Israel Air Strikes On Gaza Kill 155

Israel rejects truce appeals as Gaza blitz continues

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gsQTeCjbeNcjdmfW4Ta7i2dt_Ldg

4 hours ago

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israel rejected world appeals for a truce on Tuesday and warned its deadly assault on Gaza could last for weeks as warplanes pummelled Hamas positions for a fourth day and tanks massed on the border.

Despite the devastating aerial pounding that has now killed at least 363 people, Hamas militants continued to fight back, firing deadly rockets deep inside Israeli territory.

Children again fell victim to Israel's "all-out war" on the Islamist Hamas movement, with two sisters dying when a missile slammed into their donkey cart in the northern town of Beit Hanun.

In Gaza City, residents picked through rubble and broken glass after a night in which Israel hammered the overcrowded territory with some 40 strikes targeting Hamas buildings, training camps and rocket launchers.

Despite repeated pleas by UN chief Ban Ki-moon for a stop to the "unacceptable" violence that has sparked outrage in the Muslim world and protests in many countries, Israel waved aside calls for a truce.

"There is no reason that we would accept a ceasefire at this stage," Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told AFP.

"If there is a ceasefire, that will allow Hamas to regain strength, recover from the shock and prepare an even stronger attack against Israel," he said.

With tanks and personnel massed on the Gaza border, Israel said infantry was ready to join what it warned would be a prolonged offensive.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the bombardment so far was "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet," while Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned the offensive -- one of Israel's deadliest ever against Gaza -- could last weeks.

"We are ready for a prolonged conflict and for weeks of combat," Vilnai said.

An army spokeswoman said that "the ground forces are ready," adding that "for the moment we are only hitting from the air and the sea."

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who has described the bombardment as an "all-out war" against Hamas, has repeatedly warned that he is ready to send ground troops into Gaza .

The four days of intensive bombardment, which have killed several senior Hamas officials and reduced many of the group's structures in Gaza to rubble, has failed to stop rocket fire from the territory.

Three Israelis -- two civilians and one soldier -- were killed on Monday by rockets fired from Gaza, with one reaching the deepest yet inside Israel and slamming into the southern port city of Ashdod, more than 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border.

Hamas has warned it might also launch suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.

Since Israel unleashed its massive aerial attack on Saturday following persistent rocket fire from Gaza, at least 363 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, according to Gaza medics.

Palestinian militants have fired more than 250 rockets, killing four people inside Israel and wounding around two dozen more.

Rebuffing Arab appeals, Israel's main ally Washington has given the offensive strong support but said it was working behind the scenes to forge a truce.

"The United States understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reaching out by telephone to key world leaders and diplomats to find a lasting way to end the violence, officials said.

At the United Nations, Ban said he was "deeply alarmed by the current escalation of violence in and around Gaza. This is unacceptable.

"Both Israel and Hamas must halt their acts of violence and... a ceasefire must be declared immediately."

EU foreign ministers were set to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how they can work to help ease the crisis in Gaza.

There was growing concern about the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million which Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power in June last year.

The Israeli military opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow more than 100 trucks filled with humanitarian aid to enter Gaza on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. On Monday, dozens of trucks were allowed to pass through.

Israel's offensive followed days of rising violence after a tenuous six-month truce in and around Gaza ended on December 19. It also comes ahead of early parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.
 
Cynthia McKinney aboard relief boat rammed by Israeli naval vessel

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.aid.boat/index.html

Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel


  • Story Highlights
  • Israeli naval vessel, boat with medical volunteers collide in Mediterranean
  • Boat's crew contends naval vessel rammed it intentionally
  • Israel denies intentionally hitting boat carrying journalists, medical supplies
  • Damaged boat arrives safely at Lebanese port after incident
(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot, Gibraltar-registered pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed.

The Dignity was carrying 16 passengers and crew who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

The captain of the Dignity said the Israelis broadcast a radio message accusing the vessel of being involved in terrorist activity. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the radio message simply warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.

Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision.
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Watch Penhaul describe the boat damage »

Penhaul said at least two Israeli patrol boats had shadowed the Dignity for about half an hour before the collision, moving around the vessel on all sides. One of the patrol boats then shined its spotlight on the Dignity while the other, with its lights off, "very severely rammed" the boat.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no prior warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities.
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Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel »

The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations "absurd."

"There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody," Palmor said.

The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. Israel controls the waters off Gaza's coast and routinely blocks ships from coming into the Palestinian territory as part of an ongoing blockade that also applies to the Israel-Gaza border. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel supplies.

The collision was so severe, Penhaul said, that the passengers were ordered to put on their life vests and be ready to get in lifeboats. The Dignity began taking on water but the crew managed to pump it out of the hull long enough for the boat to reach shore.

Palmor said the vessel refused assistance after the incident.

The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory now subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign. Among the passengers were physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and several human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is," McKinney said. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side.
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Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision »

"Our mission was a peaceful mission, but our mission was thwarted by the Israelis, the aggressiveness of the Israeli military."

Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Saturday in what Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an "all-out war" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007.

The Palestinian death toll has topped 375, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said.

Hamas has responded with volleys of rocket fire aimed at southern Israeli towns, which have left six Israelis dead -- five of them civilians.

Hamas has vowed to defend Gaza in the face of what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which formally expired December 19 but had been weakening for months.
 
Israeli Gunboats Came out of the Darkness and Rammed us Three Times

http://freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=06ec9655d88714c7ffaf8b1534783da3

For more information, please contact:

(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497 / [email protected]

(Cyprus) Lubna Masarwa +357 99 081 767 / [email protected]

(Lebanon) Caoimhe Butterley +961 70 875 727 / [email protected]

http://www.FreeGaza.org

(Lebanon, Tuesday 30 December) - Today the Free Gaza ship "Dignity" carefully made its way to safe harbor in Tyre, Lebanon's southern-most port city, after receiving serious structural damage when Israeli warships rammed its bow and the port side. Waiting to greet the passengers and crew were thousands of Lebanese who came out to show their solidarity with this attempt to deliver volunteer doctors and desperately needed medical supplies to war-ravaged Gaza. The Lebanese government has pledged to provide a forensic analysis of what happened in the dark morning, when Israel rammed the civilian ship in international waters, and put the people on board in danger of losing their lives.

The Dignity, on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, was attacked by the Israeli Navy at approximately 6am (UST) in international waters, roughly 90 miles off the coast of Gaza. Several Israeli warships surrounded the small, human rights boat, firing live ammunition around it, then intentionally ramming it three times. According to ship's captain Denis Healy, the Israeli attack came, ""without any warning, or any provocation."

Caoimhe Butterly, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that, "The gunboats gave us no warning. They came up out of the darkness firing flares and flashing huge flood lights into our faces. We were so shocked that at first we didn't react. We knew we were well within international waters and supposedly safe from attack. They rammed us three times, hitting the side of the boat hard. We began taking on water and, for a few minutes, we all feared for our lives. After they rammed us, they started screaming at us as we were frantically getting the life boats ready and putting on our life jackets. They kept yelling that if we didn't turn back they would shoot us."

Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, was traveling to Gaza aboard the Dignity in order to assess the impact of Israel's military onslaught against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. According to McKinney, "Israeli patrol boats...tracked us for about 30 minutes...and then all of a sudden they rammed us approximately three times, twice in the front and once in the side...the Israelis indicated that [they felt] we were involved in terrorist activities."

The Dignity departed from Larnaca Port in Cyprus at 7pm (UST) on Monday 29 December with a cargo of over 3 tons of desperately needed medical supplies donated to Gaza by the people of Cyprus. Three surgeons were also aboard, traveling to Gaza to volunteer in overwhelmed hospitals and clinics. The ship was searched by Cypriot Port authorities prior to departure, and its passenger list was made public.

Israel's deplorable attack on the unarmed Dignity is a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that "the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."

Delivering doctors and urgently needed medical supplies to civilians is a just such a "peaceful purpose." Deliberately ramming a mercy ship and endangering its passengers is an act of terrorism.

CALL the Israeli Government and demand that it immediately STOP attacking the civilian population of Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at:
+972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264
[email protected]

Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence at:
+972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148
[email protected]

Major Liebovitz from the Israeli Navy at:
+ 972 5 781 86248
 
How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/123008.html

By Robert Parry
December 30, 2008

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 U.S.-Israeli partner, so it has been cleansed of the “terrorist” label.

Unwilling to negotiate seriously with Hamas because of its acts of terrorism – which have included firing indiscriminate short-range missiles into southern Israel – the United States and Israel sat back as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza worsened, with 1.5 million impoverished Palestinians packed into what amounts to a giant open-air prison.

When Hamas ended a temporary cease-fire on Dec. 19 because of a lack of progress in those negotiations and began lobbing its little missiles into Israel once more, the Israeli government reacted on Saturday with its lethal “shock and awe” firepower – even though no Israelis had been killed by the post-cease-fire missiles launched from Gaza. [Since Saturday, four Israelis have died in more intensive Hamas missile attacks.]

Israel claimed that its smart bombs targeted sites related to the Hamas security forces, including a school for police cadets and even regular policemen walking down the street. But it soon became clear that Israel was taking an expansive view of what was part of the Hamas military infrastructure, with Israeli bombs taking out a television station and a university building as well as killing a significant number of civilians.

As the slaughter continued on Monday, Israeli officials confided to Western journalists that the war plan was to destroy the vast support network of social and other programs that undergird Hamas’s political clout.

“There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel,” a senior Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post.

“Hamas’s civilian infrastructure is a very, very sensitive target,” added Matti Steinberg, a former top adviser to Israel’s domestic security service. “If you want to put pressure on them, this is how.” [Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2008]

Since the classic definition of “terrorism” is the use of violence against civilians to achieve a political goal, Israel would seem to be inviting an objective analysis that it has chosen its own terrorist path. But it is clearly counting on the U.S. news media to continue wearing the blinders that effectively limit condemnations about terrorism to people and groups that are regarded as Washington’s enemies.

Whose Terrorism?
As a Washington-based reporter for the Associated Press in the 1980s, I once questioned the seeming bias that the U.S.-based wire service applied to its use of the word “terrorist.” A senior AP executive responded to my concerns with a quip. “Terrorist is the word that follows Arab,” he said.

Though meant as a lighthearted riposte, the comment clearly had a great deal of truth to it. It was easy to attach “terrorist” to any Arab attack – even against a military target such the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 after the Reagan administration had joined hostilities against Muslim forces. But it was understood that different rules applied when the terrorism was coming from “our side.”

Then, no American reporter with any sense of career survival would think of injecting the word “terrorist” whatever the justification.

Even historical references to acts of terrorism – such as the brutal practice by American revolutionaries in the 1770s of “tar and feathering” civilians considered sympathetic to the British Crown or the extermination of American Indian tribes – were seen as somehow diluting the moral righteousness against today’s Islamic terrorists and in favor of George W. Bush's "war on terror."

Gone, too, from the historical narrative was the fact that militant Zionists employed terrorism as part of their campaign to establish Israel as a Jewish state. The terrorism included killings of British officials who were administering Palestine under an international mandate as well as Palestinians who were driven violently from their land so it could be claimed by Jewish settlers.

One of the most famous of those terrorist attacks was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where British officials were staying. The attack, which killed 91 people including local residents, was carried out by the Irgun, a terrorist group run by Menachem Begin who later founded the Likud Party and rose to be Israel’s prime minister.

Another veteran of the campaign of Zionist terrorism was Yitzhak Shamir, who also became a Likud leader and eventually prime minister.

In the early 1990s, as I was waiting to interview Shamir at his Tel Aviv office, I was approached by one of his young female assistants who was dressed in a gray and blue smock with a head covering in the traditional Hebrew style.

As we were chatting, she smiled and said in a lilting voice, “Prime Minister Shamir, he was a terrorist, you know.” I responded with a chuckle, “yes, I’m aware of the prime minister’s biography.”

Blind Spot
To maintain one’s moral purity in denouncing acts of terror by U.S. enemies, one also needs a large blind spot for recent U.S. history, which implicates U.S. leaders repeatedly in tolerance or acts of terrorism.

For instance, in 1973, after a bloody U.S.-backed coup overthrew the leftist Chilean government, the new regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet joined with other South American dictatorships to sponsor an international terrorist organization called Operation Condor which assassinated political dissidents around the world.

Operation Condor mounted one of its most audacious actions on the streets of Washington in 1976, when Pinochet’s regime recruited Cuban-American terrorists to detonate a car bomb that killed Chile’s former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker, Ronni Moffitt. The Chilean government's role immediately was covered up by the CIA, then headed by George H.W. Bush. [For details, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]

Only weeks later, a Venezuela-based team of right-wing Cubans – under the direction of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles – blew a Cubana Airliner out of the sky, killing 73 people. Bosch and Posada, a former CIA operative, were co-founders of CORU, which was described by the FBI as “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization.”

Though the U.S. government soon learned of the role of Bosch and Posada in the Cubana airline attack – and the two men spent some time in a Venezuelan jail – both Bosch and Posada since have enjoyed the protection of the U.S. government and particularly the Bush Family.

Rebuffing international demands that Bosch and Posada be held accountable for their crimes, the Bushes – George H.W., George W. and Jeb – have all had a hand in making sure these unrepentant terrorists get to live out their golden years in the safety and comfort of the United States.

In the 1980s, Posada even crossed over into another U.S.-backed terrorist organization, the Nicaraguan contras. After escaping from Venezuela, he was put to work in 1985 by Oliver North’s contra-support operation run out of Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council.

The Nicaraguan contras were, in effect, a narco-terrorist organization that partially funded its operations with proceeds from cocaine trafficking, a secret that the Reagan administration worked hard to conceal along with the contras’ record of murder, torture, rape and other crimes in Nicaragua. [See Parry’s Lost History.]

President Reagan joined, too, in fierce PR campaigns to discredit human rights investigators who documented massive atrocities by U.S. allies in Central America in the 1980s – not only the contras, but also the state terrorism of the Salvadoran and Guatemalan security forces, which engaged in wholesale slaughters in villages considered sympathetic to leftist insurgents.

Generally, the major U.S. news outlets treaded very carefully when allegations arose about terrorism by “our side.”

When some brave journalists, like New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner, wrote about politically motivated killings of civilians in Central America, they faced organized retaliation by right-wing advocacy groups which often succeeded in damaging or destroying the reporters’ careers.

Double Standards
Eventually, the American press corps developed an engrained sense of the double standards. Moral outrage could be expressed when acts of terrorism were committed by U.S. enemies, while studied silence – or nuanced concern – would be in order when the crimes were by U.S. allies.

So, while the U.S. news media had no doubt that the 9/11 terrorist attacks justified invading Afghanistan, there was very little U.S. media criticism when President Bush inflicted his “shock and awe” assault on Iraq, a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.

Though many Muslims and others around the world have denounced Bush’s Iraq invasion as “state terrorism,” such a charge would be considered far outside the mainstream in the United States. Instead, Iraqi insurgents are often labeled “terrorists” when they attack U.S. troops inside Iraq. The word “terrorist” has become, in effect, a geopolitical curse word.

Despite the long and bloody history of U.S.-Israeli participation in terrorism, the U.S. news media continues its paradigm of pitting the U.S.-Israeli “good guys” against the Islamic “bad guys.” One side has the moral high ground and the other is in the moral gutter. [For more on the U.S. media’s one-sided approach, see the analysis by Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher.]

Any attempt to cite the larger, more ambiguous and more troubling picture draws accusations from defenders of U.S.-Israeli actions, especially the neoconservatives, of what they call “moral equivalence” or “anti-Semitism.”

Yet it is now clear that acquiescence to a double standard on terrorism is not just a violation of journalistic ethics or an act of political cowardice; it is complicity in mass murder. Without the double standard, it is hard to envision how the bloodbaths – in Iraq (since 2003), in Lebanon (in 2006) and in Gaza (today) – would be possible.

Hypocrisy over the word “terrorism” is not an innocent dispute over semantics; it kills.
 
Israel weighs 48-hour halt to Gaza air campaign

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writers
12/30/2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel, under international pressure, is considering a 48-hour halt to its punishing four-day air campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza to see if Palestinian militants will stop their rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli officials said Tuesday. Any offer would be coupled with a threat to send in ground troops if the rocket fire continues.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed the proposal — floated by France's foreign minister — and other possible next steps with his foreign and defense ministers, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to make the information public.

President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called leaders in the Middle East to press for a durable solution beyond any immediate truce.

And members of the Quartet of world powers trying to promote Mideast peace concluded a conference call with an appeal for an immediate cease-fire. The Quartet powers are the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

The European Union itself late Tuesday also urged an immediate truce and for Israel to reopen borders to allow vital supplies to reach Gazans. The Paris statement by the 27-member bloc avoided blaming either side for the current fighting.

In its Tuesday night meeting, Israel's leadership trio stepped up preparations for a ground offensive, conducting a telephone survey among Cabinet ministers on a plan to call up an additional 2,500 reserve soldiers, if required. Earlier this week, the Cabinet authorized a callup of 6,700 soldiers.

After the four-hour meeting, Olmert's office issued a statement early Wednesday saying no details of the discussion would be made public because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

And even amid talk of a truce, Israeli warplanes continued to unload bombs on targets in Gaza. Powerful airstrikes caused Gaza City's high-rise apartment buildings to sway and showered streets with broken glass and pulverized concrete. Israel's ground forces on Gaza's border also used artillery for the first time.

Hamas kept up its rocket barrages, which have killed four Israelis since the weekend, and sent many more in running for bomb shelters — some of them in cities under threat of attack for the first time, as the range of the rockets grows.

A medium-range rocket hit the city of Beersheba for the first time ever, zooming 28 miles deep into Israel and slamming into an empty kindergarten. A second rocket landed in an open area near the desert city, Israel's fifth-largest. The military said later it successfully struck the group that launched those rockets.

A pattern of daytime lulls and nighttime spikes in rocket fire appeared to be emerging as militants found safer launch cover in darkness.

Four days into a campaign that has killed 374 Palestinians and prompted Arab and international condemnation, a diplomatic push to end the fighting gathered pace.

In two phone calls to Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday and Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed to him to consider a truce to allow time for humanitarian relief supplies to enter the beleaguered Gaza Strip, two senior officials in Barak's office said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was expected to travel Thursday to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has put his growing international stature to use in other conflict zones, most recently to help halt fighting between Russia and Georgia in August.

Israeli media reported that Sarkozy would also travel to Jerusalem Monday for talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

A Hamas spokesman said any halt to militant rocket and mortar fire would require an end to Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. "If they halt the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions," said Mushir Masri.

Any cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would face questions about its long-term viability. In the past, Hamas has been unable or unwilling to rein in all the militants, some of which belong to different factions. Israel has angered the Palestinians by continuing to target its leaders and by maintaining a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"It's certainly difficult for Hamas because, having witnessed the losses that they have just suffered on large scale, their credibility is on the line and they're not going to easily agree to a cease-fire that goes back to the conditions that prevailed before, after all these losses," said Shibley Telhami, professor of political science at the University of Maryland and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. "So, we're likely to see more bloodshed, and I think that is where we are in a way, events on the ground are going to dictate."

Israel's military, meanwhile, pressed on, sending warplanes to strike a Gaza government complex that includes the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and justice. Bombs ripped the tops and sides from buildings that had already been evacuated and left fires blazing in upper floors.

It was the largest government target hit so far and involved the largest number of bombs dropped in a single strike — at least 16 in all.

The airstrikes have sent the people of densely populated Gaza on a zigzagging desperate search for safer ground — hard to find with no way out of the blockaded territory.

"I don't know what's safe anymore," said university student Rasha Khaldeh of Gaza City. She fled her home, fearing Israel would target her Hamas neighbors, then had to leave her uncle's house because of nearby shelling. She listens intently for the approach of pilotless Israeli drones.

After nightfall, Israel destroyed 40 tunnels under the sealed Gaza-Egypt border in another attempt to cut the vital lifeline that supplies Gaza with both commercial goods and weapons for Hamas and other militant groups.

Israel's military said it hit 31 targets on Tuesday, including a Cabinet building, rocket-launching sites, and places were missiles were being built. Some of the hits on sites with weapons stockpiles triggered secondary explosions.

The question still hanging over the Israeli operation is how it can halt rocket fire. Israel has never found a military solution to the barrage of missiles. The "Iron Dome," a system to guard against short-range missiles, will take years to build.

Beyond delivering Hamas a deep blow and protecting border communities, the assault's broader objectives remained cloudy. Israeli President Shimon Peres acknowledged the challenge, saying the operation was unavoidable but more difficult than many people anticipated.

"War against terrorists is harder in some aspects than fighting armies," Peres said.

Hamas also said it would take more to cripple it.

A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, said the group remained strong, and he vowed to fight on as long as Israel continues its airstrikes. He noted that even while under heavy airstrikes, militants had fired rockets that reached Israeli towns farther from Gaza than ever. "Rockets will be on your daily agenda," he said in a message to Israelis.

And if there's a ground invasion, he promised worse: "If you enter Gaza, the children will collect your flesh and the remains of your tanks which will be spread out through the streets."

The offensive came shortly after a rocky, six-month truce expired.

Emad Falluji, a former Hamas leader working at a Gaza-based think tank, said he believes Hamas had wanted to renew the truce but felt humiliated by Israel's decision to maintain a tight blockade on Gaza.

"Israel didn't want to give Hamas anything in return for the cease-fire, which was effectively free," he said.

Egypt, which has been blockading Gaza from its southern end, has come under pressure from the rest of the Arab world to reopen its border with the territory because of the Israeli campaign. Egypt has pried open the border to let in some of Gaza's wounded and to allow some humanitarian supplies into the territory. But it quickly sealed the border when Gazans tried to push through forcefully.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responded to critics, including the leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who have accused him of collaborating with Israel.

"We tell anybody who seeks political profits on the account of the Palestinian people: The Palestinian blood is not cheap," he said, describing such comments as "exploiting the blood of the Palestinians."

Mubarak said his country would not throw open the border crossing unless Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — a Hamas rival — regains control of the border post. Mubarak has been rattled by the presence of a neighboring Islamic ministate in Gaza, fearing it would fuel more Islamic dissidence in Egypt.

Most of the Palestinians killed since Saturday were members of Hamas security forces but the number included at least 64 civilians, according to U.N. figures. Among those killed were two sisters, Haya and Lama Hamdan, ages 4 and 12, who died in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

Throughout the offensive, Israel's military has released video taken by hovering drone aircraft showing its missiles and bombs hurtling into Gaza targets, including one on Tuesday that sent about a half-dozen bombs simultaneously into a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border.

During brief lulls between airstrikes, Gazans tentatively ventured into the streets to buy goods and collect belongings from homes they had abandoned after Israel's aerial onslaught began Saturday.

The campaign has brought a new reality to southern Israel, too, where one-tenth of the country's population of 7 million has suddenly found itself within rocket range.

"It's very scary," said Yaacov Pardida, a 55-year-old resident of Ashdod, southern Israel's largest city, which was hit Monday. "I never imagined that this could happen, that they could reach us here."
 
Thousands of protestors demand end to Israeli raids in Gaza

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Thousands_of_protestors_demand_end__12302008.html

12/30/2008

Thousands of people demanded an end to Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip in a protest Tuesday outside the US State Department in Washington.

Protestors carrying red-white-green-and-black Palestinian flags and wearing black-and-white checkered head scarves chanted slogans like "Stop the Killing, Stop the War, Stop the Genocide of Palestinians."

Some of them also held aloft banners that read "Stop US Aid to Israel" and "Free, Free Palestine."

An AFP reporter said there initially appeared to be around 200 protestors, but a larger crowd returned to the State Department later in the evening following a march to the White House.

A police officer told AFP he estimated the later crowd at around 2,500 protesters, while organizers said the number was closer to 5,000 people. Police said the demonstration passed off peacefully.

Mahdi Bray, executive director for the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom group, said seven busloads of people came in from Raleigh, North Carolina in addition to crowds from the Washington DC area.

Bray said he wanted Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace but criticized US foreign policy.

"The United States has not been an honest broker" in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Bray told AFP. "The Bush administration has been the worst," he said.

Activists said the protest was organized by a number of Palestinian support groups.

Among other groups organizing the protest was the National Council of Arabs, Bray said.
 
US Joins International Call for Immediate Gaza Cease-fire

http://voanews.com/english/2008-12-30-voa48.cfm

By David Gollust
State Deparment
30 December 2008

The United States has joined other powers in the international Middle East Quartet in urging an immediate Gaza Strip cease-fire. The Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations - discussed the crisis on Tuesday in a ministerial-level telephone conference call.

The Bush administration had resisted joining calls for an immediate cease-fire, with officials saying they did not want a hasty agreement that would bring about a repeat of the previous truce that Hamas frequently violated and which fell apart earlier this month.

But officials here say U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined her Quartet partners in the immediate cease-fire appeal because the four powers also stipulated that it be "fully respected" by both Hamas and Israel.

The telephone conference involving Rice, U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana, Quartet envoy Tony Blair, and others, highlighted a day of intense diplomacy aimed at restoring peace to Gaza.

A State Department spokesman said the Quartet members called on all parties to address the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza, and take necessary measures to insure the continuous provision of humanitarian supplies.

They also agreed on the urgent need for Israelis and Palestinians to continue on the road to peace and agreed to remain in close touch, though the spokesman said there were no immediate plans for a face-to-face Quartet meeting.

Earlier in Crawford, Texas, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a ceasefire in name only - that breaks down in hours or days - serves no one's interest.

"We have got to get a commitment from Hamas that they would respect any crease-fire and make it lasting and durable," said Johndroe. "And so, until we can get that assurance - not the United States, but until Israel can get that assurance from Hamas - then we're not going to have a cease-fire that is worth the paper it's written on."

Johndroe said President Bush, who is spending the holidays at home in Texas, got a video briefing on the Gaza situation from his national security team Tuesday and spoke by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the two top leaders of the Palestinian Authority - President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Prime Minister Fayyad thanked Mr. Bush for an $85 million commitment of new U.S. humanitarian aid to Palestinians announced earlier in the day.

Although it rejects dealings with Hamas, which is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group, the United States has continued providing food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza Palestinians through the United Nations and other third parties.

Johndroe said Mr. Bush expressed appreciation to President Mubarak for Egypt's leadership and positive role in the current crisis. Egypt has contacts with both Hamas and Israel, and helped broker the previous six-month truce which expired earlier this month and which Hamas refused to renew.
 
Gaza relief boat carrying Cynthia McKinney rammed by Israelis

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cynthia_McKinneys_boat_rammed_by_Israeli_1230.html

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday December 30, 2008

An Israeli patrol boat intercepted a yacht carrying three tons of medical supplies to Gaza in international waters early on Tuesday as it attempted to run an Israeli blockade. According to those on board, the patrol boat accused the relief vessel of being involved in terrorist activity and then deliberately rammed it, forcing it to return to port in Lebanon.

Among the yacht's 16 passengers were doctors, journalists, and human rights activists, including former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). McKinney spoke to CNN from Lebanon, telling John Roberts, "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and once on the side."

McKinney described as "outright disinformation" a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry which called the charge that the ramming was deliberate "absurd." According to the Israeli spokesman, the boat was struck as it attempted to outmaneuver the Israeli vessel.

The Free Gaza movement, which sponsored the relief mission, explained in a press release, "This is the sixth boat that the Free Gaza movement has sent ... in a symbolic effort to end the seige of Gaza. These are small boats, and they do not cross into Israeli waters at all. This Israeli attack on the boat, which occurred in international waters, cannot be described as 'self defense' by any stretch of delusional imagination."

"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies," McKinney told CNN, "and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military."

McKinney then appealed to President-elect Obama to "say something, please, about the humanitarian crisis that is being experienced right now by the people of Gaza." She referred to Martin Luther King's description of the United States as "the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet" and noted that "the weapons that are being used by Israel are weapons that are being supplied by the United States."

McKinney has been known for her opposition to Israeli policies, which is blamed in part for her loss of her Congressional seat. According to the Washington Post, "In 2002, two Democrats in Congress with records of voting against Israel's interests -- Reps. Earl Hilliard of Alabama and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia -- faced primary opponents who received substantial support from Jewish donors. A majority of AIPAC board members gave to either McKinney's challenger or Hilliard's or both. Hilliard and McKinney lost."

The full CNN story can be read here.

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Dec. 30, 2008.

Video At Source
 
Israel rebuffs Gaza truce call and mobilises more troops

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Israel_rebuffs_Gaza_truce_call_and_mobilises_more_troops.html?siteSect=143&sid=10136604&cKey=1230734270000&ty=ti

By Nidal al-Mughrabi
12/31/2008

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel on Wednesday said the time was not right for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and stepped up preparations for a possible ground offensive after Hamas's long-range rockets hit another major population centre.

"If conditions will ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," an aide quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying.

"We didn't start this operation just to end it with rocket fire continuing as it did before it began," Olmert said, according to the aide. "Imagine if we declare a unilateral cease-fire and a few days later rockets fall on (the town of) Ashkelon. What will that do to Israel's deterrence?"

Foreign pressure has grown on both sides to end hostilities.

France had proposed a 48-hour truce that would allow in more humanitarian aid for Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Olmert made the remarks -- which did not rule out a cease-fire in the future -- to his security cabinet, which had rebuffed the plan.

Hamas said it was prepared to study proposals for a cease-fire.

"We are for any initiative that will bring an immediate cessation to the aggression and lift the siege entirely," Hamas official Ayman Taha said, referring to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, territory controlled by the Islamist group.

Diplomats said the deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades appeared close to a tipping point after four days of air strikes that have killed 393 Palestinians, at least a quarter of whom, U.N. figures showed, were civilians.

Palestinian medical officials revised the number of wounded to 1,650 after figures arrived from medical centres that had not reported their casualty statistics earlier. Three Israeli civilians and a soldier have been killed by rockets.

Along the heavily-fortified border fence, Israeli tank crews prepared for battle while Islamist militants, hiding as little as a few hundred yards (meters) away, laid land mines and other booby traps should a ground war break out.

Inside Gaza, for the first time since the fighting began, many residents ventured outside their homes to stock up on supplies, taking advantage of a lull in Israeli air strikes that have turned Hamas government buildings into piles of rubble.

Some children played happily in the rain, as one parent remarked they were finally able to run free after what he called three days of "house arrest."

Despite the pressure from foreign powers for an end to the violence, public anger in Israel over the widening of the rocket attacks to include Beersheba, 40 km (24 miles) from Gaza, could prompt the government to hit Hamas even harder.

Israeli officials said they were open to amendments to the French proposal and alternatives being put forward by international parties.

Cabinet ministers, however, approved the mobilisation of 2,500 army reservists, expanding on an earlier call-up of 6,500 soldiers for the garrison on the Gaza border, officials said.

HUMANITARIAN AID
Israel said it was doing its part to let humanitarian supplies into Gaza despite the rocket fire. More than 100 truckloads of food and medicine were expected to enter on Wednesday, defence official Peter Lerner said.

With Palestinians increasingly enraged over the Gaza offensive, aides said President Mahmoud Abbas would ask the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to seek a common position in response to the Israeli attacks, but the Arab world is deeply divided in its attitude towards Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last year after fighting a brief civil war with the secular Fatah faction loyal to Western-backed Abbas.

The diplomatic moves coincided with an escalation in Hamas rocket fire deeper inside Israel.

At least four of the longer-range Grad rockets hit Beersheba, the city Israel calls the capital of the Negev, its southern region. One struck a school that was empty. Municipal authorities had cancelled classes after rockets landed in Beersheba on Tuesday evening for the first time.

Other long-range rockets hit the southern coastal city of Ashkelon. Dozens of short-range rockets pelted border towns.

Israeli aircraft had carried out six air strikes in the Gaza Strip so far on Wednesday, the lowest number since the campaign began, targeting smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt frontier and Hamas government offices in Gaza City. Palestinian medics said four people -- two militants, a doctor and a paramedic -- were killed.

Rain over the past few days and fresh showers on Wednesday could delay any push soon by Israeli tanks into the territory and also limit air operations. Forecasters predicted several days of clear skies starting late on Thursday.

Gaza City taxi driver Mazen Ahmen called the rain "a truce imposed by God."

Basic food supplies in the Gaza Strip were running low and power cuts were affecting much of the territory. Hospitals were struggling to cope with the high number of casualties from the offensive.

Olmert's centrist government launched the operation six weeks before a February 10 election that opinion polls predict the opposition right-wing Likud party will win, with the goal of halting rocket attacks by militants in Gaza.

The current violence erupted after a six-month cease-fire brokered by Egypt expired on December 19 and Hamas intensified rocket attacks from the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

France said it would host Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday and an Israeli official said French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to visit Jerusalem next Monday.
 
Protesters worldwide keep up pressure over Gaza

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Protesters_worldwide_keep_up_pressu_12302008.html

12/31/2008

Protesters denouncing Israel's deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip returned to the streets in demonstrations around the world to keep up the pressure for an end to the violence.

As Israel, under increasing diplomatic pressure, mulled a proposed 48-hour truce and the death toll from its onslaught rose to at least 373 Palestinians, the protesters made their voices heard again.

In France, more than 7,000 protesters marched in a dozen cities across the country to denounce the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which continued for the fourth day running Tuesday.

In Paris, around 3,500 people according to police -- 5,000 according to the organisers -- marched towards the French foreign ministry on the Quai D'Orsay by the River Seine, shouting slogans and carrying banners denouncing Israel.

Police said another 700 marched in the western city of Nantes, while demonstrations in at least a dozen cities and towns across the country each attracted hundreds of protesters.

In London, between 200 and 300 demonstrators protested peacefully outside the Israeli embassy, after the two previous days' rallies had descended into violence.

This demonstration was smaller than on Sunday and Monday, when scuffles erupted between police and protestors against Israel's air raids, leading to a total of 17 arrests over the two days.

Iranian demonstrators stormed the British diplomatic compound in Tehran Tuesday evening to protest London's stance towards the Israeli onslaught, state news agency IRNA reported.

"A large group of people and students entered the Gholhak gardens, which are occupied by the British embassy to protest at Britain's policies in supporting the Zionist regime and put up the Palestinian flag there," IRNA said.

A media officer at the British embassy in Tehran confirmed the report.

In Washington, between 2,500 and 5,000 people protested outside the US State Department chanting slogans like "Stop the Killing, Stop the War, Stop the Genocide of Palestinians" and with some carrying banners saying "Stop US Aid to Israel".

In Los Angeles, around 500 protestors and pro-Israel activists faced off peacefully near the Israeli Consulate.

At a separate demonstration attended by around 100 protesters in Westwood, actor Mike Farrell, a star of the hit 1970s television series "MASH", said he was "one of those people horrified by Israel's over-response."

"Not that I'm in favor of Hamas by any means, because firing rockets into Israel is not the way these things get resolved in a productive way," he said.

In Tunis, hundreds of lawyers and trade unionists joined opposition activists to defy a police ban and protest the bombing of Gaza, several sources reported.

As some protesters shouted slogans denouncing the lack of response from Arab countries in general and Egypt in particular, police headed off the demonstration as it headed towards the courthouse, said witnesses.

Tunisia's government has already condemned the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry denied a report by Shiite news website Rasid.com that hundreds had demonstrated Monday afternoon in heavily Shiite Al Qatif, just west of Dammam, leading to several arrests.

Shiite news website Rasid.com reported that police had fired rubber bullets to break up the demonstrations Monday afternoon, which were attended by hundreds of people. But an interior ministry spokesman told AFP there had been no such demonstration.

Demonstrators in the Yemeni port city of Aden briefly broke into the Egyptian consulate to protest Cairo's response to the Israeli offensive, a security official said.

The protesters, mostly students from the university of Aden, "vandalised furniture before they were removed peacefully from the building," the official said, asking not to be identified.

Egypt has come in for strong criticism from Islamists and their sympathisers around the Muslim world for not fully opening its border with Gaza in the face of Israel's devastating air blitz.

In Algeria, about 100 people staged a protest in the capital Algiers after a call from politicians and editors of writers' and artists' magazines. They observed a minute's silence in memory of the dead.

In Panama City, around 200 people protested outside the Israeli embassy to condemn Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.

In the Bulgarian capital Sofia, about 200 protesters called on the Bulgarian government to support the peace efforts. Demonstrators carried pro-Palestinian banners and others denouncing Israel.

Earlier Tuesday, about 200 people carrying flowers and candles offered a one-minute prayer in front of the Israeli embassy, with a Buddhist monk ringing a bell for the souls of the victims.

"This is nothing but a bloodbath," organiser Hiroshi Taniyama told demonstrators, who included Arabs living in Japan.
 
Egypt cancels New Year’s Eve over Gaza ‘massacres’

http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=2685

12/31/2008

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt has cancelled official New Year’s Eve events in solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians being “massacred” in Gaza, the state-owned Al-Ahram daily reported on Wednesday.

“In solidarity with the painful events in the Palestinian territories and the massacres which Gazans are faced with … the ministries of culture and information have decided to cancel New Year’s festivities,” the paper said.

Cancelled events include a special concert by famed Egyptian singer Mohammed Munir set to be held at Cairo’s Opera House and a variety performance hosted by the ministry of information due to be broadcast on state television.

Egyptian state television official Ossama al-Sheikh said on Tuesday that the launch of new channel “Nile Comedy,” set for January 1, would be delayed “out of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”

Since Israel unleashed its massive aerial attack on Hamas and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, at least 374 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, Gaza medics say.

During the same period, four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza.
 
'Boycott Israel again because it is an enemy,' Kadhafi tells Arab states

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Boycott_Israel_again_because_it_enemy_1231.html

Agence France-Presse
Published: Wednesday December 31, 2008

TRIPOLI (AFP) — Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has called on Arab states to take a firm stand and boycott Israel because of its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the official JANA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Speaking to foreign ministers of the five North African Maghreb states in Tripoli late on Tuesday ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, Kadhafi also branded a league peace plan a "plot" and a "masquerade."

The league adopted a Saudi proposal in 2002 which called on Israel to withdraw from territory it occupied in 1967, in return for diplomatic relations with Arab states. The plan was relaunched at a Riyadh summit in 2007.

"We must close this door firmly and boycott Israel again because it is an enemy," JANA quoted Kadhafi as saying. "We have found that negotiations serve only the Zionist programme on the path to our extermination."

"We could give Israel a deadline and say to them 'you have one month and after that the door to peace talks will be firmly closed. We will be in a state of war and Israel will be boycotted."

He threatened to turn his back on the Arab world and focus fully on Africa, saying he intended to travel on Wednesday "to resolve the problems of Guinea, Somalia, Congo and Chad."

"I'm going to Africa. The interests of my country lie in Africa, and its future is in Africa," Kadhafi told the foreign ministers of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

The Libyan leader had been expected in Sierra Leone on Monday, but postponed his trip because of the Israeli air raids on the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip that have killed at least 390 Palestinians since they began on Saturday.

Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League were meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to forge a common stance in the face of the Israeli offensive.

On Sunday Kadhafi lambasted Arab leaders for what he called their "cowardly" response, and vowed to boycott any Arab summit on the Gaza crisis.

"How many times have you called an emergency summit on Palestine?" JANA quoted him as asking his counterparts rhetorically.

"What action has ever resulted? ... For my part, I'm tired of listening to this stuck record. This sort of cowardly, defeatist reaction is shameful."
 
There's plenty of blame to go around for Gaza's war

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/30/opinion/edgaza.php

12/31/2008

Israel must defend itself. And Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

Still we fear that Israel's response - devastating airstrikes that represent the largest military operation in Gaza since 1967 - is unlikely to weaken the militant Palestinian group substantially or move things any closer to what all Israelis and all Palestinians need: a durable peace agreement and a two-state solution.

Israel must make every effort to limit civilian casualties. The leaders of Hamas, especially those safely ensconced in Damascus, are unconcerned about their people's suffering - and masters at capitalizing on it.

Before the conflict spins out of control, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will have to find ways to cajole or more likely threaten Hamas (or its patrons in Syria and Iran) to accept a new cease-fire.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should be pressing Cairo and Riyadh to use all of their influence with Hamas, and they should be pressing Israel to exercise restraint.

By Monday, some 350 Palestinians - mostly Hamas security forces - were reported killed. A Hamas security compound was among dozens of structures pummeled in the attacks, and the group's leaders were supposedly driven into hiding. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, promised a "war to the bitter end."

We hope he does not mean a ground war. That, or any prolonged military action, would be disastrous for Israel and lead to wider regional instability. Barak and Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, both candidates to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in elections set for February, must not be drawn any further into a competition with the front-runner, Benjamin Netanyahu, over who is the biggest hawk.

There can be no justification for Hamas' attacks or its virulent rejectionism. But others must also take responsibility for the current mess. Hamas never fully observed the cease-fire that went into effect on June 19 and Israel never really lived up to its commitment to ease its punishing embargo on Gaza. When the cease-fire ran out, no one, including the Bush administration, made a serious effort to get it extended.

Meanwhile, the peace process Bush launched with such fanfare in Annapolis last year is moribund. There is plenty of blame to go around for that, too. Olmert's government failed to halt settlements and give the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas - Hamas' sworn enemy - the support he needed. Bush refused to press Olmert to do what was needed but politically unpalatable. Arab leaders never did enough to boost Abbas, or to persuade or pressure Hamas to cut its ties with Iran and join peace efforts.

Rice once hoped to make a Middle East peace her legacy. It is too late for that. But she should do her job. That means getting on a plane for Cairo and Riyadh - now - to enlist their help in brokering a new cease-fire. Then it will be up to President-elect Barack Obama to quickly pick up the pieces and fashion a Middle East peace strategy that may actually bring peace.
 
Hamas defiant as Israel rejects Gaza truce

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Hamas_defiant_as_Israel_rejects_Gaz_12312008.html

12/31/2008

Hamas vowed on Wednesday to fight "until the last breath" if Israel makes good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza after rejecting calls for a truce and pressing on with its air assault.

"We in Hamas are ready for all scenarios and we will fight until the last breath," senior official Mushir al-Masri told AFP as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth day and the enclave's Islamist rulers hit back with rockets.

"Israel will embark on a veritable adventure if it decides to invade Gaza. We have prepared surprises for them," he vowed.

Despite international appeals for the bloodshed to end, Israel's security cabinet rejected proposals for a ceasefire.

"The cabinet decided to continue with the military operation," a senior government official told AFP earlier on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the meeting conditions were not yet ripe to halt the bombardment, launched in response to persistent rocket fire from the territory that Hamas has run for a year and a half.

"We did not launch the Gaza operation only to end it with the same rocket firing that we had at its start," the official quoted Olmert as saying.

Amid mushrooming protests worldwide, diplomats have been scrambling to find a way to stop one of Israel's deadliest-ever offensives on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 393 Palestinians.

There was no let-up in the violence on Wednesday, with Israel conducting nearly 60 air strikes and Hamas firing more than 60 rockets.

Hamas said it would consider any ceasefire proposal that includes an end to the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza since the Islamists took power.

The exiled head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, speaking by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, voiced "readiness to cease armed confrontation but on condition of the lifting of the blockade of Gaza," the Russian ministry said.

The White House said it was up to Hamas to make the first move.

"I think President (George W) Bush thinks that Hamas needs to stop firing rockets, and that is what will be the first steps in a ceasefire," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas threatened to abandon peace talks with Israel so as not to support its deadly "aggression" against Gaza.

Israel has warned that its "all-out war" on Hamas could last for weeks. It has massed tanks on the Gaza border, authorised the call-up of 9,000 reservists and warned of a ground invasion.

Since it was launched on Saturday, the Israeli offensive has killed at least 393 people, including 42 children, and wounded more than 1,900, according to Gaza medics.

At least 25 percent of those killed have been civilians, the United Nations said.

The intensive bombardment has reduced much of Hamas's administrative infrastructure to rubble but has failed to stop rocket fire into Israel.

Since the start of the onslaught, Gaza militants have fired more than 250 rockets and mortar shells at Israel, killing three civilians and one soldier and wounding several dozen people.

Five of the rockets fired since late on Tuesday slammed into the desert town of Beersheba some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Gaza border -- the deepest yet that its projectiles have reached inside Israel.

Hamas has also threatened to stage suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.

As protests were held in countries from the United States to Iran, Israel's regional ally Turkey condemned the offensive as "ruthless."

"The attacks on Gaza should stop immediately and a permanent ceasefire should be urgently secured to prevent irreversible developments in the region," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.

The bombardment has raised concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million people that Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007.

Bush called Olmert, who assured him Israel was taking "appropriate steps" to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, the White House said.

Israel opened one of its border crossings with Gaza again on Wednesday, bringing to 179 the number of lorryloads of supplies delivered since the Gaza bombardment began, the army said.

Meanwhile, several Arab countries cancelled New Year's Eve festivities in solidarity with Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, celebrations are low-key at the best of times and were expected to be particularly subdued.

At the same time, civil defence officials urged residents in southern Israel to stay indoors.
 
Cynthia McKinney: Oh What a Day!

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38592

By Cynthia McKinney
12/31/2008

Oh What a Day!

I'm so glad that my father told me to buy a special notebook and to write everything down because that's exactly what I did.

When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me "are you afraid?" And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn't afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't afraid. But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death.

When we left Cyprus, the Mediterranean was beautiful. I remember the time when it might have been beautiful to look at, but it was also filthy. The Europeans have taken great strides to clean it up and yesterday, it was beautiful. And the way the sunlight hit the sea, I remember thinking to myself that's why they call it azure. It was the most beautiful blue.

But sometimes it was rough, and we got behind on our schedule. We stayed on course, however, despite the roughness of the water and due to our exquisite captain.

There were no other ships or boats around us and night descended upon us all rather quickly. It was the darkest black and suddenly, out of nowhere, came searchlights disturbing our peace. The searchlights stayed with us for about half an hour or so. We knew they were Israeli ships. Who else would they be?

They were fast, and they would come close and then drop back. And then, they'd come close again. And then, all of a sudden there was complete blackness once again and all seemed right. The cat and mouse game went on for at least one half hour. What were they doing? And why?

Calm again. Black sky, black sea. Peace. And then, at that very moment, when all seemed right, out of nowhere we were rammed and rammed again and rammed again the last one throwing me off the couch, sending all our food up in the air; and all the plastic bags and tubs--evidence of sea sicknesses among the crew and passengers--flew all over the cabin and all over us. We'd been rammed by the Israelis. How did we know? Because they called us on the phone afterwards to tell us that we were engaging in subversive, terroristic activity. And if that if we didn't turn around right then and return to Larnaca, Cyprus, we would be fired upon. We quickly grabbed our lifevests and put them on. Then the captain announced that the boat was taking on water. We might have to evacuate. One of my mates told me to prepare to die. And I reflected that I have lived a good and full life. I have tasted freedom and know what it is. I was right with myself and my decision to join the Free Gaza movement.

I remembered my father's parting words, "You all will be sitting ducks." Just like the U.S.S. Liberty. We were engaged in peaceful activity, a harmless pleasure boat, carrying a load of hospital supplies for the people of Gaza, who, too are sitting ducks, currently being bombarded in aerial assault by the Israeli military.

It's been a long day for us. The captain was outstanding. Throughout it all, he remained stoic and calm, effective in every way. I didn't know how to put my life jacket on. One of the passengers kindly assisted me. Another of the passengers pointed out that the Israeli motors for those huge, fast boats was U.S. made--a gift to them from the U.S. And now they were using those motors to damage a pleasure boat outfitted with three tons of hospital supplies, one pediatrician, and two surgeons.

I have called for President-elect Obama to say something. The Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are seeing the worst violence in 60 years, it is being reported. To date, President-elect Obama has remained silent. The Israelis are using weapons supplied to them by the U.S. government. Strict enforcement of U.S. law would require the cessation of all weapons transfers to Israel. Adherence to international law would require the same. As we are about to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, let us remember that he said:

1. The United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, and
2. Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.

I implore the President-elect to not send Congress a budget that contains more weapons for Israel. We have so much more to offer. And I implore the Congress to vote "no" on any budget and appropriation bills that provide more weapons transfers, period.

Israel is able to carry out these intense military maneuvers because taxpayers in the U.S. give their hard-earned money to our Representatives in Congress and our Congress chooses to spend that money in this way. Let's stop it and stop it now. There's been too much blood shed. And while we still walk among the living, let us not remain silent about the things that matter.

We really can promote peace and have it if we demand it of our leaders.

--
The shock, awe and heart attacks that followed Madoff's confession that he was 'running a Ponzi scheme' drew as much anger for the money lost and the fall from the moneyed class as for the embarrassment of knowing that the world's biggest exploiters and smartest swindlers on Wall Street, were completely 'taken' by one of their own. Not only did they suffer big losses but their self-image of themselves as rich because they are so smart and of 'superior stock' was utterly shattered: They saw themselves as suffering the same fate as all the schmucks they had previously swindled, exploited and dispossessed in their climb to the top. There is nothing worse for the ego of a respectable swindler than to be trumped by a bigger swindler. As a result, a number of the biggest losers have so far refused to give their names or the amount they lost, working instead through lawyers fighting off other losers.

--James Petras

"And advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."

--PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses, p. 60

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

--Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time
 
Gaza puts damper on New Year's celebrations worldwide

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gaza_puts_damper_on_New_Years_1231.html

Agence France-Presse
Published: Wednesday December 31, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — New Year celebrations kicked off in lavish style in Australia Thursday -- but the Gaza conflict, memories of Mumbai and global economic downturn left partygoers elsewhere feeling flat as 2009 crept steadily westwards.

Indeed, 2009 greeted Thailand with tragedy, when a fire ripped through a Bangkok nightclub early Thursday, killing at least 54 New Year revellers, a local administration official said.

Up to 1.5 million Australians and tourists converged on the site surrounding Sydney's world-famous Opera House for the city's biggest-ever -- and multi-million-dollar -- fireworks display.

Sydney was the first major world city to see in the New Year, although New Zealand also staged a dramatic fireworks display from Auckland's Sky Tower two hours earlier and 2009 officially kicked in on Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, in the Pacific Ocean, at 1000 GMT.

Not everyone was in the mood -- with India set for a subdued New Year's Eve and several Arab states cancelling planned celebrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Islamist-run Gaza Strip who suffered a fifth straight day of Israeli bombardment on Wednesday.

Egypt, Jordan, Dubai and Syria all cancelled festivities including concerts by renowned Arab singers, with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum giving the order "as a sign of solidarity with the brotherly Palestinian people...," his office said.

Morocco even cancelled state television broadcasts, judging the mood inappropriate, according to Rabat's information minister.

Tight security was planned in Mumbai, which is still coming to terms with the trauma of the November terror attacks that left 172 people dead. Police were keeping an especially close watch on traditional boat parties along Mumbai's famed waterfront.

Some of the militants who took part in the November attacks slipped into Mumbai from the sea, and joint police commissioner K.L. Prasad said partygoers on boats would not be allowed to return to shore once celebrations had begun.

"It may create a sense of fear among the crowd if they see somebody alighting from the boat," Prasad said.

The resort state of Goa has banned its famous beach parties -- a huge draw for foreign tourists -- and extra paramilitary troops have been deployed to ensure security.

A sombre note will also be sounded in neighbouring Pakistan as December 31 falls on the second day of the Muslim mourning month of Muharram, which marks the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson in the seventh century.

"There are no New Year's functions at the hotel due to Muharram," said Jamil Khawar, a spokesman for the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which reopened at the weekend, three months after it was gutted in a suicide truck bombing.

In the southern port of Karachi, luxury hotels are not planning events due to Muharram but people were expected to gather on the city's Arabian Sea beaches to ring in 2009 -- with hundreds of paramilitary police on watch.

Apart from the carnage wrought by militant violence, the global financial meltdown has also dampened spirits.

In Tokyo, laid off workers are camping out in the city's Hibiya Park during the holidays after companies -- including leading carmakers -- cut tens of thousands of jobs.

Japan's Emperor Akihito in his New Year message called on the nation to unite in fighting its recession, saying it "grieves my heart that many people have been left in difficult conditions."

"This year ended with the realisation of a growing economic and social crisis which from now on affects the entire world: a crisis which calls for more restraint and solidarity to help those people and families who have got into serious difficulties," said Pope Benedict XVI in his traditional end-of-year message.

In Hong Kong, the Times Square shopping mall said it had prepared "cheering sticks" printed with phrases of blessings in Chinese characters for its countdown event, such as "everyone's got a job" and "a blooming stock market."

China's main festivities will come later in the month with a week-long holiday for the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

In the Philippines the authorities were bracing themselves for traditional New Year's Eve festivities marked by gunfire and firecrackers. Hospitals are on alert for injuries while the police and military are being warned against firing their guns into the air.

As the celebrations moved towards Middle Eastern and European time zones, Italian men were waiting to see if a group of Naples women would carry out their threat to refuse them sex if they insisted on playing with fireworks at midnight...

Special meals, however, were served up to hundreds of would-be migrants stuck in cold weather in the French port of Calais, hoping to begin a new, more prosperous life in Britain.
 
UN takes up resolution calling for immediate Israeli ceasefire

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/UN_takes_up_resolution_calling_for_1231.html

1/1/2009

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Libya presented a draft resolution from the Arab League to a UN Security Council emergency meeting that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

The draft resolution "strongly condemns all military attacks and the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel, the occupying power, which have led to the death and injury of scores of innocent Palestinian civilians, including women and children."

It calls for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides."

It also calls on Israel "to scrupulously abide by all of its obligations under international humanitarian law, particularly under the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in time of war."

The emergency council meeting was convened at the behest of Egypt, which assumed the Arab League presidency in December.

The 15-member council is now expected to convene a public debate on the draft resolution that includes representatives from Israel, Egypt, the Arab League and the Palestinian territories.

The British and American ambassadors to the United Nations said the resolution needs to be amended before possible adoption because it fails to mention the ongoing Hamas rocket attacks on Israel that motivated the current Israeli military operation.

"This resolution as currently circulated by Libya is not balanced and therefore, as currently drafted, it is not acceptable to the United States," US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.

Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmud Abdalhaleem Mohamad and Arab League representative Yahya Mahmassani said the Council would likely meet at the foreign minister-level in the coming days, with at least eight Arab countries participating.

Foreign ministers from Arab League nations meeting in Cairo Wednesday called for a binding UN resolution requiring an immediate halt to hostilities.

A delegation headed by chief Saudi diplomat Prince Saud al-Faisal with foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Syria, a Palestinian representative and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa will likely come to UN headquarters to argue the Arab League's case, Mohamad said.

The Sudanese ambassador said a Security Council meeting with these representatives could be held Sunday or Monday.

The draft resolution also calls "for the immediate and sustained opening of the border crossings of the Gaza Strip," and the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to its population.

It "stresses the need for restoration of calm in full in order to pave the way for resolving all issues in a peaceful manner within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

The text appears to have been amended since an initial version was released to the press in Cairo. It no longer includes a call for Israel to stop its "barbaric" aggression, lift its blockade of Gaza and stop the "collective punishment" of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas also appealed Wednesday for a UN resolution imposing a ceasefire.

Abbas is set to meet Monday with the UN Security Council to discuss the situation.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since ousting Abbas loyalists in June 2007. Despite winning Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas has since been boycotted by much of the West for refusing to recognize Israel.

Israel's pounding of Gaza began after the December 19 expiry of a six-month truce with Hamas brokered by Egypt and a resumption of rocket fire by Gaza-based militants.

The Arab League talks were taking place as Israel rejected world calls for a truce and vowed to press ahead with its deadly Gaza offensive.

The actions have so far lasted five days, killed nearly 400 Palestinians and left more than 1,900 wounded, according to Gaza emergency services.
 
Israel ordered to allow journalists into Gaza

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...d-to-allow-journalists-into-gaza-1219795.html

By Kim Sengupta in Jerusalem
Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled today that the Israeli government must allow journalists entry into Gaza to cover the ongoing conflict.

The decision came in response to a petition by the Foreign Press Association which has been campaigning for access to the besieged Palestinian enclave since a media ban was imposed more than two months ago.

The legal battle highlights the propaganda war being waged behind the bombs and rockets of the latest conflict. Israel cites as one of the main reasons for blocking foreign journalists from Gaza its belief that the reporting has been unfair and one-sided.

This is hardly the first time that the Israeli government has complained about perceived bias in the foreign media, but this time it is also putting unprecedented resources into getting its message across.

There is a consensus among many Israeli officials that the last war in Lebanon was, in many ways, a public relations disaster for Israel with Hezbollah winning the propaganda war. The same is not being allowed to happen with Hamas in Gaza. Israel has mobilised politicians, diplomats and supporters world wide to present its case.

Correspondents and reporters based in Israel are receiving dozens of SMS messages offering briefings, interviews, facility trips. One team has even been established to concentrate on bloggers.

A country which has fought its many wars by mobilising a citizens’ army has mobilised for the information offensive. A headline in the Jerusalem Post stated “Netanyahu Joins Gaza Op PR Effort”. At the invitation of outgoing premier Ehud Olmert, the opposition Likud leader is now part of the campaign, giving the first in a series of interviews about Gaza to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel.

Meanwhile, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who as the Kadima party’s candidate will run against Mr Netanyahu in the forthcoming elections briefed more than 80 international representatives at a media centre set up by the government at Sderot, a town which had become totemic after receiving daily Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza.

Ms Livni also undertook a telephone marathon stating the Israeli justification for the Gaza attacks to Condoleeza Rice, David Milliband, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, the foreign ministers of Russia, China, France and Germany, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Foreign ambassadors to Israel had been taken on a guided tour near the Gaza borders and Israel’s own diplomats, serving and retired, are being pressed into service. Ms Livni declared: "many voices are making themselves heard throughout the world today in English, French and Arabic, and in a clear, strong voice. We are telling them all the truth that is not broadcast on television in the Arab world - and this is the truth that needs to be voiced from this podium to the entire world.”

Some of the interviews with Israeli politicians and officials for the international media have been organised by pro-Israeli think tanks such as BICOM (British Israeli Communications & Research Centre) based in the UK and the Israel Project with its HQ in America.

Mark Regev, the urbane spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, has been one of the most prominent advocates for Israel in the world’s media. Earlier this week the Israel Project gathered 600 journalists for a telephone interview with him.

Mr Regev complained that claims by Hamas on casualties are being reported without questioning by news organisations. “There was a guy in Gaza, supposedly a doctor, who said that only 10 per cent of the casualties were combatants and the rest were innocent civilians - and this was put out as fact on the news” said Mr Regev. “Why was no attempt made to find out whether this was true or not ?”

One obvious reason, of course, is the ban on journalists going into Gaza. Mr Regev argues that this has happened in international conflicts. However, his sympathies, he says “ are intrinsically with the media and hopefully the situation will change in the very near future. We would welcome the examination of the claims that Hamas have been making.”

Hamas has, in fact, its own relatively efficient information system which is superior to that of rival Palestinian faction Fatah. The organisation has demonstrated that it understands the needs of the media and knows how to exploit them.
 
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