digest commentary:
Why are Dems disingenuously 'questioning' BO's silence on Gaza --- USRAEL's/his position has been repeatedly made clear. To cover their phony BO / U.S. apologist asses, knowing damn well that U.S. support for its proxy and state terrorist partner is a foundational bipartisan pillar of capitalist-imperialism -- not a negotiable electoral policy. At this point in history imperialism-zionism are inseparable -- USRAEL is world enemy #1. Obama claims he has been in on daily Bush admin. briefings, so clearly he was involved in U.S. approval.
The escalation of USRAELI genocide in Gaza is a critical dividing line on the so-called left: 'peaceniks' praying and hoping for a mythical 'kinder-gentler' U.S. capitalist-zionism, without sacrificing its privileges, and those who dare to struggle, oppose fascist oppression, proudly joining and supporting, all the "terrorists" heroically resisting it, in Malcom X's words, 'by any means necessary'.
Day 8 of Gaza campaign: Bush clears way for Israeli ground operation, updates Obama
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
http://www.debka.com/
Israeli military intelligence Web site
January 3, 2009, 9:17 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile's Washington source report that in a telephone conversation with prime minister Ehud Olmert, US president George W. Bush okayed Israeli air, sea and ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He promised the US would veto a resolution condemning Israel at the UN Security Council meeting next Monday. Early Saturday morning, Jan. 3, Day 8 of Israel's Gaza operation, US and British media described the Israeli invasion as hours away.
In his weekly radio address - brought forward by a day, the US president spoke with exceptional firmness: "Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable," he said. "This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas – a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction." He noted that "Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup and routinely violated an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire…" and went on to define the exit point for Israel's military operation: "Promises from Hamas will not suffice," he said. There must be "monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end. This left Israel the option of sustaining its military activity against Hamas until such a mechanism was installed. He implicitly criticized Egypt for failing to control the smuggling of rockets and other munitions through its territory.
In his radio address, President Bush noted that president-elect Barack Obama is being kept up to date on the latest developments. With just over two weeks left in power, the Bush administration is preparing to hand over the problem to his successor....
Bush's speech followed his conversations with Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi leaders as well as Olmert. He said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza and noted that "Hamas terrorists often hide within the civilian population which puts innocent Palestinians at risk."
PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE REPLIES TO THE STATE TERRORISTS
Al-Qassam Brigades captures two Israeli soldiers east of Gaza city
www.palestine-info.com/en
The capture of the two Israel soldiers happened when Qassam fighters ambushed a special Israeli force east of Gaza and detonated an anti-personnel explosive device at them which inflicted a number of casualties in their ranks. Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida noted that the number of Israeli soldiers killed is more than the number of Qassam martyrs.
----
Hamas has long prepared for Israel's invasion, digging tunnels and rigging some areas with explosives. The group remained defiant as the ground war began.
"You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV, broadcast shortly after the start of the invasion. "Your entry to Gaza won't be easy. Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said. "Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you. It will be paved with fire and hell," Hamas warned Israeli forces. A text message sent by Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, said "the Zionists started approaching the trap which our fighters prepared for them." ...
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials have been in regular contact with the Israelis as well as officials from countries in the region and Europe."We continue to make clear to them our concerns for civilians, as well as the humanitarian situation," Johndroe said. The U.N. Security Council held emergency consultations on the escalation in Gaza. But late Saturday, the United States blocked approval of a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
===
Resistance Harvest Report 01/05/08
*The resistance announced that they were able to fool and direct a zionist special force to a booby-trapped house in Gaza. 10 soldiers were killed and 30 severely injured. Enemy media just confirmed the news admitting that at least 3 soldiers killed and thirty injured. Enemy media continued to say that three more soldiers were killed and one severely injured in friendly fire.
*Several tanks were reported to be burning causing multiple injuries and deaths amongst zionist soldiers. Zionist media confirmed more than twenty soldiers injured in addition to the thirty injured in the ambush.
*The resistance confirmed shooting down an enemy drone over Rafah.
*The resistance was able to launch more than 40 Katyushas striking Beersheba, Askalan, Asdod, Sderot, Yavneh and for the first time areas north of Askalan. The Resistance announced that soon they will strikedeeper if the Zionists do not halt their offensive. Thousands of settlerswere forced to leave Asdod and Askalan per enemy media. Areas south of Tel Aviv were put on high alert as of tonight. The number of rockets fired and the new areas hit indicate the little to no achievement of the ground offensive.
*Zionist army committed several massacres today including the arrest of more than seventy people from the same extended family in the Zeitun neighborhood, forcing them into a small structure and then shelling the structure with tank fire. Most of the seventy members of the family were martyred and the rest were injured. Two more families were massacred by tank and naval shelling including a family of seven and a mother and her four children.
Long Live the Resistance
Israel rains phosphorus fire on Gaza
White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone
— White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke
— It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns
— Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared — it is not unknown for them to reach the bone
— Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law
— Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006
— It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely
— White phosphorus has the slang name “Willy Pete”, which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5447590.e...
Obama’s statement on the Crisis in Palestine
Andrew Hughes
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11612
... President Elect Barack Obama is keeping silent on the current round of wanton slaughter and destruction in Palestine...he had already made his position crystal clear when he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, otherwise known as "The Israeli Lobby" June 4th of last year.
‘I want you to know that today I’ll be speaking from my heart, and as a true friend of Israel. And I know that when I visit with AIPAC, I am among friends. Good friends. Friends who share my strong commitment to make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, tomorrow and forever.’
The speech, reportedly written by James Steinberg, his newly nominated deputy secretary of state and former deputy national security advisor under Bill Clinton, was the nadir of Obama’s semblance of integrity. His sycophantic, one sided admiration for Israel was as intense as his vilification of anyone who dared to criticize its policies. His choice of words to express the unity between the U.S. and Israel was probably more revealing that he would have liked.
‘Our alliance is based on shared interests and shared values. Those who threaten Israel threaten us. Israel has always faced these threats on the front lines. And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.’
If by ’shared values’ he means that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has been one of pillage, murder and chaos, he would be right. If by ’shared interests’ he means the theft of Arab land, he would also be correct...
‘As president, I will work to help Israel achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security. And I won’t wait until the waning days of my presidency.’ SNIP ‘Israel’s quest for peace with its neighbors has stalled, despite the heavy burdens borne by the Israeli people.’
How many Presidents have we heard this from ? What ‘quest for Peace’? Every dog and pony show has been... to give the appearance of progress and has always proposed an impossible choice for the Palestinians... Camp David Redux. He goes on to recount a visit to Israel on which he took a joyride on an IDF helicopter, paid for by U.S. taxpayer ‘aid’ he consistently voted for.
‘I saw a narrow and beautiful strip of land nestled against the Mediterranean. On the ground, I met a family who saw their house destroyed by a Katyusha rocket. I spoke to Israeli troops who faced daily threats as they maintained security near the blue line. I talked to people who wanted nothing more simple, or elusive, than a secure future for their children.’
There was no visit to the very unbeautiful, poverty ridden lunar landscape that is Gaza. There was no mention of the thousands of Palestinian families who had lost sons, daughters, mothers and fathers to F-16’s, Apache attack helicopters, Merkava tanks, white phosphorous bombs, nerve gas and M-16 bullets all delivered through his complicity and his commitment to Israel’s ’security’. There was no mention of the thousands of Palestinian homes bulldozed to rubble, the thousands of families these criminal acts made homeless....
‘Israel can also advance the cause of peace by taking appropriate steps - consistent with its security - to ease the freedom of movement for Palestinians, improve economic conditions in the West Bank, and to refrain from building new settlements - as it agreed to with the Bush administration at Annapolis.’...
Obama will continue the vilification of and bellicosity towards Iran and Syria which he insists pose a grave danger to a country that possesses hundreds of Nuclear weapons. The following quotes illustrate the continuity we can expect with regard to U.S. policy in the Middle East [...]
Andrew Hughes is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Ron Paul: Israel had US OK for war on Gaza
"Israel depends on us; they depend on us economically, they depend on us for their military power and all their weapons and they got a green light from our administration"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21641.htm
Silence is Complicity We’re All War Criminals Now
By Joe Mowrey
Israel is colonizing Palestine. Its Zionist founders always intended to achieve this end, and the current regime has no intention of sidelining that plan. Any other claim made by the government of Israel is pure guile. And this deception has been perpetrated with funding and encouragement from successive United States administrations since 1947. Indeed, none of Israel’s current illegal agression would be taking place without the approval of the United States along with the massive amounts of military aid we provide. This is the history of the current conflict which we are not allowed to hear. Not because it is too complicated for us to understand, but because it is too offensive to the sensibilities of those who blindly support Israel...
Zionist narrative attempts to portray Israel as a victim of unprovoked Palestinian violence. But Palestinian resistance to the colonization of their land is recognized as a right under international law. The widely accepted and vociferous contention that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” is a bizarre transposition of the rule of law. It is like saying the family that occupied your home has a right to defend itself from your actions to remove them. Israel does not have any right under international law to “defend” its ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Palestine. The attack on Gaza, and indeed, any Israeli action taken against Palestinian resistance, whether that resistance be violent or nonviolent, is not an act of self defense. It is an act of aggression against a legitimate resistance movement. Israel is not defending itself, it is defending its illegal colonization of Palestinian lands...
There are 1.5 million people in Gaza. They have no army, no navy, no air force. More than two thirds of the population is comprised of women and children. After having the nerve to conduct democratic elections in January, 2006, the Palestinians have had their elected officials imprisoned and assassinated. Their government has been removed in an administrative coup and replaced by the quisling Fatah party in the West Bank. When Hamas resisted this coup and reclaimed control of the government they were freely and fairly elected to lead, it was Hamas who was considered the aggressor, not those who removed them from power in the first place. Again, the rule of law was transposed and used to justify the demonization of Hamas.
To make matters worse, in an attempt to coerce the Palestinians in Gaza to abandon their legitimately elected representatives, Israel, with the help of the international community, has kept Gaza under siege for most of the last three years. Gazans have been denied many of the basic necessities of life, including such things as paper and pencils, school books and even sanitary napkins. Israel recently added shoes and clothing to the list of forbidden imports. They claim Hamas might use them to make military uniforms. This, despite the fact that Israel often justifies its killing of civilians in Gaza by asserting that the Hamas militia can’t be distinguished from civilians because ...they don’t wear military uniforms. The main power plant in Gaza has also been bombed, severely limiting the amount of electricity available. This electricity is necessary for water and sewage treatment along with the more obvious aspects of normal daily life. Fuel supplies have been restricted. Importation of cement has been curtailed preventing necessary repairs to civilian infrastructure. The Israeli Air Force has used F-16 Fighter Jets, supplied by the U.S., to make frequent low level super sonic flights over Gaza creating massive sonic booms which, according to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, “are having serious effects on children in Gaza, including anxiety, panic, fear, poor concentration and low academic success.” The sonic events are also suspected of inducing miscarriages in Palestinian women.
These are just a few examples of the war of collective punishment and terror being waged against the civilian population in Gaza. These tactics have increased in intensity over the last three years, culminating these last six weeks in the nearly complete denial of food, medicine, electricity and fuel to the million and a half people living in Gaza. So why would Hamas be engaging in resistance to Israel, anyway? One can only imagine.
This back story to the devastation in Gaza is completely ignored by our corporate media and by most so-called progressive media. It’s as if history began just a few months ago. Out of the blue, those crazy terrorists started firing rockets into Israel for no reason at all. How dare they? And this assumption goes largely unchallenged. There is much angst and hand wringing in the so-called alternative media about how disproportionate Israel’s response has been. Outrage is expressed at the suffering of the Palestinian people. But there is little discussion of the fact that Palestinian militants actually have a reason to be firing rockets at Israel....
The situation is dire. Our public discourse is a cornucopia of lies, obfuscation and denial. Facts are considered irrelevant. Reality is turned upside down and language has become meaningless. Imperial and colonial violence is defined as righteous self defense. Resistance to that violence is defined as terrorism. The United States and Israel, two of the world’s [digest: self-proclaimed, universally despised] most celebrated so-called democracies, are in reality rogue militarized nations engaging in collective punishment, torture, wars of aggression and criminal foreign policies which flagrantly disregard even the most basic concepts of fairness and human decency.... Under the current system, the perpetuation of empire is institutionally preordained. We are permitted to reshuffle the cards and deal a new hand now and then, but always from the same stacked deck.
The situation in Palestine, along with many of the violent conflicts in the world, is nothing more than a symptom of the disease that is U.S. Empire. Gaza is just one more bloody scene in an ongoing imperial nightmare of death and destruction. If we want to stop the senseless killing taking place in Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan and so many the other places, we must stand up and say no. Not just to the acts themselves, but to the fetid imperialist jugernaut which exports and cultivates them. Until we disrupt this cycle of corporate power mongering and violent militarism by refusing to participate in it, we have only ourselves to blame for the deaths of the innocent men, women and children who are the targets of our bombs. The blood is on your hands and mine. We are all war criminals now. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21645.htm
(Joe Mowrey is an anti-war activist and Palestinian rights advocate who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexic, with his spouse, Janice, and their three canine co-conspirators. You can reach him at jmowrey@ix.netcom.com)
Gates warns US adversaries: Don't test Obama
12-16-08
In a speech to a Gulf security conference in Bahrain, Dec. 13, Robert Gates, held over by Barack Obama as US defense secretary, laid out for the first time an authoritative presentation of the incoming administration's views on key regional security issues. He then flew to Baghdad for an unannounced visit. His main message was a warning that US adversaries would be "sorely mistaken" to test the new administration in its early days. He said the Obama team had made ample preparations and would be ready to defend US national interests and those of friends and allies from the moment it takes office next month. About to serve his 8th US president, Gates said he brought a message of continuity and commitment to US partners in the Gulf. "I can assure you that a change in administration does not alter our fundamental interests, especially in the Middle East....One Gulf leader commented: "It is not a promise of continuity we wanted to hear from him but change.[...]
CBS VIDEO
from Gilad Atzmon
gilad@gilad.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6ojm62qwA&feature=channel_page
US blocks cease-fire, gives Israel carte blanche to continue killing in Gaza
By Barry Grey
http://www.inteldaily.com/news/163/ARTICLE/9162/2009-01-05.html
[WSWS] Rice publicly urged Israel to reject demands for a cease-fire and called the Israeli assault "the birth pangs of a new Middle East."... a green light for an intensification of the slaughter in Gaza in the form of an Israeli ground assault. US blocked diplomatic initiatives for a cease-fire in order to give Israel a free hand to intensify its assault ... For the US, aggression by its main political- military ally in the Middle East is a means of advancing the hegemonic aims of American imperialism against such obstacles as Iran and Syria in the oil-rich and strategically crucial region...
... the homemade rockets fired from Gaza, provoked by Israeli's brutal blockage of the territory, serve as pretext for a war driven by the political and geo-strategic interests of both Israel and the US. For its part, the Israeli ruling elite is determined to overcome the damage to its image of military invincibility resulting from its failure to destroy Hezbollah in the 2006 Lebanon War, and to create the conditions for permanently crushing Palestinian resistance to decades of colonial-style occupation....
100,000 people demonstrate in Sakhnin
Hiba Lama, PNN
At least 100,000 people are demonstrating in Sakhnin, a Palestinian city within Israeli boundaries. Plans were laid early in the week for the massive march which the Israeli police threatened to prevent. Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset Ahmed Tibi and Mohammad Barakeh said that this is among the largest demonstrations within the Green Line. Barakeh told PNN from the streets this afternoon, "This is the largest march in the history of Palestinians in Israeli boundaries...
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=50344
PFLP Statement
Urgent: Occupation begins ground invasion of Gaza, resistance committed to victory
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Jan 3, 2009
The occupation forces began their ground invasion of Gaza on January 3, 2008. The occupation forces entered Gaza in several places at approximately 9 PM, while continuing their shelling and targeting of Palestinians from air and sea, killing and wounding still more of our people while their ground forces prevent ambulances and medical personnel from reaching the victims. All Israeli (and US-made) weapons are being used in this invasion, including massive bombs. The occupation forces have bombed the small remaining oil supply used for power in Gaza, cutting 85% of electricity in Gaza and creating massive clouds of thick, toxic smoke.
This oil has been used to power hospitals, ambulances and other emergency services for our people. The criminality of the occupier knows no bounds and is continuing and escalating after a week of onslaught against our besieged people in Gaza.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the entire Palestinian resistance and the whole of the Palestinian people is committed to confront the occupier in the face of the Israeli massacres, ground invasions and crimes. We are calling upon people around the world to occupy and take over Israeli, U.S. and Egyptian embassies and consulates around the world. We are confident of the steadfastness of our resistance and the masses of our people. Not one single Palestinian will be defeated in Gaza. We are all in this fight together, men, women, elderly, children, youth, popular resistance, medical workers, fighters, and leaders - we all stand together in fierce, defiant and confident confrontation of the occupier and its crimes, and certain that we are on the march to victory.
http://www.pflp.ps/english/
www.uruknet.info?p=50332
"The struggle of our people is not one that is limited to the borders of Palestine, nor is it limited to the Arab homeland.... it is an international struggle, and a flashpoint of popular resistance to imperialism."
PFLP strongly condemns the submission of the UN Security Council to U.S. domination
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the actions of the United States to once again veto any effort to cease the brutal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza in the United Nations on January 3, 2009.
The United States, acting fully in its expected capacity, as a brutal, criminal, colonialist empire governed by war criminals, from U.S. President George W. Bush to UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad, as the head of the imperialist camp and the enemy aiming its weaponry at the Palestinian people.
The United States provides - and funds - the amounts of weaponry being used against the Palestinian people in Gaza, including supporting the Zionist colonial-settler state with F-16 airplanes, Apache helicopters, and their most advanced weaponry, in addition to the vast amounts of political and economic support that it provides for its strategic partner, Israel.
Throughout history, the United States veto in the Security Council of the United Nations has been used time and time again to prevent international action to stop Zionist occupation atrocities against our people, implement Palestinian rights, or protect our people under attack. As the entire world has time and again condemned Israel, from the masses in the streets of cities around the world, to the floor of the United Nations, the United States has repeatedly used its veto power as a club on behalf of Zionism and imperialism.
On January 3, 2009, once again, the U.S. used its veto power to block a Security Council resolution that would demand the aggression against our people cease. In the face of the killing of hundreds of Palestinians with U.S. made-and-paid-for weaponry at the hands of a murderous and brutal occupier that has bombed schools, universities, mosques, municipal buildings and homes by the hundreds, the U.S. stood to block international action to stop the crimes.
We have no illusions about the United States and its role. The United States is the leading imperialist power, the leading strategic partner of Israel, and a criminal regime engaged in a brutal occupation of its own in Iraq, even as it attempts to prop up the very regimes that suppress our people throughout the Arab homeland.
The people of the world, and indeed, of the United States, have made it clear, in demonstrations, mobilizations and actions, that they are with the besieged and resisting people of Gaza, and with the Palestinian people. The resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan, as does the resistance in Lebanon, prove to the United States and Israel daily that they cannot and will not be successful in their attempts to conquer and occupy. The masses of the Arab homeland are shaking the streets and demanding that the U.S. proxies like the Egyptian regime cease their subservience to their imperial master and support the people of Gaza.
And the Palestinian resistance in Gaza is now, and will continue, to make clear to the United States and Israel that our people and our cause will not be suppressed and will not be killed and will be victorious despite their brutality and criminality, and in the face of the official inaction of the so-called international community.
Towards victory!
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=pflp-strongly-condemns-submission-un-secur...
" On the 60th anniversary of our dispossession and occupation, let this be a year of the reclamation of our cause and the rebuilding of our national movement....we take the opportunity to assert once again our firm adherence to the Palestinian national consensus, to the achievement and implementation of the right to return, our sovereign independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and self-determination. Every day, the strength and steadfastness of our people reveal once more the fundamental failure of the Zionist project, a racist project based on dispossession and oppression, dependent for its existence upon an endless war against our Palestinian and Arab people. The racist wall, the calls for "transfer," the failure of Zionist government after Zionist government, their announcement of an expansion in their colonization project reveal nothing more than the collapse of an unviable racist enterprise attempting to maintain itself through billions of U.S. dollars in weaponry, yet constantly aware of its own impending and inevitable defeat - and the inevitable victory of our people. We look forward on the road of liberation to a free, democratic and secular Palestine, without Zionism, occupation, imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism and oppression, based on the principles of freedom, equality and socialism..."
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=editorial-launch-english-website
Dozens of Gazans killed in Israeli ground assault
AFP
At least 23 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza on the first day of Israel's ground offensive in the Hamas-run enclave, medics said on Sunday. Seventeen of the victims were civilians, they said, adding that some 200 people were wounded as a result of air strikes and Israeli ground fire. Twenty people were killed in the north of the territory, two in Gaza City and one near Khan Yunis in the south... Israel unleashed a massive bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza on December 27 in response to militant rocket and mortar fire, and sent in ground troops a week later.
Since the start of "Operation Cast Lead" more than 485 Palestinians have been killed, including 80 children, and more than 2,500 wounded in Gaza, according to Gaza medics.
Rockets fired by Gaza militants have killed three civilians and one soldier inside Israel during the same time period.
Since the start of the ground offensive 30 Israeli soldiers have been wounded, two of them seriously, the army said.
Palestinian medics said "several" Hamas fighters had been seriously wounded, but that ambulances were unable to get to them as firefights raged.
The Myth of Israeli Retaliation
Dan Freeman-Maloy
....Under these circumstances, it is worth recalling some very basic information about Gaza and the timeline of the conflict surrounding it. Consider the description provided by the late Canadian Lt.-Gen. E.L.M. Burns, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization from 1954-1956...: "The Strip is about forty kilometres long, and averages eight and a quarter kilometres in width; thus it contains about 330 square kilometres [360 is currently the accepted figure]. There are about 310,000 Arab residents in the Strip, 210,000 of them refugees from the southern parts of Palestine now occupied by Israel. Thus there are about 1500 persons to the square kilometre of arable soil -- about 3900 to the square mile ... "One does not see people starving or dying of disease in the streets; nevertheless the Gaza Strip resembles a vast concentration camp, shut off by the sea, the border between Palestine and the Sinai near Rafah, which the Egyptians will not permit them to cross, and the Armistice Demarcation Line which they cross in peril of being shot by Israelis or imprisoned by the Egyptians. They can look east and see wide fields, once Arab land, cultivated extensively by a few Israelis, with a chain of kibbutzim guarding the heights or the areas beyond. It is not surprising that they look with hatred on those who have dispossessed them.". Five years after this was published, in 1967, Israel invaded Gaza and subjected it to direct military rule. Decades later, Hamas emerged, and decades later still, fired some rockets at such cities as Ashkelon -- an Israeli city which just incidentally had supplanted the Palestinian community of Majdal, the last of whose inhabitants were ethnically cleansed by Zionist forces in 1950, its former residents mostly driven into Gaza.... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=50162
462 Palestinians killed, 2300 wounded in 8 days of Israeli offensive on Gaza: official:
The chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry, told reporters that the death tolls include 76 children and 38 women, and among the injured, 600of them are in critical conditions.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/04/content_10598591.htm
Al-Qassam Brigades captures two Israeli soldiers east of Gaza city
GAZA, (PIC)-- 1/4/9 The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, successfully captured at a late hour Saturday two Israeli soldiers in the area of Jabal Al-Rais, east of Gaza city, where they were transferred to a safe place away from the battlefield, media reports said.
For their part, Israeli sources said that the Israeli military command lost contact with one of its soldiers.
The capture of the two Israel soldiers happened when Qassam fighters ambushed a special Israeli force east of Gaza and detonated an anti-personnel explosive device at them which inflicted a number of casualties in their ranks.
Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida stated that the Brigades would not give any free information to the Israeli occupation on the capture of the soldiers, adding that the Palestinian people and the world will hear surprises in the coming hours.
Abu Obeida noted that the number of Israeli soldiers killed is more than the number of Qassam martyrs.
The spokesman underlined that the Israeli occupation was "foolish" when it decided to carry out its incursion in the Gaza Strip because the Palestinian resistance was getting prepared for years to confront it, pointing out the IOF troops are confused, invade empty areas, try to stay away from the resistance attacks and shell civilian houses from a distance.
Hamas political leader Khaled Mishaal had warned Israel before the incursion that any folly to invade Gaza would make its troops face a black [sic] fate and join their mate Gilad Shalit who already fell in the hands of the Palestinian resistance.
Gaza will be your cemetery
[announce_onepalestine] Resistance Harvest Report 01/03/09
The Zionists are conducting tonight three incursions into the northern and
central-eastern areas of the strip. As of now, it does not appear to be a
wide-scale invasion. Initial reports by the resistance and official
Zionist sources under conditions of anonymity indicate the following:-
- A Zionist special forces unit is surrounded by the resistance at this
moment near a tunnel dug by the resistance. (Zionist Source)
- The certain death of at least five soldiers and twenty nine others
injured. (Zionist source + AlQassam Brigades)
- The destruction of at least two tanks near the Erez Crossing point. The
second tank was destroyed after it came to rescue the injured from the
first tank. (AlQassam Brigades)
- One of the commanders of the Golani brigades sustained serious injuries.
(Zionist source)
- Resistance increased its rocket fire as of tonight towards settlements
and army formations near the border. The Zionist media is completely mum
and no reports are provided. Zionist army commander warned of the
possibility of significant increase in rocket and katyusha fire in the
coming days.
The Zionists committed a massacre today when an airstrike completely
destroyed a mosque during sunset prayers in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
13 worshippers were martyred and 60 others were injured. This is the 11th
mosque to be destroyed since the start of the aggression. The airstrike
was meant to cause as many casualties as possible due to the fact that it
was carried out during prayer time. No warning was provided.
The largest ever demonstrations in '48 occupied Palestine took place today
when more than 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets in support of the
resistance. The demonstration took place in Sakhnin and is indicative of a
growing trend towards a wide-scale unrest within '48 Palestine.
The PA on the other hand continues with its policy of arrests and violent
suppression of demonstrations. Yesterday, the PA secret service extended
its list of arrests to include members and cells that belong to the
Popular and Democratic fronts in the Nablus area. Many other
demonstrators were arrested and beaten in ALKhalil and the surrounding
villages.
For more information go to: http://www.onepalestine.org
Israeli tanks and soldiers invade Gaza Strip
Sat Jan 3, 2009 6:58pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSLS69391620090103
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas fighters who have defied eight days of deadly air strikes with salvoes of rocket fire into Israeli towns.
Israeli tanks killed seven Gazans at the onset of the night-time invasion, bringing the Palestinian death toll since December 27 to more than 450, medical officials said.
Israel said it called up tens of thousands of reservists and the military's chief spokesman estimated the operation in the Hamas-run enclave could take "many long days." Wearing night-vision goggles on their helmets and camouflage paint on their faces, Israeli ground troops entered the Gaza Strip along with columns of tanks that pushed into the coastal territory from four points. Heavy casualties are likely to increase international pressure on Israel to halt its biggest operation in the Gaza Strip in four decades, fighting that holds significant political risks for Israeli leaders ahead of a February 10 national election...."It won't be easy. It won't be short," said Barak, leader of the center-left Labour party, and a candidate for prime minister in an election that opinion polls predict will return right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu to power. Large numbers of forces were involved in the sweep, including infantry, tanks, engineers, artillery and intelligence, the military said in a statement....
The plight of 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into Gaza was growing more desperate.[note: Israel denies 'humanitarian crisis' despite UN declaration]
A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said Israeli troops faced certain death or capture. "The Zionist enemy must know his battle in Gaza is a losing one," said the spokesman, Abu Ubaida.
At least a quarter of the 453 Palestinians killed in the current conflict have been civilians, a U.N. agency said. Another 2,050 Palestinians have been wounded. A leading Palestinian rights group put the number at 40 percent. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets...
Israeli troops face Hamas militants whom the United States and Israel say have received arms and training from Iran. Hamas is believed to have about 25,000 fighters and has placed landmines and other traps in anticipation of an invasion....
An Egyptian-brokered six-month truce expired on December 19 but it had been strained by Hamas rocket strikes and Israeli military operations against the group. The United States said before the ground offensive started that it was working for a durable truce but insisted Hamas stop firing rockets first. The White House said President George W. Bush was briefed on the Israeli military action.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, representing major powers sponsoring Middle East peace talks, planned to begin shuttling on Sunday between Israeli leaders and Palestinian leaders -- Hamas's rivals -- in the occupied West Bank.
But divisions within the European Union over the Israeli operation could buy Israeli more time. European Union president, the Czech Republic, said the ground assault was "defensive, not offensive" action, but it also called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid for the region.
France condemned the Israeli ground assault, as well as Hamas rocket fire. On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled to go to Jerusalem. Israel had rejected Paris's calls for a 48-hour ceasefire...
Before the advance, an air strike killed 11 Palestinian worshippers, including children, and wounded dozens at a mosque in northern Gaza, Hamas officials and medics said. Israel says Hamas has used mosques as command posts and fire bases.
Israel's attacks brought a wave of international protests and thousands of demonstrators marched in solidarity with the Palestinians in European cities on Saturday....
Israel strikes Hamas radio station
Sun, 04 Jan 2009
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=80419§ionid=351020202
Israeli air strikes have hit the Hamas-run al-Aqsa radio station on the 9th day of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Thousands protest in Europe at Gaza offensive
Sat Jan 3, 2009 4:07pm EST
By Adrian Croft
(Reuters) - Thousands of chanting, banner-waving demonstrators marched in cities across Europe on Saturday to demand a halt to Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip.
Protests were held in Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey as the Israeli offensive entered its second week, and before Israel confirmed ground forces had entered Gaza.
Israeli Arabs held a protest march, Kuwaitis also took to the streets, a day after bigger Middle East rallies, and peaceful pro- and anti-Israel protests were held in New York.
In Paris, police said more than 21,000 demonstrators, many wearing Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves, marched through the city center chanting slogans such as "Israel murderer!" and waving banners demanding an end to the air attacks.
Groups of protesters clashed with police. At least three cars were set alight and about 20 overturned by demonstrators as the march ended near some of the biggest department stores in the French capital.
In London, police said more than 10,000 people staged a march and rally to urge an end to the Israeli offensive against Hamas militants that has killed at least 446 Palestinians. Similar protests were planned in some 30 other towns...
Bloomberg to Israel in show of support
Sun, 04 Jan 2009
New York's billionaire Mayor, Michael Bloomberg is heading to Israel to show his support for Zionists amid their bloody incursion into Gaza. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and New York Rep. Gary Ackerman will go with him. The trip comes as Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza following eight days of heavy airstrikes that has caused the death of 460 Palestinians...
Bloomberg is the founder of a global media and financial data empire that is named after him. Bloomberg LP has offices around the world and is the leading global provider of financial data. He is currently listed on the Forbes 400 as the eighth-richest American, with a net worth of USD 20b.
Bloomberg has been quoted of saying that he wants more than his money, pointing to politics. He admits to being a man who craves admiration. "Adulation is great," he was quoted as saying.
u.s. dem. leftists pretend BO hasn't spoken on Israel because u.s. support of & for its proxy is not a negotiable partisan policy, it is a foundational, bipartisan pillar of u.s. capitalist-imperialism: USRAEL
"I don't think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens....I expect Israelis to do (all they can to stop them)....In terms of negotiating with Hamas, it is very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, (and) has consistently used terror as a weapon. Hamas is a terrorist organization....it's hard for Israel to negotiate with a country like that."
Obama, NYT interview July 2008
Obama's Speech at AIPAC
Audio and Transcript
I want you to know that today I'll be speaking from my heart, and as a true friend of Israel. And I know that when I visit with AIPAC, I am among friends. Good friends. Friends who share my strong commitment to make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, tomorrow and forever.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21604.htm
in case you missed this from Israel:
Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about
Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
December 27, 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well. Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip...
While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas. In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
The Transformational Whatchamacallit of Peace, Hope and Change Same Old Deadly Shit ... Better, Non-Fattening and Great Abs!
Arthur Silber
This is so much hope and change that I'm gonna ... I'm gonna ... goshes, gee whizzes, I'm gonna throws up! (...) To boost cooperation between NASA and the Pentagon, Obama has promised to revive the National Aeronautics and Space Council, which oversaw the entire space arena for four presidents, most actively from 1958 to 1973. The move would build ties between agencies with different cultures and agendas. Back to the future, back to 1958 to 1973... that period was so peaceful... the alleged critical importance of "retaining U.S. space dominance." Global hegemony just isn't enough, ya know. Not sufficiently hopey-changey.... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=50380
Democrat enablers...giving sado-masochists a bad name
by Arthur Silber
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/
Democrats count on the American public and their lobotomized lapdogs not to remember significant events from one week to the next -- and the Democrats' enablers willingly render themselves deaf, dumb and blind. The Democrats first put on a phony show of aggressively questioning Petraeus and doubting his propagandistic claims, and very shortly thereafter rely on Petraeus's lies to set the stage.... I almost admire the Democrats' defenders in a certain way. The Democrats stab them deep in the gut and, while the knife is disemboweling them, the Democrats continue to lie in their agony-ridden faces -- and the victims still tell these bastards they will continue to support them. This collection of subhumans give sado-masochists a bad name... I see a disturbing flaw revealed itself yet again in this passage: I am far too generous and charitable....how little I appreciated the comprehensiveness of the self-lobotomizations eagerly undertaken by Democratic partisans, including almost all leading progressive and liberal commentators and bloggers. It took The Wondrous One to destroy all possibility of meaningful opposition for the foreseeable future, and to enable the triumph of close to total ignorance of history, coupled with a profound inability to grasp political theory or reality. Simultaneously, these partisan-apologists are the same people who proclaim how "pragmatic" they are -- while those few of us who insist on an accurate assessment of the meaning of our government's actions are accused of being pathetically "irresponsible" idealists. O, the irony! (See "Silenced: Barack Obama and the End of Struggle toward Truth and Freedom" ...
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Unfortunately this site doesn't also give reports on u.s. protests that are difficult to find, and disinfo-distorted -- if you know any good info. sources pass them on please!
U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation
EMERGENCY PROTESTS TO STOP THE ATTACKS ON GAZA
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1773
