with certain international costs and financial and human toll in the face of stiff Palestinian resistance forcing Israel’s use of reservists in the Gaza operation, the fog of war is thinning with respect to Israel’s intentions -- of reoccupying a parcel of land and restoring military rule over 1.5 million mostly refugees three and a half years after "unilateral disengagement" that followed nearly forty years of oppressive occuptaion. more.. e-mail

Palestine, Moral Test of the Western World
Salim Nazzal, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     ’Europe needs to send a blunt message to Israel to stop its aggression.’
     In the year 285, Silvanus the Palestinian bishop of Gaza was given two choices, either to give up his faith or to die. Off course Silvanus knew that his power was little compared with that of the Roman Empire, the superpower of the time. But what can man do when he has to choose between freedom and slavery?
     History provides us with numerous examples of men who chose to die rather than live lives of servitude. History recorded that Silvanus defied the Pax Romana peace. Bishop Sylvanus died as a martyr, but Christendom lived and the Roman occupation became history.
     This event took place in the days of antiquity, when the concepts of freedom and self-determination were not yet known and the charter of human rights has not come into existence, long before the Geneva Convention, intended to protect civilians in occupied countries and war zones, was born. In that period, there was no modern media to report the atrocities committed against humanity, there was no United Nations; there was no International Red Cross, no Amnesty International and no human rights organizations to watch and to report. more.. e-mail

Israel Bars Arab Parties from Election
Jonathan Cook - Nazareth, Palestine Chronicle 1/14/2009
     ’All the Arab parties have harshly criticised the attack on Gaza.’ (AFP) The only three Arab parties represented in the Israeli parliament vowed yesterday to fight a decision by the Central Elections Committee to bar them from running in next month’s general election.
     In an unprecedented move signalling a further breakdown in Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel, all the main Jewish parties voted on Monday for the blanket disqualification. Several committee members equated the Arab parties’ vocal support for the Gazan people with support for terrorism.
     The decision follows the arrest of at least 600 Arab demonstrators since the outbreak of the Gaza offensive and the interrogation by the secret police of dozens of Arab community leaders. The three parties -- the National Democratic Assembly, the United Arab List and the Renewal Movement -- have seven legislators out of a total of 120 in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
     The elections committee barred all three from putting up candidates for the Feb 10 election on the grounds that they had violated a 2002 law by refusing to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and by supporting a terrorist organisation. more.. e-mail

Resolution 1860: fig leaf to Arab failure
Hasan Abu Nimah, Electronic Intifada 1/14/2009
     Israel rejected outright the weak UN Security Council’s "call" for "an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire." What the Arab foreign ministers hailed as a triumph for their mission to New York was no more than a fig leaf to cover their failure before their increasingly angry and restive peoples who are ever more boldly denouncing Arab leaders’ inaction or complicity as Israel butchers Palestinians in Gaza.
     Resolution 1860 was a shameless whitewash of the Israeli aggression and war crimes, which the Arab ministers had no choice but to take after having escaped in the direction of New York from the embarrassing alternative of an Arab summit.
     The resolution has serious flaws that the Arab delegations should not have accepted under any circumstances. Calls for an Arab summit by the emir of Qatar and other Arab states to consider reaction to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza were strongly opposed by Egypt and several other states who now stand accused by their people of collaborating with the Israeli enemy, with evidence mounting daily in support of such accusations. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Siege of Washington
Rami G. Khouri, Middle East Online 1/14/2009
     BEIRUT -- If the Israeli attack on Gaza that started 18 days ago was designed partly to send a message to incoming U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress in the past week seems to have joined the battle to handcuff the new president and lay down the law for him, even before he takes office.
     Obama has tried to remain aloof and stay out of the political battle over the Gaza war by making no substantive statements about it. Israel and its many supporters in Washington have different plans for him. He stayed away from the war, but they have brought the war to him -- shoving it down his throat as his first pre-incumbency lesson in how American presidents behave vis-à-vis Israel’s desires -- if they wish to remain in power.
     The House of Representatives voted last Friday by 390-5 for a resolution that completely backed Israel in its onslaught against Gaza, specifically affirming “Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza". A day earlier, the Senate overwhelmingly supported Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism. more.. e-mail

Tin-pot rockets won’t open a second front
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/15/2009
     The "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command" – the quotation marks are necessary since this outfit controls at most 500 cadres – is responsible for all the tin-pot rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon this past week.
     It is not the next "front". It is not the beginning of the "northern front". No one was injured when three rockets fired from southern Lebanon fell in open areas near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona yesterday. A blaze of outdated rockets on northern Israel – "about 1944, I date them", as one Palestinian put it in Beirut – is not going to ignite another conflict for Hamas in Gaza. In Lebanon, the guns are silent – and when they are not, the world will know about it.
     The Hizbollah are not behind them – though it is strange that the Iranian-supplied militia failed a second time to prevent the PFLP-GC from firing over the border – and the organisation’s preposterous attempt to ignite another conflict did little more than advertise the divisions within the Palestinian refugee community inside Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp east of Sidon. For the West, the PFLP-GC is an unspeakable problem. Most Arabs suspect theywere behind the Lockerbie bombing. Thus did most Western "analysts" believe, until the PFLP-GC’s Syrian supporters were needed after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 – Syrian troops were sent to Saudi Arabia to help defend the kingdom – after which Libya and a certain Mr Megrahi became the culprits, and the PFLP-GC became the blameless boys of the Middle East. more.. e-mail

Why children are the first casualties of war in Gaza
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Guardian 1/15/2009
     In war, everyone dies: men, women, children, civilians and fighters, the innocent and the villains. Every death is ugly and sad. But the dead bodies of children drop us into a deep pit of shame and sadness: they make us angry, vulnerable and hopeless.
     As I am writing, 315 children have died in Gaza in the last 19 days. Most probably, more will have died by the time this is published. About a third of the dead and injured have been children.
     The dead children in Gaza take me back two years, to Israel’s last war, with Lebanon. Again, it was the children who were dying. I remember seeing seven children lying together on a filthy brown blanket - next to the bodies of their relatives and parents - after their house, in the village of Qana, was bombed by Israeli planes. They all had acquired the monochrome beige colour of the debris they had been buried under all night. They had a look of astonishment, agonised confusion, their lush lips twisted, their mouths stuffed with dirt. But they looked peaceful even in the ugliness of their death.
     All dead children look alike, that’s the thing - even those mangled and disfigured by a Baghdad car bomb. They look asleep, not dead, just asleep after a long night of bombing and shelling. more.. e-mail

Israel Has Managed to Lose Again
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank 1/14/2009
     Haaretz reported today that IDF Senior officials "believe that Israel should strive to reach an immediate cease-fire with Hamas, and not expand its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza."
     This shouldn’t take us by great surprise. Though Israel has proved beyond doubt that it is rather capable of conducting large-scale genocide, it also proved that its military forces do not have the answer to Islamic resistance. The Israeli chief military officials admitted as well that "Israel achieved several days ago all that it possibly could in Gaza." The IDF, so it seems, finished its role in Gaza. It turned its neighbourhoods into piles of rubble. Relentlessly, it even murdered the civilian population in broad daylight by means of air raids and attacks from warships. Images of white phosphorus artillery shells bursting over schools and hospitals are now part of our collective memory. Tanks firing into schools loaded with evacuees seeking refuge from the bombing of their buildings is now the image associated with the Hebraic soldier and yet, the Israelis failed to achieve any of their objectives. I must admit that it must take a special talent to be an Israeli general. As much as they are good in committing war crimes, they somehow fail in everything else.
     The Israeli politicians initially swore to destroy Hamas, they then lowered their expectations, they promised just to destroy Hamas’ rocket launching capabilities, all the while reassuring their excited Israeli voters that this time the Jewish State will fight till the bitter end. Seemingly, their promises fell too short once again. -- See also: Ha'aretz story more.. e-mail

Warning of a Clear and Present Danger to the Lives and Well-Being of Tens of Thousands of Civilians in the Gaza Strip
Undersigned Israeli human rights organizations, Alternative Information Center 1/14/2009
     Dear Friends,
     A press conference was held in Jerusalem today in which Israeli human rights NGOs (including PCATI) read its statement to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, warning of the clear humanitarian danger looming in Gaza and pointed out the severe nature of Israeli action in the course of its war in Gaza which blatantly violates the human and humanitarian rights of civilians in Gaza. Stating " This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes."
     Member organizations also pointed out that their concern is for the rights and PROTECTION of all CIVILIANS with no national, religious or other distinction, Israelis and Palestinians. The fact that the damage being done to the Palesitinian civilian population, the destruction of its institutions, infrastructure and the vast loss of life among Palestinians is so monumental and being done by Israeli forces necesitates a very particular Israeli response that calls on the Government of Israel and Israeli citizens to look in the mirror and to be concerned about what they see.
     The text of the letter to the Prime Minister can be found below... more.. e-mail

Is Gaza a testing ground for experimental weapons?
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada 1/13/2009
     Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fueling speculation.
     The most prominent controversy is over the use of shells containing white phosphorus, which causes horrific burns when it comes into contact with skin. Under international law, phosphorus is allowed as a smokescreen to protect soldiers but treated as a chemical weapon when used against civilians.
     The Israeli army maintains that it is using only weapons authorized in international law, though human rights groups have severely criticized Israel for firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza.
     But there might be other unconventional weapons Israel is using out of sight of the watching world.
     One such munition may be DIME, or dense inert metal explosive, a weapon recently developed by the United States army to create a powerful and lethal blast over a small area. more.. e-mail

Sleep hard to come by in bombarded Gaza
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/10/2009
     It’s 2:50am and I can’t sleep.
     Some mornings I wake up from a new explosion and realize I’ve somehow managed to fall into a sleep despite the blasts.Other mornings, I wake up disoriented, first wondering where I am, as I’m sleeping in some hospital waiting room or ambulance office, or the house of a driver since the Red Crescent office in eastern Jabaliya was first shelled and then made off-limits by the invading Israeli forces in the eastern Jabaliya region... and then in the north, the northwest, the east, the south ...
     Yesterday morning I awoke to an eerie near-quiet: for the time there were no bomb blasts, just the Israeli drones continuing to lord over the sky. Then the blasts came. At 8:38am I noted "resumption of loud, reverberating explosions.In the Saraya area again (the former British prison has been hit a number of times already)? 8:59 am: four very loud explosions with deep reverberations."
     At 12:15pm I’d noted and photographed the white stream of chemical clouds billowing over large expanses of eastern Gaza. At 1:05 pm: "Since last night until now, 23 persons have been killed, all civilians," reporter Yousef al-Helo told me, adding, "This afternoon, two people -- including women and children -- were killed in a shelling on Beit Lahia." more.. e-mail

The gates of Hell, the window to Heaven
Laila El-Haddad writing from Durham, the United States, Electronic Intifada 1/13/2009
     I have a routine of sorts. I monitor the situation back home in Gaza all day -- I keep Al Jazeera English on continuously as long as I am home, despite my son’s Yousuf’s nagging to switch to cartoons. He stopped asking several days ago, when, tearful and angry, I told him Gaza is being bombed, that Seedo and Tete (Grandma and Grandpa) are in danger.
     If I leave home, I make sure my cell phone is near me at all times. Last evening, I was at my friend’s house, and my father called me, just before dawn prayers.
     "Are you home? Are you there? I don’t know what’s going on but our whole house is shaking, the whole house. The windows have blown open, your mother is terrified, its horrible, I don’t now exactly where it is and the radio hasn’t broadcast anything about it yet either. Just continuous explosions all around, and these clouds of white smoke everywhere," he went on, his words at once weary and weighed.
     I rush home to turn on the TV again and see what information I can find online. He has the news before they do. Soon, Al Jazeera brings my friend Taghreed back on the line. I hear her voice and imagine her sitting next to me, trembling as she usually does in such inexplicably terrifying moments as these despite having covered Gaza for years. more.. e-mail

500 Citizens of Sderot Contradict the Israeli Government
Janine Roberts, Palestine Chronicle 1/13/2009
     The removed Israeli government graph: ’Monthly distribution of rockets hits.’
     Much has been made of Hamas’ reported failure to honour last year’s truce. But, an extraordinary correspondence between Jewish residents of the much-rocketed town of Sderot, nearby kibbutz, and the Palestinians living within sight in the Gaza strip paints a very different picture of that truce from that repeatedly given by the Israeli government.
     Barrack Obama was taken to Sderot last year to show him the effects of rocketing. He remarked on how Israeli towns looked like American from the air and offered his full support to the town’s citizens, promising to invite its representatives to the White House soon after taking office. At the time in mid-July Sderot was safe to visit. There had been no casualties from rockets since the ceasefire started 4 weeks earlier.
     On July 12th 2008, a Gaza resident, using the pseudonym of "Peaceman," emailed friends in Sderot to say. "The situation is calm ’ and this make people happy a lot, because there are no dead and wounded [but] the border is still closed’ I myself have been waiting two years to go to Europe to study.’ Nevertheless ’we have now a golden opportunity to try to build a new world without violence.’ more.. e-mail

Israel is Committing War Crimes in Gaza
George Bisharat, Palestine Chronicle 1/13/2009
     ’Israel should be held accountable for its crimes’ in Gaza. (via Aljazeera) Israel’s current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel’s acts.
     The United Nations charter preserved the customary right of a state to retaliate against an "armed attack" from another state. The right has evolved to cover nonstate actors operating beyond the borders of the state claiming self-defense, and arguably would apply to Hamas. However, an armed attack involves serious violations of the peace. Minor border skirmishes are common, and if all were considered armed attacks, states could easily exploit them -- as surrounding facts are often murky and unverifiable -- to launch wars of aggression. That is exactly what Israel seems to be currently attempting. more.. e-mail

Gaza: A pawn in the new ’great game
Alastair Crooke, Asia Times 1/14/2009
     Gaza: A pawn in the new ’great game’
     BEIRUT - A s Europeans watch the humanitarian disaster in Gaza unfold on nightly news bulletins, many may wonder why this crisis seems to have left their governments groping in such apparent fumbling disarray. The answer is that it is the result of policies pulling in opposite directions - of an acute irreconcilability at the heart of their policy-making.
     What has happened in Gaza was all too foreseeable. A few Israelis forewarned about this coming crisis, but the appeal of the "grand narrative" - of a global struggle between "moderates" and "extremists" - overrode their warnings to the Israeli electorate.
     The thesis that literally "everything" must be done either to lever "moderates" into power, or prevent them from losing power - euphemistically called "supporting moderation" - lies at the heart of the Gaza crisis.
     It is a narrative that has served Israel’s wider interests in garnering legitimacy for the Israeli campaign against Iran, and in dichotomizing the region into Westernized "moderates" and Islamist "extremists".
     Former British prime minister, and current Middle East envoy for the Quartet group of the United Nations, Tony Blair’s proselytizing around the world on this theme has been a huge asset for an Israel which aspires to become the leading member of a "moderate" bloc, rather than an isolated island in an increasingly Islamist Middle East. Yet Blair’s and other Quartet members’ attempts to fit this simplistic mechanical template over a complex Middle East, facing multiple struggles, has reduced the Palestinian crisis to being no more than a pawn in a bigger "game" of the existential global struggle against "extremism". more.. e-mail

History did not begin with the Qassams
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/14/2009
     History did not begin with the Qassam rockets. But for us, the Israelis, history always begins when the Palestinians hurt us, and then the pain is completely decontextualized. We think that if we cause the Palestinians much greater pain, they will finally learn their lesson. Some term this "achievement."
     Nevertheless, the "lesson" remains abstract for most Israelis. The Israeli media prescribes a strict low-information, low-truth diet for its consumers, one rich in generals and their ilk. It is modest, and does not boast of our achievements: the slain children and the bodies rotting under the ruins, the wounded who bleed to death because our soldiers shoot at the ambulance crews, the little girls whose legs were amputated due to horrible wounds caused by various types of weaponry, the devastated fathers shedding bitter tears, the residential neighborhoods that have been obliterated, the terrible burns caused by white phosphorus, and the mini-transfer - the tens of thousands of people who have been expelled from their homes, and are still being expelled at this very minute, ordered to cram into a built-up area that is constantly growing smaller and is also under sentence of incessant bombing and shelling. more.. e-mail

Israel’s free ride ends
Michelle Goldberg, The Guardian 1/13/2009
     t’s a common, almost clichéd observation that the American media is less critical of Israeli policy than the Israeli media. In mainstream American depictions of the ceaseless misery of the Middle East, Israeli righteousness and Arab violence are routinely emphasised. The reality of Israeli settlements and Palestinian suffering have been, at best, a footnote.
     Conservatives often complain that the news isn’t even more biased toward the Jewish state – or the most hawkish elements within it – but such carping both obscures and reinforces the real distortion in American Middle East coverage, serving as a pre-emptive warning to any outlet that might show too much sympathy for the Palestinians. (The crudeness of Israel’s most vociferous detractors on the far left doesn’t help, since it further marginalises criticism of Israel as the preserve of cranks who can’t see a difference between Dachau and Jenin.)
     Slowly, though, something is changing. As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media. The failure of the war in Iraq and the attendant discrediting of neoconservatism has opened up new space in the American conversation. With the American right dejected and weakened, there’s less pressure on the press to display the kind of boorish one-sidedness that self-congratulatory conservatives like to call "moral clarity". Israel’s disproportionate retaliation in Gaza is increasingly recognised as both brutal and, in all likelihood, ultimately futile. In destroying Gaza, Israel is also destroying the American taboo that has ensured the country such unstintingly favourable media coverage. more.. e-mail

British Jews and Israel: a new relationship?
Keith Kahn-Harris, The Guardian 1/13/2009
     It didn’t look like a revolutionary declaration – a small group of leading Jewish communal figures calling for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza in a letter to last Sunday’s Observer – but it has the potential to herald a new era in the British Jewish community’s relationship with Israel. The letter, signed by the heads of the Liberal and Reform Judaism as well as a number of other well-respected rabbis, academics and communal leaders, was explicit in affirming the signatories’ concerns for Israel’s security but asserted that the deadliness of Israel’s assault on Hamas would "strengthen extremism, destabilise the region, and exacerbate tensions inside Israel".
     This call for a ceasefire is hardly radical. Fears that the suffering caused by the war will only make peace harder by sending Palestinians further into the arms of the extremists is widely shared in the west, even among those who usually support Israel. In Israel, while a large majority of the population favour the war, there is little optimism as to its ultimate effectiveness. Even many of those who are supportive of the attempt to crush Hamas are upset by the high numbers of civilian casualties – the attempt to reclassify civilians as "human shields" speaks volumes about this discomfort. What is significant and novel about the letter to the Observer is not its argument, but the willingness of mainstream Jewish communal leaders to criticise Israel, albeit mildly, during one its military campaigns. more.. e-mail

How Israel’s Propaganda Machine Works
James Zogby, Middle East Online 1/13/2009
     As in past Mideast conflicts, both the media story line and political commentary here in the US has closely followed Israel’s talking points on the war. This has been an essential component in Israel’s early success and in its ability to prolong fighting without US pushback. Because it recognizes the importance of the propaganda war, Israel fights on this front as vigorously and disproportionately as it engages on the battlefield.
     Here’s how they have done it:
     1 ) Define the terms of debate, and you win the debate. Early on, the Israelis work to define the context, the starting point, and the story line that will shape understanding of the war. In this instance, for example, they succeeded by constant repetition, in establishing the notion that the starting point of the conflict was December 19th, the end of the six-month ceasefire (which Israel described as "unilaterally ended by Hamas"). In doing so, they ignored, of course, their own early November violations, and their failure to honor their commitment in the ceasefire to open Gaza’s borders. They also ignored their having reduced Gaza into a dependency, a process which began long before and continued after their withdrawal in 2005. Because they know that most Americans do not closely follow the conflict and are inclined to believe, as the line goes, "what they hear over and over again," this tactic of preemptive definition and repetition succeeds... more.. e-mail

Study: International law seldom newsworthy in war on Gaza
Report, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Electronic Intifada 1/13/2009
     US corporate media coverage of the Israeli military attacks that have reportedly killed more than 900 -- many of them civilians -- since 27 December has overwhelmingly failed to mention that indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets are illegal under international humanitarian law.
     Israel’s recent aerial attacks on Gazan infrastructure, including a TV station, police stations, a mosque, a university and even a United Nations school, have been widely reported. Yet despite the fact that attacks on civilian infrastructure, including police stations, are illegal (Human Rights Watch, 31 December 2008), questions of legality are almost entirely off the table in the US media.
     Only two network evening news stories (NBC Nightly News, 8 January 2009, 11 January 2009) have even mentioned international law -- a mere three percent of the total stories that NBC, ABC and CBS’s newscasts have broadcast on the Israeli military offensive since it began on 27 December.
     The largest circulation daily newspaper, USA Today, has made only one reference to international law, according to a search of the terms "international law," "humanitarian law," "war crime" or "laws of war" in the Lexis Nexis database of US newspaper stories mentioning Israel and Gaza since 27 December: That single reference was an op-ed (7 January 2009) by a spokesperson from the Israeli embassy in Washington who criticized Hamas violations. more.. e-mail

How does one prepare for a war crime?
Maha Mehanna writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/13/2009
     As the war in Gaza, where I live, enters its third week, the death toll of civilians continues to rise. There is nowhere safe in Gaza. The Israeli warplanes have bombed -- and continue to do so -- homes, ministerial buildings, municipal buildings, mosques, schools, universities and charities throughout the densely-populated Gaza Strip. Every day in Gaza is more painful and heartbreaking than the past. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized from the never-ending bombardments. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic beyond words and it is very hard to make sense of the current situation or make future predictions. The Israeli attacks on Gaza are escalating, and the Israeli military navy is shelling from the sea, the F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters from the sky, and the tanks from the ground ... where to hide?!
     Since the start of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Israeli warplanes have been bombing and shelling several locations in the area near our house, very near our house. With each bombardment, we feel our house shake like an earthquake and windows break, not to mention our utter fear and horror. We have not had any electricity for 17 days now, but this was something we got used to, since, before the Israeli aggression, for nearly 18 months, we lived with only four to six hours of electricity a day, many times only having it after 3:00am. more.. e-mail

Every second there is a bomb
Adham Khalil writing from Jabaliya refugee camp, the occupied Gaza, Electronic Intifada 1/13/2009
     It is very horrible here. Today was the worst. There were lots of F-16s above us and white phosphorous falling from the sky.
     I didn’t sleep last night. The sound of shelling in the north and east kept us all awake.
     Most of the time we don’t have any electricity in my house. So when the power comes for an hour or two the whole family is busy. We charge our mobiles, pump water, bake bread. But I have seen so many horrible things on TV that sometimes I wish we could stay without power.
     So far, my own family is okay but I feel shy to speak about my family. I don’t think like that. Everyone in Gaza is my family. We are suffering collectively as we are being punished and forgotten collectively, and we are dying.
     It is very dangerous here and everywhere in Gaza. By 5pm the streets are empty. Not even one person goes out of their homes in my area. But even in our homes, we are not safe. I swear sometimes I can smell death around us.
     It is not true to say this is a war between Hamas and Israel. I am an eyewitness in Gaza and though you may think that Gaza is a country and Hamas is a great and powerful army, these are lies. The Palestinian factions do not own tanks, warplanes, or warships. They have homemade rockets, simple weapons. They cannot do anything against Israel’s great and powerful army. more.. e-mail

I rushed home in the ceasefire. Our baby’s due tomorrow
Fares Akram, The Independent 1/13/2009
     The temporary ceasefire was earlier yesterday, running from 10am until 1pm, so I used the time to rush back to the family house we’ve evacuated, to pick up blankets, toothbrushes and clothes. I found our area in the al-Karama district of Gaza City completely deserted except for a few people who had gone to inspect their homes. Some of the houses had been set on fire in the overnight clashes.
     I managed to bring back things for the baby: washing products, shampoo, but because it was such a rush, I forgot a lot of things we needed.
     I’m supposed to become a father for the first time tomorrow. Alaa, my wife, has a lot of pain and is very tired. We finally got blood pressure medication for her, from an UNWRA clinic. Inshallah, everything will be all right on Wednesday. The problem for Alaa, or for any woman about to give birth in Gaza, is that the Israelis don’t announce their true intentions.
     We had a call from Amman to say that Bassma, one of my aunts who was suffering from cancer and receiving treatment in a hospital in the Jordanian capital, just died. She was 49, a year older than my father. We’d been expecting her death but never imagined that dad, her younger brother, would die a week before her, wiped out by a missile fired from an Israeli warplane. more.. e-mail

Mideast Dream Team? Not Quite
Roger Cohen, MIFTAH 1/13/2009
     The Obama team is tight with information, but I’ve got the scoop on the senior advisers he’s gathered to push a new Middle East policy as the Gaza war rages: Shibley Telhami, Vali Nasr, Fawaz Gerges, Fouad Moughrabi and James Zogby.
     This group of distinguished Arab-American and Iranian-American scholars, with wide regional experience, is intended to signal a U.S. willingness to think anew about the Middle East, with greater cultural sensitivity to both sides, and a keen eye on whether uncritical support for Israel has been helpful.
     O.K., forget the above, I’ve let my imagination run away with me. Barack Obama has no plans for this line-up on the Israeli-Palestinian problem and Iran.
     In fact, the people likely to play significant roles on the Middle East in the Obama Administration read rather differently.
     They include Dennis Ross (the veteran Clinton administration Mideast peace envoy who may now extend his brief to Iran); James Steinberg (as deputy secretary of state); Dan Kurtzer (the former U.S. ambassador to Israel); Dan Shapiro (a longtime aide to Obama); and Martin Indyk (another former ambassador to Israel who is close to the incoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.) more.. e-mail

Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields
Michel Chossudovsky, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     Gaza’s offshore marine area is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities.
     The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.
     This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.
     British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.
     The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007).
     The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline. (Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).
     The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine. more.. e-mail

The inconvenient truth about Gaza
Curtis Doebbler, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/8/2009
     The foot dragging of Palestinian diplomats in the face of Israel’s Gaza onslaught suggests that for some ending Hamas is more important than ending the violence.
     When a state resorts to the use of force it enters a process wherein the truth is often blurred and intentionally distorted. Israel’s use of force against the Palestinian people in Gaza is a classic example.
     The Israeli government has invented terminology and ideology to claim that it is acting in the cause of self-defence. Indeed, self-defence is a justification for an otherwise illegal act under international law, but only when one state has been attacked by another state. Israel was not attacked by the Palestinian people or even by Hamas.
     Instead, Israel has been for more than 60 years the illegal occupier of Palestinian land and the Palestinian people living on it or forcefully internally displaced. In maintaining this occupation, Israel has ignored dozens of UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions and has created such inhumane conditions for the Palestinian people that these conditions might reasonably be said to be intended to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part. Indeed, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed either by direct Israeli aggression or by the conditions that have been imposed upon them. Even in the last few months, the inhumane embargo that Israel has imposed on Gaza, which restricted even humanitarian necessities, has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of civilians. more.. e-mail

Claiming impartiality, Europe leans towards Israel
David Cronin, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     BRUSSELS (IPS) - In carefully crafted official statements, diplomats have portrayed the European Union as something of an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet even though almost all of the people killed over the past fortnight have been Palestinians, some top-ranking leaders in the 27-country bloc have tacitly offered their support for Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza.
     Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, the Union’s largest country, has stated that Hamas "clearly and exclusively" bore responsibility for the fighting because it had fired Qassam rockets on Israel.
     The Czech Republic, which took over the EU’s rotating presidency 1 January, described Israel’s actions in Gaza as "more defensive than offensive." Prague subsequently retracted that remark after it emerged that France, the previous holder of the presidency, had a more nuanced position.
     But while Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has spent much of this week seeking to secure a truce between Hamas and Israel, he too has been eager to develop closer political and economic ties with the Israeli government. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Czech mate
David Cronin, The Guardian 1/10/2009
     If Václav Havel needs inspiration for a new play, he could do worse than study the political farce that has marked the opening days of his country’s first attempt to chair the European Union.
     First, an official spokesman for the Czech Republic deems Israel’s slaughter of Gazan civilians an act of self-defence. Next, the statement has to be retracted when it fails to chime with the message from Paris, which has reluctantly ceded the EU’s presidency to Prague. And then an aristocrat fond of bow ties (Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg) leads a mission aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The snag is that "peace" has to be achieved without actually talking to Hamas because it has been designated a terrorist organisation.
     I’m sure that thinktanks will be publishing pamphlets in the coming weeks that accuse the Czechs of damaging the EU’s credibility. None the less, Prague’s patent bias towards Israel is consistent with both its own foreign policy and the direction in which the union has been heading for some time.
     A museum in Prague launched an exhibition a few years ago detailing how weapons made in Czechoslovakia assisted Israel’s "war of independence" in 1948. Known as the "nakbah" or catastrophe to Palestinians, this involved the systematic destruction of Arab villages, with vast numbers of the refugees uprooted fleeing to Gaza. more.. e-mail

The Failure of Balance and Objectivity
Pat Bernstein - France, Palestine Chronicle 1/11/2009
     Apart from the humanitarian crises in Gaza, what has failed the entire Western world is the media. Most informed and concerned people have come to accept some of the inequities, injustices, and lack of balance. Any enlightened person knows about Fox News and the abject failure of the New York Times and Washington Post especially on Middle Eastern issues over recent years. However, some failures by all the major Western media have been so blatant and so prolonged, that even the enlightened no longer notice these.
     Let me provide one example of this. The news media constantly draws attention to the rockets ’smuggled’ into Gaza, through tunnels. Indeed, destroying the tunnels is one pretext for the Israeli invasion. Even Tony Blair, the so-called ’Middle East Peace Envoy’ said that cutting off Gaza’s smuggling tunnels could secure an immediate ceasefire (1). The uninformed might easily therefore link the tunnels with illegal arms trafficking. In fact, many well informed and ’liberal’ thinking people I know, never even question the issue of rocket ’smuggling’. However, is that the reality? Is that even the issue the media should be reporting or is this just more Israeli propaganda masquerading as news? more.. e-mail

Gaza, and Israel’s Wars of Forced Regime Change
Analysis by Helena Cobban, Inter Press Service 1/10/2009
     WASHINGTON, Jan 9(IPS) - The war that Israel launched on Gaza Dec. 27 is the seventh war of choice Israel has launched against its neighbours since 1973, the last year in which it fought a war that was forced upon it.
     Of the seven wars one -- in Lebanon, 1978 -- had the goal of establishing an Israeli-controlled "security zone" running inside Lebanon’s border with Israel. The other six, including the present war on Gaza, all aimed at imposing a "forced regime change" on Arab communities neighbouring Israel through the violent physical dismantlement of politico-military structures then present in, or on occasion dominating, those societies.
     The five earlier attempts at forced regime change all had interesting -- and quite unintended -- consequences that might have given Israel’s leaders serious pause before they launched the present war.
     The first of those "forced regime change" (FRC) wars was the one Ariel Sharon, as defence minister, planned and launched against the PLO’s structures in Lebanon in 1982. The PLO mounted a spirited defence. But after seven weeks of terrible destruction, pressure from their Lebanese allies forced the PLO leaders to agree to an internationally mediated ceasefire that mandated the evacuation of the entire PLO security force to distant Arab lands. more.. e-mail

No going back now
Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/8/2009
     Israel may be seeking to destroy Hamas, but what it is actually doing is destroying any possibility for peace.
     Despite official denials from the Israeli government, the central goal of the Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip may well be the elimination of the elected Hamas government and the reinstallation in power of the Western- backed Palestinian Authority (PA).
     From a purely military point of view, the removal of the Hamas authority in Gaza is not a particularly difficult task, given the immense superiority of Israeli firepower in comparison to the primitive means of defence that Hamas and all other Palestinian resistance factions possess. In fact, the ongoing Israeli blitz has already seriously weakened the government in Gaza, especially its ability to re-establish a semblance of normal life in the bombed-out coastal enclave and meet the basic needs of its thoroughly ravaged inhabitants.
     Indeed, with Gaza looking very much like Dresden in the closing months of World War II, reverting to the "status quo ante", which by no means was rosy given the harsh Israeli siege, will be too formidable a task for Hamas to tackle alone. In short, the horrific bombing of basic civilian infrastructure, including nearly all public buildings and basic facilities, will make the task of rehabilitating life in Gaza nearly impossible for any normal government, let alone a beaten organisation, strangled by Israel and hated by many in the international community. more.. e-mail

’We love the sun. So we sat outside to see the F16s bombing Rafah’
Fida Qishta, The Observer, The Guardian 1/11/2009
     Fida Qishta is a writer and teacher living in Rafah on the Gaza Strip. She is keeping a diary of the Israeli bombardment
     Monday 5 January
     Every night, the Israeli air strikes continue to hit Rafah. The air is full of smoke. At home, we are trying to have a normal life, but it’s not possible. We are scared to death. My dad is terrified, so my sisters and I are trying to be normal, to make him feel better. We talk about stories from the old days, to make him laugh. One of the funniest things we used to ask my father when we were children, when we watched cartoons on the TV, was: "Dad, can we get into the TV?" He’d say: "No, silly, you can’t." Then we’d ask: "How did these other people get into the TV?"
     We didn’t sleep for more than an hour, so many explosions shook our house so strongly. Every 30 or 40 minutes the house is shaken. I feel like everyone is going to die, but I’m trying not to be scared.
     Tuesday 6 January
     I woke up at nine and knew there was still a war going on. No electricity, the phones down, bombing and shooting. more.. e-mail

Who will save Israel from itself?
Mark LeVine, Al Jazeera 1/11/2009
     One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling.
     The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks.
     The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, whose December 31 report titled "Six Months of the Lull Arrangement Intelligence Report," confirmed that the June 19 truce was only "sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by ... "rogue terrorist organisations".
     Instead, "the escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement" occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on November 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day.
     According to a joint Tel Aviv University-European University study, this fits a larger pattern in which Israeli violence has been responsible for ending 79 per cent of all lulls in violence since the outbreak of the second intifada, compared with only 8 per cent for Hamas and other Palestinian factions. more.. e-mail

Palestine: A Fragment – Poems
Noora AL-Malki and Stella Mortazavi, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature the work of two poets, Noora AL-Malki - KSA - and Stella Mortazavi - UK
     Palestine: A Fragment By Noora Al-Malki
     Pity, love, hate and fear
     Get together on a flowery rear.
     The one unto the others did tell
     Of horrible stories; visions of hell.
     Of Pity’s tale there is much to say
     But brethern it suffices to pray
     That never one with eyes could see
     That lad wide streched beneath a tree.
     The skull, so smashed beyond repair,
     Holds a couple of balls ‘gaged in a stare.
     “Look hard upon him”, Pity cried,
     “And you would know what’s real pride.”
     Pride of being dead for a cause
     For which no one besides you rose.
     God bless the soul that still delights
     In defying an evil intent to fight.” more.. e-mail

My Name is Palestine – Poems
Rassool Snyman, Palestine Chronicle 1/11/2009
     The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature two poems by distinguished South African poet Rassool Snyman
     My name is Palestine
     My name is Palestine
     Heed it and be freed
     From the ravages of oppression
     And fear
     My story is your story
     My pain your pain
     My dream your dream
     My liberation your liberation
     I have wronged none
     But have been wronged
     I have been beaten
     I have been shot
     I have been mutilated
     I have been robbed
     I will not be cowed... more.. e-mail

Gaza diary: Where is the humanity?
Mohammed Ali in Gaza City, Al Jazeera 1/11/2009
     As the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza continues to climb, Mohammed Ali, an advocacy and media researcher for Oxfam who lives in Gaza City, will be keeping a diary of his feelings and experiences.
     ’Goodnight my love, see you in heaven’
     Today, I met with people outside the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. I could not believe the stories I was hearing.
     An old man told me he was going blind. His diabetic condition was deteriorating and he needed to be treated quickly so as not to lose his sight. He was turned away; he was not in a severe enough state compared to the people filling the hospital corridors and there were not enough doctors to see to him.
     Medical teams cannot cope; doctors are working 24 hour shifts, there are not enough beds, equipment or medicine to deal with this humanitarian crisis.
     I am hearing more and more stories of people trapped under rubble - ambulance teams unable to reach them, so they wait to die.
     While I was out, one man approached me and asked if I would help him to clear up dead bodies.
     Another asked if I worked for a humanitarian organisation but before I could answer he looked up at the sky and shouted: "Where is humanity?" more.. e-mail

Dear Israeli Citizen: No Other Option?!
Sam Bahour - The West Bank, Palestine Chronicle 1/11/2009
     I watch in shock, like the rest of the world, at the appalling death and destruction being wrought on Gaza by Israel; and still it does not stop. Meanwhile, we see a seemingly never-ending army of well-prepared Israeli war propagandists, some Israeli government officials, and many other people self-enlisted for the purpose, explaining to the world the justifications for pulverizing the Gaza Strip, with its 1.5 million inhabitants. Curious about how Israel, or any society for that matter, could justify a crime of such magnitude against humanity, I turned to my Jewish Israeli friends today to hear their take on things. One after another, the theme was the same. The vast majority of Jewish Israelis has apparently bought into the state-sponsored line that Israel was under attack and had no other option available to stop Hamas’ rockets. More frightening is the revelation that many Israelis - including one person who self-identifies as a former “peace activist” - are speaking of accepting the killing of 100,000 or more Palestinians, if need be.
     I have a problem with this logic.
     I am a Palestinian American based in Al-Bireh, the sister city of Ramallah in the West Bank. I can see how an observer from abroad could be blind to the facts, given the blitz of Gaza war propaganda orchestrated by the Israeli military. But I know better. Like all other Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, I am not an observer from abroad. We live every day under the bitter burden of Israeli military occupation and we know that this question, presented as rhetorical - did we really have an option? - has a rational answer. Allow me, from my vantage point as an economic development professional, to touch on some of the other options that could have been chosen. Moreover, many of them will be forced on Israel anyway, sooner or later, whether after the next “war” or in the coming days under the ceasefire agreement and the Egyptian-sponsored implementation mechanism being discussed as I write this. Meaning: all this death and destruction could have been easily avoided. more.. e-mail

All signs point to systematic targeting of civilians
Ewa Jasiewicz writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/11/2009
     Last night was a quiet one in Jabaliya. "Only" six homes bombed into the ground, the market, again, maybe four lightly injured people -- shrapnel to the face injuries -- and no martyrs. Beit Hanoun saw a young woman, Nariman Ahmad Abu Owder, just 17, shot dead as she made tea in her family’s kitchen. It was 9pm in the Hay Amel area when witnesses reported "thousands" of bullets shot by tanks onto homes in Azrah Street.
     We got a call to go to Tel al-Zaater looking for the dead and injured, around 2am. "This area is dangerous, very very dangerous," warned one volunteer rescuer, Muhammad al-Sharif, as our ambulance bumped along sandy, lumpy ground, illuminating piles of burning rubbish, stray cats, political graffiti, and the ubiquitous strung-out colored sack cloth and stripey material in large thin squares, tenting the pavements. What is it? Protection, I am told, so that the surveillance planes won’t see the fighters. Palestinian body armor.
     Muhammad, and Ahmad Abu Foul, a Civil Defense medical services coordinator, told me they had been shot at by Israeli snipers yesterday. Muhammad had recounted the story, still counting his blessings, earlier on at the ambulance station. They’d gone hurtling over graves and tombstones to fetch casualties when Israeli snipers opened fire. They’d laid down flat on the ground until the firing stopped. Ahmad, 24, another rescuer here, told me he had been shot in the chest -- in his bullet-proof vest -- close to the Atarturah area while trying to evacuate corpses three days ago. His brother, he had told me, had been injured 14 times working as a paramedic. "Fourteen times. Then he got hit by an Apache. Then it was serious. That took him out of work for a few months," he explained. more.. e-mail

Will Hizballah intervene in the Gaza conflict?
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Electronic Intifada 1/11/2009
     While Israel fervently attempts to terrorize the Palestinians into submission in Gaza, many observers have started to wonder why Hizballah has refrained from stepping in militarily to assist its brothers-in-arms, Hamas. Such musings fail to take account of the constraints on Hizballah’s room for action, as well as the circumstances under which Hizballah would ignore such constraints. The question that should be posed is not so much if Hizballah will act, but when.
     As things currently stand, Hizballah is not in a position to directly help Hamas militarily by opening a new front with Israel. In the first place, Hizballah and its supporters have only recently recovered from the devastating impact of Israel’s war against them in July 2006. A Hizballah offensive against northern Israel would surely be met with "disproportionate" force on Israel’s part, which Israel has been threatening as much for several months now. Mass destruction and devastation aside, Hizballah would once again be faced with intense domestic pressures to disarm, and possibly, more externally manufactured, locally-executed conspiracies hatched against it that could drag it into the kind of civil warfare that the movement found itself in during May 2008. more.. e-mail

Gaza is sinking in a river of blood
Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/11/2009
     I want to write about the suffering of my people and my family in these days of siege against the people of Gaza. At least 888 people have been killed and more than 3,700 injured. The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to allow ambulances to go to the al-Zeitoun area of Gaza City. As a result, those who are injured become those who die, a premeditated and willful violation of human rights.
     In my house we can’t get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5am. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.
     There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals.
     Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs. At night our camp, Jabaliya refugee camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft. more.. e-mail

Phoning my in-laws in Gaza
Xen Hasan writing from Manchester, UK, Electronic Intifada 1/11/2009
     We haven’t been able to get hold of my sister-in-law for a couple of days. It’s nerve wracking. Soul destroying. I find myself doing horrifying mental arithmetic. I don’t know why, I can’t seem to help it. The UN stated on Thursday that 758 people had been killed. That’s one person for each 2,000 in Gaza. What are the odds that one of them might be Nareman, or one of her family?
     I shouldn’t think like that. Nareman always amazes and humbles me with her resilience. Last time we spoke the first thing she said was "how’s the pregnancy going?" She’s living in the midst of bombs and artillery fire, and she’s concerned about my pregnancy! Her teenage daughter told me about the classes she is missing for tawjihi -- the general secondary school examination -- and how she needs those classes to get good grades to go to university. I wonder how many A-Level students here in the UK would be concerned about missing school if they were in her shoes. more.. e-mail

Witnessing a war waged against your people
Mohammed Abu Asaker writing from Sudan, Electronic Intifada 1/11/2009
     Sixteen days since it began, the war on Gaza rages on. It’s a war that does not exempt from its targets a child, a woman, or old man, or a school, a mosque or a house.
     I am still following the news minute by minute to check on my family in Gaza; it is so hard to see a real war waged against your people, and you far away and can’t do anything to help them.
     Western media present it as a war against Hamas, yet what is happening on the ground is a war against civilian people. So far, more than 800 persons have been killed and at least 3,500 injured. Thirty-five percent are children and women. Mosques, United Nations-administered schools and houses are attacked, which means that no place is safe in Gaza.
     All of my family are staying in one room. Expecting that a missile could attack them any moment, they prefer to die all together. My little brothers and sisters are very scared and don’t sleep well and the bombing goes on day and night. more.. e-mail

Things one sees from The Hague
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 1/12/2009
     When the cannons eventually fall silent, the time for questions and investigations will be upon us. The mushroom clouds of smoke and dust will dissipate in the pitch-black sky; the fervor, desensitization and en masse jump on the bandwagon will be forever forgotten and perhaps we will view a clear picture of Gaza in all its grimness. Then we will see the scope of the killing and destruction, the crammed cemeteries and overflowing hospitals, the thousands of wounded and physically disabled, the destroyed houses that remain after this war.
     The questions that will beg to be asked, as cautiously as possible, are who is guilty and who is responsible. The world’s exaggerated willingness to forgive Israel is liable to crack this time. The pilots and gunners, the tank crewmen and infantry soldiers, the generals and thousands who embarked on this war with their fair share of zeal will learn the extent of the evil and indiscriminate nature of their military strikes. They perhaps will not pay any price. They went to battle, but others sent them. more.. e-mail

Gazans doing their best to avoid becoming death statistics
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/12/2009
     At 8:45 A.M. Sunday, Mustafa called to say they had left their house. At 8:10 they had called a courageous friend who had a car, and they drove with the kids two kilometers north, to the rented apartment of his brother-in-law in the Gaza City neighborhood of Rimal. The brother-in-law rented it a week ago, after he fled with his family from their home in the northern edge of the city, the site of bombing and shooting. Now there are 15 people in a two-room apartment - with no water, of course. The main thing is that the explosions sound a little less loud.
     After 15 days they could not take the pressure of tanks entering the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood, the incessant shooting all night long and the shelling from the sea. The leaflets dumped from helicopters, calling on people to leave their homes - they, too, have been unnerving. But most frightening were the missiles that hit the nearby apartments and killed the neighbors, including Yasser Arafat’s official photographer and his family. more.. e-mail

The Gaza onslaught will impact on the Arab world
Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 1/9/2009
     The immediate consequences of the Israeli assault on Gaza are being felt primarily by the Palestinians in Gaza, but its political shockwaves will be felt throughout the Arab world, in forms that cannot be easily predicted today. The Israeli attempt to inflict patrie-cide - the murder of a people and state - on Gaza emphasizes a series of transformational trends that have been clear throughout the Arab region for the past quarter-century.
     The most important trend is the reconfiguration of power, legitimacy and activism in the modern Arab state. As governments in Arab states effectively ignore what is happening in Gaza - to judge by their political immobility - we will continue to witness the thinning impact, control and even legitimacy of many of those regimes. We will also continue to see the rise of non-state actors who become so strong and credible that they should be called parallel states. more.. e-mail

Gaza conflict will shake the Arab world
Ismail Patel, The Guardian 1/11/2009
     The human cost of Israel’s decision to attack Gaza is being paid by the Palestinians. However, the fallout from this wanton violence is going to have long-term political consequences throughout the Arab world. The Israeli attack on Gaza is likely to bring to the fore political trends that up to now have remained just below the parapet of influence. The situation has brought the Arab world to an historic crossroads, where leaders will either move towards Arab independence from western policies, which is likely to be driven by popular grassroots support, or continue to toe the line of Israel/US influence. Much of this will be determined by the duration of Israeli attacks and the survival or demise of Hamas.
     The first and obvious fact in the current war is that since the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, this is the first war that Israel has launched that Palestinians have defended themselves without any neighbouring Arab country militarily intervening. The Palestinians have taken up arms independently, whether home-made or imported, to defend their land and people against this full-scale Israeli military attack from the air, sea and ground. This could be argued to be the first Palestinian-Israeli war. more.. e-mail

Solve the Gaza problem at its roots
Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 1/10/2009
     We are now witnessing the interplay between warfare and diplomacy in Gaza, which is a better situation to be in than witnessing only warfare. Yet one of the telling things about the complexity of the current fighting is that one does not quite know what to call it. Is it the Israel-Hamas war? The Israel-Gaza war? The Israel-Palestine war?
     This matters, because knowing the exact nature of the protagonists doing the fighting and the underlying issues involved improves our chances of coming to grips with the full nature of the conflict - an essential first step toward resolving it permanently. Military action by both sides will never resolve the core of the conflict, but diplomacy could if it tackled the most important issues for each side. The United Nations resolution approved Thursday does not seem to cover all the important issues. more.. e-mail

The Tribe that Lost Its Head
Jeremy Salt – Ankara, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     ’Most of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza came from somewhere else.’
     The Nakba -- the catastrophe -- is the Arabic word used to describe the Zionist expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland in 1948/49, the destruction of some 500 of their villages, the plunder of their remaining property, the theft of their land and the seizure of their cities.
     Most of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza came from somewhere else. Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod, the targets of Hamas’ backyard rockets, were all built over the ruins of Arab villages. The city of Beersheba was almost wholly Arab until purged of its Arab population by Zionist forces and the story is the same the length and breadth of Palestine. Those asking why Hamas is firing its Qassam rockets into Israel cannot answer their own question without grasping the enormity of the crime committed against the Palestinians six decades ago.
     Yet the Nakba did not end six decades ago. 1948 was only the beginning. The atrocities now being committed in Gaza are no more than an extension of what has been happening without cease for these past sixty years, even if there is something especially brazen about the way Israel is currently obliterating entire families in full view of the world. The scenes of massacre and destruction shock, anger and traumatize the Palestinians but they will not surprise them because they have seen or experienced all of this before. In the 1950s and the 1960s the refugee camps of Gaza, then under Egyptian control, and the villages of the West Bank, then in Jordanian hands, took the brunt of unrestrained Israeli violence. In the 1970s and 1980s it was Lebanon’s turn for small massacres and large ones: civilians killed in their ’terrorist’ camps or blitzed in their cities; 1500 or so dead in the ’incursion’ of 1978;between 18,000 and 20,000 in the invasion of 1982; more than 100 killed when Israel bombarded the UN compound at Qana in 1996, during another election campaign; and then the 1200 or more civilians killed, mainly in Beirut and the villages of the south, in 2006. One third of them were children, many of them were infants; of the 800 people killed in Gaza so far, the great majority of them civilians, about 200 are children. more.. e-mail

’Soon we’ll have nowhere left to run. Nowhere in Gaza is safe’
Fares Akram in Gaza city, The Independent 1/12/2009
     We’ve left our home. Like 60,000 other Gazans, we’ve taken our belongings and fled. Once again, we’ve become displaced people. Soon, there will be nowhere to run to, since nowhere in Gaza is safe. In the early hours of Saturday, the bombing got louder and closer to our home, and the rattle of machine-gun fire became more intense. The tanks were not far off.
     As I lay in the dark, I heard the sound of small-arms fire and voices in the street outside. Since the Israeli offensive began, our city streets have been deserted during the hours of darkness; even the dogs that usually annoy us with their all-night barking have vanished. The voices were Palestinian militants: "Stay close to the wall!" "Go by the wall!", I could hear them shouting to each other. I didn’t dare go to the window, fearing snipers, but tried listening to the radio. The FM stations run by Palestinian factions had no information, just talk about the "heroic actions" of their militants.
     My thoughts went to my wife, Alaa, so, at dawn, I phoned her. Alaa is nine months pregnant and we evacuated her last week to her parents’ place in the western part of the city. As I expected, she was in a state of panic. more.. e-mail

Take to the Streets! Show solidarity with the Palestinian People, and some analysis
Yousef Abudayyeh, Palestine Think Tank 1/10/2009
     All Out this Saturday in Defense of the Palestinian People!
     The Massacre Intensifies: As we prepare this thirteenth FPA statement, the Zionist army was continuing what it does best - the wholesale slaughter of children and unarmed civilians.   As would be expected of the current state of affairs of the US-controlled international scene, the massacre of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is continuing despite yesterday's feeble UN Security Council resolution that calls for Israel to immediately stop its attack.  Actually, the US-Zionist leadership went the other way - more and more attacks.  The Israeli Zionist army was given additional orders to escalate the conquest as it enters into a third phase of obliteration.  Simultaneously as the Israeli cabinet was giving orders for a higher kill and destruction ratio, the US Senate was not going to be outdone by Zionists. It had to add to its long and shameful record.  So it secretly issued a fast-tracked resolution fully supporting the ongoing massacre and giving Israel the needed cover.  We ask, is this Senate resolution in the best interest of the people of the US. more.. e-mail

Bombing the Fundamentalists
Dr. Ahmed Yousef – Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/10/2009
     "...In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakah to kill even good civilians..." - from training manual of the Israeli army’s Central Region Command
     Perhaps it is indeed time to bomb religious groups given their belief that heaven is their destination.
     Regardless of whether their aim is peaceful coexistence or aggressive accession, spiritually-motivated activists such as Irish Republicans, Muslim Brethren, and Christian Democrats attract controversy at best, and often violent suppression. The most extreme groups, those that justify the unprovoked killing of others, understandably incur the wrath of the international community and are sanctioned, arrested or obliterated.
     Except, of course, when it comes to Jewish fundamentalists, who have rarely been ostracized. Faith-based Israeli groups are as astounding in number as they are in opinion. There are anti-Zionists such as Edah Ha Chareidis, Satmar and Neurei Karta International; and Zioinist proponents such as Tsomet, Shas, Morasha, Shinui Ometz, Gush Emunim (Ne’emanei Eretz Yisrael), the Jewish National Front (Hayil), and the National Movement (Herut) among others. Some are defunct, such as Kach, Kahane Chai and Tehiya (Banai), though their members formed other groups, with the usual aim of building Greater Israel.
     Even the most belligerent of these have enjoyed the Israeli government’s protection and encouragement; so much so that their beliefs are incorporated into official literature. For example, the training manual of the Israeli army’s Central Region Command contains the following injunction... more.. e-mail

The Facts about Hamas and the War on Gaza
Norman Finkelstein, Middle East Online 1/10/2009
     Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. In order to defeat the peace offensive, Israel sought to dismantle Hamas. The blockade was implemented before Hamas came to power. It doesn’t even have anything to do with Hamas.
     The record is fairly clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. The record is clear: Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point—and now I’m quoting the official Israeli website—Hamas retaliated or, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
     Now, as to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha’aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday’s Ha’aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion, I think, are twofold. Number one; to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman’s language basically means Israel’s capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word. more.. e-mail

In Gaza, the schools are dying too
Ameer Ahmad in Gaza and Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian 1/10/2009
     A new word emerged from the carnage in Gaza this week: "scholasticide" - the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education dear to Palestinian society, as the ministry of education was bombed, the infrastructure of teaching destroyed, and schools across the Gaza strip targeted for attack by the air, sea and ground offensives.
     "Learn, baby, learn" was a slogan of the black rights movement in America’s ghettoes a generation ago, but it also epitomises the idea of education as the central pillar of Palestinian identity - a traditional premium on schooling steeled by occupation, and something the Israelis "cannot abide" - and seek to destroy",according to Dr Karma Nabulsi, who teaches politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. "We knew before, and see more clearly now than ever, that Israel is seeking to annihilate an educated Palestine," she says.  The Palestinians are among the most thoroughly educated people in the world. For decades, Palestinian society - both at home in the West Bank and Gaza, and scattered in the diaspora - has put a singular emphasis on learning. After the expulsions of 1948 and after the 1967 occupation, waves of refugees created an influential Palestinian intelligentsia and a marked presence in the disciplines of medicine and engineering across the Arab world, Europe and the Americas. more.. e-mail

Crime against Ourselves; How Many Divisions?
Uri Avnery – Israel, Palestine Chronicle 1/10/2009
     ’In the end, this war is a crime against the State of Israel.’ (Aljazeera) Nearly seventy years ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called "the Red Army" held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
     Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
     This is the description that would now appear in the history books -- if the Germans had won the war.
     Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as "hostages" and exploit the women and children as "human shields", they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured. more.. e-mail

If We Were Palestinians, How Would We React?
Jenka Soderberg, Palestine Chronicle 1/10/2009
     ’How would we, as a people, react if we were in a similar situation?’
     US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, in introducing a bill supporting the Israeli attack on Gaza, which passed unanimously by voice vote in the US Senate Thursday, "I ask any of my colleagues to imagine that happening here in the United States. Rockets and mortars coming from Toronto in Canada, into Buffalo New York. How would we as a country react?"
     I have heard similar statements by other US supporters of the Israeli occupation, and I have to address it from the other perspective -- what if we, in the US, were the Palestinians? I remembered something I wrote in 2005, when the sniper attacks were going on in the DC area, and some Zionist commentators said, ’Now we know how Israel feels’.
     In order to experience the reality of the daily life of Palestinians, the following scenario would have to occur: our land would have to be invaded by an army, the fourth-largest army in the world, and militarily occupied. Checkpoints would be set up throughout the area, and all movement between cities and towns would cease. Anyone who was employed would be unable to work, and would be prevented even from going outside of their home for fear of being shot by one of the tanks, armed personnel carriers, or humvees that now line the streets. more.. e-mail

Why Israel’s war is driven by fear
Chris McGreal, The Observer, The Guardian 1/11/2009
     Outrage at Israeli actions has mounted across the world as the Gaza conflict goes on. But as Israel expands its military action, support for the aggressive strategy is growing, while sympathy for Palestinians is receding. And, with an election looming, political attitudes are hardening.
     Yeela Raanan says she would prefer not to know about the war in Gaza. She doesn’t want to see the pictures of dead children cut down by Israeli shells or read of the allegations of war crimes by her country’s army as it kills Palestinians by the hundreds.
     But there is no escape. Raanan can hear the relentless Israeli bombardment by air, sea and land from her home, just three miles from the Gaza border. Hamas rockets keep hitting her community. And somewhere in the maelstrom of Gaza, her 20-year-old son is serving as an Israeli soldier.
     "I’d rather not know. I can’t do anything about it. We didn’t see the pictures of the Palestinian kids who were killed. It’s easier not to feel," she said. "I just turn on the news for five minutes a day and that’s it, just to see if anybody says anything about my kid."
     But when Raanan thinks about her son - whom she prefers not to name - she also thinks about Palestinian mothers and their sons in Gaza. And that’s when she finds her herself out of sync with the neighbours. "I don’t talk to the neighbours about it any more," she said. "Hamas is violent. Hamas is stupid. I don’t like what they are. But I don’t feel angry towards them. I understand why they were elected, I understand why they act as they do." more.. e-mail

The View from Arish: Tunnel Vision
Kathy Kelly – Arish, Egypt, Palestine Chronicle 1/10/2009
     ’Israelis expect Egyptians to stop the tunnel industry.’
     [Editor’s Note: Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, is writing from Arish, a town near the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza. Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola New Orleans and Audrey Stewart are also in Egypt and contributed to this article.]
     As I write, we can hear the dull thud of explosions in the distance. Israeli airstrikes continue to blast targets in southern Gaza. Merciless bombing of the small Gaza Strip continues into a third week. I heard some people here in Egypt wonder if the Israeli Air Force must be running out of places and people to target. But perhaps the surveillance drones we heard and saw flying over the Rafah border crossing today hunted down more spots on which bombers could fix their cross-hairs. Perhaps they spotted underground tunnels. The Israeli government has, reportedly, already destroyed 80% of the tunnels that connect Gaza with the outside world. It’s common knowledge that a vast network of tunnels, some say as many as 1700, were constructed, many from outside Gaza’s territorial borders, leading into the Territory. Israel claims the tunnels are legitimate targets because the Hamas government can use them to import weapons. But the buildup of the tunnel industry was fueled by desperation for needed goods, within Gaza, a desperation caused by Israel’s decision, over the past 16 months, to tighten the thumbscrews of its blockade on Gaza. If the blockade continues, and if the tunnels are completely destroyed, besieged Gazans will be cut off from secure supplies of food, medicine and fuel, yet another terrifying prospect for people who are desperate to protect their children from any greater harm. more.. e-mail

Hitting the wall
Laurie King writing from Washington, DC, Electronic Intifada 1/10/2009
     About a year ago, I had a vivid dream. Somewhere in the West Bank, on a hot and dusty day, I was standing with a news team filming a story at the Separation Wall. A correspondent with a microphone in his hand was watching in astonishment as a long line of young Palestinian men ran up and forcefully threw their bodies against the towering concrete barrier, followed by dull thud after dull thud.
     The reporter turned to me in the dream, pushed the microphone into my face, and asked, "Can you tell us what on earth they are doing? This is senseless! No one can break a wall with his body!"
     Just as I was about to respond, a young man hit the wall and it cracked open. Everyone shouted for joy and began pouring through the fissure like a rush of water.
     For exactly half my life, I’ve been angry and outspoken about the tragedy of Palestine. It seems like I’ve been shouting at a wall for the better part of three decades. Like others Americans who call attention to the illegality, immorality, and illogic of unconditional US support for Israel’s treatment of the people displaced by its national project, I am familiar with "hitting the wall." Perhaps it’s more accurate to say walls -- concentric walls. more.. e-mail

Israel ignores UN Security Council resolution
Haider Rizvi, Electronic Intifada 1/10/2009
     UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - International aid organizations, including the United Nations humanitarian agency in Palestine, are calling for the immediate implementation of the Security Council resolution passed late Thursday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
     "The Council must ensure that the words in the resolution must quickly translate into meaningful change," said Nicole Widdersheim of Oxfam International, the London-based charity that runs humanitarian operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
     Thursday night, the Security Council passed a resolution calling for unimpeded provision throughout Gaza of food, fuel and medical treatment, as well as intensified international arrangements to prevent arms and ammunition smuggling.
     Fourteen of the Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution, with only the United States, a staunch ally of Israel, abstaining.
     As a result of the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which started on 27 December, at least 800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,000 injured -- about half of them women and children. more.. e-mail

Civilians deliberately targeted: 194 of Gaza’s 830 killed are children
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/10/2009
     2:30pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT) The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued its destruction of the Gaza Strip, systematically targeting civilians and civilian objects. Air raids and artillery attacks particularly targeted homes. Several families were killed under the rubble of their homes across the Gaza Strip.
     The IOF also raided a tower used by journalists and broadcast technicians in Gaza City. IOF’s unilateral ceasefire, which lasts for three hours every day, is not being observed by the IOF as attacks were launched during it in several areas in the Gaza Strip.
     Tens of thousands of civilians whose areas had been threatened with bombardment have left their homes seeking safety; however, little can be offered to them by the United Nations and other international humanitarian agencies, as a result of the tight closure and the IOF’s attacks on humanitarian workers.
     The following sections provide accounts of the consequences of IOF’s attacks on the Gaza Strip’s five districts between 1pm on 8 January 2009 and 2:30pm today, 10 January 2009. more.. e-mail

Abettors of war crimes will be held accountable
Adri Nieuwhof and Daniel Machover, Electronic Intifada 1/10/2009
     Israel’s military offensive in Gaza is being perpetrated with enormous disregard for civilian life in violation of fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (IHL). The appallingly high number of civilian deaths and injuries and widespread damage to civilian buildings reflects unlawfully excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force by Israel.
     Two weeks into the Israeli offensive, many international lawyers are raising their voices to condemn Israeli actions from every perspective, challenging Israeli claims to be acting in lawful self-defense. That is, even before examining the unlawful way Israel has deployed its military might, lawyers assessing the self-defense arguments of Israel have found as many holes as in the Gazan ground: Israeli actions were not taken as a last resort, as a necessary response to attacks. Before using force in self-defense a state must need to do so in response to an armed attack, having found no other realistic method of redress or resistance. more.. e-mail

US Promotes Israeli Genocide
Francis A. Boyle, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     ’I anticipate no fundamental change in US support for Israeli campaign of genocide.’
     As long ago as October 19, 2000, the then United Nations Human Rights Commission (now Council) condemned Israel for inflicting "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people, most of whom are Muslims. The reader has a general idea of what a war crime is, so I am not going to elaborate upon that term here. But there are different degrees of heinousness for war crimes. In particular are the more serious war crimes denominated "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, the world has seen those heinous war crimes inflicted every day by Israel against the Palestinian people living in occupied Palestine: e.g., willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army and by Israel’s illegal paramilitary settlers. These Israeli "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandate universal prosecution for the perpetrators and their commanders, whether military or civilian, including and especially Israel’s political leaders.
     But I want to focus for a moment on Israel’s “crimes against humanity” against the Palestinian people—as determined by the U.N. Human Rights Commission itself, set up pursuant to the requirements of the United Nations Charter. What are “crimes against humanity”? This concept goes all the way back to the Nuremberg Charter of 1945 for the trial of the major Nazi war criminals in Europe. In the Nuremberg Charter of 1945, drafted by the United States Government, there was created and inserted a new type of international crime specifically intended to deal with the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people. more.. e-mail

Nowhere to hide from the bombing
Laila El-Haddad writing from Durham, the United States, Electronic Intifada 1/9/2009
     "You don’t know anymore; you don’t know who is alive, you feel you are in a trap, you don’t know who is a target," said my friend and neighbor in Gaza City, journalist Taghreed El-Khodary. The fear resonated in her voice while she was on the phone to Al-Jazeera. Taghreed lives on a street near my parents.
     "Where to? Where can I go seek refuge to?" she continued. "I live next to the parliament which was destroyed; next to the police station, which was destroyed; next to the hospitals, which were bombed; and the Israeli navy is shelling from the sea, the F-16s from the sky, the tanks from the ground ... where to?" she repeated again and again.
     "First your house shakes, and the windows break, and the fear ... the fear. And when you see all these children around you in the hospital. Some can draw, and what they drawing is unbelievable. A six-year-old boy in my house drew a picture of boy who was alive, and another who was dead. He said the dead boy was his friend, whom the Israelis killed. And the father is unable to protect his child. And the mothers are trying to hide their fear from their kids." more.. e-mail

What you don't know about Gaza
Rashid Khalidi, Palestine Think Tank 1/9/2009
     art by Carlos Latuff
     Nearly everything you've been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.
     THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.
     THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005.
     Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. more.. e-mail

Children under fire
Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly 1/8/2009
     Aside from its direct killings, Israel’s continued siege on Gaza and the psychological trauma of its war offensive are destroying life, especially children.
     A Palestinian medic carries a wounded boy after an Israeli bombardment hit a UN school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge The three cousins convinced their parents last Friday afternoon to let them play in the vineyard next to their house in Al-Qarara village in the southern Gaza Strip. The parents of Abdel-Sattar and Abed Rabbo Al-Ustul, both 10, and Mohamed Al-Ustul, eight, thought that there was no reason to fear for their children. There are no government agencies, military training sites or resistance figures nearby that might be targeted by Israeli warplanes, and so they let the children go outside to play. But as the three children’s frolicking voices rose, an unmanned Israeli jet shot a missile directly at them, killing them all instantly. Their shattered bodies were thrown into the air, some of their parts getting caught on tree branches. The Israeli army’s intentional killing of these three children has shocked and angered neighbours and everyone familiar with the scene of the crime, an area that is considered calm in comparison to the rest of the Gaza Strip.
     The killing and injuring of children in air raids is one of the most significant features of the horrific military campaign Israel is currently conducting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area on earth. A total of 1.5 million people living in an area of only 365 square kilometres means that Israel’s use of bombs that weigh up to one tonne is a certain recipe for the killing and injuring of civilians, including women and children. According to the statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 26 per cent of those killed and 45 per cent of those injured have been children. more.. e-mail

Enough. It’s time for a boycott
Naomi Klein, The Guardian 1/10/2009
     It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era". The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was born.
     Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS [Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions] cause - even among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors in Israel. It calls for "the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions" and draws a clear parallel with the anti-apartheid struggle. "The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves ... This international backing must stop."
     Yet even in the face of these clear calls, many of us still can’t go there. The reasons are complex, emotional and understandable. But they simply aren’t good enough. Economic sanctions are the most effective tool in the non-violent arsenal: surrendering them verges on active complicity. Here are the top four objections to the BDS strategy, followed by counter-arguments.... more.. e-mail

Israel Rejected Hamas Ceasefire Offer in December
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service 1/10/2009
     WASHINGTON, Jan 9(IPS) - Contrary to Israel’s argument that it was forced to launch its air and ground offensive against Gaza in order to stop the firing of rockets into its territory, Hamas proposed in mid-December to return to the original Hamas-Israel ceasefire arrangement, according to a U.S.-based source who has been briefed on the proposal.
     The proposal to renew the ceasefire was presented by a high-level Hamas delegation to Egyptian Minister of Intelligence Omar Suleiman at a meeting in Cairo Dec. 14. The delegation, said to have included Moussa Abu Marzouk, the second-ranking official in the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, told Suleiman that Hamas was prepared to stop all rocket attacks against Israel if the Israelis would open up the Gaza border crossings and pledge not to launch attacks in Gaza.
     The Hamas officials insisted that Israel not be allowed to close or reduce commercial traffic through border crossings for political purposes, as it had done during the six-month lull, according to the source. They asked Suleiman, who had served as mediator between Israel and Hamas in negotiating the original six-month Gaza ceasefire last spring, to "put pressure" on Israel to take that the ceasefire proposal seriously. more.. e-mail

Mourn the Cat That Died
Mohammed Omer, Inter Press Service 1/10/2009
     AMSTERDAM, Jan 9(IPS) - On the phone from Gaza, Zahrah Salem shares the news she has just seen, that so many at the White House were "deeply saddened" by the death of the cat India Willie. Why, she asks, is nobody at the White House deeply saddened by the death of so many children in Gaza.
     After a pause she says, "At least the cat did not die hungry, like the children in Gaza."
     Zahrah Salem, 64, has four children and 15 grandchildren to worry about. Day after day of bombing brings blessing they are still there. "We all sleep in one room," she says. "So if we die, we die together. What if we die and the children don’t, we don’t want to leave them behind to suffer."
     These days the injuries suffered by this IPS correspondent at the hands of the Israelis on trying to return home to Gaza seem trivial in the face of what is going on in Gaza. And in the face of the fears over the fate of family and friends back home. more.. e-mail

Holocaust Denied: Lying Silence of Those Who Know
John Pilger, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     ’The asymmetry of conquest and terror is clear.’ (AFP) "When the truth is replaced by silence," the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, "the silence is a lie." It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on al-Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia’s incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why.
     They know that the horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with Hamas or, absurdly, "Israel’s right to exist." They know the opposite to be true: that Palestine’s right to exist was canceled 61 years ago and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. They know, for example, that the infamous "Plan D" resulted in the murderous depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and Lydda are referred to in official records as "ethnic cleansing." Arriving at a scene of this carnage, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was asked by a general, Yigal Allon, "What shall we do with the Arabs?" Ben-Gurion, reported the Israeli historian Benny Morris, "made a dismissive, energetic gesture with his hand and said, ’Expel them’. The order to expel an entire population "without attention to age" was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister promoted by the world’s most efficient propaganda as a peacemaker. The terrible irony of this was addressed only in passing, such as when the Mapan Party co-leader Meir Ya’ari noted "how easily" Israel’s leaders spoke of how it was "possible and permissible to take women, children and old men and to fill the roads with them because such is the imperative of strategy ... who remembers who used this means against our people during the [Second World] war ... we are appalled." more.. e-mail

Hasbara spam alert
Richard Silverstein, The Guardian 1/9/2009
     With Israel’s foreign ministry organising volunteers to flood news websites with pro-Israeli comments, Propaganda 2.0 is here.  The hasbara brigade strikes again! You always hear about Israeli attempts at media manipulation. Everyone knows it’s going on but usually the process happens through cyber insurgents like those involved with Giyus (and its media monitoring software, Megaphone). Now, we know that the Israeli foreign ministry itself is orchestrating propaganda efforts designed to flood news websites with pro-Israel arguments and information.
     A reader of my blog has received the following email which documents both the efforts and the agency that originated them. The solicitation to become a pro-Israel "media volunteer" also includes a list of media links which the ministry would like addressed by pro-Israel comments:
     Dear friends,
     We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it’s a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment.
     I was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to arrange a network of volunteers, who are willing to contribute to this effort. If you’re up to it you will receive a daily messages & media package as well as targets.
     If you wish to participate, please respond to this email. more.. e-mail

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD - Bethlehem, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     ’The real reason for the onslaught on Gaza is not about fundamentalist Islam.’
     In Gaza as in Iraq, the US public is being lied to while US taxpayers and US power is wasted to support aggression. Vanity Fair reported on the scheme to topple Hamas concocted by Eliot Abrams (a Zionist in the Bush administration) that was "part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs" that ended up strengthening Hamas. And by contrast to PR strategies, the former head of the Israeli intelligence services admitted in Israeli papers that Israel could have stopped Palestinian retaliatory home-made rockets long ago by lifting its siege of Gaza (a condition of the cease fire between Hamas and Israel agreed to but rarely implemented) but that Israel had a more strategic issue: to try a different way to topple the duly elected Hamas government.
     But what else are we not being told about Gaza?
     Over 70% of the 1.5 million Palestinians in this besieged tiny strip of arid land are refugees. When Obama visited Sderot in the Negev, he should have also visited Gaza where he would have met with the original residents of Najd which was renamed Sderot after its destruction and settlement by European Jews. In Gaza he could have met with refugees from many of the 530 villages and towns ethnically cleansed. To aid the exodus, in the six weeks that preceded declaring Israel a state, 33 massacres were committed by Jewish forces like the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern (forerunners of the Israeli army that is attacking Gaza today). more.. e-mail

Not in my name
Brian Klug, The Guardian 1/9/2009
     In the midst of the carnage in Gaza, it defies belief that my synagogue has asked me to march in solid support of Israel. In any conflict between peoples, there is a time for balancing the books, for placing facts neatly in the debit and credit columns, for issuing measured statements about the rights and wrongs on both sides. But not in the midst of one-sided carnage. The only decent thing to feel at the present time is outrage. The only thing for decent people to do right now is to condemn, without reserve or qualification, the brutal campaign that the Israeli military is waging against the population of Gaza. Every if and but derogates from decency.
     Earlier this week, my synagogue sent its members an email containing details of two rallies in support of Israel "which we would urge you to support". No ifs and buts here, just solid support for the perpetrator in the midst of the horror it is perpetrating. Is it possible to go further in the opposite direction to decency?
     Attached was a flyer for a "Mass Rally in Support of Israel" organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, with "the support of the major organisations of UK Jewry", to be held in London this weekend. The flyer proclaims: "End Hamas terror!" No ifs and buts here either. No hint at the unspeakable state terror being unleashed, day after day, by the Israeli military. It defies belief. more.. e-mail

The West Bank: We’re all Hamas now: supporters of Fatah unite behind enemy
Ben Lynfield in Ramallah, The Independent 1/9/2009
     Even if Israel wins on the battlefield or in the diplomatic corridors it is already paying the price of its Gaza onslaught in intensified hatred in the hearts of its Palestinian neighbours in the West Bank. The campaign also appears to be increasing public scepticism about the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s chosen path of negotiations as the way to establish an independent state alongside Israel.
     The diplomacy championed by Mr Abbas has for years been difficult to sell to Palestinians because it has brought little or no relief from occupation or improvement in their daily lives, only the expansion of Israeli settlements. This existing frustration –which helped Hamas defeat Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement in the 2006 elections – is now combined with popular anger and dismay at the carnage among fellow Palestinians in Gaza.
     Palestinian Authority security forces are keeping a tight lid on protests, preventing confrontations with Israeli troops and arresting anyone raising Hamas banners at rallies. But displays of identification with the beleaguered Gazans are everywhere. Nine-year-old green-kerchiefed girl Scouts, their foreheads marked with the word Gaza in red ink, were among those who marched through the main al-Manara square in a protest. They held up pictures of bandaged toddlers, and dozens of demonstrators chanted, "With blood and spirit, we will redeem you, O Gaza". more.. e-mail

Misreading Gaza
Roane Carey, Middle East Online 1/9/2009
     The current Gaza crisis is the culmination of more than two years of failed strategy, conceived and carried out jointly by the United States and Israel.
     The first mistake was their refusal to accept the results of the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, acknowledged by all observers to be free and fair. Hamas won that poll, but instead of engaging the new leadership -- and testing its avowal that it would accept, if not applaud, a two-state resolution of the conflict -- Israel, with US encouragement, cut off aid, tax revenues and, eventually, almost all connection with the outside world. The policy was brutal and straightforward: Gaza’s 1.5 million citizens would be punished for electing leaders unacceptable to Tel Aviv and Washington.
     The next stage was to encourage a coup by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, despite Hamas’ willingness to form a coalition with Abbas’ Fatah faction. But Hamas struck first, overthrowing the corrupt and discredited PA in June 2007. Since then, Israel has tightened the siege on Gaza, leading the UN’s human rights representative in the territories, Richard Falk, to accuse Israel of committing a "crime against humanity. more.. e-mail

Iran painted as the demon
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, Asia Times 1/9/2009
     Hamas is a home-grown Palestinian phenomenon enjoying legitimacy among Palestinian citizens as a religious-nationalist resistance movement, and yet the group’s demonization as a proxy of Iran forms an important dimension of Israel’s war effort.
     Ever since Israel’s military campaign started in Gaza on December 27, Israeli politicians, pundits and their wealth of supporters in the US government and media have consistently lumped Hamas, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah together, as part of a united front of "Islamofascists" on the march to "eradicate the little satan" [1], to paraphrase the title of a recent commentary in a mainstream US newspaper.
     "In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran," write authors in the Los Angeles Times [2], while William Kristol, in his opinion piece in the New York Times, portrays Israel’s re-invasion of Gaza in the larger frame of containing Iran-led Islamist extremism, ostensibly as a direct service to the national-security interests of the United States.
     Kristol’s article depicts the Israeli war in Gaza as implicitly framed as a "war to war" scenario, that is, as the beginning phase of a larger war against the Iran-led menace of "Islamist terror" that has now set its eyes on defanging Hamas. more.. e-mail

Gaza offensive traumatises generation of children
Jonathan Cook - JERUSALEM, Middle East Online 1/9/2009
     The four-storey building of the Community Mental Health Programme in Gaza City is damaged, its walls still standing but the offices of its 150 employees wrecked by an Israeli bombing raid last week.
     As Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants waited anxiously for Israel’s ground invasion to unfold, Ahmad Abu Tawhina, the mental health programme’s director general, said its services were needed more than ever.
     Estimates from the United Nations are that at least one quarter of the more than 500 Gazans killed so far in Israel’s operations are women and children. More than five times that number are wounded.
     But, psychologists said, none of Gaza’s civilians are being spared feelings of fear and terror as the Israeli army moves deeper into the tiny enclave.
     Dr Tawhina admitted there was little in the current circumstances his staff could do. Their computers and records have been destroyed and they are working from home, largely without electricity, phones or the freedom to move about.
     Surveys in recent years have shown the rapid deterioration of the mental health of Gazans, especially children, who make up more than half of the Strip’s population. more.. e-mail

Criticism of Israel’s war crimes mounts
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada 1/9/2009
     Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s civilian population.
     The petitions -- over attacks on medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza -- follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on built-up areas. "We are very violent," one told Israeli media.
     There is also growing evidence that Israeli forces have been firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas in a move that risks violating international law by inflicting burns on civilians.
     Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called the events in Gaza a "new Nakba," referring to the catastrophe that dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948. The PA revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel’s leaders for war crimes in the international courts. more.. e-mail

Is Israel Winning the ’Media War’ over Gaza?
Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 1/9/2009
     ’Israel’s crimes in Gaza is no victory, but a brief illusion of one.’
     "We are all Hamas," screamed a scrawny Mauritanian, repeatedly, as he determinedly drew his face closer to a TV camera. Behind him, thousands more tunefully chanted similar words, chants that were heard in different Arabic dialects, in fact in many different languages all across the globe.
     Yet, Israel, somehow is claiming victory in the media war, which it calculatedly unleashed weeks before its most violent attack on Gaza yet. Thousands have been reportedly killed and wounded in the first two weeks, starting Dec. 27, in the tiny stretch of land (roughly 140 square miles), yet densely populated Gaza Strip of 1.5 million people.
     "Whenever Israel is bombing, it is hard to explain our position to the world," said Avi Pazner, former Israeli ambassador to Italy and France, and "one of the officials drafted in to present Israel’s case to the world media," according to the Jewish Chronicle. "But at least this time everything was ready and in place." more.. e-mail

Alastair Crooke: I know the difficulty of mediating a solution
Alastair Crooke, Former EU mediator, The Independent 1/9/2009
     Expect the totally unexpected. That is the rule of thumb when negotiating with Israel and the Palestinians, as the Egyptian mediators must have found out by now.
     I remember my own moment of sheer incredulity, when an entire Israeli military negotiating team suddenly vanished. "They’ve gone?" This was Bethlehem 2002. Inside the Church of Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus, 250 Palestinians were sheltering, having taken refuge as Israeli troops stormed into the city during the Palestinian intifada or "uprising".
     Israeli forces had encircled the old church and its connected buildings, demanding that the "terrorists" Israel suspected to be among those sheltering inside be handed over to them. Tanks and troops filled the side roads; and vast cranes had been erected above the church, dangling full-sized containers. These contained Israeli snipers, who, whenever a target appeared, would add to the toll of bodies to be collected periodically under cover of a brief cessation of fire. more.. e-mail

Diary: ’Gaza has been zeroed’
Sami Abdel Shafi, Al Jazeera 1/9/2009
     Sami Abdel Shafi, a partner of a management consultancy firm based in Gaza City and media commentator, says what little capacity Gaza had to run its own affairs has been destroyed.
     We live close to the ministerial buildings, the police headquarters and the presidential compound, which have been hit over and over again.
     When the munitions actually impact, not only do you have a huge explosion but a huge vacuum is generated that sends shockwaves through the surrounding structures.
     We have to keep all of the windows open to prevent the glass from shattering and flying across the room. That’s the only precaution we can take.
     Other than that, I try to stay alert and on standby 24-hours-a-day, which is very difficult without sleep.
     People spend almost 24-hours a day indoors, listening to the news on the radio – if they have batteries. more.. e-mail

POLITICS: U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza
Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service 1/9/2009
     UNITED NATIONS, Jan 8(IPS) - The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of fighting, is the product of advanced U.S. military technology.
     The U.S. weapons systems used by the Israelis -- including F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles and a wide array of munitions -- have been provided by Washington mostly as outright military grants.
     The administration of President George W. Bush alone has provided over 21 billion dollars in U.S. security assistance over the last eight years, including 19 billion dollars in direct military aid as freebies.
     Israel’s intervention in the Gaza Strip has been fueled largely by U.S. supplied weapons paid for with U.S. tax dollars," says a background briefing released Thursday by the Arms and Security Initiative of the New York-based New America Foundation.
     The Bush administration has been unwilling to use its considerable influence -- as Israel’s major military and political backer -- to dissuade the government in Tel Aviv from its pattern of claiming self-defence while perpetrating collective punishment, human rights violations and undertaking massively disproportionate attacks that harm and kill civilians," Frida Berrigan, senior programme associate at the New America Foundation, told IPS. more.. e-mail

Airburst shells ’are danger to civilians’
Peter Beaumont and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian 1/9/2009
     Israel’s use of white phosphorus airburst shells over the densely populated Gaza Strip came under fresh criticism last night for endangering civilians.
     The New York-based Human Rights Watch compared the use of the shells to the impact of cluster munitions which scatter "bomblets" over a wide area. The group questioned whether the way the weapon was being deployed was compatible with Israel’s Geneva conventions commitment to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians.
     The use of white phosphorus as a weapon - as opposed to its use as a smokescreen - is banned by the third convention on conventional weapons. Israel is not a signatory to the convention but its military manuals reflect restrictions on its use in that convention. Israeli spokesmen have given ambiguous answers to questions about the use of the shells, saying: "We’re using what other armies use and we’re not using any weapons that are banned under international law."
     But expert accounts and eyewitness descriptions of civilians suffering phosphorus burns are lending weight to suggestions that Israel is using the shells as some kind of weapon. Israel initially claimed that it was not using white phosphorus. It later said that shells being loaded for a howitzer, identified from photographs as phosphorus rounds, were empty shells used for target marking. However, images of the shells exploding earlier this week, and showering burning fragments, have largely been identified as phosphorus. more.. e-mail

'By choice they made themselves immune'
Saree Makdisi - The Electronic Intifada, International Middle East Media Center News 1/9/2009
     Israel has killed and injured almost 4,000 men, women and children so far in its assault on Gaza; it has entombed whole families together in the ruins of their homes
     As I write, news is breaking that Israeli bombs have killed at least 40 civilians huddling in a UN school which they mistakenly thought would be safer than the homes from which Israel’s relentless barrage -- and its deliberately terrorizing "warning" leaflets and prerecorded phone calls -- had already driven them. (I still have one of the leaflets the Israelis dropped on besieged Beirut in 1982 and the language is exactly the same -- "flee, flee for your lives!"). Mosques, schools, houses, apartment buildings, have all been brought down on the heads of those inside.
     All this death and destruction comes supposedly in retaliation for rocket attacks that had not inflicted a single fatality inside Israel in over a year. What happened to "an eye for an eye?" more.. e-mail

The UN in Israel’s sights
Ian Williams, The Guardian 1/8/2009
     The shelling of schools in Gaza caps off a tumultuous relationship between the UN and Israel
     As well as the untimely and tragic end of over 40 Palestinian civilians, the Israeli shelling of UN schools in Gaza could be taken as a final farewell salute to the honeymoon between Ban Ki-moon and Israel.
     Ban came into office with somewhat limited appreciation of the Middle East, and seemed to take much of his attitude second-hand from Washington. But his own deep sense of ethics and growing experience of Israeli duplicity and obduracy could be plotted on the rising curve of indignation in his public statements. Israel has been provided with the exact coordinates of all UN agency installations in the strip. So are those who fired the shots incompetent, ruthless or undisciplined and vindictive?
     There is a morbid circularity in this. When Boutros Boutros Ghali took office as UN secretary general, he was reviled by much of the Arab world as the architect of the original Camp David accords, which they regarded as treachery. He left as their hero after Israel shelled the UN compound at Qana in Lebanon, killing over a hundred civilians who had taken shelter there.
     Famously, when the Israeli ambassador came to ask for the suppression of the UN’s report on the incident because it would "open deep wounds in Israel" Boutros Ghali retorted that they could not match the wounds inflicted on the Lebanese who were shelled. more.. e-mail

Too much to mourn in Gaza
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     After finishing a shift with the Palestine Red Crescent Society yesterday morning, we went to the United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school in Jabaliya, which was bombed by Israeli forces, killing at least 40 displaced people who were taking shelter there. When we arrived, prayers were happening in the street in front of the school. I’d seen prayers in open, outdoor places in Palestine and Egypt. But these days, when I see a mass of people praying, in front of al-Shifa hospital, in the streets of Jabaliya, I think of the mosques that have been bombed, and of the loss of lives and sanctuaries. And yesterday I thought of the loss of another safe haven.
     The grief was very evident, as was the indignation: "Where are we supposed to stay," one man demanded. "How many deaths is enough? How many?" It’s the question that has resounded in my mind since the attacks on 27 December.
     Across Fakhoura street from the school, about 15 meters down a drive, a gaping hole in the Deeb family house revealed what had been happening when it was hit by a shell. Rounds of bread dough lay where they’d been rolled out to bake. Amal Deeb was in her 30s, a surviving family member told us. When the missile struck, it killed her and nine others in the extended family’s house, including two boys and three girls. Another four were injured, one having both legs amputated. more.. e-mail

The Makings of History / Had the refugees been allowed to return
Tom Segev, Ha’aretz 1/9/2009
     Simon Rawidowicz was a Polish-born scholar who studied in Berlin, and lived in London during World War II. After the war he moved to the United States, and, during his final years, he taught as a professor of Jewish studies at Brandeis University. He died in 1957. Those who cherish his memory say he was one of the most important Hebrew writers of the 20th century, and they believe his name has been forgotten because he believed in the future of Jewish life all over the world, alongside the central place of the State of Israel. He developed this belief in his book "Babylon and Jerusalem," which he wrote in Hebrew in the mid-1950s. The book aroused the scorn of the Zionist establishment, mainly in Israel, which at the time still championed "the negation of the Diaspora.
     Recently, an entire chapter that Rawidowicz had omitted from the book - "Between Jew and Arab" - was found. It calls on the State of Israel to permit the return of the Palestinian refugees. Alongside political and ethical reasons, this demand reflected Rawidowicz’s belief in the rights of national minorities: Jews among the nations of the world, Arabs in the Jewish state. more.. e-mail

Red Cross prevented from accessing injured, starving survivors in Gaza
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     1pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT) The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued its destruction of the Gaza Strip, systematically targeting civilians and civilian objects. Air raids and artillery attacks targeted homes, schools and medical teams. A unilateral ceasefire lasted for three hours yesterday; however, IOF’s attacks were resumed more fiercely after 4pm. Tens of thousands of civilians whose areas had been threatened with bombardment left their homes seeking safety. Civilians also left their homes seeking food and other essentials. Nevertheless, IOF carried out four attacks during the ceasefire, including an attack on a car in Jabaliya refugee camp, and shelling with heavy machine guns of a group of women carrying food to their homes in Ezbet Abed-Rabu eastern Jabaliya, injuring three of them. IOF also dropped leaflets warning the residents of Rafah who live along the border of heavy bombardment and ordering them to leave the area. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people left their homes as a result. Civilians are made to stay in open areas and schools in Rafah, all of which are not prepared for sheltering civilians.
     Four days after submitting a request to the IOF, teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society were allowed yesterday to enter the eastern Gaza City of al-Zeitoun. In one of the houses they entered, they found four children next to their dead mother and a young man, too weak to stand up. Twelve corpses were lying on mattresses in the house. They also found 15 survivors from the IOF attack, including injured people. In another house, the rescue team found three corpses. IOF were positioned only 80 meters from these people but left them to stay with the unburied corpses of their family members and to reach the brink of starving to death. The ambulances were not permitted to reach the wounded people, who had been left for four days without help. The rescue team had to evacuate them on donkey cart. As the ICRC and human rights organizations continue to receive reports about similar cases in this neighborhood, the ICRC has not yet received information from the IOF concerning its request to search for the dead and survivors. more.. e-mail

The Old Testament and the Genocide in Gaza
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank 1/8/2009
     "You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.” - Leviticus, Chapter 26, verses 7-9 "When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.” Deuteronomy 7:1-2  "…do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them…as the Lord your God has commanded you…” - Deuteronomy 20:16
     There is not much doubt amongst Biblical scholars that the Hebrew Bible contains some highly charged non-ethical suggestions, some of which are no less than a call for a genocide. Biblical scholar Raymund Schwager has found in the Old Testament 600 passages of explicit violence, 1000 descriptive verses of God’s own violent actions of punishment, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people. Apparently, violence is the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible. As devastating as it may be, the Hebrew Bible saturation with violence and extermination of others may throw some light over the horrifying genocide conducted momentarily in Gaza by the Jewish state. In broad daylight, the IDF is using the most lethal methods against civilians as if their main objective is to ‘destroy’ the Gazans while showing ‘no mercy’ whatsoever. more.. e-mail

Hamas and the Continued Turnaround
Hassan Haidar, MIFTAH 1/8/2009
     Hamas - like Hezbollah, the other devout follower of the Syrian and Iranian regimes - is an expert at changing notions and truths, and using words in a manner that is contrary to their definition. Hence, simply staying alive becomes a "victory"; the increase in the number of deaths and injuries becomes the ability to "resist"; "scratching" the Israeli cities with a few rockets becomes a "strategic balance", and the lack of readiness for battle and of surveillance of the enemy’s intentions, as well as being surprised by the extent of the enemy’s response become "betrayal". It must be noted that Hamas has accused Israel of betrayal ever since the beginning of the conflict between them, but has not made a priority of taking its precautions against it. Slogans that praise genocide and death turn into a political program for the future, the rational becomes an "enemy", the intermediary a "swindler", and the international community a "conniver".
     It is why Khaled Mashal reassures "loved ones that resistance in Gaza is doing fine, its infrastructure is unharmed, and has only registered very slight losses" - as if all the destruction, the dead and the wounded who cannot get access to treatment do not enter in the calculations of Hamas, which is forcefully holding the Gaza Strip’s fate in its hands. Hamas was not even embarrassed to pursue the Fateh fighters and return them to prison after their detention place was destroyed by Israeli bombing. more.. e-mail

EI investigation: The US media and the attack on Gaza
Shervan Sardar, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     In the first three days of the Israeli offensive from 28-30 December, editorials and op-eds from five major US papers overwhelmingly adopted the official US and Israeli government talking points on the conflict -- even where this version was clearly contradicted by the legal and historical record, widely available to the public.
     The editorial pages erroneously put forward the view that Gaza was no longer occupied, ignored Israel’s numerous cease fire violations, and blindly asserted Israel’s right of self defense regardless of what was happening on the ground. Overall, the commentary presented a disturbingly false and misleading picture of the conflict to the American public.
     The legal status of Gaza is repeatedly being misrepresented in the op-ed pages and the American mainstream media generally. While the international consensus position at the UN and among human rights organizations is that Gaza remains occupied even after the 2005 Israeli disengagement, the editorials and op-eds collectively refused to acknowledge this view.Instead, the editorial pages chose to adopt and promote the Israeli government view of a 2005 "complete withdrawal" from Gaza so that Israel no longer retains official responsibility there. The issue has important implications for determining accountability in the conflict, the humanitarian situation in the Strip, and even military operations that can be taken. more.. e-mail

US media didn’t report Israeli ceasefire violation
Jim Lobe and Ali Gharib, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     WASHINGTON (IPS) - Consumed by coverage of the 4 November presidential election, US mainstream media ignored a key Israeli military attack on a Hamas target that some Palestinians claim marked the effective end of the ceasefire between the two sides and set the stage for the current round of bloodletting.
     While the major US news wire Associated Press (AP) reported that the attack, in which six members of Hamas’s military wing were killed by Israeli ground forces, threatened the ceasefire, its report was carried by only a handful of small newspapers around the country.
     The 4 November raid -- and the escalation that followed -- also went unreported by the major US network and cable television new programs, according to a search of the Nexis database for all English-language news coverage between 4 to 7 November.
     But the military action, which was followed up by an aerial attack that killed at least one other Palestinian, appears to have dealt a fatal blow to the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire that had taken effect 19 June and largely held for some four and a half months. more.. e-mail

Testimony: Nowhere is safe from Israel’s bombing
Testimony, B'Tselem, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     Osama Musa Suliman al-Nabahin, 37, married with two children, is a treasurer in the Palestinian Authority and a resident of Johr al-Dik, in Deir al-Balah district. His testimony was given to B’Tselem’s Musa Abu Hashhash by telephone on 4 January 2009:
     I live with my wife and our two daughters, who are one-and-a-half and three years old, in the Johr al-Dik section of Gaza, about a kilometer and a half from the Green Line. My wife is seven months’ pregnant.
     Generally, when Israel invades the area, first a bulldozer enters and clears everything in the area. My house was damaged a few times, but we didn’t leave. This is the only house we have, and it cost me a lot to build it.
     Since the beginning of Israel’s military attack on the Gaza Strip, there have been lots of bombing and shelling in our area. For a week, we stayed with my sister, who lives between al-Bureij and al-Mahgazi, but then they started bombing there too. The house shook after every bomb. My wife began to feel sharp pain in her stomach, a result of tension and fear. more.. e-mail

A Music School Silenced in Gaza
Nadia Hijab, Middle East Online 1/8/2009
     The day after the music school was hit (by Israel), its coordinator called each of the children and their parents to make sure they were safe, and also to assure them that the school would be repaired, restocked, and reopened as soon as possible.
     There was a music school in Gaza. It was just six months old. The 31 children aged seven to 11 could choose one of five instruments, including the guitar, oud (lute), and piano. Most of the 19 girls gravitated to the guitar and piano while many of the 12 boys showed a preference for the oud.
     The school worked out of rented premises in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society building just across the street from the Preventive Security Forces compound in Gaza City. The compound was targeted in the first wave of Israeli bombardments on December 27, and twice more the next day. The five-story building was vaporized; a flat gravel surface is all that remains.
     Like other buildings in the neighborhood, the Gaza Music School was shattered; window frames and doors were blown out, and holes were punched in the walls. The force of the blast imploded the four ouds, just like it had the compound. more.. e-mail

Children of Gaza, Run to the Angels
Suzanne Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 1/8/2009
     ’God is Great, Thank God for Everything,’ said the man with the dead children.
     Ironically, it was in Palestine, 20 years ago, that I concluded that there is no God. For how could a God, who claims to love all and treat all with impartiality, allow such horrors like those in Palestine to happen?
     This unbelief grew stronger with each curfew, with each strike that mourned the death of yet one more martyr, with a decapitation induced by gunfire in the main square on a sunny Ramallah afternoon so many years ago. But it was cemented the day I had to tell one of my fifth grade students that his brother had just been taken away by the Israeli army. His expression, his body going limp, the shuddering of his shoulders as he wept with his classmates’that’s what finally did it.
     Nearly 20 years have passed since that day, and I have now married into a Gazan family. I am a wife and mother, the sister and aunt of so many kids living the horror of what Gaza has become. As we watch the footage of Israel’s onslaught, I hear myself, whispering as I see one more martyred child, "Run to the angels’.run." After so many years, this living nightmare is fostering a burning desire to believe once again in the afterlife. more.. e-mail

Dr. Ehab isn’t there anymore
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/8/2009
     Dr. Ehab Jasir al-Shaer, a physician specializing in dermatology, a graduate of a university in Ukraine, has not been at his clinic since 27 December 2008.
     On that day, Ehab, his brother Raja, Ehab’s uncle Yasir and Ehab’s cousins Haitham and Tamer, all went to the Rafah governorate local administration building in Rafah City in the south of the Gaza Strip where they live.
     "At 10:00am, my sons, my brother and my nephews went to the governorate. Suddenly at almost 11:30am, we heard loud explosions everywhere," said Jasir al-Shaer, Dr. Ehab’s 60-year-old father, while sitting on a sofa at Ehab’s clinic.
     "Neighbors told us that the governorate building was just hit by Israeli warplanes. My heart began beating very quickly. I left my home and rushed over. Among the dead bodies I found my son Ehab, my brother Yasir and his son Haitham laying lifeless in the hospital’s morgue," Jasir said with a clear voice.
     "Ehab’s smile never left him at any moment. He was a cheerful, kind and caring husband. That’s all I have ever known from Ehab since we married three years ago," Nancy Jouda, Dr. Ehab’s wife, recalled with tears in her eyes. more.. e-mail

Death is in the Air
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 1/6/2009
     Israel’s decision to utilize banned weapons in the massacre of Gaza highlights their willingness to achieve their objective at any human cost.
     Since the ground Invasion began three days ago, the Israeli ‘Defense’ Forces (IDF) have employed Weaponized white phosphorous over large civilian areas of the Gaza Strip as a way to produce ’a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that (IDF) forces can move in’.
     This is of course in contravention to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which bans the use of incendiary devices against personnel in densely inhabited civilian areas.
     Here’s why.
     When white phosphor is deployed in munitions, the chemical flakes burst into flames the moment they make contact with oxygen, and continue to burn incessantly until completely consumed.
     It causes extremely painful 2nd and 3rd degree burns to the exposed skin of victims, and depending on the size of flakes, often eats directly through clothing. While eating through the skin, white phosphor enters into the blood stream where it wreaks havoc on the liver, kidney and heart – sometimes leading to multi-organ collapse.
     The smoke and powder residue of the chemical does not often kill, but intense exposure to the smoke can cause severe respiratory damage and even death. If milligrams of the substance are ingested the result is often deadly. more.. e-mail

Israel attacks schools, ambulances
Mel Frykberg, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - At least 42 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City were killed Tuesday afternoon after two Israeli tank shells exploded outside the school.
     Hundreds of terrified Palestinians, desperately trying to escape the bombing, had sought shelter there assuming that a clearly marked school would not be targeted. Palestinian sources reported that the school was one of 26 residential buildings hit Tuesday.
     Another UN facility, the al-Shouka School in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, was bombarded Monday night.
     The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said that prior to the current fighting it had given the Israeli authorities the GPS co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including the schools. The organization has demanded an explanation from Israel, and called for an investigation.
     "There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, the UN head in Gaza. He blamed the international community for allowing the violence to continue. more.. e-mail

Two schools housing refugees shelled in bloodied Gaza
Press release, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     1pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT) The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has further escalated its attacks against the Gaza Strip, massacring civilians. Air raids continued to target dozens of houses and border areas. Last night air raids targeted repeatedly targeted security installations that had been targeted during the past days. At the same time, artillery shells and missiles destroyed dozens of homes, wiping out entire families and seriously raising civilian casualties. Today, the IOF shelled an UNRWA [the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees] school that was inhabited by 600 civilians who had to evacuate their homes in northern Gaza, killing six people. IOF attacks caused damage to two hospitals and destroyed the Civil Defence station in Rafah. Between 2:30pm yesterday and 1pm today, IOF attacks killed 96 people. At least 22 were children and seven were women.
     Attacks have particularly targeted Gaza City and the areas close to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel in the northern suburbs of Beit Lahia and the eastern areas of Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya, Gaza City and al-Bureij refugee camp. more.. e-mail

Shell-shocked children who are drawn into the cult of the martyr
Hazem Balousha in Gaza City and Chris McGreal, The Guardian 1/7/2009
     The bombing, shelling and shooting will stop one day. The electricity and water will be restored. And the windows of the Mousa family’s flat, every one of them blown out by Israeli air force strikes on the Palestinian president’s palace next door, will be replaced.
     But the trauma of the four Mousa children, aged three to nine years old, will not so easily be erased. For nearly two weeks now they have endured a constant barrage of shells from navy ships they can see through the plastic now covering the windows of their seafront flat in Gaza city, as well as the air force strikes on buildings nearby.
     "The children scream and cry when there’s shelling. It goes on all night," said their father, Raed, 35. "Every night, all night. The building shakes. We moved into the kitchen and sleep there. It’s the safest place in the house. But my children are very scared, their faces turn yellow. The sound of the guns is very loud. We try to keep them busy playing and with their toys."
     Their mother, Ahlan, is pregnant. "I look at them at night when they are sleeping and they are dreaming bad dreams. Safud [aged four] jumps from her bed screaming and crying," she said. "All the time they are shelling. It’s terrifying. I don’t know what to tell the children. I say the sound is loud but it is still far away. But I can see they are afraid and that makes me afraid." more.. e-mail

Israel’s fabricated rocket crisis
Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     Monthly distribution of mortar shells The graphs show that the total number of rocket and mortar attacks shrank from 245 in June to 26 total for July through October, a reduction of 97 percent. Even this was not enough for Israel, which violated the truce by imposing a terror-famine in Gaza for most of these months. But despite these violations, Hamas refrained from launching rockets until Israel definitively cancelled the truce on the night of 4-5 November by sending an Israeli commando squad into Gaza, where it killed six Hamas members. Hamas responded with 30 rockets.
     These charts proved too revealing for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the night eve of 4 January 2008, as Israeli occupation forces launched a ground assault on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs removed them from its website, substituting an almost illegible graph in which the labels obscure the data, while the caption does all it can to hide the de facto end of rocket and mortar fire during the calm, until 4 November. more.. e-mail

Where would you go?
Eva Bartlett in Gaza, International Solidarity Movement 1/6/2009
     If your unbelievably small and overcrowded land was being terrorized, pulverized by bombs from the world’s 4th largest military, and your borders were closed; if your house was not safe, mosque (church) not safe, school not safe, street not safe, UN refugee camp not safe"¦Where would you go, run, hide?
     Over 15,000 have been made homeless, internal refugees from Israel’s house-bombings, shelling, and shooting. Some have been housed in UN schools around Gaza. In Jabaliya today, Israeli warplanes bombed one such school. Shifa’s director conservatively estimates 40 dead, 10s injured. It must be higher. I will go to the recieving hospital and look at the mutilated survivors, maybe see the corpses come in. Then I will tell and show you, if I’m not bombed. more.. e-mail

Hamas Ill-Defined Strategy
Moataz Fattah, Middle East Online 1/5/2009
     Some of the comments made by Hamas leaders reveal a bewildered strategic vision or lack thereof. Ostensibly, Hamas is ready to endure intolerable costs to achieve ill-defined goals. Mr. Ismail Haniya, the former prime minister, declared that: “The Israeli aggression will not achieve its goals even if it fully destroys Gaza strip and leaves no Palestinian alive. Hamas will not give in.” Other Hamas leaders have been singing the same tune. Strategically, political actors are expected to determine, implicitly or explicitly, their goals and the accessible political resources needed to achieve these goals at a reasonable cost. Yet, Hamas leaders are ready to sacrifice everything so as not to recoil. This position is a matter of ideology rather than of strategy. And in both accounts, it adopts an enigmatic position.
     To obviate being criticized for not respecting Hamas’ Islamist agenda, I would remind them of several incidents in which Prophet Mohamed signed treaties with adversaries to obviate war, and commended Khalild ibn al-Walid when he retreated with his army from a disproportionate battle against the Romans. Even Saladin did not prematurely jump into war with the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. It took him seventeen years to prepare for the battle. Thus, even by Islamic standards, Hamas is not at leisure of taking positions that would eventually cause all of this damage. more.. e-mail

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
Avi Shlaim, The Guardian 1/7/2009
     Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state’s legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions
     The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.
     I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times. more.. e-mail

Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/7/2009
     So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night’s work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised?
     Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead -- almost all civilians, most of them children and women -- in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians?
     What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night’s butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive. more.. e-mail

Peace strike, now
Daphna Golan, Ha’aretz 1/7/2009
     Because of the rocket fire, all the academic institutions in the south of Israel are shut, and because of the war, thousands of students have been called up. But outside the line of fire, college and university studies are continuing as usual, as though there were no war.
     The students’ fight against the tuition increase, the lecturers’ struggle over their salaries, and the battle of the institutions of higher education over budgets - all were good reasons for repeated strikes over the past two years. But now, when - over a few days of an unnecessary and cruel war - hundreds of people have been killed and a fortune has been wasted that could certainly compete with the annual higher education budget, no one is talking about a strike.
     There should have been a strike. There should have been a strike after Gilad Shalit was captured, to tell the government that we will not carry on with life as usual until he is returned. Speak to Hamas, we should have said, lead us to reconciliation. But we didn’t go on strike, because they told us there was contact with the captors and that the government was doing everything it could; they told us the army and the Shin Bet security service knew what they were doing and that there was no alternative, because only by force can we bring back our captured soldiers. And even after the Second Lebanon War, which sowed death, destruction and hatred - but didn’t bring back the captives - we didn’t strike. more.. e-mail

There wouldn’t have been Gaza rockets without the blockade
Deborah Orr, The Independent 1/7/2009
     Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy, reckons that a ceasefire in Gaza could be negotiated very soon, provided that the tunnels from Egypt that provide the territory with, among other things, smuggled weapons, are closed off. It’s a shame that he did not express his ambitions in another way. Perhaps a ceasefire could be negotiated very soon if legitimate channels for the import of all goods except arms into Gaza were opened up.
     Such a suggestion, however, might be seen as critical of Israel’s own perceived position as a reluctant aggressor and defensive state. The international community has completely accepted Israel’s justification for its attack on Gaza, so much so that all of its spokespeople are careful not to refer to any Israeli action that can be viewed as provocative, such as its suffocating 18-month long blockade on that tiny, overpopulated strip of land.
     Supporters of Israel’s action are fond of reiterating Israel’s narrow justification for its action. Who else would put up with regular rocket attacks from a neighbour, it asks? No one suggests that they would be happy to. It is accepted that Israel has the right to defend itself, and so it should be. Yet few would acquiesce without protest to a swingeing two-year blockade by a neighbour either, though no Western leader ever seems seriously to ask that highly pertinent question. more.. e-mail

Lucky my parents aren’t alive to see this
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/7/2009
     What luck my parents are dead. Back in 1982 they could not stand the noise of the Israeli jet fighters flying over the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The shriek of a plane horrified them in their house in Tel Aviv. We don’t have to see it to know, they said.
     That’s how it was then. And what now, when from me they would have learned about 2-year-old Sham, who climbs nimbly onto the table to look at her sister drawing in her notebook; 5-year-old Tayyib with the space between his front teeth that shows when he smiles; or 6-year-old Carmel with the picture books she loves. The world is exploding around these children, again and again, just five or 10 meters away. For 10 days now, every minute is a minute of fear. Every minute of fear is a minute of death. Multiply that by a million and a half.
     My parents despised all their everyday activities - stirring sugar into coffee, washing the dishes, standing at a crosswalk - when in their mind’s eye they saw, based on their personal experience, the terror in the eyes of children, the desperation of mothers who could not protect their young ones, the moment when a huge explosion dropped a house on top of its inhabitants and a smart bomb struck down entire families. Salmeh’s mother says: "When I wake up [from a restless sleep] I am surprised. I know it’s only by chance that I am alive. more.. e-mail

'By choice they made themselves immune'
Saree Makdisi, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     Israel has killed and injured almost 4,000 men, women and children so far in its assault on Gaza; it has entombed whole families together in the ruins of their homes. As I write, news is breaking that Israeli bombs have killed at least 40 civilians huddling in a UN school which they mistakenly thought would be safer than the homes from which Israel’s relentless barrage -- and its deliberately terrorizing "warning" leaflets and prerecorded phone calls -- had already driven them. (I stillhave one of the leaflets the Israelis dropped on besieged Beirut in 1982 and the language is exactly the same -- "flee, flee for your lives!"). Mosques, schools, houses, apartment buildings, have all been brought down on the heads of those inside.
     All this death and destruction comes supposedly in retaliation for rocket attacks that had not inflicted a single fatality inside Israel in over a year. What happened to "an eye for an eye?"
     As horrific as the toll of dead and injured already is, the scale of Israel’s bombing, and its targeting of ambulances and medical and rescue crews -- several doctors and paramedics have been killed or wounded so far -- means that the true totals are actually unknown. Countless numbers of victims have bled to death in the streets or in the ruins of their smashed homes. Calls for help aren’t getting through Gaza’s phone networks, battered to pieces along with the rest of the civilian infrastructure -- its water, sewage, electricity systems, all already crumbling as a result of the years of siege. The victims that are evacuated -- as often, these days, in civilian cars as in the remaining ambulances -- make it to hospitals that are overwhelmed; many will die that might have otherwise been saved. more.. e-mail

Hypocrisy, thy name is Blair
Seumas Milne, The Guardian 1/6/2009
     The appointment of Tony Blair as George Bush’s Middle East peace envoy - well, technically, the US-UN-EU-Russian Quartet’s representative - was a masterful stroke of postmodern irony. And his interview on Tuesday morning’s BBC Today programme was a reminder of just how spectacularly unsuited for such a role he really is.
     Speaking from his suite at the American colony hotel in east Jerusalem - a respite from earning £12m a year on the American corporate speachmaking circuit - the old warmonger appeared to be putting the case for an immediate halt to Israel’s bloodbath in the Gaza Strip. But just as in the days when he was Britain’s prime minister, nothing was quite what it seemed.
     Blair had three main points. First, there could be a ceasefire, he said - but only if there was "clear action" to cut off Hamas’s arms and cash supplies through tunnels under the Egyptian border. Second, there had to be Palestinian unity to achieve a Palestinian state - but only "on the right terms". And third, that such a state had to built from the "bottom up" - just as was currently taking place in the northern West Bank, where Palestinians were now "doing" security. more.. e-mail

Israel’s Looming Catastrophe
Robert Parry, Middle East Online 1/6/2009
     For the past three decades, Israel has charted a course that invites its own destruction by relying on two risky propositions: first, that it could extend its security perimeter beyond the reach of a devastating missile attack, and second, that it could permanently control the political debate inside its crucial ally, the United States.
     Israel’s current assault on Gaza is only the latest manifestation of this dangerous strategy, but – whether or not Israel succeeds in its stated goal of stopping the launching of short-range Hamas rockets – the more troubling writing for Israel remains on the wall.
     If Israel continues to engender hatred across the Muslim world – and thus feeds the growth of Islamic extremism – eventually some radical government or group will get hold of a missile or some other means of delivering a payload against Tel Aviv that would wreak mass devastation.
     In that event, Israel would almost surely turn to its sophisticated nuclear arsenal and launch a massive retaliatory strike. But to what end? Whatever counter-devastation could be delivered, it would not solve the strategic dilemma facing Israel. more.. e-mail

Witnesses to Israel’s war crimes
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     "At about 2am early this morning, a group of Israeli soldiers broke into my house. They began screaming loudly, smashing everything in front of them, destroying the house completely," Nasir Hejo, 38, said on Monday, with a weary face, uncombed hair and bare feet.
     "They shouted at us, forced out of the house. We wanted to move right after they attacked us. They ordered us to move south. Soldiers began shooting at us, killing my 17-old-year," Nasir stated.
     After their flight from their one-story house next to the Tawhid mosque, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Nasir Hejo and 20 family members fled to a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
     Israel claims to have attacked 1,000 of what it calls "Hamas targets." Independent media, UN aid officials and human rights organizations have documented that most of these attacks struck private homes, mosques, universities, schools, government buildings, police stations and charities. As of 6 January, the death toll from the Israeli attack approached 600 with thousands more injured. more.. e-mail

I will tell you how Arafa died
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/6/2009
     A good, kind, brave and very funny man was killed on 4 January as he loaded the body of a young civilian killed by the Israeli occupation forces into an ambulance.Emergency medical workers, Arafa Hani Abed al-Dayem (35), and Alaa Ossama Sarhan (21), answered the call to retrieve two friends: Thaer Abed Hammad (19), who was wounded, and his friend Ali (19), who was killed while fleeing shelling by Israeli tanks.
     It was after 8:30am on Sunday and Thaer and Ali were in the Beit Lahia area, located in northwestern Gaza. The area is near the American school that had been bombed the day before, killing a 24-year-old civilian night watchman inside -- tearing him apart and burning everything else that remained.
     Squealing in pain, his right foot amputated and shrapnel lacerations across his back and body, Thaer Hammad explained how his friend Ali was killed. "We were crossing the street, leaving our houses, when the tank fired. There were many people leaving, not just us." Hammad stops his testimony, again squealing with pain. more.. e-mail

Conditioning Gaza: preparing to deploy international forces in Palestine?
Hani Asfour, Daily Star 1/6/2009
     The Israeli attack on Gaza is likely timed to coincide with the February elections in Israel and this month’s inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama in anticipation of launching a comprehensive Middle East peace plan. The ultimate goal of the Gaza invasion is to create the conditions to introduce international troops into Palestine. Part of the purpose is to prop up the regime of President Mahmoud Abbas and allow the Palestinian leader to extend his mandate across all of Palestine. By calling for international military support, Abbas is seeking to end both the violence and the Israeli occupation at once. The hope is that he will re-establish his legitimacy and provide the grounds for a two-state solution as prescribed in President George Bush’s 2002 UN Security Council Resolution 1397, "of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders," a proposition openly rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, and Likud, the Israeli right-wing party.
     The idea for an international military intervention was first proposed by Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel under presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush 43, in a 2003 Foreign Affairs article, "A Trusteeship for Palestine?" The main idea is to replace the Israeli occupation with an international force that would train and guide the Palestinians into self-rule, while ensuring the security of both Israel and Palestine. more.. e-mail

This brutality will never break our will to be free
Khalid Mish'al, The Guardian 1/6/2009
     For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world’s biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment. In this most densely populated of places, nothing has been spared Israel’s warplanes, from government buildings to homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and markets. More than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.
     This river of blood is being shed under lies and false pretexts. For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start. Israel was required to open crossings to Gaza, and extend the truce to the West Bank. It proceeded to tighten its deadly siege of Gaza, repeatedly cutting electricity and water supplies. The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated - as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire. Israel enjoyed a period of calm. Our people did not. more.. e-mail

Bring in the peacekeepers? It’s not as easy as it sounds
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/6/2009
     Do I hear the braying of the UN donkey in Gaza? On his Middle East tour, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, may well be mentioning that well-known Eeyore figure on the East River, always so willing to send its peacekeepers on Mission Impossible. The Palestinians have been trying to internationalise their conflict with the Israelis ever since Yasser Arafat pleaded for UN forces to protect the Palestinians after the failure of the Oslo agreement.
     Always the Israelis have refused. The very odd observer force which the EU installed in Hebron after Baruch Golstein had massacred Palestinians at the mosque – its patrols regularly interrupted by the Jewish settlers of this very odd city – simply faded away. And the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has been throwing tents and food and school classes at the slums of Palestinian refugee camps for generations. Can it be that yet another Israeli failure in Gaza will change the dynamics of "peacekeeping" in the Middle East, that at last the ghost of Arafat will watch the "internationalisation" of the Israeli-Palestinian war. more.. e-mail

Israel’s blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza
Yosefa Loshitzky, Electronic Intifada 1/5/2009
     "I reiterate that we will treat the population [of Gaza] with silk gloves"
     - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name "Operation Cast Lead" chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hannukah gift: "a cast lead sevivon." Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. After all Operation Cast Lead is not the first (and unfortunately, will not be the last) of Israel’s cruel war games.
     The cynicism embedded in the name, selected for what Ari Shavit, one of Israel’s most celebrated commentators, called "an intelligent, impressive operation," is symptomatic to the cold, meticulous and calculated cruelty with which this attack was "designed," "executed" and "marketed" to the world. As the perpetrators themselves proudly boast, Operation Cast Lead is not only a great military victory but also a success story of Israeli hasbara (meaning in Hebrew, explanation, but practically referring to misinformation, spin and lies). more.. e-mail

Disarming Palestine
Issa Khalaf, Palestine Chronicle 1/5/2009
     ’Everything is being done to ensure instability, radicalism, conflict and suffering.’ Those of us who originate from that unholy land, are gripped by helplessness, disgust and depression during those recurring depredations inflicted on the Palestinians, as they are now in Gaza, whose inhabitants had been systematically starved and reduced to misery for years.It’s as if the most insightful, humane reflection, all the rationality and political analysis, is inadequate to explain the horrors that unfold with awful predictability. What possible higher, self-righteous political or moral purpose does raining death and destruction on men, women, children, and babies serve? How does such utter violence and cruelty achieve dignity and security for Israelis and Palestinians? During such times, such puerile insanity, it’s almost comforting to escape into karmic meaning: what goes around comes around, and those who mindlessly, repetitively wreak pain and torment on others, will inescapably reap what they sow. This is both profoundly true and profoundly dangerous, for, in the interminable hiatus, it encourages both despairing resignation, as if men and women are incapable of acting with reason and humanity to solve their conflicts with others, and zealous violence, as if there is no other recourse to injustice but carnage. more.. e-mail

Water, sewage system 'collapsing' in Gaza, says official
Report, Electronic Intifada 1/5/2009
     GENEVA (IRIN) - The UN has warned that power networks were down in large parts of the Gaza Strip on 4 January, with hospitals relying on generators. Without power for pumps, 70 percent of Gazans are estimated to be without tap water.
     Israel has been blocking fuel supplies, and stocks are dwindling, the latest (4 January) report by the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories said.
     The Israeli Gisha organization, a non-governmental organization, said seven of the 12 electricity lines in the enclave (the 12 lines normally supply about 70 percent of Gaza’s electricity) were down, and warned that the lack of power was causing sewage to flood into populated areas and farmland. There continued to be a risk of sustained flooding.
     "The water and sewage system in Gaza is collapsing, cutting people off from the water supply and causing sewage to flood the streets," said Maher al-Najjar, deputy director of Gaza’s water utility, CMWU. He also said 48 of Gaza’s 130 wells were not working at all due to lack of electricity and damage to pipes. "At least 45 other wells are operating only partially and will shut down within days without additional supplies of fuel and electricity," al-Najjar said. more.. e-mail

Affidavit from Gaza
Ghassan Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 1/5/2009
     I, the undersigned, Maher Najjar, having been put on notice that I must tell the truth and nothing but the truth and that if I do not do so, I will be subject to criminal penalties under the law, hereby declare as follows:
     1. My name is Maher Najjar. I am the Deputy Director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU). I write this affidavit in support of a request and/or court petition that the Israeli authorities provide fuel and electricity to vital humanitarian institutions in Gaza.
     2. The Coastal Municipalities Water Utility is the Semi public utility that runs the water and sewage systems in Gaza. We rely on electricity and fuel to run the system.
     3. The water and sewage system is in a very vulnerable state. Especially since June 2007, severe restrictions on the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip have disrupted the functioning of the water and sewage system in Gaza, including spare parts. more.. e-mail

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising
Joseph Massad, Electronic Intifada 1/4/2009
     One is often baffled by the ironies of international relations and the alliances they foster. Take for example the Israeli colonial settlement that had declared war on the Palestinian people and several Arab countries since its inception while at the same time it built alliances with many Arab regimes and with Palestinian leaders.
     While Hashemite-Zionist relations and Maronite Church-Zionist relations have always been known and documented, there has been less documentation of the services that Israel has provided and continues to provide to Arab regimes over the decades. It is now recognized that Israel’s 1967 invasion of Egypt aimed successfully to destroy Gamal Abdul-Nasser, the enemy of all US dictatorial allies among the Arab regimes, whom the US and before it Britain and France had tried to topple since the 1950s but failed. Israel thus rendered a great service to Arab monarchies (and a few republics) from "the ocean to the Gulf," whose survival was threatened by Nasser and Nasserism. Israel’s subsequent intervention in Jordan in 1970 to help the Jordanian army destroy Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas and its final crushing of that organization in its massive invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 were also important services it rendered to these same regimes threatened by the PLO’s "revolutionary" potential and its sometimes recalcitrant positions. Israeli intelligence has also provided over the decades crucial information to several Arab regimes enabling them to crush their political opposition and strengthen their dictatorial rule. Prominent examples among recipients of Israeli intelligence largesse include the Moroccan and the Omani dictatorships. more.. e-mail

Our spirit will not die
Sami Abdel-Shafi, The Guardian 1/5/2009
     Yesterday morning, I hurried up to the rooftop of my home to catch a glimpse of the sun rising. Columns of black smoke stretched sideways over Gaza’s horizon, eerily symbolising how Israel’s ground assault has already inflicted more indiscriminate suffering on ordinary people.
     I reflected how the fireball resulting from utter political failure among Palestinians, within Israel and, to an extent, internationally, has landed in the laps of Gaza’s civilians. Within seconds, the deep and breathtaking sound of shelling from the sea forced me back downstairs.
     By mid-morning on Sunday, about 12 hours into the incursion, Israeli troops were said to have reached the outskirts of Jabalia - a city and a refugee camp with a combined population of 200,000 - with Apache helicopters firing high-calibre rounds into the camp alongside the incoming artillery fire. But Gaza City, where I live, is no safe haven, being only about 8km from Jabalia, and 3km from fighting in the east.
     Nine days into the war, and after 800 reported raids over Gaza, it often seemed as though Israeli air force hangars must have been empty as its aircraft hammered us, knocking even the lucky survivors out of their senses. more.. e-mail

Resisting to protect our own
Safa Joudeh writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/5/2009
     The evening of 3 January, we realized that if there was any truth to Israeli war minister Ehud Barak’s words, it’s that this invasion will be a long one. At approximately 9:15pm local time Israeli forces entered the Strip from three locations. From the east of Gaza City and the northern towns of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya, tanks rolled into the Palestinian residential areas while Israeli F-16s created a cover from the sky. At the same time, Israeli tanks and infantry troops entered Rafah from the southeast, while tanks shelling and artillery fire rained on the Mintar area of Gaza City. Israeli warships were simultaneously barraging Gaza City from the sea. The entire Strip was surrounded and being heavily pounded by Israeli missiles and artillery fire.
     Many people were not even aware that the invasion had begun, thinking the whole time that Israel had just intensified its air raids. Gaza City has been without power for a few days now and radio batteries were running out. Almost all the residents of Gaza City have been confined to their homes for over a week and all of the stores have been closed. People are relying on word of mouth to get the news, very few are lucky enough to have generators and leftover fuel. more.. e-mail

Gaza Coverage and the Informed Heart
Jaffer Ali, Palestine Chronicle 1/5/2009
     ’Does an informed heart engage in polemics?’ (Zoriah - zoriah.net) The present Israeli onslaught in Gaza viewed through the prism of the mainstream western media has such an air of unreality. Israeli ’hasbara’ or propaganda efforts have even invaded the blogosphere. Over fifty blogs have direct access to Israeli officials to perpetuate the ongoing myth that Palestinians are to blame for the carnage.
     A visit to Google News to read headlines on the Gaza slaughter reveals the same distorted picture. Even "neutral" headlines and stories promote the twisted reality that Palestinians and Israelis share responsibility for the darkness. An endless stream of lies fills the air waves and Zionist apologists engage prejudices to promote their agenda.
     How can we transform the darkness all around into light?
     The world seems so cold with the only warmth to kindle fires being Israeli phosphorous bombs. How can an article or essay like this shed any light amidst the barrage of lies trotted out as facts? One can know the truth by more than information put out by any side. more.. e-mail

Keeping out the cameras and reporters simply doesn’t work
Robert Fisk, The Independent 1/5/2009
     What is Israel afraid of? Using the old "enclosed military area" excuse to prevent coverage of its occupation of Palestinian land has been going on for years. But the last time Israel played this game – in Jenin in 2000 – it was a disaster. Prevented from seeing the truth with their own eyes, reporters quoted Palestinians who claimed there had been a massacre by Israeli soldiers – and Israel spent years denying it. In fact, there was a massacre, but not on the scale that it was originally reported.
     Now the Israeli army is trying the same doomed tactic again. Ban the press. Keep the cameras out. By yesterday morning, only hours after the Israeli army went clanking into Gaza to kill more Hamas members – and, of course, more civilians – Hamas was reporting the capture of two Israeli soldiers. Reporters on the ground could have sorted out the truth or the lie about that. But without a single Western journalist in Gaza, the Israelis were left to tell the world that they didn’t know if the story was true. more.. e-mail

Why Hamas (and Hizbullah) Will be Difficult to Defeat
Rami G. Khouri, Middle East Online 1/5/2009
     BEIRUT -- Many analogies are being made between the ongoing Israeli attack against Hamas in Gaza and the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon. Here are the most important ones, in my view.
     The first is about provenance: Hamas and Hizbullah did not exist before around 1982. Their birth and strength must be understood largely as a response to Israel’s occupation and colonization policies in Palestine and Lebanon, alongside other secondary reasons.
     Hamas and Hizbullah are the ideological step-children of the Likud Party and especially Ariel Sharon, whose embrace of violence, racism and colonization as the primary means of dealing with occupied Arab populations ultimately generated a will to resist. The trio currently carrying on Sharon’s legacy of brutality -- Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni -- seem genetically blind to the fact that the more force and brutality Israel uses against Arabs, the greater is the response in the form of more effective resistance movements that have wider public support. more.. e-mail

Global Rights Groups Protest Slaughter in Gaza
Stephen Lendman – Chicago, Palestine Chronicle 1/5/2009
     On June 16, 2008, noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explained "The Israeli Recipe for 2008: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleaning in the West Bank." He wrote:
     "Not long ago, I claimed that Israel is employing genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip." After re-thinking this highly-charged term, he "concluded with even stronger conviction: it is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza" because of its repeated atrocities now greater than ever.
     In his January 3 "Israel’s Righteous Fury and Its Victims in Gaza" article, Pappe updates his outrage:
     Once again, "Israel is engulfed....with righteous fury that translates into destructive policy in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity....is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of (Nazi Germany). Every half an hour," radio and TV bulletins call Gaza victims "terrorists and Israel’s massive (slaughter) self-defense." more.. e-mail

Comment
Ran HaCohen - writer, teacher, Tel-Aviv University, International Middle East Media Center News 1/5/2009
     Comparisons?
     "Ramallah is not Auschwitz. Israel is not the Third Reich. We have no death camps and we haven’t massacred one third of the Palestinian population in gas chambers. Therefore, everything we do is quite all right. We may fill the occupied territories with tear gas and blood, we may kill and injure and torture and blackmail and dispossess, we may surround millions by electric fences and tanks in tiny enclaves, we may hold them under siege and daily bombing, we may make pregnant women walk to hospitals, and we shoot ambulances too, don’t we. But as long as we fall even an inch short of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, it’s all fine and good, and don’t you dare make the comparison."
     [political cartoon]
     [end]

Where even emergency generators break down
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 1/5/2009
     In addition to an overwhelming influx of the wounded, Gaza’s hospitals are facing a new problem: They are rapidly running out of fuel for the generators they depend on for power.
     Much of the Gaza Strip, including all of Gaza City, has been without electricity since Saturday night, when the Israeli ground operation destroyed the Strip’s main power line, along with six other lines that transport electricity from Israel to various parts of Gaza.
     A line that carries electricity from Egypt to the Rafah area was also brought down by the Israeli attack, and Gaza’s own power station has been closed since December 30 due to a lack of fuel. The hospitals are thus entirely dependent on generators.
     This presents another problem: Nonstop usage makes it more likely a generator will break down. But there is no way to repair any breakdowns because there are no spare parts: Israel has not allowed such parts into Gaza for two years now. more.. e-mail

The death and life of my father
Fares Akram in Gaza, The Independent 1/5/2009
     The phone call came at around 4.20pm on Saturday. A bomb had been dropped on the house at our small farm in northern Gaza. My father was walking from the gate to the farmhouse at the time. It was our beloved place, that farm and its two-storey white house with a red roof. Nestled in a flat fertile agricultural plain north-west of Beit Lahiya, it had lemon groves, orange and apricot trees and we had recently acquired 60 dairy cows.
     It was the closest farm to the northern border with Israel. Ironically, we always thought the biggest danger there was not from Israeli troops, who usually went straight past if they were mounting an incursion, but from stray Hamas rockets aimed at the Israeli towns north of us.
     But shortly before sunset on Saturday, as Israeli ground troops and tanks invaded Gaza in the name of shutting down Hamas rocket sites, the peace of that place was shattered and my father’s life extinguished at the age of 48. more.. e-mail

’There were shells, rockets everywhere’
Hazem Balousha Gaza City Chris McGreal Jerusalem, The Guardian 1/5/2009
     It has never been like this before. The assault is coming from the sky, the sea and the ground. The explosion of shells, the gunfire from the tanks and the missiles from planes and helicopters are incessant. The sky is laced with smoke, grey here, black there, as the array of weaponry leaves its distinctive trail.
     Most Gazans can only cower in terror in whatever shelter they can find and guess at the cost exacted by each explosion as the toll for those on the receiving end rises remorselessly.
     As Israeli forces carved up the Gaza Strip yesterday, dividing the territory in two , the UN warned of a "catastrophe unfolding" for a "trapped, traumatised, terrorised" population. Among the terrorised was Mahmoud Jaro. He was sheltering with his wife and four young children in his home in Beit Lahiya, on the eastern side of the Gaza Strip, within sight of the Israeli border, when he heard the first tank engines in the early hours of Sunday. more.. e-mail

Christine, another child martyr of Gaza
Sam Bahour, Palestine Think Tank 1/4/2009
     The attached photo was published in Jerusalem’s Al-Quds Newspaper (Jan 4, 2009) - the caption reads: Gaza - During her funeral in the Latin Patriarchate Church, a citizen kisses the forehead of the martyred Christine Turok (14 yrs old) who was martyred due to a heart attack from fear of the Israeli bombardment.
     In a phone conversation today, from Gaza the Latin Patriarchate Church priest, Father Manaweil Musallam, clearly shaken, said, "her name is Christine, a tenth grade student. Her father is a doctor and she lived near the YMCA in Al-Remal area. She died of fear. Since the war started she felt apprehensive of the danger. She suffered from neurotic disorder and a hysteric situation just as many children are suffering. On Friday, during the shooting of F-16 missiles, she fell on the ground due to the dreadful sound. Her father tried to help, but he couldn’t. Then he held her in his arms hoping to rescue her in the hospital, but she died before reaching there."
     He continued, "the Latin Patriarchate school [where Christine attended] did not face any damages, however, the Rosary Sisters School did face physical damages, since it is located near to the Preventive Security building. Today, no one attended Sunday Mass, no one was able to reach the church…we tried to find an alternative place in the school to do the prayers…I tried to gather the nuns with my own car. Today, the area in which the church is located was shelled, we cannot go there." more.. e-mail

Suspend EU-Israel Association Agreement
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/4/2009
     ’Miliband dismissed a proposal to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.’
     There’s an ugly plan afoot in the EU to reward Israel for its abominable and criminal conduct by enhancing the already handsome benefits enjoyed by the neighbourhood bully under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
     Most EU citizens have little idea how the EU works or how to hold it to account for blunders like dereliction of duty. That’s no surprise because it is cloaked in incomprehensible complexity and there is no way to hold it accountable. Those in control shamelessly do as they please, it seems.
     Take this wretched EU-Israel Association Agreement. Its purpose is to promote (1) peace and security, (2) shared prosperity through, for example, the creation of a free trade zone, and (3) cross-cultural rapprochement. It governs not only EU-Israel relations but Israel’s relations with the EU’s other Mediterranean partners - including the Palestinian National Authority. more.. e-mail

How the pro-Israel lobby in Britain benefits from a generous London tycoon
Rajeev Syal, The Observer, The Guardian 1/4/2009
     Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation - which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures - has received nearly £1.4m in two years from a billionaire donor whose father made a fortune manufacturing arms in Israel.
     The British Israel Communication and Research Centre, known as Bicom, has been one of the most active organisations behind the scenes in the UK during the present Gaza offensive, organising briefings and interview opportunities with senior Israeli spokesmen.
     Its biggest funder is Poju Zabludowicz, a London-based tycoon, who has underwritten its campaigning since 2007. The disclosure comes amid an intense struggle in Britain between lobbying organisations working for both sides in the conflict. Foreign affairs specialists say that the injection of funds has ensured that Bicom has become one of the most persistent and slickest media operations in the battle for influence over opinion formers.
     Company accounts show that Zabludowicz, whose fortune was founded on the success of his father’s arms company, donated £937,995 to Bicom in 2007, around half its total income, and £341,694 in 2006. more.. e-mail

Obama is losing a battle he doesn’t know he’s in
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian 1/4/2009
     Barack Obama’s chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza. That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until January 20. But foreign wars don’t wait for Washington inaugurations.
     Obama has remained wholly silent during the Gaza crisis. His aides say he is following established protocol that the US has only one president at a time. Hillary Clinton, his designated secretary of state, and Joe Biden, the vice-president-elect and foreign policy expert, have also been uncharacteristically taciturn on the subject.
     But evidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out. Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama’s detachment - and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush’s strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush’s bias or simply does not care. more.. e-mail

Trapped, traumatized and terrorized
Laila El-Haddad writing from Durham, the United States, Electronic Intifada 1/4/2009
     My father and I made simultaneous back to back appearances on domestic CNN and CNN International last night. My father spoke calmly, eloquently, in the pitch dark of besieged Gaza, with only the the fire of Israeli bombs illuminating his world. "They are destroying everything that is beautiful and living," he told the anchor.
     His hands were trembling, he confessed, as my mother and he lay on the floor of their home, where they moved their mattress far away from the windows. Thunderous explosions ripped through the black sky all around them, lighting it up in enormous clouds of fire.
     I call them every hour; sometimes every few minutes when I see renewed bombardment on my television. Sometimes he calls me for assurance:
     "What’s going on? What’s going?" he repeats in a weary, hypnotic tone.
     "It just felt like they bombed our street from the inside out. I can’t see anything. I don’t know what’s happening. What’s the news saying?" he asks frantically, desperate for any morsel of information that can make sense of the terror being wrought upon them. more.. e-mail

A Gaza Account: Life in the Line of Fire
Eyad El-Sarraj - Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/4/2009
     ’Israel looks to be increasingly living outside the norms of the world community.’
     This carnage goes on, as does another humanitarian crisis brought about by the Israeli siege of Gaza: a lack of medicines, bread, flour, gas, electricity, fuel and almost everything else. The Israeli siege has literally turned Gaza into a massive prison. All our borders are sealed, so there is no way out.
     By Tuesday night, Gaza was like a ghost town. Its streets were deserted and people didn’t dare to come out of their houses.
     The children suffer the most, I think. They see the fear in their mothers’ eyes. The image of their fathers as a source of security is shattered. Their fathers could not provide them with food, and now they are unable to protect them. The rockets will eventually stop flying, I am certain, but it may be too late for these children. To me, the chances seem great that they will join Hamas as they search for a replacement for the father figure, someone to provide and protect. In this way, Israeli actions will only strengthen Hamas. more.. e-mail

What the medics see, do, and are subjected to; uncensored
Eva Bartlett, International Solidarity Movement 1/4/2009
     On 31st December, around 2 am, two emergency medical services personnel were targeted by an Israeli missile as they attempted to reach injured in the Jabaliya region, northern Gaza.The first died immediately, the second soon after of complications from his internal injuries.
     Two days later, 2 more medics were injured in the area east of Gaza, again in the line of duty, again trying to reach the injured.
     Under the Geneva Conventions, Israel is obliged to allow and ensure safe passage to medical personnel to the injured.Instead, Israel routinely targets them.
     At the Jabaliya Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) station, the team there tells me of their injuries.Half, they say, of emergency medics and drivers in Gaza have been injured by Israel while trying to perform the duties.
     One shows me a scar from a gunshot wound to his arm. Another tells of being twice injured: once, shot in the stomach, another time, also shot in the arm. The bullet holes in their ambulances speak for themselves. more.. e-mail

Gaza: In Defense of a Never Written Statement
Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh - Jerusalem, Palestine Chronicle 1/3/2009
     In the presence of the eloquence of blood, there is no time to expose the myth of the barbarians but in passing. Today in Gaza there is no time for mourning, no time for theorizing, no time for satire, and most certainly there is no time to mull over utterances and endlessly pondered questions. There is no time to weigh words when the open wound has become the size of a nation, and in the land where being a victim is the sole evidence of the oppressor’s existence, who fulfills his duty through the other’s annihilation. There is no time for love in the time of war. There is no time for war in the time of love except as a yearning for life. There is no time to review laws and principles, for the majority of judges in God’s own country are still on reserve in Samson’s army. In Palestine, these judges are on collective leave, paid for by the kin of the victims, so that they can join forces on the Gaza war front. There is no time to balance statements to secure a longer list of signatures from our friends in "the Israeli peace camp" (even peace is practiced in camps in Israel!) There is no time to negotiate even-handed statements of condemnation so as to not harm the "moral equivalency" between the victim and the oppressor without naming either. There is no time to do all of this to gain more support for a multi-lingual appeal that has been answered—even before it was issued—by the chief of staff of international principles in the new-Sodom in New York! There is no time in the dark of night and its rough passage but for one statement: STOP THE CRIMES IN GAZA. more.. e-mail

'They know no limits now'
Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/3/2009
     In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It’s a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza, or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank. The world sits on the fence, justifying Israel’s massacre of a civilian population already dying from the siege.
     We are four ambulances out tonight, versus two last night. The ambulances weave nimbly along blacked-out streets of a manufactured ghost town -- like the streets all over Gaza -- dodging fresh piles of rubble, It’s absolutely impossible, unbelievable, it’s a massacre. "They know no limits now," the medics report. "They are going crazy."
     We pass shells of houses, mosques, schools and shops, and see streams of panicked residents fleeing for their lives.Many more began to flee this morning after yet another night of bombardment on and around their houses.I saw the remains of rubble.This morning when Israel dropped the flyers announcing their intention to bomb the northern regions in collective punishment, residents believed it. The lights in Jabaliya’s PRCS stations are out, the power has just cut. In the dark, and cold, the sounds of explosions outside are more pronounced. more.. e-mail

Living and Dying in Gaza
Middle East Online 1/3/2009
     As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continues, Laila Al-Arian, with roots in the region – and wondering if her grandfather will survive - gives voice to the on-the-ground experience of those who have endured the attacks.
     On Sunday morning, I found out through a note my friend wrote on Facebook, that the Israeli Air Force was attacking my grandfather’s neighborhood in Gaza. Safa, who lives near my grandfather in the densely-populated "Asqoola" in Gaza City, recounted the harrowing hours she spent terrorized by what she called "the constant, ominous, maddening, droning sound" of Apache helicopters flying above. "Outside my home, which is close to the two largest universities in Gaza, a missile fell on a large group of young men, university students," Safa wrote over the weekend. "They’d been warned not to stand in groups -- it makes them an easy target -- but they were waiting for buses to take them home. Seven were killed."
     My family had been trying to speak with my grandfather since Saturday, after Israel began its onslaught on Gaza. But we haven’t managed to reach him, perhaps not surprising since so many phone lines are down. "Hold one moment," is all we hear. A computerized directive from the phone company, one that sounds increasingly strident the more it’s repeated. "Hold one moment." My mother hangs up in frustration, unable to ease her anxiety or clear her mind from worst-case scenario thoughts. more.. e-mail

Humanity’s Stake in Gaza
The Jordan Times, MIFTAH 1/3/2009
     Wasted time is always to be regretted. But in the Middle East, wasting time is also dangerous. Another year has now passed with little progress in bridging the divide between Palestinians and Israelis. The current air strikes on Gaza, and continuing rocket attacks on Ashkelon, Sderot and other towns in southern Israel, only prove how dire the situation is becoming.
     The security impasse that exists between Israel and the Gazan-Palestinian leadership has also led to blockades of food aid by Israel that have left Gaza’s 1.5 million people facing conditions of real hunger. Israel, it seems, is once again emphasising the primacy of “hard” security in its dealings with the Palestinians of Gaza, but this focus only serves to block non-violent opportunities for creative solutions to the Israel-Palestine dispute.
     Making matters worse, Israeli politicians remain committed to further enlargement of Israel’s West Bank settlements. Pushed to the wall in this way, many Palestinians are beginning to see no other option for fulfilling their national aspirations than radical tactics. Given that this risks renewed violence, it is critical that Israel’s regional partners and international actors understand that Palestinians will not be diverted from their strategic objective of achieving an independent state. The Palestinian people will never abandon their national struggle. more.. e-mail

Why the West can’t win
Avraham Burg, Ha’aretz 1/5/2009
     Beyond the two piles of bodies and the mourning and bereavement of both peoples, through the fragmented voices of Israel’s leadership, it’s already possible to feel the sour taste of the next combat loss. We haven’t won anything since the Six-Day War. We managed to be saved from disaster in 1973, we got ensnared but survived in 1982, and there is no lack of other examples. Why is this happening? Why do our wars end in a permanent accord of ambiguity?
     I think it’s no longer possible to win wars. We’re not the only ones who can’t; the West as a whole is incapable of doing so. It’s hard for me to remember a single war in the past 60 years that the United States clearly and decisively won. Dresden and Berlin were pounded to the ground, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, and from there the West embarked on a new path.
     Western Europe almost totally abandoned the war option. It doesn’t fight, and in any case isn’t assessed on the basis of its ability to win wars. The United States, by contrast, went from isolationism to being the country chiefly responsible for Western state-sponsored violence. It has a mighty army, and it knows better than anyone how to deploy its forces to the starting line, but from there onward something always gets messed up. Korea wasn’t a wonderful victory, Vietnam ended in disgrace, and the Gulf wars are not considered great military achievements. more.. e-mail

Life in Gaza: ’Hungry, freezing, and terrifying’
Mohammed Dawwas, The Independent 1/4/2009
     A Palestinian journalist’s diary highlights the devastation brought to his family, his city and the lives of many thousands trapped by Israeli bombing ahead of yesterday’s ground assault
     When the bombing of Gaza started last Saturday, the Palestinian journalist Mohammed Dawwas, looking from his seventh-floor window, saw his nine-year-old son, Ibrahim, rushing home from school near the police academy that was destroyed in the very first air raid. This is his diary for a week that was to end in invasion.
     Sunday
     Ibrahim is too frightened to go out with his brothers to play. He had been doing an exam when the bombing started yesterday and I was stuck in the lift because of yet another power cut. He arrived back, shaking and crying. When I went to get some food he said, "please baba, don’t go out." We had a call from the doorman in the building at around 7.45pm telling us we should get out because the Red Cross had given a warning that the Al Kinz mosque next to our building in Omar Mukhtar Street was likely to be destroyed. There were about 100 people down in the yard. You could hear continual explosions some way away. My brother-in-law Mahdi came in his car and said let’s go, so we drove off to stay at my father-in-law’s house – my wife and the eight kids staying in one room and me in the TV room. We drove in convoy, going down two one-way streets the wrong way to avoid going near the Palestinian Legislative Council building [which was destroyed three nights later]. It was completely dark except for our headlights. It was frightening. more.. e-mail

If it was your home, what hope ’restraint’?
John McCarthy, The Independent 1/4/2009
     Israel’s invasion of Gaza comes hard on the heels of its massive air campaign which, it says, is a justified retaliation for the Hamas rocket attacks against southern Israel. Every rocket or mortar fired from Gaza into Israel is reported to the international media and, at the time of writing, more than 400 had been counted during the week. Details of the Israeli attacks are harder to find, but the week’s report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that the Israeli Air Force also dropped 400 bombs, not over seven days, but in just the first few minutes of its opening assault on Gaza. These and hundreds more bombs have killed over 400 Palestinians. The Hamas missiles have caused just four deaths.
     The Israeli people expect their government to punish attacks on Israel, and with a general election taking place in just over a month, politicians are keen to show their readiness to do anything to protect Israeli civilians. Ehud Barak, defence minister in the coalition government, has seen his poll ratings – and those of the Labour Party he leads – rise as a result of the campaign against Hamas which he has called "a war to the bitter end".
     Yet, after a week of air strikes, Hamas continues firing rockets and firing them deeper into Israel. And so it appears inevitable that the military campaign will grind on, causing more and more civilian casualties until international pressure for a truce will eventually become loud enough to promote a ceasefire. more.. e-mail

Living on Borrowed Time in a Stolen Land
Gilad Atzmon - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/3/2009
     Communicating with Israelis may leave one bewildered. Even now when the Israeli Air Force is practicing murder in broad daylight of hundreds of civilians, elderly persons, women and children, the Israeli people manage to convince themselves that they are the real victims in this violent saga.
     Those who are familiar intimately with Israeli people realise that they are completely uninformed about the roots of the conflict that dominates their lives. Rather often Israelis manage to come up with some bizarre arguments that may make a lot of sense within the Israeli discourse, yet make no sense whatsoever outside of the Jewish street. Such an argument goes as follows: ’those Palestinians, why do they insist upon living on our land (Israel), why can’t they just settle in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or any other Arab country?’ Another pearl of wisdom sounds like this: ’what is wrong with these Palestinians? We gave them water, electricity, education and all they do is try to throw us to the sea’.
     Astonishingly enough, the Israelis even within the so-called ‘left’ and even the educated ‘left’ fail to understand who the Palestinians are, where they come from and what they stand for. They fail to grasp that for the Palestinians, Palestine is home. Miraculously, the Israelis manage to fail to grasp that Israel had been erected at the expense of the Palestinian people, on Palestinian land, on Palestinian villages, towns, fields and orchards. The Israelis do not realise that Palestinians in Gaza and in refugee camps in the region are actually dispossessed people from Ber Shive, Yafo, Tel Kabir, Shekh Munis, Lod, Haifa, Jerusalem and many more towns and villages.... more.. e-mail

Palestinians Are Bad Propagandists
Neil Sutherland – Cairo, Palestine Chronicle 1/3/2009
     With a monopoly of the air, and unlimited access to the latest US military hardware, Israel will always dominate violent means of ’resolving’ the Mid-East conflict.
     So why do Palestinians continue to turn to this futile means of reacting to Israeli actions? Continue, even after it adds more to the humiliating concessions that pile up by the day? It is because the Arab-speaking and other Muslim countries are even more out-played by Zionists in the war of words.
     Take today’s (Saturday January 3) case as an example. Larry King on CNN first interviewed an Israeli spokesman, with a fluent English accent, all polished in appearance, and repeating the same ’message’ that Western audiences are used to hearing. That is, Israel is a peace-loving, un-aggressive Western democracy that is only defending itself from filthy, ignorant, uncivilized, desert-dwelling, camel-riding, nomadic religious fanatics. For one thing, this looks a lot like re-enacting how Europeans colonized America, Australia and South Africa - they can relate to this image. more.. e-mail

In Gaza, targeting a nation
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 1/2/2009
     At al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, an unidentified injured man is laying at the hospital’s intensive care unit. He was hit by shrapnel from an Israeli missile that struck a target at the Samer crossroad in the Omar al-Mukhtar street in Gaza City at noon yesterday.
     "This wounded patient has sustained critical injuries and his condition is unstable, but we don’t yet know his identity, he is still unknown," Dr. Omar Manasra, the on-duty doctor of the intensive care unit (ICU) said.
     Manasra added, "Since the Israeli strikes began on Saturday, we have received at least 30 unidentified wounded at the ICU; most of them were later identified, but this took some time. We just labeled them with figures like, unknown number 1, number 2, etc."
     Manasra explained the challenges faced by the ICU with the mounting number of wounded: "We suffer a severe lack of medicines, equipment and beds at our unit. In the first day of the air strikes alone, we received almost 50 cases, and that has overloaded our capacity." more.. e-mail

Gaza: Propaganda, Perception, and Reality
William A. Cook, Palestine Chronicle 1/2/2009
     ’How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be.’ -- (Oedipus Rex, Scene I)
     As the Israeli military launched an "all out war" with Hamas in the Gaza strip, as casualties mounted to 400 dead and another 1450 wounded, as tanks and troops massed in the area just outside the wall that imprisons the people of Gaza, as preparations for a ground assault into the "closed military zone" around the Gaza strip moved forward, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday the 27th "’ instructed the Foreign Ministry to take emergency measures to adapt Israel’s international public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip." (Haaretz, 12/28/08). "An aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign" needed to be launched simultaneously with the estimated "60 raids" that now pummel Gaza each day, raids that, in human terms, have taken the lives of five children, all girls, of the Ba’losha family killed in Bait Lahia City north of Gaza and three children from the Al Absi family in Rafah refugee camp as Israeli rockets collapsed their roof. (freepalestine.ps, Sameh, Habeeb).
     I provide names and locations of these families to give reality to the statistics that numb the mind; multiply the suffering of these families as 400 lie dead from this “turkey shoot” against fenced in civilians launched by this compassionate Olmert administration that closes out its criminal tenure in office awaiting the election of yet another militaristic administration. more.. e-mail

Israel is Not a Victim
Ghassan Tarazi, Palestine Chronicle 1/2/2009
     ’Israel is not a victim economically or militarily.’
     Our popular media in the United States has been sold the myth that Israel is the victim in this conflict and is only defending itself against its hostile neighbors. The best scholars of Middle East history have unequivocally refuted this myth. In addition, the current events in Israel and Palestine also dispel and shatter this insidious myth. However, this myth (and others) has been used to perpetuate the hostilities and fuel the violence with Palestinians. Understanding the intricate and subtle aspects of the shallow roots of this myth and seeing how it is used to influence public opinion will help the American public to be more critical consumers of propaganda.
     It must be emphasized that criticizing Israel’s policies and practices is not the same as criticizing Judaism. Making this connection is tantamount to saying that criticizing the policies of the United States government is like criticizing Christianity. We understand how ridiculous that sounds. Unfortunately, some well-meaning but misinformed people use this emotionally packed and ignorant retort to silence any criticism of Israel’s behavior, no matter how egregious those behaviors might be. People who work for justice and desire peace between Israel and Palestine must withstand those ill-intended efforts to obfuscate the reality of the situation. The myth must be held under the light of truth. more.. e-mail

Obama’s deadly silence
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada 1/2/2009
     "I would like to ask President-elect Obama to say something please about the humanitarian crisis that is being experienced right now by the people of Gaza." Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney made her plea after disembarking from the badly damaged SS Dignity that had limped to the Lebanese port of Tyre while taking on water.
     The small boat, carrying McKinney, the Green Party’s recent presidential candidate, other volunteers, and several tons of donated medical supplies, had been trying to reach the coast of Gaza when it was rammed by an Israeli gunboat in international waters.
     But as more than 2,400 Palestinians have been killed or injured -- the majority civilians -- since Israel began its savage bombardment of Gaza on 27 December, Obama has maintained his silence. "There is only one president at a time," his spokesmen tell the media. This convenient excuse has not applied, say, to Obama’s detailed interventions on the economy, or his condemnation of the "coordinated attacks on innocent civilians" in Mumbai in November. more.. e-mail

Action Alert: Twenty-Six Things to Help Gaza
Haitham Sabbah, Palestine Think Tank 1/2/2009
     So far hundreds of civilians have been killed in Gaza. Five sisters in one family, four other children in another home, two children on a cart drawn by a donkey. Universities, colleges, police stations, roads, apartment buildings were all targeted. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian areas issued a statement that "The Israeli air-strikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war."
     Twenty-six things to do to bring peace with justice:
     (1) First get the facts and then disseminate them. Here are some basic background information...
     (2) Contact local media. Write letters to editors (usually 100-150 words) and longer op-eds (usually 600-800 words) for local newspapers. But also write to news departments in both print, audio, and visual media about their coverage. In the US... more.. e-mail

And there lie the bodies
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 1/4/2009
     The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape’s topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe’s diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.
     Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. more.. e-mail

Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
Stephen Lendman, Palestine Chronicle 1/2/2009
     ’Israeli security comes first, and Gaza is the test case.’
     The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they’re at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.
     After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:
     December 27 "will live in infamy." The people of Gaza were "suddenly and deliberately attacked by....air forces of the" State of Israel. The "attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for" the peace process.
     "The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to" property throughout Gaza. In addition, "many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves....this "unprovoked and dastardly attack" must not go unanswered. more.. e-mail

Hamas in the eyes of an expert
Interview with Khaled Hroub, Al Jazeera 1/4/2009
     Khaled Hroub, author of several books on Hamas, including Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide, talks to Al Jazeera about the organisation’s social and political strengths and explains why he believes Hamas is looking forward to an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.
     Al Jazeera: Two senior Hamas leaders were recently killed in Israeli air strikes. How will this impact the organisation’s leadership.
     Khaled Hroub: Hamas’ leaders are very used to hiding and escaping Israeli attacks. I can’t see this affecting Hamas much. Israel succeeded in assassinating very senior Hamas leaders including Sheikh [Ahmed] Yasin himself, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, then followed by Abdel Aziz Al-Rantissi who was the main figure in the Gaza Strip.
     And yet Hamas continued to rise and succeeded in winning the elections. So I can’t see Hamas being weakened by killing one or two or three or even more leaders in the Gaza Strip... more.. e-mail

Top 5 Lies about Israel’s Assault on Gaza
Jeremy R. Hammond, Palestine Chronicle 1/3/2009
     ’No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.’ (Zoriah - zoriah.net) Lie #1: Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
     The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
     Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.
     Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime. more.. e-mail

On collaboration and resistance of the oppressed
Ziyaad Lunat, Electronic Intifada 1/3/2009
     In 1835, Thomas Macaulay, a British colonial officer in India, decreed that "We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect." European colonial powers often used political outsourcing through a network of native collaborators as a convenient way to subjugate the masses. These collaborators would tame the colonized on behalf of their masters who became sheltered in this way from popular uprisings. However, this process was not always predictable. In 1857, the sepoys, Indian soldiers allied to British rule, revolted against their colonial masters. Britain’s response was fierce. Over 100,000 sepoys and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in cold blood. This became known as India’s first struggle for independence; which was finally realized in 1947.
     A year later, European settler colonialists established the state of Israel through a pre-mediated campaign of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population. Despite divisions amongst Arab governments and self-interested manipulation of the Palestinian plight, the response was that of opposition and generally in line with the feelings of the Arab masses. As a result, western governments have sought for decades to bully those governments into submission by forcing them to accept the premise of an inherently racist Jewish state in their midst. more.. e-mail

This is Not About Rockets
Stuart Littlewood - London, Palestine Chronicle 1/1/2009
     What if Hamas dumped all their rockets in the sea tomorrow? Would Gazans enjoy the same freedoms as other nations? Would they be able to open their sea port to foreign ships and rebuild and operate their airport? Would they be able to import and export and carry on trade and develop their economy and prosper like other countries?
     Would they be allowed to exploit and develop their offshore gas field? Would their fishermen be allowed to fish in unpolluted waters? Would their young people be able to come and go and take up places at foreign universities?
     Would Israel clear out of Gazan airspace permanently? Would the Israeli navy cease its piracy and stay out of Palestinian territorial waters? Would you and I be able to visit Gaza direct?
     Fat chance. None of this would suit Israel. So Gazans would be no better off. Their tormented half-existence would continue.
     There are no rockets coming out of the West Bank. Yet the illegal Israeli occupation there continues and so does the ethnic cleansing, the land theft, the illegal settlements, the colonization, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the throttling of the economy, the abduction and ’administrative detention’ of civilians and the massive interference with freedom of movement. Nothing has changed for West Bank Palestinians who DO NOT fire rockets. There is no sign of an end to their misery. more.. e-mail

Molten Lead: Israel’s New Election War
Uri Avnery – Israel, Palestine Chronicle 1/1/2009
     The war on Gaza would be more accurate to call it ’the Election War’.
     Just after midnight, Aljazeera’s Arabic channel was reporting on events in Gaza. Suddenly the camera was pointing upwards towards the dark sky. The screen was pitch black. Nothing could be seen, but there was a sound to be heard: the noise of airplanes, a frightening, a terrifying droning.
     It was impossible not to think about the tens of thousands of Gazan children who were hearing that sound at that moment, cringing with fright, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the bombs to fall.
     "Israel must defend itself against the rockets that are terrorizing our Southern towns," the Israeli spokesmen explained. "Palestinians must respond to the killing of their fighters inside the Gaza Strip," the Hamas spokesmen declared.
     As a matter of fact, the cease-fire did not collapse, because there was no real cease-fire to start with. The main requirement for any cease-fire in the Gaza Strip must be the opening of the border crossings. There can be no life in Gaza without a steady flow of supplies. But the crossings were not opened, except for a few hours now and again. The blockade on land, on sea and in the air against a million and a half human beings is an act of war, as much as any dropping of bombs or launching of rockets. It paralyzes life in the Gaza Strip: eliminating most sources of employment, pushing hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation, stopping most hospitals from functioning, disrupting the supply of electricity and water. more.. e-mail

The Nightmare in Beit Hanoun
Ewa Jasiewicz - Beit Hanoun, Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 12/30/2008
     It happened at 9am this morning. We were speaking to Sabrine Naim at the time, standing and talking in the Naim family home which had been wrecked this morning. Chunks of debris -- one a meter long and a foot wide - glass, and sharp slices of their own broken roof, had smashed onto beds, chairs, their kitchen and living room. Only two of their family of 12 had been home at the time. They were expecting an attack.
     And it came at 4am -- a missile strike by an F16 on the local police station and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine offices. Smouldering rubble and rocks and dust were strewn across the heart of Beit Hanoun -- the market, taxi rank and main street littered with debris.
     Sabrine had been hit in the face with small chunks of her neighbour’s home. One side of her right cheek was covered with a thick white dressing. She looked watery eyed and exhausted. Debris had also struck her in her heavily pregnant stomach. With only a month to go until giving birth, she spent two hours in the local hospital before being discharged. more.. e-mail

’I expected an ambulance, but a donkey cart carried the injured’
Ewa Jasiewicz, The Guardian 1/3/2009
     Ewa Jasiewicz is a journalist and activist. She is currently the project co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, and one of the only international journalists on the ground in Gaza. Here is her account of a week spent trying to document the attacks.
     Sunday - The shock of the first day of attacks, launched within minutes of one another, and killing over 230 people in 24 hours, has had no chance to sink in. Me and my friend Mohammad travelled up to Beit Lahiya today, in the north of the Gaza Strip, to spend the night with the family of a local human rights activist. Israeli missile fire jarred the journey; we leapt out and filmed at a burning paint factory in Jabaliya; no one was injured. As we drove away, another missile hit, this time a steelworks behind us; again we went to film. "Fi shaheed, fi shaheed," people were shouting, "There is a martyr," but we saw no one. We were the only car on the road. Our driver told us, "The streets are full of fear, nobody wants to go out."
     In Beit Lahiya our friend showed us leaflets the Israelis had dropped from planes. In plain black script on white A5, it began: "The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are working against perpetrators of terrorist operations ... we are trying our best not to attack or cause any injuries to civilians ..." Our friend took us to his roof and pointed out all the possible targets for Israeli strikes. Here, a mosque founded by Hamas, here the local police station, here a place once frequented by Hamas’ military wing. Our night was peppered with the sound of tanks creaking along the border, Apache strikes on Jabaliya, Israeli naval ships bombing the port and the F16 strike on the Islamic University. I got a call from a medical volunteer friend in Jabaliya: "They just bombed the Aiman Ajin mosque - we have dug out five little girls. Five girls have just been martyred." more.. e-mail

Land, sea, sky: all will kill you
Karma Nabulsi, The Guardian 1/3/2009
     Last Saturday, the first day of massive air strikes on Gaza, I finally get through to my old friend Mohammed. We speak for a few moments, he reassures me he is OK, he asks about my now-delayed trip to Gaza, and suddenly I ask: "What is that noise?" It is a sort of distant keening, like the roar of approaching traffic, or a series of waves hitting a rocky shore. "I am at the cemetery, Karma", he says, "I am burying my family." He now sounds exhausted. He repeats, over and over again in his steady, tired voice as if it were a prayer: "This is our life. This is our life. This is our life."
     I had just come off the phone with Jamal, who at that moment was in another cemetery in Jabaliya camp, burying three members of his own family. They included two of his nieces, one married to a police cadet. All were at the graduating ceremony in the crowded police station when F16s targeted them that Saturday morning, massacring more than 45 citizens in an instant, mortally wounding dozens more. Police stations across Gaza were similarly struck. Under the laws of war (or international humanitarian law as it is more commonly known), policemen, traffic cops, security guards: all are non-combatants, and classified as civilians under the Geneva conventions. But more to the point, Palestinian non-combatants are not mere civilians, but possess something more real, more alive, more sovereign than a distancing legal classification: the people in Gaza are citizens. Some work in the various civic institutions across the Strip, but most simply use them on a daily basis: their schools, police stations, hospitals, their ministries. more.. e-mail

Eyewitness: Zain Abu Qasem on the crisis in Gaza
Zain Abu Qasem, The Guardian 1/3/2009
     Zain Abu Qasem, 25, is an admin assistant at Beir Zeit University in Gaza. She lives with her parents in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza.
     The situation is worse than my worst nightmares. I can’t find the words to describe it. I’m frustrated. I listen to the news on the TV and radio. I’m trying to read a novel, but I can’t concentrate, I have no enjoyment.
     I’ve not left the house since the first day. I don’t even go out on to the balcony because I am afraid. I sleep most of the day and wake up at night as that’s when it’s really scary. It’s silent except for the sound of bombs.
     Today when I woke up I found my window smashed. When the bombs explode they shake the house like an earthquake. Every day we smell death. We have a generator, electricity, and some supplies, but once they run out there will be no more because we can’t leave the house. We are not cooking as usual, just something small to put in our stomachs. more.. e-mail

Guts of polyester
Yitzhak Laor, Ha’aretz 1/2/2009
     I went to Ramallah to see a work of art by Randa Mdah. I admit that I went to see the piece, and the 26-year-old artist, after art historian John Berger urged me to go. It is a work that will disquiet you, he said. So powerful is its manner of confronting the substantial. He was right.
     We - my friend Yigal and I - entered the huge cage via the urban debacle known as the Qalandiyah checkpoint. There we met Mdah and her friend Yasser Hanjar. Experts in Arab names undoubtedly will note they are Druze, and more particularly from Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights. Both have chosen to live in Ramallah, even though they certainly could have resided on the easier side of the Green Line. Hanjar is studying Assyriology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Why? Well, during his time in jail (he spent seven and a half years in prison, mostly in the Shatta facility, as a "security prisoner"), he read the exploits of Gilgamesh in Arabic and fell in love with the ancient civilization, whose remnants still exist in countries that are closed to him: his homeland Syria, and Iraq.
     In the taxi we switch to English. An Israeli is the last thing I wanted to be in Ramallah on that cold day, even before the events that began last weekend, in an environment that was hurtling into privation and destruction. The photographs on the front pages of the daily papers showed a man carrying a girl wounded by Israeli fire. We go to the Al-Mahata Gallery, where an exhibition of oil paintings is on display. One of the paintings shows a generic settler family returning home from shopping, Mom and Dad carrying full bags and leading a child, two M-16 rifles slung over their shoulders. The vast separation fence looms in the background. more.. e-mail

Dancing missiles, singing drones -- what a way to begin the new year
Fares Akram, The Independent 1/2/2009
     I don’t know how I fell asleep, after a tense and trying end to the final hours of 2008. After all, Wednesday was the fifth day of Israel’s bombing onslaught and a false alarm had sent us scurrying into the basement of our apartment building in panic. But, in any case, I woke abruptly when my mobile bleeped with a new text message. "Look outside! F-16s smiling for you. Missiles dancing for you. Drones buzzing and singing for you. Because I asked all of them to wish you a Happy New Year."
     Again and again into the early hours of 1 January, the mobile sprung into life and the same cheeky message from a half a dozen friends reached my inbox. Across Gaza, people were exchanging the same greeting to mark the turn of the year, the dawn of 2009. I wondered why so many bothered with the joke. Perhaps by now, with food running out, hospitals in despair, and the prospect of this conflict escalating rather than scaling down, people are just desperate to find something to smile about.
     At the start of December, I had planned with two of my friends to celebrate the new year in the Museum, a new cultural place opened this summer on the Mediterranean coast in the west of Gaza City. But in the middle of 27 December, after I watched Israeli warplanes launching the start of a new wave of violence, I realised that all our plans were shattered. more.. e-mail

Killing the Devil and Hundreds of Angels
Abu Yusef, Palestine Monitor 1/2/2009
     Over and over again, we have heard the familiar Israeli refrain ‘We are not targeting Palestinians; we are only targeting Hamas and their infrastructure.’
     We have hear this for seven days now, while bodies have staked up on the floors of hospitals, and the casualty rate has climbed into the thousands. We know how many of the victims are children and women; we know that the targets have often been schools and hospitals.
     Even so, the Israeli refrain continues: ‘We are not targeting Palestinian civilians.’ “We are not targeting Palestinian civilians.’ As if saying it enough times will make it a reality.
     Late one night, five sisters huddled together in their beds. The air strikes had been ongoing for a couple of days, and it was easier for them to face the night with each other, than trying to suffer through another sleepless night alone.
     The oldest of the sisters, Tahrir, is seventeen. She tells her sisters that everything will be okay.
     She does not know this of course; but this is not the first air strike of her young life, and she knows that it makes it better when the older people say it is okay.
     They all stay in their rooms and wait. Bombs keep falling – some sound really close, and some sound like distant thuds. Sometimes there are no noises for a few minutes – then the bombing starts again. more.. e-mail

If you (or I) were Palestinian
Yossi Sarid, Ha’aretz 1/2/2009
     This week I spoke with my students about the Gaza war, in the context of a class on national security. One student, who had expressed rather conservative, accepted opinions - that is opinions tending slightly to the right - succeeded in surprising me. Without any provocation on my part, he opened his heart and confessed: "If I were a young Palestinian," he said, "I’d fight the Jews fiercely, even by means of terror. Anyone who says anything different is telling you lies."
     His remarks sounded familiar - I had already heard them before. Suddenly I remembered: About 10 years ago they were uttered by our defense minister, Ehud Barak. Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy had asked him then, as a candidate for prime minister, what he would do had he been born Palestinian and Barak replied frankly: "I would join a terror organization."
     This is not my own answer; terrorism by individuals or organizations or states is always aimed at exacting casualties in a civilian population that has not drawn any blood. Not only is terror blind - consuming both the saint and the sinner - it also expands the circle of the hot-headed, whose blood rises to their brains: Our blood is on their heads, their blood is on our heads. And when an account of the blood of the innocent is opened, who can pay it in full, and when? more.. e-mail

Israel’s righteous fury and its victims in Gaza
Ilan Pappe, Electronic Intifada 1/2/2009
     My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice -- even louder than the one heard during the criminal attack against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel is engulfed once more with righteous fury that translates into destructive policies in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity is not just annoying, it is a subject worth dwelling on, if one wants to understand the international immunity for the massacre that rages on in Gaza.
     It is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of darker days in 1930s Europe. Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel’s massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas. These are the same scholars who demonized the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an earlier era and delegitimized his Fatah movement during the second Palestinian intifada. more.. e-mail

Gaza, the Ummah and Universal Compassion
Hesham A. Hassaballa, Middle East Online 1/2/2009
     The latest violence to come out of the Holy Land has been very distressing to me. While each side claimed that the other broke the tenuous cease-fire, and analysts and pundits opine over the reasons behind this latest outbreak of violence, scores of innocent people needlessly lose their lives. What strikes me most about this is the sheer indifference of both Hamas militants and Israeli leaders at the suffering of innocent civilians by their rockets, bombs, and missiles. Both sides, it seems, fail to see the humanity and sanctity of the other.
     To watch the suffering of the innocent Palestinians caught up in the Israeli bombardment has been heart-wrenching. The images of women and children critically injured by Israeli bombs and missiles has been terrifying to watch. Islam has taught me that I am part of a world-wide family, the "Ummah," connected to one another by our common faith and as such, we care about and feel pain over the suffering of Muslims wherever they may be. The Quran states that "verily, this nation of yours is one nation and I am your Lord, therefore serve Me" (Quran 21:92). The Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said that, "the ummah is like one body, when one part is injured, the whole body feels its pain." more.. e-mail

Profile of a professor who was prepared for martyrdom
Said Ghazali and Donald Macintyre, The Independent 1/2/2009
     Nizar Rayan, described as a “courageous lion” for choosing to remain in his home knowing it would be attacked, was unusual even by the standards of a movement that boasts of the number of PhDs it has in its ranks.
     NIZAR RAYAN, described as a “courageous lion” for choosing to remain in his home knowing it would be attacked, was unusual even by the standards of a movement that boasts of the number of PhDs it has in its ranks.
     A professor at Gaza’s Islamic University who taught Hadith [the Prophet Mohemed’s sayings] and took his doctorate at Sudan’s Um Dorman university, he frequently wore combat fatigues and took part in training – sometimes fighting – with younger militants. In 2001, he reputedly sent one of his sons on a suicide mission, in which two Israeli settlers were killed in Gaza.
     He was the author of 10 books on genealogy and one, entitled Medina Became Dark, about the life of Mohamed, which is widely read in Saudi Arabia. The library in his house, close to the Kholafa mosque beside a large square in Jabalya, was destroyed yesterday. It was said to contain 10,000 books. Mr Rayan was also unusual among Palestinians in making full use of the permission in Islam to have up to four wives. more.. e-mail

Gaza memories
Tom Segev, Ha’aretz 1/2/2009
     On April 5, 1956, Israel bombed the marketplace in the center of Gaza City. Fifty civilians were killed in that attack, including women and children. Then foreign minister Moshe Sharett thought it was a "savage and stupid" operation. But David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister and defense minister, and Moshe Dayan, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, believed the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, sought to destroy Israel and therefore his regime must be toppled, via a defeat in a comprehensive war. Therefore, the ministers followed a policy designed to increase tension and escalation, to the brink of war.
     Sharett believed there was a chance of talks with Nasser. The conflict between the powerful Ben-Gurion and the weak Sharett is among the most dramatic stories in the state’s history, and appears in a book that was released by the Moshe Sharett Heritage Society a few days before the IDF’s latest assault on Gaza ("A Statesman Assessed: Views and Viewpoints about Moshe Sharett," edited by Yaakov and Rina Sharett). In the book, the attempt to topple Nasser appears to have parallels to the attempt to destroy the Hamas regime. more.. e-mail

Tales from Gaza II: 'Living in Gaza under the Bombs'�
Salma Ahmed, Palestine Monitor 1/2/2009
     Dear Friends,
     I am writing you with a delay today due to the lack of electricity.
     I want to cry, Dr. Nizar Rayan, professor at the Islamic University was killed, bombed with his entire family inside of his house. He was a brave man, who refused to leave his home despite all the Israeli treats. His principle was to resist and stand up in dignity, or to die. His house was bombed by 4 rockets. His 3 wives and 8 from his children and grandchildren were killed"¦ Some of his neighbours were killed too, and many injured.
     Today, the bombings haven’t stopped yet. On the contrary, it continues heavily. The night was terrible and we couldn’t fall asleep because of the bombings and the cold.
     The strikes of last night and this morning destroyed the Parliament of Gaza that has just been recently built. Two Ministries -among which the Ministry of Education, a school, a hospital and a clinic, a cheese and yoghurt factory were destroyed too. Along with 3 money exchang. It may not seem important but for almost 5 months, the Palestinians from Gaza have been paid in dollars and not in shekels anymore. And now, the money exchange offices are bombed. more.. e-mail

Gaza’s Blood and Israel’s Lies
Mohamed Khodr, Palestine Chronicle 12/30/2008
     Gaza: ’Bush strongly supports Israel’s right to defend itself.’
     Day Four of the Gaza Genocide: Thus far--Total Deaths: 384; Total Injured 1,750; Today’s Latest Victims:2 sisters aged 4 and 11.
     "I don’t understand your optimism. Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?" -- as quoted in The Jewish Paradox : A personal memoir (1978) by Nahum Goldmann (translated by Steve Cox), p. 99.
     In a just world Israel’s massive air strikes against the jailed impoverished and besieged population of Gaza would be considered a "crime against humanity."But this is Israel that exists in a parallel universe where U.N. Resolutions, International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and internationally recognized human rights are meaningless. No other nation on earth has the protection and impunity to launch devastating air strikes on crowded urban areas and inexplicably be supported by the western world as justified in its use of an overwhelming superior power to unleash American planes, bombs, missiles, and rockets upon civilians in the occupied territories and Lebanon. more.. e-mail

Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood
Mustafa Barghouti, Palestine Think Tank 12/29/2008
     The Israeli campaign of 'death from above' began around 11 am, on Saturday morning, the 27th of December, and stretched straight through the night into this morning. The massacre continues Sunday as I write these words.
     The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far from over following on Israel's promised that this is 'only the beginning' of their campaign of state terror. At least 290 people have been murdered thus far, but the body count continues to rise at a dramatic pace as more mutilated bodies are pulled from the rubble, previous victims succumb to their wounds and new casualties are created by the minute.
     What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the Israeli public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies by the minute. more.. e-mail

The real goal of the slaughter in Gaza
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada 1/1/2009
     Ever since Hamas triumphed in the Palestinian elections nearly three years ago, the story in Israel has been that a full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip was imminent. But even when public pressure mounted for a decisive blow against Hamas, the government backed off from a frontal assault.
     Now the world waits for Ehud Barak, the defense minister, to send in the tanks and troops as the logic of this operation is pushing inexorably towards a ground war. Nonetheless, officials have been stalling. Significant ground forces are massed on Gaza’s border, but still the talk in Israel is of "exit strategies," lulls and renewed ceasefires.
     Even if Israeli tanks do lumber into the enclave, will they dare to move into the real battlegrounds of central Gaza? Or will they simply be used, as they have been in the past, to terrorize the civilian population on the peripheries?
     Israelis are aware of the official reason for Barak’s reticence to follow the air strikes with a large-scale ground war. They have been endlessly reminded that the worst losses sustained by the army in the second Palestinian intifada took place in 2002 during the invasion of Jenin refugee camp. more.. e-mail

How Hypocrisy on ’Terrorism’ Kills
Robert Parry, Middle East Online 1/1/2009
     Israel, a nation that was born out of Zionist terrorism, has launched massive airstrikes against targets in Gaza using high-tech weapons produced by the United States, a country that often has aided and abetted terrorism by its client military forces, such as Chile’s Operation Condor and the Nicaraguan contras, and even today harbors right-wing Cuban terrorists implicated in blowing up a civilian airliner.
     Yet, with that moral ambiguity excluded from the debate, the justification for the Israeli attacks, which have killed at least 364 people, is the righteous fight against “terrorism,” since Gaza is ruled by the militant Palestinian group, Hamas.
     Hamas rose to power in January 2006 through Palestinian elections, which ironically the Bush administration had demanded. However, after Hamas won a parliamentary majority, Israel and the United States denounced the outcome because they deem Hamas a “terrorist organization.
     Hamas then wrested control of Gaza from Fatah, a rival group that once was considered “terrorist” but is now viewed as a US-Israeli partner, so it has been cleansed of the “terrorist” label. more.. e-mail

Living under Israeli Fire
Ola Attallah – Gaza, Palestine Chronicle 1/1/2009
     ’I can’t feel anything any more. I have lost all my senses.’
     "Nobody dares to step out of the house," says an anguished Palestinian mother in the bombed-out Gaza Strip.
     The life of Abu Anas Al-Banna, his wife and their ten children has been confined to the walls of their small house in Gaza city.
     They are imprisoned in their own home, just like many other families in Gaza.
     The children stopped attending school, and the father stopped going to work or even praying at the mosque.
     They fear the Israeli death which has been haunting the impoverished coastal enclave since Saturday and has already claimed more than 414 lives.
     Al-Banna family spends the day shaking to the deafening sound of massive explosions resulting from Israeli strikes, now in their sixth day.
     The anguished parents jump to their toes every time one of their children comes close to a window or dares open the door to take a peek at the deserted streets.
     "We are terrified to death," said the wife, holding tight to her three-year-old son, Sami, who does not stop crying. more.. e-mail

The illusion of victory
Daniel Barenboim, The Guardian 1/1/2009
     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.
     The developments of the last few days are extremely worrisome to me for reasons of humane and political natures. While it is self-evident that Israel has the right to defend itself, that it cannot and should not tolerate missile attacks on its citizens, its army’s relentless and brutal bombardment of Gaza has raised a few important questions in my mind. more.. e-mail

I can’t hug my mother in Gaza
Ghada Ageel writing from the UK, Electronic Intifada 1/1/2009
     There is nothing worse in life than being glued to the TV screen, watching one’s nation being slaughtered on an hourly basis while able to do nothing. There is nothing more painful in this universe than hearing the tears and cries of one’s mother on the phone and be unable to hug her, to wipe her tears or to comfort her with any words or means. There is nothing more terrifying than living through every night in fear that the coming morning will bring the worst possible news a person can bear, that a member of one’s immediate family has been killed. And last but not least there is nothing more horrible on this globe than something happening to a family member when he or she is barred from returning to his or her family and home.
     Like many other members of my community, I wonder what is happening to humanity in the 21st century that makes it deaf to the cries of Gaza’s children and of its entire population, trapped in their open-air prison for more than two years now. more.. e-mail

Lessons of Lebanon return to haunt Israel
Donald Macintyre, The Independent 1/1/2009
     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.
     But Mr Grossman’s article in Haaretz, which draws inescapable parallels with the 2006 Lebanon war, is especially poignant for a reason which he is far too dignified to mention. Had the war not been fruitlessly prolonged, his own tank-commander son, who was killed during its last days, would probably still be alive.
     For there was a moment, back at the end of July 2006, when the second Lebanon war might just have ended five or six days after it began. We now know that Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Foreign Minister, expressed serious concern that Israel might be missing a chance to reach a peace agreement at least as good as the one which would come a full four weeks and many hundreds of casualties – on both sides – later. more.. e-mail

Searching for Words - Poems
The Palestine Chronicle is pleased to feature the work of, Palestine Chronicle 1/1/2009
     Searching for Words, by Samah Sabawi
     Gaza…I search desperately
     For words… for definitions
     To tell the story of ammunitions
     Exploding in a child’s body
     I try to shout my indignation
     But I am lost in vocabulary
     Drowned in phrases as old as me
     And I am as old as the Occupation
     I need new words
     How hard it is to find
     Definitions that can restore
     Humanity to a small strip of land
     Along the Mediterranean shore
     Siege, starvation collective misery
     Familiar words in my head they linger
     Bombs fall from the sky every day
     Powerless words I can’t use any longer
     I need new words... more.. e-mail

Pardon Our Dust: Israel’s PR Campaign for Gaza
Belén Fernández, Palestine Chronicle 12/31/2008
     Will Israeli models try, again, to improve their country’s torn image?
     This past Monday, the third day of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, my mother received a response to the email she had sent the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. It had taken a total of three days for Tzipi Livni’s intensified public relations crusade to reach her computer.
     Livni had ordered the intensification on Saturday, in anticipation of the flawed manner in which the impressionable international community might interpret media coverage of hundreds of dead people and smashed buildings in Gaza. The Israeli Foreign Ministry was tasked with staging a global PR assault to match the physical assault on the Palestinians; according to an article in Haaretz, one component of the assault was the forced exodus of all ministry officials presently vacationing in Israel, and their reinstallation in their respective foreign outposts. The Haaretz article also outlined the Ministry’s plan to recruit speakers of various languages—namely Arabic, Italian, Spanish, and German—such that these speakers might explain the situation in Gaza to visiting media representatives, who were incapable of making judgments based on their own eyesight. (There did not appear to be arrangements, however, for a Maxim magazine spread featuring female veterans of the Israel Defense Forces who happened to be supermodels; this PR tactic had already been exhausted in the summer of 2007, when it was decided that—in order to gain the understanding of the international community—war was going to be equated with cleavage.) more.. e-mail

If Hamas Did Not Exist
Jennifer Loewenstein, Palestine Chronicle 12/31/2008
     ’This crisis has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or peace.’
     Let us get one thing perfectly straight. If the wholesale mutilation and degradation of the Gaza Strip is going to continue; if Israel’s will is at one with that of the United States; if the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and all the international legal agencies and organizations spread across the globe are going to continue to sit by like hollow mannequins doing nothing but making repeated "calls" for a "ceasefire" on "both sides"; if the cowardly, obsequious and supine Arab States are going to stand by watching their brethren get slaughtered by the hour while the world’s bullying Superpower eyes them threateningly from Washington lest they say something a little to their disliking; then let us at least tell the truth why this hell on earth is taking place.
     The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with "Terror". It has nothing to do with the long-term "security" of the Jewish State or with Hizbullah or Syria or Iran except insofar as it is aggravating the conditions that have led up to this crisis today. It has nothing to do with some conjured up "war" -- a cynical and overused euphemism that amounts to little more the wholesale enslavement of any nation that dares claim its sovereign rights; that dares assert that its resources are its own; that doesn’t want one of the Empire’s obscene military bases sitting on its cherished land. more.. e-mail

'The radio reported that my friend was under the rubble'
Dr. Haider Eid writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada 12/31/2008
     Dr. Haidar Eid is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip, Palestine. He gave the following testimony to Eva Bartlett at 5pm Gaza Time on 30 December:
     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. I went back into the bedroom and saw glass everywhere, all over the bed which is right up against the window. If I had been lying there still, it would have shattered all over me, would have seriously injured me, or worse. It was a very strong blast, and the glass must have hit the bed with great force.
     I brought a mattress into the living room, which faces the sea, and lay down trying to sleep there. Moments later, I heard a huge explosion, the third strike, this time from an area closer to the sea. The front, sea-facing window exploded into the room, landing on the desk and the floor, thankfully too far from where I was lying. more.. e-mail

On the Bombing of a Gaza University
Neve Gordon and Jeff Halper - Israel, Palestine Chronicle 12/31/2008
     Not one of the nearly 450 presidents of American colleges and universities who prominently denounced an effort by British academics to boycott Israeli universities in September 2007 have raised their voice in opposition to Israel’s bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza earlier this week. Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, who organized the petition, has been silent, as have his co-signatories from Princeton, Northwestern, and Cornell Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most others who signed similar petitions, like the 11,000 professors from nearly 1,000 universities around the world, have also refrained from expressing their outrage at Israel’s attack on the leading university in Gaza. The artfully named Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, which organized the latter appeal, has said nothing about the assault.
     While the extent of the damage to the Islamic University, which was hit in six separate airstrikes, is still unknown, recent reports indicate that at least two major buildings were targeted, a science laboratory and the Ladies’ Building, where female students attended classes. There were no casualties, as the university was evacuated when the Israeli assault began on Saturday. more.. e-mail

Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis
Ralph Nader, Palestine Chronicle 12/31/2008
     Mr. Bush: ’How do these incontrovertible facts affect you?’
     Dear George W. Bush, Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that "there is only one president at a time" over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred and destroyed respectively by U.S built F-16s and U.S. built helicopter gunships.
     The deliberate suspension of your power to stop this terrorizing of 1.5 million people, mostly refugees, blockaded for months by air, sea and land in their tiny slice of land, is in cowardly contrast to the position taken by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. That year he single handedly stopped the British, French and Israeli aircraft attack against Egypt during the Suez Canal dispute.
     Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater then the casualties incurred by Israelis. But why should anyone be surprised at your blanket support for Israel’s attack given what you have done to a far greater number of civilians in Iraq and now in Afghanistan? more.. e-mail

Where peace is a problem
Haim Bresheeth, Electronic Intifada 12/31/2008
     As the death toll in Gaza rises by the hour, and the few civic buildings still left are collapsing under the combined firepower of the Israeli air force, with its up-to-the-minute bombers and destructive armaments, we are again facing an incredible political phenomenon -- the foretold disaster which surprises all political leaders as if they, unlike the rest of us, never see a newspaper or watch the television news channels.
     In Summer 2006, after months of Israeli hints that it was going to move into Lebanon and "finish off" Hizballah, world leaders were also too busy and quite shocked; to be precise, they were "shocked" for a whole month, a month of wanton destruction and killing, exactly until Israel needed a ceasefire urgently, as things were not going according to plan.
     Then, all of a sudden, western nations moved overnight to impose a cease-fire. Even so, they failed to help Israel in its mission of destroying Hizballah. So, while only people with no easy access to their moral fiber can go on claiming that Israel is right in its murderous, barbaric and illogical revenge mission to hell, the real question is, how are they allowed to do it, and always get away with it. more.. e-mail

’We don’t know where will be targeted next’
Hatem Shurrab, The Guardian 12/31/2008
     Hatem Shurrab, 24, an aid worker with Islamic Relief:
     At Al Shifa hospital [in Gaza City] there is not enough space for the patients. The injured and the people who have been killed are lying outside. On the first day I saw horrific injuries to men and children who were being brought in; some were suffering terrible amputations.
     "There was one guy who was searching for members of his family. He saw his brother in the bodies and hugged him. He started crying. He was very angry. Also I saw a mother who found her son among the bodies.
     "There’s a terrible shortage of doctors, bandages and medical disposables. We are trying to provide the hospital with its basic needs. Some blood supplies have come in from charities working in Jordan.
     "Most of the equipment in the hospital is old and needs maintenance. There’s a shortage of spare parts for the machines. There’s no electricity for most of the day. They can’t use the generators all the time because they don’t work very well. On the streets there’s a shortage of fuel and food. There are crowds outside every bakery trying to get bread. Every half hour there’s an Israeli air raid and news of people killed and injured." more.. e-mail

Obama and Israel’s Gaza Attack
John Nichols, Middle East Online 12/31/2008
     An Israeli air assault on Palestinian targets in Gaza has taken an estimated 300 lives over the course of the past several days, and the death toll is mounting rapidly. Dozens of children have been killed, confirming that there is nothing "surgical" about these strikes.
     Most U.S. media coverage portrays a simple struggle between Israelis on the one side and Gaza’s Hamas militants on the other. This is the line that is being advanced aggressively by the Bush administration and that has effectively been accepted by President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, which is maintaining its "Bush speaks for the U.S. until January 20" line even as the crisis mounts. Following Bush’s lead, Obama has refused to call for a more nuanced and effective U.S. response to an escalation of the Middle East conflict that Palestinian parliamentarian Mustafa Barghouti on Sunday described as the worst since the 1967 war in the region.
     Obama and his aides should be openly counseling the Bush administration to use every diplomatic avenue to promote a ceasefire and, above all, to urge against an Israeli invasion and occupation of Gaza. more.. e-mail

The civilian targets of Israel’s bombing
Report, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 12/31/2008
     12:30pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT)
     The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has continued its military operation in the Gaza Strip for the fifth day. Today, it targeted an ambulance and its medical crew with a missile, killing a doctor and an orderly and critically injuring its driver. According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring, the number of Palestinian casualties since the start of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead at 11:30am on 27 December 2008 has risen to 315, of whom 41 were children and nine women. At least 939 people have been injured, including 85 children and 52 women. The number of civilian objects that have been destroyed is as follows:
     * 112 houses have been destroyed completely and approximately 3,500 houses damaged;
     * Seven mosques have been completely destroyed from direct air strikes;
     * 38 private industrial and agricultural enterprises have been completely destroyed;
     * 16 schools have been damaged;
     * Nine CBO offices were completely destroyed;
     * Eight private vehicles were destroyed;
     * 16 governmental facilities were destroyed. more.. e-mail

So what have the Palestinians got to complain about?
Mark Steel, The Independent 12/31/2008
     When you read the statements from Israeli and US politicians, and try to match them with the pictures of devastation, there seems to be only one explanation. They must have one of those conditions, called something like "Visual Carnage Responsibility Back To Front Upside Down Massacre Disorder".
     For example, Condoleezza Rice, having observed that more than 300 Gazans were dead, said: "We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence. We strongly condemn the attacks on Israel and hold Hamas responsible."
     Someone should ask her to comment on teenage knife-crime, to see if she’d say: "I strongly condemn the people who’ve been stabbed, and until they abandon their practice of wandering around clutching their sides and bleeding, there is no hope for peace."
     The Israeli government suffers terribly from this confusion... more.. e-mail

Re: Gross Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Gaza Strip
Various Undersigned Organizations, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 12/30/2008
     The UN Human Rights Council must urge the General Assembly to act under Resolution 377
     Dear Member State of the UN Human Rights Council,
     Representing the Palestinian human rights community, we write to you with an urgent request for intervention by the UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as a result of the Israeli occupying forces‘ ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip. At least 310 persons, including 37 children, have been killed and over 1000 Palestinians have been injured. The civilian population of the occupied Gaza Strip will inevitably continue to suffer heavy losses without the external intervention of the international community; this is confirmed by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s assertion that this is a “war to the bitter end.”
     Grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention amounting to war crimes, have been committed, including, wilful killing and the extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. Furthermore, the continuing collective punishment of the Gaza strip has left medical services unable to deal with the increasing number of victims.
     As member States of the UN Human Rights Council, you were fully apprised of the human rights situation in the OPT, during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Israel earlier this month. The dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip was a dominant concern raised by States during the review. Despite recommendations to Israel concerning its obligation to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the capacity of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure to respond to the humanitarian needs of the population after days of bombardment has now reached breaking point. You have further been notified by Special Rapporteur Richard Falk of Israel’s failure to cooperate with his mandate and his call on "all Member States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel’s serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people." more.. e-mail

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