Tag: Israel

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Israel Continues to Break Unilateral Cease Fire

On entering Gaza ABC reporter, Ban Knight said “after three weeks of war the state of Gaza still came as a shock to me.” Ben has reported some grab bytes from Gaza locals:

“I didn’t want to come out until now,” one man said.

“They targeted everything. They shot everywhere. Nowhere was safe.”

I spoke with one man who claimed that since the ceasefire, Hamas officials have been rounding up members of Fatah accused of collaborating with Israel and shooting them in the legs. Hamas denies it.

But this man, a Fatah supporter, believes Hamas will hold onto power here by dividing the people even further.

“Hamas have more support than they did before the war,” he said.

“They’ve convinced the people that Israel invaded with Fatah’s permission.”

Talal Oukal, a Palestinian analyst stresses the need for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

… everything is linked to a historic reconciliation between the two big rival groups, “and once they agree, I believe that other problems would be marginal and can be resolved through diplomatic ways between Israel and the Palestinians.”

However, he warned that if the two parties fail to achieve reconciliation soon, “I believe that the situation would remain as it is because the Western world led by the United States, including Israel, are not willing to hold direct talks with Hamas which basically rejects to condemn violence or recognize Israel.”

He added that the issues that can be resolved through diplomatic ways, if Fatah and Hamas reunite and agree on a reconciliation, are “the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the reopening of Gaza Strip crossing points including Gaza-Egypt Rafah border crossing.”

Dr Azzam Tamimi explains the realities of Israel’s occupation of Palestine – Israel could have peace if they removed the occupation and blockade, released prisoners, remove settlers, withdraw to pre 67 borders. As the oppressor, Tamimi insists Israel needs to take the initiative and negotiate with Hamas.

In Haaretz, Gideon Levy admits the obvious – Israel’s ‘war’ was a complete failure.

This war ended in utter failure for Israel.

This goes beyond the profound moral failure, which is a grave matter in itself, but pertains to its inability to reach its stated goals. In other words, the grief is not complemented by failure. We have gained nothing in this war save hundreds of graves, some of them very small, thousands of maimed people, much destruction and the besmirching of Israel’s image.

What seemed like a predestined loss to only a handful of people at the onset of the war will gradually emerge as such to many others, once the victorious trumpeting subsides.

The initial objective of the war was to put an end to the firing of Qassam rockets. This did not cease until the war’s last day. It was only achieved after a cease-fire had already been arranged. Defense officials estimate that Hamas still has 1,000 rockets.

The war’s second objective, the prevention of smuggling, was not met either. The head of the Shin Bet security service has estimated that smuggling will be renewed within two months.

Most of the smuggling that is going on is meant to provide food for a population under siege, and not to obtain weapons. But even if we accept the scare campaign concerning the smuggling with its exaggerations, this war has served to prove that only poor quality, rudimentary weapons passed through the smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt.

Israel’s ability to achieve its third objective is also dubious. Deterrence, my foot. The deterrence we supposedly achieved in the Second Lebanon War has not had the slightest effect on Hamas, and the one supposedly achieved now isn’t working any better: The sporadic firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip has continued over the past few days.

The fourth objective, which remained undeclared, was not met either. The IDF has not restored its capability. It couldn’t have, not in a quasi-war against a miserable and poorly-equipped organization relying on makeshift weapons, whose combatants barely put up a fight

Hamas has not been weakened, it will be strengthened. Fatah, collaborator with the Occupation on the other hand will be weakened.

Their war has intensified the ethos of resistance and determined endurance. A country which has nursed an entire generation on the ethos of a few versus should know to appreciate that by now. There was no doubt as to who was David and who was Goliath in this war.

Israel’s aggressive and lawless character has now been confirmed to the world.

Israel’s actions have dealt a serious blow to public support for the state. While this does not always translate itself into an immediate diplomatic situation, the shockwaves will arrive one day. The whole world saw the images. They shocked every human being who saw them, even if they left most Israelis cold.

The conclusion is that Israel is a violent and dangerous country, devoid of all restraints and blatantly ignoring the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, while not giving a hoot about international law. The investigations are on their way.

Levy’s assessment of the weakening of the PLO sheds light on its move to negotiate with Israel on terms remarkably similar to those of Hamas – Israel’s withdrawal from land occupied in 1967 and the freezing of all settlement activity. With the advent of Obama’s presidency, now is a good time for Palestinians of whatever faction to drive for a realistic deal which can ensure a viable state. The current bantustans are not workable as a basis for a Palestinian state. If Israel is unwilling to make concessions, then a one state solution becomes the only possible outcome.

The PLO Executive Committee said it was demanding Israel commit to a comprehensive freezing of all settlement activity in and around Arab East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank and a commitment to give up its hold on all occupied land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

“The Palestinian leadership are not ready to return to political negotiations with Israel unless there is a new basis for talks,” the PLO said, without elaborating.

It said it wanted to conduct talks on the basis of the Arab peace initiative of 2002 which offers Israel peace and normal relations with all Arab countries in return for withdrawal from all territory captured in the 1967 war.

Successive Israeli governments have either ignored or rejected the offer, which would require Israel to dismantle settlements which house hundreds of thousands of Jews.

The prospect of the PLO, Fatah and Hamas aligning demands and even worse uniting will send chills down Israeli politicians spines. Expect a renewal of attempts of divide and conquer.

There are signs of this already, with Israel preventing Abbas from bringing much needed cash to Gaza.

The restrictions threatened to undercut the ability of President Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank-based government to reassert a presence in the Hamas-ruled territory after Israel’s 22-day offensive, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.

The cash restrictions also underscored the wider hurdles facing reconstruction, estimated to cost more than $2 billion, in the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians live.

Israel has told the United Nations and other aid groups planning for the rebuilding they must apply for project-by-project Israeli approval and provide guarantees none of the work will benefit Hamas.

Israel had no immediate comment on why the Palestinian Authority’s post-war cash shipments were being blocked. The restrictions were put in place long before fighting broke out on December 27, with Israel arguing that Gaza had enough cash in circulation and that some of the money could end up with Hamas.

Middle East envoy Tony Blair, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank countered that the restrictions were crippling Gaza’s economy and undermining the Palestinian Authority, which adopted anti-money laundering rules to prevent any of the money from going to Hamas and other groups.

Juan Cole agrees that Fatah and the PLO have been weakened by Israel’s failure in Gaza.

The fundamentalist group Hamas is reasserting itself in Gaza as Israeli troops withdraw, and now has a new pretext to target members of the Fatah group, secular nationalists loyal to Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. So the Israelis may have actually politically strengthened Hamas and further weakened Fatah, which is already notorious for corruption, political repression, inefficiency, and, increasingly collaboration with Israel.

As Obama rings around the ME leaders expressing his wish for an Arab Israeli peace, he has not yet stated any plans to talk with Hamas leaders, preferring instead

to help consolidate the current Hamas-Israeli cease-fire, and help the Palestinian Authority with a major reconstruction effort in Gaza after three weeks of conflict.

Israel is still only allowing in humanitarian aid, so the reconstruction of Gaza must wait for Israel’s hegemonical leisure. Tipsy Livni insists the blockade will remain as long as Hamas holds Gilad Shalit. No mention is made of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners including children being held, many for years, in Israeli dungeons.

Will Obama do the sensible thing and talk to political groups which have legitimate claims against the regimes who have delegitimised them using Bush’s phony ‘war on terror’ as cover?

In his piece, Obama Should Quit War on Terror, Talk to Hamas and Taliban, Nathan Gardels thinks so.

“Power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please, ” Obama declaimed on the Capitol steps. Instead, “our power grows through its prudent use, our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.”

Israel, take head – humility and restraint have been notably lacking in the case of Israeli aggressions.

Olivier Roy also points out the pragmatic necessity of negotiating with Hamas – the alternatives he points to are undesirable.

Where a political approach has been tried, it has worked. The relative success of the surge in Iraq is based on the implicit rejection of the official doctrine of the “war on terror”: Local armed insurgents were recognized as political actors with more or less a legitimate agenda, thus separating them from the foreign-based global militants who did not give a damn about Iraqi national interests.

Whatever the justification of the Gaza military operations (to punish the inhabitants for supporting Hamas or to free them from the control of Hamas), it will not work. Dismantling Hamas’ military capacity can only buy time, not solve the issue.

Under the logic of the current military scenario, either the PA must be reinstated in Gaza — only to face political and military guerrilla warfare with Hamas — or the Israeli Defense Forces must maintain control, perhaps with the involvement of foreign troops. In either case, the military “solution” will prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.

Palestine is thus doomed, in the best case, to be either under a permanent Israeli occupation or under some sort of an international mandate. The suggestion that Gaza could be handed over to Egypt and what remains of the West Bank to Jordan will just contribute to extending the conflict. Such an eventuality would nullify the only positive result of the Oslo negotiations, which is to have transformed an Israeli-Arab conflict into an Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Thus, if the Obama administration truly seeks to change the equation in the Middle East and Afghanistan, it must recognize the real motives and aspirations, not imagined ones, that actually drive groups like Hamas and the Taliban. Such a recognition would lead the U.S. to talk to the Taliban in Afghanistan and look for a political instead of military solution that responds to legitimate Pashtu aspirations. It would lead the U.S. to refrain from endorsing the Israeli delusion that it can eliminate Hamas by force while frustrating Palestinian statehood.

Despite Israel’s supposed unilateral cease fire, Israeli gunboats are still firing at civilians in Gaza.

A Palestinian medical official says an Israeli gunboat off the shores of Gaza City has opened fire on Gazans, wounding a man and a girl.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said Thursday that a shell fired by the gunboat hit a house in a beachside refugee camp. He said the wounded were passersby in the street, AP reported.

Gunboats off Gaza have been firing for several days despite a cease-fire, which ended a three-week Israeli offensive, being in place.

More civilian killings from gunboats by Israel:

Israel’s navy shelled the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, injuring seven Palestinians, including five fishermen.

Mu’awiyah Hassanain, the director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry told Ma’an that Israeli gunboats shelled the As-Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City.

He said the wounded people were taken to Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Hassanain added that rescue teams are still working to recover the corpses, many of them now decomposing, of those killed in Israel’s three-week war on Gaza.

Separately, two Palestinians died in Egyptian hospitals where they were treated for wounds from Israel’s three-week offensive.

Medical officials identified them as: Tamer Omar Al-Louh, 22, from Gaza city and Azzam Mu’awad Ash-Shafe’y, 24, from Rafah.

The death toll from the war is now 1,330, with more than 5,000 injured.

Israel Continues Bombing Gaza In Spite of Ceasefire, Sacramentans Report

Despite the ceasefire, Israel bombed Gaza again yesterday. Reports from Gaza are terrible. Tonight we spoke with a young Gaza man now living in Amman; he told us that seven of his cousins there were killed by the Israeli attacks. We are also getting reports of increased repression against Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Palestinian-Israelis; including killing and arresting demonstrators.

It is imperative that world pressure on Israel continue and increase. Not only to stop the atrocities against Gaza, but to end the occupation and apartheid policies and practices of Israel that have led to these atrocities. Israel must immediately stop the attacks on Gaza and open all borders; it must remove all of its military, apartheid wall, and settlements from the West Bank; it must stop its harassment and unequal treatment of Palestinian-Israelis; and it must adhere to UN resolutions regarding the Palestinian refugees.

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Ariel Sharon Flashback – 1982 Interview with Amos Oz

ABOUT THE SOFT AND THE DELICATE By Amos Oz

(supposed interview with Ariel Sharon published in the Israeli daily Davar Dec. 17, 1982)

printed in Counterpunch

“You can call me anything you like. Call me a monster or a murderer. Just note that I don’t hate Arabs. On the contrary. Personally, I am much more at ease with them, and especially with the Bedouin, than with Jews. Those Arabs we haven’t yet spoilt are proud people, they are irrational, cruel and generous. It’s the Yids that are all twisted. In order to straighten them out you have to first bend them sharply the other way. That, in brief, is my whole ideology.

“Call Israel by any name you like, call it a Judeo-Nazi state as does Leibowitz. Why not? Better a live Judeo-Nazi
than a dead saint. I don’t care whether I am like Ghadafi. I am not after the admiration of the gentiles. I don’t need their love. I don’t need to be loved by Jews like you either. I have to live, and I intend to ensure that my children will live as well. With or without the blessing of the Pope and the other religious leaders from the New Yor Times. I will destroy anyone who will raise a hand against my children, I will destroy him and his children, with or without our famous purity of arms. I don’t care if he is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. History teaches us that he who won’t kill will be killed by others. That is an iron law.

“Even if you’ll prove to me by mathematical means that the present war in Lebanon is a dirty immoral war, I don’t care. Moreover, even if you will prove to me that we have not achieved and will not achieve any of our aims in Lebanon, that we will neither create a friendly regime in Lebanon nor destroy the Syrians or even the PLO, even then I don’t care. It was still worth it. Even if Galilee is shelled again by Katyushas in a year’s time, I don’t really care. We shall start another war, kill and destroy more and more, until they will have had enough. And do you know why it is all worth it? Because it seems that this war has made us more unpopular among the so-called civilised world.

“We’ll hear no more of that nonsense about the unique Jewish morality, the moral lessons of the holocaust or about the Jews who were supposed to have emerged from the gas chambers pure and virtuous. No more of that. The destruction of Eyn Hilwe (and it’s a pity we did not wipe out that hornet’s nest completely!), the healthy bombardment of Beirut and that tiny massacre (can you call 500 Arabs a massacre?) in their camps which we should have committed with our own delicate hands rather than let the Phalangists do it, all these good deeds finally killed the bullshit talk about a unique people and of being a light upon the nations. No more uniqueness and no more sweetness and light. Good riddance.”

“I personally don’t want to be any better than Khomeini or Brezhnev or Ghadafi or Assad or Mrs. Thatcher, or even Harry Truman who killed half a million Japanese with two fine bombs. I only want to be smarter than they are, quicker and more efficient, not better or more beautiful than they are. Tell me, do the baddies of this world have a bad time? If anyone tries to touch them, the evil men cut his hands and legs off. They hunt and catch whatever they feel like eating. They don’t suffer from indigestion and are not punished by Heaven. I want Israel to join that club. Maybe the world will then at last begin to fear me instead of feeling sorry for me. Maybe they will start to tremble, to fear my madness instead of admiring my nobility. Thank god for that. Let them tremble, let them call us a mad state. Let them understand that we are a wild country, dangerous to our surroundings, not normal, that we might go crazy if one of our children is murdered – just one! That we might go wild and burn all the oil fields in the Middle East! If anything would happen to your child, god forbid, you would talk like I do. Let them be aware in Washington, Moscow, Damascus and China that if one of our ambassadors is shot, or even a consul or the most junior embassy official, we might start World War Three just like that !” ……

We are talking while sitting on the balcony of the pretty country house belonging to C. which is situated in a prosperous Moshav. To the west we see a burning sunset and there is a scent of fruit trees in the air. We are being served iced coffee in tall glasses. C. is about fifty years old. He is a man well known for his (military) actions. He is a strong, heavy figure wearing shorts but no shirt. His body is tanned a metallic bronze shade, the colour of a blond man living in the sun. He puts his hairy legs on the table and his hands on the chair. There is a scar on his neck. His eyes wander over his plantations. He spells out his ideology in a voice made hoarse by too much smoking:

“Let me tell me [sic] what is the most important thing, the sweetest fruit of the war in Lebanon: It is that now they don’t just hate Israel. Thanks to us, they now also hate all those Feinschmecker Jews in Paris, London, New York, Frankfurt and Montreal, in all their holes. At last they hate all these nice Yids, who say they are different from us, that they are not Israeli thugs, that they are different Jews, clean and decent. Just like the assimilated Jew in Vienna and Berlin begged the anti-Semite not to confuse him with the screaming, stinking Ostjude, who had smuggled himself into that cultural environment out of the dirty ghettos of Ukraine and Poland. It won’t help them, those
clean Yids, just as it did not help them in Vienna and Berlin. Let them shout that they condemn Israel, that they
are all right, that they did not want and don’t want to hurt a fly, that they always prefer being slaughtered to
fighting, that they have taken it upon themselves to teach the gentiles how to be good Christians by always turning the other cheek. It won’t do them any good. Now they are getting it there because of us, and I am telling you, it is a pleasure to watch.

“They are the same Yids who persuaded the gentiles to capitulate to the bastards in Vietnam, to give it in to Khomeini, to Brezhnev, to feel sorry for Sheikh Yamani because of his tough childhood, to make love not war. Or
rather, to do neither, and instead write a thesis on love and war. We are through with all that. The Yid has been
rejected, not only did he crucify Jesus, but he also crucified Arafat in Sabra and Shatila. They are being identified with us and that’s a good thing! Their cemeteries are being desecrated, their synagogues are set on fire, all their old nicknames are being revived, they are being expelled from the best clubs, people shoot into their ethnic
restaurants murdering small children, forcing them to remove any sign showing them to be Jews, forcing them to move and change their profession.

“Soon their palaces will be smeared with the slogan: Yids, go to Palestine! And you know what? They will go to
Palestine because they will have no other choice! All this is a bonus we received from the Lebanese war. Tell me,
wasn’t it worth it?

“Soon we will hit on good times. The Jews will start arriving, the Israelis will stop emigrating and those who
already emigrated will return. Those who had chosen assimilation will finally understand that it won’t help them to try and be the conscience of the world. The ‘conscience of the world’ will have to understand through its arse what it could not get into its head. The gentiles have always felt sick of the Yids and their conscience, and now the Yids will have only one option: to come home, all of them, fast, to install thick steel doors, to build a strong fence, to have submachine guns positioned at every corner of their fence here and to fight like devils against anyone who dares to make a sound in this region. And if anyone even raises his hand against us we’ll take away half his land and burn the other half, including the oil. We might use nuclear arms. We’ll go on until he no longer feels like it…

“…You probably want to know whether I am not afraid of the masses of Yids coming here to escape anti-semitism smearing us with their olive oil until we go all soft like them. Listen, history is funny in that way, there is a dialectic here, irony. Who was it who expanded the state of Israel almost up the boundaries of the kingdom of King David? Who expanded the state until it covered the area from Mount Hermon to Raz Muhammad? Levi Eshkol. Of all people, it was that follower of Gordon, that softie, that old woman. Who, on the other hand, is about to push us back into the walls of the ghetto? Who gave up all of Sinai in order to retain a civilised image? Beitar’s governor in Poland, that proud man Menahem Begin. So you can never tell. I only know one thing for sure: as long as you are fighting for your life all is permitted, even to drive out all the Arabs from the West Bank, everything.

“Leibowitz is right, we are Judeo-Nazis, and why not? Listen, a people that gave itself up to be slaughtered, a people that let soap to be made of its children and lamp shades from the skin of its women is a worse criminal than
its murderers. Worse than the Nazis…If your nice civilised parents had come here in time instead of writing books about the love for humanity and singing Hear O Israel on the way to the gas chambers, now don’t be shocked, if they instead had killed six million Arabs here or even one million, what would have happened? Sure, two or three nasty pages would have been written in the history books, we would have been called all sorts of names, but we could be here today as a people of 25 million!

“Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport
them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don’t care. And I don’t mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal. Then you can spruce up your Jewish conscience and enter the respectable club of civilised nations, nations that are large and healthy. What you lot don’t understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it. True, it could have been finished in 1948, but you interfered, you stopped it. And all this because of the Jewishness in your souls, because of your Diaspora mentality. For the Jews don’t grasp things quickly. If you open your eyes and look around the world you will see that darkness is falling again. And we know what happens to a Jew who stays out in the dark. So I am glad that this small war in Lebanon frightened the Yids. Let them be afraid, let them suffer. They should hurry home before it gets really dark. So I am an anti-Semite ? Fine. So don’t quote me, quote Lilienblum instead [an early Russian Zionist – ed.]. There is no need to quote an anti-Semite. Quote Lilienblum, and he is definitely not an anti-Semite, there is even a street in Tel Aviv named after him. (C. quotes from a small notebook that was lying on his table when I arrived:) ‘Is all that is happening not a clear sign that our forefathers and ourselves…wanted and still want to be disgraced? That we
enjoy living like gypsies.’ That’s Lilienblum. Not me. Believe me. I went through the Zionist literature, I can prove what I say.

“And you can write that I am disgrace to humanity, I don’t mind, on the contrary. Let’s make a deal: I will do all I
can to expel the Arabs from here, I will do all I can to increase anti-semitism, and you will write poems and essays about the misery of the Arabs and be prepared to absorb the Yids I will force to flee to this country and teach them to be a light unto the gentiles. How about it ?”

It was there that I stopped C.’s monologue for a moment and expressed the thought passing through my mind, perhaps more for myself than for my host. Was it possible that Hitler hadnot only hurt the Jews but also poisoned their minds? Had that poison sunk in and was still active? But not even that idea could cause C. to protest or raise his voice. After all, he said to have never shouted under stress, even during the famous operations his name is associated with…”

The above article was discussed at length in an article in The Spectator by Paul Gottfried in 2002.

However, Holger Jensen claims to have spoken with Amos Oz, who told him the interview was with a soldier.

When the interview first appeared after the invasion of Lebanon, “Z” was widely assumed to be Sharon because the interviewee was described as a military man “with a certain history,” about 50 years of age, heavyset and a prosperous farmer. All this fit the stocky Sharon, who had a farm, was the right age and certainly had “a history.”

Sharon had lost his job as defense minister after being held indirectly responsible for a massacre of Palestinian refugees by Israel’s Lebanese Phalange allies in Beirut. The military man interviewed by Oz justified the invasion of Lebanon, dismissed the massacre of Palestinians as one of the harsh realities of war — “how can you call 500 Arabs a massacre?” — and spoke contemptuously of Israeli pacifists as those with “soft and delicate hands.”

Oz never revealed who “Z” was, saying he had promised to protect his identity. He held to that promise when I telephoned him Monday, but confirmed that it was not Sharon. “I have never met or interviewed Sharon,” Oz said. The Middle East is full of mythology. History is rewritten to promote the viewpoints of Israelis or Palestinians and both sides in the conflict suffer from selective recall when it suits their purpose.

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From Recent Trends in Emigration from Israel: The Impact of Palestinian Violence by Ian S. Lustick, 2004

Yisrael Harel, a veteran Gush Emunim activist and former editor of Nekuda, published a long and stunning article in April 2003 which depicted the demographic spectre as Israel’s most daunting problem and even went so far as to propose a solution which would include not only Egyptian and Jordanian acceptance of masses of Palestinian refugees, but also Israeli abandonment of the Gaza Strip, the central heavily Arab areas of the West Bank. The article began as follows, in language formerly almost never heard on the right.

“The Jewish majority between the Jordan and the sea is disappearing day by day, and without an absolute Jewish majority the State of Israel will not be able to survive for long. Security for an absolute Jewish majority is a crucial foundation for any plan…”

Harel concluded by rejecting transfer as impossible and by emphasizing that “every solution [to the Palestinian problem], that does not guarantee a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel is no solution.”

Contemporary immigration figures to 2006 are here. There’s a definite drop off in recent years.

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Ban ki Moon admonishes, Israel skulks

UN bombed with white phosphorus Beit Lahia Gaza

Israel received stern words from UN leader Ban Ki Moon who was outraged at the firing on the UN at Beit Lahia.

“I have seen only a fraction of the destruction. This is shocking and alarming,” Ban said, condemning an “excessive use” of force by Israel as well as Hamas’s rocket fire into Israel.

“These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” he told a news conference held against a backdrop of still smoldering food aid in a U.N. warehouse set ablaze by Israeli gunfire last Thursday.

Ban particularly deplored the attack on the UN warehouse:

“It is particularly significant for a secretary-general of the UN to stand in front of this bomb site of the UN compound,” he said.

“I am just appalled and not able to describe how I am feeling having seen this … it’s an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the UN. I have protested many times, and I protest again in the strongest terms.”

Ban called for a “full investigation” into the incident to make those responsible for the attack “accountable”.

Despite UN demands, Israel is not allowing supplies with construction materials through, only food and medicine aid – is this a sign that their immoral collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population is not yet over?

The Israeli exclusivist war machine has destroyed more than 4,000 buildings with over 20,000 severely damaged.
50,000 Gazans have been made homeless due to Israel’s aggression and 400,000 people are without running water.

@AJGaza The Israeli army says its troops have completed their pull-out from the #Gaza Strip.

Significant to Palestinian aspirations, in his inauguration speech Obama said:

“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”

Let’s hope the Stalinist reprobates in the Israeli Knesset heed his advice.

While Ban calls for national unity between Palestinian groups, Hamas supporters are retaining the power of their democratic vote and are demanding UN recognition –

“The Hamas government was elected by popular vote,” one said. “We demand an end to double standards.”

The United Nations, with other key mediators in the Middle East, say they will only deal with Hamas if it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals.

Chances of recognition of the fascist Occupier entity are likely to be non-existent at this point, with 1350 dead and around 5000 people injured from Israel’s unprovoded attack on Gaza. With Israel’s timed withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas is claiming victory.

In blind stupidity and arrogance, the majority of Israelis believe the murder of innocent Palestinians and destruction of their dwellings and public buildings is a legitimate and necessary accompaniment to their government’s attempt to topple the democratically elected Hamas government and right wing Netanyahoo is leading in the electoral polls. Zionism however thrives on hatred and the illegitimate attack and murder by Israel is bound to increase animosity toward the oppressor.

The election of this expansionist hardline ethnic cleanser could prove disastrous for Palestinians – again. Akiva Eldar provides some interesting speculation on imminent change in US policy toward Israel:

Obama is surrounded by Jewish advisers who are very familiar with Israeli tricks and stalling tactics, especially when it comes to the settlements (have we mentioned “natural growth” yet?), but they would still want the new president to adopt the tradition of the “special relationship” with the Jewish state. Obama, however, has also been exposed to the school of thought, existing in both the administration and the American think tanks, that argues that the excessive closeness between the U.S. and Israel undermines America’s strategic interests in the Arab world.

Brent Scowcroft, one of the shapers of foreign policy under President George H.W. Bush, and according to Time magazine, a strong influence on Obama, has called for a fundamental restructuring of American policy in the Middle East. Scowcroft, who was the boss of the current (and incoming) defense secretary Robert Gates, and a friend of the new national security adviser, James Jones, is proposing that the “special relationship” be adjusted to a “natural relationship.” Perhaps such a change would be able to transform celebratory ceremonies into dry agreements.

How will AIPAC and the other gungho Jewish benefactors to US politicians react if Obama does alter US policy to Israel?

The Zionist enterprise’s military wing, the IDF, is investigating a reserve paratroop unit’s use of phosphorus shells in the incident.

According to senior army officers, the IDF used two phosphorus-based weapons in Gaza. One, the sources said, actually contains almost no phosphorus. These are simple smoke bombs – 155mm artillery shells – with a trace of phosphorus to ignite them.

Alkalai’s probe is thus focusing on the second type: phosphorus shells, either 81mm or 120mm, that are fired from mortar guns. About 200 such shells were fired during the recent fighting, and of these, according to the probe’s initial findings, almost 180 were fired at orchards in which gunmen and rocket-launching crews were taking cover.

The one problematic incident was the reserve paratroops brigade that fired about 20 such shells in a built-up area of Beit Lahiya. Many international organizations say phosphorus shells should not be used in heavily populated areas. The brigade’s officers, however, say the shells were fired only at places that had been positively identified as sources of enemy fire.

The 120mm shells, a recent acquisition, have a computerized targeting system attached to a GPS. Brigade commanders say they were very effective, but they were also responsible for two very serious mishaps: a strike on a UNRWA school that killed 42 Palestinians and a friendly fire incident that seriously wounded two officers.

Expect a duck and weave coverup – why were the shells authorised to be used in the first place at all?

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Israeli actions as war crimes:

Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of war crimes, saying its use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip was indiscriminate and illegal.

The accusations from the London-based organisation came as the scale of the destruction caused by the Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory overwhelmed Gazans.

Amnesty is not the first group to accuse Israel of using white phosphorus.

Human Rights Watch made the accusation on January 10 and the UN has also said Israel used the munition during its offensive in Gaza.

Donatella Rovera, a researcher with Amnesty, said: “Such extensive use of this weapon in Gaza’s densely populated residential neighbourhoods is inherently indiscriminate.”

“Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime,” she said.

Attorneys on behalf of Belgian and French nationals with relatives who were either wounded or killed in Gaza have petitioned a Belgian court to arrest Tipsy Livni for war crimes when she visits Brussels tomorrow.

In other war crimes news, there’s a new Israeli site listing the prospective war criminals and their misdeeds.

includes “arrest orders,” complete with pictures and personal details, for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,Livni, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and his two predecessors, Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya’alon, former air force commander Eliezer Shkedy and others.

It also explains how to inform the International Criminal Court in The Hague of when the “suspects” are outside Israel, and hence vulnerable to arrest.

The first sign of hope and justice from Obama comes from the announcement that he has “ordered the U.S. government to suspend prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days.”

Israel must be judged at the International Criminal Court – Sign the Universal petition.

Francis A. Boyle called for an International War Crimes Tribunal three days after the commencement of Israel’s disgraceful slaughter.

The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a “subsidiary organ” under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.

The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.

The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak , Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel’s other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.

Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as “low-hanging fruit” ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria’s defense.

And of course Israel and the Bush Jr administration very much want a pretext to attack Iran. This scenario could readily degenerate into World War III.

For the U.N. General Assembly to establish ICTI could stop the further development of this momentum towards a regional if not global catastrophe.

The US GIVES free fuel to the Israeli military worth $1.1b since 2004

Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis – Targeting civilians was a deliberate part of this bid to humiliate Hamas and the Palestinians, and pulverise Gaza into chaos

Audio: Abunimah, Finkelstein, Mearsheimer discuss Israel’s attacks on Gaza

In a desperate attempt to prevent their war criminals from being prosecuted, the IDF is censoring the names of battalion commanders involved in the attack on Gaza.

The IDF has also taken preliminary steps to defend military officers against legal charges abroad stemming from their involvement in Operation Cast Lead. The full names of battalion commanders involved in the fighting will be censored to prevent Israeli and international left-wing activists from attempting to try them for war crimes. The names of more senior officers cannot be redacted as their involvement and names have been reported by many media outlets.

Robert Fisk: So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn’t it time for a war crimes tribunal?

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Human Needs in Gaza – Health, Water, Peace

Secretary-General says Gaza Humanitarian Assessment Mission to be dispatched, United Nations determined to embark without delay on recovery process

Source: United Nations Secretary-General

Date: 19 Jan 2009

SG/SM/12052
PAL/2110

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Conference on Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Gaza, in Sharm el-Sheikh, 18 January:

I wish to thank President [Hosni] Mubarak for hosting us at this important meeting, and for the crucial role he is playing to resolve the crisis in Gaza. And I thank President [Mahmoud] Abbas for his presence as the leader of the Palestinian people in this grave hour.

Even after the announcement of a ceasefire by Israel, the situation on the ground is still volatile and dangerous. Clashes, rockets and [Israel Defense Forces] actions have continued. For the sake of the people of Gaza, I urge in the strongest possible terms Hamas to stop firing rockets. As all of us had urged Israelis to stop its offensive, those who have influence on Hamas must press them now to stop rocket-firing.

I discussed the importance of this measure with President [Bashar al-]Assad earlier today in Damascus. I understand that Syria and Turkey’s efforts are bearing fruit, and I am encouraged by President [Abdullah] Gül’s remarks.

For its part, I urge Israel in the strongest possible terms to show utmost restraint and withdraw its troops from Gaza in the coming days.

I look to President Mubarak to continue his vital efforts to seek understandings and mechanisms to ensure that a durable and sustainable ceasefire is quickly put in place. And I look to the leaders assembled here, and to all Arab and international leaders, to come together to prevent further violence, help the people of Gaza in this hour of desperate need, and restore stability.

I also feel determination, shared by all United Nations staff members, to do all possible to ensure that immediate steps are taken to bring relief to the people of Gaza, and to embark without delay on the process of recovery, rebuilding and reconstruction.

I know full well that this will not replace the loss of loved ones, family, neighbours and colleagues. But it will be a step towards a better, safer and more hopeful future.

Hundreds of thousands of people need assistance now. I expect all parties to show restraint, and to fully facilitate urgent help by the United Nations to civilians. If fighting resumes, if crossings are closed, or if the UN is hit by further attacks, it is the people of Gaza who will suffer. This must not happen.

I will dispatch early this week a high-level humanitarian and early recovery assessment mission to Gaza. Within 10 days of this mission, I will launch a flash humanitarian appeal. And within three weeks, I will be able to present an assessment report on early recovery and essential repairs. I urge major donor countries to take part and contribute generously.

This can be presented at the envisaged conference in Cairo, and feed into the work of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee thereafter.

Already, I have directed UN staff to begin the assessment process based on available information from within Gaza itself and work with all UN agencies and other partners in this effort.

We need to cater for the more than 5,000 sick and wounded in Gaza, provide urgent food assistance, remove rubble, unexploded ordnance and possibly landmines, provide shelter of Gazans whose homes have been destroyed, and critically increase electricity supplies for households and for the water and sanitation system.

Electricity is a lifeline for the people of Gaza as is the provision of fuel and cash. The United Nations and its partners stand ready to provide assistance quickly. The more than 10,000 Palestinian national staff will be a backbone of these efforts.

I salute their courageous and tireless efforts over the past three weeks — they deserve our utmost respect.

I appeal to all parties to refrain from any resumption of hostilities, including against UN staff and premises, and to guarantee conditions for the safe, rapid and unimpeded delivery of aid.

As the UN shoulders its full responsibilities in Gaza for humanitarian assistance, early recovery and reconstruction, I intend to consult closely with key partners: with Egypt and Arab countries, with Norway as the Chair of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, with Turkey, and with European, Russian and United States leaders as members of the Quartet — including the new Administration of President [Barack] Obama.

We need to bring together these collective efforts in one common endeavour to support a sustainable ceasefire.

We all know that relief and reconstruction are an immediate priority, but more is needed. Indeed, we have rebuilt Gaza before.

The key challenge before the leaders gathered here today is to do all possible to make sure that this tragedy does not occur again.

We also need a functioning system for all the crossings in and out of Gaza, a system that will immediately allow full access for humanitarian goods and personnel.

The framework for the crossings must also ensure that we return, sooner rather than later, to the conditions reached in the Agreement on Movement and Access. Palestinians must not subsist on relief.

For such a framework to succeed, the Palestinians themselves must face the challenge of reconciliation, and work to achieve a unified Government under the leadership of President Abbas within the framework of the legitimate Palestinian Authority. I call on all Arab leaders to unite and support this endeavour. We cannot rebuild Gaza without Palestinian unity.

A true end to violence, and lasting security for both Palestinians and Israelis, will only come through a just and comprehensive settlement to the long-festering Arab-Israeli conflict.

The violence and suffering is a mark of political failure. The efforts of the past have not proved sufficient to address the underlying conflict.

The occupation that began in 1967 must end. There must be an end to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. This effort must have at its centre the implementation of Security Council resolutions and the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative.

The parties must return to negotiations. But more than that; there must be a massive and unprecedented effort of the community to support this process, and insist, finally, that it succeeds.

FIELD UPDATE ON GAZA FROM THE HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR
19 January 2009, 1700 hours

The ceasefire, declared unilaterally by Israel on 18 January, and later the same day by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, appears to have been holding so far. The Israeli army began a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on the evening of 18 January, although ground troops remain in certain areas. The coastal road has reopened and movement is possible between the northern and southern parts of the territory for the irst time since the start of the ground offensive on 3 January.

The cease-ire follows twenty-three days of bombardment by land, sea and air which have left over 1,300
Palestinians dead and a large number of people severely injured. Extensive damage has been caused to homes and public infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip. Supplies of basic foodstuffs and fuel, and the provision of medical, water and sanitation services remain critical. Needs and damage assessments are now a priority, as is the recovery of bodies that have been inaccessible due to hostilities. At this stage, the initial response will focus on the re-establishment of basic services to the population of Gaza, including water, health, food, cash assistance, school and psychosocial support. This will include addressing safety of movement (e.g. marking and removing unexploded ordinance), removing rubble and repairing priority infrastructure, in addition to securing access to primary education and health services.

PROTECTION OF CIvILIANS

The cease-ire has allowed rescue services to recover some of the dead from under the rubble. By midday 18 January, ICRC and Palestinian Red Crescent Society teams had retrieved approximately 100 bodies, and an additional 14 bodies were recovered on 19 January. One Palestinian farmer was killed on the morning of 18 January in Khuza’a east of Khan Yunis following the Israeli-declared cease-ire. Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) igures as of 1600 hours 19 January are 1,314 Palestinians dead, of whom 412 are children and 110 are women. This igure will likely increase as rescue workers retrieve more bodies. No new injuries have been reported today: the number stands at 5,300, of whom 1,855 are children and 795 are women. It is still not possible to determine the number of Palestinian male civilian casualties.

Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed since 27 December. According to the Magen David Adom national society, four Israelis have been killed, four critically injured, 11 moderately injured and 167 lightly injured since 27 December. OCHA’s casualty igures do not include the number of Palestinians or Israelis treated for shock.

SHELTER

There are reports of widespread destruction of houses, infrastructure, roads, greenhouses, cemeteries, mosques and schools in the Az Zaitoun, Tufah, Sha’af, Jabalia, Tal Al Hawwa, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia areas in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the ICRC, “a number of areas, including parts of Beit Lahia, looked like the aftermath of a strong earthquake”, while Al Mezan Centre ield workers report that “entire urban blocks have disappeared” in North Gaza and eastern suburbs of Gaza City. Construction materials must be allowed into Gaza without delay in order to allow repair and reconstruction. Since June 2007, construction materials have not been permitted entry into Gaza, adversely affecting UN projects, in particular UNRWA and UNDP which were forced to suspend more than $100 million in construction projects due to lack of materials.

Those displaced have started returning home. As of the evening of 18 January, 4,662 displaced persons had
left the emergency shelters. However, 46,234 Palestinians remain in the UNRWA shelters throughout the Gaza Strip.

CARE International provided 7,500 blankets on 18 January, and another 6,570 blankets on 19 January, to cover the shortage of blankets in UNRWA shelters. UNRWA reports remaining shortages of tinned meat, over 22,000 mattresses, and 23,000 blankets and hygiene kits for shelters.

The second semester for 200,000 children in UNRWA schools was scheduled to begin on 17 January.
Following the cease-ire, a priority is to resume schooling and to free up the 44 schools that are being used
as emergency shelters.

HEALTH
Primary health care is resuming following the cease-ire, except in those clinics that have been destroyed. Antenatal care resumed on 18 January with 70 percent attendance. On 19 January, the MoH started distribution of vaccines to its 34 primary health care clinics that provide vaccination services. Hospitals and
intensive care units remain overwhelmed due to the number of war injured who still require treatment. WHO reports that 21 medical facilities have been damaged since 27 December. The Al Quds PRCS Hospital and Al Fata Hospital, both of which were damaged by shelling on 15 January, remained closed on 18 January. Repairs to the hospitals are on-going.

WHO warns of the risk of an outbreak of epidemic disease due to unrecovered bodies, many now severely decomposed, and due to the sewage lowing in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. Handicap International estimates that up to 50 percent of people injured during the latest Israeli military operation have sustained severe injuries such as fractures, amputations, burns and head injuries that will require rehabilitation in order to prevent permanent disability. Others face a signiicant risk of becoming permanently disabled due to secondary complications such as infected wounds, contractures or secondary amputations. Handicap International warns that, “Early rehabilitation, along with speciic prevention information, mobility devices, and basic health care such as appropriate and timely wound dressings, is essential to prevent most of these complications. Post-injury rehabilitation is critical in order to prevent these war-wounded persons from becoming disabled.”

Altogether, over 120 foreign doctors are believed to have entered Gaza since 27 December to provide assistance. The Director of Hospital Services in Gaza has stated that no more medical personnel are needed at the present time.

WATER AND SANITATION / ELECTRICITY

Since 18 January, CMWU and GEDCO technical teams are working to assess and repair damage to the electricity, water and wastewater networks.

An initial assessment in northern Gaza has revealed that at least 22 local transformers were damaged in North Gaza, as were six kilometers of copper cable coming from Israel. The Gaza Power Plant is still only partially functioning due to local damage in power lines and the shortage of industrial fuel.

FUEL

On 17 January, UNRWA delivered 58,500 litres of diesel to municipalities for solid waste disposal and 3,200 litres to UNRWA health centres throughout Gaza. On 18 January, UNRWA transported a generator to Nahal Oz to allow pumps to resume operations and delivered 90,000 litres of industrial fuel to the power plant. Cooking gas was last allowed into the Gaza Strip on 8 January, while diesel last entered the territory on 7 January.

FOOD
While access to shops has improved in most areas due to the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops, the Gaza
population continues to face dificulties accessing food due to the shortage of food items on the market, the increase in prices and the lack of banknotes. On 18 January, UNRWA distributed food parcels to 2,272 families. Since 27 December, WFP has succeeded in reaching 143,880 regular beneiciaries, or 54.2 percent of its regular caseload, with 1,680 Mt of food (52 percent in Khan Yunis, 43 percent in Gaza and 5 percent in the Middle Area).

ACCESS WITHIN THE GAZA STRIP

On 18 January, Israeli presence at Netzarim was withdrawn, clearing the coastal road and allowing regular movement between the northern and southern parts of Gaza.

CROSSINGS
The Kerem Shalom, Rafah and Karni crossings were open on 19 January. On 18 January, 97.5 truckloads, including 69.5 for aid agencies, entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom. Nearly 70,000 litres of industrial fuel also crossed into Gaza through Kerem Shalom. 90,000 litres of fuel were pumped into the Gaza illing point of the Nahal Oz pipeline. Thirty-eight truckloads were transferred into Gaza through the Karni conveyor belt. At Rafah crossing, eleven truckloads of medical supplies, 23 doctors and eleven ambulances were allowed entry to Gaza, while 28 medical cases were evacuated out of Gaza.

FUNDING
For the list of immediate funding needs, visit:
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_crisis_cap_funding_2009_english.pdf

PRIORITY NEEDS

Opening of crossings: The number of trucks allowed into the Gaza Strip needs to be increased, including
those for the private sector. Additional crossings must be opened urgently, including Karni for the provision
of bulk grain and Sufa for construction materials. Basic construction materials need to be allowed into the
Gaza Strip to allow repair of public infrastructure and of private homes.

Cash/liquidity: Cash has still not entered the Gaza Strip and is urgently needed to reactivate the private sector and prevent increasing dependence on aid. A system must be established that ensures the regular and predictable monthly transfer of the necessary cash. Without a functioning bank system in Gaza, recovery efforts will be vastly undermined.

Supply of fuel: Nahal Oz crossing must remain open as it is the only crossing which can facilitate the transfer
of suficient amounts of fuel to restart and maintain operations of the power plant, and restock other types
of fuel needed in the Strip.

Operational security for humanitarian agencies working in Gaza: Although open conlict has subsided, explosive
remnants of war is limiting access of humanitarian workers in certain areas. Security is key to ensure
eficient delivery of humanitarian assistance to the population.

UN chief to visit Gaza as Israeli troops quit

Source: Reuters Foundation

Date: 20 Jan 2009

* U.N.’s Ban to become top figure to see war-ravaged Gaza

* Israeli troops expected to quit Gaza before Obama sworn in

* Repair bill estimated at $1.9 billion

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Douglas Hamilton

GAZA, Jan 20 (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon planned to visit Gaza on Tuesday, and Israeli political sources said Israel would complete its troop pullout before Barack Obama was sworn in as U.S. president later in the day.

Israel was widely seen by analysts to be anxious to avoid any tensions with the incoming leader of the United States, its closest ally.

Ban will be the highest-ranking international figure to visit the Gaza Strip since 22 days of fighting ended on Sunday with separately declared ceasefires by Israel and the Islamist Hamas group which rules the Palestinian territory.

The U.N. Secretary-General, on a Middle East peacemaking mission, would also visit southern Israel, target of Hamas rocket attacks, said Israeli officials.

World leaders were keen to cement a truce and avoid any more bloodshed in Gaza where more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s air and ground strikes launched on Dec. 27.

Gaza’s infrastructure was left in ruins and the repair bill was estimated to be about $1.9 billion.

Hamas said 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings and 20 mosques were destroyed and that 20,000 houses were damaged. Israel has said militants hid weapons inside the mosques.

Palestinian militant groups said 112 of their fighters and 180 Hamas policemen were killed. Israel put its dead at 10 soldiers and said three civilians were killed in rocket attacks.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, is to travel to Gaza and Israel later this week on a two-day humanitarian mission amid the current ceasefires.

Commissioner Michel announced his upcoming visit on Sunday 25th and Monday 26th January 2009 following his meeting this Monday with Israel’s Minister of the Interior Meir Sheetrit. Commissioner Michel described the meeting as an opportunity for a positive exchange of views between himself and Minister Sheetrit.

Welcoming the ceasefires currently in place, Commissioner Michel stated, “Getting the humanitarian aid through to the people that need it most remains the top priority. My humanitarian mission will allow me to see for myself the suffering of the civilian populations in both Gaza and southern Israel. The meeting with Minister Sheetrit was very constructive in which there was a recognition that increased humanitarian access and delivery was needed urgently. In this respect, the setting up of fast-track procedures for humanitarian access and delivery should be considered a priority. I also hope my visit to the region can underscore the importance the European Commission gives to meeting the humanitarian needs of the civilian populations there.”

In 2008, the European Commission provided more than €73 million in humanitarian assistance for victims of the ongoing crisis in the Palestinian Territories – of which 56% was for relief activities in the Gaza Strip. 10.4 million euros of humanitarian aid has been earmarked for food, emergency shelter repairs and further medical support since just ahead of the outbreak of the recent conflict.

Spot the garish hypocrisy in Shimon Peres’ address to Barack Obama for his Inauguration:

President Peres’s Statement on the Inauguration of Barack Obama
Posted on 01-20 at 03:41:02 CET

“Obama Was Elected by the United States, but He Was Chosen by the Whole of Humankind”

President Shimon Peres made a special statement this morning on the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, which is to take place in Washington today. The statement is available on video from AP and Reuters, and its text is below:

“Today is a great day not only for the United States of America, but for the entire world. Obama was elected by the United States, but as a matter of fact, he was chosen by the whole of humankind. His is the correction of one of the greatest mistakes in the annals of history. What made history ugly, unmistakably, was basically slavery, and there were two sorts of slavery: men upon women, and white upon black. In the 20th century, there was a liberation of women. In the 21st century, there is a liberation of the other kind of ugly slavery, of one color upon another color because of the difference in color. This is a profound historic and ethical change. And it so happens that nobody did a favor for Obama. He won it because of his personality, because of his philosophy, and because of the hope he offers to all of us.

I pray here in Jerusalem that Barack Obama will be a great President of the United States. If he will be a great President of the United States, he will serve all humankind, all nations and all persons. Because to be a great American President today means to struggle for peace, to fight terror, to correct the environment, and to offer the young generation a better future. It is a great day for the United States because his most unusual hope and election, only ten years ago, would have been unimaginable. From now on, all of us have the right to be different and equal, to be equally different. We don’t have to apologize, and we don’t have to divide humanity between inferior and superior.

I am sure that Israel will be a good partner to President Obama. They say Obama will be a good President to Israel, and I say Israel will be a good country for the President, because his goals are our goals, his hopes are our hopes, his source is our source. All of us are coming from the same depth of Biblical convictions, with a permanent respect for the Ten Commandments. I want on behalf of the people of Israel, actually of all of the Jewish people, to tell the President, ‘God bless you.’ Your success will be our success. Your hope will become a reality. We should continue to dream to make the world move ahead further, better, and peacefully.”

In response to a question about why Obama in particular may have more success in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict than some of his Presidential predecessors, President Peres added:

Obama has mobilized the greatest amount of goodwill and support in all walks of life. This mobilization of goodwill is becoming a strength in its own right. And I think that all of us expect to translate this occasion into a real opportunity to pacify, to meet through a dialogue, and bring a solution of peace to all parties concerned.

Posted on

Israel & Egypt preparing for some ethnic cleansing?

This is a direct transcript from Jews Sans Frontieres – Please Disseminate Widely & Quickly

Under cover of announcing humanitarian relief for injured Palestinians, it is now emerging that Israel is planning the transfer of tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.

Evidence of the Israeli transfer plan has been sent to London based Islington Friends of Yibna** [IFY]. Earlier today, Sat 17 Jan 09, IFY received a photo of tents [see attached] outside the main hospital in Egyptian Rafah, near the border with Gaza.

Tents on the Egyptian Rafah BorderThe white tents with no markings are being erected by the Egyptian Army, starting last night, Fri 16 Jan 09. The photo was taken this morning [Sat 17 January 09]. The soldiers stated that 5,000 tents were planned for refugees from Gaza.

Further information is available from our contacts in the Egyptian side of Rafah [Rafah was divided by Israel after it occupied Gaza and Sinai in 1967; Israel divided Rafah when Sinai was returned to Egypt].

From our contacts in Yibna Refugee Camp in Gaza we have learnt that, in the north east of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, Israeli tanks have surrounded and sealed off the Al Sarayh neighbourhood, for more than the last 48 hours. There are many injured people trapped there, the Israelis are not allowing access for the Red Cross and many people are dying of their wounds, isolated and with no medical treatment.

We have grave concerns that Israel will target the Al Sarayh neighbourhood to be the first to be transferred and that this might be within the next 24h.

While Al Sarayh is completely isolated, with no access even to the Red Cross, Israel can prepare and carry out its plans without any witnesses from the aid agencies to alert the international community. While preventing Al Sarayh from accessing any medical treatment, Israel would portray a transfer as an Israeli humanitarian gesture to allow them access to medical treatment in Egypt. Given that Israel has been bombing Al Sarayh non-stop Israel would portray a transfer as a humanitarian gesture to allow them to escape the killing fields of the constant Israeli bombardment [thus claiming they will be safer in Egypt and giving them the “choice”].

Israel is NOT on a mercy mission. While presenting this transfer as a humanitarian gesture, allowing injured Palestinians and their families out across the Rafah border crossing for hospital treatment, the Israeli plan to ethnic cleanse Gaza and transfer Palestinians to Egypt is not new. This is an advanced stage in the Israeli plan to ethnic cleanse the 1.5 million Palestinians out of Gaza [e.g. see the video interview in English of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, a year ago, on 18 Jan 08, calling for the Palestinians in Gaza to be transferred to the Sinai desert as a humanitarian gesture]. Those forced now to leave, under the pretext of a humanitarian gesture, will never again be allowed back [just like they have never been allowed back to the homes from which they were ethnic cleansed in 1948]. The Palestinian refugees, ethnic cleansed from Gaza, would continue to be hunted down by Israel, even if they would be later transferred further into the Sinai desert.

It appears that the ceasefire agreement with Egypt [part of the Israeli “unilateral” ceasefire due to start on 17 Jan, 2400 GMT] paved the way to the erection of the tents by Egyptian forces and that Egypt agreed to allow Israel to ethnic cleansed dozens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt, under the pretext of a humanitarian gesture.

Earlier this afternoon, PM Gordon Brown announced that injured children would be taken out of Gaza for medical treatment and food aid would be stepped up. IFY spoke with medics in the Egyptian Rafah, and they said that today the Egyptian soldiers rejected ALL the food they provided for Gaza, while on other days they allowed some food in [though in no way proportionate to the needs of 1.5 millions]. As for the medical treatment, that could be the cover story for the ethnic cleansing of dozens of thousands, especially as the tents are near the hospital.

By last week, more than 40,000 people in Rafah have already been forced out of their homes by the day and night Israeli bombardment, making transfer easier as there is now no need to get them out of their houses, many of which are now bombed ruins. There’s nothing left for the Palestinians in Gaza [even the cemetery in Rafah was bombed] and they have been terrorised for so long, that it is hard to estimate how much more violence Israel would need to exercise to force them to leave Gaza It is not anticipated that Israel would immediately ethnic 1.5million Palestinians in Gaza, but that it would pursue its completion when it feels there are international circumstances that would allow it.

For further information and updates please contact Yael Kahn on +44 (0)7880 731 865 or Rob Langlands on +44 (0)7977 490415

More information and photos at Free Speech Unlimited