michelle
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Post by michelle on Feb 25, 2008 11:20:50 GMT 4
....continued from previous post:The Tightening Noose Gaza under Hamas, Gaza under Siege Part 2 of 2By Jen Marlowe Gaza in Darkness Mahmoud Abo Rahma, a young man with intense green eyes, spent much of his time with me discussing Gaza's acute electricity crisis in his office at the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. Israel's fuel restrictions were his primary concern. It wasn't just transportation that suffered when fuel was sanctioned, he explained. Without fuel for Gaza's sole power plant, the ensuing electricity shortage constrains health and education services, leading to an acute humanitarian crisis. Mahmoud broke the situation down, jotting figures and connective arrows on a small sticky pad. Gaza needs 237 megawatts of electricity a day, 120 megawatts of which are supplied directly by Israel. The Gaza power plant used to supply 90 megawatts, which meant the Strip remained 27 megawatts a day short, even in what passed for "good times." Then, in June 2006 after the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Israelis bombed the power plant, truncating its capacity. With the siege and its acute fuel shortage, the plant could generate even less. Mahmoud feared that it might have to stop operating altogether. On top of this, he added, Israel was threatening to curtail the electricity it provides. Sixty-eight people, he said, had already died as a result of the sanctions. Others had certainly suffered siege-related deaths in which multiple factors were involved. For those 68, however, a clear red line could be drawn directly to the siege -- to disruptions in critical services or to the simple fact that someone couldn't reach Israel or Egypt for needed medical care unavailable in Gaza. As Mahmoud scribbled down numbers and drew his arrows, my mind wandered from the 68 extreme cases to the thousands of day-to-day small sufferings that have become part of the fabric of life for Gazans. I imagined the Nasrallah family huddled under blankets trying to keep warm without a functioning electric heater, or Ra'ed's children studying for exams by candle or flashlight, or Rania climbing those nine flights of stairs on an injured knee. The Hamas Takeover Suhail is the director of the Rachel Corrie Cultural Center for Children and Youth in Rafah and its sister center in Jabalya Refugee Camp. Both centers are under the umbrella of the Union of Health Workers. "We are sometimes asked," Suhail told me, "how a children's center fits under the umbrella of a health organization, but the connection is very clear. According to the World Health Organization, health is not measured only by lack of illness. A healthy child is also healthy socially, emotionally, and mentally -- and this is the role we play." The obstacles to their work were large, he assured me. "Our activities are designed to help support children mentally, emotionally, but they don't want to leave the house. The kids are depressed. Everyone is depressed." In 2005, the teens who made up the center's dabke troupe -- dabke is a traditional Palestinian folk-dance -- traveled to Britain, touring and performing in 15 cities. Now, they can't leave the Gaza Strip. "We want Al Jazeera to broadcast them performing in a local celebration," Suhail said. "The youth are also making their own movies, showing their daily realities. There are different ways to break a siege." Their problems, Suhail made clear, didn't all stem from international isolation. "Yes, the siege makes everything much, much more difficult, but the internal crisis even more so. Religious conservatism is taking a stronger hold." Nujud, a freckled young female student-volunteer, offered an example. "We used to have a mixed-gender community. There were even more girls participating than boys. Now, it's the opposite. Boys and girls are hesitant even to be in the same room with each other for fear of attack by Hamas." She pointed to a young male volunteer. "We have to be very cautious in our interactions with each other." Suhail ended our meeting with the comment, "Making cultural change takes a lot of time. And it has a lot of enemies." Samira, too, had indirectly brought up the impact of the Hamas takeover in Gaza. "After you leave here today," she said, "it's very likely that someone will come and ask about you. Who are you? What were you doing here?" I sat a moment sipping sweet tea from a plastic cup and taking in her comment. "Did we put you in danger by coming today?" "Nothing will happen to us," she answered. "They will just ask." Samira sounded nonchalant. I felt less so. Comings and goings, it seemed, were being carefully, if unobtrusively, monitored. New Levels of Violence At the pristine offices of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), Husam al Nounou and Dr. Ahmad Abu Tawahina brought into focus the degree to which the Hamas takeover had affected life in Gaza. Husam, the program's director of public relations, was soft-spoken and Dr. Abu Tawahina, its director general, was animated; both men radiated self-assurance and dignity. By then, the large-scale, bloody political violence between Hamas and Fatah militants had ended. There were no longer shoot-outs on street corners. Military actions against Fatah-connected individuals were on-going, however. Dr. Abu Tawahina described cases of people leaving their houses only to find the body of a relative dumped on the street, or frantic Gazans calling police stations after a family member "disappeared," only to be told that there was "no information." The margins of free speech, never large in Gaza, had decreased significantly, Husam told me. Direct or indirect messages of fear and intimidation are now regularly passed on to journalists and human rights workers. Fatah affiliates are beaten up, detained, their cars burned; Fatah-related organizations have been totally destroyed. I was reminded of Mahmoud's reply when I asked him if Al Mezan's ability to work, exposing human rights abuses to the people of Gaza, has been affected since the takeover. "We are not changing our work at all," he said, choosing his words slowly. "We are not allowing ourselves to be intimidated." Ideological and political differences between the movements have certainly played a major role in the internal fighting -- Dr. Abu Tawahina carefully explained -- as has the regional factor: Washington supports Fatah, while Hamas is backed by Syria and Iran. But, as Husam pointed out, other factors should not be ignored. "There is no tradition of democracy or transfer of power in Palestinian society," he said. "Fatah was not prepared to lose the January 2006 elections or give authority over to Hamas." Add to this mix the adamant refusal of both the Bush administration and Ehud Olmert's government in Israel to recognize the democratically elected Hamas government, as well as their support for Fatah's attempts to sabotage it. "What would have happened," I asked, "if Hamas had been given a chance to actually govern in the first place?" After a long pause, Husam responded, "There's no way to know for sure. But I think there's a good chance that Hamas would have changed. There are lots of indications that they were initially willing to." Dr. Abu Tawahina then widened the context of the discussion. Many Fatah officials had spent years in Israeli prisons, he commented, enduring torture at the hands of Israeli interrogators and soldiers. After signing the Oslo peace agreements in 1993, members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (in which Fatah is the most powerful faction) were permitted to establish a self-governing apparatus called the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel put pressure on the PA to arrest those who opposed the Oslo process, particularly when opposition groups carried out attacks in Israel. As a result, thousands of Hamas members, most of whom had not been involved in the violence, spent time in PA jails. Fatah interrogators then applied the same techniques to the prisoners in their hands as the Israelis had once used against them, even ramping the methods up a notch or two. "In psychology, we refer to it as 'identification with the aggressor,'" Dr. Abu Tawahina told me. Now, the very people Fatah abused in prison are in charge in the Gaza Strip and they are seeking revenge for a decade of mistreatment under Fatah. The phenomenon can be found in Gazan civil society as well. One hundred thousand Palestinian laborers used to work inside Israel, suffering daily humiliations at the hands of Israeli soldiers at the Erez crossing. If they directed their anger and frustration at their abusers, they would lose the permits that allowed them to work inside Israel. Instead, many erupted in rage at home at their wives or children, creating new victims. The present level of internal violence in Gaza, however, has no precedent. Hamas took the detentions and torture that were part and parcel of Palestinian life under Israeli rule and later under the PA and added the previously unimaginable -- Algerian-style executions and disappearances. These were something new as acts among Palestinians. No one knows how many people have gone missing in these last months or the details of their torture. Hamas won't allow Gaza Community Mental Health Program staff to visit the prisons as they once did regularly. Human rights organizations are trying to compile lists of the missing, but there are no comprehensive statistics. Meanwhile, frustration and anger inside the pressure cooker that is Gaza only mounts. Violence in the society as a whole, including domestic violence, is on the rise. New victims continue to be created. "We attempted to work with the Fatah government when they were in charge," Husam said. "We tried to warn them of the long-term consequences their torture could bring. They didn't want to hear it." Dr. Abu Tawahina tried to describe his fervent hope of one day building a community that would enjoy genuine democracy and the rule of law, no matter who was in charge. But in that office, his dream felt, at best, remote. "Let's say," he added, "that Israel and the U.S. manage to overthrow Hamas and reinstall Fatah. Do you think that Fatah would now institute a program of reconciliation?" Dr. Abu Tawahina let the question fill the room, unanswered. But from a barely perceptible shake of his head, I knew what his response was. Society Unraveling Because of an ever more traumatized population, the mental health program's services are desperately needed. The staff work feverishly, trying to develop new techniques to meet the catastrophe that is Gaza, but nothing, not telephone counseling, nor bringing in other NGOs, nor holding community meetings to give larger numbers of people coping tools can meet the escalating needs of the community. "Peace is crucial for mental health services," Dr. Abu Tawahina said pointedly. "Our staff feel inadequate in helping our clients. When the source of someone's mental symptoms comes from physical needs not being met, then there is very little that therapeutic techniques can do." At the moment, the community's most crucial resource -- itself -- is fraying. In Palestinian society, the extended family has always served as the center of a web of support and protection. Previously, the mental health project used this incredibly powerful social network as part of its outreach, making special efforts to educate family members in how to take care of each other. With the split between Fatah and Hamas growing ever deeper, Dr. Abu Tawahina suggested that loyalty to political parties might be growing stronger than loyalty to family. In many families, the cracks are showing. Husam told me of families where one brother, loyal to Hamas, gave information to the Hamas leadership about another brother, active in Fatah, leading to his detention. I had even heard rumors of brother killing brother. The implications of this go far beyond the work of one mental health group. The very foundations of Palestinian endurance and survival are now threatened as the social fabric, their strength as a people, begins to unravel. As our meeting was drawing to a close, Husam suddenly broached a new subject. "The level of hate towards those behind the siege -- Israelis and Americans -- is increasing. We need to show the human face of people from the U.S." His comment reminded me that Samira and Suhail had also spoken about their desire to launch an Internet program between young people in Rafah and teenagers in Olympia, Washington, Rachel Corrie's hometown. In itself, there was nothing shocking about the fact that anger towards Americans, whose government strongly supported the siege and had also backed Fatah in the internecine struggle in Gaza, was on the rise. If anything, what was surprising, touching, and human was the urge of a few Palestinians to challenge that hatred and put a human face on Americans. Dr. Abu Tawahina concluded with a sober warning. "Empirical studies show that collective punishment isn't limited to those who are directly subjected to the punishment. It affects the international community as well. What is happening now in Gaza may someday very well affect what happens later in Europe and the United States." Small Hope Now, back in the U.S., I stare at those images from just a few weeks ago of Gazans flooding into Egypt. I feel myself on some threshold between paralysis and hope -- anguished by the unending desperation that led to the destruction of that wall and yet inspired by the way the Gazans briefly broke their own siege. Dr. Abu Tawahina, I believe, is right. What we are allowing to occur in Gaza -- and we are allowing, even facilitating, it -- will come back to haunt us. Still, despite all the indicators of a society locked into an open-air prison giving in to violence and possibly fragmenting internally past the point of reconciliation, I hold onto a small hope. Perhaps those of us outside that prison will be affected by more than the explosive rage that inevitably comes from an effort to collectively crush 1.5 million people into submission. Perhaps we will also be affected by the Gazans who refuse to submit to their oppressors, be they from outside or within. Ultimately, I hope we'll choose to stand in solidarity with them. Jen Marlowe, a documentary filmmaker and human rights activist, is the author of Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival (Nation Books). She is now directing and editing her next film, Rebuilding Hope, about South Sudan, and writing a book about Palestine and Israel. Her most recent film was Darfur Diaries: Message from Home. She serves on the board of directors of the Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre and is a founding member of the Rachel's Words initiative. Her email address is: jenmarlowe@hotmail.com
Copyright 2008 Jen Marlowe Source: www.tomdispatch.com/post/174898/jen_marlowe_gaza_struggling_under_siege
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Feb 28, 2008 16:33:12 GMT 4
Israel destroys Hamas interior office in Gaza www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 05:20:24 GAZA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Apache attack helicopter gunship destroyed by three air-to-ground missiles the building of the interior ministry in the deposed Hamas government in Gaza City, witnesses said. Three consecutive explosions were heard in the northeastern part of the city, said the witnesses, adding that the building of Hamas interior offices was targeted with three missiles fired by Israeli helicopters. Medics said that four civilians were lightly to moderately injured, who were treated at Shifa Hospital in the city. The Israeli strike on the interior offices was reactions to dozens of homemade rockets fired by Palestinian militants at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. One Israeli was killed and four wounded during the attack on the town. On Wednesday, Israel also killed at least 11 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them are Hamas militants. Hamas retaliated to the killing by launching several rockets at southern Israel. Source and photos available starting here:news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/28/content_7682230.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gaza infant killed in Israeli airstrike on Hamas interior office www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 05:45:10 GAZA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A 5-month-old infant was killed and three civilians were wounded on Wednesday night in an Israeli airstrike on a building belongs to deposed Hamas government in Gaza, medics and witnesses said. Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance service in the ministry of health said that a 5-month-old baby shortly died of his sustained wounds, adding that three more civilians were moderately injured. Israeli Apache attack helicopter gunship destroyed by three air-to-ground missiles the building of the interior ministry in the deposed Hamas government in Gaza City, witnesses said. They added that three consecutive explosions were heard in the northeastern part of the city. The building of Hamas interior office was targeted with three missiles fired by Israeli helicopters. Medics said that four civilians were lightly to moderately injured, who were treated at Shifa Hospital in the city. The Israeli strike on the interior office was reactions to dozens of homemade rockets were fired by Palestinian militants at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. One Israeli was killed and four were wounded in the town. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel also killed 11 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them are Hamas militants. Hamas retaliated to the killing by launching several rockets at southern Israel. Palestinian witnesses in Gaza City said that Israeli drones and aircrafts hovered over Gaza City, where several explosions were heard, adding that a blacksmith workshop was destroyed by one Israeli missile. Source and photos available starting here:news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/28/content_7682241.htm
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Mar 2, 2008 11:58:16 GMT 4
Israeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'I can't believe the hypocrisy of Israel when its deputy defence minister uses the word shoah to describe what he says the Palestinians will bring upon themselves. Forget about the U.S., what about the Arab and Muslim world's lack of meaningful response to this deadly intimidation?...Nope better to blame the U.S. for not flexing its muscle.....Really, I don't understand how geographical neighbors do nothing....What is it? Fear of the U.S.?....Bush has to suck up for the oil to continue to flow; oh yea, every country in the region continues to buy up weaponry from the U.S....cozy love/hate relationship...And for that matter, does Israel have oil? Why not turn the spigot off on them?.....Would Israel nuke the entire region for interference? Wouldn't that be fouling their own nest?....Oh sure, some will tell me it's more complicated than that....The whole friggin' world should be ashamed of this! I don't grok this planet at all! MichelleIsraeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'Staff and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday February 29 2008 An Israeli minister today warned of increasingly bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians could bring on themselves what he called a "holocaust"."The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told army radio.Shoah is the Hebrew word normally reserved to refer to the Jewish Holocaust. It is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi extermination of Jews during the second world war, and many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other events.[/color] The minister's statement came after two days of tit-for-tat missile raids between Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army. At least 32 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since the surge in violence on Wednesday. Today Israel activated a rocket warning system to protect Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, from Palestinian attacks. Ashkelon was hit by several Grad rockets fired from Gaza yesterday. One hit an apartment building, slicing through the roof and three floors below, and another landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl. Located 11 miles from Gaza, Ashkelon has been sporadically targeted before but not suffered direct hits or significant damage. "It will be sad, and difficult, but we have no other choice," Vilnai said, referring to the large-scale military operation he said Israel was preparing to bring a halt to the rocket fire. "We're getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we've used a small percentage of the army's power because of the nature of the territory." Israel would not launch a ground offensive in the next week or two, partly because the military would prefer to wait for better weather, defence sources said. But the army had completed its preparations and was awaiting the government's order to move, officials said. Until now, the Palestinian rocket squads have largely targeted Sderot, a small town near Gaza. Ashkelon, a big population centre only 25 miles from Tel Aviv, was caught unprepared, its mayor said on Friday. "It's a city of 120,000 people, with large facilities – a huge soccer stadium, a basketball stadium and a beach. No one is ready for this," Roni Mehatzri told Israel Radio. Dozens of soldiers in orange berets from the Israeli military's home front command arrived in Ashkelon and hung posters around the city telling residents what to do in case of rocket attack. The barrage of Iranian-made Grads directed at Ashkelon yesterday came after an escalation of violence in Gaza. Israel killed five Hamas militants on Wednesday morning, apparently including two planners of the rocket attacks, in an air strike on a minivan. Later in the day, a Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli civilian, a 47-year-old father of four, in Sderot. Hamas, an Islamist group with close ties to Iran, has ruled Gaza since its violent takeover there in June 2006. Since Wednesday, 32 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli missile strikes, including 14 civilians, among them eight children, according to Palestinian officials. The youngest was a six-month-old boy, Mohammed al-Borai, whose funeral was held yesterday. There were further indications that Israel was preparing for an offensive by sending confidential messages to world leaders, including the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who plans to visit the region next week. "Israel is not keen on, and rushing for, an offensive, but Hamas is leaving us no choice," the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, told the senior figures, according to Israel's mass circulation daily, Yedioth Ahronoth. Security sources were quoted by both Israel Radio and army radio as saying a big operation was being prepared but was not imminent. Source: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/29/israelandthepalestinians1
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Mar 3, 2008 13:21:22 GMT 4
Thousands of Jordanians hold anti-Israel marchWell, here's a plea from the surrounding Arab world; except it isn't what I was looking for in my comment at the previous post here. This march is lead by a large group of people, mostly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood. In absence of protest by Arab rulers, they are calling for retaliation by suicide bombers. This is a desperate plea from a despondent people who try to fill a void left by their leaders. Shame on Arab leaders whose complicity compels common people to call for suicide tactics, which hurts and stains the Arab and Muslim world at so many levels....Michelle Thousands of Jordanians hold anti-Israel marchSun Mar 2, 2008 1:02pm EST AMMAN, March 2 (Reuters) - Crying for revenge with suicide attacks, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital of the pro-U.S. kingdom on Sunday to protest against Israel's Gaza offensive that had killed more than 100 Palestinians. About 10,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations in recent years. "O Hamas, O Hamas, bring the suicide bombers ... Victory to Hamas and defeat to the Jews and Americans," chanted the crowds, who called on the Islamist militant group to resume suicide attacks and intensify rocket strikes against Israel.Israel's deadliest and deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip since pulling out in 2005 provoked angry reactions among Jordanians, many of whom are of Palestinian origin. A 21-month-old girl, two other civilians and three militants were killed in the latest fighting in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, raising the Palestinian death toll in five days of bloodshed to more than 100, including about 60 civilians, medics said. Israel said it was acting in self-defence to curb cross-border rocket attacks by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and threatened to intensify its ground and air campaign despite allegations it was using excessive force. Defying government curbs on street marches, thousands have taken to the streets inside many of Jordan's squalid camps and poor districts of the capital under the watchful eyes of the authorities to show solidarity with their brethren. Jordanian officials have been alarmed by Israel's military offensive and worry it could derail U.S. backed peace moves between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. They fear it broadens the popularity of the Islamist movement among a majority of poor Jordanians, many of them living in refugee camps and disenchanted with the U.S.-led Middle East peace process. The demonstrators lambasted Arab rulers, accusing them of complicity with Israel and standing idly by as ordinary Gazans are killed.
"Shame on you, Shame on you rulers. You have betrayed your people ... Open the borders and let us fight the Jews," youths chanted. (Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by Sami Aboudi)Source: www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL02507300------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Israeli Strikes Kill 54 in Gaza By Ibrahim Barzak The Associated Press Saturday 01 March 2008 Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops turned heavy firepower on rocket squads bombarding southern Israel Saturday, killing 54 Palestinians in the deadliest day in Gaza since the current round of fighting erupted in 2000. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in the clashes, the military said. The violence took a heavy toll on Gaza civilians. Moderate Palestinian leaders called the killings a "genocide" and threatened to call off peace talks. "The response to these rockets can't be that harsh and heinous," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "It is nowadays described as a holocaust." The spasm of violence came days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to arrive in the region to nudge Israel and Palestinians closer to a peace accord. But the rising tensions threatened to mar her visit. In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe expressed regret for loss of civilian life on both sides but put most of the blame on the Palestinians. "There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self-defense," he said in a statement. The U.N. Security Council met Saturday night behind closed doors in emergency session at the request of the Palestinians and their Arab supporters. "We want a condemnation of the killings and we want also a call for a cease-fire by the Security Council," said the Arab League's U.N. observer, Yahya Mahmassani. "What's happening now is jeopardizing the peace process." Such resolutions have failed repeatedly in the past because of U.S. and European objections that they are not balanced in their condemnation. Early Sunday, Israeli aircraft destroyed the office building in Gaza City used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, witnesses said. Five people were lightly wounded in the raid. At least two dozen Palestinian civilians, including a baby, were among those killed Saturday, and militants said 25 fighters died. Health officials said about 200 people were wounded, 14 of them critically. The overall death toll was the highest in a single day since the current round of violence erupted in September 2000. The highest previous death toll was 38 on March 8, 2002. The intense fighting pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 80 since fighting flared Wednesday. About half of those were civilians. While expressing regret for civilian casualties, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed "Hamas and those firing rockets at Israel," his office said in a statement, pledging to continue the offensive to protect Israeli towns and cities. On Friday, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai renewed a threat to invade Gaza to crush militant rocket squads that attack southern Israel daily. Palestinian fighters kept up a steady stream of rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli targets, firing around 50 on Saturday alone in defiance of the Israeli assault. Six Israelis were injured by rockets that reached as far as Ashkelon, a coastal city 11 miles north of Gaza. The Israeli military said one of its airstrikes on northern Gaza targeted a parked truck loaded with 160 rockets. On Thursday, militants raised the stakes by firing Iranian-made rockets into Ashkelon, striking closer to Israel's heartland than ever before and putting more Israelis at risk. Palestinian rocket fire earlier in the week also killed an Israeli man. Shortly before midnight Friday in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, a 13-month-old girl was killed by shrapnel. Hamas blamed Israel, but residents said a militant rocket fell short and landed near the baby's house. The day's violence snowballed from that point on. Before dawn Saturday, the battleground shifted to the town of Jebaliya and its nearby refugee camp, a center of militant activity in northern Gaza. Soldiers backed by tanks and aircraft conducted house-to-house searches and took up positions on rooftops as they clashed with militants detonating land mines and firing heavy machine guns, assault rifles and mortar rounds. A wounded man and boy lay in a gutter near a dead man. Ambulance workers took away the dead man as a youth appealed to paramedics to treat the wounded. "Take them, they are still alive," he pleaded. Another man urged the wounded to "bear witness," or proclaim their Muslim faith before they die. The two began reciting a Muslim prayer near a boy whose lower body was ripped by shrapnel. Tareq Dardouna, a Jebaliya resident, said a relative was killed outside his home in the crossfire that began at 3 a.m. "His body is still on the ground," Dardouna said in a telephone interview from his home, where he was tending to four wounded people amid screaming children. "Ambulances tried to come, but they came under fire. ... We are in a real war." Two sisters and another civilian were killed by tank shells that struck two houses in separate attacks in Jebaliya, Palestinian officials said. At one of the damaged houses, paramedics rushed an unmoving woman lying on a stretcher, her face covered with a cloth, out of a room clouded with dust. By evening, more than 40 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers had been killed in the Jebaliya fighting. All but the most critically injured were sent home from Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest. Beds crammed hospital corridors, and the intensive care unit was overflowing, a doctor at the hospital said. The doctors union urged its members to cancel leaves and appealed for blood donations. The U.N. shuttered 37 schools it runs in northern Gaza because of the fighting, affecting some 40,000 students said Christopher Gunness, a U.N. official. A three-day strike was declared in Gaza, and publicly run schools and universities were closed. Mosques across northern Gaza and Hamas-affiliated radio appealed to civilians to stay home. Hamas closed off roads to evacuate security compounds and to keep residents away from potential airstrike targets. They also turned off street lights, apparently so militants wouldn't be seen from the air. Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia said Palestinian leaders including Abbas recommended suspending peace talks at a meeting Saturday in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "I think it will be suspended," Qureia said. "What is happening in Gaza is a massacre of civilians, women and children, a collective killing, genocide," Qureia added. "We can't bear what the Israelis are doing, and what the Israelis are doing doesn't led the peace process any credibility." Hamas remained defiant and vowed to retaliate. In Syria, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal described Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza as "the real Holocaust." "If (Israeli officials) decided stupidly to invade Gaza, we will fight them with God's help," Mashaal told reporters from his base in Damascus. "We will fight them like lions." Mashaal blamed the rival Fatah, headed by Abbas, for helping along Israel's attacks. "I accuse the president of the Palestinian Authority of providing coverage of this holocaust in Gaza," Mashaal said. Hamas has said Abbas' condemnation of rocket fire has given a pretext to Israel's assault on Gaza. Israeli officials met Saturday to discuss the Gaza violence and its implications for peacemaking. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said talks didn't preclude fighting. Talks are "based on the understanding that when advancing the peace process with pragmatic (Palestinian) sources, Israel will continue to fight terror that hurts its people," he said. Vice Premier Haim Ramon told Channel 2 TV that Israel should fight in Gaza, but not reoccupy it. Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the tiny seaside territory in late 2005, but militants proceeded to fire rockets from the abandoned territory at Israeli communities. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, took control of Gaza by force from the rival Fatah in June. Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Israel was "compelled to continue to take these defensive measures" to protect more than 200,000 Israelis living under the threat of Palestinian rocket barrages. Militants "hide behind their own civilians, using them as human shields, while actively targeting Israeli population centers," Baker said. "They bear the responsibility for the results." Israeli military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich called Saturday's action a "pinpoint operation" provoked by the rocket attack on Ashkelon earlier in the week. She blamed the high civilian toll on Hamas' practice of using homes to store and produce projectiles. "We are not targeting homes and we have no intentions of targeting uninvolved civilians," she said. "We will target launchers and Hamas militants, and bunkers." Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which had been in a deep freeze for seven years, resumed in November at a U.S.-sponsored conference. At the gathering, the two sides pledged to try to reach an accord by the end of this year. In recent weeks, negotiators have met almost daily. But even when violence is at a lower level, Abbas' efforts are compromised by the fact that he only rules the West Bank, while Gaza is controlled by Hamas. And Israel's fragile government would be hard pressed to make concessions to the Palestinians while Gaza militants pummel southern Israel. Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Source: www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030208Z.shtml
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Apr 27, 2008 20:16:33 GMT 4
Fuel shortage forces UN to halt food handouts in Gaza· Up to 800,000 to lose aid due to blockade · Israel cut supplies after killings at border crossingsRory McCarthy in Gaza City The Guardian, Thursday April 24 2008 The UN is to halt food handouts for up to 800,000 Palestinians from today because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade. John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, said there had been a "totally inadequate" supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. "The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable," he said. A shortage of diesel and petrol means UN food assistance to 650,000 Palestinian refugees will stop today, and aid from the World Food Programme for another 127,000 Palestinians due in the coming days will also be halted. "The collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed," said Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East. Last year, after Hamas seized full control of Gaza, Israel imposed an economic blockade, preventing exports and allowing in only limited supplies of food, fuel and aid. It halted supplies of fuel for transport two weeks ago after militants attacked a fuel crossing and killed two Israeli workers. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were injured in an attack on Saturday at a crossing used to deliver food and aid. The attacks have been condemned by the UN. Hours before Gaza's sole power plant was to shut down, Israel pumped in 1m litres of industrial diesel, enough to last around three days. Gaza's streets have largely been emptied of cars. On Tuesday, its central pharmacy ran out of fuel to refrigerate vaccines during power cuts. The main laundry at Shifa hospital, which washes sheets and uniforms for six hospitals and all government clinics, has less than a day's fuel. Around three-quarters of the 4,000 agricultural wells in Gaza depend on fuel-powered pumps. Fuel shortages have already drastically increased food prices. A kilogram of tomatoes has risen from one shekel to six shekels in Gaza City. "We remain committed to not allowing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "But you cannot talk about the difficulties in delivering fuel to the Gaza Strip without stating and restating the fact that terrorists under the auspices of Hamas have deliberately targeted the fuel supply depot. It's almost as if their agenda is nihilistic." Source: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/24/israelandthepalestinians.unitednations------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Israelis Claim Secret Agreement With U.S. (April 24, 2008) www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303128.html?hpid=sec-worldAmericans Insist No Deal Made on Settlement Growth -- A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office. Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza. U.S. officials say no such agreement exists, and in recent months Rice has publicly criticized even settlement expansion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which Israel does not officially count as settlements. But as peace negotiations have stepped up in recent months, so has the pace of settlement construction, infuriating Palestinian officials, and Washington has taken no punitive action against Israel for its settlement efforts. Israeli officials say they have clear guidance from Bush administration officials to continue building settlements, as long as it meets carefully negotiated criteria, even though those understandings appear to contradict U.S. policy. CLIP------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Blockade Halts Food Aid To Gaz (Video - April 25th, 2008) SHAMEFUL MEDIEVAL SIEGE TACTIC!www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19804.htmThe Gaza Strip has fallen eerily silent as day-to-day life grinds to a halt in the face of an Israeli fuel blockade that has forced the UN to halt its food shipments into the territory. Michael Bailey of Oxfam in Jerusalem tells The Real News Network that some 300,000 Gaza residents have drinking water at home for less than five hours per day, every four days, and the UN can no longer get supplies to the 700,000 refugees living in Gaza. UN walkout over Gaza 'Nazi' remarkstinyurl.com/5e9xb9The US, Britain, France and other members have walked out of a closed meeting of the UN Security Council after Libya compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps in World War II. Zahar: Gazans can do 'no less' than rise up like Warsaw Ghetto Jewswww.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975997.html"Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world's largest open-air prison, can do no less," Zahar wrote in the newspaper. Carter calls Gaza blockade a 'crime and atrocity'www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976086.htmlFormer U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip a "crime and an atrocity" on Thursday, and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive. Hamas vows to avenge Gaza deaths (AN EYE FOR AN EYE ONLY MAKES EVERYONE BLIND!...)tinyurl.com/6ksek8The Hamas movement has said that "all options are open" to avenge the killing of 17 Palestinians, including five children, during Israeli raids. Video: final footage of Reuters journalist killed in Gazawww.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3764160.eceFootage of Fadel Shana, 23, being killed by a tank shell in the Gaza Strip has been released by the news agency, which said that the cameraman was hit despite clear markings that showed him to be a journalist.
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on May 7, 2008 8:18:15 GMT 4
Breaking the Silence - Israeli Soldiers Speak by Stephen Lendman Thursday, April 24, 2008 They're called "Refuseniks" but not for refusing to serve. They've done it proudly and courageously, and here's how "Courage to Refuse" members state their position:"We, reserve officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)....have always served in the front lines....were first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, (and we did it) to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
We....served....long weeks every year, in spite of dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country (but were only given to perpetuate) our control over the Palestinian people. We('ve)....seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
....the commands issued to us in the Territories (have) destroy(ed) all the values (we learned) growing up in this country.
....the (way) the Occupation (undermines the) IDF's human character and (exposes) the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
We....know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
We hereby declare that we shall continue serving the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense.
The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose - and we shall take no part in them."These are courageous men and some women, hundreds of them. Their "Courage to Refuse - Combatant's Letter" web site lists 550 by name. There are hundreds more as well. Their numbers are growing, and their resistance is firm. There are five separate refusenik groups. They're listed below. Courage to Refuse is one of them. Yesh Gvul (There is A Limit) Yesh Gvul combats the "misuse of the IDF for unworthy ends" that includes the occupation of Palestine. It was established during Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion that they denounced as a "naked (act of) aggression in which they wanted no part." It supports imprisoned members and their families, holds vigils where they're held, informs the public of their status, and embraces a peace agenda. They state that "as responsible citizens (they) declare that (they) will take no part in the continued oppression of the Palestinian people (nor will they) participate in policing actions or in guarding the settlements." They further say that as "an Israeli peace group" they oppose the occupation and support soldiers who refuse to be part of it. They call the Israeli army's role "brutal" and "subjugating." It places servicemen "in a grave and moral and political dilemma (because it requires them) to enforce policies they deem illegal, immoral and ultimately harmful to Israeli interests." Many of their members are combat officers, they've served with distinction, and they rank from sergeant to major. They hold different political views, support peace but no one specific program, and they back a "two-state" solution they believe is "key to (peacefully resolving) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The Shministim The Shministim is made up of high school seniors approaching age 18 after which Jewish and Druze men and women face mandatory military service, except for exemptions on religious, health and other accepted grounds. The organization no longer maintains a web site. Courage to Refuse (The Combatants Letter) The organization was founded in 2002 by a group of 50 combat officers and soldiers after its members realized that their missions had nothing to do with defending Israel. They're to colonize Palestine and oppress its people. They further believe that many commands issued them harm Israel's strategic interests and they refuse to obey them. They've served their country and support it, but they determined that "fighting in Gaza and....West Bank (was counterproductive): by obeying orders they would not be protecting the lives of their dear ones." They believe "the Occupation poses a threat to the security of Israel." They stated their beliefs openly in "The Combatant's Letter." Hundreds of IDF members signed it and joined "Courage to Refuse." New members join weekly, and Yaffee Center for Strategic Studies surveys show that over 25% of Israelis sympathize with their struggle. They continue to perform reserve duty, but won't serve in the Occupied Territories. Over 280 of them have been court-martialed and jailed for up to 35 days. Yet they've "won a warm place for the movement in the hearts of many Israelis" who support their self-sacrifice and willingness to be imprisoned for their beliefs. Hundreds of Israeli professors signed petitions for them. Sami Michael is acting chairman of the Israeli Association for Human Rights. He said that refusing the occupation is not just a moral act, it's the purest form of patriotism in Israel today. Their reasons for not serving are stated above. The Pilots Group The Pilots Group maintains a web site in Hebrew only, so it can't be monitored by non-Hebrew readers. In September 2003, 27 of their members (including reserve Brigadier General Yiftah Spector) published their statement for the first time. It declared they would no longer fly missions against West Bank and Gaza civilians, that doing so is illegal and immoral, and they denounced targeted assassinations. On Israeli television, one pilot said: "We veteran pilots and active pilots alike....are opposed to carrying out illegal and immoral attacks, of the type carried out by Israel in the Territories. We....love the State of Israel (but) refuse to take part in air force attacks in civilian populations centers. We refuse to continue harming innocent civilians." They knew they could be punished for their stance and for their "illegitimate" and "forbidden" statement, according to Israel's chief of army staff, Moshe Ya'alon. Israeli Air Force (IAF) chief Dan Halutz downplayed their action, said announcing it on national television was "inappropriate," and called it "the mother of all dangers to our people." Because of it, they were expelled from the IAF, denounced as traitors, and went public again two months later to explain further. One captain's comment was typical: "In the beginning, we were pilots who believed our country would do all it could to achieve peace. We believed in the purity of our arms and that we did all we could to protect unnecessary loss of life. Somewhere in the last few years it became harder and harder to believe that is the case." A single incident changed them. It was the bombing of Hamas military leader Salah Shehade's home that killed him and 14 members of his family, nine of whom were children. One pilot called it "murder," another "state terrorism," still another "vengeance," and all agreed they could no longer perform these missions. Lt. Colonel Avner Raanan was one of them. He's one of Israel's most respected and decorated pilots. He signed the letter and stated: "If you look at the past three years, you see that, if we had a suicide bombing, the Israeli air force made a big operation in which civilians were killed, and that looks to innocent eyes like revenge. You hear it in the streets of Israel; people want revenge. But we should not behave like that. We are not a mafia." Referring to an attack on Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, another pilot added: "Is it legitimate to take F-15s and helicopters designed to destroy enemy tanks, and use them against cars and houses in one of the most heavily populated places in the world....we have become blinded by the blood on our own faces. We cannot see that on the other side....is a whole nation of innocent people." The pilots' action and statements shook Israeli society. Their superiors condemned them, but over 500 supportive letters disagreed, including one from a holocaust survivor and others from fellow pilots. In addition, former left wing cabinet ministers also praised their courage. Sayeret Matkal This is an elite IDF commando unit that maintains no web site. In December 2003, 13 of its reservists and officers (including one major) wrote the Prime Minister declaring their refusal to serve henceforth in the Territories. Their statement read: "We say to you today, we will no longer give our hands to the oppressive reign in the territories and the denial of human rights to millions of Palestinians, and we will no longer serve as a defensive shield for the settlement enterprise." Members of this commando group carried out the 1976 Entebbe, Uganda airport raid that rescued 100 hostages on an Air France hijacked plane. They rarely serve in the Territories, but their announcement was significant because of the group's standing in Israeli society. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak once commanded them and led a raid against a 1972 hijacked Sabena plane at Tel Aviv airport. He asked the signers to reconsider, called their letter a grave mistake, and said "it's not too late to correct it...." Other officials also condemned them, but Meretz Knesset Member (MK) Roman Bronfman believed they acted bravely, and Labor MK Ophir Pines said it requires that serious discussion be held. In May 2004, Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy was supportive. He urged more soldiers to speak out, discuss their actions in the Territories, and ask why they serve there "to protect groups of delusional settlers (and) what their systematic abuse of the Palestinians has to do with security....how many innocent people (have) they killed and (keep on) killing." He noted that Israelis don't know what goes on in the Territories, so it's up to soldiers to "lift this screen....The Palestinians aren't believed, the Israeli press (keeps) its distance from the Territories and the international press is perceived as hostile. Only the soldiers can break the vicious circle....No one (can) deny their accounts....it's time (for them) to stand up and speak out....how they killed and jailed and humiliated for no good reason." Excerpts From Soldiers Breaking the Silence Breaking the Silence (Shovrim Shtika) dedicates itself to two purposes: -- exposing IDF oppression in occupied Palestine; and -- providing discharged Israeli soldiers and reservists a platform to explain what they were ordered to do on the ground. In their own words, hundreds of their testimonies tell shocking stories - the ordeal they faced, its moral price, and the corrupting erosion it had on their values. They focus on orders gotten, rules of engagement and operational procedures that include frequent illegal commands: -- firing at civilians posing no risk; -- revenge operations for collective punishment; and -- intentionally attacking Palestinian rescue forces, including ambulances. Their accounts are disturbing. They portray institutionalized moral corruption, universal contempt for Arabs, and how it affects everyone from new recruits to commanders. Rules of engagement are unrestrained, government oversight is non-existent, so reporting abuse is urgent. They want it stopped and demand an independent body to do it. It goes on everywhere in occupied Palestine with Hebron a prominent example because it's the only Palestinian city with an Israeli settlement in its center. Sixty-four soldiers from the Nachal brigade spoke out, they were there during the Second Intifada, and their testimonies recount horrors on the ground they were ordered to commit. They call their experiences "shocking" with photos for confirming evidence. Their collective statement says: "In coping daily with the madness of Hebron, we couldn't remain the same people beneath our uniforms. We saw our buddies and ourselves slowly changing.... We were exposed to the ugly face of terror....an innocent family killed while at the Sabbath table. Countless engagements, bereaved families, innocent civilians injured, chase and arrests. The settlers....rioted, occupied houses, and confronted the police and army....The constant curfew made Hebron into a ghost town....The school in Jebl Ju'ar has been an army post....We asked ourselves why an army platoon prevents children from going to school. We found no answers. We decided to speak out....to tell....Hebron isn't in outer space....But it's light years away from Tel Aviv....Come, see, hear and understand what's happening there." Here are more paraphrased comments: We man checkpoints, stop people from going somewhere, humiliate them, but "I'm doing my duty (and) inflicting pain on people, harming them unnecessarily." It affects your mind, your sleep the longer you serve there. Jews do as they please. There are no laws. Anything goes, breaking into shops, occupying Palestinian homes. Your judgment gets impaired when everyday your enemy is an Arab. You don't look at them as people. But they're not dogs, not animals, not inferior, yet they simply don't count, and since they're your enemy you can kill them. At checkpoints, our job was don't let them pass. It was absurd, there were old ladies who had to get through to go home. Why was it forbidden to pass? It was collective punishment. "You're not allowed to pass because you're not allowed to pass." Then there are the curfews. "I'm certain that 80% of the time there was a curfew." We closed all the stores and sent everyone home. I'm ashamed of myself because I realized I enjoy the feeling of power. I'm the Law. It's a mighty feeling. It's because you have a weapon, because you're a soldier, it's addictive. You can do whatever you want, unsupervised, enter people's homes, conduct random searches. Tell them what you want and they'll do it because they're afraid. Palestinians feel you don't let them walk in the streets, work, live or breathe. I have a machine gun, it's loaded, the safety catch is off. I can shoot you any time, for any reason, split your head open with the gun butt and my commander will pat me on the back and say good job. It's crazy, I'm just a kid, but Hebron hardens you. I say to myself I'm doing something I don't believe in, and I'm putting myself in a position where someone wants to kill me because of it. You see things that couldn't possibly happen in your own home and shouldn't happen. But here everything is different. Any time of day or night, whenever we feel like it, we pick a house, any house, and we go in. We move all the men into one room, the women in another, and place them under guard. We can do whatever we want. There's no justification for it. It shouldn't be happening. Then there are the settlers. They run wild. There's no law. They do what they please. So they burn another shop, trash another home, occupy another one, no big deal, happens all the time. We just watch and do nothing. If someone is sick and needs to go to the hospital, I ask my commander if I can let her pass. No way if there's a curfew. She's not going anywhere no matter how sick. All these stories are my daily routine for over six months. When it ended, I questioned whether I protected myself or my country. I began watching out for myself because I didn't believe in the ideology. Serving in Hebron made me feel there's something different about being a Jew. I can't explain it. I'm supposed to guard the settlers who don't have the kind of morality I was raised to believe. I reached a point where I didn't know who the enemy was anymore, Jews or Arabs. Maybe I need to protect the Arabs, not the Jews who attack them. I feel emotionally injured. If someone's caught breaking curfew, we can let them have it aggressively. Hold them, make them wait eight hours with no water, sit and wait. "Why? Because he walked outside. Because he dared go buy something. Because he dared send his kid to school." We can even shoot them. Selected Israeli Organizations Supporting Refuseniks Several important ones are covered below: New Profile New Profile is a pluralistic feminist organization that includes men and women. It's goal is to transform Israel from a militaristic to a civil society. It opposes occupation and supports all conscientious objectors - from pacifists opposed to war to refuseniks who won't serve in occupied Palestine. Its charter states that "Israel is capable of a determined peace politics. It need not be a militarized society." It understands that "the words 'national security' have often masked calculated decisions to choose military action for the achievement of political goals." It no longer is "willing to take part in such choices. We are no longer willing to go on being mobilized, raising our children for mobilization....while those in charge of the country go on deploying the army easily, rather than building other solutions." It's "hard to express this type opinion in Israel today....An attitude that dares question the fundamental principle of willing enlistment is almost incomprehensible in a soldiers' state." We reject perpetuating war. We prioritize and protect life. "We oppose the use of the army, police, (and) security forces in the ongoing oppression and discrimination of the Palestinian citizens of Israel (and in the Occupied Territories)," in demolishing their homes, "denying them building and development rights, (and) using violence" against them. Thousands of young Israelis are opting out and refuse to serve. They reject military service in Israel today. The IDF states that only one-third of reserve forces in fact serve actively. Israeli law doesn't recognize conscientious objection. "We regard Israeli conscription law as discriminatory and non-democratic, and call for" recognizing every person's right to act according to his or her conscience. They should have the right to fulfill their social commitment by alternative civic or community means, including through non-governmental, voluntary organizations. The Refuser Solidarity Network (RSN) It was founded in 2002 to support Israel's growing "Refuser Movement." RSN supports Courage to Refuse, Combatants for Peace, Yesh G'vul, the Shiministim, New Profile and other Israeli organizations advocating peaceful conflict resolution in Occupied Palestine. Its original 2002 "Call to Action" declaration said: "The time has come" to act against growing violence. Increasing numbers of Israeli soldiers reject serving in Occupied Palestine. They've seen what goes on, it has nothing to do with security, and its sole purpose is "perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people." They now declare they no longer will help "dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people." The time has come "to listen to our consciences," summon our courage, and publicly support them. Israel can never have peace and security unless it withdraws from Occupied Palestine. This is a "crucial moment, a potential turning point." Their campaign was initiated from Chicago, but it resonates across the country as a "portal" in support of the Refuser Movement in Israel. Combatants for Peace Former Palestinian and Israeli cycle of violence participants are the founders - IDF soldiers and Palestinian resistance fighters. They believe their actions were futile, decided another way is crucial, and now work together for peace. Henceforth, they "refuse to take part (in further) bloodletting." They will only act non-violently through dialogue and reconciliation and work together cooperatively to understand each other's aspirations. Their goal - end the occupation, halt the settlement project, and establish a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem alongside the State of Israel. They want to raise consciousness, educate both sides, and create political pressure to establish a constructive dialogue for resolution. They hold meetings, conduct educational lectures and public forums, undertake joint projects, have bi-national media teams to get out their message, and participate in non-violent demonstrations against the occupation. It's motto reads: "Only by joining forces, will we be able to end the cycle of violence." Israeli Laws Affecting Conscientious Objection and Refuseniks Conscription existed since Israel became a state in 1948. Today, its legal basis comes under the country's 1986 National Defence Service Law. It requires all Israeli citizens and permanent residents (men and women) to serve. However, the Ministry of Defence has discretion under Article 36 to exempt all non-Jews, except the Druze. Israeli Arabs may volunteer, but they're not encouraged, and very few do it. Reserve service is also required up to age 51 for men and 24 for women. Exemptions are possible for reasons of: -- educational requirements, -- religion (orthodox Jews are exempted), -- health, -- family considerations, -- married or pregnant women or those with children, -- persons convicted of crimes, -- the undereducated (until they complete at least eight years of school), and -- other considerations at the Ministry of Defence's discretion. Israeli law rejects conscientious objection rights for men and only partly accepts them for women on the basis of religion. Those who cite it and refuse to serve are in trouble. They're subjected to unfair procedures and hearings that may, and most often do, recommend prosecution and imprisonment. Israel signed the United Nations Charter and must, under its provisions, comply with the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Its Article 18 guarantees everyone "the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion." So does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Article 18 where it repeats that "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion..." By denying refuseniks this right, Israel violates international law and a fundamental human right afforded everyone under it. No official figures exist, but refusenik numbers have grown since the Second Intifada began in September 2000. Most opt out in the Territories, and estimates of their numbers range from 1100 well-documented cases to as many as double that number. Here's what they face. Article 35 (a) (2) of the National Defence Service Law states that: -- failure to fulfill a duty under the law is punishable by up to two years imprisonment; -- evading military service is subject to five years in prison; -- refusing to perform reserve duties calls for up to a 56 day sentence that's renewable if the objector refuses repeatedly; -- helping someone avoid military service is punishable by a fine and up to two years in prison; -- disobeying call-up orders means facing up to five years imprisonment, although most often sentences rarely exceed 12 months. Refuseniks are generally sentenced on one of the following charges: -- refusing to obey an order; -- absence without leave; -- desertion; or -- refusing to be mobilized. Where exemption applications are denied, individuals are ordered to perform military or reserve duty. Continued refusal can mean discipline or court-martial, and repeat offenders face re-imprisonment in violation of Article 14, paragraph 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It states: "No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he (or she) has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country." Summary Comments Peace activists, people of conscience and most notably Israeli refuseniks are in the front lines of a valiant struggle: -- to free Palestinians from 41 illegal occupation years, -- end decades of abuse, -- achieve a just and lasting peace, and -- protect everyone's fundamental human rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for "all members of the human family...." Israel must no longer be exempted from international law, from being allowed to flaunt it brazenly, from ignoring over five dozen UN Resolutions going back decades. Peace activists and refuseniks condemn the Jewish state for its actions, deplore it for committing them, and demand, call on and insist Israeli governments end them. Its lawlessness must end, and collective resistance can achieve it. It's no longer an option. It's an obligation to assure that everyone has equal dignity and the right to life, liberty, security and freedom under universal international law. May 14 is the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. Commemorations there and in the West will celebrate it. People of conscience won't participate. Refuseniks may not either. Use this time to demand an illegal occupation end and that Israel no longer be allowed a pass on the international law it disdains. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM - 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions on world and national topics with distinguished guests:www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8065Source: sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/04/breaking-silence-israeli-soldiers-speak.html
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on May 19, 2008 12:14:47 GMT 4
The Question of Israel I appreciate the following article along with the author's work and outlook. The Internet is full of writers/bloggers who continually point to what is wrong without ever giving a different potential scenario. I believe it is time we quit painting dark future landscapes; for you will receive [or experience] the reality you focus on or put your thought energy into. So without further ado, let me introduce you to Palden Jenkins' refreshing take on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, both of whom he works with..... Michelle PS: If you wish to find out more about Palden Jenkins, see: Palden Jenkins - Who is this person? at: www.palden.co.uk/palden/p1-who1.htmlThe Question of IsraelThe Bangladesh Today International April 2008 Article five in a series by Palden Jenkins looking at global issues and the 21st Century. This concerns a small land with a big obstructing influence on the world. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has dragged on for sixty years, and previous ways of resolving it, either by the victory of one side or by peace process, have not worked. So we must do some new thinking. It’s fitting to look at some of the underlying longterm factors affecting this conflict. This is a global issue not just because Jerusalem is a holy place to three faiths: the ‘Holy Land’ is a microcosm of the world, into which many global issues are compressed. In the 1990s I ran a peace conference in which a Nigerian Muslim said an interesting thing. People were agreeing that Nelson Mandela was a great man, for stopping a bloodbath in South Africa. But Mahmoud had an interesting insight. He said that the hero of the day was really President de Klerk, the white Afrikaner who prepared the way for Mandela and the ANC to gain power. Why was he a hero? Because Mandela had remained consistent throughout his life, while de Klerk had had the courage to change. This silenced everyone at the conference – most were whites, and here was a black man praising a right-wing, nationalist Afrikaner. Some Israelis call me anti-Semitic because I work mainly with Palestinians and empathise with Hamas. Some Palestinians get upset with me because I talk with Israelis, many of whom are fine people. Working with both is not easy – there’s a physical and psychological gulf between them that is difficult to bridge. Here comes the bit where I risk being misunderstood: I empathise with Israelis. Not because I support Israel, but because I support people, all people. Looking at the longterm, Israel is in trouble – ultimately, perhaps in deeper trouble than the Palestinians. Israel’s momentum is sagging, and a difficult time of truth is coming. Palestinians are already accustomed to hard truth and tough times – things can only get better, and if they get do get worse, sad to say, it’s ‘more of the same’. But for Israelis, who have had a more comfortable and successful life, things could get a lot worse, and they would notice the difference, bigtime. Certain factual issues can no longer be ignored or avoided in Israel and Palestine. The Israeli tendency to stave things off to make them go away, doesn’t make them go away. It’s a collection of issues. First, aliyah, the migration of Jews to Israel, has slowed to a trickle. Israel is not the safe haven Jews initially sought, back in the shadow of WW2 and the Holocaust. The majority of Jews are happier outside Israel, and those who wished to move have already migrated there. In addition, some people are trickling away from Israel, to get a job, get a better life for their families, or alienated after doing military service. They’re not decisively emigrating, but they’re leaving until things get better – perhaps a vain hope. These are signs of deflation of Israel’s national project. Second, Israelis are a disparate and argumentative lot. Many outsiders find difficulty figuring out how these people stick together as a nation. They are united by their nationalism but, beyond that, ‘for every two Israelis there are three opinions’, strongly held too, and national unity is a troublesome factor. This is partially ethnic – Israelis originate from so many countries. Disparities between rich and poor are amongst the world’s highest, and these cleave along ethnic lines, with European and American Ashkenazim at the top of the pile. At the founding of the nation in 1948, the Israeli Knesset couldn’t even agree on a constitution, so contradictory were the competing views. Today, though Israel is democratic, its governments are usually made up of coalitions in which small, diverse, fringe parties gain disproportionate influence. The nation’s prime ministers are frequently retired military men, as if defence, not social wellbeing, were the highest priority. This political unclarity has long bugged the nation, allowing military and minority agendas and calculations to dominate. Anticipation of the threat of annihilation of the Jewish people causes the nation to lock step against its enemies and suppress its internal differences, at least while the heat is up. This belief has its foundation in history, but it also acts as a prophecy seeking fulfilment. It is growing outdated as the older generation dies off – and what would happen if peace actually came and the threat evaporated? The ‘iron wall’ mentality has become a comfort-zone, less threatening than dropping the idea that goyim, non-Jews, are anti-Semitic and not to be trusted. But it presents an enormous moral dilemma too – it causes Israelis to act against their own longterm interests. In a context of peacemaking, the Zionist tendency, which has long influenced the national agenda, must give way to a more reasonable tendency, willing to make deals and concessions with the neighbours. This would be an historic, emotional shift, involving dropping an old historic fear and reformulating the nation’s purpose. Yet achieving genuine peace would give Israeli Jews the safety they seek – after a generation of calming and bridge-building, that is. At least half of the Israeli public is conflict-weary. But the ‘iron wall’ mindset is strong as a national survival strategy and most toe the line when under pressure, close their eyes, stay ‘in the bubble’ and hope the problem of conflict will go away. Which repeatedly it doesn’t. Peace is inevitable – it’s simply a matter of how long it takes and what it involves. Israelis have to face this sometime, and facts on the ground are nowadays pushing things forward. Third, Israelis pay an enormous price for war, military preparedness and the insecurity of conflict. This is psychological, multi-generational, and it harms society and the economy. West Bank settlements are claustrophic, the Israeli security wall isolates Israelis as well as Palestinians, domestic violence is escalating, and many Israeli adults are damaged by military service. Tourism and pilgrimage have collapsed, Israel is regarded by some as a pariah state, taxation is high, conflict and uncertainty keep returning, and poverty hits some people hard. This price cannot be borne indefinitely. Fourth, USA is Israel’s only serious supporter. USA’s capacity to continue supporting Israel is decreasing, yet Israel depends on it. Without this support, Israel will need to fully acknowledge its position in the Middle East, by necessity making friends with its neighbours. Not only because Israel is surrounded, but also because time simply moves on, and new and different things need to happen. Time indeed is moving on – its defeat by Hezbollah in 2006, and USA’s failure in Iraq, show that the impassioned feelings of fighters can overwhelm mighty military machines. Fifth, it’s those Palestinians. Despite losing their conflict with the Israelis again and again, the Palestinians have two factual advantages. One is their high birth rate. Whatever their status, they are becoming a majority of the joint population of Israel and Palestine – even the proportion of Arabs living in ‘Israel proper’ has increased, currently around 20% of the population. In the end, numbers count. The Palestinians haven’t gone away. The other advantage is that, despite Palestinians’ misery, their society is in a strange way socially healthier than Israeli society. Palestinians have been so thoroughly deprived and have lived without proper governance for so long that they have adapted in ways that make their society quite resilient. A mixed blessing, this spirited accommodation to hardship and tragedy represents a valuable and rare community resource. Despite the tendency of young Palestinian men to squabble and fight when they get worked up, and the recent schism between Fatah and Hamas, Palestinian social bonds are a strength. They’re economically poor and socially relatively rich – meanwhile developed countries are rich materially and poor socially. Israelis know little of this: most never meet Palestinians or see their living areas. When Israeli soldiers serve in the Palestinian Territories, it often takes them a year of national service to realise that what they have been taught about Palestinians does not reflect what they see – and many soldiers land up angry, disorientated or go into exile as a result. There are further issues. One is environmental: Israel is a toxic mess, and Palestine too. Military and economic priorities in Israel have prevailed over the ‘luxury’ of environmental cleanup, except now it is no longer a luxury. Palestine’s hardships, shortages and weak infrastructure render it into a health and pollution risk for itself and for Israel – Palestinians are not in a position to attend to environmental and public health issues. There is a massive water resource problem for both countries, and paradoxically Palestinians, Syrians and Shi’ite Lebanese, ‘the enemy’, live on top of Israel’s main water-sources. Environmental issues are like a time-bomb waiting to go off, and they could be determining factors in the future. Another matter is the wider world, where things are moving on, and to an extent Israel and Palestine are being left behind. In the longterm, this could benefit Palestine more than Israel. Palestine, especially Gaza, being walled off from the world, suffers great hardship, yet this insulates it from some of the development-related problems experienced in other countries. Martin Bell, a veteran BBC war correspondent, once wrote, “Peace and freedom can be defined as the peace that makes traffic jams possible and the freedom to be stuck in them”. In the longterm, Palestinian sufferings could have some advantages. Hamas, despite the economic embargo imposed by Israel and the West after its election to government in early 2006, is still more popular than Fatah. If its project of building a society based on the principles of the umma eventually succeeds, its tough stance of resisting Israeli and foreign pressure might pay off in the longterm – though this is currently an open question. Palestine could become a seedbed for a new kind of society in a generation’s time, under different global conditions. Meanwhile, Israel, rather self-preoccupied, and defying the world on matters of international law and decent behaviour, is missing out on important developments. A small and crowded country, it cannot forever live within walls. The course Israel has followed since its founding sixty years ago is changing. This ‘whither next?’ feeling eats away at the Israeli heart. Israel was a land of hope and promise for Jews, and things have gone strangely sour. As an immigrant land, the nation needs a clear sense of purpose to define itself, and Israel is faced with finding a new one. Currently it is reluctant, clueless and divided, stuck in a loop of blocking progress in peace, behaving badly and denying it. The fear is that if its defensive aggression stops, the nation will lose out and fall apart. Still, the wider agenda surrounding Israel is changing, in the Arab world and globally, the Israeli army is not as strong as it once was, and sooner or later Israel will need to square up with emergent facts. It’s a matter of how easy or painful this is to be. This is scary for Israelis, perhaps more scary than the threat of Palestinians or Arabs. It involves building a new national consensus based not on a post-Holocaust mentality but on the demands of the future. Historically, Jews have had a legitimate fear of persecution and annihilation, but new generations are growing up for whom the Holocaust is their grandparents’ history. In the 21st Century Israelis are in a position to make peace with the world and to end this cycle. The main problem is not the fact of being Jewish, or anti-Semitism, but the current behaviour and perceived behaviour of Israel. Its settlement- and wall-building, its oppression of Palestinians and Lebanese and its international intransigence are simply unsustainable, if Israel wants friends. Given time to cool down, many Arabs and Palestinians would be willing to accept a friendly, fair and neighbourly Israel: but first, crucial matters of justice and correction have to be worked out. This involves Israelis and Arabs making a profound choice to get on with each other. Here lies the basis of Hamas’ proposal that a final peace settlement cannot be achieved in this generation. They propose making a longterm truce and interim agreement, allowing time to cool tempers, leaving a final settlement to a later generation. This is a mature viewpoint, recognising the depth of the damage done on both sides. But it rather confronts Israelis’ hidden fears too: Israel’s many ‘tribes’ will then have to come to an accommodation between themselves – the Ashkenazim and Sephardim, the seculars and the religious, the different nationalities and interest groups who jostle together for influence in Israel. For they have come to rely on having an enemy to keep them united. Israelis yet need to clarify whether they wish to live in a state reserved for Jews, or a multi-ethnic state with significant Palestinian, Bedouin, Druze and foreign populations. Current Israeli delaying tactics are eroding the possibility of a two-state solution, so Israel will have to square with this question and the Palestinians in another way. This is emotionally and politically difficult for them. But it’s easier than the alternative – continued conflict. Palestinians have already seen downfall and hardship. Israelis fear the worst – and this prospect eats at their belief in themselves. Though Palestinians suffer immensely, their agenda is relatively simple: they need a better life. How to get there divides them but, while significant, this is a manageable issue. Meanwhile Israelis are deeply confused, their government fails to represent their needs, and they resort to digging in, repeating past errors, for want of another strategy. For them, a lot of soul-searching, social and emotional reorientation lies ahead. Israelis will ultimately gain from this. It leads toward the building of a safer, happier society, at peace with its neighbours, no longer surrounded by walls, watchtowers and barbed wire, openly playing a part in the wider Middle East and the world. Meanwhile, the Middle East is moving surreptitiously toward a reuniting process – whether in the form of a common market as proposed by the sheikhs and magnates of the Gulf states, or a caliphate as proposed by Islamists. However this process unfolds, the Middle East is likely, within fifty years, to be relatively unified, very different from today. This would re-contextualise Israel’s position, especially since the Middle East might by that time be more central and in charge of its fate than it has been. For millennia, Jews have been spread around the Middle East, integral to its societies. Returning to this might be anathema to some Muslims, but let’s remember that Jews and Muslims coexisted well enough for centuries until the arrival of Israel in the mid-20th Century. Events in Europe set the founding of Israel and its militant stance in motion, and many Middle Eastern Jews had grave reservations over it. The reuniting of the Middle East implies a weakening of the national borders drawn by Britain and France in the 1920s and a gradual reintegration of its diverse societies. Whatever anyone’s feelings are today, the linking of ethnic security with territorial control is likely to be superseded by bigger regional and global priorities in the coming time. We’re all in this rather threatened world together, and we sink or swim together. We can thus imagine a time when Jews form a grouping within a larger Middle East, in which the different peoples of the region define themselves not by territory but by their social niche and role. Over the centuries, Jews lived in Sumer, Babylon and Baghdad, in Damascus and Alexandria and from Spain to Central Asia. The future has a place for Jews, just as South Africa has remained a place for whites, living together with blacks. The big issue of the future is ecological survival and international cooperation, not narrow national interest or ethnic or religious strife. This massive shift of global priorities is coming. But such a fundamental change requires an act of trust, a getting-real process in the Middle East. This is easier when it’s behind you than in front of you. Israelis have a big choice ahead. If they fail to make that choice, their nation might be doomed – not by being driven into the sea by Arabs, but because Israelis lose hope and a sense of future. For this reason, Israelis deserve some understanding. But to deserve it fully, the behaviour of the nation of Israel needs to change. Source: glastongog.blogspot.com/2008/05/question-of-israel.html#links
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Aug 8, 2008 14:28:49 GMT 4
Ready to Face the Facts About Israel? 'Israel is demonstrating that veracity lies in Lenin's doctrine that violence is the effective force in history and that the evangelical Christian Zionist churches agree.' By Paul Craig Roberts"On October 21 (1948) the Government of Israel took a decision that was to have a lasting and divisive effect on the rights and status of those Arabs who lived within its borders: the official establishment of military government in the areas where most of the inhabitants were Arabs." - Martin Gilbert, Israel: a History I had given up on finding an American with a moral conscience and the courage to go with it and was on the verge of retiring my keyboard when I met the Rev. Thomas L. Are. Rev. Are is a Presbyterian pastor who used to tell his Atlanta, Georgia, congregation: “I am a Zionist.” Like most Americans, Rev. Are had been seduced by Israeli propaganda and helped to spread the propaganda among his congregation. Around 1990 Rev. Are had an awakening for which he credits the Christian Canon of St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem and author Marc Ellis, co-editor of the book, Beyond Occupation. Realizing that his ignorance of the situation on the ground had made him complicit in great crimes, Rev. Are wrote a book hoping to save others from his mistake and perhaps in part to make amends, Israeli Peace Palestinian Justice, published in Canada in 1994. Rev. Are researched his subject and wrote a brave book. Keep in mind that 1994 was long prior to Walt and Mearsheimer’s recent book, which exposed the power of the Israel Lobby and its ability to control the explanation Americans receive about the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Rev. Are begins with an account of Israel’s opening attack on the Palestinians, an event which took place before most Americans alive today were born. He quotes the distinguished British historian, Arnold J. Toynbee: “The treatment of the Palestinian Arabs in 1947 (and 1948) was as morally indefensible as the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis. Though nor comparable in quantity to the crimes of the Nazis, it was comparable in quality.” Golda Meir, considered by Israelis as a great leader and by others as one of history’s great killers, disputed the facts: “It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” Golda Meir’s apology for Israel’s great crimes is so counter-factual that it blows the mind. Palestinian refugee camps still exist outside Palestine filled with Palestinians and their descendants whose towns, villages, homes and lands were seized by the Israelis in 1948. Rev. Are provides the reader with Na’im Ateek’s description of what happened to him, an 11-year old, when the Jews came to take Beisan on May 12, 1948. Entire Palestinian communities simply disappeared. In 1949 the United Nations counted 711,000 Palestinian refugees. [United Nations General Assembly Appendix 4, No. 15 ] In 2005 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimated 4.25 million Palestinians and their descendants were refugees from their homeland. The Israeli policy of evicting non-Jews has continued for six decades. On June 19, 2008, the Laity Committee in the Holy Land reported in Window Into Palestine that the Israeli Ministry of Interior is taking away the residency rights of Jerusalem Christians who have been reclassified as “visitors in their own city.” On December 10, 2007, MK Ephraim Sneh boasted in the Jerusalem Post that Israel had achieved “a true Zionist victory” over the UN partition plan “which sought to establish two nations in the land of Israel.” The partition plan had assigned Israel 56 percent of Palestine, leaving the inhabitants with only 44 percent. But Israel had altered this over time. Sneb proudly declared: “When we complete the permanent agreement, we will hold 78 percent of the land while the Palestinians will control 22 percent.” Sneb could have added that the 22 percent is essentially a collection of unconnected ghettos cut off from one another and from roads, water, medical care, and jobs. Rev. Are documents that the abuse of Palestinians’ human rights is official Israeli policy. Killings, torture, and beatings are routine. On May 17, 1990, the Washington Post reported that Save the Children “documented indiscriminate beating, tear-gassing and shooting of children at home or just outside the house playing in the street, who were sitting in the classroom or going to the store for groceries.” On January 19, 1988, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, later Prime Minister, announced the policy of “punitive beating” of Palestinians. The Israelis described the purpose of punitive beating: “Our task is to recreate a barrier and once again put the fear of death into the Arabs of the area.” According to Save the Children, beatings of children and women are common. Rev. Are, citing the report in the Washington Post, writes: “Save the Children concluded that one-third of beaten children were under ten years old, and one-fifth under the age of five. Nearly a third of the children beaten suffered broken bones.” On February 8, 1988, Newsweek magazine quoted an Israeli soldier: “ We got orders to knock on every door, enter and take out all the males. The younger ones we lined up with their faces against the wall, and soldiers beat them with billy clubs. This was no private initiative, these were orders from our company commander... After one soldier finished beating a detainee, another soldier called him ‘you Nazi,’ and the first man shot back: ‘You bleeding heart.’ When one soldier tried to stop another from beating an Arab for no reason, a fist fight broke out.” These were the old days before conscience was eliminated from the ranks of the Israeli military. In the London Sunday Times, June 19, 1977, Ralph Schoenman, executive director of the Bertrand Russell Foundation, wrote: “Israeli interrogators routinely ill-treat and torture Arab prisoners. Prisoners are hooded or blindfolded and are hung by their wrists for long periods. Most are struck in the genitals or in other ways sexually abused. Most are sexually assaulted. Others are administered electric shock.” Amnesty International concluded that “there is no country in the world in which the use of official and sustained torture is as well established and documented as in the case of Israel.” Even the pro-Israeli Washington Post reported: “Upon arrest, a detainee undergoes a period of starvation, deprivation of sleep by organized methods and prolonged periods during which the prisoner is made to stand with his hands cuffed and raised, a filthy sack covering the head. Prisoners are dragged on the ground, beaten with objects, kicked, stripped and placed under ice-cold showers.” Sounds like Abu Gharib. There are news reports that Israeli torture experts participated in the torture of the detainees assembled by the American military as part of the Bush Regime’s propaganda onslaught to convince Americans that Iraq was overflowing with al Qaeda terrorists. On July 23, 2008, Antiwar.com posted an Iraqi news report that the Iraqi government had released a total of 109,087 Iraqis that the Americans had “detained.” Obviously, these “terrorist detainees” had been used for the needs of Bush Regime propaganda. No one will ever know how many of them were abused by Israeli torturers imported by the CIA. Rev. Are’s book makes sensible suggestions for resolving the conflict that Israel began. However, the problem is that Israeli governments believe only in force. The policy of the Israeli government has always been to beat, kill, and brutalize Palestinians into submission and flight. Anyone who doubts this can read the book of Israel’s finest historian Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). Americans are a gullible and naive people. They have been complicit for 60 years in crimes that in Arnold Toynbee’s words “are comparable in quality” to the crimes of Nazi Germany. As Toynbee was writing decades ago, the accumulated Israeli crimes might now be comparable also in quantity. The US routinely vetoes United Nations condemnations of Israel for its brutal crimes against the Palestinians. Insouciant American taxpayers have been bled for a half century to provide the Israelis with superior military weapons with which Israelis assault their neighbors, all the while convincing America--essentially a captive nation--that Israel is the victim. John F. Mahoney wrote: “Thomas Are reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: an active pastor who comes to the unsettling realization that he and his people have been fed a terrible lie that is killing and torturing thousands of innocent men, women and children. Not without ample research and prayer does such a pastor, in turn, risk unsettling his congregation. The Reverend Are has done his homework and, I suspect, has prayed often and long during the writing of this courageous book.” Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian and pastor who was executed for his active participation in the German Resistance against Nazism. Professor Benjamin M. Weir, San Francisco Theological Seminary, wrote: “ This book will make the reader squirm. It asks you to lend your voice in behalf of the voiceless.” Americans who can no longer think for themselves and who are terrified of disapproval by their peer group are incapable of lending their voices to anyone except those who control the world of propaganda in which they live. The ignorance and unconcern of Americans is a great frustration to my friends in the Israeli peace movement. Without outside support those Israelis, who believe in good will and do not share their government’s belief in Lenin’s doctrine that violence is the only effective force in history, are deprived, by America’s support for their government’s policy of violence, of any peaceful resolution of a conflict began in 1947 by Israeli aggression against unsuspecting Palestinian villages. Rev. Are wrote his book with the hope that the pen is mightier than the sword and that facts can crowd out propaganda and create a framework for a just resolution of the Palestinian issue. In his concluding chapter, “What Christians Can Do,” Rev. Are writes: “We cannot allow others to dictate our thinking on any subject, especially on anything as important as Christian faithfulness, which is tested by an attitude towards seeking justice for the oppressed. It’s a Christian’s duty to know.” Duty, of course, has costs. Rev. Are writes: “Speak up for the Palestinians and you will make enemies. Yet, as Christians, we must be willing to raise issues that until now we have chosen to dodge.” More than a decade later, President Jimmy Carter, a true friend of Israel, tried again to awaken Americans’ moral conscience with his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter was instantly demonized by the Israel Lobby. Sixty years of efforts by good and humane people to hold Israel accountable have so far failed, but they are more important today than ever before. Israel has its captive American nation on the verge of attacking Iran, the consequences of which could be catastrophic for all concerned. The alleged purpose of the attack is to eliminate nonexistent Iranian nuclear weapons. The real reason is to eliminate all support for Hamas and Hezbollah so that Israel can seize the entire West Bank and southern Lebanon. The Bush regime is eager to do Israel’s bidding, and the media and evangelical “christian” churches have been preparing the American people for the event. It is paradoxical that Israel is demonstrating that veracity lies not in the Christian belief in good will but in Lenin’s doctrine that violence is the effective force in history and that the evangelical Christian Zionist churches agree. - Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. (Originally published in CounterPunch.org) Source:www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14011
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Aug 9, 2008 15:39:04 GMT 4
YOU CAN HELP THE PEOPLE OF GAZA
If you feel motivated to do so, please share your good fortune with those in dire need. Go to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and donate whatever you can. Thank You, Michelle Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) works for the health of Palestinians (especially in conditions of occupation, displacement or exile) based on principles of self-determination and social justice MAP Condemns allegations of Israeli bribing of Gazan PatientsFollowing the release of "Holding Health to Ransom: GSS Interrogation and Extortion of Palestinian Patients at Erez Crossing” by ‘Physicians for Human Rights – Israel’, MAP - as a medical charity with a history of working in the region for almost 25 years - expresses it’s deep concerns over the reports main findings. If PHR-Israel’s allegations concerning the practice of bribing vulnerable Gazans requiring medical treatment are correct, then it only adds to an increasingly worsening humanitarian situation as the Gaza Strip is currently in a state of virtual siege. Israel is retreating from its responsibilities as the occupying power. Not only does it make a mockery of international humanitarian law, the policy of collective punishment is only serving to deepen despair and frustration on top of the declining medical situation in the strip. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stresses that States have a core minimum obligation to ensure the satisfaction of minimum essential levels of each of the rights. While these essential levels are, to some extent, resource-dependent, they should be given priority by the State. With respect to the right to health, the Committee has underlined that States must ensure: •The right of access to health facilities, goods and services on a non-discriminatory basis, especially for vulnerable or marginalized group Read The Guardian’s article here and The Independent’s article here. 2008 Ramadan Appeal As we approach Ramadan, the conditions that face thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are a cause of great concern. The ongoing siege, which prevents even basic humanitarian and affordable foodstuffs into Gaza, is having a catastrophic affect on the vulnerable, and now malnourished, young and old. In the month of Ramadan we plan to send emergency food parcels to more than 16,000 of the most needy. Please help us today. With your help we hope to supply food parcels that contain a range of basic foods such as sugar, pasta, dates, beans, hummus, rice and corned beef. Where it is not prevented by the blockade, these goods are purchased from local suppliers in Gaza and are then parcelled and distributed during the month of Ramadan. Each parcel will cost £30 and is enough to feed an average family for a period of three weeks, providing nutrition that will boost health and help fight disease. Last year we were able to help over 16,000 people. This year the people of Gaza need your help even more. The siege has left 80% of Gazans dependent on food aid, the highest rate of food dependence anywhere in the world. We must do better this year. Please help us to support Palestinians facing the daily reality of the siege. CLIPGo To: www.map-uk.org/
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Nov 27, 2008 9:29:52 GMT 4
Israel's Slow-Motion Genocide in Occupied Palestineby Stephen Lendman Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Imagine life under these conditions:Living in limbo under a foreign occupier. Having no self-determination, no right of return, and no power over your daily life. Being in constant fear, economically strangled, and collectively punished. Having your free movement denied by enclosed population centers, closed borders, regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, and separation walls. Having your homes regularly demolished and land systematically stolen to build settlements for encroachers in violation of international law prohibiting an occupier from settling its population on conquered land. Having your right to essential services denied - to emergency health care, education, employment, and enough food and clean water. Being forced into extreme poverty, having your crops destroyed, and being victimized by punitive taxes. Having no right for redress in the occupier's courts under laws only protecting the occupier. Being regularly targeted by incursions and attacks on the ground and from the air. Being willfully harassed, ethnically cleansed, arrested, incarcerated, tortured, and slaughtered on any pretext, including for your right of self-defense. Having no rights on your own land in your own country for over six decades and counting. Vilified for being Muslims and called terrorists, Jihadists, crazed Arabs, and fundamentalist extremists. Victimized by a slow-motion genocide to destroy you. According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Israel has conducted state-sponsored genocide against the Palestinians for decades and intensively in Gaza. In a September 2006 Electronic Intifada article titled "Genocide in Gaza" he wrote: "A genocide is taking place in Gaza....An average of eight Palestinians die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed. (It's become) a daily business, now reported (only) in the internal pages of the local press, quite often in microscopic fonts. The chief culprits are the Israeli pilots who have a field day," like shooting fish in a barrel. Why not, they're only Muslims, so who'll notice or care.International law expert Francis Boyle does and in March 1998 proposed that "the Provisional Government of (Palestine) and its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for violating the" Genocide Convention. He stated that "Israel has indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the Palestinian people (and the) lawsuit would....demonstrate that undeniable fact to the entire world."Israel is a serial human rights international law abuser. The UN Human Rights Commission affirms that it violates nearly all 149 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that governs the treatment of civilians in war and under occupation and is guilty of grievous war crimes. The Commission also determined that as an occupying power Israel has committed crimes against humanity as defined under the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.Geneva, Nuremberg and other international human rights laws guarantee what Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: that everyone "has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also affirms it in saying that every "human being has the inherent right to life." Official Israeli policy is to deny it to Palestinians under occupation, especially Gazans under siege. On November 5, it was egregiously tightened after Israel closed all commercial crossings and banned virtually all permissible items - previously severely restricted and in limited amounts. On November 21, Haaretz reported that Karen AbuZayd, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) commissioner-general said Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel maintains its blockade. She called the current closure the gravest since the early days of the Second Intifada eight years ago. "It's been closed for so much longer than ever before....and we have nothing in our warehouses....It will be a catastrophe if this persists, a disaster." Out of Gaza's 1.5 million population, UNRWA provides vitally needed rations for 820,000 of its refugees, and the UN World Food Program aids another 200,000 people. They supply about 60% of daily needs, now effectively shut off and nearly exhausted - including food, medicines, fuel, and other basic essentials. On November 17, 31 containers of foods and medicines were allowed in through Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, southeast of Rafah. It was closed, along with other border crossings, for the previous two weeks. These amounts are hugely deficient and amount to less than 10% of what entered Gaza before Israel's June 2007 imposed siege. Also allowed in was 427,000 liters of fuel or barely enough to operate Gaza's power plant for a day. It's effectively shut down, and at least 30% of the population is without electricity and around 70% experiences lengthy power outages for days or weeks. On November 20, AP reported that Israeli officials "stood by (their) decision to shut cargo crossings into the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon." Of course, the Strip has been mostly isolated since Israel's imposed siege 18 months ago that created a humanitarian crisis now intensified. Why so was stated to the Jerusalem Post by senior IDF General Amos Gilad: Because "Hamas is committed to the destruction of the state....It (also) wants to take over the PLO." Unmentioned are the facts that refute this assertion. After Ismail Haniyeh became Hamas prime minister in 2006, he offered the Bush administration peace and a long-term truce in return for an end to Israel's (illegal) occupation. He was rebuffed the way he is from Israel for the same offer. Again why so? Israel and Washington are allied in a joint enterprise and need enemies, aka "terrorists." While maintaining an illusory "peace process," none whatever exists nor is any effort made to address equity for the Palestinians. What matters is joint-control of the region. Israel as the local hegemon. America as part of its world empire and all vital resources in it, especially oil, of course. In the 1980s, former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir admitted that Israel waged war against Lebanon in 1982 because there was "a terrible danger....not so much a military one as a political one." So a pretext was arranged the way it always is to invent threats and avoid resolution. In January 2006, it was policy again after Hamas won a resounding democratic majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). As a result, they and the Palestinians paid dearly. Israel, America and the West ended all outside aid, imposed a crippling economic embargo and sanctions, and politically isolated the ruling Hamas government. An intensive crackdown followed that continues to this day - regular interventions, attacks, ruthless repression, and the imposition of a medieval siege on Gaza, now intensified. On November 19, the Territory's largest flour mill shut down for a lack of wheat, and the UN suspended cash grants to 98,000 poor Gazans because of a shortage of Israeli currency. The world community has been silent. Conditions continue to deteriorate, and Christian Aid is speaking out. It accused Israel of collective punishment in violation of international law. Under Fourth Geneva's Article 33: "No protected person (under occupation) may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measure of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited (as well as) Reprisals against protected persons and their property." Costa Dabbagh from the Near East Council of Churches (a Christian Aid partner) says "Simply letting food into Gaza is not enough," and precious little is arriving. Its people "are fed and kept alive without dignity and the international community should be blamed for it." It's "not acceptable to be waiting for food to come. (Gazans) want to live freely with Israel and other countries in peace. (They're) not against any individual or government (but) are against imprisonment." They're also against starving, extreme deprivation, no effective outside aid, and no support from world or other Arab leaders in their behalf. At the moment, three of five mills have stopped operating, and the two others are about to for lack of wheat. Several bakeries are closed for lack of flour, fuel, cooking gas and electricity. Of Gaza's 72 bakeries, 47 produce Syrian bread (the most popular kind); 29 of them stopped operating; eight others are at partial capacity; 10 bake Iraqi bread, and 15 others different varieties and pastries. None are in full operation, and all may have to close for lack of supplies and power. Gazans are being strangled and starved. Health facilities are also in crisis and their patients endangered because of their limited ability to provide services. In addition, 45 vital medicines are embargoed and unavailable. Another unconscionable act. Shifa Hospital is Gaza's largest and seriously hampered. Besides a lack of power, medicines and other supplies, its equipment needs repair and has no readily available spare parts. Its main generator is in disrepair. Its MRI machine can't operate without electricity. It's short on gas for disinfection and to prepare food for patients. Concern is growing that much other essential equipment may also stop working or have to shut down for lack of power. Shifa's director, Hassan Khalaf, and the Red Cross describe the situation as critical. Lives are at risk. The intensive care unit can't operate. Electronic equipment in the newborn baby unit doesn't function, and the staff has to manually pump oxygen to all infants. In addition, stocks of about 160 essential medicines have run out and another 120 are running low. Shifa can't run very long under these conditions. Nor can Gaza's other hospitals and all other operations in the Territory - an intolerable situation barely reported on in the dominant US media. Inverting the truth, they portray Israel heroically as a democratic island in a hostile Arab sea. They won't explain that Israel is obligated to provide essentials under Fourth Geneva's Article 55. It states: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other (essential) articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate." Israel continues to violate this law and all others. As Andrea Becker of the UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians states: For Israelis, "international law was tossed aside long ago." The result for Gazans is "exhaustion gripping hold of (them) all. Survival leaves (them) little if no room for political engagement - and beyond exhaustion, anger and frustration are all that is left." A Partial Border ReopeningOn November 24, Haaretz reported that "Israel partially (opened) its border crossings with the Gaza Strip (today) to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid (after) all but completely (keeping them) shut for (the past) 19 days." Defense officials let in "44 trucks with basic goods....through Kerem Shalom crossings" in the South. According to the Ma'an News Agency, another 200 truckloads of UN humanitarian aid and 25 more containing food will also be allowed through Kerem Shalom. This is helpful but woefully short of what the Strip needs regularly to care for its 1.5 million people, most of whom rely solely or mainly on outside aid. Whether this additional aid will even arrive is now open to question, according to Haaretz (on November 25). It reported that Israel "closed its crossings with Gaza again," supposedly after two Qassam rockets were fired on Sunday, one on Monday, and another on Tuesday. Unmentioned are the regular and devastating IDF attacks against Palestinian civilians who have little more than crude weapons for self-defense and are no match against Israel's overpowering force. According to Haaretz on November 26, some aid may be forthcoming and surprisingly from Libya. It "sent a ship carrying 3000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza" to break Israel's blockade. The International Middle East Media Center called on other Arab states to do the same - flout the blockade and send aid even with no assurance Israel will allow it in. It's been very effective preventing most everything so far and shows no signs of relenting. A Shocking Red Cross ReportOn November 15, the London Independent headlined an article titled; "Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel." Writer Donald Macintyre referred to a leaked Red Cross report he called "explosive."It chronicled "the devastating effect of the siege that Israel imposed after Hamas (took control of Gaza) in June 2007 and notes that the dramatic fall in living standards triggered a shift in diet that will damage the long-term health of (Gaza's population). Alarming deficiencies (showed up) in iron, vitamin A and vitamin D." The report goes on to say that "heavy restrictions on all major sectors of Gaza's economy, compounded by a cost of living increase of at least 40%, is causing progressive deterioration in food security for up to 70 per cent of (the) population. That in turn is forcing people to cut household expenditures down to survival levels." Chronic malnutrition is rising steadily, and "micronutrient deficiencies are of great concern." Since 2007, the reported cited a switch to "low cost/high energy" cereals, sugar and oil and away from higher-cost animal products, fresh fruits and vegetables. This type diet assures long-term harmful consequences for people on it. The Red Cross said that "the (18 month) embargo has had a devastating effect for a large proportion of households who have had to make major changes on the composition of their food basket." They now rely 80% on cereals, sugar and oil. In addition, people are selling assets, cutting back on clothing and children's education, scavenging for discarded items, and doing virtually anything to survive. The report refers to economic disintegration and that prolonging the current situation risks permanently damaging households and their capacity to recover. The study was conducted from May to July 2008. Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, had little response except to say that the people of Gaza were being "held hostage" to Hamas' "extremist and nihilist" ideology. In fact, Hamas wants peace, has repeatedly been conciliatory, and its founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said earlier that armed struggle would cease "if the Zionists ended (their) occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians." That offer is repeatedly rejected. More recently, Hamas offered to maintain peace and recognize Israel in return for a Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders, its Occupied Territories. That, as well, is a non-starter for Israel. It conflicts with its West Bank plan to colonize the Territory and ethnically cleanse its rightful inhabitants in violation of international law. Israeli Clampdown on Human Rights Organizations and the MediaOver 20 human rights organizations sought entry to Gaza but were denied to prevent them from seeing and reporting on conditions on the ground. A delegation representing the Coordination Forum of The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) arrived at Erez Crossing with the required permit and were still prevented from entering. International journalists are also banned. The AP head and Israeli Foreign Press Association chairman, Steven Gutkin, said journalists called and complained. In response, the association appealed to the government without success. "We consider it a serious problem for freedom of the press. We think that journalists have to be placed in a special category. A blanket ban on people going into Gaza should not apply to journalists," Gutkin explained. "We are hoping that this is not the start of a policy of banning journalists from Gaza. We would like to point out that when times are tough, and when things heat up, it is important for journalists to be able to enter" and report on it. A BBC media crew was also refused entry along with Conny Mus from Dutch television station RTL after being told he and his crew had permission. Even Haaretz objected in a recent editorial titled: "Open Gaza to media coverage." It stated: "To serve their function sufficiently, representatives of the Israeli and international press must be in Gaza, just like in any other conflict region around the world. There is no way to cover (events there) without free access...." Haaretz called on the Israel Press Council, journalist associations, editors, writers, and the public to "raise their voices in protest." It also asked the defense establishment "to immediately lift the media closure." The Israeli press has been banned from entering Gaza for the past two years. Only Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass has been there. She then left and could only get back in by sea, and not easily or safely. Orwell would appreciate how Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Peter Lerner responded: "There is no decision not to allow journalists in." The Israeli foreign ministry said no restrictive order was issued in spite of clear evidence it's being enforced. Hostilities in Gazan WatersThe Israeli navy is also in action. It arrested three human rights activists: Darlene Wallach from America, Andrew Muncie from Britain, and Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy as they accompanied Gaza fishermen in waters nowhere near ones under Israeli control. The three were imprisoned, are on hunger strike in protest, and may face deportation or worse as Israeli justice is harsh and not forthcoming against opponents of its policies. Under the Oslo Accords, Palestinians can fish as far out as 30 kilometers. Forty thousand fishermen and their dependents rely on their catch for their livelihoods and sustenance. Israel egregiously impedes them, and after Hamas took control of Gaza, it restricted fishing to within six kilometers of shore (in less productive shallow waters) and rigorously enforces it. Those exceeding the limit risk being shot or arrested and their boats confiscated or destroyed - another serious international law violation. Saber Al-Hissie is one of them. He's been fishing in Gazan waters for 15 years, his father and grandfather before him. He spent half his life at sea, "but every day we face problems from Israeli gunboats," he explained. "They follow us, and then they start shooting at us because they want to force us to stop working." Thousands of fishermen live in Gaza, mostly in and around Gaza City where the main harbor is located. Al-Hissie is one of them and describes the restrictions Israel imposes on him and others trying to earn a living from the sea. "If we sail six miles out to sea, then maybe we will be safe. But if we go any further, the Israelis always harass us. They circle the boats, they shoot towards us, and recently they started using water cannon to attack us." He won't exceed the limit to protect his boat, but it's scared with bullet holes anyway. He and others aren't safe wherever they fish. They're harassed and attacked daily. "Unless you see it for yourself, you cannot believe the situation we are facing," he explains. It decimated local fishing. Ten years ago, Gazan fishermen caught about 3000 tons a year. It's now less than 500 and another part of the Gaza siege, Israel's war on its people, and its ongoing slow-motion genocide. "We just want to fish and support our families," says Saber. "We are not committing any crimes, but they are." End the Israeli Blockade and Stop the GenocideOn November 24, UN General Assembly president Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann said Israel's treatment of the Palestinians was like "the apartheid of an earlier era." His remarks were at an annual debate marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. He added: "We must not be afraid to call something what it is" since the UN passed the International Convention against the crime of apartheid. Israel's response was familiar. Its UN ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, called Brockmann an "Israel hater." He's a 75-year old Catholic priest. If he were Jewish, she'd have accused him of being "self-hating." On November 20, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, called for an immediate end to Israel's blockade. In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) audaciously expressed shock at what it called a one-sided statement. The High Commissioner's call came after mounting reports of human rights and humanitarian concerns. For its part, Israel claims its siege is a necessary response to mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli towns and military posts. They're little more than pin pricks and only occur in response to sustained and brutal Israeli attacks against Gazan civilians, including men, women and children - a long-standing practice for decades with overwhelming force against light arms and homemade weapons as well as children throwing rocks. It hardly justifies a medieval siege against 1.5 million people and the horrific fallout it causes. And for what?For five months through November 3, Hamas and Israel were at peace as a result of an agreed on Egyptian-brockered hudna (or truce). On November 4 it ended when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered Gaza (without cause) and killed six Hamas officers supposedly because of tunnels close to the Kisufim roadblock. Thereafter, and in spite of both sides calling for peace, IDF hostilities continued. Israel is a serial aggressor. Hamas responds in self-defense (as do West Bank Palestinians). Reality is turned on its head. Lightly-armed Gazans are called terrorists, and the world's fourth most powerful military its victims.
In fact, Gazans are grievously harmed, impoverished, slaughtered and now starved. Israel claims it as a right. International law is a non-starter, and a state of war exists against innocent men, women and children with no world efforts made to stop it.
The Washington - Israeli axis believes strife, instability, and a "war on terror" can remake the Middle East and place it firmly under their control. No matter that it failed hugely in Iraq, the same in Afghanistan, and for over six decades in Occupied Palestine.
Today starving Gazans won't be silenced. They keep protesting, and according to Hamazah Mansur, head of the Jordanian-based Islamic Action Front's six-member parliamentary bloc: If conditions in the Territory worsens, "Arab rulers should expect an earthquake that would shake their countries and regimes." It's high time something shook them out of their silent complicity with decades of slow-motion genocide, now worse than ever in Gaza under siege.Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM - 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions of world and national issues with distinguished guests. All programs are archived for easy listening.Source: sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/11/israels-slow-motion-genocide-in.html
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Dec 28, 2008 19:45:39 GMT 4
Gaza strikes: About the current escalationYou know, I just finished a post on relations between the people of India and Pakistan where I stated that I didn't post events during the Mumbai attack and bombings because what we focus on grows. That post dealt with the effects of Mumbai attack and bombings and thoughts on how violence is fueled in this area of our world. Ending that post was a long discussion on forgiveness as a way to end violence.....I wish all reading here would refer to that post:Re: Indo-Pak Leadership « Reply #3 Today at 4:27pm » Herding Humans For Profit airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pakind&thread=131&page=1#3251 And now, here I am with a list of articles on the Gaza strikes. It's times like this that make me want to end posting here at the FH Forum....Again, because: what we focus on grows. But, people will get their news somewhere else without this advice: Since what we focus on grows, the more positive our mind-set, free of any judgement, the more successful we will be in manifesting a vision of peace and healing......I hope you all take this to heart.
I would refer you also to a previous post at this thread:Reply #36 on May 19, 2008, 12:14pm The Question of Israel airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=anwrart&action=display&thread=50&page=3#2943I am in no way sympathetic to Hamas either:The Tightening Noose Gaza under Hamas, Gaza under Siege Reply #29/#30 on Feb 25, 2008The present level of internal violence in Gaza, however, has no precedent. Hamas took the detentions and torture that were part and parcel of Palestinian life under Israeli rule and later under the PA and added the previously unimaginable -- Algerian-style executions and disappearances. These were something new as acts among Palestinians. airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=anwrart&action=display&thread=50&page=3 These statements are from another, earlier, article by Palden Jenkins written in July 2005:Like much of the Western world, Israelis are running a 20th Century tape, referenced backwards....60 years of military action has not achieved its goal. Reality faces Israel. Peace and the conditions to foster it are not close, though a little progress has been made - though there are still those who would sabotage it and wrench things backwards again. He also made a profound comment which I wish to share: People penned up in settlements and concrete housing estates, surrounded by security walls and guarded by checkpoints don't look happy to me. The separation wall is a disaster and a prison for Israelis as well as Palestinians. It's rather like a tragic two-sided mirror snaking across the landscape, making each side see only its own projections - and increasingly its own reflection too.From: Experiences in the Holy Land www.palden.co.uk/palden/p4-holyland1.htmlMy concern lies with the innocent bystanders, particularly the children....I accept any karma I might generate for myself by permitting myself to feel anguish for them. As for the adults engaged in the fighting, I work to remain free of any judgement toward either side....When you take offense, you only add offense to the world. This complementary information is provided so that a greater knowledge of what needs healing and peace-nurturing vibrations may assist us to have an in-depth understanding of what is at stake and thus achieve a greater collective effectiveness towards peace.......MichelleFrom: haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050359.htmlPalestinians: At least 205 dead, over 200 hurt in IAF Gaza strikesBy Amos Harel and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies Israel launched on Saturday morning the start of a massive offensive against Qassam rocket and mortar fire on its southern communities, targeting dozens of buildings belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources said that at least 205 people had been killed in the strikes, which began with almost no warning at around 11:30 A.M. Egypt has opened its long-sealed border with Gaza to allow in the wounded for medical treatment. Hamas said that the attacks had caused widespread panic in the Strip. The first wave of air strikes was launched by a 60 warplanes which hit a total of 50 targets in one fell swoop. The IAF deployed approximately 100 bombs, with an estimated 95 percent of the ordnance reaching its intended target. Most of the casualties were Hamas operatives. A Hamas spokesman on Saturday vowed they would not surrender in the face of IDF attacks in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel would not break their "resistance to the occupation." The spokesman added that Hamas would not "raise a white flag" of surrender and would respond with all means available at their disposal. Prior to the operation, Israel sought to catch Hamas off guard by luring it into a false sense of security through certain measures, including the opening of Gaza border crossings on Friday. Immediately following the first wave, some 20 IAF aircraft struck 50 Palestinian rocket launchers in an effort to minimize Hamas' retaliatory strikes. The IDF emphasized that civilians located in areas whence Palestinians launch rockets and who quarter Hamas operatives in their homes are liable to be hurt. The targets that were hit included training camps and installations as well as police stations, some of whom were located in civilian buildings. The IDF chief of staff is holding nonstop consultations with officers. Senior military officials characterize the strikes as part of a "rolling operation" and have thus begun a sporadic enlistment of the reserves, particularly in smaller units. Top IDF brass anticipate difficult days ahead, warning that the operation will extend beyond the next couple of days. The strikes follow a decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to intensify Israel's response to cross-border attacks on Israel. The Israel Defense Forces warned Saturday that the airstrikes "will continue, will be expanded, and will deepen if necessary." The Prime Minister's bureau issued a statement on Saturday following the IAF strikes in Gaza. "The operation was launched following the violation of the terms of the lull by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians in the south of the country," the communique read. "The decision on the attack was made Wednesday during a meeting of the security-diplomatic cabinet, which instructed the IDF to act in order to bring a prolonged halt of missile fire and terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip," the prime minister's bureau said. "The cabinet authorized the prime minister, the defense minister, and the foreign minister to determine the timing and the method of operation in accordance with the cabinet decision, which was unanimously reached. The three [ministers] decided to [approve] the execution of the air force attack on Saturday morning." "Israel wishes to make clear that it will continue to act against terrorist operations and missile fire from the Strip which is intended to harm civilians." "We face a period that will be neither easy nor short, and will require determination and perseverance until the necessary change is achieved in the situation in the south," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. Hamas ended its six-month cease-fire with Israel ended on December 19 - a day before it was due to expire - and the number of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza, which had dwindled significantly, returned to pre-truce levels. Dozens of Qassams and mortars had been launched almost daily at Israeli communities near the Gaza border since Hamas declared the truce was over. The IDF statement said its military strikes were predicated on precise intelligence amassed in recent months. The IDF said it is targeting a wide array of top Hamas officials. At least two people were killed and 30 wounded from an attack in Khan Younis, a refugee camp in the south of Gaza. TV footage showed bodies of more than a dozen black-clad security men lying on the ground in one area. Palestinian witnesses say one of the missiles struck Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City, with at least 50 people among the casualties in the attack. The IAF strikes on the police headquarters killed police chief Tawfiq Jabber, Hamas radio reported. Residents reported hearing at least 15 explosions. Many of Hamas' security compounds are in residential areas, and the airstrikes took place as children were leaving school. Plumes of black smoke rose over Gaza City, sirens wailed through the streets and women frantically looked for their children. The Reuters news agency reported that Gaza City port and security installations of Hamas had been badly damaged by the strikes. Residents of the western Negev communities have received instructions from the authorities to remain in their homes and in bomb-proof rooms. On Friday, Egyptian officials said that Egypt had begun boosting the security along its border with Gaza, in anticipation of the imminent IDF operation within the territory, fearing an Israeli incursion would result in a breach of the border. In January, Hamas militants frustrated over the tightened Israeli closure of Gaza blew holes in the border partition, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to stream into Egypt unchecked for ten days and stock up on food and other goods made scarce by the blockade. Egyptian officials told Israel Radio, however, that Egypt is pressing on with efforts to prevent the escalation of violence in the region. The officials said that representatives on behalf of Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman have approached senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar in the Gaza Strip and presented him with Egypt's concerns. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired dozens of mortar shells from the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday and early morning Friday, as the IDF prepared for action. The mortars damaged one building, but no one was hurt in any of the incidents. ---------- Related articles:ANALYSIS / IAF strike on Gaza is Israel's version of 'shock and awe'www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050405.htmlIN PICTURES / The Gaza Strip under attackwww.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050423.htmlU.S. demands Hamas end terrorist acts, urges Israel to avoid civilian casualtieswww.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050396.htmlIsraeli Arabs react with violence to IDF operations in Gaza www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050412.htmlIsraeli Arabs on Saturday protested Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Gaza Strip, with demonstrations and clashes with police breaking out in communities throughout Israel. CLIP --------------------- From: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorismTo be in Gaza is to be trappedPeter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor - 28 December 2008 Gaza. Always the suffering of Gaza, most potent symbol of the tragedy of Palestine. In 1948, during the Nakba - or "The Catastrophe" as Palestinians describe the war that gave birth to the state of Israel - 200,000 refugees poured into Gaza, swelling its population by more than two-thirds. Then Gaza fell under Egyptian control. The six day war of 1967 saw more refugees, but with it came the occupation of Gaza by Israel - an occupation that, despite Israel's declaration under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that it would unilaterally withdraw its settlements and troops in 2005, has never really ended. It has not ended, for to be in Gaza is to be trapped. Without future or hope, limited to a few square miles. Its borders, land and sea, are defined largely by Israel (with Egypt's compliance along the southern end of the Strip). It is not open to the ocean apart from a narrow outlet accessible only to the fishing fleet, a coastal blockade policed by Israel's gunboats, the boundaries of which have only recently been tested by boats of protesters sailing from Cyprus to draw attention to conditions inside Gaza. Once it was possible for Gazans to pass with relative ease in and out of the Strip to work in Israel. In recent years, the noose around the 1.5 million people living there has been tightening incrementally, until a whole population - in the most densely settled urban area upon the planet - has been locked in behind walls and fences. Since Israeli troops overran the Strip in 1967, Israeli politicians and generals have always seen it as a problem - a hotbed of radicalism and opposition. And so Israel has ventured failed experiment after experiment in the attempt to control Gaza. It has tried everything except the obvious - to allow its people to be free. It has tried directly managing Gaza, and a brutal policy of quarantine backed by tanks, jets and gunboats. It has attempted the maintenance of strategic settlements, which only provided a focus for resistance against the patrolling troops. And when that failed, Israel retreated - only to find that, without a proximate enemy, those living inside turned to attacking the nearby towns with crude missiles. Ironically, one of Israel's experiments involved assisting in the creation of Hamas, which had its roots in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, to counter the power of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation. Israel has been determined to push Hamas ever closer to all-out war since insisting that even though it won free and fair Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, its right to govern could not be treated as legitimate. Since Hamas took power in Gaza in summer 2007, after a short, brutal struggle with Fatah, Israel's policy has been one of collective punishment, summed up in the policy of "no prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis". Not a visible humanitarian crisis, at least. For what has been going on inside Gaza since the economic blockade began a year and a half ago has cynically stretched the definition of what constitutes the boundaries of such a crisis. Those seeking urgent medical care outside Gaza's walls are forced to go through a long and humiliating process. Even some of those who are allowed to leave, human rights groups say, have been pressured into becoming informers for Israeli intelligence. One in two Gazans is now living in poverty. Aid is sporadic, and as the World Bank warned at the beginning of December, the blockade has forced Gaza to become reliant on smuggling tunnels (taxed by Hamas), which risked destroying its conventional economy. Inflation for key products smuggled through the tunnels is rampant, which in turn has brought cash to Hamas. Equally worrying, from a long-term point of view, has been the corrosion of Gaza's institutions and social cohesion, which has resulted in sporadic eruptions of inter-factional and inter-clan violence. What Israel hopes to achieve with the present military offensive - beyond influencing the coming Israeli elections - is not clear. For if a long-anticipated ground operation, leading to a partial reoccupation on the ground, is to follow these air strikes - as it did in the war in Lebanon in 2006 - it will have to achieve what neither Hamas nor its rival Fatah can: unifying Palestinian society once more against a common enemy, as Gaza was once united against Israeli settlements inside its boundaries. If that is not the intention, it is hard to see what Israel's actions are meant to achieve in a community that cherishes its martyrs; where violent death is intended to reinforce social cohesion and unity. For in the end what has happened in the past few hours is simply an expression of what has been going on for days and months and years: the death and fear that Gaza's gunmen and rocket teams and bombers have inflicted upon Israel have been returned 10, 20, 30 times over once again. And nothing will change in the arithmetic of it. Not in Gaza. But perhaps in a wider Arab world, becoming more uncomfortable by the day about what is happening inside Gaza, something is changing. And Israel has supplied a rallying point. Something tangible and brutal that gives the critics of its actions in Gaza - who say it has a policy of collective punishment backed by disproportionate and excessive force - something to focus on. Something to be ranked with Deir Yassin. With the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Something, at last, that Israel's foes can say looks like an atrocity. ---------------- From: www.counterpunch.org/cantarow12262008.htmlGaza is Buckling Richard Falk, Israel and the New York TimesDec 26-28 2008 By Ellen Cantarow As Israel nails shut the coffin that is Gaza under a siege that has lasted nearly three years, steadily intensifying so that malnutrition rates rival those of sub-Saharan Africa, sewage runs raw in the streets and pollutes the ocean, homes are still being bulldozed to super-add collective punishment upon collective punishment; men, women and children are still being sniped at and killed; children are deafened by continuing sonic booms, the vast majority of them suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and many of that majority have no ambition other than becoming "martyrs," Israel in mid-December denied entry to Richard Falk, UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the occupied territories. It is Dr. Falk's responsibility to report to the UN on conditions in the occupied territories. Israel is blocking him from carrying out this job. In an article that reads as if it rolled off the computers in Israel's Government Press Office (no quotes by anyone friendly to Falk's point of view, for instance), The New York Times, tells us Dr. Falk "has long been criticized in Israel for what many Israelis say [emphasis mine] are unfair and unpalatable views." The blind attribution is typical. Unlike European Union ministers who recently condemned Israel's acts in Gaza and the West Bank only to turn around and approve upgrading the EU's relations with Israel, Falk will not compromise. He not only describes Israel's atrocities in Gaza, but calls for immediate protective action "to offset the persisting and wide-ranging violations of the fundamental human right to life." He also calls for an International Criminal Court investigation to "determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law." Perhaps it's his clarity of focus and refusal to back down that constitute his sins in Israel's eyes? (The usual hasbarah about anti-Semitism, etc., is to be discounted, though being Jewish Falk may fall into the category, "self-hating Jew.") Many others, Jewish and not Jewish (including Israeli Jews never quoted by The New York Times) have charged Israel with violations of international law and war crimes in Gaza. As Falk himself noted in his statement about Gaza to the UN (see "Gaza: Silence is not an Option" at The Heathlander and other Internet sites), the Secretary General of the UN, the President of the General Assembly, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have all condemned Israel for its monstrous siege. "Karen AbyZayd," stated Falk, "who heads the UN relief effort in Gaza, offered first-hand confirmation of the desperate urgency and unacceptable conditions facing the civilian population of Gaza. Although many leaders have commented on the cruelty and unlawfulness of the Gaza blockade imposed by Israel, such a flurry of denunciations by normally cautious UN officials has not occurred on a global level since the heyday of South African apartheid." Other denunciations have been made by B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that in June, 2006 called Israel's destruction of Gaza's electrical power plant "a war crime" ("Aiming attacks at civilian objects is forbidden under International Humanitarian Law and is considered a war crime. The power plant bombed by Israel is a purely civilian object and bombing it did nothing to impede the ability of Palestinian organizations to fire rockets into Israeli territory.") Last month, Switzerland accused Israel of violating international law by destroying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and Ramallah. This denunciation, writes a reporter for The First Post, is "arguably the strongest condemnation of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians to come from any western European country since Charles de Gaulle famously attacked the 'oppression, repression and expulsions' of Palestinians by Israel over 40 years ago.". (November 17, 2008.) Christopher Hedges writes that Falk told him Israel's siege has unleashed "an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million [population] Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive . . . This is an increasingly precarious condition. A recent study reports that 46 per cent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 per cent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disordersŠ Over 50 per cent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live." Gaza committed the ultimate sin. Its residents refused to be good little natives; it launched the first Intifada. It became legendary, together with Jenin in the West Bank, for its refusal to submit to Israel's occupation. Gaza was also a region that, unlike the West Bank, was negligible in terms of fertile land and water resources. So Gaza must first be quarantined (Darryl Li has compared Gaza after Israel's "pull-out" to an animal pen where - before the siege, at any rate - food and supplies were thrown in, Israel having divested itself of any responsibility for the population.) Israel's aim was that Egypt take responsibility for Gaza, which has not happened. Gaza's resistance has continued firing rockets into Israel. But Gaza's final and unpardonable sin was, in a completely fair election, to elect a party that displeased Israel and the US. Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra infamy helped the reprisal along by engineering civil war between Hamas and Fatah (see Vanity Fair, April, 2008.) Now, finally, Gaza is buckling. While the world watches, a people is being destroyed. The definitive essay is Sara Roy's in this month's London Review of Books. She details an excruciating decline in all means of life - food, fuel, medicine, water-purifiers, etc. Roy doesn't say it, and neither does Falk, but Israel's siege fulfills at least three points in Article 2 of the Convention on Genocide (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.) Roy's depressing conclusion is that if Gaza falls, the West Bank will follow. ----------- Related article:
If Gaza falls . . . Sara Roy London Review of Books, Jan 2009www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html(...) The breakdown of an entire society is happening in front of us, but there is little international response beyond UN warnings which are ignored. The European Union announced recently that it wanted to strengthen its relationship with Israel while the Israeli leadership openly calls for a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip and continues its economic stranglehold over the territory with, it appears, the not-so-tacit support of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah - which has been co-operating with Israel on a number of measures. On 19 December Hamas officially ended its truce with Israel, which Israel said it wanted to renew, because of Israel's failure to ease the blockade. How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel? How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gaza's children - more than 50 per cent of the population - benefit anyone? International law as well as human decency demands their protection. If Gaza falls, the West Bank will be next. ----------------- Also recommended...Israel pounds Gaza for second day (Dec 28)news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081228/ts_nm/us_palestinians_israel_3Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second successive day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after 229 people were killed in one of the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state."Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre," said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his Islamist group, which has controlled the coastal territory since June 2007, vowed revenge including suicide bombings in Israel's "cafes and streets."Israel bolstered armored and infantry forces along the Gaza Strip border, and a military spokesman said on Sunday: "The (Gaza) operation is continuous. It is still taking place." The Jewish state said it was responding to "intolerable" almost daily rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants that intensified after Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago. The militant attacks caused some injuries, raising the stakes for Israeli leaders ahead of a February 10 election which surveys show the right-wing opposition Likud party may win. Israel said its warplanes mounted about 100 strikes on Saturday and that Palestinian militants had fired some 70 rockets at the Jewish state, killing one Israeli man. Israeli jets kill 'at least 225' in revenge strikes on Gaza (December 28, 2008)www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5404501.eceIsrael yesterday launched its largest raid on Gaza with two waves of air attacks that killed at least 225 people and injured more than 700, according to Palestinian doctors. Children on their way home from school and policemen parading for a graduation ceremony were the principal victims of a bloody few hours that left the territory in flames.The short but brutal aerial blitz - codenamed Operation Cast Lead - was aimed at targets held by the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip 18 months ago.After weeks of rising tension and repeated Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli territory, the air force struck with warplanes and unmanned drones loaded with guided missiles. (...) Israeli military officials said more than 100 tons of missiles had been fired at Gaza by mid-afternoon. By early evening 205 Gazans were known to be dead and 700 wounded, Gaza health official Dr Moaiya Hassanain said. He did not provide figures on civilian deaths. Some of the dead, rolled in blankets, were laid out on the floor of Gaza's main hospital for identification. Earlier in the day, when the death toll stood at 155, police spokesman Ehud Ghussein had said about 140 Hamas security forces were killed. Hamas leaders threatened revenge. Hamas "will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman. Israel told its civilians near Gaza to take cover as militants began retaliating with rockets, and in the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, called for restraint. Egypt summoned the Israeli ambassador to express condemnation and opened its border with Gaza to allow ambulances to drive out some of the wounded. Protests against the campaign erupted in Arab Israeli villages and the Abbas-ruled West Bank. The most violent West Bank response came in the city of Hebron, where dozens of youths, many of them masked, hurled rocks at Israeli forces, who lobbed tear gas and stun grenades in response. CLIP Israel launches new wave of Gaza attacks (28 Dec 2008)www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79721§ionid=351020202Israel begins a fresh wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip after it killed 265 people and wounded 800 others on Saturday. Israeli warplanes staged an air strike early Sunday in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting a fuel truck traveling outside Rafah near the Egyptian border, witnesses said. The Sunday Israeli air attacks have so far left six Palestinians dead and several others wounded. The latest deaths raised Gaza death toll to 271. An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv told AFP that Israeli aircraft had staged several air strikes throughout the night, one of which was staged against a mosque in Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City. According to Israeli public radio, the military carried out at least 20 airstrikes across the impoverished region over night. Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza border early Sunday in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News on Saturday that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion. Barak on Saturday also said Israel "cannot really accept" a cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the international community for a truce. Gaza carnage Obama's litmus test (28 Dec 2008)www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79704§ionid=351020202The Israeli bombardment of Gaza Saturday left at least 230 dead and 800 wounded, making it the biggest such atrocity in 60 years of Israel-Palestine conflict. In an interview with ISNA News Agency in Tehran on Saturday, the head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi stated that the United Sates and other Western backers of the Zionist entity must be held accountable for the Gaza carnage. Without their full support the Zionists would lack the effrontery to launch such a large-scale onslaught on defenseless Palestinians, he noted. "The Zionist regime has enjoyed the Bush administration's generous support to limber up for the new wave of appalling atrocities. The ongoing Gaza tragedy is regarded as the litmus test for US President-elect Barack Obama to show a timely action to halt the violence," the Iranian lawmaker commented. Boroujerdi maintained that missile attacks on Gaza are an obvious manifestation of Tel Aviv's desperation rather than a show of might. He also called on Muslim states to play their vital role to cease the worsening humanitarian crisis. UNSC kicks off Gaza meeting (28 Dec 2008)www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79723§ionid=351020202The UN Security Council began the meeting to discuss a Libyan call for an immediate halt to Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that have so far killed more than 230 and wounded 800 others, AFP reported. "Our main objective is an immediate ceasefire," said Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the UN, whose country is the lone Arab member of the council. He said his delegation called the emergency meeting "in coordination with the UN Arab group" in the wake of the deadly Israeli air raids on Gaza. UN Palestinian observer, Riyad Mansour, said "There is no justification for slaughtering hundreds of Palestinian civilians." He said, "This collective punishment is inhumane, immoral and should be stopped immediately,'' UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply alarmed" by the bloodshed in Gaza and appealed for "an immediate halt to all violence." The United States, Israel's main ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, held the Hamas movement responsible for the Israeli bloody attacks saying Tel Aviv was defending its people. The US said the rocket firing of the Gazan fighters prompted the Israeli regime to attack the Gaza strip. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected." Palestinian fighters in the Gaza strip fire rockets into Israel in retaliation for the Israeli daily attacks against them. Unlike the state of the art Israeli weapons and ammunition, the home made Qassam rockets rarely cause casualties. On Saturday, Israeli F16 bombers and apache helicopters carried out around 40 simultaneous raids on 40 separate targets across the Gaza strip. Following the attacks, Israeli authorities said the air strikes were only just the 'beginning of an operation launched after a security cabinet decision'. Israel set for prolonged Gaza op (28 December 2008) news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7801662.stmIsrael says it will widen its attacks on Hamas if necessary to stop the Palestinian militant group firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. Israeli F-16 bombers hit targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 227 people, local medics say. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said operations would continue on the ground if air strikes were not enough to change Hamas's behaviour.UN Security Council members are meeting to discuss the crisis. The emergency meeting was called at the request of Libya, the only Arab member of the council, the AFP news agency said. "Our main objective is an immediate ceasefire," Libya's deputy ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told the agency. Just before the Security Council gathered, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, repeated Israel's stance that it was taking action to "protect its citizens from further terrorist attacks"."No country would allow continuous rocketing of its civilian population without taking the necessary actions to stop it," she said in a statement.Israel's air raids were the heaviest on the Gaza Strip for decades. Most of those killed were policemen in the Hamas militant movement, which controls Gaza, but women and children also died, Gaza officials said. About 700 others were wounded, as missiles struck security compounds and militant bases, the officials added. CLIP Attacks are only going to strengthen hand of Hamas (28 December 2008)www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/28/israel-and-the-palestinians-middle-east1Israel's hammer blow against Hamas in the Gaza Strip bears all the hallmarks of its doctrine of overwhelming force. But it was met by furious Arab warnings that the onslaught would lead to all-out war and a new wave of suicide bombings. The attacks followed a decision by caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to widen reprisals for cross-border rocket attacks on Israel, which restarted after the expiry of a shaky six-month ceasefire just over a week ago. Hamas leaders may have been shocked but can hardly have been surprised by the onslaught. Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, warned in Cairo on Thursday that Israel "cannot tolerate" continuing attacks. after some 50 rockets or mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip. Livni's high-profile visit to Egypt was seen as part of an diplomatic offensive to prepare for an attack. Mixed signals confused the picture, perhaps deliberately: on Friday, Israel reopened border crossings into Gaza to allow the delivery of fuel, food and humanitarian supplies. There was immediate outrage at the raids from Egypt and Jordan as well as the Palestinian Authority, Hamas's rival, which is based in the West Bank town of Ramallah and backed by the West. (...) It is hard to gauge Hamas's popularity, but first signs were that the raids will rally support. "This is nothing short of a massacre, an outrage," the Palestinian independent Hanan Ashrawi told the BBC from Ramallah. "The cycle of violence is generated by the occupation and by the ongoing state of siege that is attempting to collectively punish a whole people. This will enhance the standing of Hamas. People are sympathising with Hamas as the people who are being ruthlessly targeted by Israel. They are seen as victims of ongoing Israeli aggression." Britain and US refuse to demand end to Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (28 December 2008)www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5404545.eceBritain and the United States were on a collision course with their European allies last night after refusing to call for an end to Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.The wave of attacks marked a violent end to President George W Bush's sporadic Middle East peace efforts. The White House put the blame squarely on Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, for provoking the Israeli blitz. Britain echoed the call for "militants" to stop firing rockets into Israel while calling for "maximum restraint" to avoid casualties.The response was in sharp contrast to demands by the European Union for an "immediate ceasefire" and criticism by France of the use of "disproportionate force". (...) "The EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel. The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis." The French presidency of the EU issued a statement on behalf of the 27-nation bloc, condemning both sides. "The EU condemns the Israeli bombardments as well as rocket attacks from Gaza. It demands that this stops immediately," it said. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, also went further than Britain and America in condemning the use of "disproportionate" force. CLIP Israel's Cynicism Supported by the West's Complicity (27.12.08)www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21544.htmToday the Israeli army launched its long awaited strikes against the Gazan people, an unarmed, captive civilian population. The West, including the British government, has supported the last two years' of blockade of the Palestinians in Gaza for the crime of exercising their democratic rights in a manner not to Israel's liking. They have stood by while the people have been reduced to beggars dependent upon food aid, aid which has been consistently denied to them by Israel's siege, resulting in malnutrition, trauma and deaths from medical neglect. This siege has been accompanied by regular military attacks on Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank as Israel is allowed to act with impunity. The passage of 100 trucks of aid yesterday, in the BBC's words 'to prevent Israel being accused of a causing humanitarian crisis' is a cynical diversion which does not fool anyone despite the hopes of our cowardly leaders. The British government must condemn outright the current assault on Gaza, and immediately demand that the UN takes steps to end the siege with the restoration of full freedom of the borders of Gaza. Mangled bodies, wailing relatives at Gaza hospital (28 December 2008)www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hAI2WflpC2KUwb0IkHTRfofYhFGAGAZA CITY (AFP) - Relatives wail as the mangled bodies of loved ones are brought into Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on Saturday following Israeli air strikes that killed at least 225 people in the Palestinian enclave.Ambulances and private cars rush those wounded or killed in the punishing raids to the hospital, where staff use sheets as makeshift stretchers.In some cases, a single stretcher is used to carry several bodies. Torn limbs fall to the blood-soiled floor. There is no space left in the morgue and bodies are piled up in the emergency room and in the corridors, while many of the severely wounded scream in pain. Overworked doctors and nurses can only deal with the most pressing cases. Most of the victims wear the uniforms of the security services of Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs Gaza and whose installations were targeted in the attacks Israel says were in response to rocket attacks by Gaza militants. CLIP Eyewitness: Chaos in Gaza (27 December 2008)news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7801292.stm(...) It's a very bad situation... There were Israeli aeroplanes everywhere, hitting everywhere. You could see smoke from north to south, from west to east. The people are really in a panic. The main object for the people now is to find a secure place to secure their family.Gaza has no shelters, it has no safe places. The Hamas security compounds are in the middle of the city - it's not the kind of place where you see compounds outside the cities.I have witnessed one of the compounds - which is 20m [yds] away from my house - I was standing on the balcony and I have seen the Israeli airplanes hitting the place.Some of my balcony was damaged and my kid was injured. Many people were injured inside their houses today. I saw an Israeli fighter drop a bomb on a building, flattening it. Smoke was coming from it. Kids were panicking and screaming.It took rescue teams six hours to evacuate injured from the place and they are still searching under the rubble, trying to find any survivors. Israel "cannot accept" ceasefire with Hamas says Barak (Dec 27, 2008)uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE4BQ1V120081227WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel "cannot really accept" a cease-fire with Hamas, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in a U.S. television interview on Saturday, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israeli air strikes killed 227 people in Gaza. "For us to be asked to have a cease-fire with Hamas is like asking you to have a cease-fire with al Qaeda. It's something we cannot really accept," Barak told Fox News from Tel Aviv.Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, "If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there." "Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," he said. Voices: Reaction to Israeli raids (27 December 2008)news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7801641.stmTwo Palestinians in Gaza and two Israelis in the nearby town of Sderot give their reaction to the Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Saturday. Palestinian medical officials say many of the 225 people killed were Hamas policemen. West Bank rises up in response to massacre in Gaza (December 27, 2008)www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11511In response to the bombing attacks that have left 205 people dead in Gaza, Palestinians across the West Bank and inside the '48 have organized to protest the crimes. In almost every district, mass marches and clashes have occurred. The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign has joined networks and committees such as the National and Islamic forces, the Committee against the Siege in the mobilizations that are rocking the entire West Bank.In Ramallah some 5,000 people headed the calls for demonstrations. Part of the demonstrators marched to the old road of el-Bireh, the location of the central offices of the so-called Civil Administration. The road, a site of daily confrontations at the beginning of the Second Intifada, was today again the site of heavy clashes. At the same time, in Qalandiya, the anger of the people erupted into violent confrontations against Occupation forces at the checkpoint.Popular demonstrations have occurred in nearly all the communities already organized for weekly actions against the Wall. In Jayyous, hundreds took to the streets in protest. Stones are hailing down on the Occupation soldiers in the neighboring village of Azzoun, where protestors are blocking the main road. In Ni'lin people have mobilized, fighting against soldiers in the fields outside the village.Most of the West Bank's main cities have seen popular actions. In Tulkarm and Nablus, hundreds went out in the streets to protest against the bombings of the Gaza Strip. In Hebron, university students led a mass march towards the old city where they stood up against soldiers and settlers in hours of clashes on Shuhada Street. Even in Jerusalem, people mobilized in demonstrations along Salahuddin Street in the city center and in the villages around the city. CLIP Foreign Min. starts massive PR move to raise int'l support (28 December 2008)www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050445.htmlThe Foreign Ministry yesterday began a broad range of public relations initiatives in order to boost international legitimacy for the Israel Air Force's operations in the Gaza Strip. (...) The Foreign Ministry has enlisted spokesmen fluent in Arabic, Italian, Spanish and German to address foreign journalists in Israel. Today it will open an international communications center and organize tours for foreign media representatives and diplomats in Sderot and nearby communities, which have been indiscriminately targeted by Palestinian militants with Qassam rockets and mortar shells for years. CLIP IDF mobilizing tanks in event of Gaza ground incursionwww.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3645272,00.html IDF prepares to intensify operation against Hamas infrastructure in Gaza, sending tanks and infantry reinforcements southward in preparation for possible ground incursion. Throughout day IAF carried out strikes on nearly 100 Hamas targets; Palestinian health officials putting death toll at 230 people. Hamas urges military wing to fire long-range rockets (12.27.08)www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3644947,00.html Hamas prepares to respond: The Hamas movement called on its military wing Saturday to fire long-range rockets at Israeli communities in response to the IDF's assault on Gaza. Hamas spokesman Fauzi Barhoum characterized the aerial strikes as a crime against all the Palestinian people. "We are calling on the al-Qassam Brigades to fire as far as possible," he said. Barhoum said that Palestinian groups will not surrender despite the Israeli strike, which according to Palestinian reports claimed the lives of more than 100 people. The dead include senior members of the Palestinian police and of Hamas' military wing. Some students were also reportedly hurt in the attacks. The various Palestinian factions in the Strip characterized the Israeli assault as an "open war" and made it clear that they are preparing for what's to come. Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Abu Mujihad told Ynet that Palestinian groups have prepared a series of "surprises" for Israel. The spokesman said that Gaza organizations will not be deterred by the aerial assault and will proceed to fire rockets at Israeli communities that were previously out of the line of fire. According to estimates, Palestinian groups are preparing to launch rockets from deep within the Strip, and not only from areas near the border with Israel. CLIP Missile from Gaza deepest strikeyet in Israel (Dec 28)news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians;_ylt=AkU1mWukO4P1VBtHzaJbQBKs0NUEJERUSALEM - Israeli police say a missile from Gaza hit near the city of Ashdod in the deepest missile strike inside Israel yet.Regional police spokeswoman Sarit Philipson says she was driving home Sunday when she saw the missile hit the ground near Ashdod, about 23 miles from Gaza.In Gaza, Hamas claimed responsibility for firing the missile.Philipson told Israel Army Radio that she saw a large explosion and a plume of smoke.Gaza's Hamas rulers have been stockpiling weapons in recent months, including medium-range missiles. Until Sunday, the deepest targets inside Israel had been the city of Ashkelon and the town of Netivot, which are closer to Gaza. Many more related news through: news.google.com/news?ned=ca&ncl=1284261182&hl=en&topic=h and electronicintifada.net/new.shtml
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Dec 30, 2008 6:27:35 GMT 4
See previous post for background info....MTell your member of Congress to enforce the law.Subject: Help Gaza; Enforce the Law Date: 12/29/2008 8:25:57 PM Eastern Standard Time From: info@pdamerica.org Massacre seems like such a harsh word, but that is exactly what’s going on in Gaza, and it’s happening with US made weapons, and the tacit approval of our government by failing to uphold the law—the U.S. Arms Control Export and Foreign Assistance Act.
Tell your member of Congress to enforce the law.The Israeli Air Force attacked the occupied Gaza Strip killing more than an estimated 270 people and injuring hundreds more over the weekend. The air strikes are expected to continue with possible troop involvement. These attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities. A virtually unarmed and starving people, the Palestinians of Gaza have been living under an illegal blockade and lock down for the past six months. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto (Nicaragua) said of the air strikes, "the time has come to take firm action if the UN does not want to be rightly accused of complicity by omission." The same can be said of the US. We urge you to take immediate action:1. Tell your member of Congress to uphold the law and enforce the U.S. Arms Control Export and Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits aid to countries that abuse human rights or use weapons purchased from the U.S. for offensive purposes. Click here: capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=12304501&PROCESS=Take+Action [***see info/example below***]2. Contact the White House to protest the attack and demand an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to mailto:comments@whitehouse.gov?subject=Enforce%20the%20Law%2C%20Stop%20the%20Attacks. 3. Contact your local media by phoning into a talk show or writing a letter to the editor. To find contact info for your local media, click here: capwiz.com/pdamerica/dbq/media/Please act now to help save lives. Join with PDA supporting a rapid peaceful and lawful resolution to this crisis. Yours for Peace, Tim Carpenter National Director ----------------------- ****** Stop the Gaza Massacre--Enforce the Law The siege and blockade of Gaza by Israel--with tacit and explicit U.S. government support and aid--is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. People are starving. Hospitals have suspended operations due to fuel shortages. Hundreds of critically ill patients are prevented from receiving medical attention. Thousands of patients suffer from a shortage of medicines. Tons of untreated human waste is being dumped into the sea because there is not enough fuel to operate sewerage treatment plants. Water for drinking and irrigation is rationed or unavailable. The UN and Red Cross have termed the siege a profound breach of international law. Former President Carter has called Israel's blockade of Gaza "an atrocity amounting to a war crime." Now, Israel has attacked Gaza with F-16 war planes killing over 200 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more, mostly civilian--including women and children. Israel blames Hamas for these attacks, a retaliation to mortars fired by Hamas militants. Collective punishment of an entire population under occupation is in violation of the Geneva Accords. In light of these horrifying facts, PDA supports the immediate end of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza, that the U.S. Arms Control Export and Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits aid to countries that abuse human rights or use weapons purchased from the U.S. for offensive purposes, be enforced, and that resumption of aid be conditioned on an end to the blockade of Gaza and implementation of a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. America's unconditional support of Israeli government policy is profoundly harmful to the cause of peace in the Middle East. Now is the time to act. A peaceful and prosperous future for Palestinian and Israeli peoples rests in our hands. Take action, now. We encourage you to use your own words to alter the text and title of the message below.Message Recipients: Your U.S. House Representative Subject: End the Israeli Blockade of Gaza Editable text: (edit or add your own text - 9447 characters left) There will be no peace in the Middle East until the plight of the Palestinian people is recognized and resolved. Immediate steps must be taken to end the Israeli attacks on Gaza and the brutal, immoral, and illegal siege of Gaza. To that end, I demand that as my elected representative you seek immediate enforcement of the U.S. Arms Control Export and Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits aid to countries that abuse human rights or use weapons purchased from the U.S. for offensive purposes. I will be watching for your leadership on this matter.GO TO: capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=12304501&PROCESS=Take+Action
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Jan 2, 2009 16:22:50 GMT 4
Our world is abound with examples of human brutality between peoples and nations. I'm sure many have struggled with the question, "If as humans we are basically the same, how is that we are able to rain violence, destruction, and death upon one another?" The answer to that, and the solution, lies within the individual.
Refer to: Welcome to International Psychohistory Today's Lesson: Splitting and Projection Before, During and After World War Twoairdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=oneness&action=display&thread=211&page=1#3257
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jan 7, 2009 12:16:41 GMT 4
Please note the detailed Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Gaza Update at the end of this compilation.....MichelleThe Monstrosity of WarTuesday 06 January 2009 by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Perspective "Foreseen for so many years: these evils, this monstrous violence, these massive agonies: no easier to bear." -Robinson Jeffers, American poet Agence France-Presse reports that the first person killed when the Israeli military began to enter Gaza on Saturday was a Palestinian child. On Sunday, a Palestinian woman and her four children were blown to pieces when Israeli warplanes bombed their home. They are among the 521 victims (at the time of this writing) of the ongoing air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip by a 9,000 strong force, which the Israeli government has launched on one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, half of them under 17 years of age. "The ground invasion was preceded by large scale artillery shelling from around 4 P.M., intended to 'soften' the targets as artillery batteries deployed along the Strip in recent days began bombarding Hamas targets and open areas near the border," Israel's Haaretz newspaper wrote of the onslaught. "Hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas." Israel began the military assault on Gaza on November 4, breaking the truce that Hamas had observed for many months. It went on to block food supplies to be delivered into Gaza by the UN Relief Works and World Food Program. The next casualty was the crucial fuel delivery service used to run Gaza's power plant. Finally, Israel banned journalists and aid workers from entering Gaza. It is important to note that in mid-December, during a visit to Israel, UN Human Rights Investigator Richard Falk called the Israeli blockade of Gaza "a crime against humanity" and a "flagrant and massive violation of international law." Falk, a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, urged the UN to invoke "the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity." Falk also called for an International Criminal Court investigation of Israeli military and civilian officials for potential prosecution. For this, he was detained at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport for 20 hours before being expelled from Israel. As Israeli tanks and ground troops pour into Gaza to engage in the worst kind of combat (should we even measure types of warfare against one another?), urban warfare, the atrocities on both sides continue, and one may assume that the situation will only worsen with time, as it inevitably does in progressive stages of war. "Operation Cast Lead" as Israel's latest offensive is named, has claimed, since December 27, over 520 Palestinian lives. Gaza medical officials put the number of wounded at over 2,400, most of them civilians. Hamas rockets have killed five Israelis, one of them a soldier and four of them civilians. As with Israeli attacks that kill and wound Palestinian civilians are a war crime, Hamas firing their grossly inaccurate rockets into Israel, which then wound and kill Israeli civilians, is also a war crime. According to KPFA radio correspondent Sameh Habeeb, "Around 17 people [from the Al-Atatra family] were killed in Bait Lahia town north of Gaza. Amongst them were several children, two brothers, 20-year-olds and many old men who were all killed by one rocket." Habeeb also reports of Israeli war planes striking water plants, dozens of houses, the use of white phosphorous incendiary weapons and of at least 15 mosques having been bombed. Dozens of people have been killed in the attacks against the mosques. Israeli Foreign Minister Ms. Tzipi Livni explains patiently, "But a war is a war; these things can happen. This is not our intention, but we cannot avoid completely any kind of civilian casualties. But the responsibility for this lies on Hamas' shoulders." The slaughter only compounds the hardships that Palestinians have suffered due to the severe shortages of food and medical supplies accruing from the two-year-old economic blockade imposed upon Gaza by Israel. In 2006, Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said of the blockade: "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." The UN has warned that there are "critical gaps" in aid reaching Gaza, despite claims from Livni that aid was getting through. Christopher Gunness, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman, dismisses the claim that there is no humanitarian crisis as an absurdity. He informs us, "The organization for which I work, UNRWA - has approximately 9 to 10,000 workers on the ground. They are speaking with the ordinary civilians in Gaza ... People are suffering. A quarter of all those being killed now are civilians [the majority of the over 2,400 wounded are civilians]. So when I hear people say we're doing our best to avoid civilian casualties that rings very hollow indeed." > From Iraq, I had reported on how the US military regularly blockaded cities during military operations, disconnecting power, food, water and medical supplies. Let us not forget the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq followed 12 and a half years of genocidal sanctions against that country, which claimed the lives of half a million children. The people of Iraq, like the people of Gaza, had been placed on a "diet." Back in Gaza, the International Committee for the Red Cross said on Sunday its medical emergency team had been prevented by the Israeli military for a third day from entering the territory. Here again, is an uncanny similarity with the situation in Iraq, particularly during the two US sieges of Fallujah during 2004, when medical and aid teams were not allowed into the city, and teams already inside were regularly targeted by the military when they attempted to rescue the wounded. KPFA correspondent Habeeb has reported of Israeli tanks preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded and of three paramedics and ambulance staff having been killed by the Israeli military while trying to rescue a family. Oxfam aid agency also reported on the incident. Journalist activist Ewa Jasiewicz reported, "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, two 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." I am aware that for those who have not experienced war firsthand, an accusation against a supposedly civilized government of the deliberate targeting of medical personnel, who are, in theory, protected by international law, is unbelievable and shocking. But there are others like me who have witnessed such tactics firsthand on several occasions. I saw it being used by the Israeli military during their assault on southern Lebanon during summer 2006, just as I had seen the US military doing in Fallujah in 2004. Such is the madness of war. Veteran journalist Robert Fisk describes war as "the total failure of the human spirit." How can anyone expect the wide-scale butchering in Gaza to be any different when the dogs of war have been let loose? Psychosis, mental illness, the specious "logic" of it all: The fundamental assumption that war can ever solve a crisis is false. Has this not been apparent from the beginning of history? "These events of war were performed not by atavistic savages following the code of archaic rituals, but usually by trained troops from societies boasting civilized values, humane laws, moral education, and aesthetic culture. Nor were these acts specific to one nation - typically Japanese, typically American, or German or Serbian ... Nor were they confined to exceptional psychopathic criminals among the troops. No: this is what wars do, what battles are; conventions of rampage on both a monstrous collective and monstrous individual scale, implacable archetypal behaviors, behaviors of an archetype, governed by, possessed by, commanded by Mars."-James Hillman, Jungian psychologist, from "A Terrible Love of War"At this point, it simply must be stopped. No human, no matter what their race, religion or nationality, should ever have to endure the effects of war. Yet, impotent governments across the world remain unwilling to intervene, some conniving proactively to aggravate the distress of the targeted populations. Egypt has completely closed the Rafah crossing, effectively cutting off aid supplies to the hapless surviving residents of Gaza. [Note from Michelle: You can read this story here: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053171.html ] It is the United Nations, however, that must be granted the undisputed crowning glory of impotence. In a move tried and tested for years now, last Saturday evening, the United States, yet again wielding its veto power to protect the actions of Israel, blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas and calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel. Perhaps, there is consolation in the fact that this was no great loss because, had the statement been approved, it would still have remained an empty gesture unable to check the violence. Frustrated by the untenable nature of the crisis and obviously angered by the veto power of the United States in the UN, president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockman of Nicaragua, blasted the Israeli action, and said, "I think it's a monstrosity; there's no other way to name it ... Once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council." Professor Falk, in a recent article titled "Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe," writes, "The people of Gaza are victims of geopolitics at its inhumane worst: producing what Israel itself calls a 'total war' against an essentially defenseless society that lacks any defensive military capability whatsoever and is completely vulnerable to Israeli attacks mounted by F-16 bombers and Apache helicopters. What this also means is that the flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, is quietly set aside while the carnage continues and the bodies pile up. It additionally means that the UN is once more revealed to be impotent when its main members deprive it of the political will to protect a people subject to unlawful uses of force on a large scale. Finally, this means that the public can shriek and march all over the world, but that the killing will go on as if nothing is happening. The picture being painted day by day in Gaza is one that begs for renewed commitment to international law and the authority of the UN Charter, starting here in the United States, especially with a new leadership that promised its citizens change, including a less militarist approach to diplomatic leadership." "And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury...," said Shakespeare in "The Taming of the Shrew." But one of the worst conflict conditions in the world indicates otherwise. The fury and the fire rage unabated. Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist, is the author of "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq," (Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from occupied Iraq for eight months as well as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last four years.Source: www.truthout.org/010609A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Holes in Israel's Web 2.0 Propaganda "To gain greater international support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip," Israeli Foreign Minister (and candidate for Prime Minister) Tzipi Livni directed the Foreign Ministry to lead "an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign [1]." In addition to meetings with foreign officials and interviews with international media, Israeli officials are posting videos to YouTube [2] and conducting "press conferences" [3] via the microblogging site Twitter [4]. The Israeli military described one of its YouTube videos as a bomb attack on "a Hamas truck carrying dozens of Grad rockets." Yet human rights groups say the truck belonged to a local resident, who was moving equipment out of his workshop, after the house next to it was bombed. Ahmed Samur, the person who says the bombed vehicle was his, told Haaretz, "These were not Hamas [who were killed], they were our children." BBC News [5] writes that "the incident shows how an apparently definitive piece of video can turn into something much more doubtful." Doubts have also been raised about the Israeli Foreign Ministry's changing graph of the number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel [6]. Still, according to the BBC, "Israel appears to think its [PR] efforts are working," to "justify the air attacks" and "show that there is no humanitarian calamity in Gaza." Source URL:www.prwatch.org/node/8112 Links: [1] www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050402.html[2] www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk[3] www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/weekinreview/04cohen.html[4] twitter.com/israelconsulate[5] news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7809371.stm[6] wisconsinpeaceandjustice.blogspot.com/2009/01/steve-burns-adventures-in-obfuscation.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Politics of An Israeli Extermination Campaign: Backers, Apologists and Arms Suppliers by Prof. James Petras Global Research, January 2, 2009 IntroductionBecause of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the population of Gaza. Israel’s sustained and comprehensive bombing campaign of every aspect of governance, civic institutions and society is directed toward destroying civilized life in Gaza. Israel’s totalitarian vision is driven by the practice of a permanent purge of Arab Palestine informed by Zionism, an ethno-racist ideology, promulgated by the Jewish state and justified, enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States. The facts of Israeli extermination have become known: In the first six days of round the clock terror bombing of major and minor populations centers, the Jewish State has murdered and seriously maimed over 2,500 people, mostly dismembered and burned in the open ovens of missile fire. Scores of children and women have been slaughtered as well as defenseless civilians and officials. They have sealed off all access to Gaza and declared it a military, free fire zone, while expanding their target to include the entire population of 1.5 millions semi-starved prisoners. According to the Boston Globe (December 30, 2008): Israeli military officials said their target lists have expanded to include the vast support network on which the Islamist movement relies to stay in power “…we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel (my emphasis)”. A top Israeli in its secret police apparatus is quoted saying, “Hamas’ civilian infrastructure is a very sensitive target” (ibid). What the Israeli Jewish politicians and military planners designate as “Hamas” is the entire social service network, the entire government and the vast majority of economic activity, embracing almost the entire 1.5 million imprisoned residents of Gaza. Israel’s ‘target’ list thus involves the ‘total population’, using the totality of its non-nuclear weaponry and for an unlimited time period (until the ‘bitter end’ according to the Israeli Prime Minister). Israel’s defense ministry spokesman has emphatically reiterated the Jewish’s state’s totalitarian war concept emphasizing the targeting of civilians: “Hamas has used ostensibly civilian operations as a cover for military activities. Anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target.” Like all totalitarians in the past, the Jewish state boasts of having systematically pre-planned the extermination campaign – months in advance – up to and including the precise hour and day of the bombing to coincide with inflicting the maximum murder of civilians: The rockets and bombs fell as children were leaving school, as graduating police cadets were receiving their diplomas and as frantic mothers ran out from their homes to find their sons and daughters. The mass military extermination campaign was a follow up of its non-stop total economic embargo and unremitting selective assassination campaign of the previous two years: Both were designed to purge Palestine of its Arab population, first via mass hunger, disease, humiliation and violent intimidation and the proxy power grab by the PLO Quislings under Zionist puppet Abbas. When they discovered that mass hunger and selective Israeli murder only strengthened the population’s links to its democratically elected government and the resolve of the Hamas government to resist Israel, the Israeli regimes unleashed its entire arsenal of weapons, including its new ‘American gifts’ up-to-date 1000 pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs and high tech missiles to incinerate large numbers of human beings within their deadly radius and to obliterate Palestinian civilization. Moving directly from its totalitarian vision to its military blueprint to the savaging of Palestinian population centers, the Jewish state destroyed the principle university with over 18,000 students (mostly women), mosques, pharmacies, electrical and water lines, power stations, fishing villages, fishing boats and the little fishing port that provided a meager supply of fish for the starving population. They destroyed roads, transport facilities, food warehouses, science buildings, small factories, shops and apartments. They destroyed a women’s dormitory at the university. In the words of the Israel leader: “…because everything is connected to everything…” it is necessary to destroy each and every facet of life, which allows humans to exist with some dignity and independence. The Israeli totalitarian leaders knew with confidence that they could act and they could kill with impunity, locally and before the entire world, because of the influence of the US Zionist Power Configuration in and over the US White House and Congress. They knew they had the full backing of all the major Israeli political parties (Right, Left and Center), trade unions, mass media and especially public opinion. Israeli state terror is backed by 81% of Jewish Israelis according to a poll taken by Israel’s Channel 10 (Financial Times December 30, 2008). Israeli totalitarian violence and extermination of Palestinians is extremely popular among the Jewish electorate, especially in raising support for the Labor Party candidate Minister Ehud Barak. They knew they would ‘succeed’ with virtually no casualties because they bombed, burned and dismembered a defenseless population totally lacking the minimum means to defend themselves from F16 bombers, helicopter gun ships and missile assaults. The vile depravity of the assault on the defenseless population is matched by the utter cowardice of the Israeli military command and its cheering bloodthirsty public ensconced behind their aerial monopoly. They suffered no threats of aerial retaliation, no wounded or dead pilots, helicopter gunners, as wave after wave swept in and over a defenseless imprisoned population in a crowded and besieged ghetto. Hundreds of tanks and armored carriers are prepared to invade once the cities and towns have been leveled, once the population is too weakened by starvation to resist, once the leaders and fighters have been murdered and the normal Palestinian institutions of law and order have been pulverized, making way for the corrupt thuggish collaborators of the so-called Palestinian Authority…then and only then, will the Israeli General staff risk the skin of a precious Jewish ‘soldier’ and risk the anxiety and worry of their kin in Israel and the US. Overseas Allies: The Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO) From the moment that the Israeli Government decided it would destroy the newly elected Hamas government and punish the democratic electorate of Gaza with starvation and murder, the entire Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) in the US, including the PMAJO, pulled all stops in implementing the Israeli policy. The PMAJO encompasses the fifty-two Jewish organizations with the largest membership, with the greatest financial clout and the most influential backers. The most prominent lobbyist within the PMAJO is AIPAC, which has over 100,000 members and 150 full-time operatives in Washington actively pressuring the US Congress, the White House and all administrative agencies whose policies may relate to the interests of the State of Israel. However Israeli political extends far beyond its non-governmental agencies. Over two score legislators in the Congress and over a dozen senators are committed Zionists who automatically back Israel’s policies and push for US funding and armaments for its military machine. Top officials in key administrative positions, in Treasury, Commerce and the National Security Council, senior functionaries in the Pentagon and top advisers on Middle East affairs are also life-long, fanatically committed Zionists, who consistently and unreservedly back the policies of the State of Israel. Equally important, the majority of the largest film, print and electronic media are owned or deeply influenced by Jewish-Zionist media moguls who are committed to slanting the ‘news’ in favor of Israel. The composition and influence of the ZPC is central to understanding three main characteristics of Israel’s power: (1) Israel can commit what leading United Nations and international human rights experts have defined as ‘crimes against humanity’ with total impunity; (2) Israel can secure an unlimited supply of the most technologically advanced and destructive weapons and use them without limit on a civilian population in violation of even US Congressional restrictions and (3) scores of almost unanimous United Nations condemnations of the construction of genocidal apartheid barriers against a native population, starvation embargoes and the current extermination campaign in Gaza are always vetoed by the US representative. Many critics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza also condemn what they call ‘the complicity’ of Washington or ‘the United States’ without clearly identifying the actual socio-political forces influencing policy-makers or the ‘dual’ political loyalties and identities of the ‘American’ politicians who have long-standing and deep allegiances to Israel. As a consequence, most critics fail to counter, protest or even identify the ideology and politics of the organized power configurations which define US complicity with Israel, who intimidate potential critics, who write and mouth the pro-Israel editorials in the mass media and who filter out any criticism, any truth…even when Israel engages in sustained bloody extermination campaigns. The ZPC and the Israeli War of Extermination in Gaza The ZPC played a major role in all stages of Israel’s extermination campaign against Gaza including a sustained propaganda effort. The ZPC orchestrated a massive successful campaign through the extensive network of American mass media, which it controls and influences. It fabricated an image of the Hamas administration in Gaza as a terrorist organization, which allegedly seized power through violence – totally denying its rise to power through internationally supervised, democratic elections and its defense of its electoral mandate against a US-Israeli backed PLO military takeover. The entire Zionist Jewish leadership backed Israel’s land grabs, its ghetto wall around Palestinians, the hundreds of road blocks, the Jewish settlers violently taking over Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the criminal, genocidal Israeli economic embargo on Gaza designed to systematically starve the Palestinians into submission. Throughout the two years of this Israeli extermination campaign, American Zionists played a major role in leading the servile US government at home and abroad in backing each totalitarian measure: The vast majority of local synagogues became bully-pulpits defending the starvation and degradation of 1.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza caged on all sides by deadly force and the ‘walling off’ into economically and socially devastating cantons of the 4.5 million West Bank Palestinian population under foreign occupation. The US Congress shamelessly followed the Zionist lead, backing every single criminal measure taken by the State of Israel and approving dozens of resolutions, which in most cases were entirely written by AIPAC lobbyists acting as unregistered agents of the Israeli government (contrary to US federal statute, which requires foreign agents and lobbyists to be registered as such). Israel’s demands for the most up-to-date US warplanes, including F-16s, Apache helicopter gun ships, and 1,000 pound bombs were secured by dint of effort of the AIPAC lobbyists and their clients in the US Congress. In other words, the American ZPC created the ideological cover and military instruments for Israel’s ‘total war’ against the defenseless Palestinian population. Equally important, prominent Zionist leaders in the US Congress and members of the foreign policy establishment blocked or vetoed any international criticism of Israel – securing its impunity and immunity from any of the Congressional sanctions usually enacted against criminal states. In other words, Israeli policy makers operated with the knowledge that there would be no negative economic, diplomatic and military repercussions to their launching the planned Gaza extermination campaign because they knew, in advance, that ‘their people’ were in total control of US Middle East policy to the extent of actually repeating verbatim each and every propaganda lie in defense of Israel’s total war against the entire population of Gaza. In Defense of Israel’s War of ExterminationThe Zionist-controlled US print media, in particular the New York Times and the Washington Post, systematically fabricated an account that fit perfectly with Israel’s official line defending its massive assault on Gaza: Omitting any historical account of the hundreds of Israeli armed incursions and ‘targeted’ assassinations of Palestinian leaders and officials (even in their own homes) which repeatedly violated the ‘cease fire’ agreed by Hamas and provoked its retaliation in self-defense of its people; omitting the years of an Israeli enforced starvation embargo of food and essentials that threatened the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians and led to the desperate efforts of the elected Hamas leadership to secure supplies for the people’s survival via tunnels across the Egyptian border and through missile attacks against Israel to pressure the Jewish state to negotiate an end of the criminal blockade. The Conference of President of the Major American Jewish Organizations, and the vast majority of Jewish communal groups and congregations, gave enthusiastic and unanimous support to Israel’s total war, its extermination campaign against the captive Palestinian population of Gaza. Even as images and reports of the massive destruction, killing and wounding of over 2,500 defenseless Palestinians filtered in the mass media, not a single major Jewish organization broke ranks; only individuals and small groups protested. All the ‘Majors’ persisted in the politics of the Big Lie: the destruction of hospitals, mosques, universities, roads, apartments, pharmacies and fishing ports were all labeled ‘Hamas targets’. The systematic all-out assault by uncontested helicopter gunships against 1.5 millions civilians was erased by tendentious accounts of Hamas’ homemade missiles falling ineffectively near Israeli towns. A close reading of the most important propaganda organ of the PMAJO, The Daily Alert (TDA), during the first 5 days of Israel’s assault, reveals the propaganda tack taken by the leadership of the pro-Israel power configuration. TDA systematically worked to achieve the following: 1. Exaggerate the threats to Israel by the Palestinian missiles from Gaza, citing 4 Israeli deaths, while omitting any mention of the 2,500 Palestinian dead and wounded and the total destruction of their economy and living conditions (without safe water, electricity, food, cooking fuel, medicine and heat in the winter). 2. Promote Israel’s military assault as ‘defensive’, directed at eliminating Hamas rocket attacks while omitting mention of Israel’s clearly stated purpose of destroying all civil organizations, social welfare agencies, educational facilities, medical clinics and public security institutions connected in any way with the elected Hamas government and any auxiliary agencies. 3. Cite select statement from Israel’s allies and clients (Washington, the US media, Germany and the UK) blaming Hamas for the conflict without mentioning the vast majority of countries in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Israel’s brutality. 4. Reproduce Israeli slanders against any and all international human rights leaders and organizations that condemn the Jewish state’s policy of genocide against the native Palestinians. In this regard, TDA is the foremost ‘genocide denier’ in the United States and, perhaps outside of Israel, in the world. 5. Repeatedly cite Israeli political and military leaders’ claims of acting ‘with restraint’, ‘safeguarding civilians’, and ‘targeting military objectives’, even in the face of reports and images of mass civilian destruction and loss of life documented in the vast majority of (non-US) Western media. 6. Defend every Israeli bombing mission, every day, every hour, of every building, every home, and every economic, religious and educational institution in Gaza as ‘defensive’ or a ‘reprisal’, all the while quoting some of the most notorious, unconditional, perennial apologists of Israeli violence as if they were unbiased intellectuals, including Benny ‘Nuke Tehran’ Morris, Marty Peretz and Amos Oz. 7. The Daily Alert quotes US writers, journalists and editors who praise and defend Israel’s ‘total war’ without identifying their long-standing affiliation and identification with Zionist organizations, giving the false image of a wide spectrum of opinion behind the assault. Never has even the most moderate Jewish or Gentile critic of Israel’s massive extermination campaign appeared in any issues of The Daily Alert. The principle American Jewish organizations have bombarded the US Congress, influencing, intimidating and purchasing the craven so-called ‘representatives’ of the American people, the media and public notables with lies in defense of Israel’s total war to exterminate a people. Their public, brazen, open complicity in genocide can be considered crime against humanity: The willful promotion of acts of a state designed to destroy an entire people. And yet these willing accomplices, these ‘willing executioners’ of state mass murder go uncontested within the US political class. One of their leading mouthpieces in the incoming Obama Administration, Chief Presidential Adviser David Axelrod, even cites an Obama campaign speech defending Israeli assaults on the people of Gaza. Israel arrogantly repudiates all calls to end this mass murder, because Israel knows that ‘its people’ are still in control of US policy toward the Middle East and will use their power in the new president’s administration to block any condemnation of this crime. To date the entire human rights and anti-war movements have failed to even mention, let along challenge, the most powerful propaganda and political organizations, which influence US policy and manipulate the mass media in favor of Israel’s extermination campaign. They will play no restraining role on Israel’s totalitarian policies as long as its principle US backers are free to lie, manipulate and defend each and every crime. There is little hope for an independent US Congressional policy as long as Israel’s war of extermination in Gaza can be defended by the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (and Zionist zealot) Congressman Howard Berman in the following terms: “Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week. No government in world would sit by and allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate bombardment. The loss of innocent life is a terribly tragedy and the blame for that tragedy lies with Hamas.” Thus Congressman Berman cynically omits the 2 years of Israel’s embargo, the daily ‘targeted’ assassinations of Palestinians, the ‘targeted’ missile attacks against civilians, the land, sea and air blockades and the blatant ‘targeted’ destruction of the infrastructure of Gaza. No government, indeed a democratically elected Islamist government, can stand by while its people are starved and murdered into submission. But according to the respected Congressmen Bermans of the world, only the lives of Jews matter, not the growing thousands of murdered, dismembered and mutilated citizens of Gaza – they do not count as people! What is to be DoneIsrael’s crimes against humanity demand a public response: social action, which will force it to cease and desist from its campaign to exterminate the people of Gaza. Because the Jewish state has assaulted a vast array of Palestinian social institutions, which resonate with those in our own society, we can and should mobilize them to condemn and boycott their counterparts in Israel: 1. We should urge the entire academic community to denounce Israel’s bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza and the total destruction of all of its science facilities. An organized boycott of Israeli universities and all academic exchanges, especially scientific, should become university policy throughout the country. Special attention should be paid to the 450 US university presidents, who in the recent past, denounced a call by British academics for a boycott and who remain silent and complicit in the face of Israel’s total physical annihilation of all ten faculties for 20,000 Palestinian university students. 2. All American health workers, doctors, nurses, technicians, should organize and denounce Israel’s medical embargo against the 1.5 million Palestinians crowded into the Gaza Strip. They must condemn Israel’s bombardment of Gaza’s Children’s Hospital, the neighborhood pharmacies and the attacks on any transport of those critically wounded Palestinian victims of its aerial and missile attacks. Medical personnel should raise the fundamental ethical issues regarding the collaboration of US medical personnel and programs with the Jewish State’s ‘total war’ policies of extermination. 3. All citizens should demand the end of all US military aid to Israel, especially F-16 fighter planes, Apache attack helicopters, missiles, 1000 pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs used by the Israeli armed forces on the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and the murder and maiming of over 2,500 Palestinians, civilians, civil servants, police and national militia. In pursuit of a cutoff of US military aid to Israel, every effort should be made to target and denounce the most forceful, aggressive and successful Zionist advocates and lobbyists who influence the elected members of the US Congress and White House on foreign military aid budgets. No progress in ending US military aid for Israel’s ethnic cleansing will succeed unless the peace movement and others appalled by Israel’s mass murder tackles the Zionist lobby head on. This includes boycotts, rebuttals and demonstrations against the AIPAC, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and the other 50 leading American Jewish organizations, which initiate and secure US governmental endorsement of Israel’s extermination policies. 4. US religious institutions should forcefully denounce Israel’s crimes against humanity, including its demolition of 5 mosques, uniting all faiths (Christian, Moslem, Buddhist) and especially reaching out to the tiny minority of rabbis and observant Jews willing to forthrightly denounce the totalitarian practices of the Israeli state. 5. Port and long shore workers, sailors and other maritime workers and officials should boycott the handling of all trade with Israel and denounce its Navy’s violent illegal assault, in international waters, of civilian fishing boats and vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. No ships carrying Israeli products should be loaded or unloaded as long as Israel maintains its criminal military blockade of the port facilities of Gaza. 6. Tens of millions of US citizens subject to the one-sided pro-Israel bias of the electronic and print media, the lop-sided presentations of Zionist ‘op-ed’ writers, ‘news’ reports and the self-styled Middle East experts, should demand equal time, coverage and reportage for non-Zionist specialists, analysts and commentators. We should demand the end of euphemisms and fabrications, which convert victims into aggressors and exterminators into victims. 7. We should wage a battle of ideas everywhere (in every public forum) against the efforts by the Zionist Power Configuration to monopolize discussion over the Israeli policy of genocide, to censor, intimidate and slander critics of Israeli apartheid – as UN General Assembly President Manuel d’Escoto so aptly calls Israel’s Ghetto Wall surrounding Palestinian villages. The outpouring of public protest over Israel’s war of extermination is an enormous step forward in countering the Zionist monopoly of the mass media and encouraging the tens of millions of Americans who clearly recognize and privately despise Israel’s crimes against humanity and resent the local Zionist elite’s thuggery against those who speak out. Mass pressure on elected representative may sway some to reconsider their abject servility to their Zionist ‘contributors’ and their ‘Israel First’ Congressional colleagues. 8. A patriotic nationwide campaign should demand that the Israel lobby, especially AIPAC, come clean and register as a foreign agent of the State of Israel. This might undermine the Lobby’s appeal to American Jews, reduce its influence over Congress and open up judicial processes and investigations over its abuse of tax-exemptions, money-laundering and lead to revelations over its treasonous procurement of confidential US state documents for a foreign power. There is a powerful political and legal basis for such a denial of the ‘Lobby’s’ tax-exempt status and legality, apart from the transparent and overwhelming evidence that all Zionist organizations act as transmission belts for Israeli state policies: In the early 1950’s up to 1963, the forerunner of AIPAC was obligated to register as a foreign agent of the State of Israel. More recently, an Israeli prosecutor presented evidence that the Israeli-Jewish Agency and its US counterparts were laundering billions of dollars especially for the funding of Israeli colonial settlements on occupied Palestinian land, condemned as illegal under international law. Congressional hearings, law suits and further published research would reveal the role of the Lobby as a Fifth Column for the State of Israel against the interest of the people of the United States. Until we neutralize the pervasive power of the Zionist Power Configuration in all of its manifestations – in American public and civic life – and its deep penetration of American legislative and executive offices, we will fall short of preventing Israel from receiving the arms, funding and political backing to sustain its wars of ethnic extermination. When told that the great majority of the world’s people are sickened and incensed by Israel’s mass murder of the citizens of Gaza, we can easily imagine the contemptuous dismissal by Israel’s top leaders, paraphrasing Joseph Stalin: How many bombers, missiles, fighter planes and powerful lobbies do they (the outraged people of the world) have? James Petras is the author of Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, Clarity Press 2008.
© Copyright James Petras, Global Research, 2009Source: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11583------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Carnage in Gaza Marketplace (Jan 4) besidebeirut.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/carnage-in-gaza-marketplace/I just received this SMS from Norway, originating from a Norwegian doctor working in Gaza: Thanks for all the support. They bombed the central vegetable market in Gaza City two hours ago. 80 wounded, 20 killed, all came here to Shifa. Hades! We are wading in death, blood, and amputees. Many children. Pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks. Pass it on, send it on, shout it on. Everything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We are living in history books now, all of us. Mads G. 3.1.09 1:50PM, Gaza, Pal.Mads Gilbert is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tromsø University Hospital, Norway. He has been allowed into Gaza with his colleague Erik Fosse on New Year's Eve to provide medical help at Shifa Hospital. Gilbert has been working in beleaguered areas since the 1970's, including Lebanon, Afghanistan, Burma, Kambodsja, Kurdistan, Angola, and Nepal. He has appeared on Norwegian TV regularly the past week commenting on the situation in Gaza. 24 hour global satellite coverage of GAZAwww.presstv.ir/watch_live.aspx"Here is 24 hour global satellite coverage of GAZA and other Middle East News on Press TV in Iran - it is EXCELLENT... and in ENGLISH!" Much more news on Gaza through: news.google.com/news?ned=ca&hl=en&nolr=1&q=Gaza&btnG=Search------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 5 Jan 2009 Subject: PHR-Israel: Gaza Update 5.1.09 - Attacks on Medical Personnel and Serious Obstacles to Evacuation of Wounded within the Gaza Strip
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Gaza Update Attacks on Medical Personnel and Serious Obstacles to Evacuation of Wounded within the Gaza Strip After calling yesterday for international intervention for an immediate ceasefire, PHR-Israel today sent two urgent requests to the Israeli Military Chief of staff regarding protection of medical teams, internal evacuation of the wounded, and evacuation of the wounded to external medical care. We have also called upon foreign diplomats to press Israel to enable "corridors" for referral of the wounded to external medical centers, until the implementation of a ceasefire. Moreover, PHR-Israel has collected personal testimonies from patients it had assisted in the past, in order to hear from them about conditions on the ground during the current Israeli offensive. Below is the information collected by PHR-Israel on medical issues since the start of the land offensive: Attacks on medical personnel: · December 31, 2008: Helicopter fires on medical crew evacuating wounded: in Jabal Kashif in northeast Gaza a crew set out to offer assistance. While approaching the bleeding victim on foot, they were hit by helicopter fire. Dr. Ihab Madhun, medic Muhammad Abu Hasireh, as well as the injured victim, were killed. · January 3, 2009: Second attack on a house after medical crews enter to evacuate the wounded: The house of the Dabbabish family in Sheikh Radwan had already been bombarded. As a crew of medics dressed in medical vests arrived on the scene to tend to the wounded the house was bombarded for a second time. One person was critically wounded: Ayyad Ahmad. · January 4, 2009: Ambulance belonging to the Al Awda Hospital in Beit Lahiya was hit by helicopter fire. Arfa Abd al Daim, a senior volunteer medic was killed and two other medical personnel were critically injured. · January 4, 2009: Tank fires on ambulance during attempts to evacuate a family in Tel Alhawa. Inass Fadil Naim, Yassir Shabir and Rifaat Abdel Al were killed. Difficulties in internal evacuation of the wounded: · According to the head of the Palestinian emergency health services in Gaza Dr. Mu'awiya Hasaneen, and the MoH spokesperson Hammam Nasman, there are many wounded and dead, but access to them is impeded by ongoing gunfire. · According to information collected by PHR-Israel, the ICRC, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the hospitals meet severe difficulties in evacuation of the wounded, due to the ongoing fighting, due to the refusal of the Israeli army to enable passage between the north and the south of the Gaza Strip, and due to unwieldy bureaucratic procedures, whereby the security forces demand coordination between the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee and the Israeli authorities at Erez Crossing for each case. It should be noted that during hostilities the ICRC - of which PRCS is now a member - should enjoy full authority and protection for evacuation of wounded. · The PRCS reported to PHR-Israel that they have no way of dispatching ambulances without prior coordination since ambulances that set out for evacuation duties at AlAtatra were fired at by apache helicopters. They appealed to PHR-Israel after attempts to coordinate passage via the ICRC have failed since yesterday. AlAwda hospital in Beit Lahiya also asked for our assistance since they must send out ambulances to AlAtatra and Tel Zaatar but cannot dispatch ambulances without being shot at. The hospital is urgently requesting coordination to enable evacuation. · According to our information, between 2 hours and 8-10 hours pass between a request by the ICRC for coordination until the Israeli authorities actually coordinate passage. In some cases teams waited for 24 hours for coordination. · A shortage of ambulances has been reported: patients are often evacuated in private vehicles either because of shortage or because ambulances cannot access the areas. Cases: January 4: Hasin al 'Aiedy, along with his two brothers and their families, among them 6 injured awaiting evacuation, called PHR-Israel after being trapped in an isolated area south east of Gaza City surrounded by the Israeli Army. Hasin al A'aiedy and two of his brothers live together with their families in an isolated area, empty of other residents, halfway between Nezarim junction and Karni Crossing. Soon after the Israeli Army began their ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the house sustained missile fire. As a result of the bombardment, sections of the roof were destroyed, many of the doors were unhinged, all glass was broken and the water pipes burst. Six members of the family sustained injuries: Kamala, 80 years old, was hit in the face and head; Taha 80 years old was hit in the face; Da'a, 18 years old was hit near her eye, Nur, 16 years old was hit on an entire side of his body and is bleeding; Raad, 13 years old was also sustained injuries to half his body and is bleeding; and Lid, 3 years old has sustained shrapnel wounds to half his body. To the damages inflicted on their home, the family members, 28 in all (15 children and 8 adults) are now outside in an open area without food, water, light or heat. Since the bombardment, Israeli troops have surrounded the area on all sides. The family members cannot move more than several meters from where they are currently located because every movement - even to look for water- is met by artillery fire. Upon receiving notification of the event on the morning of January 4th, PHR-Israel immediately contacted the Israeli District Coordination Office at Erez Crossing and was assured the army would look into the matter. Since then, the DCO has not got back to PHR-Israel regarding the incident; the status of the al 'Aiedy family remains unchanged. Members of the family and representatives of PHR-Israel have contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza with hopes that they may be able to evacuate the family members with one of their ambulances, however as noted, the Israel army has surrounded the area and until now has not allowed for the evacuation of the wounded and trapped victims. For additional information see Haaretz Article: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052606.html January 4th: PHR-Israel tried to coordinate the evacuation of a family of 6 via the coastal road: The family had left from ShifaaHospital towards their home in Southern Gaza. Salah a- Din St. was blocked near the area of Nezarim Junction so the family took a detour via the coastal road. There they were fired upon by tanks. The family called ShifaaHospital to send an ambulance. At that time others informed PHR-Israel that they were unable to coordinate the evacuation. PHR-Israel immediately called the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) at Erez, who after much pressure claimed that they had sent an army vehicle to the scene though were unable to locate the family's car. The DCO claimed that without a telephone they were unable to locate the family. They also informed us that they had not received any requests to coordinate the evacuation, after which they told us that the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee had in fact inquired regarding the transfer. The lack of clarification and the misunderstanding have made clear to us that that there is now total chaos regarding the coordination of the ambulances to evacuate the wounded. The fate of the family is unknown. Hospitals: Needs vs. Reality and the need for evacuation to external medical care According to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel medical experts, in a situation of multiple casualties with multiple injuries in any medical system, medical preparedness will be conducted according to the following three principles: 1. Every wounded person with multiple injuries in need of pulmonary support (ventilation), medicinal support or surgical procedures needs an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed. 2. Due to the simultaneous arrival of high numbers of wounded persons, there is a need for an increased number of surgical teams: one surgeon and two nurses per patient. Each patient will also need an operating room and necessary equipment: monitor, ventilation machine for every ventilated patient, automatic syringes, haemodynamic medications and blood products. 3. Since even in advanced medical systems there are usually not enough teams and equipment, there is usually need of emergency modification of the health system to increase services, import of external surgical teams and equipment, and arrangements with external hospitals for referral of the overflow of wounded. Such hospitals must be as close as possible. According to information collected by PHR-Israel, although over 2,400 people have been injured since the start of the operation, and 110 people were injured between the 3rd and the 4th of January, there are currently less than 100 ICU beds and only 32 operating rooms throughout Gaza. There are 190 surgeons in Shifaa' hospital, working around the clock, but the system lacks expert capacity on neuro-, vascular-, orthopedic- and open heart surgery.Moreover, the security situation, as well as damage to roads and bridges, is preventing staff from reaching health facilities. Foreign teams currently in Gaza include 2 surgeons from A Norwegian NGO, NORWAC, (1 thoracic surgeon and 1 anesthesiologist working at ShifaHospital) and 5 Egyptian surgeons. An ICRC team of war surgeons has been waiting since Friday to be granted access to the Gaza to address the lack of surgical staff. They have now received notification that they will be granted access when Erez re-opens but the crossing is closed. Referrals: At the start of the land operation, all crossings were closed, including Israeli controlled Erez Crossing and Egyptian controlled Rafah Crossing. The army claims Erez was opened for a few hours this morning, but it re-closed at noon. As a result any overflow of patients at any given time cannot be referred outward, resulting in overload and inadequate medical care inside Gaza. Internal access to the crossings is also impeded: While 45 ambulances are waiting on the Egyptian side to transport patients to Egyptian hospitals, the security situation and damage to bridges and roads prevent ambulances from reaching Rafah. It should be noted that the Israeli Ministry of Health has expressed its willingness to admit wounded from the fighting. Israeli hospitals have prepared for their absorption. However, the closure of Erez Crossing by the Ministry of Defense prohibits such arrangements at present. Supplies Medical supplies: A substantial volume of supplies was delivered to Gaza last week. Trucks with drugs and consumables reached all MoH hospitals yesterday but shortages are still reported. Food supplies: WFP, which provides food aid to some 350,000 Gaza residents, estimates that the daily need for all Gaza population would be 1,200 mt of basic food commodities, meaning 40 trucks a day. WFP currently needs to deliver about 4,000 mt of food commodities (150 trucks) asap to fill its warehouse. Despite the entry of some food and medical supplies last week, and contrary to Israeli claims - the amounts are not sufficient for the needs of the population and the needs are growing. The current closure of the crossing poses a real threat to the population in general and the hospitals in particular in this respect. Personal Testimonies: Life under Fire Testimony from Khan Younis, 5.1.09 11am "Conditions in our neighborhood are very dangerous. Buildings keep collapsing because of the bombardments and shelling of houses on top of their inhabitants. The Israeli army is shelling anything that moves, especially to our east. There is electricity only 6 hours a day, and then it's off for 16 hours. When there is electricity we call our family inside Israel, they hold their telephone to the television so we can hear what is happening, because we have no radio or TV. Around us is much destruction and a terrible noise of bombings and dust and smoke. In order to cook, we light a wood fire on the steps, because on the roof it is too dangerous. There is no food left at home, we eat whatever we can find with a lot of zaatar. The kids can't sleep. They are very much afraid and the noise of the planes is terrible. Last night we slept perhaps two hours. Half an hour ago an F-16 bombed the Jam'iyat AlNour building. It's a medical association with equipment and everything. It's very close to us. We keep hearing the shells and the gunfire. At night some people were called and told to leave within 24 hours. In this area there are no armed people, no guns, no tunnels. Often they never destroy anything in the end, but yesterday one family reached us by luck half an hour before their home was bombed. (the son of a 67 year old patient we have assisted in the past. He asked not to use his name). Testimony from AlTufah neighborhood, 5.1.09, 11:30am The situation is very bad. The worst is we have no water. There is really so little, and what there is is not clean. People use what there is, usually not for drinking. There are whole areas cut off from water. There is no bread. People stand in lines of hundreds of people outside the bakeries and there is no bread. Three days with no electricity and the cold is killing. There is no gas either. We managed to smuggle in some fuel through the tunnels but it smells so bad in the food we're sure it's unhealthy. There is no food supply. We eat what's left over, mainly rice and potatoes. In the Jabel AlRis area, where Jaber's family lives [he is referring to a 15 year old boy who lost both legs in a shelling by the Israeli army in March; because he is disabled and his aunt also lost a leg at the same time, their escape from danger is even more difficult - PHR-I], the danger is very present and many have escaped as far as they can. We have internally displaced people. Here at AlTufah, too, many houses were destroyed by shelling and bombardments. People escape but the planes and helicopters chase them. They are in the air all the time, nonstop. Yesterday five people escaped to the beach and were shot there, from the air. It's a lie that most of them are armed. In every place civilians are killed due to collapse of buildings and on the beach. There is no escape. No safe place. In Gaza everything is so close. I am less than a kilometer from the border and I cannot avoid seeing or hearing. Eyewitnesses told me that the Israelis are also using cluster munitions, and I myself have experienced explosions with strange smoke and very strange sounds. Sameh, 23, blogger www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/ - was in touch with us regarding the case of Jaber. Testimony from Deir AlBalah, 5.1.09, 11:45am The situation is very bad, there is deep fear, and desperation. People around here aren't leaving their homes. There is no water. We drink from containers and these are running out. Before, we had 6 hours of electricity [per day], but now it's been a whole day and there is no electricity. So it's cold, there is no way to heat water, food or our home, and we cant refrigerate our medicines. The border to Egypt is cold, and it's all full of checkpoints and tanks. To get to hospital [this is a person with a chronic disease - PHR-I] I have to find someone with a car and they take a lot of money for each journey because of the danger. My brother's kids are very fearful, the sounds of explosions are very loud, day and night, and it's not even in our area. But there is no water or food and we are all trapped in our homes. Shadi, 24. For more details please contact Miri Weingarten at +972 546995199 or Ran Yaron at +972 547577696. Most of the relevant texts and information are posted regularly in Hebrew and/or English on gazaeng.blogspot.com/ and on PHR-Israel's website at www.phr.org.il/phr
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